Our Human World #1: Problems and Solutions
Varkala Beach, Kerala, India
As humans we have been given it all. We live in a world of the most magical heavenly beauty, and we have myriad things we can do to enjoy our time here. But, today, looking at our suffering human family in every direction, it seems we’ve been given so much it’s too much for us.
We need to sort this out quickly. I posit that it is not beyond the wit of humans to do so!
In my “Our Human World” series of blog posts - and today’s kicks this series off - I’m going to explore and inquire into issues that face all of us humans. The theme will be:
problems, root causes, knowing the solution, implementing the solution.
I’m going to do my best to offer my observations and reflections, and not lapse into judgements. The latter are the preserve of our subconsciously programmed minds, and lie behind probably all the violence and mayhem that humans commit against each other (either intentional or unintentional). On the other hand, when we observe life, and then reflect upon that which we observed, we are doing so by using the conscious portion of our mind.
My objective in my own life has always been simple, and I wish to share it with everybody through my blogging adventures: the pursuit of ever-greater understanding. Lifelong learning and conscious living, if you like.
I will never, however, shy away from uncomfortable realities and understandings. It’s my experience in life that the only way to solve a problem, and to escape the suffering it causes us, is to recognise we have a problem in the first place.
This means thinking it through, or talking about it with others. We have to know the beast in order to defang it. We stare it down! Give into the bully and he or she will be back for more. And more. And more.
So, if a spade is a dirty spade, then I will say it is a dirty spade because that is what I have observed. The judgement would be to say that you are a bad person, and that I think you should be punished or made to suffer in some way for your being a dirty spade!
Call out the actions, respect the person; whether it’s you yourself, or others.
Blame, guilt, shame, self-recriminations come from judgements, and bind us to the problem and perpetuate our inner suffering. Hatred, envy, resentment of others may or may not cause them pain and suffering, but they most certainly cause ourselves pain and suffering. They are negative energy and they reside in OUR mind and body.
One aspect of Our Human World I shall explore time and again is the conscious mind mode in contrast to the subconscious mind mode. When we blame or hate others, or ourselves, we cause ourselves pain. This is not the real you, it is your programmed subconscious mind dominating your conscious mind.
Humans, in their subconscious mind mode, do everything possible to flee from suffering, pain, struggles, woes and so on. While physical pain is horrible, mental and emotional pain - from the psychological realms of being human - are often so unbearable that life seems far too burdensome.
“The more stressed we are the more we drink, the more we drink the more stressed we are.”
And thus addictions arise, in a desperate effort to numb the pain we feel in our minds. At first no harm seems to be done, and we do indeed escape our inner suffering for a period of time. We may even receive intense pleasurable feelings in our senses and in our mind.
But the problem is unresolved, and therefore, due to the nature of the mind, it will keep on coming back to us, at any time and often without warning. This is because we are still saying and doing the same things that cause our problems in the first place.
And in short order, as our addictions and dependency on our substance of choice takes ahold of us, we increasingly experience various physical ailments and sicknesses which, if left unaddressed, accumulate and one day erupt into a disease.
It’s a truth for sure: when we are psychologically stressed this will stress our bodies, and when we are physically suffering this will stress our minds. The mind-body entity can be seen as two sides of the same coin.
Speaking at the collective level of humanity, I have noticed time and again, and across all endeavours of human life, the propensity of humans for refusing to address the root causes of our pain and suffering. If a nail sticks its head up, we simply knock it back down, not asking ourselves how it came to be there in the first place.
Headache? Take a pill. Resentment towards one’s boss? Take refuge in evening drinking sessions. Somebody offering advice? Reject it as criticism and blame that person, defriend them, say nasty things about them. There are a million examples. Negative energy remains and accumulates, disease will build up over time and out of sight, until it explodes onto the scene one day.
And then life will become really miserable!
Karma, karmic law, natural law, is very simple, incorruptible, and takes no prisoners. Whether we like it or not, it will never ever go away! And even if we poo-poo it, that does not make it go away either! This is what it tells us about life:
action leads to reaction; cause gives rise to effect; what you sow you will reap.
So, to close this first post in the series, let’s just see how we can use karmic law to our advantage, and how we can reconnect with the intelligence and beauty of our human essence, which has been suppressed in us by our dreadful anti-human school systems (and that’ll be for a post in the near future!).
Today you reap something, and you like it, it’s nice, gives you energy, makes you feel alive/loving/grateful. So, reflect upon what you sowed that allowed you to reap this goodness, and repeat.
Today you reap something, and you don’t like it, it makes you angry/upset/fearful etc etc, and you are suffering some kind of mental or physical pain. So, reflect upon what you sowed that led you to reap this badness, and don’t repeat.
And that’s it, job done!
Just practise becoming a skilled farmer in your own psycho-spiritual life. It’s called free will and consciousness, and this will be the subject of a near future post too.
[If you like my post and my writing, please do share the URL link with all your friends and in your social media. Many thanks! Peace and love, Philip]
