Them and Us
In an Associated Press article about
the evolutionary history of war, Matt Crenson tells us that the Semai people of
Malasyia never fight. When there is a dispute between two people, a meeting is
called and all interested parties speak their minds about the issue. The meeting
may extend over a period of days and there may be much repetition, but when
everyone has had their say, the village leader makes a ruling and it is final.
Speaking of it again is forbidden.
It seems to me that the acceptance of the leaders ruling is very much like the results of the discernment process that our former pastor, Rich Homa, introduced us to for our Parish Council meetings. Talk it over, speak your mind, and soon we agree to something. If there is no agreement, there is no decision and no change in the status. There is no vote. It is not “majority rules”. To have a vote would mean that there are winners and losers, … ‘them and us’.
Crenson goes on to say that these people have
no clans, no classes, and no chiefs. The article refers to University of
Michigan anthropologist Raymond Kelly’s book “Warless Societies and the
Origin of War” in which he states, “… these cultures have one thing
in common: They do not consider belonging to a group an essential part of
individual identity.”
Not belonging to a group does not prevent us
from being a member of the whole community of humanity. We do not need to be
Serbs or Croatians, Jewish or Muslim, white or black, democrat or republican,
and feel that only our group is correct and only we know the right
way things must be done.
David R Hawkins, M.D., Ph, D. in his book “Power
vs. Force”, writes that we, as individuals, are a part of one universal
consciousness. He believes that we all share in this common consciousness and we
can, and do, tap into it. Hawkins has developed methods that he uses to actually
measure an individual’s level of consciousness and, taking it further, measure
the combined level of human consciousness at different periods in history.
Another way of describing this is in thinking of it as degrees of enlightenment.
There is much more to his theories but I find them to mesh very well with my
Christian faith.
People at the lowest levels of consciousness,
are fearful, jealous, unloving, greedy and selfish. As we progress past pride,
we become loving, caring, confident and sharing. Those who reach the highest
levels become completely selfless and find no attachment to material things. The
most brilliant people in history, according to Hawkins, were at very high levels
of consciousness. These people include several spiritual leaders as well as some
inventers, scientists and brilliant teachers. According to his theory, at levels
approaching 1000, time itself doesn’t exist for the individual because all the
knowledge of the ages is instantly available.
As more people attain higher levels of consciousness, the combined human
level increases. His measurements, however, show only a five-point increase in
this level for each generation during the course of history. (This is on a
logarithmic scale from 1 to 1000.) Humanity has only recently advanced to a
point above 200, which he defines as the line dividing low from high levels.
Jesus, according to Hawkins, is ranked at the
highest levels of consciousness. And, what did He preach? Love and care for all.
Share God’s gifts. Don’t worry about yourself, God will provide. Jesus
preached about the coming of the Kingdom, a kingdom of love, peace and happiness
for all. Jesus also told us how to get there. Love, share, and forget self.
You could infer that reaching the highest
levels of consciousness is reaching the Kingdom and therefore the Kingdom of God
on earth is not only possible, but, the goal of humanity. Didn’t Jesus tell us
to pray for God’s will “on earth as it is in Heaven”?
According to Hawkins, you go to a higher
level by striving to live at that level and associating with people who have
reached that level. You do it by doing things that are in themselves at a higher
level. You learn to care, by caring. You attain a level of love, by
loving. Because the calibration of the levels is logarithmic, the higher
you go, the easier it gets. It is like the earthquake scale; a quake of 7
magnitude is twice as violent as one of magnitude 6 and 8 is twice the magnitude
of 7.
Hawkins believes that the process works like the AA concept of rehabilitation. The person must know and acknowledge that he needs help and he must have support. We become addicted to our current state in life and people who think they can improve alone are like an alcoholic who thinks he can beat it without outside help. In the Catholic Church we have Reconciliation and the support from the Mass and our fellow members.
If we learn to share and learn to love, we
can begin to see the value in the differences among people of various cultures.
We will see that what is good for the other person, is also good for us. This is
because we are all part of the same consciousness, we are all children of God.
Working towards this state of being leads to the disappearance of ‘them and us’.
When that becomes universal there will be no more wars and no more crime. The
cause of them will be gone.
The important thing is to realize that each
individual is part of the solution to the problem. Each time we do a loving act,
forgive someone, share with someone, or even smile at someone, we add to our
level of consciousness or, if you will, our enlightenment, and in doing so, we
add to the universal level of humanity as well.
If we love and share, there will only be ‘us’
... and the Kingdom of God.
Don Plefka
5/27/2001
| Thoughts About ... |
|
|
Them and Us |
|
| The
World of Grandpa Don www.plefka.net |
|
|
by The JavaScript Source | |
