Hop on the Enlightenment Bus

Too much of anything is still too much! Since the 60’s, we have spent a lot of time developing ourselves individually, identifying our needs, and setting boundaries that have mostly become walls. If you look closely enough you’ll see the writing on those bricks …my gender, my street, my language, my organization, my mailing list, my skin color, my idea…my, my, my…how all the my’s keep us separated in our community. Wouldn’t it be a great time to reach across our own isles?

The evolutionary impulse is for us to connect more deeply not only with ourselves but also with each other.

Why?

It’s because all those separating ideas have left us isolated and in a world where every fraction is operating out of negativity, exclusion and fear with each other. Everyone is going a different direction and most are headed toward destruction — destruction of companies, organizations, planets, families, and psyches. We are even walled off from ourselves and our own feelings.

There is nothing we actually own and can take with us to the next life.  Haven’t we gotten the reality that compassion and unity are better, healthier, and more joyful for us, the rest of our community and the planet? Are we trading our humanity for the illusionary thrill of competition?

We have stopped seeking the genuine highest and best good for ourselves and our communities. Cliché yes, but also a truth.

Community organizations compete to be the best known, have the most power, and money. No one stops to ask if some sort of collaboration might better serve the community. We almost never ask how we can serve each other. After all, what would happen if the public ended up with more and better?

Wouldn’t everyone win?

Families compete with each other to have more, look better, have smarter kids, be involved in more activities and to what end? Families and the generations in them are separated from each other, kids are exhausted, and no one is talking at a meaningful level to anyone else. Instead, we are off to the next soccer practice or piano lesson.

One evening in our spirituality group, I told everyone the Enlightenment Bus was outside and they had a choice to get on it. I asked them what they would take. No one wanted any thing other than his or her loved ones. It’s time to wake up. There is no such thing as my city, my nation, and my planet. Losing yourself by loving completely is an oxymoron—it’s impossible, in fact you might finally find yourself. Doing what is best for the greater society, family, beloved or friend is, most often, also doing what’s best for you.

It’s time to jump the track of higher consciousness and put the emphasis on the community, on letting our hearts break open with love, on giving up the things we think we cannot live without and on states of non-duality, relatedness and compassion. It’s time to let go of the ego and move into the heart and spirit.

The funny thing about all this is, that all that stuff we have been hoarding, with attitudes of selfishness and separation is waiting for us in the center of true humanity. When you get to the place where nothing other than your integrity and compassion matters…you find you have it all. Like it or not, we are bound to one another through love, destiny and purpose. We can get over ourselves now, or continue to deal with the consequences of our lack of awareness and connection. Either way we will one day learn the lesson. Seems silly to take the long way home, doesn’t it?

The bottom line is, that our response to others is only about us, our character, and our level of consciousness. It’s never about anyone else. The lovely thing is, that from minute to minute, you get to decide who you will be next. You get to change your mind about what you thought just a moment ago. You get to begin again and nothing you have ever done in the past matters in that moment. That’s what waking up is all about and that’s what you came here to do.

We say me, but listen closely…the greater consciousness is saying …we.