The Fix to This Mess
by Dr. Terry A. Gordon
While walking through the forest last fall, I acknowledged that summer had run its course and was yielding to autumn. The brightly colored leaves made it obvious that change was occurring.
A gust of wind blew through the canopy of trees causing several leaves to let go of their attachment to the trees. As they slowly drifted down, the leaves spoke volumes to me.
If you think about it, the only constant in life is that everything changes. We are different from breath to breath. The river as it flows past will never be the same river again. Nothing remains the same — ever.
As painful a task as it may seem, change requires that like the leaves, we must let go. It’s unnerving when we contemplate changing prevailing thought. Copernicus tried to do that when he presented proof that the sun and the solar system in fact did not revolve around the earth as religious leaders of the time had taught. He was denounced as a blasphemer by the Church and was forced to recant. Not surprising, it took over 300 years for the Church to finally accept that Truth, an awakening that forever changed the institution.
The same types of bold discoveries are awaiting our acknowledgement today. Albert Einstein once said: “The world in which we live is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without first changing our thinking.”
WE’VE GOT A MESS HERE. Sadly, it’s our own fault. Chaos continues to spiral out of control. Anger, hatred, and random killing of innocents have spilled onto the beaches of Tunisia and have invaded serene places of worship across the globe. All of this animosity directed at one another has been the result of the way we’ve been thinking. This turbulence is a consequence of our beliefs. It is obvious that our current belief systems aren’t working. In fact, they haven’t worked for ages!
We’ve allowed our differences as human beings to weaken and divide us. This notion that I am more special than you has created a caste system that allows one to falsely believe that because I’m white, I’m better than you; that only through Allah can one enter the Garden of Eternity, as heaven is referred to in the Quo’ran. Because I’m Christian, only I have the key; and being a Jew, I’m the chosen one . . . not you! Those of us that are straight are right and all of you gays and lesbians, you poor souls, are so terribly wrong.
These illusions of superiority are just that . . . illusions.
All too often, our fear-based judgment relies on outer appearances. It might be the uncomfortable feeling one gets if a homeless person wearing tattered and filthy clothing brushes up against you. Or the‘aw aw, better be on guard’ feeling when you come across a dude with tattooed skin and body piercings. Our prejudice might come from a strange garment that adorns the head of another, be it a yarmulke, a turban or a hoodie.
What appears on the exterior often erroneously overshadows what lies beneath the surface. In truth, we are all very similar. We’re like M&Ms. While different colors adorn our exterior, we are identical on the inside.
As a physician, I’ve had the unique opportunity to be in surgery with many patients whose bodies were splayed opened for an operative procedure. Guess what . . . it’s all pink on the inside. From that vantage point, one can’t differentiate race, age, socioeconomic status, country of origin or one’s religion for that matter.
SO HERE”S THE PROBLEM: The pandemonium in which our planet has fallen is a result of our behavior, a behavior of exclusivity that’s based solely on our belief systems. It is our beliefs that drive a wedge of separation between us, and as long as that attitude prevails, peace will evade us.
In order to change behavior, we must change our beliefs. And in order to change our beliefs, we must first be willing to admit that we need to do so.
“The world we see that seems so insane, is the result of a belief system that is not working.” Those are not my words. They are the thoughts of William James, a 19th century philosopher who expressed this wisdom over two centuries ago! Not surprisingly, it fell on deaf ears back then.
The belief systems of the some of the world’s major religions have become so twisted and tainted that they admonish their followers to kill those who believe differently. ISIS is a perfect example of such a convoluted belief system. But in all fairness, they are not alone in this insane misrepresentation of the Word.
To my knowledge, there is no religion whose central tenet is based on hate. There is no Supreme Being who espouses the killing of innocent people. In some form or another found in the scriptures of nearly every religion there is a commonality. It’s referred to as the Golden Rule.
1. In Judaism: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ~ Leviticus 19.18
2. In Christianity: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” ~ Matthew 7.12
3. In Islam: “Not one of you is a believer until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself” ~ Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13
4. And from Confucianism: “Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence.” ~ Mencius VII.A.
We all share something quite special. Within each of us a spark of the Divine resides. It is from a space of higher awareness that some refer to as Christ-consciousness, Buddha- or God-consciousness that we can learn to “love thy neighbor as thy self”, not just because it is a nice thing to do, but because thy neighbor is thy self.
OUR BODY IS COMPRISED OF OVER 100 TRILLION CELLS, every single one of them striving to aid every other cell. In doing so, they work for the common good of all. The whole is always more important than the sum of its parts.
Healthy cells have the capacity to stop their expansion and their growth in order to avoid encroaching on another cell’s space. Each cell knows its own individual boundary. As two cells come into contact with one another, there is an innate knowledge instructing them to stop growing. This is the essence of life that allows the whole to continue to thrive.
Cancer cells on the other hand, lack that ability to halt the growth process. Sooner or later, cancer cells outstrip their own source of nourishment and in order to survive must encroach on what belongs to adjacent healthy cells. Ultimately, this paradox of nature result in the death of the total organism as both healthy and cancerous cells succumb.
