sonora2sonoma

Question:

Do you think there is some way for humanity to evolve beyond the state* which you describe?

(*A state in which ignorance and fear underlie acts of unspeakable violence perpetrated against those perceived as different from, and therefore a threat to, established order).

Answer:

I don’t have any answers. I am just describing what I see and feel. It seems like greed, fear, envy, dishonesty–all that “me first” crap–is perennial and ubiquitous. That said, I do believe in evolution and I would like to believe that we as a species are evolving too–evolving spiritually–and there seem to be signs that support this idea.

But I also believe in cycles and the idea that everything is in motion, not just in an atomic sense but in every way imaginable.

We humans, or at least a great many of us, like to dream of a future where everything will be all sunshine and roses, metaphorically speaking. We look forward to a time in which things will be just right, and we persist in this manner of thinking despite overwhelming evidence, from personal experience as well as the history of civilization, that things just don’t work out that way 99.99% of the time.

I am reminded of the story of the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire subsequent to the death of their emperor, Charlemagne. History regards him as a great leader who ruled his empire at the pinnacle of its power and influence. It took his sons, after his passing, less than a generation, driven by greed and envy and the lust for power, to destroy what their father had made.

Not only does each generation have its own ideas about what constitutes a desirable state of affairs or living arrangement, but each person also has their own unique views on the subject.

So why do we persist in the belief that we can have paradise here on Earth, that things can be manipulated in such a way as to assure their longevity and permanence, when we ourselves have none?

I am taken by an idea from Indian astrology that I found years ago in Paramahansa Yogananda’s book “Autobiography of a Yogi,” that posits that civilizations cycle, over a period of many thousands of years, between the opposites of enlightenment and, for lack of a more fitting word, endarkenment. This idea makes sense if one believes, as I do, that this physical world we share is not all there is, that the physical world is only a school, an educational opportunity, a stop along the way to something different.

Viewing things this way also enables me to take a longer view of events and serves to remind me, when something terrible happens, that it’s just part of the whole dance of the cycles. In seeing the world as a school, events, be they hopeful or worrisome, have less import.

In taking the view that life is a learning opportunity, the dualities of light and darkness become essential, and adversity and misfortune are recognized for what can be learned from them.

Viewing evolution as a part of a great cycle also squares experientially with what I’ve come to regard as the one great immutable “law” of life: The only constant in life, and its sole guarantee, is that change will occur.