60 Social Action and Awakening

With so much hurt and pain around us how are we to respond?  "Evil abounds when good men do nothing."  Is social action called for or not?  War?  Protest?  Prayer?  How are we to be in our world?  Does awakening or meditation change to world?

These podcasts are here to support your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. I feel they are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. Though they, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All my podcasts and website are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy. If psychotherapy is ever needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

www.williamecooper.wordpress.com for more support. You may, especially, enjoy the short contemplations and the resource page which gives you some supportive material.

Transcript

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Hello, this is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. I trust you're doing well. There's so much going on in the world these days that often our hearts cry out to help. What do we do? What's the best course of action? Social action, you might say. Well, there's so many ways to look at it. And as always, I would say, let your heart be your guide. I remember a teacher of mine once said, you'll hear a lot of statements, and perhaps all of them are true, but some are more true than others. And you can tell the difference by how wide your heart opens when you hear something that opens wide, then that's a big truth for you now. If it opens, but just a small bit, that's a smaller truth, but still a truth. And I suppose these truths can make a difference to each of us and shift depending on where we are in our lives and what's going on around us. So, out there in the world, lots going on, and we're called to help sometimes. We feel it deep inside. What do we do? Let me approach it from a number of different directions, as we usually do, and see what resonates with you. See what opened your heart now. And if something changes later, then perhaps you have some other ideas that you felt into, and you have some other ways to go, and things will evolve in your life and shift back and forth, depending on what's appropriate to each situation. Let your heart, let your intuition be your guide. One place to start is I remember, let's say it was around 2008, and my guru at the time, my current friend Bhagavan, his chief monk name was Ananda Giriji. And Ananda Giriji sent out an email on World Peace Day, which basically said, you know, we all want to do the right thing, and we think that we can do the right thing. But look, after thousands of years of well-meaning people, with people with the heart in the right place, with their minds in the right place, struggling and thinking clearly about what to do, and building societal methods to help each other. After thousands of years of that, look at what is going on today. This is the culmination of that. And we can do that today. We just look around. Wars, deceit, and lying, and violence. This is us after thousands of years of our best. This is what we have. So he said, from the separated state, from a state of being separated from ourselves, we generate hurt, fear, and anger. And from a place of hurt, fear, and anger, even with the best of intentions, sooner or later, we go astray as a people. We get greedy. We try to protect ourselves because we get scared. Or we're hurt, and we need more. We need your stuff to help us feel better because we're feeling hurt, or we feel angry. So we need your stuff to help us feel better. I need two houses, not one, because I feel so bad. From a separated state, it's inevitable as a society, as a people, as a race, as a human race, that after thousands of years, we're destined to be exactly where we are. Small, and petty, and cutthroat, and grasping, and greedy. All these things. It's inevitable. Just because we're afraid, and we're hurt, and we feel abandoned because we've cut ourselves off from the whole. We feel angry about it. That's human nature. We can just look around. He said, the best course, then, is for us to awaken. Bhagavan once said, a miserable person, no matter how much they smile, or push it underneath the surface, they will make everybody miserable around them, eventually. Well, unawakened people are miserable, and eventually, we make everybody around us miserable. And we have good intentions. We have good reasons why there should be a war, why we should be violent. We should devastate or kill everybody in the city in order to save them. That's a good reason. But all the people are dead. So, that's our state of affairs. Ananda Giriji, Bhagavan, and so many other awakened masters, suggest that, hey, let's start with ourselves. Awaken first. And then, when you're coming from love, and peace, and well-being, you'll see the world differently, and you won't make everybody miserable around you. In fact, they'll be influenced by you. Bhagavan used to say that one enlightened person, one enlightened family, would enlighten 100,000 people around them because of the energy that was exuded from them. I remember, back in the 70s, when I started meditating. First, when I started, I did it from a book, and it was a disaster. But a year or two later, I started doing TM meditation, Transcendental Meditation, and I've evolved since then. And it's a wonderful meditation, but there's so many others, and I'm not pushing one thing over the other. Do what works for you. But one of the things they did back then is they had studies, and