Connection

Often our emotions shape how we connect to people, situations, and the world, including the environment. How we feel will always trump what we think. I have often heard that my reality is not your reality, or walk in his shoes first before you judge another. So where does that leave us, whose reality is it? Is there a separate reality? The physical reality of strictly touch, taste, see, feel and smell only? Not likely, since they are all connected to us. How I touch, taste, see, feel, and smell is unique to every individual. These nuanced differences between my perception and your perception also influence the way we think.

Respect

Respecting my perception, even if it differs from yours, is what we do when we try to understand another’s position. It also helps to set boundaries. We need to take our cue from nature. Without boundaries, the sky could fall in and the sea cover the earth or the planet spin off its axis into space. What then of the sceptics who contend that the person who sees both sides to a story in effect sees nothing? Is this blindness? My contention is that this is where wisdom begins. How much we will meet another halfway depends on many things. Character, temperament, ambition, fear, insecurity and often pride are just a few. It would not be necessary for religions, spiritualists, medical and mental wellness gurus, to invoke us to have goodwill to all, if this were not something we find very difficult to do.

Sad Reality

A sad reality is we are still becoming. We have a long way to go before we can exist without wars, private battles and even personal disagreements. We can agree to disagree politely. However, our sophisticated veneer of being civilised is just that, a veneer. Scratch the surface and our survival instinct kicks in, not that we should stop the struggle to become better people. Better than the worst we can be. A low bar, but a start towards the best we can be. This low bar may seem like a negative thing, but I believe with each new generation we will do better. We will see the futility of constant discord for the sake of ego. Barring mental illness, we should develop much better than we have.

Civilization

The simple truth is we developed rules and regulations as we advanced from primitive to civilized life style. This happened because we knew we can lapse into destructive behaviour. How then do we sustain peaceful co-existence with our species and all life on the planet? I think the first step towards peace and goodwill is for each person to consider humanity’s collective unconscious. What informs it, and how does it operate? Tall order? Isn’t that what ‘peace and goodwill towards all‘ really means? Not when it suits me, a situation, a political purpose or a selfish survivalist agenda. Only that we have a collective unconscious goodwill. It should be what guides our every thought, intention and action towards everyone and all that we do. Notwithstanding disappointment in other’s behaviour towards us, we should only retaliate in self-defense against incidents that threaten our safety or survival.

 War

When we are guided by collective unconscious goodwill, we do not allow a latent cynicism to hi-jack our good intentions. Then we would not tolerate the atrocities committed in the war for the protection of civilian populations and in our name. We would call it what it is – depravity! When you put a weapon into the hands of young people and train them to be killing machines, that is what they become. Then you re-introduce them into civil society and expect them to stop? The number of people exposed as military-trained in the storming of the American capitol makes the point. Evil leaders throughout history have been people who knew exactly how to manipulate people’s emotions, perceptions, and weaknesses. The only defence against this is to know how I connect in myself to the various parts of me. Also, why those parts connect the way they do. In short, know thyself! Do not resist questioning why you do the things you do. Knowing when you are being manipulated for someone else’s agenda is vital. Unless you are aware of it, you cannot resist or make an informed decision about it. This all depends on how much you want to have peace and goodwill to all on earth!