The External World

Right now, in the US and the world, so many people are concerned, worried, fearful and many other feelings about our own nation, the world we live in – the world around us –  “The External World” – that which we see, hear, taste, feel and smell, all around us.

Some of us have spent our entire lives focused on the world around us, fixing, working, and accomplishing things in this world.  We may have reached nearing mid-life age or the end of our lives and instead of feeling fantastically accomplished and wonderfully fulfilled, we feel depressed, anxious, upset, resentful or angry, sometimes to the point of medicating ourselves to help us deny this.

So many of us can look at what we’ve accomplished out in the world in our lifetime, and start to experience deep within where it has become nothing but a whisper – that we haven’t changed the world as much as we wanted to during this life.  We haven’t gotten the insight that we thought we’d have.  We haven’t gotten from this path in the way we thought we would, so we get angry and upset, disillusioned and disappointed, and lost in wondering if what we did had any value at all.  If we haven’t made the world into what we wanted by the time we reach “NOW”, we may get depressed, or despondent and sometimes a sense of despair and deep loss may come up within us.

We can even take our anxiety and anger out on others – those who we feel are to blame for us not “changing the world” – not “making the world a better place”.  We see PLENTY of blame and attacks on social media.  We tend to take this anger out on people who we feel “got in our way” of making this world better or our life better.  The daily news shows the worst cases of how some people have demonstrated their utter loss and frustration through killing of others.

Regardless of which side of the fence we’re on with regards to any group or culture we belong to, so many times, we blame others for our own “not making the world into the better place that I wanted to make it into” – this includes not making our own personal, private world or circle into what we wanted to make it into.  We blame others, and …

… even our self (although we don’t always admit to blaming ourselves since “it’s obviously someone else’s fault”).

If we came into the world to make the world a better place for ourselves (and others maybe) “to fix the world”, and therefore, all our effort had been focused on changing the world around us – changing any part of this planet Earth back into a “Garden of Eden” for ourselves (and others, maybe) …

but yet, if we haven’t worked to change/fix/heal/better ourselves …

… then we would have wasted our entire lives.

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Life is not about fixing the external world around us, in which we’re living.  Many think it is.  We didn’t come into this world, with the #1 directive being to change the External World around us.  We didn’t come with the purpose in life being to change the Earth.

What so many don’t remember and acknowledge is the External World around us – all of it – is the mirror image of what is within us – the mirror image of what is within our consciousness, within our minds, within our hearts and within our souls.  The world that we see and “live inside” is the reflection of what is inside our consciousnesses. What we see around us is the reflection of all of us – what we have within us to work on to change. 

We have made the Earth into our own image and likeness.

Even if we did make great changes in the External World – the Earth – we would still return to whatever level of living/dying/creating/destroying we’re at as the human race – unless we make the great changes within ourselves first.

We are here to change our own consciousness.  We are here in this level of consciousness – in this “realm” we call the Universe – the Solar System – the Earth – to change our own selves – our conscious and subconscious minds, our hearts at both the  shallowest  and the deepest places within us, and our souls in their full existence.

If we haven’t put effort into changing our own self – we have wasted all the years in the world, and it is only natural that we’re going to feel deep inside our self – that we haven’t accomplished what we came here to accomplish – that we haven’t changed the REAL thing we came to change – our self.

The Portrait of Dorian Gray

Ultimately, this fact is true – if we’ve changed the world around us, but we haven’t changed our self, then we’ve accomplished nothing, because the world will simply eventually revert back to what it was – the reflection – the Earth and the world we think we see – like the portrait of Dorian Gray, which will always reflect that truth which is within us – the unchanged, unexamined issues, harmful emotions and the broken and injured relationships we have with our self and others.

Even now, the world reflects the conflict we have within ourselves – not just with others, but the conflict we have with our own self which we haven’t yet examined, or which we haven’t yet acknowledged or worked on.  It is very true that all of us have some conflict within us which we have not yet examined – waiting for us to get around to it when we have more time – “we’re just so busy, right now.  We’ve got a world to fix, after all.”

The reflection we see in the mirror – the world that we see around us – will continue as it is – as long as we avoid the inner work on the inner world we have within our inner selves.  This reflection is ourselves that we see in the mirror, and it is this that is within which is the source of what we see out there.

The New Reflection

When we change our mind and heart about our judgements, our criticisms, our bitterness, our resentments, our rages, our angers, our fears, our abuses, our attacks, our belittlements, our disrespects, etc. within ourselves, – changed into forgiveness and mercy, compassion, tolerance, loving kindness, understanding, patience with others and ourselves, etc., then we will begin to see the new reflection in the mirror of the planet.  Because some of us have done some of this work, we are already seeing some of this change, but our own part that we play in this change – this is what we must address – sooner or later.

When we address our own issues, then we will have changed the Inner Source of the reflection that we see in the External World around us.

It is when we bring these higher qualities forward when standing in the midst of the lower/harmful qualities. Not in the midst of someone else’s portrait of Dorian Gray, but OUR OWN.  Bringing forth our higher qualities of kindness, mercy, humility, and the others when we have previously brought forth our lower qualities – in the face of our self when we are wanting instead to react spewing forth any manner of negative and harmful qualities – this is the moment of true changing of the world.

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Christ said, “With God, all things are possible.”  This means that with God – which is the Infinite Source of love, patience, determination, kindness, persistence, wisdom, forgiveness, mercy, compassion – all inner injuries can be healed.  This means that with God – which is love, patience, determination, kindness, persistence, wisdom, forgiveness, mercy, compassion – everything within us that we’ve lost, can be found.  This means that with God – everything about us that is a mess, can be cleaned up and made straight. This means that with God, everything about our real self forgotten can be remembered.   And this means that with God, everything broken within us, can be made whole.

It is with our effort then beginning from the center within us, that the Garden of Eden returns. Then does the Earth we want to have form, come into being. Because the Garden of Eden, the Earth we want to exist, is born from the Love and Kindness, the forgiveness and mercy, the patience and understanding, the determination, persistence, tolerance and compassion that one gives to our fellow human beings – all of them plus one – our self.

And, oh, yes, it absolutely is a challenge, … yet, once more….  as Christ said, “For man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” – even changing and growing within our self.

I would go so far as to say, that ONLY with God, is this possible.