From the ancient land of Britain, under a heavy blanket of sleepiness, I hear you. For the past four months I've been rediscovering my country after a long absence, trying to discern the level of awakening and where hope might lie. The silence of complicity here is deafening, and swathed in a set of peculiarly British beliefs to do with Brexit, the NHS and the evil of the Tories. It's loudest among the affluent middle classes and the activist left. The 'Resistance', while in much better shape than when I left, is largely mesmerised by the mainstream political scene and runs on the belief that if just shout at the ruling class long and hard enough, they will eventually turn from abusive parents into loving ones.
Meanwhile, meanwhile, alongside the internal spiritual and psychological work that is leading many to transformation, something else is happening ... People are starting to create alternatives that will free them, at least in part, from the system and show others that a different way is possible. For me, disconnecting and creating elsewhere is the action of awakening.
Yes, thanks Alex. I agree that what 's needed is to create new ways of being in community that will free us from the tightening grip of the machine system. I know there are some who are still working on this. I've been feeling dispirited because I've seen the communities around me that were once oriented to build this alternative are losing this cohesion - I now see many around me reorienting toward the machine system and seeking to rejoin it now that the restrictions are rolled back.
I understand; that's happening here too. At this stage we perhaps need to be uber-discriminating and connect with the like-minded rather than focusing on those who have lost their balance. (I nearly said minds!) Many people have lost friends and are actively seeking new connections and - from experience - these new friendships have a focus and appreciation which was lacking in previous times. Dealing with the times may mean moving geographically as well as socially - I'm in transition myself and haven't decided where to be yet but it certainly won't be in the community where I was in early 2020, now that I see it with post-Covid eyes. If I was in the States I might be tempted to go south west - I like what Gregg Braden says about his community disconnecting! (link in my subs baffle essay 6)
The thing is, Alex, the dynamic I'm seeing is that among the like-minded (that is, those of us like-minded during 2020-21 regarding rejection of lockdown/mandate governance), I'm seeing many people drift into silence and turning their eyes toward playing the game of mainstream dog-eat-dog somnambulism. I forged all those new relationships with the like-minded and with like-minded communities in '20 and '21, and now in '22, those are the relationships that are now dissolving out.
Oh, and I've just remembered that a certain network we both know is very much like that. Uniquely so, of the networks I'm involved in. I hardly post, they seem so sleepy there now.
I’m in Chinada and the masses have been utterly cowed and abused into submission with more abuses incoming (urged thugs used against peaceful legal protests, censorship bills, ban on gun ownership, freezing bank accounts, officials perjuring themselves under oath with no legal consequences). I’ve found an amazing tribe of like-minded individuals but have so much PTSD and will never again trust the medical industrial complex, police, judiciary or government. Rotten to the core.
"Indeed, the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we should call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence. The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man's outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit. It is this condition, so sadly morbid, into which society has fallen, that religion seeks to improve and transform." - Shoghi Effendi
"You see all round you proofs of the inadequacy of material things -- how joy, comfort, peace and consolation are not to be found in the transitory things of the world. Is it not then foolishness to refuse to seek these treasures where they may be found? The doors of the spiritual Kingdom are open to all, and without is absolute darkness." - Abdu'l-Baha
Curse the darkness or light a candle? I understand your heartache and despair... I think we have all perceived what you have so thoroughly described in this post. The question becomes shall we seek out those pure-hearted souls with which we can walk hand-in-hard and sow the seeds of the spiritual renewal of humanity?
The "old spell" also has an "old cure". Perhaps it is our burden to rediscover it and administer it to an afflicted world?
Hi Dave, somehow I missed this comment for a few months. Thanks so much for your thoughtful response.
I've been starting to adapt more to this weird amnesia zombie world we now inhabit in the aftermath of the covid panic. But it continues to be eerie. Also, I feel that the eerie quality of things is heightening as the wrongness and uselessness of all the covid policies and mandates are increasingly reinforced in the legacy world through policy rollbacks and evidence admitted to by the authorities. Gradually, people are even starting to acknowledge the reality of the widespread vaccine injuries.
And yet the amnesia/memory-holing continues regardless. Even as these things become known, the trance state of numb acceptance/ignorance of these horrible crimes continues. It's like living in Logan's Run or something like that, where there's this horrible tyrannical violent reality everybody is living with all the time, but just pretends like its normal and fine...
