Jeanne O'Connor...
Jeanne O'Connor is a lifelong Student of the Ageless Wisdom and a Friend of Higher Ground
HUMANITY STILL STRUGGLES
Man seems to have two strong drives. One, a personality drive, born of fear and insecurity and the other an inner spiritual drive fathered by a need to unite with God. The first is a human need to excel. It requires that he be dominant; that he master himself, his environment, and his fellow man because it is motivated by fear and separateness. For this reason he competes; he creates war and takes his brother’s home by force. The second is a drive to create beautiful things, to develop a brotherhood among men and to seek unity rather than separateness. It is this drive that gives birth to the creation of art, magnificent sculpture and massive edifices. Both are avenues of power. On the personality level, the power is physical dominance. Man strives to gain ownership. He gauges his power and effectiveness on how much money he can acquire; thus the stock market, big business, fraud, and theft. He wants to posse’s art, sculpture, jewelry, a large home or homes and other evidence of financial success, He wants to gain property. On a national scale this involves one country taking over another either for their riches or because they fear them.
On an inner level, it is the power of spiritual union. Throughout history man has demonstrated both the nature that lives in fear and causes disaster and destruction, and his creative, loving, harmonious nature. How we live is our choice.
Allow me a moment to demonstrate this choice by sharing an experience with you. Recently I was blessed with a three-week trip to Europe. Moving at a fast pace in a motor coach tour of seven countries we saw almost all the historic sites one hears about but only dreams of seeing; A Gondola ride in Venice, walking the Roman Forum and the Coliseum, holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa for a picture and exploring the Anne Frank house. For me it also meant climbing up five hundred thirty seven steps in the spire of the Church of Santa Maria, in Cologne, Germany.
Experience was diverse. As you gaze at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican it becomes three dimensional and drinks you up in its beauty. The longer you look the more alive the figures become. The canals of Venice lull you into joyous serenity with their mellow charm. As I walked through the cobblestone streets of Assisi and prayed in its church I was reminded that many miracles took place, on the very ground where I stood when St. Francis was Our Lords emissary. The ruins of Pompeii where Mt. Vesuvius spewed its raging inerts with merciless rage spoke of power, art, passion, creativity and silently screamed of its majesty and its pain.
Mans fear and need for protection was evidenced by the mid evil castles conceived and erected for protection. The hills and meadows throughout Europe were dotted with country farmhouses, huge open cavities torn in their walls, an obvious remnant of war, bearing testimony to man's violent character. A house that stood on a hill made a good military stronghold for both sides. What used to be a place where children played and sang became a vacant shell; a stark icon of man’s inhumanity to man. I wondered how many times that home changed hands. How much blood soaked the land it stood on? How many lives were expended trying to defend it?
It has become apparent that throughout the ages the message is the same whether I walked through Greek ruins of 3000 BC, the remains of the Roman Empire of 1200 AD, the ancient city of Ephesus where St. Paul wrote his epistles while in prison in 53 AD or Pompeii, covered by lava in 57 AD, right through the ravages of war in this era; man’s artifacts reveal a need for both survival and creativity.
Though he manifests a fear of, and need for conquest to which history bears witness he also has an insatiable instinct and talent for creating beauty. We can see this as far back as the Minoan civilization in 2600BC with the creation of incredible murals and mosaics of the Palace of Knossos on the Island of Crete, in Greece. Egyptian art dates even centuries before that with the pyramids and the sphinx. The beauty of man’s inner being is reflected in the murals, sculptures, mosaics, tapestries, frescos and the massive, magnificent buildings of the Renaissance period as well as in the ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures. Here in the United States we have the Lincoln Memorial, houses of government, Mt. Rushmore and many others.
Yet what are these in comparison with Gods creations? Need we look further than the Swiss Alps, the Redwood Forrest, the Great Gorge and Garden of the Gods in the Colorado Rocky’s and the Grand Canyon to see God’s beauty? Can we ever match that? Can six thousand years of continuous conquest and building of empires ever get us close to that majesty? Why not lay down our arms and join one another in the creation of beauty, an empire of love and open communication with one another that we may live in comfort and harmony rather than fear and destruction?
What a complex being man is. He wants to bond, yet chooses to be separate. He seeks to dominate his fellow man yet he seeks freedom. He creates beauty yet he destroys. This dichotomy is the war that goes on within each of us. We must become one within our own being, then with one another and then with God. The more difficult way, the more difficult it is to recognize that God is within us and within our fellow man. It follows that if God is within all of us than we are all one. If we are all one, then what to we have to fear? We all have the same root energy. There is no need for conquest.
There were fifty-two people on that tour of Europe who had never met before. We were from diverse backgrounds and cultures. People came from New Zealand, Australia, Germany and the States. We lived on that bus fourteen hours a day, ate together and slept in the same hotels together for twenty-one days and twenty-one nights. We could have chosen to make the trip a disaster by getting on each other’s nerves because of the close quarters, wrestling for the best seats, finding fault with the level of heat or air conditioning in the coach, complaining about walking too fast, too slow or too much, getting up too early, getting to the hotel too late, and generally creating discord and disharmony. We chose the route of harmony and camaraderie. Each of us supported the other in a time of need. We made contact with one another sharing families, feelings and goals. We became a family with warmth and a genuine caring for one another. I have no doubt that some lifetime friendships were made.
That bus load of fifty two strangers laughed and joked and loved and supported one another’s needs because they were single focused in their determination to enjoy one another, their mutual experience, and their new awareness. They developed a group consciousness of cohesiveness and unity rather than separateness and supremacy. Their goal was constructive rather than destructive. That consciousness created a new family that worked together harmoniously for the good of the group. No one person was more important than another. We moved when the group was complete, not before. No one was ever left behind or counted as unimportant.
Another example of cooperation and a common goal is theater. A theater production is a success only if the cast, crew, director, producer, and stage manager work together with the main focus being whatever is for the good of the show. Individual egos have to be set aside. So it is with the entire human race. Governments and huge corporations topple when the diseases of greed and ego eat away, like a cancer at its very structure. A family unit cannot function in harmony if one person is made more important than another, or greed and personal ego get in the way of what is best for the family unit. So it is with communities, states and nations.
We are not all Statesmen or Popes or Ghandis, but we can begin with loving God and ourselves and our families. We can offer loving support rather than condemnation and criticism especially in trying times. We can share in the creation of joy and beauty, physical or emotional, rather that domination of property or person that gives us a false sense of self worth or security.
When you f feel the need to conquer just remember that even the Roman Empire, along with many other powerful governments have been overthrown by those who were considered weak. When you want to join forces with your brother, be reminded of how Grande united India with loving, non-violent unity. Be reminded also that Jesus enjoined us to “Love one another, each like a brother…”
You have the power to choose harmony or discord, creation or destruction, unity or separateness. What is your choice? What do you want in your life? Do you need to make a shift in your consciousness?
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