Terrorism and religious fundamentalism

There is so much talk of terrorism and religious fundamentalism as if there is nothing else going on in the world.

Is the human race truly a species of violence with no escape or is all this talk and activity just a way of ensuring we remain a violent species until the last person on earth dies? At least the last may die peacefully. We talk of religious fundamentalism, of whatever religion, as if we are a free people but they are not with their religious rules. I ask whether any of us are free or are we just as conditioned as those terrorists that we condemn? Are we too blind to the hate in our own minds?

The western nations have done terrible acts in the name of national interest and all organized religions have carried out appalling campaigns at some time. We excuse our own and condemn the other on a regular basis.

Are we reduced to shouting and killing across national and religious divides until there is no one left or are we going to look at ourselves and understand the root of our aggression, hate, violence, envy and fear?

The religious, national and political warring is only the outward result of our inward chaos, conflict, insecurity and sorrow. Surely we need to start with ourselves not following the dictates of others; how can they know what is the truth for another.

If one is so insecure, afraid and have such a burning desire to belong to something external to help you through life, then should you not question whether you are actually alive and working it out as you go along or whether you are just pretending to be alive and only following what others have told you what to think. Are you just acting on conclusions that the mind, with all its contradictions and conditioning, has made up from the words that others have fed you for their own needs?

The beauty of life and the world we call earth cannot be measured by external political and religious dogma however appealing it may appear to those of us desperate for any solutions to ease our fears and insecurities concerning life and its meaning. Are we not in danger of destroying the whole of human life if we continue in this self centered way of my belief is right and yours is wrong.

Is it not time to be serious about our hate of one another and get to the bottom of it before it is too late. We can start with seeing what is in our daily life rather than just believing in someone else's ideology.

Can your planet sustain you?

Winter rain lashes the windows and in this part of the world the sun is low and the light poor. Nature has been sheltering with greens rotting to brown and most soils and trees are bare. This dormant and cool period lasts a short time until our endless planetary journey moves us into warmth and longer, stronger daylight once again and green returns to the landscape.

Without humans this story continues and the purity of it is unobstructed. The human species with its successful breading and colonisation seems not to know reflection and understanding of the wider issues and just thinks it can forever grow, reproduce, spread and somehow magically the planet will cope with our selfish and petty desires.

No nation or major organisation appears to want to deal with the possibility of ever increasing growth leading to the destruction of nature and therefore the human species. Perhaps some think the powerful and wealthy few, those who control the nations and large organisations, can survive whatever lies ahead.

One doesn't know what may happen as we continue to blindly develop, but to rely on technological fixes at the 11th hour is surely lacking in foresight.

One has to question our so-called intelligence and wonder why we cannot understand and deal with our own selfish desires and fears, that even if they do not turn the planet into a wasteland, still cause us so much grief and conflict in our daily lives.

Seeking external solutions without understanding the self is pointless.

Why do we want others to support us, be on our side, and why do we separate ourselves from those who see things differently to our self and our group? What is it that is so important for our own sense of who we are, that we require the acceptance of others?

It seems we all do this. Even  the anti-social criminal belongs to the tough group of prisoners when they are locked up together in prison. This needing to be in a group for some sort of approval or belonging seems to affect nearly all of us.

Is it because we do not feel complete when we are alone, and in order to have security as we see it, and not feel alone, we find an approving group to join whether this is political, sectional, religious, sexual or even as an outward appearance grouping with clothes and hair styles, musical tastes etc. Such is our feeling of loneliness and isolation that we are so driven to escape it that we search until we feel comforted.

Is then the question, not why do we do this, but why do we in the first place feel so isolated and incomplete if that is the fact? Firstly is it a fact? Find out for yourself, enquire and understand your own actions, ask yourself. Do not search books because they will not tell you how you feel. At best they will only tell you how someone else felt or worse still how you ought to feel. How you feel is a living movement from moment to moment so anything in a book is already of the past and static.

So if we want to enquire into our feeling of isolation, loneliness and separation we need to observe our self and understand our need and our sense of emptiness. To go off and find a group solves nothing  without first understanding the the whole process of the search.

Every day in the world

There are moments when one is caught in the horror of what is going on in the world. The complete destruction of humans irrespective of sex, race or age who is not of the same belief as oneself.

We may be particularly aware of a current atrocity being carried out in the name of some religious values but in the past it has been different ideologies and different nationalistic philosophies that have perpetrated similar crimes against humanity.

