Endlessly distracted minds are confused minds. Yesterday was February 22nd, or 22-02-2022 – a palindrome. Media of all kinds was pointing to it – with everyone pointing to something else! Cerebral media types lost their minds because the numbers are the same whether reading them forwards or backwards. Awesome.
Some New Age types were saying it was an auspicious day, but when questioned they didn’t know why. Others said it was all about love, because the number 2 represents unity and love – sure, why not? (Shouldn’t every day be about that?) Those who jumped (unwittingly and most likely temporarily) on the numerology bandwagon seemed nonetheless unaware that a numerological calculation of any date would reduce the numbers down to their sum, so 2+2+2+2+2+2+2 = 12 = 3. What to do with that now?
The number three represents imbalance, creativity, and change. That was certainly on display! Now how about changing the mental habit of latching on to shiny new things and grounding ourselves in something enduring instead?
Belief is powerful
Before jumping on the next bandwagon, we should at least try to understand WHY we believe what we advocate. Letting our minds be influenced by memes and mass media makes us vulnerable, and this gullibility makes us collectively weaker and susceptible to naïvely trusting news headlines, too.
These past two (2!) years have shown us how just a little bit of information will have a majority of people unquestioningly behave in very Hobbesian ways and say extraordinarily illogical things. Existential fear does that. These same people also share posts about love and unity because the calendar shows a lot of 2’s. The childish hope for salvation is the flip side of having a paternal government decide what’s right for you.
Life is nasty, brutish, and short according to Hobbes. The Buddha agreed, although instead of wanting a powerful government to control the behaviour of the untamed masses, the Buddha taught that we must control our minds.
Hobbesian pessimism is often objected to by people who want only to see the good in others. Yet those same idealists will lock their doors and never give a thought to how their excesses might harm other beings who are simply trying to survive.
Greed and the belief that we are separate individuals living in isolation from our environment underlies most of what is highlighted on the news today. It’s easy to get hypnotised into believing this is our reality.
Stepping out of this damaging paradigm requires courage and effort
Our modern culture provokes fear, scarcity, competition, and division. Any one of these things triggers inflammation in the body – a stress response – and we are living with all of them on tap. And this without even adding the unhealthy dietary and lifestyle habits that increase inflammation!
To live sanely in this world requires a lot of conscious effort and input from the central nervous system, which gets thrown out of balance very quickly due to an overload of stimuli. Regular practices and habits that balance and calm the nervous system are vital to living well and staying grounded without going bonkers.
It’s easy to go along with what the masses are doing, guided like cattle towards… what? We strain to earn money so we can spend money, rushing right past the things that make life worth living. We eat food that no longer resembles anything found in nature, and wonder why we aren’t feeling so good. We consume as we please with little consideration for the wider effects of our everyday choices.
We need to wake up to our choices and how they contribute to the situation we’re in, personally and collectively
This is what I try to do in my work. What I offer reflects what I think is useful and effective for making life better for all of us. But as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
The notion that there will be a mass awakening that will resolve our current issues is as delusional as the idea that there is a saviour who will someday emerge (again?) and magically redeem us. We must save ourselves, starting with our own minds and radiating out from there.
Live simply so that others may simply live.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
In the entire history of the planet, no sentient being has avoided death. We will die, possibly today. The more we realise this truth, the less frivolous we become. The less we would consider harming the Earth and any of its life forms. Knowing you are going to die soon (today, tomorrow, in a decade – who knows?) is a great incentive for living better.
We urgently need to return to ourselves, still the overactive mind, and reduce the craving and grasping that got us into this social and ecological mess.
No amount of distractions and no special numbers can make this world better. Nothing and nobody outside of you can calm your mind and bring you the peace you say you want. We alone can do this for ourselves.
With much love and light as ever,
Susan
Join the next 14-day Ayurvedic Home Cleanse starting on March 3rd – your mind and body will be glad you did! The Mindful Living Course has been postponed due to lack of interest – If I propose it again it will likely be in the late spring.
