the lotus journey: Chasing Ice

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As a level-headed, spiritual being, i KNOW the solution to every problem is love. Finding out how to apply said solution can be a real challenge.

http://www.chasingice.com/see-the-film/james-balogs-photo-gal

Recently i watched ‘Chasing Ice’, about an inspiring photographer who records glaciers receding all over the world. The sped-up, time-lapse images of these mammoth formations disappearing into the ocean, was like watching lines of ice soldiers marching to their cold death. Rank after rank after icy rank. It reminded me of the men going to their deaths during the invasion of Normandy (as seen in Saving Private Ryan). One life extinguished then replaced & repeated by another and another and another.

i allowed my consciousness to zoom out in search of a global solution to the issues we face on our planet. i see humans: all our wars, hatred & fighting between ourselves. i see governments who value money over life and instill corresponding beliefs in their citizens. i see all the pain and suffering unnecessarily endured on Earth because people aren’t aware of another way to live. i see the open-minded ones, lost-in rage against societal systems and conspiracies. i see apathy and total desensitization to all the problems we face as a planet.

My heart feels so heavy and sad. i feel powerless against the weight of ‘all this’. i have the feeling if i allow this one tear to escape the dam will burst and double the oceans. i feel like no matter what i write, what i do, what i say – nothing will change because it’s all been said before. i feel the collective guilt of how we are living in relationship to our Earth is just...wrong (not a word i use lightly).

i want to cry out ‘it’s not my fault’! But it’s not your fault either. And i also know, neither is it their fault. It is how it is. And how it is can change.

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i’m in the playground, around 10 years old & i walk past the headmaster. He points to a crisp packet lying on the ground.

“Put it in the bin” he instructs me.

“But i didn’t drop it. It’s not mine!” i answer.

“Doesn’t matter. Throw it away.” and on he walks. i was annoyed by this encounter for a long time, maybe even years. Why should i clean-up someone else’s trash? It wasn’t fair of him to order me around like that!

But maybe Mr Munroe saw the bigger picture. The collective picture.

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As i continue to circle the world with my consciousness, the reoccurring problem i see is ‘us against them’, separation, difference, divide. We are investing so much of our energy and lives being against.

In 2008, i spoke with a young Tibetan at the holy Mount Kailash. I asked him,

“Aside from freedom for Tibet, what would you like to happen in your country?”

He thought a while and then replied, “For all the tribes to come together. All the people from all over Tibet to stop fighting between themselves and unite.”

It had never occurred to me that Tibetans might have their own internal feuds – that there was infighting & separation between them as a people. It stunned me that even in the face what was happening within their country, they could remain divided. Couldn’t they find a way to drop the rifts which had torn them apart for centuries & come together to find a solution to the bigger issues they faced?

Isn’t that what any intelligent life would say if taking a peak at humans inhabiting Earth?

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It’s time for us to unite. If we can come together now, it is possible for us to bring about a great and positive change in this beautiful world. Our home.

This isn’t something ‘they’ have to do. This is something ‘we’ will do. This is where the solution of love enters.

Love has no ‘us & them’. Love flows everywhere.

May i offer some practical guidance too? This is where i’m going to start…

i chose to be aware whenever my mind separates ‘us' & 'them’ and remember that we are all in this together. 100%. Now is the time for us to Rise and Shine.

i choose to cultivate compassion for all on Earth. i see so much positive change happening. i keep my focus on all the inspiring, uplifting, incredible things that humans are doing for each other and for the Earth. i join in with all projects (physically or energetically) which are healing our species and our world.

i choose to be a conscious consumer – reduce, reuse, recycle.

i choose to be grateful for every meal. Giving thanks to the Earth, and all involved, in the process of alchemising seed into this nourishing plate of food.

i am letting go of all separation which existed within me. i am learning how to be compassionate, kind, patient and loving toward myself.

i am part of the solution.

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