I am!

I see a flicker of hope that these fighters and leaders of both “sides” hasten the demise of these nonsensical, outmoded, violent paradigms.  They sure are exemplifying the worst to the rest of the thinking world, aren’t they?  I am ready to have the way cleared for the more enlightened harmony that I feel happily percolating.

G’wan, go on now!
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I’m not! 

I agree that humanity is developing in some ways, for example technologically.  But it seems to me that whatever it is in us human beings that makes us slaughter each other hasn’t changed much in the last few thousand years.  One day this particular conflict will have run its course but I feel sure that another one will appear to take its place.  (And I used to be an optimist!)

I’m with Gurdjieff on this.  In Fragments he says: “Let us take some event in the life of humanity. For instance, war.  There is a war going on at the present moment (First World War).  What does it signify?  It signifies that several millions of sleeping people are trying to destroy several millions of other sleeping people.  They would not do this, of course, if they were to wake up.  Everything that takes place is owing to this sleep.”

So the solution is simple - we all just have to wake up!

Hi Robert - ‘waking up’ is what I’m suggesting is happening.

Are you familiar with the Sufi saying: “Sufism is doing today what everyone will be doing in 1000 years”

Re war: G also said (Fragments p23) in answer to the question ‘can war be stopped?’ that it could which greatly surprised Ouspensky.

But I think we may be talking about 2 different things - I agree with G (and you!) re war as being the unavoidable result of planetary influences but I was not so much thinking of that.

Within those influences there are degrees of ‘non-freedom’; one machine can writeMein Kampf another can writeIn Search of The Miraculous. That doesn’t man they are an equivalence or that the understanding of a machine reading the former cannot be progressed to a deeper understanding.

Thanks NIna-Lois for your input too!

so your bored ,you say?

Yes Wayne, of certain things - very bored.

Hope that answers your question.

it does,thank you.

There is an old story that really affects my view of the world today. I first read it (along with Nasruddin stories) in a children magazine when I was about 7 yrs old.  There are a few versions of the tale but I was surprised to find one in the internet, the same exact version I read in my childhood (only in different language). I copy it here:

“In ancient times itinerant Zen monks when arriving at a Zen monastery could challenge the monks to a theological contest and would be given food and shelter if they won but would have to go to the next monastery if they lost. There was a monastery occupied by two brothers a wise monk with two eyes and a foolish monk with one eye. One night it was raining cats and dogs and an itinerant monk knocked on the door. The wise brother wishing to be kind to wet fellow suggested he has a contest with his brother. Five minutes later the contest was over. The traveling monk entered the room, bowed and admitted defeat. The wise brother asked, “Tell me what happened?” The other replied, “Your brother is a genius. We decided to debate in silence. I went first and showed a single finger signifying the Buddha. Your brother showed two fingers, meaning the Buddha and his teachings. I replied with three fingers, indicating the Buddha, his teachings and his followers. Your brother replied with coup de grass when he showed me his fist proving that in reality the Buddha, his teachings and his followers are all one.” The poor monk bowed once more and left in the stormy night. Just then the brother entered. He was totally irate. “That man was so rude. If he was not our guest I would have given him the beating he deserved.” “What happened?” The one-eyed brother replied, “We decided to have a silent debate and the first thing he indicated was to put a single finger up meaning, ‘I see you have only one eye’. So I put up two fingers out of courtesy to him, meaning, ‘I see you have two eyes.’ But the guy was so rude, he put up three fingers telling me that together the two of us have three eyes. I got so mad, I shook my fist at him, telling him, ‘If you don’t stop talking about eyes, I’m going to punch your lights out.’”

The brother with one eye represents the (borrowing Tarq’s word) “fundies” (extrimists, literalists, etc), who sees everything as an attack to his well being. The guest monk represents good (moderate, devoted) people (might be of religious, political or any kind of ideology background) who tends to see everything happen for a (acceptable) reason. The wise brother with two eyes represents (or almost represents) the enlightened, who possible can resolve the lost of translation between the two.

So, if you ever wonder why “good” people doesn’t seem to win against the fundies/extremists? Read the story again. Maybe we don’t need mere good people, we need more of the wise (hey, let’s be one! ) ) to resolve our problem ) I just wish the wise monk didn’t let the good guest left so early....

God knows best.

peace,
Matahari

Oh, one more thing. The way I see it, what is happening in the world today, for most part, the “fight” is not between the good guest and the foolish one eyed monk, but among those “one-eyed” people , each group with its own idea.

I don’t see one eye as physical ailment, but a metaphor for a mental ailment, incapability to see other than his own (selfish) idea. Interesting to note that Dajjal (the Anti-Christ), whose arrival before the end of day was predicted in the tradition, is described (metaphoricaly I suppose) as having only one eye.....

peace,
Matahari

The new energies are impacting upon existing lower-level energies and structures - these structures are built around fears of possession, control hierarchies, and power. Yes, those who have what is deemed ‘power’ are at present fearing the loss of this control: not always consciously, yet often a thing is so violently fought for when its days are numbered: this is the sign of an outgoing system.

There will be changes, yet these changes will instigate upheavel as they force out the old system. I would agree with the Sufi saying: “Sufism is doing today what everyone will be doing in 1000 years” - this is indeed the case, although you don’t have to understand it or support it for it to be working.

There is cause for great optimism despite apparent conflicts.

New world...new order…
Did you ever read the Quran (or Koran)? I did. Thoroughly. Several times, again and again. It became a sort of obsession; I wanted to understand those people. And then, I got into the Hadiths, and I finally understood that Islam is not a simple religion: is a political system, with a peculiar ideology. In order to split the religion from the political features of Islam, a reform must be done on it. In order to perform such a reform, some Big Shots in the Islamic world would loose their non-democratic power, wouldn’t they? So that’s why we have a REAL problem here.
We all know that both Bush and Blair are not heavenly angels; but they will get laid off soon. We call this “democracy”. Any comparisons, thus, between Islamic culture and Christian rooted culture is absurd.
The “new world” concept sounds to me like a piece of Albert Pike speech (or Pike’s followers). The world is new everyday, we don’t need a Pike to invent the future, as those Illuminati guys are try for centuries and were behind and supporting almost all wars in History. According to modern Quantic Physics, the past, present and the future coexists simultaneously in the Universe; just seize the day.