Is it therefore pointless to have opinions of right or wrong? Isn't it surely that all ideologies and nationalism can breed hate of other ideologies and national interests, and wars may follow hate.  As soon as we separate ourselves from one another by belonging to a particular group trouble and conflict can start.

What is war? We may give it labels and so called righteous meaning, but it is still the murder of another human being which is surely insane behaviour especially from those who call themselves civilised.

Can we see our desire to belong to this sect or that, whether it is cultural, national, ethnic or religious, only leads to separation and where we have divided ourselves from the rest there must surely be conflict.

Our desire to belong is strong but to just be part of something without question and without understanding the the root of the desire, will not bring an end to the desire for safety, security or whatever it is.

Perhaps the question is can we understand our deep desires and needs by just observing ourselves, seeing without bias where our actions come from and what is the real reason we are driven in certain directions.

This may not be easy and that will make it difficult for us because we like things to be easy, to follow the line of least resistance, but isn't it the case until we really see the way we attach ourselves to authority's philosophies without question there will be conflict?

Achieving virtue and ideals

Imposing ideals and virtues on ourselves if we have no deep understanding of oneself is going to lead to conflict and a poor image of ourselves as we experience the non-achievement of what we rather superficially set out to do. To impose anything without understanding the real root of our motives is going to fail often. The parts we rarely look at or understand are those which drive us at a deep level so any superficial activity of thought and force of will is not going to overcome the 'real' us even though the motive may be honest.

We talk about achieving a virtuous life through effort because we have an image of what we want to become by reading about it, or listening to those in authority, leaders in society etc. Without understanding ourselves to any great depth we impose the ideal and then struggle to achieve those ideals to become virtuous. Often we do not reach the heights we set out to reach and then we become unhappy with ourselves. After many so called 'failures' we start to have a poor image of ourselves even if we still sound confident to others by acting that way socially. Inside us there is conflict; the what is, as opposed to what one actually wants to achieve.

It is the 'what is' that needs to be observed without judgement and be understood. With clarity and understanding of our root desires and wants we can stop being in conflict and struggle by always imposing a supposedly higher ideal and then finding it is impossible to live that way. We seem to be programmed to become something we 'think' we should be rather than understanding what we are.

Listen to yourself, have quiet when the mind is not analysing, see the world as it is not as we would like it to be. Feel the space that exists when the mind is at peace. Find out everything for yourself do not take the word of others.

A friend asked this

A friend suggested that there should be answers to questions of how one should live not just what the problems are.

One could say that we should do this or that to make changes; to work to change the government to one that believed in real equality; to limit the power that organised religions have over people; to make sure the rich do not get richer and the poor do get richer. Perhaps one should get rid of capitalism which exploits people for profit by joining a radical group. Would all these things, activities, get rid of the ugly world human beings have created for themselves? All these things would be pointless even if one could do them.

It is people, you and I, humanity, who have created all these institutions and continue to support them. If we could get rid of them we would create something else just as self centred and corrupt if we ourselves don't change. So it is not the external things that are the problem in our lives it is us. Is this not clear? We are the world! It there are unequal things in the world it is us, humanity, and we are all humanity, who has created them.

We have to find a different way of living and that has to start with oneself not the external societies that humanity have set up. They have come from self centred thought projected outwardly, however knowledgeable that thought may be, and it is driven by desire for power, security and control.

All the time we compare, acquire, despise and are aggressive or violent, in thought as well as deeds, there is no point in changing anything externally.

Without the self, the 'me', we may be able to work co-operatively with compassion but to say we must work co-operatively is meaningless if we are still in the realm of satisfying ourselves for when we satisfy ourselves we only ultimately want what suits us and that is where humanity is now, trying to satisfy all its desires and wants.

Change

Real change is not political. Real change is transformation of the self, not through surrender to a religious or some other belief, but by understanding all the things we do and feel. Can we see that it is we who are violent, selfish, aggressive, competitive, jealous and envious or do we only shout about external injustices we see in the world around us? What about the selfish injustices we perpetrate in the name of the self?

To say we cannot do this and we must live in the 'real' world is essentially lazy because we are not treating the subject seriously. We say we haven't the time or we feel justified with our own ugly behaviour because we compare ourself to someone who may be behaving even more uglier than ourselves. Taking this course of action which is really no action keeps the society in which we life and complain about in place so the hate, selfishness and aggression never changes because we never change ourselves at the deepest level.