“Either war is obsolete or men are.” -Buckminster Fuller
The human race is advancing toward the brink of something huge, and depending on who you ask we are either nearing catastrophic annihilation or approaching an evolutionary leap forward. Sometimes I think we are headed for destruction, like when my sister reads me an article about a father who left his baby in the back seat of a car all day resulting in the baby’s death, not by accident, but as a plan to collect the infant’s life insurance money. Or when I feed the hungry on Wednesday nights with the Khalsa Peace Corps and it becomes clear there are going to be more and more hungry before there are less. More children grow up fatherless. There is an island size mass of garbage in the pacific ocean, a hole in the ozone layer, more frequent tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes and nuclear waste spills. The price of oil skyrockets while taxes soar. Wars rage and people are blown to bits by pipe bombs every single day. The media continues its campaign of lies as the perfect sequel to the propaganda drenched indoctrination taking place in our public schools. We are taught not to think as children and then distracted by a culture of meaningless amusement throughout our adulthood. So sometimes, when I contemplate the fear based alarmist predicament our planet and our culture are facing that the mainstream media can’t seem to shut up about, yeah, things seems a little bleak.
Then sometimes I’m certain we are heading toward an evolutionarily leap forward; in technology, medicine, and mainly consciousness. Buckminster Fuller once said “whether it is to be utopia or oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment…. Humanity is in a ‘final exam’ as to whether or not it qualifies for continuance in the Universe.” When I hold little Charlie in my arms I know we qualify to survive. At least when we are first born we do, that pure angelic essence of peace, the utter state of vulnerability under which we grow qualifies us. As we grow our thinking mind causes us to stray from our pure center, but I have to believe the quality of our essence never changes. The purity remains, underneath our choices, our experiences and our mistakes. When I give burritos to the hungry I see a depth of gratitude that comes from that place of purity. When I see the unflinching and unconditionally nourishing sun rise or set I know we qualify. The smell after a rain storm; when the rainbow forms just over head. When someone lets you in their lane in traffic, or pays that extra dollar you are short at the grocery store. When I read about the explosions of complexity and creativity coming fourth in our world in an attempt to solve problems: from neighborhood watches to bit coin; from candles made with repurposed jars to solar panels and electric cars, we continue to recycle, not just our garbage but our imagination, our motivation, our relentless desire to survive.
This morning in Starbucks as I was waiting for my drinks I noticed a little boy who couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old sitting in an easy cross legged yoga pose, with his hands in Guyan Mudra (the thumb pressed to the index finger with the other three outstretched) eyes closed, apparently meditating. Then after a good silent minute (what I imagine seems like an hour for someone his age) he popped up and danced carefree next to his mother. “You’ve got a free spirit there,” I told her. She smiled, “yes I do.” I asked where he learned to meditate like that and she said she had no idea, “he didn’t get it from me.” The logic behind putting your fingers in that position is to complete an electric circuit in the body enabling the person to become more receptive, and coherent. In Yogic terms the human body is a technology and the yoga poses are the science by which we tap into the body’s potential. I’m realizing humanity is even more clever than I thought. A child can perhaps tap into his innate knowledge of how the human body functions and takes it upon himself to meditate in the middle of a coffeeshop, knowing without knowing he even knows, just how to complete the circuit that will enhance his experience. It begins to seem after all, like we are stretching our arms and legs and, as a species we are getting ready to take that leap, both a leap of faith and an evolutionarily leap. I believe we are about to jump headlong and with abandon into the vast energy field of potential: toward harmony, tolerance, joy and love that, in the final analysis, will be the defining mark of humanity.
All of nature cooperates in a symbiotic relationship that benefits the whole. We just need to fall in line with the existing melodic flow of nature to inherit the Utopia that is our destiny and not only survive, but flourish. As I sit and watch the sun come up each morning over the ocean in Black Rock CT I feel my connection to that energy, and I know that as long as it continues to nourish me I will continue inching forward toward the brink. The brink of what, exactly, remains to be seen.
SIDE EFFECTS: None.
BENEFITS: I see a message from the universe or something to be inspired by in almost everything that happens now-a-days. I am part of the whole, and that understanding is making me whole.
