by Bill Cumming

“The Master lives within everyone. When you give food to the one who is starving, when you give water to the one who is thirsty, when you cover the one who is cold, you give your love to the Master.”

– Don Miguel Ruiz

“The Master,” God, Allah, The Buddha, Mother Nature; it really does not matter what you call her/him. It is impossible not to experience a profound reverence for the existence in which we live and at the same time see clearly that there is work to be done. Reaching a state of “enlightenment,” awareness, waking up, nirvana; all of these states are powerful beyond real human understanding. In actuality one cannot “understand” them; one can only experience them.

For the moment, I am going to assume that you are awake, alive and present. A good way to know if that is actually true is to look at your thoughts.

Do you blame circumstances for your condition?

Do you realize that the conditions are the conditions and now you get to choose how you will respond?
Do you see every situation as an opportunity to contribute?
Do you realize we have already been given all the tools necessary to end violence and damage in our society?
Do you see that every moment makes a huge difference and that the only question is will it be a positive or a negative one?

If you experience the power of absolute and unconditional loving-kindness, you already know that every second counts. There is always a choice. The choices aren’t always pretty or easy and they are choices.

There are some conditions in which people do not experience that there is a choice. People who do not have food or shelter for themselves or their children are about food and shelter. They have no ability to “see” beyond the immediate need for food or shelter.

The last of the freedoms – to choose one’s attitudes in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.

– V. Frankel

Victor Frankel wrote this line in Auschwitz, after his family had been put to death. That capacity lies in absolutely every human being.

In order to create a world without damage and violence, large numbers of people will have to come to know that these capacities are inside of each of us. Our equanimity, insight and well-being actually have no value unless they are used to allow all people to experience the same things.

Since it would cost only an increase of 4/10ths of one percent (.04) to end hunger and persistent starvation, homelessness and most diseases, why would we not end them? Jeffery Sachs, the economist who estimated these figures believes it can be do by 2030 if we get about it.

What portion of your conscious energy do you bring to the well-being of the planet?

Do you participate in things that you know are a detriment?
Do you judge and evaluate others? (As opposed to knowing that all damage arises from damage and does not truly attach to a person.)
Do you buy things sold be the degradation of others?
Do the commercials objectify the sexes?

Imagine just for a moment, a world without damage.

See how you would feel if there were no person without food or shelter tonight.

See how you would feel if we were in a world that had forsaken war?

Think it is impossible, watch the Tom Brokaw Special that aired during the Olympics about one Russian and one U.S. Astronaut. A spectacular story of possibility.

Spread love every day and in all things!

You are loved without condition!

Namaste!