I want life to be a good time. Not a chore but an adventure. It’s not forever, and what there is of it should be rich. Think of bathing in beauty. And accomplishing things. On the march toward what Charles Eisenstein calls “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible,” a leap is in order to where a feeling of connection would be omnipresent. I want to help that leap come about.
It was eye-opening to listen to a panel after the State of the Union address. When asked if they would vote for Trump in 2020, the six Republicans gave rousing yeses. They’d previously dwelt on how happy they were with the economy – the stock market, employment, impending tax savings. They don’t pay attention to anything but money. They don’t care what lies Trump tells. They’re not evaluating their support with that in mind. As we grow blue in the face trying to impress them with Trump’s inadequacies, we might as well be speaking Chinese. Nothing we say matters. Other people don’t matter. The health of the planet doesn’t matter The only thing that matters is what makes people richer.
Whatever we do should be informed by the understanding that the Trump electorate only pays attention to the material world. When we put our heads together, we shouldn’t spend any energy trying to convince people of how anti-Trump they should be. Trump people don’t even care about Trump. It’s just that he’s the President and the economy is doing well. For the rest of us, it’s a graphic example of what a worldview based on materialism gets you, and it tells us we should be as creative as we can be about shifting from a greed-based worldview to where caring about each other is as important as caring about ourselves.
Another thought is about a change of personal perception that would help with that. Get that you’re of the vastness that birthed you, that’s holding you and feeding you while you live along. Most people think of life as seeking – for success, for self-improvement, for enlightenment – but, instead, think of being in the good stuff. Relax, stay calm, trust your envelopment in the source, and do your best. Recognize obstacles but don’t identify with them. Your life isn’t the duality of you against the universe, struggling and even breaking through. No, it’s you recognizing you are the miracle that life is, ever aware of your anchor in stardust as you field any blows that come along.
This article was published in RSN News online
by Suzanne Taylor
Producer, Filmmaker, Speaker, Author
Shifting to a compassion-based worldview
How can we turn the world around? Let’s shape our thoughts for what can be.
Suzanne, love the video! There’s so much I resonate with in what you’ve shared. I also am personally acquainted with Larry Dossey and Russell Targ’s work. There’s so much to be said and explored in how we can influence and create health even from a distance through our thought patterns and energetic emanations that can activate healing in unknown and unpredictable ways. Looking forward to this collaborative thought community that you are creating.
Love also the quote that shares the light: “Be the light or the mirror that reflects it”
Looks like you’ve been poking around, Nisha, beyond this post which doesn’t have a video. May others follow your lead! I am hoping people enjoy all the stimulation and inspiration these posts provide, as we become the “collaborative thought community” you’re talking about.
I’m commenting on this article in synchronistic timing: it’s the day after the March for our Lives in Washington, D.C. and 800 sister-locations, where it became evident–by the speeches I heard in D.C.–that “the lives of children are worth more than money.” Even the funders of these events–Oprah, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, and Bill Gates–were nowhere featured. Generation G has a moral core, inclusive of all. I suspect that many of the adults who attended are in the system of chasing after the buck…yet, given a choice, not willingly. And, here comes one choice….which, given the power of the NRA and the weapons industry, could have profound consequences. Meanwhile, the students have activated a field at a time when the course we are on has to change, we have to get it right, or we’re all going over that cliff.
God bless that young generation. In time, they could be the salvation of the world — if we can survive till they come into more power. In the meantime, may they inspire us oldsters to be as courageous as they are. Feels like the glimmer of a new dawning, doesn’t it?
So true, we come from stardust and return to stardust. What we do is the journey, and, as it is said, “the journey is the destination” in this existence of our making. We come with nothing material in this world and leave with nothing material. Anchored by spirit, it is a mindful thing how we choose to live each day, how we choose to engage with others, and, equally important, what we leave behind in creation or destruction. Life is so temporary, and, as we know even though we often are in denial, it ultimately ends for us all. “Life is a chronic illness that will result in death,” as we sometimes jokingly state in our medical worlds. How we choose to live, relishing every moment of this journey and also consciously choosing, where there is the choice to pursue, engage, and celebrate the conscious growth of our states of existence … are choices that I’m becoming more conscious of and making each day. Thanks for stimulating that thought process, Suzanne.
Dr. Money, you are a lovely contradiction for a person who is named as a materialist. This is beautifully put!
“POST-TRUTH”… This is the Oxford Dictionary “Word of the Year” 2016. It was recently highlighted by Michael V. Hayden’s (Director of CIA 2006-2009) New York Time’s Opinion entitled “The End of Intelligence.” To get you up to speed, “post-truth” is defined as “where objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Does America wake up and wise up to this recent phenomenon which is so well illustrated by our American post-truth President? Probably not because as pundit David Brooks writes, ” ‘Partisan political identity’ is how many Americans find their anchor as religious, ethnic, communal and familial attachments whither away.” In effect, Trumpism trumps truth!
My work, which is to evolve consciousness, seeks to provide a new personal identity. It’s the self as a universal being, one that transcends national, ethnic, religious identities. The new human is what I call the “huniman” – in sync with the evolving world and expanding cosmos. Obviously, this will not easily fly in a “post-truth” world. So what? I do what I can to contribute to a new sense of self that is sustainable and enlightened.
While many of us complain about our post-truth world, what’s the alternative? We must find an emergent consensus about who we are. That is my intention. And that is why we are engaging in this Blog conversation.
Say more about huniman. What does that come from?
That last paragraph of my piece, about “a change of personal perception,” would be one angle on finding ourselves as universal beings. And, as we both know, Brian Swimme’s book, The Universe is a Green Dragon, is a brilliant evocation of how we might experience ourselves that way.
“most people think of life as seeking – for success, for self-improvement, for enlightenment – but, instead, think of being in the good stuff. Relax… Good one, Suzanne!
Do you know about the letter handwritten to a bellboy by Einstein, where he gave his ‘theory of valuation’ in one sentence? “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
Here is the uber-interesting Einstein story: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/25/560004689/einsteins-note-on-happiness-given-to-bellboy-in-1922-fetches-1-6-million.
I would add to that “a reflective, meditative and simple life.” It is there, from one’s center, that true action (as well as non-action) can arise.
Dunno about the simple life stuff. With the world so interconnected and in such turmoil, is a meditative life a virtue? Actually, I’d think, realistically, that the challenge or goal would be how to stay calm in the middle of a world that is anything but.
I thought this “Happiness Initiative” was worth sharing (teaching children 6 life skills to sustain happiness): http://www.lg.com/us/experiencehappiness
What a rich link that is. Full of basic smarts. Great that such a thing is out there.
How about the last paragraph I wrote? That’s after listening to you. Did I get it right enough?