Why Not Take A Spin Into The Unknown?

 

Dear Reader,

I am conscious of this pervading thought that the pandemic will be over not so very long away, perhaps a year, and though I do not wish suffering on anyone I cannot but wonder why people should think that all will be as people expect once it is over. 

Yes, in former times pandemics did go away after a time, and, yes, this one (as it is now) is also likely to depart at some point, but do people not observe how the conditions of the world have been increasingly deteriorating over the past few decades - particularly since the start of the Millennium?

Desperate conditions exist for refugees in various parts of the Middle East and other places - including the Mexican/USA border - and we also have Climate Change, which has brought about havoc through storms and fire. Just to name a few situations, 

The underlying situation is that there must be very few people who can truthfully say they are happy, both with their lot and in the way in which world governments are responding. Many people remain optimistic and determined to press on and do the best they can, but is that really the only solution? And is that approach really enough to achieve what is needed?

Positivity and determination does help; technology and material aid helps, but surely these are only temporary fixes and serve to put off the inevitable. Inevitable, that is, unless we change ourselves - the very way we think. And if we can change the way we think then surely we will change in the way we act.

That last statement is not to decry the wonderful service many people put into helping the destitute and the sick, and such work is wonderful. But perhaps - if we were to think on it - such work serves to mainly put on sticking plaster to cover the wound? Where is the teaching that we should receive in our formative years that will give us proper instruction on how to evolve in our lives and how to become helpful to ourselves as well as society.

Where is the folk wisdom of our grandparents? And why do we seem to assume that western thinking is the only right way?

I am sorry; if we think that our educational system has it all covered then we must surely be misled. Yes, education has changed in many ways for the better over the years, but these days - in the last analysis - it remains geared to the mechanics of the consumer society and the science and technology that drives it. Yet it is the consumer society that has helped to place us where we are at present, even though it has pretences towards 'going green' and caring.

Climate Change and COVID should shock us into realising that something is not right and that we have to change accordingly.

I had a very personal sharp shock happen to me when I was aged 30 that greatly changed my perspective. I do not claim to have become a saint as a result of it (I have continued to err even since that time but in a different way), but I certainly gained a huge amount of clarity after that shock occurred, and making myself face up to it rather than act like the victim.

In the seven years before I was 30 I had - out of nothing; no great education and no money - gained everything that most people would only dream of in those days, back in the late 60s: particularly an ordinary feller like me. A change of career landed me in upwardly mobile jobs, brought me a family, our own pleasant home, company car, and an indication that if I were to go for it, the world could become my oyster. I began to think that I had done all that - that I was the reason for that apparent success. I gave no credit nor thanks to any other source.

What brought matters to a head was something that occurred at the very start of those 7 years. This is a true story, but without the details of what it was all about. It was a prediction by someone of something that would occur in a while hence. I pushed it aside as wholly unlikely. But that prediction actually came about, and I sleep-walked straight into it.

The upshot was that my family had gone. I was still with the material possessions, but what was all that with no-one to share it with? After a few months philosophising on the situation, I suddenly realised that I had to give it all up and start again - and starting again by looking at the world through a different pair of spectacles. I changed my thinking.

A huge amount has happened in the 40+ years since. And sufficient to say that what I have gleaned for myself is that most people actually need a sharp shock at some point in their lives in order to re-focus - hopefully on the real reality and not what we are told is the reality.

Hence, coming back to Climate Change, COVID etc., I see all this as being the result of a long time of most of mankind having the wrong end of the stick about who we are and what we are here for. And perhaps we have allowed ourselves to follow what others say as the best way. After all, when the food is sugar-coated, it's a very attractive morsel. But for the generations that have followed us, that sugar has become a sticky pudding: they have been left with the bill.

Some years after my '7-year itch (of a kind)', my 'now' wife and I had the good fortune to travel to Italy on a very relaxing plane and coach tour. Although I knew that Assissi was on the itinerary, I did not comprehend what that point of the tour was about, apart from its association with St. Francis.

When we visited the town near Assissi where Francis actually lived, I walked into its basilica just after breakfast. When I turned a corner just inside the entrance, what I saw next blew me away. It was the humble little chapel that St. Francis had built for himself several hundreds of years before. But the perspective was so overwhelming to me: I perceived it as being akin to the relationship of the microcosm (the chapel) to the macrocosm (the basilica). In other words man - the single human being - in his relationship with the Almighty.

At that stage, some 25 years after studying and practising all manner of supposed spiritual activity, I suddenly seemed to be made to see that man needs to form a proper relationship with his Maker. And also that it is the Way of Jesus - his actual Message - that is key to how we live our lives. After a while, I also saw that his True Teaching is in common with the esoteric forms of other Eastern teachings. That All is One.

Back in 1976, what happened when I gave up my materially-based existence I found later to be akin to something that occurred in the time of St. Francis. At a certain point, Francis led his monks out to do service, and they came to a crossroads. They were unsure which direction to go to commence their service to the people. Francis instructed them to spin in circles until they fell over from dizziness. Whichever direction they then faced after their fall was to be the direction they should take to go. The Franciscans did just that. They all departed in their respective directions, singing a chant as they went.

Such was my direction in 1976. I spun around and took the direction that just seemed to make sense. Though my destination has not yet been reached, the route still makes more sense to me than anything else I might have done, having stopped to look at the Man in the Glass.

When you get what you want in your struggle for self, 

and the World makes you king for a day;

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself, and see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife whose judgment upon you must pass;

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life 

is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people might think you're a straight-shootin' chum 

and call you a wonderful guy;

But the Man in the Glass says you're only a bum 

if you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please -- never mind all the rest! -- 

for he's with you all the way to the end;

And you've already passed your most dangerous test 

if the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole World down the pathway of years 

and get pats on-the-back as you pass;

But your final reward will be heartache and tears ... 

if you've cheated the Man in the Glass!

The Man In The Glass (Dale Wimbrow, 1895-1954)

Thanks for reading this!