“Okay, she’s gone completely mad,” you might be thinking. “She drank the hippie Kool-aid and is now floating in warm and fuzzy too-much-meditation induced delusions. The world is run by insane ego-maniacs, polar bear cubs are clinging to ice cubes in the Arctic, children are being kept in cages, the world is literally burning and there’s Nazis again. How is this not the most f-ed up, $#!++iest time to be alive?” You would be right in the respect that the world is in serious crisis mode and things are even more dire than most people realize. However, we are living in a time of great dynamism, of great need, of great extremes and with that is the potential for great love and great acts of unity. Dawn of a grand awakening We are experiencing the very beginning of a big awakening in the collective. I know it doesn’t seem like it, without a broader perspective you’d think we were going backwards, but all this mess is part of a resistance to the evolutionary shift that is already happening. Everything is evolving at all times and that evolution is moving towards greater and greater unity. You can see evidence of this shift in people by the number of individuals who are now practicing yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices that reveal the reality of our underlying connection. You can also see the evidence in the macro as all boundaries between peoples are beginning to disintegrate–boundaries like race, countries, religions are far more porous than they once were. As the consciousness of the collective rises, the elements that are still heavily coated in ignorance begin to sift to the surface as they dig in to resist change. Ignorance Ignorance is not “not knowing” it is simply ignoring what we all, on some level, already knows to be true. When we ignore that we are all One, it creates false separations from which come a sense of “other,” and with a sense of other comes fear, and with fear comes hate and inhumane treatment. All the racism, tribalism, sexism, all the isms that try to place imaginary boundaries of distinction between peoples (and seem to be so glaring now) were always there. They were somewhat dormant and underground in the recent past. Now we can see them in all their ugliness, they are becoming exposed and with exposure, they can be swept away. The Creation Cycle Everything is subject to the laws of nature, and the mechanics of the most fundamental law of nature, evolution, is the creation cycle. Something is created, then maintained for a while before stagnating, then is destroyed leading to creation again. As with any element of consciousness, the newly exposed forms of ignorance mentioned above can sense when they are losing their relevance and are therefore marked for annihilation. When this happens, those elements put up a real fight. This is happening in society but also happens within the individual. Whenever you have a personal shift in consciousness those behaviors and patterns within yourself that have now become irrelevant start to resist. Say you adopt a new healthy eating routine, those old snacking habits often will rear their ugly head with a vengeance. The call to get Big So much of the horrible destruction happening to peoples and the environment is due to heavily resistant ignorance. The more we ignore the truth, the louder the truth gets by way of situations getting increasingly more extreme until they must be addressed, this is the basic idea behind the concept of Karma. The change must first come not from outside efforts but from within each of us that make up the collective. The earth is printing out the state of the collective, hot tempers and the heating of the planet is not a coincidence. Those of us who are already awakened to some extent see the urgency as plain as day and it’s like sitting on porcupine quills watching it all unfold. That discomfort is your inner Self urging you to act. Use it to move yourself out of stagnation and to get Big. You don’t have to go across the planet to do this. Start by going within yourself to expand, then radiate unity wherever you go to whoever you meet. Why this is the best time to be alive All stories are about separation and a return to unity. Think about how most movies take place during dynamic times, times of extremes. When the balance tips too far in one direction, the opportunity arises for people to stand up, to go beyond their small selves, to be heroes. Love is the recognition of Oneness in another, and in times of great separation, there is more opportunity for big, dramatic acts of love. So get on that big stage. When you feel propelled by a global cause, it’s freeing and exhilarating. It’s also amazing how your personal issues become micro sized in your awareness. Suddenly the fifteen extra pounds you have to lose, your social awkwardness, or your recent horrible break-up hardly matters. In times like these, you don’t have to look far to find someone or something that needs help. By meditating, you will cultivate an identity with your bigger Self and be able to hear your intuition as it points you in the direction where you can best serve the need of the times. Right now, that need is shouting more loudly than ever, and when you hear the call and follow it, that is the epitome of human experience. Even though we are only in the dawn of an awakened period, the dawn is always far more beautiful than the day.
The world is certainly in crisis, though inherent in the crisis is great beauty.