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Smart
Planet,
Foolish Choices
by Swami
Beyondananda
I had a dream that the
Earth wasn't feeling well and went to see a
doctor.
"Doc," said the
planet, "I'm feeling depleted. My
water tastes funny, I have terrible-smelling
gas, and there's this premature bald spot in
my ozone layer. I figure I must be
running some kind of fever, because I've been
awfully warm lately. And I'm getting
those tremors more often."
"Hmm," said the
doctor. "About how long have you
been having these symptoms?"
"Not long. Just
for the past hundred years or so. But
recently it's gotten worse, especially those
violent flares up around my hot-spots."
"Well, you definitely
show signs of mineral loss and lack of oxygen.
You've been overmined, and consequently you've
been undermined. Looks like you got a
pretty nasty case of People.
"People? Isn't
that a benign condition?" the Earth
asked.
"Well," replied
the doctor, "it was, for many thousands
of years. People lived in relative harmony
with other organisms. and their numbers were
kept in check. But there must have been
some mutation because People are now the most
dangerous parasite the Earth has ever known,
consuming everything in sight, and leaving
behind abnormal growth and toxic waste."
Naturally, the Earth wanted
to know whether the condition is curable.
"Yes, it is," the
doctor said. "There's a warm
solution anyone can make that will dissolve
all toxicity. And that is --"
But I never finished the
dream. Unfortunately, my hotel radio
alarm was set to a radio talk show and I was
abruptly awakened by somebody's barking dogma.
All day I pondered the dream. Yes, it
was clear that People were indeed the problem.
For one thing, there's already too many of us,
and more of us arrive every day. Do you
realize that if all the women of childbearing
age on the planet were laid end-to-end -- we'd
end up with even more children than we have
now? All it takes is for undulating and
ovulating to occur at roughly the same time,
and just like that you've sprung off some
offspring. No wonder we are eating our
host out of house and home.
And our petrochemical
dependency has fouled the air. If he
were alive today, do you know what Franklin D.
Roosevelt would say? First thing he
would say is, "Boy, do I feel OLD!
Geez, I must be 120 or something!" Next,
he would probably say: "We have
nothing to fear, but atmosphere itself."
And clearcutting? It's clear-cut
insanity! It's put us out on a limb, and
we've continued cutting without noticing which
side of limb we are sitting on.
That next night, I went
back into the dream state with the intention
of asking the Earth exactly what the doctor
ordered. So naturally, I dreamed I was a
talk-show host and had the Earth as my guest.
I said, "You know, you're a pretty smart
planet. But clearly, we humans have
tried to outsmart you and have made some
foolish choices. What do you suggest we
choose instead?"
And the Earth replied,
"Three things. Diversity,
moderation and love." She
elaborated on each of these, and I promised to
convey her message to people everywhere.
"Oh, and something else," the Earth
told me, "I know that the military buzz
cut has come back in style, but personally,
I'm ready to let my forests grow long again.
So I would appreciate it if you tell the folks
that clearcutting is no longer in fashion,
thank you."
So, mea culpa. You-a
culpa. We all a-culpa. Now what do
we do it about it? We have been the
problem and now it's time we applied the
solution. Here is what the Earth
suggested:
DIVERSITY. The Earth
was very upset about species loss and warned,
"You are gambling with a paradise!
What if I had put all my money on the
dinosaur, where would we be today?"
In diversity, we see that every species and
indeed every individual is irreplaceable.
I know this sounds odd, but each of us is
one-of-a-kind. That's right. You
are utterly unique -- just like everyone else.
When we truly get how extraordinarily odd each
of us is, we will lose interest in trying to
get even.
MODERATION. The Earth
has been fairly temperate, providing us with a
pretty decent climate. But lately, with
all the tempers flaring, the climate has
become quite uncomfortable. We
definitely need to moderate our consumption,
and put our emotional energy to better use.
Just think -- if we channeled our frustration
by practicing tantrum yoga, we could save
energy by using our anger to heat our home in
the wintertime. And with our anger
released, we could live like nomads -- that's
where I nomad at you, you nomad and me, and
consequently, there is nomadness on the
planet. When we live the nomad
lifestyle, we are able to move more freely
with a minimum of baggage -- so we use up
fewer resources.
LOVE. That was the
part of the dream that I missed. Love is
the solution that dissolves all of our
problems. So here is the doctor's
prescription: Every evening, dissolve
all the stresses of the day in a warm solution
of love. And in the morning, do the same
to dissolve all fears and anxieties.
Jesus said, "Love thy neighbor as
thyself," and maybe now is the time to
launch a blisskrieg the likes of which the
world has never seen. It's a question of
evolution: Can mankind treat man kindly?
There's no better time to find out.
Read also:
"Who
Is Swami Beyondananda"
and
more
articles from the Swami
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