Most all of our problems today are material problems - whether they are economic, political, social, environmental, racial, mental or physical. And all our solutions, have similarly been material solutions. We continually apply material solutions to material problems, because it's the only thing the majority of people know today.
The problems that we currently have are really not much different than the problems humans have had for thousands of years...Birth, death, old age and disease. But today, we focus on national and global so-called problems. Things that really don't affect us at all. Plus they're expanded upon, the information repeated endlessly, and more than anything, blown up by the media and our access to the internet.
For our entire history, up until the last few hundred years, each person's world was relatively small - the community they lived in, whether that was an isolated and primitive part of the planet, a rural farming area, or small town. Global problems essentially didn't exist as far as we knew. And many problems that arose were outside of the individual's capabilities to correct...Tornados, volcanos, or tsunamis, torrential rainfalls or severe droughts or an epidemic. These generally can NOT be escaped. As the old adage goes "Shit Happens!"
But the one solution that existed in nearly all the world was a deep faith - usually in God or a higher power of some kind. In other words, a faith in something that transcendended our normal and daily existence - something totally beyond the normal material sphere. Such a faith allows one to accept things as they are, knowing that, ultimately, the solutions are out of our hands...and personal desires. That somehow, they are due to "divine will".
Sure, there are material solutions to some material problems, but they don't alleviate ALL the problems. In fact, as often as not, the solutions create new problems of their own, sometimes worse than the original problem. We don't really solve problems....we just rearrange them! (The history of the last few years could present several examples that I won't go into here.)
But one thing that is consistent in all our so call problem solutions is the desire to control. We don't like things as they are, so we create a solution to change it to our will. We want to be the master of all situations. We want things better or easier or faster or healthier, or more diverse or less painful, more just and less evil. We don't seem to be able to just "be" with things as they are.
Recently, I came across an interesting quote from J.R.R. Tolkien. It's actually relating to his character Tom Bombadil, but I think it can be applied to life in general:
"The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a MEASURE OF CONTROL. but if you have, as it were taken 'a vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, WATCHING, OBSERVING, and to some extent KNOWING, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless." (emphasis added)
When we let go of our deep need to have things as WE want them to be, and accept, surrender, even LOVE things as they ARE, we begin to transcend our personal and limited ego desires. We can begin to see things as part of a larger and perhaps more perfect Divine Will. It is hard, because our entire earthly existence seems to be based on having things OUR way, doing what WE want, and experiencing the outcomes WE desire. And things just don't seem to work that way. But as Krishna tells us in Bhagavad Gita:
"A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego--he alone can attain real peace."
Bhag. Gita 2.71
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ReplyDeleteSimple and true, Aja.
ReplyDeleteThanks 😁❤️🙏
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