+ updated on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 4:31pm ESDT.
+ I wonder what the world would look like if it was made
in my image. I would save the rain forests, no, increase the rainforests. I
would rebuild the railroads in the USA and in other nations where they have
deteriorated. I would find all kinds of ways to reduce noise so that we could
enjoy plenty of peace and quiet in our daily lives. Not that there isn’t a
place for noise but let’s make it quality noise and reduce the quantity of
noise we are subjected to. I would disarm the nations of the world as rapidly
as possible.
I would make sure that we all knew the Golden Rule and
tried to practice it as frequently as possible. I would make everyone aware of
the need for solar power and wind power and possibly other new ways to create
the energy we need for sustainable abundance, not exceeding our needs. As
Gandhi said: “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for
everyone's greed.” That’s the world I want to see and I now am trying to
imagine and then create along with my fellow dreamers.
It is the world Nelson Mandela imagined when he wrote:
The
time for healing of the wounds has come.
The
time to build is upon us …
We
pledge ourselves to liberate all our people
from the
continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,
suffering,
gender and other discrimination …
There
is no easy road to freedom …
None
of us alone can achieve success.
We
must therefore act together as a united people,
for
reconciliation, for nation building,
for
the birth of a new world.
And his fellow South African, Desmond Tutu, advocates a
global transformation based on the African concept of Ubuntu. He says Ubuntu is
a big part of God’s dream.
Ubuntu [...] speaks
of the very essence of being human. [We] say [...] "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are
hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you
have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up,
in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say, "A person is a
person through other persons."
[...] A person with
ubuntu is open and available to
others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and
good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he
or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated
or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they
were less than who they are.” -- Desmond Tutu in No Future Without Forgiveness
I am imaging a global community like that. I believe we
can make it happen. Why not? It will take prayer. It will take mindfulness. It will take courage. It will take new ways of thinking and acting
based on old and new wisdom and knowledge.
It will take a lot of openness and humility. It will take a lot of repentance and
reconciliation. We need to embrace the wisdom of the graet judge, Learned Hand,
who said:
The spirit of
liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of
liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and
women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests
alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a
sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him
who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never
learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the
least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest. -- “The
Spirit of Liberty” - speech at “I Am an American Day” ceremony, Central Park,
New York City (21 May 1944).”
I can’t say enough about the importance of
humility. I see humility emerging out of the spiritual practices of stillness
and detachment. The images I have are
important but so are the images you have and everybody has. We need to share our images with each other
in an atmosphere of trust and curiosity.
+ You are a heavenly being. I am a heavenly being. It takes a whole lot of prayer to become fully aware of just how heavenly we are. Let go of any limited idea you might have regarding prayer. Prayer is more than anything we have learned about prayer. Some unlearning is required no matter how good you may think your prayer practice has become.