the Maharishi would say that if 1% of a city was meditating, crime would go down. All sorts of problems within that area would go down if 1% of the population meditated because of the energy that is thrown off by the meditating people. Peace, love, well-being. And you can feel that. If somebody comes into the room and they're very angry, you can feel it, right? Even if they say, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. You can feel, oh, no, they're not fine. I better get out of here. You can feel that. And conversely, somebody can light up the room. They can walk in and suddenly everything is lighter, it feels happier, and there's well-being. Awakening pervades everything, and it has a good effect on everybody. So, Ananda Giriji, Bhagavan, and so many others recommended awakening. Ramana, down in southern India, he passed away in the 1950s, and I go to the city where he lived and where his ashram is, Tiruvannamalai, I go there quite often. Very powerful. He was more or less called the silent saint. He would just sit quietly and exude amazing peace and well-being. Well, one day somebody came up to Ramana and said, because he lived during World War II, he said, Ramana, there's so much stuff going on, so much violence, so much hurt and pain. How can you just sit in a cave or sit in your ashram and just meditate? Shouldn't you be out there working with people? And you're such a powerful being, shouldn't you be talking to them and trying to make changes in the world? Because the world is really hurting. And Ramana said to him, he said, you know, if that's what you feel called to do, that's what you should do. Follow your heart. But I'm called to sit still. And I am quite sure that in my sitting still, there's more positive change going on in the world than I could ever make if I went out and about talking to people. Exuding that peace, well-being and love. On another occasion, Ramana said, correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world. At another time, he went on to say, somebody asked him, they say there are many saints in Tibet who remain in solitude and who are still very helpful in the world. How can that be? Ramana said, it can be so. Realization of the self is the greatest help that can be rendered to humanity. Therefore the saints are said to be helpful, though they remain in forests. But it should not be forgotten that solitude is not enforced only. It can be had even in the towns, in the thick of worldly occupations. So I think that covers us all. The importance of your spiritual practice is crucial to the well-being of the world. So does that mean that you should meditate and awaken? Sure. But is that the only path? Is that what I'm saying? That's definitely what you should do? No, I am not. Let me tell you another story. My first trip to India, 2004, there were about 500 people on this lawn gathered around Bhagavan and every Wednesday, Wednesday evening, we could ask him questions. And this was my first time meeting him and I summoned up my courage and I went up to the microphone and I asked him a question. I explained, Bhagavan, I live at the beach and there are many, I live in a rough area on the beach, sort of a, well let's just call it a rough area. And some of the fishermen just catch fish and kill them for no reason. They don't eat them, they just lie fish, they throw them out on the sand and just let them die. And that causes me great pain. So sometimes I talk to the fishermen about this. It's not always pleasant, but I feel called to because I just think it's wrong. Also, often, oddly enough, families come down and the parents teach the children to take baseball bats and smash the sand crabs. As the sand crabs run around on the beach, they have little holes, they go down, and it's fun for them to try to catch the sand. It's like whack-a-mole. You run around and you try to kill the sand crabs, smash them with your baseball bat. It's a game. And that feels really bad to me. So I said to Bhagavan, should I keep talking to them because it causes me lots of pain to watch and be around this, but it also causes me and them pain for me to talk to them about it. What do I do? This is a real problem for me. Bhagavan said, well, you know, there is no you, really. It's a helpful fiction. And we've talked about this in past podcasts. And the one is orchestrating everything. Everything is perfect. There is no problem. There really is no problem. It just appears from your separated self that there is a problem and you need to take action. That's what it feels like to you. But really, there is no you. There is no problem. That's the good news. It's all fine. Things that you don't even know, aren't even aware of, are going on behind the scenes. There is no problem. However, he said, you have to live your truth. And I can tell you the truth that there is no problem. But you don't feel that. You think there's a problem. So you have to do what you think is best where you are right now. You have to do whatever that is. It might change day to day. But whatever you feel called to do, that's what you need to do. Kind of like what Ramana said. If you think you need to go out and do social action, then do it. You have to follow your incarnation, your path. There's a reason why you're called to do certain things. And it's crucial to the working of the world, even if everything is perfect on a bigger level. So another time I was at the ashram and oh, there was a teaching that we were working with. They were having us connect to our divine and pray to our divine. And at the time, I was