One of the hallmarks of a strong sense of individuality is self-sufficiency. An internal sense of completeness that grows into what Maslow described as Self Actualization. This has served our forebearers well as they moved to new lands with unknown challenges and no corner grocery. They had to forge a way to survive.
But as our culture evolves into more and more urban then global settings, that strong sense of do it yourself is becoming warped. Instead of leaders and visionaries, we see the growth of Type A personalities, of workaholism and stress. While self effort continues to be required, more and more we must add the context of the whole, what we contribute to Oneness rather than to ourselves.
For yourself simply no longer serves. If you think of yourself as somehow self-sufficient, you are living with blinders on. To eat, you need the massive infrastructure of the grocery supply chain. To get to work, you need transportation, maintenance and fuel infrastructure. Your job itself is undoubtedly a cog in the wheel of commerce or support. Your home took many people to bring together. And to read this page takes a vast infrastructure, working transparently in the background.
To illustrate, perhaps you’re against nuclear power. You’ve fought local battles to keep it out. You avoid investing in companies that support it. But as you read this page, some of the equipment that served it to you undoubtedly is running on nuclear power. A typical web page will cross half a continent on it’s journey. Perhaps you eat organic. But how can you possibly know if any of the ingredients were prepared with nuclear power? It goes on and on.
We also see this in natural disasters. Take out the power and transportation corridors and the community can stop functioning.
You cannot control the world. You are not even in charge of your own life. That’s not who you are.
The key here is not to fight what is but to favour what is good. To use the power of your attention to support the whole.
You may not think of these things but if you don’t once in awhile, you lose sight of both your relationship with the whole and your impact on it. As the world is drawn inexorably closer together, your choices become increasingly important. If you don’t see this relationship, your efforts will increasingly fail to achieve or have unintended consequences.
Every time you pull out your wallet, change the channel on TV, sit to meditate, ruminate on what happened, or whatever you are giving your attention to, you are shifting the attention of the whole. You are adding your bit to what consciousness is making real.
This is commerce in action. It is politics. It is community. Everything we consider real is being built in every moment by the attention of people. And that attention is bringing us closer and closer together.
That’s a good thing. Some people are trying to control this emerging gathering but very few understand the underlying mechanics. Most see it from too narrow a view. Part of that narrowness is the simple idea there is an individual involved, a “yourself” to do it.
It is simply the one, moving through the apparent vehicles of ‘persons’ to bring itself together. Draw it apart to allow self-knowledge, then draw it together to restore wholeness. But now a wholeness that is fully self aware.
That is the point of our times. Not to learn to do it yourself but to learn self awareness and wholeness, to do it together.
Do it theSelf
Davidya
Last Updated on November 11, 2017 by Davidya