What is a transformed world? I've been musing over that question and want to share some of my ponderings with you.
French writer and politician Victor Hugo wrote, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. Indeed, the time has come for new ideas to address the challenges of our day.
As we look at our society and world today, we see two seemingly contradictory phenomena. On the one hand, we see the tremendous technological advancements that have catapulted us to perform feats we thought were impossible 50 years ago. Those accomplishments include advances in science and medicine, and the ability to instantaneously access practically any information at the touch of a button.
At the same time, we see a world that seems to be on the verge of imploding from within—with violence, the conflict between peoples and nations, a belief in separation and polarization, and a pervasive feeling of an inner emptiness that cannot be satisfied with all the things we have achieved in the outer world.
We live in a high–tech, low–touch society in which our technology seems to be outpacing our humanity. What is becoming more and more evident is that the ongoing problems we face result from living in a world in which our ideas are too small to meet the urgency of the moment. Consequently, we must expand our way of thinking.
Albert Einstein, one of the great thinkers, scientists, and mystics of the 20th century, claimed we could never solve a problem at the level of thinking that created the situation in the first place. We must transcend our level of thinking if we are to transform the very world in which we live.
All the seeming challenges we face locally and globally—violence in schools; racial, political, and cultural divides in our local communities and the world; wars and rumors of war—they are all unsolvable on the level of thinking that has created the problems in the first place.
Although the challenges we face are social, psychological, physical, and material, we realize that all solutions are spiritual.
Those solutions must come through individuals like you and me—Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi reminded us that if we want to change the world, we must be the change. No one is coming back to save us.
Within us are the answers to the seeming problems that our society and world now face. But the solutions will not come through the recycling of opinions. They will only come when we embody and live out transcendent spiritual ideas and become agents for a transformed world.
Our charge is to bring forth the power that is within us. As it says in the Gospel of Thomas (one of those books that didn't make it into the biblical canon), “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
If we bring out that which is within each of us, it will be our savior and rock in times of trouble. The choice, of course, is always ours.
So that’s what I’ve been reflecting on of late.
Peace and Blessings,
James