The world can be so perfect-ish. The problems of the day, of the year, of the millennium could just melt away. We have complete control over this (basically). If or when we all start living the way that we know would make us happy it will make us happy! If and when we start and follow through living strongly in virtually any of the true virtues, collectively we will live for centuries effortlessly so. For example, if we all could just live completely honestly, or completely humbly, or totally compassionately we would collectively transform the world. There would be no dark corner for intolerance to hide, no back alley for homelessness or drug addiction. Environmental degradation and domestic violence would dramatically recede like the tide on a shallow pitch beach.
Seeing the world this way is so powerful. It affords us the courage to dare to be good and honest and compassionate and optimistic; to be our original or true self. It is like those sci-fi movies where “the matrix is revealed” or “the extra-terrestrials among us are seen for the first time”. The world didn’t change. It was paradise all the time, we just couldn’t see it or access it. It is tantalizingly close….just outside our timid grasp.
What gets in the way of this desired revelation or transformation? Lots of stuff does! Fear is one of the main culprits. Fear is certainly not alone. Fear is happily joined by doubt and sloth and dishonesty, among others. These unhealthy agents breed homelessness and wealth inequality and racism and environmental destruction and nuclear weapons and so so so much more. The society-ending weapons and dead rivers and tent cities and opioid epidemics are not the true enemies, though of course we should do what we can to lessen these insidious symptoms of our current consciousness. We should do this because it is the right thing, the only thing to do. But, we should also do it because it will make living true honest compassionate lives all the much easier. And in turn, this will make the rising seas retreat and the cycles of poverty and despair be broken. Just jump in the cycle anyplace and begin. It is all the same thing.
Maybe when a person attains enlightenment, for example, they create a paradise, if only temporarily, around themselves. Maybe every time we altruistically help someone and smile and believe and humbly move on we push back the smudge and grit from this world to reveal the true paradise below the surface mirage. Maybe it all slips back again into disguise if not enough “good” is there to counter the despair that seems so omnipresent. Maybe these little flickerings are going on millions of times a day everywhere. Maybe their prevalence ebbs and flows over the millennia. Maybe it will all just snap into clear focus one day; maybe it has many times in the past.
Maybe this is like (my belief) for how traveling near the speed of light works. Maybe we can never go exactly the speed of light, but maybe we can go faster, not just that exact speed. Maybe some stuff is “stuck” on the other side, forever going faster than light. Maybe light is a barrier that cannot be crossed without transforming everything into pure energy or infinite mass or something like this. Maybe some stuff and some places are “stuck” on the other side of paradise? Maybe little micro-paradises are created all the time but they cannot coalesce into a grand paradise?
The questions immediately above are not the really important ones, the questions of most importance are why are we not living the way that we know will make us happy? Why are we not brave enough to be honest and diligent and patient and compassionate and loving? Why are we not testing this silly theory out and beginning right now, today, wiping away the disguise of misery from this cloaked-paradise that we live in? It is a big cycle, and we know this. We feel this. It is in every cell of all of our body.
When we find ourselves fortunate enough to be in a space and time of manageable or lessened challenges (poverty, illness, war, doubt, despair, and so many more) we have the opportunity and the responsibility to share this and build this beautiful world. It is joyous work. It is all that really matters. Just breathe.