in a state where I was one with all things later. Fast forwarding later, I was one with all things, at least then. And so it was very odd. They kept saying, pray to your divine. Well, to pray to my divine, I had to somehow break in half, turn into a person that then prays to a divine that's outside of me when really the divine was me and there was no me at the moment. So finally, I talked to the head monk at that time, a different head monk, and I explained the problem. And he said, yes, when God is you, when you are one, you don't pray to God. God is looking through your eyes and that's your experience of life. God is coming through you. There is no prayer needed. Uh, what you think is directly God's thoughts. Uh, what you see is what God sees directly with no middleman, no fictitious personality. However, on the days that you feel cut off from yourself, because this may ebb and flow, and indeed it did at that moment, then you pray to God because you feel separate at that moment. And when you feel separate, be honest to your incarnation, to your truth. And because you feel separate and you feel that you need help because being separate is very painful and confusing. Then you pray to your divine. Now it turns out it's all one, but you don't do those mental gymnastics instead, just stay congruent to your truth. Same with social action, right? Uh, we stay on the level that we are and we move through that level. As far as from the oneness state, everything being perfect as it is Ramana down in Torah of Anomali said something about that too, that I like very much. What he said was the ordainer, God controls the fate of souls in accordance to their past deeds, their karma, whatever is destined not to happen, will not happen. Try how hard you may, whatever is destined to happen, will happen. Do what you may to stop it. This is certain. The best course therefore is for one to be silent. Wow. Okay. What does that mean? What it means is everything is perfect. Everything is working as it should and is in divine order. Our life is in divine order. Everything is happening is happening as it should in the order that it should happen. And there's no changing that because who's going to change it? There is no personal self. It's just a fictitious, um, useful tool, but it doesn't exist. So there's nobody to change it, but it feels like I'm here. Well, you are here because it's, we've talked about in prior podcasts. Uh, the one is coming down through your incarnation, just like consciousness comes down through the fingers of a hand and one finger feels things differently than another finger. But the oneness feels all the fingers, all the people, it comes through everything. So you are there. Sometimes people are afraid, Oh, if I awaken, I'll lose my personal self and I'll disappear. No, you don't disappear. What disappears are the illusions, the problems, the difficulties, because you have always been you. But who is you? You is the big you. You're the oneness that always remains. And that always feels good. And that always knows what's going on and what's happening. You, the big, you controls the world and everything is fine. So from a social action perspective, when you're, when your incarnation is flowing clearly with your one, as the one flows down through you, the one has become you. There is no blockages are very few. The world clarifies and starts to evolve around you. And as Bhagavan said, one awakened family affects 100,000 people around them. That's why, because the radiance is so strong, you know, in the old paintings, medieval paintings of saints, they always had halos. That was the light you could see around them. That's why that was there. There is real light that comes through your body as you awaken miracles happen. Those generally aren't the goal. They're just sort of a side effect because you're so clear and everything around you is reorienting in the world pool of that clarity. So that is truly social action. Now from a separated state, every time I have fear, anger, and hurt that goes into the collective and every bit of anger I have is what creates the wars. So if I go to a protest and I'm all wound up and I'm all angry, you're doing the wrong thing. You're bad. You're bad. My anger is what's creating the war. Oddly enough, my fear is creating the war. So it's tricky business. However, having just said that you really have to follow your intuition and your incarnation. Isn't just randomly feeling what it feels. Remember it's a part of the whole and there's a reason why you're feeling what you're feeling. Awakening is congruence. And when you follow your heart to the best of your ability, sincerely, whatever it is, it will lead you to awakening. Remember the story I told you, Bhagavan said, everything's fine, but you need to follow your heart and act from what your truth is. That will bring us to awakening. There was a very powerful awakened master in Southern India lived very close to where Ramana lived. And he also passed away in the 1950s. His name was, or is Sri Aurobindo. He lived in Pondicherry. He was a freedom fighter. He fought against the English. That is what he was called to do. And he was a fearless fighter. He was a fearless writer. He eventually was jailed over a bombing and was in solitary confinement for a year. He sincerely followed every part of his life. And he ended up being profoundly awakened. After he awoke, he became a spiritual teacher and gave up politics, but he was very profoundly awake. And my very first trip to India, I went to his tomb and it was probably the