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In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: We are witnessing in our day the birth of a new age, with a new structure of freedom and justice. Now, as we face the fact of this new, emerging world, we must face the responsibilities that come along with it. A new age brings with it new challenges. . . . First, we are challenged to rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. The new world is a world of geographical togetherness. This means that no individual or nation can live alone. We must all learn to live together, or we will be forced to die together. . . . Through our scientific genius we have made of the world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make of it brotherhood. We are all involved in the single process. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. We are all links in the great chain of humanity. . . We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.

The love so many of us would like to see injected into the veins of civilization must first pour into us. Society will not transform until we transform; what’s wrong “out there” is but a mere reflection of what’s wrong “in here.” This is liberating news if we see it that way. Once we
recognize that our minds are the causal level of worldly events, then we are free to seek to change the world by changing our thoughts about the world.

This quote is from Healing the Soul of America by Marianne Williamson. I can read and speak these beautiful words but they are hard for little me to live and feel. I see a lot wrong “in here” and I hope that the Universe will grace me with forgiveness for a president and government that I don’t have faith but try to see in a hopeful light, for a passive-aggressive coworker, for whom I try to have empathy instead of anger and frustration. And the list goes on. Nonetheless, I truly believe that if we can transform ourselves and live with love in our own backyard, community, and nation, we will see a liberated world and nothing else in our minds and hearts. Namaste, Bhakti

Thanks for the great MLK quotation, Bhakti. I love it. And for your confession appended to it. Very brave, very honest of you!

There is no doubt in my mind -- confirmed by experience -- that he is absolutely right. And it works even on a practical level. A technique we and others have used successfully to change an unhappy relationhip with another is to imagine (not just off-hand think about, but fully, energetically, powerfully bring to mind an image of) ourselves with the person, discussing the problem together, coming to tears over it together, and so on and so on, feeling the feelings, hearing the sounds, and then finally exchanging mutual forgiveness and understanding, and embracing. Again, this must be done absolutely wholeheartedly. When that is accomplished, future meetings with the other person (who, mind you, is not informed of the encounter you have just experienced in your imaginaton) will be completely changed. The relationship will now reflect your new feeling about the person, a feeling generated by the imagined encounter. And the other person, who again is ignorant of the imagined event, will respond appropriately to your new reality.

The mind creates the reality. I can think of countless other real-life examples, as I am sure you and others in the forum can too.

Thank you for your advise, Stefan, about envisioning a loving conversation with my coworker. Today I read another quote by Marianne Williamson in her book A Return to Love. It expresses what you have said about dealing both with myself and the coworker with a loving and Oneness attitude: “I have heard it said that living out of our vision is more powerful than living out of our circumstance. Holding on to a vision invokes the circumstances by which the vision is achieved. Vision is content; material circumstances mere form.”

My prayer as well as my vision is to ask the One: You know the challenges that we face as individuals and as a civilization. You know our pain and our joy. Imprint on us Your vision for the world. Ignite a flame for justice and mercy within us. Transform all that is not love into love. Thank You! Bhakti