13 - Harken an epoch of empathy
There is a massive field of pessimism that surrounds us as we experience the seemingly endless repetitions of our tragic, collective past. We no longer believe we can create a truly peaceful world, and have even inscribed into our holy books such words as “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
Fulfilling our own prophecies, we pursue the destruction of our environment and fan the flames of conflict, even though we know the consequences can only be catastrophic. This is because, as individuals, we remain trapped in our desire to pursue our short-term agenda and achieve our individual objectives. We are not really listening to what is going on beyond us. How bad will things get before mankind’s collective awareness takes over?
We can only speculate about when and how this will happen. Perhaps the intelligence of life itself--call it nature--has encoded the evolutionary path for mankind to overcome itself. Something as simple yet mysterious as a virus has tremendous potential to transform.
Before this salutary shift occurs, each of us can usher in an epoch of empathy, a fellowship of man. It begins with the ear, that odd organ that enables us to hear, and thus to listen, and thus to empathize. The highest form of empathy, true to the word’s etymology, implies that we are within the other. The closest we can come is to imagine how it is to be the other. What an incredible feat that is! How we think and feel about others is connected to our own emotions, so you must begin to bear witness to your individual self, with all of its desires. You must stop listening to the same stories you keep telling yourself about your life, and begin to reinterpret its drama life on a mythical plane. Your story is but a variation on so many others within the great repository of human experience. The archetypal themes that emerge through your lifetime are like clothes passed down to you. Different body, same clothes. They are mankind’s karmic burden.
You cannot escape the archetypes any more than you can escape your genes. All you can do is become aware of them and by doing so, stop living life from a subjective emotional level. You can become the consciousness who creates emotions rather than being subjected to them as if they were beyond your control.
By doing so, you will begin to hear beyond the deafening noise of your own emotions and truly listen to others for the first time.
Listen to others in this way, for the first time. This is an immense gift to your fellow man, through which you, the listener, will also draw great satisfaction. You will feel less separate from others, and they, less separate from you. This is the dawn of the fellowship of man, rising from within your own heart.