Healing Tones

“War itself is, of course, a form of madness. It’s hardly a civilized pursuit. It’s amazing how we spend so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace.” ~Walter Cronkite*

THE PARADOX OF THE 2023 HOLIDAYS is this unholy war being waged in the Holy Land between Israel and Hamas in Palestine, the land where the Messiah, the Son of God, incarnated on the first Christmas Day — with heavenly hosts singing to shepherds in their fields watching over their flock, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Also the land where He was crucified for His “claim” to being the Son of God. He is recorded as having said, “What you do to one of these the least of my brethren you do unto me.”

But peace has been a long time coming . . . and is yet to arrive in the land where Jerusalem, the “City of Peace,” is established. But that’s not going to be the topic for this blog, as enough is being said about this ancient conflict between two nations with parallel biblical histories. I simply wish to acknowledge it and bring it into my Healing Tones blog for enfoldment and uplifting.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO ACHIEVE PEACE?

There’s a powerful scene in the movie GANDHI that speaks a thousand words to this question. Gandhi, a Hindu, is on a fast to end the war waging in India between the Hindus and the Muslims. A Hindu father whose son was killed by a Muslim, for which atrocity he had slain the Muslim, leaving a boy without a father to raise him, approached Gandhi in tears of grief and begs Gandhi to tell him what he should do to make amends for his murderous act and end Gandhi’s fast. Gandhi (played by actor Ben Kingsley) looked at the grief stricken sonless father with compassion and told him without hesitation to take the man’s son and raise him as his own . . . “but only as a Muslim.”

This scene always brings tears to my eyes knowing that what Gandhi is suggesting in this movie is what is needed . . . and will likely never come about, at least not in my remaining years . . . and that’s all I have to say about the war waging in the Holy Land.

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“THE SURVIVAL IMPERATIVE”

I LOVE BOOKS with a positive message, and authors who articulate the thoughts of my heart without using long and unfamiliar words that send me too often to the dictionary. Ervin Laszlo is such an author, and his book THE SURVIVAL IMPERATIVE: UPSHIFTING TO CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION is easy to read as it speaks plainly to the primary transformative issue of our times: the evolution of human consciousness. I think you will find this new series of posts as enlightening to read as I did reading Ervin’s book. I will dive right into it with this excerpt, taken from Part 3 in his book, “PEACE ON THE PLANET—THE VISION”

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AN ACHIEVABLE VISION: DATELINE 2050

It is time to complete this guide to promoting our conscious evolution on the planet with a vision that lends a wider and deeper perspective to this enterprise. The vision proposed here may appear utopian on first sight, but will prove relevant as we focus on the diverse tasks of an upshift to conscious evolution.

Here is an “achievable vision”— the image of a peaceful and sustainable world emerging by the middle of the twenty-first century in the conscious embrace of the web of life on the planet.

The Vision of the Social Order

The decisive feature of the world of 2050 is that it consciously seeks harmony with life on the planet. In this regard, it is essential that the new world is clearly oriented to evolution in nature and the universe. It is neither an undifferentiated totality nor a sequence of separate elements. It is a world that is globally whole and locally diverse.

Sovereign nation-states, the inheritance of the Modern Age, have given way to a transnational world where nations are only one, even if an important, level of the social order, without laying claim to sovereignty.

The human world is networked, but not monolithic. It is structured as a Chinese box of administrative and decision-making forums, where each forum is embedded in each higher forum but has its own sphere of authority and responsibility. The political world is not a hierarchy, for the decision-making forums at the various levels have their own autonomy and are not subordinated to higher levels.

In some areas — including trade and finance, information and communication, peace and security, and environmental protection — decision-making is entrusted to global forums. This, however, allows a Significant level of autonomy on local, national, and regional levels. Taken
in its totality, the political world is a “heterarchy”: a multilevel sequentially integrated structure of distributed decision-making aimed at global cooperation combined with regional, national, and local spheres of authority and leadership.

The diverse yet cooperative world is a sequence of self- reliant communities with multiple links of communication and cooperation. Individuals join together to shape and develop their local community. These communities participate in a wider network of cooperation that includes, but does not cease at, the level of national states. Nation-states are themselves part of regional social and economic communities, coming together in the United Regions Organization, the global-level body created through the reform of the United Nation s Organization. Its members are not nation-states but the continental and subcontinental economic and social unions that integrate the interests and programs of nation-states. These include the European Union, the North American Union, the Latin American Union, the North-African Middle-Eastern Union, the Sub-Saharan African Union, the Central Asian Union, the South and Southeast Asian Union, and the Australian-Asia-Pacific Union.

The principle of subsidiarity holds sway throughout the multilevel system: decisions are made on the lowest level at which they are effective. The global level is the lowest level in regard to ensuring peace and security and regulating the global flow of goods, money, and knowledge. It is also the level for coordinating the information that flows on global networks of communication. Its objective is to harmonize policies dedicated to ensuring the integrity of the processes that maintain equilibrium in the biosphere.

The regional level is indicated for the forum for policies that coordinate the social and political aspirations of nations. Regional economic and social organizations provide the forum for the representatives of member nations to coordinate their interests and aspirations in view of resolving the problems of their people

The national level is appropriate for the local tasks and functions traditionally entrusted to national governments. National organizations operate without claiming unconditional sovereignty for themselves; they are embedded in the regional and global-level forums and take due account of the decision made by them.

On the local level, forums bring together the elected representatives of urban as well as rural communities. They coordinate the workings of the social and political institutions of towns, villages, and rural regions within the framework of the administrative and decision-making system composed of forums on the national, the regional, and the global levels.

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“The decisive feature of the world of 2050 is that it consciously seeks harmony with life on the planet.” This is certainly a worthy vision. Can we realize it by 2050? We can . . . provided Humanity rises to a level of consciousness that is large enough and noble enough to truly encompass it from a heavenly point of orientation. From a heavenly perspective, the planet and all of life on it rightly seek to harmonize with Man, the appointed steward of creation. We have it backwards.

In order to rise to that level, human consciousness must be oriented in Cause rather than in effects. Noble as it is, this vision is oriented in the world of effects . . . unless it includes an orientation in Cause. Seeking harmony with life on the planet implies an outward orientation. Seeking harmony with the Life of the planet, with the Great Spirit who created the planet and maintains its order and harmony, requires an inward and upward orientation . . . as well as a return to our commission as stewards.

An about face on our part is what is required in order to restore the true and original order and harmony between peoples and nations . . . and between Man and his planetary Home among the stars . . . and war was never a part of that original design for life on Gaia. Human beings oriented in the material world of effects brought the insanity of war to this planet. Man alone can restore the peace and harmony that all of life on earth long for. What are we waiting for? Let us be at peace with one another and with our planet.

Let’s read further in Laszlo’s book to see if he expands his vision to include an orientation in Cause. We’ll do this in the next installment of this series. Until then . . .

Be kind and thoughtful to one another . . . and to our Mother Earth.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

* Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News^[1] for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll.