Forum Post: When I Despair...

When I despair, I think of a little Indian man named Gandhi. He was teacher whose teaching was simple: the truth itself is power; all other power is an illusion. The Indians, as they fought for independence, had no guns, no power the western world respected but Gandhi knew he didn't need them, for he knew truth was itself a greater tool than any other tool imaginable.

When the Indians protested, the British struck them down; when the Indians took the blows and gave none in return, something happened to the soldiers as they saw their own reflection in broken bodies & screaming women, scared children and pained faces. This made them see through the false judgments, categories & separations that segregate people from each other; they ceased to see the protestors as enemies, as Indians, and instead saw people - they saw themselves. They could clearly feel the connection, the oneness, the soul of our shared humanity as they harmed it. They realized what the psychologist Dr. Carl Jung realized: the world happens in the mind, that there is no way to hurt ONLY someone else, that violence belongs to the aggressor as well as the victim and it is debatable who takes the worst blow.

Gandhi's greatest fear was that his people were not ready for the independence they so vehemently desired; he preached that it is not the devils on the outside we must fight but the devils on the inside that causes the most harm. Before we reach for freedom & before we demand this & that, we must first see, understand and vanquish a much larger beast: ourselves. For if it was not for our own fear and ignorance, who could rule us?? We should thank those who oppress us so violently for they have made God's point abundantly clear: all our guns, our hatred & fighting are useless against untold wealth, unstoppable military force & all the games they tempt us to play. The same way nuclear warheads woke us up to the inherent madness of war, for even if the war was fought with sticks the same is true & has always been true: war is the destruction of humanity. Arguments are just another kind of war; America must see the futility of being right while others are wrong or the oppression will merely switch hands. Resistance is futile and indeed it always will be. All the fighting, arguing, and doing harm only causes more damage to everyone; A Buddhist parable describes anger as holding a burning coal wishing to throw it at someone else. We must wake up & stop perpetuating the fears, the fights, the negativity they count on; mirroring their bad habits will only make us one of them - for this is how hates breeds, like any other meme of madness.

No man needs more love then a man so damaged with hate that he pepper-sprays, tear gases and hits peaceful people. No man could use understanding more than those who fight and argue unwilling to hear another's side of the story. No man could use our help more than the very people who fight, harm, oppress, kill, slander, hate and oppose us. If we cannot save these people, then our message is hollow indeed. As Carl Jung sought to teach us that reality is in our minds, he said: 'projection is perception.' Hearing this, is it not obvious what those who oppress us want?? The messages of need for safety, wealth, status, approval and power comes from those obsessed with gaining it over us. I do not fear those whose hollow and never ending quest for dominance and power in itself shows the futility of such tasks.

It is time to listen and not argue. Understand before being understood. It is time to disobey not fight. People will remain ignorant of the true nature of reality as long as everyone plays along in the same old game, for every action has an equal and opposite reaction: arguments bring arguments, fights start fights, truth reveals truth. No one can look upon truth and deny it; for if it is real, if it is true - there it is. What greater teaching of God could there be but truth? We may, if we wish, strive to be right and wealthy, powerful and dominant over all others, but this does not change reality, it does not shake the foundations upon which the world exists; it merely proves the insanity of a selfish being who sat on a small planet, which compared to the vastness of the universe accounts for less than a grain of sand, and called himself king, a god - a fool I say! This is nothing to fear, but a thing to pity! Wake up! For if you know the truth, you have already won!