From the ancient land of Britain, under a heavy blanket of sleepiness, I hear you. For the past four months I've been rediscovering my country after a long absence, trying to discern the level of awakening and where hope might lie. The silence of complicity here is deafening, and swathed in a set of peculiarly British beliefs to do with Brexit, the NHS and the evil of the Tories. It's loudest among the affluent middle classes and the activist left. The 'Resistance', while in much better shape than when I left, is largely mesmerised by the mainstream political scene and runs on the belief that if just shout at the ruling class long and hard enough, they will eventually turn from abusive parents into loving ones.
Meanwhile, meanwhile, alongside the internal spiritual and psychological work that is leading many to transformation, something else is happening ... People are starting to create alternatives that will free them, at least in part, from the system and show others that a different way is possible. For me, disconnecting and creating elsewhere is the action of awakening.
Yes, thanks Alex. I agree that what 's needed is to create new ways of being in community that will free us from the tightening grip of the machine system. I know there are some who are still working on this. I've been feeling dispirited because I've seen the communities around me that were once oriented to build this alternative are losing this cohesion - I now see many around me reorienting toward the machine system and seeking to rejoin it now that the restrictions are rolled back.
I understand; that's happening here too. At this stage we perhaps need to be uber-discriminating and connect with the like-minded rather than focusing on those who have lost their balance. (I nearly said minds!) Many people have lost friends and are actively seeking new connections and - from experience - these new friendships have a focus and appreciation which was lacking in previous times. Dealing with the times may mean moving geographically as well as socially - I'm in transition myself and haven't decided where to be yet but it certainly won't be in the community where I was in early 2020, now that I see it with post-Covid eyes. If I was in the States I might be tempted to go south west - I like what Gregg Braden says about his community disconnecting! (link in my subs baffle essay 6)
The thing is, Alex, the dynamic I'm seeing is that among the like-minded (that is, those of us like-minded during 2020-21 regarding rejection of lockdown/mandate governance), I'm seeing many people drift into silence and turning their eyes toward playing the game of mainstream dog-eat-dog somnambulism. I forged all those new relationships with the like-minded and with like-minded communities in '20 and '21, and now in '22, those are the relationships that are now dissolving out.
Oh, and I've just remembered that a certain network we both know is very much like that. Uniquely so, of the networks I'm involved in. I hardly post, they seem so sleepy there now.
IDK, maybe you need to leave the States. It's the apex of all this.
I’m in Chinada and the masses have been utterly cowed and abused into submission with more abuses incoming (urged thugs used against peaceful legal protests, censorship bills, ban on gun ownership, freezing bank accounts, officials perjuring themselves under oath with no legal consequences). I’ve found an amazing tribe of like-minded individuals but have so much PTSD and will never again trust the medical industrial complex, police, judiciary or government. Rotten to the core.
My heart goes out to you in Canada. It really has been a hotspot for this tyranny.
"Indeed, the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we should call spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence. The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is irreligious. Man's outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the spirit. It is this condition, so sadly morbid, into which society has fallen, that religion seeks to improve and transform." - Shoghi Effendi
"You see all round you proofs of the inadequacy of material things -- how joy, comfort, peace and consolation are not to be found in the transitory things of the world. Is it not then foolishness to refuse to seek these treasures where they may be found? The doors of the spiritual Kingdom are open to all, and without is absolute darkness." - Abdu'l-Baha
Curse the darkness or light a candle? I understand your heartache and despair... I think we have all perceived what you have so thoroughly described in this post. The question becomes shall we seek out those pure-hearted souls with which we can walk hand-in-hard and sow the seeds of the spiritual renewal of humanity?
The "old spell" also has an "old cure". Perhaps it is our burden to rediscover it and administer it to an afflicted world?
Brilliant! Thank you, Relendra - this was extremely well articulated and so needed.
You're welcome! I'm glad it's reaching where it's needed. Thank you Viveka!
Absolutely, beautifully, intelligently articulated! Thank you.
You're so welcome!
Hi Dave, somehow I missed this comment for a few months. Thanks so much for your thoughtful response.
I've been starting to adapt more to this weird amnesia zombie world we now inhabit in the aftermath of the covid panic. But it continues to be eerie. Also, I feel that the eerie quality of things is heightening as the wrongness and uselessness of all the covid policies and mandates are increasingly reinforced in the legacy world through policy rollbacks and evidence admitted to by the authorities. Gradually, people are even starting to acknowledge the reality of the widespread vaccine injuries.
And yet the amnesia/memory-holing continues regardless. Even as these things become known, the trance state of numb acceptance/ignorance of these horrible crimes continues. It's like living in Logan's Run or something like that, where there's this horrible tyrannical violent reality everybody is living with all the time, but just pretends like its normal and fine...