There is a fact that is increasingly obvious to more and more people: this Planet is @risk. That which we call "civilization" -- which depends entirely upon its Planetary Home -- is only as strong and healthy as every human is strong and healthy. But there is another fact which derives its truth from the hidden, metaphysical, dimension: our health and strength can be secured in only 24 hours... The "secret" means to the possible and stunning creation of a living Paradise upon Earth is bubbling just under the surface of our current reality...
And wouldn't you know it, but this "secret" was most clearly articulated by a tortured soul, the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his short story "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man". If you have not yet read it: do so! But let me tell you just a snippet about the story...
There is a man who is sorely distressed by life and who determines that -- in the face of all of his and our pain and suffering -- there is only one course of action open to him: he will commit suicide. He takes a gun out of his desk drawer and prepares himself... but instead of pulling the trigger, he falls asleep in his despair... In his dream, he awakes in Paradise! Everything is perfect and beautiful -- only to discover that in time he introduces sin, suffering, injustice, cruelty, and harm into that Paradise... Even in his dream-sleep he is in despair... But then, in the simple twisting of the Dream-Mind (the Holy One) slips into and through the cracks in his despair and defenses... and the "how to" of recovering the Lost Paradise is revealed to him!
He awakens absolutely stunned! And Dostoevsky (was he himself the dreamer?) writes the man's conclusion: "Suppose it never, ever comes true, and there is no paradise... well, I'll still go on preaching. And yet how simple a matter it is: in one day, in one hour it could all be brought about at once! The chief thing is to love others as oneself, that's the main thing, and that's it -- absolutely nothing more is necessary: you would immediately discover how to bring it about." And here -- right here! -- is the Recipe for a Total Radicalism that Liberates and Enlightens: 1) Every religion will -- today and evermore
-- take a "sabbatical" from preaching and teaching anything other than Love-in-Action as the Root and Reason for their faith and life; 2) Every person -- believer or not -- will determine that she / he will change course and make Love-in-Verifiable-Action the one Grand Purpose of his / her life; 3) It necessarily follows that every person will then make the Grand Intention to not enter Paradise until everyone among us has found their fill of bread and roses, and entered first.
This would change everything in as little as 24 hours: name your passion, name your issue: hunger and food security, climate change, healthy soil, clean water, equal rights, social justice, an end to violence, exploitation, racism, and oppression, corporate re-structuring, creating a cooperative economy: whatever the issue: putting the "other" first and taking the last place will change every single thing... "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One"...
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