The Bhagavad Gita, India’s best-known scripture, describes the lowest stage of human evolution as living in darkness: selfishness, self-will, ignorance of the needs of others, preoccupation with one’s own private prepossessions and prejudices whatever the cost to others. Being angry, being greedy, being afraid is living in darkness. In these states of consciousness we are not able to see; that is why we lash out at those around us. Yet human beings evolve. We don’t have to remain where we are, neither as individuals nor as a civilization, because it is by changing ourselves that we help civilization itself move forward. We don’t have to say, I am only what my chromosomes say, what my conditioning is, what my parents and my school made me to be. Instead of clinging to these limitations, we can emerge out of this darkness by drawing upon our deepest resources within. That is what the practice of the spiritual life means. Through the practice of meditation and allied disciplines, we can slowly push ourselves from darkness into light. Nobody is going to push us from behind; we have to do the pushing ourselves. As we do, we begin to see more clearly, which brings a bit more wisdom into our daily lives. This is how peace spreads – a quiet but persuasive reminder that no physical limitation can ever set barriers around what the human being can become. - Eknath Easwaran, from Breaking Barriers in the Blue Mountain journal easwaran.org/breaking-barriers.html
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:00:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015