The Travail of the New World Order

 

The Travail of the New World Order

From the Discourses of Meher Baba

The world-storm which has been gathering momentum is now having its greatest outburst,* and in reaching its climax it will work universal disaster.  In the struggle for material well-being, all grievances have assumed fantastic proportions, and the diverse differences of human interest have been so accentuated that they have precipitated distinctive conflict.  Humanity has failed to solve its individual and social problems, and the evidence for this failure is very clear.  The incapacity of men to deal with their problems constructively and creatively reveals a tragic deficiency in the right understanding of the basic nature of man and the true purpose of life.

The world is witnessing an acute conflict between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.  On the one hand there are selfish persons who seek their happiness blindly through lust for power, unbridled greed and unrelieved hatred.  Ignorant of the real purpose of life, they have sunk down to the lowest level of culture.  They bury their higher selves in the wreckage of crumbling forms which linger on from the dead past.  Bound by material interests and limited conceptions, they are forgetful of their divine destiny.  They have lost their way, and their hearts are torn by the ravages of hate and rancour.  On the other hand there are persons who unveil their inherent higher selves through the endurance of pain and deprivation and through noble acts of bravery and self-sacrifice.  The present war is teaching man to be brave, to be able to suffer, to understand and to sacrifice.

The disease of selfishness in mankind will need a cure which is not only universal in its application but drastic in nature.  Selfishness is so deep-rooted that it can be eradicated only if it is attacked from all sides.  Real peace and happiness will dawn spontaneously when there is a purging of selfishness.  The peace and happiness which come from self-giving love are permanent.  Even the worst sinners can become great saints if they have the courage and sincerity to invite a drastic and complete change of heart.

The present chaos and destruction will engulf the whole world, but this will be followed by a very long period in which there shall be no war.  The passing sufferings and miseries of our times will be worth enduring for the sake of the long period of happiness which is to follow.  What will the present chaos lead to?  How will it all end?  It can only end in one way.  Mankind will be sick of it all.  Man will be sick of wanting and sick of fighting out of hatred.  Greed and hatred will reach such intensity that everyone will become weary of them.  The way out of the dead-lock will be found through selflessness.  The only alternative which can bring a solution will be to stop hating and to love, to stop wanting and to give, to stop dominating and to serve.

Great suffering awakens great understanding.  Supreme suffering fulfills its purpose and yields its true significance when it awakens exhausted humanity and stirs within it a genuine longing for real understanding.  Unprecedented suffering leads to unprecedented spiritual growth.  It contributes to the construction of life on the unshakable foundation of the Truth.  It is now high time that universal suffering should hasten humanity to the turning point in its spiritual history.  It is now high time that the very agonies of our times should become a medium for bringing a real understanding of human relationship.  It is now high time for humanity to face squarely the true causes of the catastrophe that has overtaken it.  It is now high time to seek a new experience of Reality.  To know that life is real and eternal is to inherit unfading bliss.  It is time that men have this realization by being unified with their own Self.

Through unification with the higher Self, man perceives the Infinite Self in all selves. He becomes free by outgrowing and discarding the limitations of the ego-life.  The individual soul has to realize with full consciousness its identity with the Universal Soul.  Man shall reorient life in the light of this ancient Truth, and they will readjust their attitude towards their neighbors in everyday life.  To perceive the spiritual value of oneness is to promote real unity and cooperation.  Brotherhood then becomes a spontaneous outcome of true perception.  The new life which is based upon spiritual understanding is an affirmation of the Truth.  It is not something which belongs to utopia, but is completely practical.  Now that humanity is thrown into the fire of bloody conflicts, through immense anguish it is experiencing the utter instability and futility of the life which is based upon purely material conceptions.  The hour is near when men in their eager longing for real happiness will seek its true source.

The time is also ripe when men will ardently seek to contact the embodiment of Truth in the form of a God-Man, through whom they can be inspired and lifted into spiritual understanding.  They will accept the guidance which comes from divine authority.  Only the outpouring of divine love can bring about spiritual awakening.  In this critical time of universal suffering, men are becoming ready to turn towards their Higher Self and to fulfill the will of God.  Divine love will perform the supreme miracle of bringing God into the hearts of men and of getting them established in lasting and true happiness.  It will satisfy the greatest need and longing of mankind.  Divine love will make people selfless and helpful in their mutual relations, and it will bring about the final solution of all problems.  The new brotherhood on earth shall be a fulfilled fact and nations will be united in the fraternity of Love and Truth.

My existence is for this Love and this Truth.  To suffering humanity I say:

 “Have hope. I have come to help you in surrendering yourselves to the cause of God and in accepting His grace of Love and Truth.  I have come to help you in winning the one victory of all victories—to win yourself.” 

