Man in spiral uinverse

Doing the Best We Can – Part 1 – How to Make our Best Contribution

“Finding the center of strength within ourselves
is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men.”

~Rollo May

Press play to hear an audio enhancement as you read.

 

As global problems escalate and increasing numbers of concerned people wonder what to do, the best contribution is found in being our true selves.

The opening quote from Rollo May raises powerful questions. Why would inner change in individuals make a difference in the world? Is it irresponsible to focus on “being” when “doing” is what gets things done? What does it actually mean to find “the center of strength within ourselves.”

Rollo May had more to say. “One person with indigenous inner strength exercises a great calming effect on panic among people around him. This is what our society needs — not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can “be”, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.”



We’ll flesh this out further in a moment but let’s first back up for a perspective view of what’s actually happening on earth right now, because there’s considerable debate and confusion about that.

Many people feel dedicated to saving the world. Let’s look at this from the standpoint of truth and illusion. If you are not awake, if you are still mired in illusion, then you will automatically impose the concept of “false doership” on everything, including yourself. You will believe that you can affect something in a positive way, that you can save something. From a truthful perspective, that’s illusion because your separate identity is an illusion. This is what Rollo May is really getting at, that anyone who comes to know the truth of themselves can exert an influence that those who haven’t simply can’t.

Here’s the big picture context for this: Consciousness is orchestrating everything. Here we are in this 21st century, with all the weapons and bombs and poisons and terrorists, everything you can imagine, yet – somehow – we are still here. How is this even possible? Because of something other than limited human beings.

Jesus painting

Jesus spoke of this when he said, “I of myself can do nothing. The Father within, he doeth the work.” Me, you, we … on our own, are relatively powerless. Connected with source, God, Love … whatever we choose to call it, now we have some power.

But it takes surrendering our separatist agendas, even if that includes wanting to save the world. Consciousness is orchestrating this entire show, moving through its cycles, no matter what silly human beings think about it.

From the traditional Vedic and Tantric perspectives this is described as the play of consciousness. In this model, consciousness progresses through four stages, known in Sanskrit as “yugas.” We are currently nearing the end of the fourth and final yuga, the Kali yuga, here in what is called The Day of God.




The “day” refers to billions of years of time that began with The Big Bang. Scientists theorize about that event when, apparently, everything in the universe (or universes if you subscribe to the belief in multiple universes) emerged from a single point in one unimaginably massive explosion.

By the way, there is no scientific consensus that the universe is expanding. In fact, according to theoretical physicist Doug Snell, “planet/suns are results of contraction, galaxies are examples of contraction, clusters are too, so are super clusters and almost all galaxies.” 1

He elaborates, saying: “The universe is contracting at an increasing rate, and the expansion perceived is nothing but an illusion created by acceleration while being inside a spiral.”

Big bang

It’s a fascinating topic to explore and there’s no lack of controversial theories. If we embrace the traditional viewpoint, drawing upon the most ancient source of wisdom that we have, then the universe is contracting and will continue to do so until a moment of total compaction and re-absorbtion. At that point, all manifest form vanishes.

If this is our destiny, then it makes utterly no sense to try and “save the world.” What we call the world, which includes our planet but also our entire experience of reality, is evolving and the ultimate destination towards a transformation quite beyond our ability to conceptualize.

This is why what Rollo May says makes so much sense. If this is what consciousness is orchestrating, and we humans are part and parcel of consciousness, then it’s what we should be doing as well! Coming to center, compacting, concentrating. From that center of strength within ourselves, we can extend a calming influence on all those who are panicking because they don’t understand these cycles and where they are taking us.

This is not a fatalistic viewpoint, it’s simply honoring ancient wisdom so we can effectively play our part in this grand adventure in consciousness.




References:
1. https://www.quora.com/Is-the-universe-expanding-and-contracting-simultaneously

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