strongest place I've ever been. The energy was so, so powerful still to this day. So follow your heart. And if you feel to do social action, do social action. As you awaken, perhaps your perspective will change. So all of these things are true. All of these perspectives are true. And they're perfect because remember the universe is perfect and it holds every part of it in perfect harmony. Even though if we look at it from one perspective, it doesn't look perfect. But from another perspective, it is very perfect. And we can look at it another way. Remember, I was telling you how Maharishi said if 1% of a city meditated, it would change the distress of the city. Crime would go down, et cetera. And Bhagavan said one awakened family would awaken a hundred thousand people around them because the energy they exude is so, so, so powerful. What does that look like? You know, in my mind, I like to picture just suddenly everybody is peaceful and happy and suddenly they start smiling. Maybe that's what happens. But often when old structures fall apart, there's chaos as they're reorienting. And it's very harsh and people are arguing and there's trouble and that can happen on the way to peace. Doesn't that happen within ourselves? Like when we meditate, we sit still. And as we become clearer and clearer and more silent, we see all of the cacophony of unresolved things flowing up from our deepest self. And it's very painful to meditate and our mind is racing and all sorts of troubles. The path to peace is very apparently disharmonious at times. Well, it's the same in society. You might remember that Jesus in Matthew 10, 34 through 36 said, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Well, that can happen if everybody expects you to keep doing the wrong thing and you start to awaken and you don't feel like it. Now there's disharmony and family therapy. When one member changes to the good, the rest of the family, unconsciously, there's no ill will, but they will do everything to beat that person back into the shape that they used to be, because that's the shape that they needed. It's like a gear that has a certain shape so that the family could run smoothly. If they need you to be a certain unpeaceful, angry way, so that the family will run because they're used to that is how you are and they have learned to cope with you and you with them. If you suddenly change, it creates division. It creates problems. And so one of the things in systems therapy is to look at that and to account for the family momentum will try to push the person that's healing back into disease. Same with society. So your awakening sometimes can be met with stiff resistance as the world around you breaks apart and reforms around your peace and harmony. Joel Goldsmith said in his book, The Infinite Way, he died, I think, in the early 60s, an awakened spiritual master in the United States. And his book is very good. But one of the things he said is when your spiritual study is sincere, the breaking up of your material world, the desertion of friends, students, or family, a change of health or other activity often ushers in the spiritual transition or rebirth. This is the attainment of that which you have sought. He talks in other places about that the early spiritual student expects that the world will be harmonious and wants everything to be peaceful. No, let's not argue. No, let's don't do this. Let's don't do that. Because they have a concept of what awakening is. And but it's incorrect because the falling apart and reordering of things necessarily does include arguments and troubles and problems. It releases a great amount of energy both within us and around us. So social activism may not look peaceful. Even if you are peaceful, maybe it's upsetting everybody around you. Right? So these are many different ways to look at social activism. I would say the guiding principle is your heart. Follow your heart. It can look all different ways. Be true to your incarnation. Also, there's a reason why you're called to do what you are called to do. Even if that's to go to a peace rally or go to war, that's fine. If that's what your heart says to do, that's what is best for you to do. Trust yourself. There's a reason. And on a higher level, awakening is what's going to transform the world. I remember another time Bhagavan was commenting and says, you know, people talk about evil corporations, evil politicians, news sources that don't tell the truth, or doctors that are just there to sell medicines and don't really heal you, etc, etc, etc. But he said, all these are people. And when corporations, which are made of people, when those people awaken, it's suddenly a great corporation, same name of the corporation, but suddenly it's an awakened corporation, an awakened doctor, an awakened news organization. So I would say the best thing from my perspective that a person could do is keep meditating. And that will bring you to more and more clarity. Day by day, and follow your incarnation, follow your heart, do what you're called to do, be true to yourself, do those two things. And I think you'll be in a good place. Short of that, it gets into what I've done before. And that's becoming very philosophical and mindy and intellectual and trying to do the right thing, quote unquote, and that gets nobody anywhere. I've enjoyed today. I hope you take everything that I say with a grain of salt. And if it opens your heart, good, go with it. And if it doesn't really, you'll find your answers. They're all within. Take care. I look forward to talking to you soon. Bye.