The Light Bulb Has to Want to Change

Most of us have heard the old joke, “Q.: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

A.: Only one, but…the light bulb has to want to change.” Our home planet tells us, “When I thrive, you thrive. When I falter, you falter.” The series, NatureIsSpeaking.org, by Conservation International is blunt. And loving. And compassionate. It mentions evolution. And choice. The choices we make, today, determine our fate tomorrow. Science is also unequivocal: we do NOT have that many tomorrows left. Are we ready to change, to meet our collective needs as a species on this planet?

Business as usual is not cutting it. We are on the brink. Of extinction. “…according to a review published on May 29 in the journal Science [2014], current extinction rates are up to a thousand times higher than they would be if people weren't in the picture” says National Geographic.

There is a solution, and it does not require a change in worldview if you are from the East. It does require a change in worldview if you are from Western Civilization. Take what we know in the West: science has decisively told us we need to do something different, today. We have been warned repeatedly for more than 50 years. “1965 - A US President's Advisory Committee panel warns that the greenhouse effect is a matter of ‘real concern’” the BBC notes. Do you want to change yourself, and your choices, starting today? No judgement, but discerning consequences for our choices as either positive or negative is critical to your and to my survival. So, there is no “wrong” or “bad” choice, there are however consequences to even the smallest choices we make every day.

And some choices are more powerful than others. Enter the worldview from the East which has known for millenia how powerful the soul can be in your world, when you get your monkey mind (wonderful servant, horrible master) out of the way. In the West, we view the universe as anthropocentric. For us in the West, humans are the center of the universe, nature is secondary. And we view the material aspect and the spiritual aspect as two separated parts of the universe, a dualistic perspective. In the East, the worldview sees all parts of the cosmos as integral parts of the whole. There is a belonging and an interactive, interdependent relationship between humans and nature, and body and spirit.

In that worldview, any insult to the Nature, any toxin dumped into a river, any pesticide put onto a food, any chemical by-product in any smoke from any smokestack is noted as becoming an encumbrance to the health of the whole. You are encumbered, I am encumbered, the planet is

encumbered. The remedy: acknowledge the interdependence of every one of us, and every one of our actions. Take responsibility for the immediate, from your home, to your neighborhood, to your town, to your state, to your country, to your world. And acknowledge the interactivity and interdependence of the material, the subtle, and the spiritual. Regardless of your beliefs, there is the individual: you, and there is the whole: the universe. And they are related. By laws. Not just governing laws of socio-political entities, but also by the laws of science, and the laws of Nature. Regardless of your sense of what spiritual may be, there is the microcosm and there is the macrocosm and they are related.

Some parts of the macrocosm are more resistant to change. Such is the way of the world. For the planet to get past the crisis it is facing today, rapid evolved change is required. That evolution must include a recognition of the relationship between matter and spirit, between body and mind and heart and soul, and Nature. There are mechanisms from the ancient Vedic knowledge of the East that can help. They have been kept hidden from a humanity that has had to move through a time of intense negativity. They have now been revealed, in the last 18 years, literally. The time to make dramatic changes for the positive is today. Do not trust the time. Do your homework, then take action, and start today.