The heartbreaking news this past week was all about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Unless you have had a similar experienced, it is difficult for us to wrap our minds around the pain and anguish the people are feeling. The crisis in Haiti provides a case in point regarding the Prime Directive. Don't you feel something pulling at you from inside as you watch the news or read an article, as you look at the faces of the people and the magnitude of their losses? And doesn't your heart experience a certain kind of warmth and pride as you think about all of the people around the world who are reaching out to help? Yes! There are logistical problems getting things where they need to be, but the reaching out, the rush to assist, to aid, to save lives can make you want to be a part of that effort. In these moments of crisis the best of who we are as a species comes to the forefront and it can move you to imagine a more perfect world. The crisis in Haiti provides us with an example of the Peaceful Space Response emerging in the face of horrific human suffering. That feeling of connection of spirit is your innate Peaceful Space Response. The actions being taken are an expression of the Prime Directive.
From the standpoint of the Prime Directive, the crisis in Haiti also raises an important question which relates to the level of destruction that the island nation experienced. After so many decades of contact and interaction between the U.S. and Haiti, how is it that Haiti remains one of the poorest and underdeveloped nations in the world while located just a few hundreds of miles from the richest and most powerful nation in the world? Why have the people of Haiti not been more proactively supported in becoming valued and viable economic and political partners and neighbors? The Prime Directive calls upon us to act in the interests of the whole and each of its parts at all times. Not just in times of crisis and devastation! In the Handbook On Being Human, vol I, Dr. M. predicts that there will be more natural disasters, of increasing magnitude and scope. He also suggests that beginning to teach and live the Prime Directive and the process of Creating Peaceful Space now is the key to being prepared for what is coming.
In the Handbook, Dr. M. outlines the instincts, drives, needs, desires, and wishes that fuel human behavior and influence human choices. He also describes a way of seeing the world that can give us greater understanding of the long term and short term consequences of the choices that each of us make each and every day. We are shaping the future in each moment of the present. It should be obvious that if different choices were made in the past, and if Haiti had been more developed, the level of destruction from this particular earthquake would not have been as great. So people in the past wrote this possibility into the future, and we and our brothers and sisters in Haiti are now experiencing the consequences of those past choices. And the choices that we are making right now will influence the future that will confront us, our children, and our grandchildren for decades and generations to come. According to the Mysterious Dr. M. the Prime Directive and Creating Peaceful Space are about self-determined evolution.
I hope you'll answer the survey questions, make the Prime Directive an important part of your life, recommend the Handbook On Being Human, vol. I to a friend, and share your comments on this Blog.
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2 comments:
You are so correct when you share about feeling something pulling inside while viewing the coverage of those suffering in Haiti following the horrendous 7.0 earthquake on January 12th. I believe, from that day following, the heartfelt cry of individuals throughout the world begins to pour out a ‘innate peaceful space response’. As to my personal experience, on Martin Luther King Day, the day prior to the earthquake, I fell into a deep state of ‘funk’ one I have never felt before. I did not get up off the couch all day nor did I acknowledge family members in their attempts to arouse me. I now understand that perhaps that this overwhelming feeling (universal connection) may be linked, in prologue, towards what is soon to occur to the inhabitants in Haiti.
I find it insighful when you state that the Prime Directive calls upon us to act in the interests of the ‘whole and each of its parts at all times’. What comes to mind is the conception that although we are unique and separate individuals, we are also a collective consciousness with its own living and moving self. Perhaps in this way our prime directive makes it possible to interlink our paths as a whole concering humankind suffering with all its interconnected conscious parts. As an example, Scherer (2010) from the Times magazine writes: “The three men, who have collectively occupied the White House for the past 17 years, [Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton] stood side by side in the Rose Garden to [ask] for donations and promises to “channel the collective good will around the globe to help the people of Haiti rebuild their cities, their neighborhoods, and their families.”
May I make it my self-determined evolution, as your bring to light, to create a peaceful space in which my choices can impact and fuel human behavior and influence human choices in the present and in the future. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) brings to light your words on this evolution when he states: "We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear... That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind... The time is always right to do the right thing... Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal".
In congruence with Dr. M’s message to us as brought out in the Handbook, Buddha Shakyamuni, in his "Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Law", shows humanity a path to overcome suffering by bringing to the fore the four noble truths: 1) There is suffering. 2) Suffering has certain causes. 3) The causes of suffering can be overcome, and 4) There are precise ways of doing this. As to the later, he writes:
"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering: … that is to say, Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavor, Right Memory, Right Meditation....
References:
King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. Retrieved on January 25, 2010, from http://www.gabiclayton.com/gcfavorite-quotes_k-m.htm
Shakyamuni, Buddha. (n.d.). The First Sermon of the Buddha. Retrieved on January 22, 2010, from http://www.as.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/firstsermon.html
Scherer M. (2010, January 16th). George W. Bush Joins Bill Clinton and Barack Obama In Haiti Relief Effort. Retrieved on January 25, 2010., from http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/01/16/george-w-bush-joins-bill-clinton-and-barack-obama-in-haiti-relief-effort/
Your comments and references are so insightful. As Dr. M. states in the Handbook, this message of Peace and of Creating Peaceful Space is not a new one. In the Handbook, Dr. M. is expressing the message of Peace in the context of the world conditions that we have created from our past choices. Present world conditions make it clear that this ancient message of the importance of Creating Peaceful Space still needs to be repeated. We (as a species) still haven't gotten it!
Your comment about your experience the day before the earthquake is very important. This is characteristic of the Quantum Entity of the entire planet that Dr. M. describes in the Handbook. We are all connected to the earth on an energy level and all of us can recount moments when we have felt or realized that connection. When Dr. M. talks about Self-Determined Evolution, one of the things he is talking about is us (humans) becoming more informed about, aware of, and in tune with the Quantum Entity that connects us. Thanks so much for your comments!
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