Yesterday, I was gripped by a mood of detachment. I surrendered everything I was, had, or did to God, together with the whole mix of conditioned behavior that went along with it.
Today, I’m gripped by an entirely different mood. When I sat down to meditate, even before I could begin to circle my body with my awareness (Vipassana style), cutting any cords of attachment I could find, I found myself suddenly repeating over and over:
This is my planet.
This is my planet.
This is my planet.
Undoubtedly the words are from my guidance.
Those words coming from Adolf Hitler would probably have a vastly different meaning than the same words coming from Mother Teresa.
The one is a megalomaniac. The other is a follower of the dharma, a servant of the Mother, a lightworker.
I’m not trying to own my planet. I’m feeling my responsibility for the condition it’s in.
Every time I said the sentence, “This is my planet,” a different response came up in me.
Sometimes I saw a concentration camp. Sometimes an atomic bomb. Sometimes 40,000 people lost in the Allied bombing of a German city. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners marching to captivity and probable death.
One after another, the images kept coming up, challenging the resilience of my declaration of responsibility.
This is my planet.
This is my planet.
This is my planet.
My daily woes seemed petty. I seemed petty. I let go of my grip on … mask, facade, image.
So many feelings hung on those four words. Some feelings were very strong, bordering on hatred, revulsion, and violence. Sometimes I sobbed. Sometimes I was angry with myself. I had so many different emotions invested in my appraisal of the state of our world.
Resentment that the truth of 9/11 is not known. Horror at the sight of Iraqi babies marred by depleted uranium. Outrage considering genocidal conflict that happens in some countries All of this is brought up when I repeat those words.
I’m going to keep repeating them until I have no emotional charge left.
Why am I doing this? Because I personally regard a sentence like that popping into my head as not being by any means accidental. I see myself as cooperating with my guidance, hopefully making it easier for them. I see it as us being on to the next experiment in consciousness.
Once I assume an attitude of personal responsibility for my planet – no matter how many intellectual and emotional objections I raise against doing it – I notice that some kind of chain reaction in consciousness begins. It’s like an open sesame.
Things become clearer. The truth bubbles up to the surface – and enrages me.
I seize the opportunity to complete the incomplete experiences that arise in my field of awareness.
I feel release from some of the sorrow that I’m carrying around having to do with the state of my world. There’s so much garbage I’m carrying around, from the earliest age. Japs, Nazis, rednecks, Commies. The world was divided into white hats and black hats, good and evil, right and wrong. There was no middle ground.
I wanted to be a Junior G-Man when I was a kid. I only stopped watching action films perhaps ten years ago.
I’m reeling when I think of my own upbringing and self-education in the area of the state of affairs in my world. And this is my planet.
On my planet:
Sexual slavery is not OK with me.
Female genital mutilation is not OK.
Child brides, pedophilia, honor killings, dowry deaths, rape, acid attacks, snuff flicks – all those and more are not OK with me on my planet.
This is my planet and just meditating on that mantra is unfolding some kind of memory that only being willing to say the sentence seems to trigger.
This is my planet and the state of it is not alright with me. Can you hear me?
This is my planet and I intend to do something about it.
Now how about you saying it.
This is my planet!
Everyone say it, meditate on it, and allow it to sink in.
This is my planet!
Some day I want to hear the whole world say that sentence in unison. I want to see it enter into our common culture and language.
The sentence that follows it is your contribution to making our planet work. Make your contribution.
This is our planet and what we say about it makes a difference on so many levels.