“I think we’re only going to save the world with joy and real, deep authentic pleasure and appreciation and then we’ve already succeeded.”

 

Oh I love this Jeannie! ;-D

 

Thanks for your help :>)
(((hugs))

 

Balance, not an either or.  Not just be a one trick pony.

We have to naturally choose the best with a good heart filled with joy, pleasure and compassion. 

One of the weirdest thing I noticed when I started on a Buddhist path was other new Buddhists almost trolling for people to show compassion to - trying to apply an intellectual concept to a heart concept.  We have to do the good things in our nature and allow others to show us their good nature.  A light touch works best for me being giver or receiver.   thanks to all who help_^_

 

I agree tink,
If I’m not happy……..if I’m not comfortable, compassion will not be in the forefront.  And I don’t want compassion to be a job, but a natural outflow of a happy heart.  When I worked for hours in the garden, I felt closest to God/Nature/The Universe.  I was part of the soil, ants, stones, weeds,  bees.  Each of us doing our job.

 

I love to say this: life is a series of small joys

 

I removed my earlier comment as it was being misunderstood on the grounds of semantics.

I was not in anyway talking about compassion from an ascetic angle; forgoing ones well-being for that of another.  If one does not look after their own well-being they are of no use to anyone.

The way I read the initial blog post was in a “as long as I am happy and content, forget the rest” kind of vein.  My misunderstanding has since been cleared by subsequent comment from the author. 

 

small joys indeed experienced moment by moment as WE seek to ACTION the values which our Gaia Explorer has so eloquently referred to …

 

 

The conversation you were having was with me, my friend.  You can use my name.  Gaians I feel are blessed with the intelligence to deduce as much. 

I removed my post(s) as they detracted from your blog post.  I felt your trying to explain yourself to me was drawing us further from the initial point, of which it seems, only I misunderstood. 

I do agree with the blog post.  Perhaps the only lesson I have to learn here is to think before I leap.  In other words, seek clarification before railing against it.  One has not had a good time here on Gaia of late and it is injecting a certain degree of incoherence to my posts. 

Blessings.

D.

 

Re: saving the world…  What if the world doesn’t need saving, but maybe we do.

I’d suggest the Steven Covey tactic of ”beginning with the end in mind”.  That works for me, sometimes.  <sigh>

 

Hi Jeannie, Your personal relationship with your life says more about saving the world then the volumes of books stacked on all the new age book store shelves that will ever exist. You’ll never know what life is from a book, you only know it when you do it. You do it well!

 

I agree with heemes, that we all need saving. Each one of us is our own world from our own perspective. Saving ourselves is saving our world.

One of my old sayings is “save the world, save yourself, starting with the center out.” I work with myself first, then family, friends, my society, the world, our galaxy, our part of the solar system then the universe.

I like Doug’s comment and will quote him here: “Your personal relationship with your life says more about saving the
world then the volumes of books stacked on all the new age book store
shelves that will ever exist.”

 

I am jumping in a bit late…
I have a question: why do we have to ever know that we succeed in order to do our own work? should not our work, in this case caring for our planet and its inhabitants, be in and of itself rewarding? if we truly live our lives in love and helping one another, is that not enough? do we really need the ‘hope’ to succeed? and what exactly is the definition of ‘saving our world’???
saving relics of the past? that has its own beauty and worth…
but is it not also about changing ourselves and our expectations to that which would enable us all to see we need to work together? and sometimes it does begin with planting one seed, and nurturing one garden… at a time.
just thoughts… maybe we need to think of ways to change, and ways to let go of things that no longer serve us? and rebuild our communities and widen our visions… are we not capable of growth and change and unconditional love? we truly need to think of being kinder to all… and then how can it fail?
and perhaps all this has been said already by all of you wonderful folks before me… but a good thought for my nite!!! thankyou all for sharing your thoughts!
peacelovelight

 

a very wise person I know once said that you plant a seed, then leave it alone… you don’t go dig it up every day to make sure it is growing!!!
we trust that it will grow!!! spring always follows winter… even if the earth is crying and we get floods and droughts… we still can do our part…
so we plant the ideas, we grow our ‘gardens’… with caring about others and spreading joy and kindness… and on some level, we just have to trust that we all find our own answers in this big garden we call earth…
in the meantime, we should also play… I want to play and not be so serious every minute!!! ok, I know we also need the serious stuff, but without laughter and joy, would it really even be worth it?
oh to just laugh at ourselves! good thing I still have a sense of humor, even on the days it feels misplaced/hidden… it usually shows up again soon. and i can look at the sky and find beauty in the endlessness of possibilities…of galaxies dying and being born… as above, so below…
this past week has just felt ‘heavier’ than usual, perhaps it is me attracting others to my seriousness of this week… in which case… how about going out and play for a change? we can all cry and laugh together… gaia makes the world feel closer to me… and for that I am so grateful for this garden of seed planters… so plant and then have some sweet lemonade! scatter the smiles and hugs all around!!! and rejoice in silly abandonment, spring equinox fri!!!

 

Preamble:
Somber thoughts are not unhealthy; denying the shadow is.

What if we can’t save the world?

Life will go on. We will not be here; but there will remain plenty of time for evolution for another experiment in creating a species that can learn to guide its own future without destroying itself.

This is not an indulgence in pessimism but an exercise in looking at ourselves from without as if from the outside by another species.

However, I am a deep optimist and believe that we will “make it in the nick of time”. But we will have to wake up and realize that it is the grimy stuff of money, economics, production, technology that needs to be “spiritualized” not just our precious self-perception.

All online communities tend to be unbalanced because of the simple fact that a large section life is unrepresented: the “underclass” has no input into the chattering that goes on.
I am mostly a lurker in virtual communities and in my experience there is no, or hardly any, space occupied by issues relating to the struggles of earning our living. This common expression hides the most crucial evolutionary hint: In the post-industrial world we should not have to think in terms of having to “earn” the right to be here on earth.
If we fail to save the world and ourselves, it will be because we failed to have the confidence and courage to choose, even demand, utopia; so we will have succumbed to oblivion.
Please read my evolutionary essay and/or help me with my dormant (through lack of feed back) evolutionary pod.