What’s Happening in the World
and What Can I Do?
Everyone seems traumatized by world events these days. Literally traumatized: they spend a lot of time and energy chewing on, obsessing about what’s happening, talking about it with friends. They feel compelled to try to understand it, make sense of it, come to some kind of terms with it, find a way to feel less out of control and less bewildered and overwhelmed, find a way to deal with their own grief and pain about it, find out whether there even is any way to live a normal, happy life when so many others cannot do that.
Here
are some touch-points that might be helpful. These are not offered as simplistic solutions that do not do justice to either the complexity of the world or the suffering in it. These are offered as doorways you might choose to step through to get an expanded perspective. They are touchstones, and if they are not useful for you, don't use them. They are simply perspectives you might not have entertained before, on what's happening in the world.
First,
understand the nature of trauma: we are hardwired to create repeats of the
event to try to make it turn out differently this time, and/or this time to
experience an adequate capacity to deal with it and come out un-traumatized
this time. If we know that is driving us, we can already feel more at peace and
in control. If you feel the need, there are plenty of programs to help people heal from trauma.
Second, there is this context we can ask our own soul to show us, so that we absolutely know the truth and reality of it: that everyone who is suffering has chosen that experience. Their embodiment is part of their soul, and the soul has chosen. The soul is eternal, and is a portion of the infinite eternal Soul that creates everything all the time. For that soul, all experience is equally valuable for the purpose of knowing ourselves as portions of the Creator and expanding the universe through our creating. And its experience includes our own experiences of feeling horrified at the suffering and taking actions to eliminate it.
We
generally don’t know this truth and reality. In fact it seems quite false and quite callous toward those who suffer. We can intend. and ask our own soul to help us to know this ultimate choicefulness, and that will be revealed. I speak from personal experience. Until it is revealed, however, it seems to be ridiculous, obviously false, and cruel toward those who suffer. It is often erroneously interpreted as "You are suffering because you deserve it."
This perspective does not, cannot, and is not intended to, diminish in any way the naturalness and rightness of horrified reactions to suffering. The heartbreak we feel is part of what is real and natural. Many of us respond instinctively to make the suffering stop and prevent it from recurring. That is part of the fail-safe built into the world, as mentioned below.
I can't seem to avoid hearing about horrifying actions happening in the world, and my best way of coping is to take each specific and turn it around into its opposite, that I do want, and offer that as a prayer, a declaration, an affirmation. Example: "All people are safe in their homes and as they live their lives." I believe that turning around what we see helps fulfill the purpose of anything we don't want, which is to stimulate and direct our creative powers.
I draw comfort in my heartbreak from knowing that I and others are being evoked into greater creativity, compassion, and contribution. We are being drawn into greater community, love, and action.
Third, there is also this context for what is happening in the world that we can know is true and real: that suffering is eventually self-eliminating. In our essence, as living creatures, we want thriving life, not suffering. This means that ultimately our world will emerge from her pretense of being less than a portion of the infinite and eternal, and all suffering will cease, because all suffering is caused by and possible only within that pretense, that illusion. The fail-safe is built into the system. Our world is based on a pretense, a voluntary forgetting of who we are. It is an unstable situation, and requires much effort to maintain. Therefore, eventually, because there is the built-in fail-safe to end the pretense, the world will return to the truth and the reality of who she is—and we as parts of her will also--and suffering will then become impossible.
This context generates another helpful perspective. In my own trust and knowing that there is a
bigger picture going on, for this planet, I know all happenings are part of
that bigger picture which is the shift out of the
pretense of separation, the pretense that, as mentioned above, is the
source of all experience of suffering. The self-limiting nature of that
pretense means that the planet, and all of us, are headed toward a
brighter, happier future and everything we see around us is happening in
that context.
Fourth, until then, each of us faces the questions: How can I cope, and what is mine to do in this world? This whole essay addresses “how can I cope?” Discovering “what is mine to do” is super-important, as it allows us to actually embody and radiate the truth and the reality that will help bring an end to suffering. The briefest guide to knowing, in each moment, what is yours to do, is use your feelings, especially your heart, to sense what would bring you the most, deepest, highest joy, and that’s what’s your best contribution to removing suffering from the world. We uplift the world when we uplift ourselves, as we and the world are inter-being, inseparable.
Fifth, to do what is ours to do, we must allow others the same. Some are called to action. Some are called to destroy. Some are called to build. Some are called to be unconditional peace/love/joy and radiate that out, which uplifts everyone. To accomplish the return to the truth and reality of who we are, we must allow everyone to do their part even if we can’t see how it helps.
I find hope on days I feel hopeless, from knowing that for every bit of suffering that comes to my attention, there are an even greater number of acts of loving kindness and the building of the specifics of a more wonderful world that do not come to my attention. This I know with certainty.
The sixth context is the realization that each of us is not alone, though it feels that way sometimes. There are millions and millions of living creatures on earth, including fellow humans, who are on the same path of being dedicated to being helpful and being uplifting. Some are on that path consciously, others are not conscious but being helpful and uplifting anyway. So if we want to reach out to others for morale-boosting and support, we will find them.
A seventh possibly helpful touchstone for coping with what's happening in the world is a little aphorism that had a big impact on my life: Suffering about suffering does not decrease the amount of suffering in the world. Compassion does.
Finally I am helped in coping by using my attention to create more of what I want, not more of what I don't want. Some of us are among those not called to keep up with the news. We do not define a "responsible citizen" as necessarily including conscientiously following the (bad) "news" and "knowing what's going on" in detail. Attention is creative, especially when combined with emotion, so we can use it wisely. Using it wisely is extremely helpful in coping with what's happening in the world.
Having all that fully present in our awareness as we move through this current world could help us and the world. May this little essay serve its purpose of being helpful, by fostering such awareness.
Here are two of my other blogposts related to this:
https://exploringsecondandthirdtier.blogspot.com/2022/05/ruminations-on-peace.html
https://divinelightchurch.blogspot.com/2008/12/peace-on-earth-details.html
In the interest of the purpose of this blogpost, some of our church theology has been simplified, but not to the point of falsifying.
