I think that people who have really made a difference in the world never had the intention of making a difference in the first place.
The thing is, you can’t change the world, and you can’t change yourself.
The world already is in constant change and it doesn’t care about your doing. If you still think you want to help the world you need to realize one thing. And that is that the only way for you to do that is to align your ways with the ways of the world. This provides a bit of a problem for us because how will we ever know how to align with something we know so little of? If we don’t know how it moves or where it is going, how can we ever know what to do?
And what makes you so sure that the world really needs your help?
Consider this, the world today, in this moment, is run by people with all good intentions. Are your intentions better? As someone said ”the road to hell is paved with good intentions”
As J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb said:
“It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.”
The fact of the matter is that all your actions are powered by your thoughts, therefor if you still believe that you are in need to do something to change the world, you must be prepared to do something most people are not so happy doing. You need to change your thinking. And even more disturbing is that you need to change it without doing anything about it.
But how does one change ones thinking?
Before you saddle up and go ahead doing just that, ask yourself another question. Are you the one doing your thinking in the first place?
For instance, do you know where your thoughts arise?
In your head?
Two feet away from your face?
In your stomach?
In your heart?
In the center…
In your toes?
Can we really tell where they arise? The answer to this question is No. Thoughts are like fish which we catch by the net of our awareness so the best we can do is to point out where they got caught by our AWARENESS. Many think that most of the time we gain awareness of our thoughts in our heads, at least it feels that way but the fact remains, noone really knows where our thoughts are coming from. The source of thoughts. One thing most people probably agree on is that thoughts come and go. It is like a river flowing through our minds in which there is a constant stream of thoughts.
So where do thoughts come from?
Some people argue that we (humans) create our thoughts and others believe that the stream of thoughts originates from somewhere else and that humans are connected to this stream through our awareness or consciousness. Which of these feels true to you?
For me it seems like we are doing the thinking, but we are not doing thoughts…do you see the difference? Another way to look at this is that the thing we call thinking is our personal point of view from where we see a thought. That would make thoughts something that is somewhat formless and when we apply our thinking to them, they get a form. That is one of the definitions of human emotions. Human emotion is a thought that is being acted out by a human being. Sometimes a thought stays within us and sometimes it manifests in our world through the process of human action.
So, if our actions are a result of a thought, or a series of connected thoughts (an idea or a concept) and we are assuming that thoughts flow through us from an unknown source we are facing a very interesting question. Are we in control of anything?
One can argue with this by for instance say that ”I don’t know about all the other thoughts but I am most positive that I control my own body. I can make my arm move if I want to. My arm will obey my will.” This is of course true. But consider for a moment, where does your thoughts about moving your arm to prove your point that you are in control come from?
The question if we are in control is one of the most fundamental questions one can ask oneself.
I don’t think you can change yourself or your thoughts, but the most curious thing will happen once you stop trying to change them.
The wider the masks, the less fish we catch…