Do as you would be done by

When I was a child I had a book in which there was a woman called Mrs Do-as-you-would-be done-by. Her task was to help children become aware of the importance of treating others as they themselves would want to be treated. I still have the book.

I feel that many, particularly the children dying and being mutilated now in Gaza, are a sacrifice to human learning. They are losing their lives so that we can have the opportunity to wake up. So that we can see the horror. This applies to all war zones.

This is a crunch point for evolution.

It is time we all see what the consequences are of the endless cycle of wounding and revenge. And that the anger and grief created by our imprisonment in that cycle are gladly harnessed by those who see an opportunity for profit in it. Profit either in the form of increased power-over and control. Or in the form of amassing even great material wealth. They have no interest whatsoever in the welfare of anyone else but themselves because they have been taken over by a cynicism, a heartlessness, that makes them capable of creating ever more efficient ways of exploiting these energies.

The challenge to us all is to open our hearts for ALL human suffering. All human joy. Including our own. We must come back into integrity with ourselves. We will be bombarded with the message that this is naïve and idealistic. We will be laughed at. Called traitorous. And we will worry that the cynics are right. However I believe that this is not enough. It is up to all of us to do the careful and painstaking work of facing our own murderous rage, our own grief and fear. Embrace and acknowledge it all. And to come back into alignment with the depths of our human-being in our hearts.

It is not, I think, coincidental that the focus on the Middle East has now arisen. This area, often referred to as The Holy Lands has great significance for many.I was brought up for the first years of my life in a Christian tradition/belief system. I found the contrast between the apparently vengeful ‘god’ figure in the Old Testament, who seemed to be very concerned with being top dog, and the New Testament figure of Jesus, whose emphasis was on love and forgiveness, to be rather startling. Looking at this from the perspective I now have, it would appear that this represents an evolution in consciousness. Are we ready to evolve further now?

I was born and grew up in Northern Ireland and what were supposed to be truly ‘Christian’. values often seemed rather elusive. Especially in those who declared themselves to be the most ‘holy’. So I think that many religious traditions can be uplifting but there is no virtue in clinging to outer show. Each of us has the responsibility for exploring the nooks and crannies of our inner world. The road less travelled. That is the path of discovering ‘god’ within ourselves. And to see god in another.

I think that those of us who are not, at least ostensibly, living in a crisis, and do not have bombs raining down on us, have the moral ( yes I know, not a popular word but my undergraduate degree was in Mental and Moral Science ;-)) obligation to examine what we are doing in our lives to increase our integrity. We are, each and every one of us, responsible for the evolution of the human race. Because we ARE the human race. What we do, how we think about ourselves, and about others, and our everyday actions affects our world. In this way we create our world daily. Even though we may regard ourselves, or have been told, that we are insignificant and that our lives do not matter. They DO.

So let us stop acting as if it is not important that we are here on earth at this time.

We are all needed
Your heart, your wisdom and your presence. Let’s evolve.