the whole world is knitted together in an absoulte web of unity and destiny.

Take time to wrap your head around the title of this blog.  The whole world is knitted together in an absolute web of unity and destiny.  The idea that unity and destiny are ultimately coupled together in a causative relationship, should come as no surprise.  However, at first glance, they seem to be contrary to one another.  The meaning of "unity" is that there is a common thread, an absolute inclusiveness, that is a connecting component to the idea of "unity."  Whereas, "destiny" seems to have a mystic, causative component surrounding it's meaning.  It is difficult for us conceptually, to blend these two ideas together.  What are the obstacles that block our ability to see the causal relationship between unity and destiny?

The obstacles are of perception, and in not being able to extend or modify our preconceived truths.  We perceive mostly, through our senses, and because of our material based encounter of our senses, our reality of our perception is based on material forms.  Thus, our reality that we live by and trust as real, are things with material bodies; objects, that we can see, feel, touch, smell, hear.  If this objective, material reality is the one and only true reality, why then aren't we humans more foundationally stable, more joyful, more united, instead of reeking of anxiety, fear, and trauma? 

The answer lies in our inability to modify our conceptual ideas.  Because we confine ourselves to objective reality, we believe we have at our command the holy grail of absolute truth.  Therefore, because we have the absolute truth at the ready, there is no longer a necessity to seek further. We have trained our mind's to dissect our material realities into physiological and psychological aspects as a support to our true reality. Then if we add our emotional energy to the mix, we have a very formidable, preconception of our foundation of reality. Now, as a final point of emphasis to our reality, we can use the famous axiom by Rene Descartes,  "I think therefore I am."  Our ability to think therefore, gives us the ability to claim our human heredity-our being.

We have therefore fixed our boundaries of life to meet our survival and competence needs, while a the same time working our lives around this field of material truth. However, we have such confidence in our fixed, material boundaries, we have neglected the need to modify and extend our preconceived truths.  For instance, let's modify Descartes's axiom, to, "You are, therefore you may think."  You are able "to be" and are therefore able to think or not think.  Thus, by modifying Descartes axiom we can change it's course by opening up a wider perspective: "I am, therefore, I can think."  We have replaced Descartes's main cause of being, not with thinking, but with being alive, and have thus advanced our scope of perception to include the cosmos, which than gives us greater possibilities to seek truth.

To those of you who are seekers, I can hear you saying, 'there seems to be a missing link that coordinates and unifies, "unity and destiny." The link lies in expanding and modifying our preconceived truths.  We must expand our boundaries, thereby opening new dimensions of our being.  As we expand our playing field of life we also unleash an inborn freedom to "just be" and feel the joy of living.  As prove of that statement, watch little children play; always moving at top speed and, always with joyous smiles and     screeches; an unbridled display of life without the accumulated mental identifications.  The Bible, according to Matt.18:3, collaborates the above prove ..."less, ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."  Now, lets add to that proof with a quote by, Henry Thoreau, "I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born."  But without any material identifications, who are you? Have you ever thought about that?  If you detach yourself completely from all things you have identified with, you realize yourself as the pure "I."  In that pure "I" there is no difference between you and me.  We therefore are the same, united within the Universal Nature of all beings. There is no separation of life between the macro and the micro, we are all divinely united. 

You might be asking yourselves, "What than, is the source of this universal unity?"  The Source is a "Spark of Divinity," imbedded in every practical of life; we are it, and it is us.

Now, let us turn our attention to how the web of destiny is attached to our unity.  Webster's definition of "destiny" is, "what will necessarily happen to any person or thing."  However, the definition does not tell us what energetic dynamics unfolds to create "what will necessarily happen."  The hallmark of this web of destiny is the "Spark of Divinity" manifest within all the material and the spiritual parts of our lives.  The part of Universal Nature that expresses this web of destiny is called "Karma," and it relates to the spiritual side of life.  The word "Karma" literally means doing, or making ; action.  Karma considers human beings to be the initiators of their causes and, as such directly responsible for their own causes and, directly responsible for the consequences of those causes.  Every thought, word , or deed is karmaicly tied to its initiator.  Karma is not indigenous to any specific culture.  In truth, it is more a principle or universal law than a developed philosophical doctrine.  When a human acts, he or she acts through an expenditure of his or her's native energy.  His or her's actions put into motion energy which brings forth either an instantaneous or delayed reaction, and that reaction in turn impacts his or her's immediate environment, and all Nature's in general.  In other words, Nature reacts against the impact of a human's expended native energy, and the combination of these two causative and reactive energies-of human energy acting upon Nature, and Nature's reaction against the impact of that energy-is what is called "karma."  Thus, within Universal Nature, "karma" dispenses perfect justice, and hence, perfect destiny.   There are no coincidences in life.