Why is it that we who are composed of trillions of healthy cells have not remembered to practice the same ego-less form of constraint they exhibit? Instead, most of us behave like cancer cells. We impose our beliefs, and our way of life on others. History has seen this sort of expansionism demonstrated far too many times!
But if we were to change the thought, choosing instead to dedicate ourselves collectively to the service of all others with no strings attached and no agenda, and no judgment, our world in its entirety would benefit immeasurably. Can you envision a world where the common belief is that the whole is truly the sum of its parts?
If that simple shift in consciousness were embraced, how could anyone kill anybody for any purpose? Imagine a world where there were no aberrant renegade cells. No one would be hell-bent on the destruction of any other person. There would be no cancer cells — no terrorist cells.
If we impinge upon the space of even one human being, we jeopardize peace for humanity and everyone of us will suffer.
The turbulence in which we currently find ourselves cannot be solved politically; it will not be resolved economically. And be certain, finding the path of peace won’t be accomplished militarily. The challenge we’re a facing is a spiritual one that can only be addressed if we open our hearts and our minds to Universal truth.
Rumi, a Sufi poet once said: “Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
So how do we come together as a commUNITY, not only facing local issues that separate us, but address national and international concerns as well?
After being brutally beaten by law enforcement officers, Rodney King posed this question: “Why can’t we all get along here?” How do we accomplish what Rodney King suggested? How do we bridge the ever-deepening divide, connecting and engaging with those whose views differ from ours?
In many ways, we’re actually more connected today than we were back in the earliest days of the human race when there were small bands of people separated by wide stretches of landscape.
Today with the global economy, the world-wide-web, social media, and Skype we can instantaneously be connected with one another. CNN can take us halfway around the world to experience in real time what our brothers and sisters are enduring. I can literally talk to almost anyone in the world . . . right now using my cell phone! The technology we need to help us ‘connect’ is already in place. But the real connection to one another requires something much simpler than all of this complicated technology.
My humble opinion is that in order to fix this mess, the solution is quite simple. We have to become more selfish.
I can imagine how absurd a paradoxical notion such as this must sound, but I believe our definition of self is much too limited. Because we are all inextricably connected, by embracing the concept of expanding our definition of self, the misery endured by those halfway around the globe or just two streets over would become our shared suffering.
Contemplate the number of tears shed every day by children starving in Darfur. Each of those children is our child. In Syria, the father cradling his infant child’s limp body after he was poisoned by the chemical agent, Sarin, dying a horrific death. . . that father is me. Young girls kidnapped and sold into slavery by Boko Haram, those are our daughters. The blood draining from Reverend Clementa Pinckney is my blood staining the floor at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
Pandora’s box has been open for millennia. Its breach has allowed the creation of weapons of mass destruction that continue to evolve and increase exponentially both in numbers and killing power.
The prevailing belief has been that with Pandora’s box open, all of the evils of the world will never be contained again. I contend that with something as simple as changing the way we think, all the killing tools could be returned to Pandora’s box where the lid could be secured once again. That won’t be accomplished by continuing to do what we are doing now.
But if we can learn to accept collective responsibility to protect, nurture, and care for every human being, a beautiful reality would unfold. I’d learn to love the hoodied inner city black kid as much as I love my own son, Tyler. By being more selfish and by accepting every other person as a part of myself, how could I ever contemplate harming another? If I did . . . I’d be hurting myself!
What would emerge from this expanded awareness of self would be a universal Peace, Shalom, Salaam, Shanti, the likes of which has never been experienced before in the history of humankind. There would be no need for weapons of any sort. Our swords and machetes, all of the guns and pressure cookers filled with nails could then be put to a more productive use by beating them into plowshares.
How do we on a global level learn to work and live together and get beyond all of our conflicting beliefs?
The answer is that we must transcend our beliefs in order to peacefully coexist. Many would consider this an affront to their religion. But I am not suggesting that we need to completely reject or destroy our religious beliefs; most religions are working beautifully. My humble opinion is that we simply add to our beliefs, expanding on them for the greater good of all. The Divine after all wants us to embrace humanity.
St. Thomas Aquinas once shared:
“How is it they live for eons in such harmony — the billions of stars —when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their mind against someone they know?
There are wars where no one marches with a flag though that does not keep casualties from mounting.
Our hearts irrigate this earth.
How can we live in harmony? First we need to know, that we are all madly in love with the same God.”
Namaste dear Gentles . . .
Click HERE to Connect with your Daily Horoscope!
About the Author
Dr. Terry A. Gordon is a man of many facets. A retired cardiologist, Dr. Gordon was named National Physician of the Year by the American Heart Association for his work in placing defibrillators in the schools of Ohio – a campaign that has now gone national. He is the best-selling author of No Storm Lasts Forever, which teaches how to overcome tragedies by shifting our perspective. He was a founding member of Stewart’s Caring Place, a facility of wellness established for those individuals and families touched by cancer. Terry is also the co-host of ‘Docs Who Rock’ a fundraiser for the United Way.
