A New Era

 

  

Presently there are things of great seriousness going on in the world. Even in a country of great technological achievement such as Japan they are powerless to stop the forces of nature. This is nothing new, but what is more recent is the arrogance of man, particularly in capitalist endeavors that would ignore environmental peril in the name of progress and profit. So you see even the common man and woman has either been in favor of the degradation of the environment for he and she has profited and benefited from the environmental exploitation. Countries and businesses have not only built their nuclear reactors in vulnerable places, but they have built their homes around the reactors as this gives access to the jobs created by this capitalistic industrialization. This is not to undermine the seriousness of the human and animal suffering this has caused and will cause, only to note that much of the suffering could have been avoided if known information was properly heeded and utilized.

 

Natural phenomena of the earth have always occurred in the past and will continue to occur in the future. It is the intersection of these natural earth events and the development of human habitation and industrialization in an arrogant way without consideration of the natural course of the earth that transforms natural earth events in to natural disasters.

 

So the population of the earth has become great but the resources of the earth to support the growth of humanity have not been rationally managed. Great disparities exist and the lives of many are in peril for the wealth of relatively few. This skewing of the proper honoring of the earth and the careful stewardship of her resources is what is causing the suffering and it will continue until humanity changes its course. The defective approach that has caused the imbalances on the earth will be remedied in a very short while, likely within the lifetime of those in this room, but first the lesson must be learned that so called progress in the direction we have been traveling will have to change course. In this very community there are those who are dedicating themselves to exploration of alternatives in building, energy generation and use and food production. Their designation as leaders of the future will soon be replaced by a designation of leaders today.

 

In the chaos of dynamic and sometimes violent change and shift all of us need to find our center, to connect with and enter our spiritual core. In the future it is those who truly understand their place n the world and the universe who can guide others in the evolution of consciousness, the development of a better world and a healthy human society. In the past 15 years I have seen the distinct evolution of two directions of thinking and being in this region. On one hand there has been the sentiments fear, aggression and dogmatic political and religious expression. On the other has been the flowering, the bursting forth of the sentiments of those with universalistic, humanistic values and all embracing spiritual approach. The nastiness, the hate mongering, confusion, fear and anger we have experienced recently has been the been like the long and cold winter we have just experienced, but now you see, it is changing.

 

The coming wave of clarity, love, selfless care for others and deep spiritual awakenings is era of the future coming into the now. Like the spring crocuses pushing up through the snow, it heralds a new era where peace, justice, elevation of the place of life, plant, animal and human are to become the dominant values in our society and it is propelled by a flowering of the deep spiritual experience and immersion in the spiritual life.

 

We are living at the time of the changing of eras, and in our lives we will see the change occurring oh so fast. The change as we experience it may be a bit rapid, like the falling of the Berlin Wall, but the speed of that occurrence was only because the system behind it had already decayed. When the first gate was opened the old era was over, no one could ever go back to the way it was.

So in our own lives, we are the harbingers, the bringers of this new era, the flourishing of human sprit and the dominance of spiritual humanistic values. Do not despair at the long grip of winter. Just as its end was assured even before it began so is it assured that this winter of human suffering is coming to a close and a glorious new dawn of the spring and summer of a neo-humanist and spiritual awakening has already begun.

 

-Acharya Ma'dhusudan

Marc Nevas