I will leave with a quote from a source I could not verify, but fits very well with our discussion;  "The goal and the birthright of all humanity is to realize the spiritual unity behind the diversity throughout creation and to live harmoniously as members of "one universal family."

One truth, many paths.  Be good, do good. 


















                                                                                                    






           

period of transition

    


   

  ..."Now there are times, when a whole generation is caught in this way, between two ages, two modes of life with the consequences that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence"... The above quote is from the book, Steppenwolf, by Herman Hess. The quote describes a whole society involved in self conflict because of a premature overlapping of an older generation by its succeeding generation before the older generation was ready to retire. The consequence of such a condition left a whole society in a battle of wills, unable to evolve existing principles into acceptable standards of conduct for its future survival along with chronic unrest, and all corresponding noticeably well with the kind of symptoms exhibited in our present society.


Our current unrest is so profound and so deep that it cuts across all aspects of our society: economic, educational, political, spiritual. Everyone seems to be cut away from existing cultural principles of structure and conduct, searching desperately for some kind of reliable standard of thought and conduct that would ease and stabilize our unrest and give us our bearings, so that we could chart a true and accurate course into the future. Our once "blind-faith" approach to our religions, and our reliance on the "rock solid, copper sheath" framework of our government have been riddled by skepticism and cynicism. Where once our society had clear vision and purpose drawn from high virtue and noble values, it now sees no farther then sensual and psychological gratifications. Where once our society built its hopes and future on high principles of justice, equality, and tolerance, it now places its hopes and future on appearance, personality, and scientific powers. The once high principled fabric of our society has been ripped by the attributes of our lower self: greed, privilege, indolence, indulgence, selfish ambition.


No where in our relatively brief history has there been a period of transition of the comprehensive magnitude as we are now experiencing. The Civil War was a devastating event, and almost laid ruin to our fledgling society, yet it didn't reach the spiritual and intellectual comprehensiveness as is true of today's transition period. The Industrial Revolution, although comprehensive in the field of sociology and economic material affects, didn't expose our basic principles of thought and conduct to the threat of dissolution. The Decade of the 60's, with its protests and rebellion, was not as comprehensive a transition period as is being experienced now. Although a direct assault was launched against established governmental and moral principles, its main focus was on specific, perceived injustices. When those injustices were satisfactorily dissolved, so too was the greater part of the 60's social conscience.

The closest parallel to our current period of transition is that of the Roman Empire; that period just after its zenith, and at the beginning of its descending arc. That period, like ours today, was marked by unusual forms of ideas and activities involving the dissolution of principles of thought and conduct, and perceptual novelties both of a spiritual and intellectual character. See if you can detect any similarity in the thought and conduct of the Senate of the Roman Empire during its declining period with the thought and conduct of our U.S. Congress, and other governing bodies of  today: ..."divided hopes, indigent at the institutions of the state which it ruled, and yet incapable of even systematic assailing them, vacillating in all its conduct except where its own material advantage prompted decision, a picture of faithlessness toward its own as well as the opposite party, of the inward inconsistency of the most pitfall impotence, of the meanest selfishness, and an unsurpassed ideal of misrule"...

The match between the declining Roman Empire and our current society is obviously not perfect, but the similarities are striking. If this match were studied in detail, no doubt many remarkable insights could be drawn about the condition and possible future of our society, but we will leave that study to a motivated scholar. Here we are interested in drawing a wider, more universal comparison. Our society is comparatively much younger then the Roman Empire of the period under consideration. The Roman Empire had already progressed to its zenith and was in decline. Our society is still progressing. To a true student of Universal Nature the fact that our society is in a growth phase of development would be very significant. To him or her, a society is effected by the same cyclical and periodic "Laws of Nature" imposed on all manifest things, from the cosmic to the local. All things revolve according to Nature's Grooves: first, from birth to growth, leveling at some middle point, then decay and finally death. Nothing is exempt from this Law.

