Below is a post I sincerely, connected with.
DON'T IMPROVE!
"Take no thought for tomorrow... " ( Jesus)
"Give up worrying about the past. Give up dreaming of the future. The past no longer exists. The future has not been born. But deeply observe the present moment, just as it is, and you shall attain the peace and unity of the ancient masters." (Buddha, Bheda Karata Sutta)
Please don't try to improve the world. I don't need you to improve me. How do you feel when you meet someone who wants to improve you? Is it not an assault, a subtle form of violence against you?
"But there is injustice in the world, and I want to improve it!" Is your attempt to improve the world not another form, a subtler form, of injustice?
Injustice is an unwarrented gap in power between two lives. But injustice begins within ourselves. It begins when we divide one part of our personality against another, and make one part of ourself more powerful in order to suppress another. My mind, full of ideals about how I want to be in the future, begins to manipulate my behavior. My thoughts try to change the present state of mind into a better state, a higher state. I mold the present into the future. I cannot embrace the Now.
Self-improvement is a war on what is, an attack on Presence. It imposes a "should" on the world. Our "should" is a weapon of mass destruction: we use it on ourselves, then on others, then on the whole earth. All utopian plans to design a better world contain this "should." The Communist idealists had a vision: a golden age of human equality. They ruined half the world trying to impose their vision. The Neo-conservative idealists have a vision: a golden age of global democracy sustained by the free-market. They are destroying everything else. Idealism is a form a violence, hope is a form of violence, for the desire to change the world contains the unspoken desire to destroy it.
Does this mean that we must passively accept injustice? God forbid! It means that there is a better way, a non-violent way, to transform our world: a form of creative action which arises not from attacking what is, but from wholeness.
Creative action can begin from unconditional acceptance of the present moment. "In the beginning, God created..." This present moment is always the Beginning. When we see the beauty and grace in things as they are, right now, we can allow our action to arise as participation in the moment of creation.
What is, is. Otherwise, it could not be. Though our small intellects may not comprehend the purpose and design, things are as they must be now. Therefor, non-violent action responds to the world without insisting on improvement. Non-violence is a dialogue with what is, not a plan for what should be.
If I truly want good, I will not divide the world into better and worse. I will not engage in judgment or comparison. Good can only arise from good: good is never the outcome of a conflict with evil. That is why Jesus said, "Love your enemy... Do not resist the evil one."
The action that arises from Now is not "an improvement." It is a response. It is a wave of silence, a tremor of unity, a gesture of the whole through its parts. Never a war, but a dance.
"Improvement" arises from a divided mind, a worried mind, a mind split into present and future. Action based on worry will always produce more tension, more division.
So if I want a good world, I will begin by healing myself of worry. I will relax into the wholeness of the present moment with undivided attention. It is possible to worry about the past and the future, but it is impossible to worry about the present. The present moment does not have to be thought, and worry only exists in thought. People who do heroic deeds never feel like heros. They just act in the present moment.
The end of worry is Now. Now is courage. If you have the courage to be fully in this Now, you are improving the world.
- Posted by Uradiance
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