We live in a world of confusion that has its origin in the state of confusion existing within the minds of the vast majority of human beings on Earth. Animals do not have the complicating factor of a sophisticated brain so they react instinctively in accordance with their nature and their actions have immediate consequences. But because most people do not understand the power of the human mind and its capability to affect their lives by projecting unconscious confusion, they are not able to comprehend why things appear to be going wrong in their lives. People's actions can have immediate consequences but they can also have more subtle long term consequences that may not be easily interpreted in terms of logical analysis. There is no simple answer to the question about why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. But there is a phenomenon concerning confusion that could use some clarification.
Most people do not know and understand their basic human nature. They complicate their own lives by being confused about who they really are and what they want from life. This confusion translates into a very subtle energy transfer that affects external events. If people are asked the question "Who are you?", some of their common answers are:
I am (whatever their name is).
I am a (whatever their job is).
I am a (man) or I am a (woman).
I am a (Christian), I am a (Muslim), or I am (Jewish), etc.
I am a (father), I am a (mother), I am a (bachelor), I am a (husband/wife), etc.
If people are asked the question "What do you want?", some of their common answers are:
I want a nice place to live, I want to own my home.
I want to fall in love, I want to get married, I want to have a family.
I want a really nice car, I want a boat, I want a recreational vehicle, etc.
I want to be a (doctor, nurse, teacher, actor, etc.), I want a career, I want to be rich.
One problem is that people identify with what role they are playing in life and not with who they really are as quantum units of the infinite and eternal Divine Spirit. The infinite Spirit is not limited by human concepts and should not be labeled in terms of any one religion or any particular system of belief. Some words that approach an approximate description of Divine Spirit are unconditional love, eternal life, happiness, and peace. Not many people would answer the question "Who are you?" with any of those words because they have not yet realized their true nature. The other problem here is that people identify transitory targets for their desires and the only universally true statement that can be made is that we live in a universe where all things change. Objects come and objects go. People change and people die. It is wiser to seek real peace of mind and happiness that is not goal oriented because those qualities derive from the only thing in this world that can actually be controlled - our own attitudes. The ramification of identifying with changeable concepts adversely affects people's lives because the result can be dissatisfaction, frustration and even anger with what is perceived to be failure when it finally becomes apparent that the attainment of transitory goals and desires often leads to unhappiness.
Identity confusion creates a communications problem because very few people know how to communicate with each other properly. The words that emanate from their mouths are not always truthful, but that does not necessarily mean they are liars. Confused people are not capable of stating their thoughts accurately in a manner which reflects an inner truth about themselves. Most people want to be perceived as being intelligent and nice so they project what they think other people want to hear. Many people are unable to relate to real honesty and direct, clear language so they react defensively when confronted with somebody else's truth. That kind of direct communication makes them feel disturbed and they don't like that feeling because it makes them feel uncomfortable. On a fundamental level, all people like to feel comfortable. Nobody wants to feel hungry, nobody except masochists want to feel pain, and we all want to feel warm in cold weather, cool in hot weather, and dry in wet weather. We all want to exist within a certain well defined comfort zone and we are uncomfortable with any force that disturbs the level of comfort we have achieved. There's nothing wrong with desiring a comfortable physical environment. Every person on Earth deserves that.
However, there is a problem with reacting negatively to uncomfortable human interactions and with interpreting that kind of discomfort as a conflict that must be avoided. A mature person interprets a mental confrontation as a challenge, a potential opportunity to learn something, and even a chance to have some fun with another intelligent person. An immature person interprets a mental confrontation as a threat and reacts defensively. The easiest way for immature people to protect themselves is to turn off other people who disturb them by ceasing to listen and then by avoiding any further contact. This kind of behavior produces narcissism, discordance, antagonism and conflict. Identification with the eternal Divine Spirit produces altruism, harmony, empathy and compassion.
Individual confusion multiplies in direct proportion to the number of confused people on Earth. But a geometric increase also occurs because confusion feeds off more confusion and thus leads to an insanity of mass confusion. The result of mass confusion is world of problems that appear to be unsolvable. Difficult to solve? Yes. Impossible to solve? No. Individual free will tends to have very limited power. On the other hand, mass free will can be defined as what occurs when many millions of individuals unite in basic agreement behind a common purpose and mass free will tends to be unstoppable. Starvation is unnecessary because a surplus of food exists that is capable of feeding the entire world's population. The reason starvation still occurs in a world where food is abundant is that the mass will to distribute the surplus does not exist yet. War would be obsolete if a sufficient number of people agreed to make it obsolete. But a sufficient number of people who put peace on earth as their top priority do not exist yet.
No one can change the world all by themselves. But everyone has the power to change themselves. One can only hope that people will enlighten themselves and through that process, diminish their own confusion. If a sufficient number of people diminish their own confusion, the mass accumulation of positive power will eventually change the world. |
