Karma Builder: Today's Karmic Workout – Declare A War
Today's Exercise: Declare A War
[Preparatory Note: Our general understanding of war is that it is destructive, violent and usually senseless. And yet, the real meaning of war is that it is a committed stand that is so important that there is no backing down despite the possible consequences. In our modern times, we consider everything to be negotiable and will bend ourselves into pretzels to avoid conflict. Our "comfort culture" has de-evolved our emotional strength to the degree that most of us cannot cope with open confrontation. While some people try to dress up this fear of confrontation as "civilized", it is actually quite the opposite. There is nothing civilized about denial. Our addiction to comfort is shaping our ethics. We will tolerate considerable injustice in the world as long as it is happening to someone we do not know and does not interrupt our internet connection or our favorite reality TV show.
The true nature of war is not the fight against something, it is the struggle to cause something to exist. It is actually a force of life. Surely, we take stands to stop certain harmful things like violence or racism. But what we are really doing is trying to cause freedom from violence or racism to exist. In other words, we are trying to cause peace and tolerance. We often forget what our stand is when we get fixated on the destruction of what stands in our way. This focus on destroying obstacles is a form of ignorance. In the world of being, resisting or attacking something only makes it more present, not less present. One of the reasons that racism remains in our society is that people fight racism by hating racists, which is actually self-defeating because it is, in and of itself, racist. When you hate a racist you create two racists - the original racist and yourself. Like all wars of hateful means, you have just defeated yourself.
People lose focus on what they believe in. Rather than stand for something, a struggle soon becomes a conflict defined by standing against something. This is why in the 21st century just as many people die of torture and military conflict as they did in the Middle Ages. While many of us have been successful in avoiding conflict, we are not resolving harmful thinking and behaviors that hurt the human race and degrade the human condition. The greatest social leaders understand this principle. Martin Luther King did not preach that blacks should fight whites. Consider his words:
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
This is a declaration of true war. This is a demand that a set of circumstances will exist and calls for the destruction of nothing. It is not about what he is against - it is about what he is for. This is a warrior's true posture.]
Consider what is missing from the lives of the people you care about. It can be pretty much anything, but you will know that is worth standing for because it stirs your passion and ignites your love for life and humanity. Great causes are not issues. Great causes are movements of being founded on deep compassion and inspiration. It might be "nurture for all children", "harmony in my community", "freedom for all people", "health and well-being for my town".
Notice that a true statement of being worth standing for sounds foolish if limited to a single group of people. If it is not universal, is probably not worth declaring war over. If you find a speck of hate in it, you are looking in the wrong place. Spend 10 minutes considering what it is that you can devote yourself to celebrating with the hours of your life.
Declare a war to cause the being to which you are devoted to come into existence everywhere you can cause it to exist.
Enroll others into your "army" to help you cause the being you have chosen to come into existence.
Create a symbol of your cause and keep it near you to remind you what you stand for.
If the mere thought of this declaration makes you feel tired or uncomfortable, confront your apathy.
Training Note:
When we were in school, no one taught a class on causing transformation and change in the human collective consciousness. They taught us to do all sorts of mostly useless things, but the knowledge that we needed the most was largely neglected. In the ancient times before the internet, people banded together to discuss and cause the world that they wanted to live in. Nowadays, there is an increasing trend toward human "atomization", in other words, individual isolation. Increasingly, the effect of the Information Age is causing people to live alone and isolated from others so that we can live out our own cushy individual reality. This is a lifestyle that immerses us in delusion. Worse, the problems of humanity have not gone away – we just tend to ignore them. This detachment from humanity is causing our communities to atrophy. It is creating a world of 7 billion comatose individuals that are content to eat, sleep and delegate the majority of their experience to virtual reality. It is making us cranky and intolerant towards others who happen to bump into our personal bubbles of isolation. Consider the rage you feel when someone cuts you off in traffic.
Despite covering ourselves in ontological bubble wrap, we are still unhappy. Despite all of our entertainments and comforts, the world still presents us with bad news. We believe that our governments are supposed to be a concierge service catering to our prosperity. We believe that those pesky people fighting for freedom in foreign countries are an annoyance. We spend more time shopping for shoes on the internet than we do helping our neighbors.
This exercise is about declaring two wars. The first war is the war for human involvement and relatedness. In other words, to get to the point that you can declare a war to cause change in your world, you will first have to a declare a war to make yourself get up off the couch.]
Karmic Benefits:
Step Outside Of Your Dreamscape: if everyone in the world was actually engaged in the conversation for the quality of life openly and publicly, we would have far fewer problems in our society than we do. Why? Because problems do not exist when they are being engaged and resolved. Isolation allows troubles to grow, because trouble is not being confronted. The karma of waking up and managing difficulty is peace and prosperity.
Understand That You Are Responsible For World Peace And The Quality Of ALL Human Life: the world does not owe you anything and, in fact, it is not obligated to even accommodate you remaining alive. If you want to have a peaceful, prosperous and happy life, then you need to work that out among the chaotic forces that are utterly indifferent to your continued existence. Whether you like it nor not, you are responsible for the quality of not just your life, but life in general. If you think that you can take of yourself without accommodating others, you will find yourself with unhappy neighbors or in a war with nations that your selfishness has offended. The only way to provide for true peace and happiness is to cooperate with the rest of the human race that wants the very same thing. The more we neglect humanity, the more humanity becomes a threat to the well being of us all.
Shed The Laziness That Is Killing You And The People Around You: the most dangerous conditions in the human experiences are the ones that are neglected. Every atrocity, every injustice could be prevented if the world refused to allow them to happen. This requires, however, engagement, compassion and a willingness to live your life for the mutual benefit of people and not just yourself. Every moment in which you have ever suffered has been a moment that you spent thinking about yourself to the exclusion of all other things. When you get over yourself and engage in the mutual struggle for peace and happiness for others, your suffering disappears. Ask any mother who has experienced the excruciating pain of child birth whether or not it was suffering. Pain and suffering are not the same thing. Many painful things in life are actually devoid of suffering. Human beings are at their strongest when they stand up for the benefit of others. It is the greatest power in the human experience.
It May Be Fiction, But It Is One Heck Of A Karmic Workout.
Read The Lotus Blossom, D. M. Kenyon's fictional account of a teenage girl who turns off her cellphone and enters the very real, but mystical world of Budo warriors. Humorous, irreverent and heart-wrenching, The Lotus Blossom is an unforgettable tale of a Midwestern teenage girl's transformation into a budo warrior in the midst of the turmoil of the Information Age. Available in all digital formats, paperback and soon to be released in hardcover.
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