We have completed over two decades of the twenty-first century, but as we look around us we see the astounding advances in technology, science, medicine, knowledge, and access to information. Yet at the same time, we see significant increases in war, poverty, starvation, political and religious corruption, turmoil, desecration of the environment, terrorism, and great sorrow even among the most affluent. What is the reason for this?
For thousands of years, we have looked outside of ourselves, to experts, counselors, therapists, educators, politicians, and religious leaders to solve our personal and social upheavals. They have amassed and manipulated information of incredible complexity, yet the fundamental problems of fear, conflict, relationship, and lives without meaning, are increasing at an alarming rate.
It occurred to me that a new consciousness and a totally new morality are necessary to bring about a transformation in the present culture and social structure. This is obvious to me, and yet our political, religious, and social leaders seem to take no notice of it. All dogma, all formula, and all ideology are part of the old consciousness – the old mindset; they are the fabrication of the mind, whose activity is fragmentation and separation – left, right, center; Christian, Muslim, Jews, etc. This activity will inevitably lead to strife, bloodshed, or to totalitarianism.
This is what is going on around us. One sees the necessity for social, economic, political, and moral change but the response is from the old consciousness, thought being the principal factor. As Einstein postulated, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them.”
We cannot solve our problems with the same old consciousness. The mess, the confusion, and the misery that human beings have gotten into are within the area of the old consciousness, and without changing that profoundly, every human activity – political, economic, social, or religious – will only bring us to the destruction of each other and of the earth. This is so obvious to me. How do we move to a new consciousness?
The new consciousness is inward. A new consciousness can only come about when one is light onto oneself; this light is the law. There is no other law. All other laws are made by thought and so are fragmentary, dualistic, and contradictory. To be a light to oneself is not to follow the light of another, however reasonable, logical, historical, and however convincing. You cannot be a light unto yourself if you are in the dark shadow of authority, dogma, religion, or conclusion. Morality is not put together by thought; it is not the outcome of environmental pressure, it is not of yesterday, of tradition, of culture, or even of the future. Morality is the child of love and love is not of the mind. Even desire, pleasure, sexual or sensory enjoyment is not loving. Love is of the heart and the soul. It is that which connects all of existence together and love can only live in freedom.
The new consciousness calls for absolute freedom. Freedom is to be a light to oneself; then it is not an abstraction, a thing conjured up by inculcated programs. Actual freedom is freedom from dependency, attachment, and possession, from the craving for experience. This calls for freedom from your own mind. Unless you become free from the very construct and constraints of your own mind you can never be free. That is what Bob Marley meant when he said “emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.” This is the ultimate liberation. It is far worth it to be free from mental chains but to be enslaved by mental chains.
Freedom from the very structure of your mind is to be a light to yourself. In this light, the ego dissolves and disappears. It is like bringing light into a dark room – the darkness, the illusions, and the shadows disappear. The ego – the darkness cannot coexist with the light, one denies the other. Where the light is, the ego is not. The structure of the ego is put together by the mind, which is never new, never free, and never love. In the light, there is no “ism” no system, no ideology, no religion, no dogma, and no beliefs. There is only the seeing and being. You have to see, not through your physical eyes or through the eyes of another, but through your heart. That is what Jesus meant when he said “he who has eyes to see let him see.” They all had physical eyes so he was obviously not talking about physical eyes – he was talking about mystical eyes – the eyes of the heart. This light, this law, is neither yours nor that of another. There is only consciousness. There is only oneness. There is only light. This is love. This is your birthright and with this new consciousness, we can heal the world. Love and light.
