Consciousness is causal: What we can do
11/23/2009

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.  Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity.  It is an act of justice.  It is the protection of a fundamental right, the right to dignity and a decent life.”                                    -- Nelson Mandela

That may seem like quite a radical statement.  After all, weren’t even indigenous peoples—with their cultures intact—poverty-stricken by our standards? 

Perhaps, but our “standards” are part of the problem.  We have decided among ourselves that it is better for us—the rich—to have whatever we want, rather than deny ourselves anything so that others can have enough. 

But the pain of that split in our collective consciousness is pushing us to change.  Growing numbers of us recognize that we were not born to be consumers.  As Bo Lozoff, founder of the Human Kindness Foundation, said in a talk to a meditation group, which was reprinted in the HKF’s Fall 2009 newsletter,

“Stuff has never made anybody happy or comfortable for more than a few minutes.  American children are statistically the unhappiest children on the face of the earth: the most suicides, the most homicides, the most drug addiction, the most antidepressants.  And American children have more stuff that any other kids who have ever existed.”

So we’re not here to consume.  We’re not here to convert the entire planet into toys and trash.  To raze the rainforests, melt the polar icecaps, empty the oceans of life, and drain every lake and river dry.  I believe we’re here for each other—to create community, and to simply create.  To give expression to the divine impulse that is in all of us.  To heal and tend the Garden, rather than fight over turf.

Bo Lozoff founded the Human Kindness Foundation on three principles.  The first is to live simply.  He reports that “all of the great philosophical and religious traditions advise us, ‘Don’t want too much stuff—it’ll get you in trouble. It puts you into a dynamic of wanting and acquiring and protecting and defending and repairing and replacing.  All this precious divine energy, this mysterious energy that can move mountains and raise the dead (and end poverty), winds up paying off a BMW.  So live simply, live modestly.’” 

The second principle follows naturally, once you’ve accepted the first.  “Dedicate your life to service.”  If you’re not a slave to your credit cards and your mortgage, you have time and energy to do that.  Moreover, as Bo points out, “If you devote your life to personal success, you will never have enough to satisfy you.”  But if you devote your life to the common good, your daily life will be deeply rewarding, you’ll be rich in the things that money can’t buy, and you’ll be the rising tide that raises all boats.

The third principle is to spend some time every day in spiritual practice.  That means being humble and attentive in front of the Great Unknown, whatever you call it, or even if you don’t call it anything because you doubt that it’s there.  Just send some time every day in recognition that you might not know everything and being open to new information that might come in.  Open to the possibility that life is an endeavor beyond your control and bigger than anything you can figure out, no matter how smart and well-educated you are.  As Bo says, “Submit to the intelligence, the beauty, and the profundity of Life.”

Bo says, "There is a reality that doesn't just offset this world of duality and struggle.  It is impossible to describe how much bigger it is:  how much bigger good is than eveil; union is than separation; our divine nature is than our temporal nature.  It's like a mountain and a pea--there's no balance at all."

And that’s how consciousness, which is causal, changes.  By each of us tapping into that divine nature that knows we're not here to consume but to co-create; not to level the Garden, but to tend it.  That’s how we can create the Global Heart Vision, “a world that works for everyone”--by wanting it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!