Underrated List Item 1: Being a Better Person.

At the tender age of 18 I bought a one way ticket from my country to the United States in search of “life”.  Then yada, yada, yada: I was invited to a Senators party in Manhattan.  These were the days before President Berlusconi and DSK made such stories sound sordid; and let me assure you, the invite was “above the table”, so to speak.  Dignitaries hardly had patience for my thick Australian accent, On my way to the Senators Partyslow-paced-scenic-tour-style speech and impossible naivety.  And with every introduction I was asked what do you do?

I was unfamiliar with such a question; I didn’t know what they wanted.  They wouldn’t want to know my profession would they?  What an un-party-like question!  The Ambassador to Rome noticed my long stall and leaned in to suggest that I reply with “I am a student”.  Ah.  It was that Profession question.  Since when did doing become so important?

As humans, we can be, do and have.  From the time our ancestors either climbed down from trees, or landed in glorified tin cans, there has been a lot of doing, which has led to a lot of having.  I know, it’s a survival thing.  Ironically, however, there has never been a focus on human being.

We did take a stab at it in some pointed moments of our history; the latest one in the Sixties and Seventies.  This sojourn was brief, a backlash born against the Fifties conformity and rank material prosperity. 

So, with peace symbols painted around my belly button, and my Kombi parked outside, these ideals are what I revisit today…

We have great names for our compulsive doing, such as occupy, globalise, corporatise and conquer, consumption, industrialisation, Arab Spring.  Sounds like a page from George Bush’s to-do list; though the Arab Spring would be optional.

In the Sixties and Seventies, being was championed: peace, love,happiness and an easy-rider attitude. They weren’t the first to realise that to make the world a better place you have to change your being.  Jesus, Buddha, Paramahansa Yogananda, Ghandi, Krishna, among many, taught the significance of being.

 If we could be compassionate, loving, generous and selfless; that is, a better person, there would be no power issues, wars or starvation.  And there is evidence that we are evolving. To observe this however, we have to study world-historical trends – and not the news.

Change the world by being better right now, as you read this.  Sit up taller to allow your energy flow.  Take a healthful deep breath and feel your heart.  See?  This moment just got better, and this is where we begin.  To go further, you could expand your heart and feel grateful for having your computer, sight, and the time to read this. 

I leave these thoughts with you.  Take that beautiful heart of yours and dare to keep it open as you interact with your fellow human, who may not be as groovy as you are trying to be.  Everybody needs our compassion.  Yes, even the ones who haven’t read my blog.

Comments

[nicky porter]

I would like to receive automatically to my email address your weekly blogs please

[Yoga Leaks]

Hi Nicky. I set up RSS feeds for both the blog page and the new Daily Drop page. Its easy to subscribe: free and annonomous; a way that you can get any new posts from my website delivered to you. But if you do want to check my blog for new articles, I generally post on my blog every weekend, and more regularly on the daily drop. Thanks for reading!