Pillar of Salt

PILLAR OF SALT

I have an impulse to get out on the streets and shout, to protest my upset at the direction I see our planet and specifically our nation going. The impulse is encamped in my body and does not go away. I want to act, but I know that any action taken from the blindness that we are all living in, will simply stir the pot and not accomplish what is necessary to catalyze the transformation that my inner being longs for. Right down to my root, I know that all the old ways of creating action in the world will no longer work. That includes war, elections, government, demonstrations, and organizing in groups to empower a particular agenda. They all lead to dead actions if our hearts are still riddled with the fear that has caused the problem in the first place. From this space, all actions abort the process of life.

I feel as though I am in Sodom and Gomorrah. If I look back at the devastation and destruction that is happening in the world around me, I am paralyzed and turn into a Pillar of Salt. I see the problems of global climate change, the plagues of our hatred of immigrants and Arabs, our desire to tell other people how to live so that we can extract our wealth from them, our neglect of children and the poor, and last but not least, our declining infrastructure which supports rich people to accumulate even more wealth. I see the accumulation of wealth or money being unstoppable. I see the monsters of greed and fear running the show. I remember playing Monopoly when I was a kid and realizing at a certain point in the game that there was no longer any way to win. I would keep losing money until there was nothing left. I would have hocked all my properties and thereby lost my capacity to ever generate any income. That is the way the game is structured—for the one who has the monopoly to win and for all others to lose their money to the monopoly. It is the kind of game that is being played at this time, but by corporations gorging themselves to become multinational conglomerates.

There does not seem to be any way out of this imbalance of power, for the game continues at the expense of not pieces on a game board, but the life of the planet—including all the species of animal and plant, and the indigenous people who live close to the land.

Our human race is playing a deadly game—but we have forgotten that it is a game. We are unable to change the game plan, even though it is killing us all—including the ones who hold all the money and power. The super rich are just as caught on the merry-go-round of destruction as those in poverty, though they do not see that they are just as entrapped despite their wealth.

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These thought have begun to seep into my heart and mind in response to the dilemma I perceive: The problem cannot be solved from where we are thinking, and conversely if we were to change where we think from, our problem would be solved. We cannot afford to look back to those who still cling to the old ways of thinking. We, as a race and species, cannot waste our energies in trying to change the ones who are entrenched in the old ways, to our way.

Someone is in the old ways when their thinking and intentions arise out of fear as the defining beat: Fear of others taking their jobs, or of free medical care as diluting the care for all. The fear of Arabs or homosexuals, or any kind of thinking that in any way polarizes our world into ‘us against them,’ closes down our humanity because it externalizes a monster outside of ourselves. The ‘Other’ is named evil or bad or unworthy.

The above represents an essential flaw in thinking that must be corrected. It arises out to the thought that God lives far away in a heaven and implies that some parts of Creation can be godless. WE must correct this way of thinking. God is here right now. We are god; all of us, and god is finding its way though the creative process that is all life unfolding. It is impossible for anything to exist outside the equation of god.

Once we recognize this, we must find whole other ways to problem solve. Perhaps bringing the awareness that you are a direct expression of god is the first step to your recognition of the god consciousness that is expressing in everything that you perceive in your world. I have come to the conclusion that a human being can only see as much as they can see about themselves. If a person does not recognize the divine aspect that each part of their being represents and they judge that part, they will do the same to the world of humans, animals, vegetable and minerals around them. The deeper a human goes into their interior to identify the god force expression, the more able they are to see the god force in everything around them.

To solve the dilemma, we all need to take a deep and genuine journey to our interior to meet the god process that we each are uniquely. Once we do this, we cannot look back. We must keep recognizing the sacredness that is all things everywhere, in every encounter. We must do this with our hearts with love and a deep recognition of the delicate beautiful creative process that is life. The muscle of love is a muscle that strengthens the more you practice.

Today, I experienced where my love practice is taking me. I went out for my morning walk as I usually do. As I came to the park, I noticed garbage strewn all over the grass. Without a second thought, I started picking the garage up. I could not tolerate the defiling of my world. I was taking responsibility for the park, for the earth, and for everything. It was my action to do, and I knew I was the one to do it because I was there and I saw it. I made bending a part of my morning workout. I picked up three garbage bags full.

That is what happens when you start thinking with your whole heart and you recognize that everything is divine and you know you are the one who is responsible and it is up to you. I am committed to creating the new world in the midst of the old. I am committed to not look back and to only create a world that arises from the love in my heart that I have for everything.

Yours, Ruth Gould-Goodman