[thoughts from   ~burning woman~   by Sha’Tara]

Apart from the billionnires operating the status quo and their moneyed sycophantic elites, many ordinary people are slowly waking up to the fact that things are not good.  There are rising social problems on this world that aren't going away with more applied technology, chemicals, drugs, national security, military interventions... or for that matter, special effects.  People are talking about change; need for change, and what to do.  Climate change, for example, is a big world-changing issue.  Whatever should be done about it?  And who's going to do it?  Party line politicians?  Established Science?  Money-backed think tanks? Old money corporations? Eager-beaver Young Turks technocrat inventors of "alternate power" sources?  Gun-toting rednecks and the military?  Won't it all continue to depend on where "the smart money" is held, or diverted towards, hence controlled by the power elites? 

Let's just look at the generic concept: changing the world.

To the generic question of changing the world, I must first ask myself what I intend to happen when I engage a force, or when I join a group whose intended purpose is to institute fundamental change to some of the ways this world operates by?  How large is my vision to ensure that I’m not going to cause more harm than good; that if I choose to be the leader of that group, that I’m not going to drag unsuspecting followers onto a path they do not understand and are not prepared for, or equipped to walk; that I (or my executive or board, then general members, followers, believers...) have the wisdom necessary to handle collectively amassed power? 

When I ask this, the Jesus story comes to mind.  There was a man loaded with charisma who talked a rag-tag collection of poor illiterate fishermen, lonely divorced or abandoned women, slaves and jobless young people into embarking upon a task they were simply not equipped to handle.  To make up the shortfall, he invented a divinity called “the Holy Spirit” and assured them that this Spirit from God would guide them, teach them, uphold them, empower them and be their constant personal protector.

Powerful aphrodisiac that, to think that suddenly, from being a nobody in your heavily top-down, tough on crime, patriarchal society you can be filled with the Spirit of God and have all that charisma, that power; able to heal with a touch; to understand and speak any language; to convict the oppressors of their sinful ways; to break out of jail; to ingest poisons or handle venomous snakes and feel no effects. Powerful stuff, and (according to the tale) it actually worked, for a very, very short time.  The mirage, the illusion, the trance of divine power, whatever it may have been, held sway over the crowds… until status quo types realized the political opportunity offered by these ignorant believers and inserted themselves between that raw faith power and the people waiting for miracles.  A new religious and political power was instituted, the Spirit of God was quietly retired in Gregorian chants, liturgical scrolls, pseudo-history and "hidden" manuscripts: the rest is history.

I chose the Jesus story but I could have used many others.  Gandhi for example, and his tremendous efforts to "unite" India against the British Raj.  And how successful was that?  No sooner were the British troops out that India erupted into bloody civil war, Hindus against Muslims, leading to partition of the country and miles upon miles of lines of helpless refugees, many whose families had been decimated in the carnage.  And even as they trudged on towards <Hindu/Muslim> redefined territory they were being attacked, robbed and killed along the way.  Changed anything, or wasn't it just a re-arrangement of ruling elites? 

When a truly compassionate person thinks about changing the world, these lessons, and their abject failures in history, leap to the mind.  You do not want to repeat these mistakes again.  Aren’t there enough institutions and organizations in this world already, and each one just another drain on the purse-strings and pocket books of society, and doesn’t history prove, over and over again, that such change agencies only exacerbate man’s social condition, they do not alleviate it in the least – speaking from the overall perspective? 

So, back to the original point: does the world need changing?  Climate change and air pollution, particularly in China, are much in the news lately.  Great motherhood and apple pie issues; marvellous political footballs.  Someone’s got to bell that climate change cat before it eats all the little mice people.  It’s a bad cat which the silly mice nurtured and set free because he promised them so many good things when he was still just a kitten and drank only milk.  Now he’s gone out of control and who could have thought it?  What mouse could ever, ever, have believed that a grown cat would eat mice?  That was nothing but a conspiracy theory by anti-kitten haters.  Other issues: water shortages, droughts, fires, famines, genocidal madness, overpopulation, wars, refugees.  Does any of that need changing?

Undoubtedly it needs changing.  Only a complete sociopath would ignore these problems and continue doing things as they’re being done, for personal gain, pleasure or from crass ignorance and complete lack of empathy.  An alien visitor to earth could be forgiven for asking, after being made aware of the global situation, “How many certifiable sociopaths do inhabit this world, anyway?  Doesn’t look to me like concern for another’s welfare is very high on too many Earthian’s agenda.  Just sayin’ as I prepare my ship for immediate departure… and sayonara, sorry if I don’t stick around but this isn’t a healthy place you’ve made for yourselves here.  Beam me up, Snotty, there's no intelligent life down here.”    

Alright, I’m sure most “normal” people would agree that the way things are done here need changing.  So, yes, “I desire to change the world” and it’s going to take more than one package of Pampers or couple of boxes of Depends; a hundred dollar cheque to Green Peace or a half-dozen cans of beans in the food bank collection hamper.  It's going to require real, personal commitment.  But how, and to what?  Let's consider the philosophy involved.

Do I need to change the world?  The answer is just as definitive, and it’s a “no.”  “I” have no right, no authority to even think that.  What have I learned from the whole “God” thing?  I learned that even if I possessed infinite powers, I could not straighten the mess man is making of his world.  And I learned an even more important lesson:  even if I could, I would be an idiot to attempt it.  Why?  Because, says history, if you read me, you will readily see that such approaches have never worked, and you can confidently conclude that they will never work.  That is not how it is done.

Now, as a sceptic I don't buy into objective truth but history does bring us pretty close to it.  So let me write that again, in a lone sentence, and as quote from a quite trustworthy historical perspective: 

“That is not how it is done!”  

That is, exerting any sort of force upon the manifold problems only fans the flames.  Force is fuel and you don't put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it and turning the fan on.  That too is the lesson of history.  

So, do I want to change the world?  Yes. 

Do I need to change the world?  No. 

Do I do something to change the world, or do nothing? 

Key point:  I must do something, but without the “need” being present. 

What leads to the creation of power groupings or change agencies?  Perceived need which, of course, speaks immediately of dependence, not on self-empowerment, but on some Matrix-approved group.  Power in numbers and money.  And that, believe me, is exactly what the Matrix wants.  That can always be controlled, manipulated, twisted, perverted and corrupted to serve the Status Quo.  

Therefore, desire, not need.  Desire: good.  Need: bad. 

Personally I desire to see the world become compassionate, as the most obvious solution.  So?  I make myself into a compassionate being.  I push myself ever deeper into that concept and make it change me irrevocably so that my human responses eventually can only express compassionately.  From that point on, I no longer need, nor have any interest in, participating in any power group, be it religious, political or financial   From that point on I’ve become what I call an avatar, a fully-empowered representative of a concept that once was a dream and now has embodied itself in my mind and body and re-invented me.  I do not want to be possessed by compassion, I want to be compassion.  Man is a possessed entity; possessed by every imaginable belief system.  That's the curse: possession.  A possessed being defends its possession.  The rich defend their money; the religious defend their beliefs; the poor defend whatever cause they espouse believing it will help their situation.  Result?  Endless conflict.  Oppression, war, enslavement, predation, rape, genocide.  In short, the way of earth, of dearth and death. 

So I no longer live by the rules of Earthian misconduct.  I have become living change and as long as I exist “here” that change touches everything, affects everything.  In direct opposition to the statement in the Bhagavad Gita,

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”

my new self murmurs quietly, as a mantra,

“I am become life, the healer of worlds.” 

I don't need to see it, I just know it and that is true knowledge. 

This article reblogged on:  http://shatara46.wordpress.com/