How do we solve external problems without looking at ourselves first?

Some of us are interested in global warming that is reported to be taking place due to Climate change which is both people made and natural causes.

 There is a lot of consensus but there is also disagreement. Some scientists say we are exaggerating the problem and we are blaming the human race incorrectly for the rising temperatures. Some say there are no changes in global temperature that are outside of naturally occurring variations or cycles so there is nothing to worry about.

We are polarising around the problem; scientists disagreeing with one another, richer nations wanting poorer nations to stop using fossil fuels and releasing carbon into the atmosphere, poorer countries in their turn requesting that richer countries pay a larger share to fix the problem. Politicians think short term and locally or nationally and sit on their hands because there is a possible economic price to pay and vested interests lobby them hard. We the citizens of the planet have our conditioning to drive us into self-centred defensive positions where we dig our heels in and build a fortress around our ideas so we do not loose out economically or through some other inconvenience.

The whole situation is a mess. If we continue to think fractionally we will not resolve the kind of issues that are global in nature; there are many such issues but the theme is often the same – sectional interests using partial facts.

Fragmented and conditioned thinking according to ones vested interests, national societal status, politics, personal viewpoint, religion, ones perception of what one has to loose, leads people to define the problem and therefore the solution according to all of this immature thinking.

How can we make progress if we cling to the objects of our desires like wealth and property far in excess of what we actually need, that ensures we cannot solve the problem. Are we not at the point of continually wanting and having our cake and eating it?

Can we do this radically differently or do we continually fight our own corner so there are no solutions, only losers?

Legislation will not solve this problem. Legislation will lead to resentment and disobedience because we are not dealing with the fundamental issue. What is the fundamental issue? Surely it is our greed and selfishness and unwillingness to see the complete picture.

We need the facts of global warming and sea level rise due to climate change. We need to know how much of our own inputs are causing the problem to be magnified if at all. We need the truth from all people concerned with the problem: the scientists of all persuasions, the politicians of all parties, and the people with vested economic and corporate interests. If we are concerned with the problem we all need to see the truth of our own arguments. Are we really just protecting ourselves if we just blame human nature or deny there is a problem if there is one?

This includes the scientist who has pressure put upon them to follow the paradigm of the day, the institution that can only get funding if it makes the right noises to the funder. Do you see the enormity of the problem? It is not a simple case of who is right and who is wrong. It surely lies in all of us to see why we look at the problem in our little way, in our desire to keep our selfish ways just going on as they always have. We work hard; we have enough resentment, not openly looked at, about our jobs without having to look to our own behaviours regarding huge problems like global warming. It really might well be an ‘inconvenient truth’ as put to us a few years ago.

So we have many people telling us what are the issues with the global climate but there are very few facts for us to understand because so much of what is said comes from those who are conditioned by their own fears of loosing their funding, of people not voting for them, of people frightened that they will loose their flock or following if they say things that are difficult to act on because it will cause inconvenience.

So what are we to do? Obviously to jump to one side of the argument or the other is futile if we have no facts and only fragmented thinking as our guide.

So we are back at the beginning, with ourselves, with our own conditioning, our own vested interests. Surely only when we can understand ourselves totally and be rid of sectional interests can we know what is the right action, and not just the propaganda of those who shout the loudest.

You can start the process of understanding yourself at any time, you do not need permission and you certainly do not need to pass any exams to be good at it. You need attention and sensitivity; there is no degree that teaches you that. There is no politician, guru, celebrity or authority to tell you what is right or wrong. When you do this something extraordinary happens. It is as if the curtain is lifted on the world and the possibility of seeing everything afresh becomes visible. Your own conditioning, the self centred actions of yourself and those with ‘something to loose’ comes to your attention. When you see how your thinking has been caged by your culture and society without condemnation or judging you can then understand that freedom no longer means the same thing as it used to. You can see the facts of your own self imprisonment and walk free. When you see the complete problem; your need for security driving your fears about your life a new truth of now and not from your conditioned past comes into being.

The experiment is yours; not someone else’s who allows you to do it within the framework they have delineated.

 

With fragmented, partial and conflicting intellectual thoughts and arguments between us we will surely not be able to make progress because my idea of right will be contradicted by your idea of what is right because we allow our conditioning and sectional desires to rule our understanding of the complete problem. We therefore do not understand the whole problem and only see our bit of the world.

Are we capable of being selfless enough to achieve this or will we continue with convenient comments like “its human nature to be selfish” and to put oneself and family or whatever first? Can we see that putting ourselves and our small groups first is actually destroying the wider relationship of all human beings on a finite planet?

If one continues with selfish action then there is no relationship with the world so there can be no love or understanding despite the words to the contrary one may say as all action is centred on the self and therefore not considerate of others. We have turned the human problems we face into a huge sports arena where competitive competition is pitting one idea against another and the most aggressive, powerful and good at verbal arguments wins. The victor has understood nothing and the victor’s solution is hollow, fragmentary and meaningless.

There can be no lasting solutions if we continue to take for ourselves, family, community, nation etc and we will not properly consider those outside our sphere. This is at best isolationist however you dress it up and will continue to leave suffering all around us. How can we be truly happy when we cause such misery? Do not take the writers word for it, look at your own behaviour and see if it has any benefit to the global society? We have divided people up into sections of beliefs and cultural systems in nations, politics, religions and smaller units so we can have the best of everything for our own group. How can we then say we are committed to change when we see this behaviour in ourselves? To do so would be a denial of reality. All change has to begin within. Any other change is superficial and is unlikely to be of any use. It doesn’t matter whether it is political, religious or a global issue like climate change.