*Originally written and published in 1941-1942.

Prayer For Nature

photo by Joel Bedford/flickr

Prayer for Nature
by Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)

O God, we thank you for this universe, our home; and for its vastness and richness, the exuberance of life which fills it and of which we are part. We praise you for the vault of heaven and for the winds, pregnant with blessings, for the clouds which navigate and for the constellations, there so high. We praise you for the oceans and for the fresh streams, for the endless mountains, the trees, the grass under our feet. We praise you for our senses, to be able to see the moving splendour, to hear the songs of lovers, to smell the beautiful fragrance of the spring flowers.

Give us, we pray you, a heart that is open to all this joy and all this beauty, and free our souls of the blindness that comes from preoccupation with the things of life, and of the shadows of passions, to the point that we no longer see nor hear, not even when the bush at the roadside is afire with the glory of God. Give us a broader sense of communion with all living things, our sisters, to whom you gave this world as a home along with us.
We remember with shame that in the past we took advantage of our greater power and used it with unlimited cruelty, so much so that the voice of the earth, which should have arisen to you as a song was turned into a moan of suffering.
May we learn that living things do not live just for us, that they live for themselves and for you, and that they love the sweetness of life as much as we do, and serve you, in their place, better than we do in ours. When our end arrives and we can no longer make use of this world, and when we have to give way to others, may we leave nothing destroyed by our ambition or deformed by our ignorance, but may we pass along our common heritage more beautiful and more sweet, without having removed from it any of its fertility and joy, and so may our bodies return in peace to the womb of the great mother who nourished us and our spirits enjoy perfect life in you.

Because A Blue Heron Flew Overhead by Dick Allen

Because a Blue Heron Flew Overhead Because a blue heron flew overhead, It was a good day to butter bread, To listen to James Taylor, Stockbridge to Boston, And visit the Garden of the Unsuccessful Politician. A good day to ask a clock what makes it tick, Or place one brick upon another brick, To remember that if you think, there are ripples, But also if you don’t think, there are ripples. And because a blue heron flew overhead, We swept up the porch, we made up the bed. We bought packaged shirts, then took out their pins. We placed gray umbrellas in clear storage bins. There was a road, a lake, a moonlit field, A brow to be soothed, a wound to be healed. Stockbridge to Boston. Sweet Baby James. The glory, the wonder, the sheer joy of names! And my life was a story of thread and unthread Because a blue heron flew overhead.

Saints Among Us

The holiest among us have no need to shout their connection to God. They simply allow love and spirit to flow through them and out into the world. Here is one such Saint.

A Different Drum

JACK from Grace Jackson on Vimeo.

Walking on Earth

photo credit Martin Gommel (license flikr)

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
—Thich Nhat Hanh, from The Miracle of Mindfulness

Vipassana Teacher S.N. Goenka passes at 90

                                                                               
Goenka was responsible for promulgating insight meditation (vipassana) throughout the West. He believed that learning how to live a good life was also learning how to die a good death. Here is a quote I found regarding that. Find out more on this pioneer here

“Everyone has to observe one's death: 

coming, coming, coming, 

going, going, going, gone! 

Be happy!”

What Love Is

Here is a quote from an article written for Tricycle Magazine by Ayya Khema

If one likes or loves oneself, it's easier to love others, which is why we always start loving-kindness meditations with the focus on ourselves. That's not egocentricity. If we don't like ourselves because we have faults, or have made mistakes, we will transfer that dislike to others and judge them accordingly. We are not here to be judge and jury. First of all, we don't even have the qualifications. It's also a very unsatisfactory job, doesn't pay, and just makes people unhappy.

Read the article here

Bouyancy

Buoyancy 

Love has taken away all my practices And filled me with poetry. 

I tried to keep quietly repeating No Strength but yours, But I couldn't. 

I had to clap and sing. 

I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,

 but who can stand in this strong wind and remember those things? 

I am scrap wood thrown in your fire, and quickly reduced to smoke.

I saw you and became empty. 

This emptiness, more beautiful than existence, it obliterates existence, 

and yet when it comes, existence thrives and creates more existence. 

The sky is blue. 

he world is a blind man squatting on the road. 

But whoever sees your emptiness sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man. 

A great soul hides like Mohammed, or Jesus, moving through a crowd in a city where no one knows him.

 To praise is to praise how one surrenders to the emptiness. 

To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes. 

Praise, the ocean. What we say, a little ship. 

So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where!

 Just to be held by the ocean is the best luck we could have. 

It's a total waking up! 

Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping? 

It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious. 

We're groggy, but let the guilt go. 

Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy. -

Rumi