By a comparison between the periodic phase of the Roman Empire with our current society, we will have discovered a fundamental principle at work within Universal Nature. With this knowledge we can begin to unlock the meaning behind our period of transition. (It should be obvious that what is being done here is developing a paradigm for purposes of drawing an analogy. Statistical accuracy is not necessary, approximations will do.)
Our country, as an independent society, is relatively young, some 240 years old. If we mark the average life expectancy of new civilizations at 1000 years, for no other reason then it seems empirically reasonable, then our society, at this point in time, has spend approximately one forth of its average life. This places our society within the growth phase of Nature's Grooves, and also places us in a position for a positive evolutionary out come for our society.

All societies are created out of the minds of human beings. That there should not exist a direct causative relationship between the thoughts and conduct of the human beings that make up a society and the society itself, is absurd. Add to the above reason that human beings are, in composition, microcosmic representations of the macrocosm, and the reasons begin to crystallize. Thus, knowledge of the processes and phases that function within human beings can be applied, by direct analogy, to the processes and phases of a larger scale, namely our society.

Human desire invokes a passion which in turn becomes its vehicle for force that fires the imagination and will toward the gratification or achievement of the desire. However, the power that is felt  by desire is mixed with an element of danger, which is a blind spot, lacking the experience necessary to foresee the effects of the use of the desire. Not only does this position of ignorance leave itself vulnerable to unseen consequences, but also vulnerable to the manipulation of a stronger more experienced will.

By analogy then, our nation is at a present stage of development equivalent to a fifteen or sixteen year old human being. Where the unfolding of desire coupled with the force of passion has recently been installed into our nation's consciousness. As a nation, we feel this power and begin to express it through all aspects of our national life, and because we haven't enough experience to integrated this power with regard to control, it escapes our higher reason. Consequently, as with any initial developmental phase, there will be many failures, followed by feelings of frustration, anger, and impotency. It is like a young child at the walking stage. He stands, wabbles, and falls many times before gaining enough strength and stability necessary to walk. Because we are involved with the development of a faculty of mind that must be integrated with other mental and physical faculties, the difficulty of mastery is compounded many times. This difficulty of mastery can be sighted as the cause of our general feelings of unrest, and as the motivation behind the widespread feelings of caution and conservatism, and anger and violence.

Simply, our nation is making the mistakes of a human adolescent; letting the force of passion and emotion have full reign over our conscience, our higher reason, while oblivious to the consequences. Because of the low moral stamina associated with this phase of human development, our desires are bent toward our lower natures. This reign of our lower natures has overwhelmed our higher reason to the point that we resemble those persons which Plato describe that have no experience with wisdom and virtue: ..."they look ever downward and feed...they kick and butt with iron horns and hooves and kill one another, because of their insatiate desire..."
We have let our lower passions loose, and have given them reign over the fabric of our nation's consciousness; a mistake of an adolescent. Our national, moral conscious has consequently been voluntarily distracted by all manner of vice, amusements, entertainments, and personal, material ambitions, and gratifications. Yet as serious and dangerous as is the present state of our national consciousness, hope and courage can be raised from the idea that this condition is temporary, (remembering that the word, "temporary" when related to a growing society can mean 50 to 100 years). Every parent who has successfully guided his child through adolescence can testify to the difficulty and enormous effort involved, and to the tremendous reward in seeing the blossoming of a good young adult. 

This then is the nature of our period of transition where we are in the process of evolving existing national principles into new standards of thought and conduct which correspond to the unfolding of our expanding consciousness. On a more practical level, we can correctly say, that we are in the process of changing national habits. Pain, suffering, fear, and disorder are the natural symptoms of this transformation, but are also motivations for progress through the unlocking of our national consciousness. 

It is through suffering and yearning for the light that we sharpen our virtues and advance, and when the light comes then also comes great peace and wisdom, and our hearts are temporarily at rest, until then next evolutionary transition.


                                            One truth, many paths.  Be good, do good.


                                                                 Louis DiVirgilio