Editor
We’ve all heard about the environmental disaster that is gripping the world and bringing it to its knees. But what about that other disaster that is taking place inside us in that mysterious, unquantifiable, inner environment – our spirit, our consciousness?
Because for every poisoned sea and ripped down forest around us in this world, there is a spiritual equivalent here within us, in this land of our imagination. Think about it – what happened to that innocent little creature you were when you were born, who seemed to know itself, that was happy in the moment? How has it changed? Haven’t our inner worlds transformed in parallel with the world around us? Who amongst us is still happy? Who amongst us even believes in the simple happiness of just being alive?
And what about these thoughts that choke up our inner skies as surely as any CO2-emitting chimney – that harangue us endlessly with guilt trips, anger, self-glory, alternating with self-loathing and a string of endless and insatiable desires? What about these lusts that break our societies and our families apart, and in the process our children’s hearts until, like us, they too are filled up with yet more pain and insecurity?
We can see the world around us as it suffers, we hear about the flora and fauna that are being destroyed in our wake and we are spurred on to try to curb our wanton consumption of life in the hope that the cycle can be reversed. But how can we hope to bring a balm of peace to this world when our hearts are swamped in toxins, our guts have been mined with unfillable pits of greed, our inner skies are choked by the smoking factories of our mind and our innocent desires are fanned into fierce fires that consume the brushwood of our morality?
Yes, let’s try to save the world! But as we do, let us remember what we are saving this world from. We are saving this world from ourselves, nothing more. We are saving the world from what we have become.
And if we really want to make a difference, then the struggle must be a twofold struggle – both an outer and an inner one. A simultaneous battle to save the animals of the Brazilian rainforests and also the bare-footed angels that live in our hearts. We’re fighting the Environmental disaster but we should not forget about the IN-vironmental disaster that is the root of all our present ills.
Jeremy Clancy
(Photograph: webshots)
Editor: Jeremy would like to start an email action group on this topic. If you would like to join the group, please write to me at [email protected], and I will send your message to Jeremy.
The reason for dreams is that when you are sleeping your attention moves either to the supra-conscious side or to the subconscious side. Your attention starts moving and then you start seeing things which are connected with your subconscious or your collective subconscious…. You may go into your supra-conscious side where you see your future and all these things.
Bu the reason why you get your dreams actually is that the unconscious pushes within you, or we can say the Kundalini or your Atma is trying to guide you to the right path. And how does it guide you to the right path, is through dreams.
But these are misunderstood. How are you guided by these dreams? Understand these dreams, because you are so confused.
First you go deep into yourself and you touch the unconscious, sushupti. But from there, you come out. And then when you are coming out, you touch your subconscious or maybe the supra-conscious. So whatever anabhuti [feeling] you had or whatever experience you had of the depth of the sushupti gets confused. And you don’t know what you dreamt and you don’t understand and you forget it.
But those who are realised souls, go to their sushupti and see exactly what they have to know. Like many people in Bombay when I came, they didn’t know I was coming, but they were at the airport because they got the dream.
So at the sushupti level, at the deep level, you get the communication with God if you know how to go in and come out fully aware. But if you get confused with supra-conscious or subconscious areas … your chitta [attention] is not so clearcut. Then there can be a big confusion.
Shri Mataji, 1983
“The work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secret way. From him it gains life and being. Nor is its existence casual or inconsequent, but it has a definite and purposeful strength, alike in its material and spiritual life. It exists and has power to create spiritual atmosphere; and from this inner standpoint one judges whether it is a good work of art or a bad one”.
“That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need which springs from the soul. ”
“All those variety of picture, when they are really art, fulfill their purpose and feed the spirit.”
“Painting is an art, and art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul.”
“It is very important for the artist to guage his position aright, to realise that he has a duty to his art and to himself, that he is not king of the castle but rather a servant of a nobler purpose. He must search deeply into his own soul, develop and tend it, so that his art has something to clothe, and does not remain a glove without a hand”.
From Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky, first printed in 1914
Dear Beloved Mother Earth, Our Holy Guru,
Since the timeless creation of Your very first breath,
You have been The Great Evolution, the grand source of all,
And humankind has been walking, perplexed, by Your side.
You have given us the powers of five sacred elements,
And we have created our own laws distant from their command.
You have given us soaring mountains to climb,
While we have merely made the ego our ascent.
You have given us deserts to inspire dreams of eternity,
And we have chosen an insatiable quest for all that is mortal.
You have given us your seas to embrace and rock us gently,
While we have taken comfort in our conquering nature instead.
You have given us cool soils to calm our weary feet,
While we have marched on and on, victims of our own polarity.
You have given us Your skies to open up our every inspiration,
But we have failed to overcome the feebleness of our thinking.
You have given us the splendour of flowers as a muse,
And we instead have revered material things.
You have given us all the creatures to teach harmony and difference,
While we have practiced prejudice and distrust amongst ourselves.
You have given us the joy of Your peaceful attention,
And we have remained distracted by the ticking clocks of our minds.
You have given us whispering winds, the desire for our seeking,
While we have been lost in a search for mere desperations.
You have forgiven us time and again for our ignorance and our deeds,
But we continue blindly flirting with absurdity and danger.
You have trusted us as the guardians of Your delightful creation,
And we have brought it now to the edge of devastation.
…
May we learn to make with our hands what is hidden inside our hearts,
Learning to live with less, with satisfaction and charity in our souls.
May we swiftly abandon all falsely created needs, our greed,
And discard all illusions of richness, vanity and self-indulgence.
May we sense the urgency to make changes in our daily actions,
To discover the Metascience of Your nature and to share it with all.
Melissa Richard
(Photograph: bigfoto.com)