My Country Is Called Earth (12 page)

Each individual is responsible to the God within. The Golden Rule is still the best guide for living: Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Now is the time to remember the old wisdom. It is time for man to again accept the validity of inner knowledge. Science must learn to examine nature from her point of view: It will never understand nature by taking her apart. In the words of the fox in
The Little Prince
, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Cities Of Light

Protocol statement. First Gandhi village commune. July 4, 2076. A man, Exellon by name, as he lay dying:

Today we are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence, and I am celebrating my l26th birthday. Mahatma Gandhi had wanted to live to l25, but the Hindu-Moslem violence at the time of India’s independence broke his heart. Eyewitnesses said it was a bullet that killed him, but I know the hatred between brothers and sisters saddened him so much that he lost his will to live. The bullet was the means of death, not the cause. Please excuse me; I have been rambling. My mind is not as organized as it once was.

You are living in the best of times. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms—from fear, from want, of expression, and of worship—are the birthrights of all the citizens of earth. Today everyone has a good job and a decent home of his own. Medical care and education are available to all. There is hardly any crime because there are no poor, we are more interested in spiritual than material wealth, and men are no longer packed into the cities. We are now able, due to this decrease in crime, to treat those who violate other’s rights as sick men, not as evil men. We have learned to live without poisoning the atmosphere, water, or soil. The great solar panels now supply most of our energy needs. Earth and man are one again.

There are some who complain that life today is too easy, that there are no challenges anymore. If you feel that way, join the colonists on Mars. Those pioneers face a struggle just to survive. But there is plenty to do here for those who wish to explore the inner universe, source of the physical.

I have lived through the second half of the 20th century. It was an exciting time to be alive. Society was seething with unrest, with hopes of a just, peaceful world—the world you now take for granted. Martin Luther King, Jr. summed up the feeling when he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’“ Some thirty years after King’s death, Americans began to realize that God is the Real Owner of the earth, and that God meant for all of us to enjoy the fruits of the earth.

Because the free market could not offer each American a job with an adequate income, government was empowered to make up the difference. Through public works’ projects the cities were renewed, bridges and roads rebuilt, and land reclaimed. In the poverty-trapped inner cities self-supporting manufacturing communes were formed. These communes acquired farms and began to offer their members the chance to escape the city.

By the early twenty-first century, many Americans wanted to get away from modern civilization. Many desired a simpler life more in touch with themselves and nature, as in the Findhorn model, where gardens were tended with sensitivity and love. And as government’s financial difficulties worsened, more and more citizens were forced to take care of themselves. For these reasons and others, the village commune concept quickly spread throughout society.

Around this time, compassionate, clear-headed men and women were being elected to positions of leadership. They were guided by the principles Daniel spoke of when he said, “There is a way men can live together in peace and happiness. It is the way of reason and love.” This change in the leadership of the American people, this blossoming of the love in American hearts, was an inspiration for the rest of the world. Those who had tolerated injustice before now found it to be unbearable.

I have been asked what I have learned in my l26 years. One of the most important lessons I have learned is to live like the hunter described by the Indian Don Juan:

A hunter uses his world sparingly and with tenderness regardless of whether the world might be things, or plants, or animals, or people, or power. He taps it lightly, stays for as long as he needs to, and then swiftly moves away, leaving hardly a mark.

If I had the time, I would tell how disarmament was achieved. But I wonder if I should not quit here. For, with the awakening of the love in the hearts of men, the Age of Light became a foregone conclusion. As the great Gandhi said, “In the long run, no force can prevail against love and truth.”

The success of this nation—its ability to offer each citizen the opportunity to develop his potential—is testament to the wisdom of our Founding Fathers in making dignity, freedom, and justice our basic principles. America has fulfilled her destined role as model to the world.

My God And I Are One

Me: Please read these questions that I have made up.

Sophia: “What is the key to inner peace?”

Me: I have been searching all my life for simple codes to live by. One is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It covers man’s relationships. In the Bhagavad Gita I found four lines that seem to me to summarize the rule for the inner life:

When you move amidst the world of sense

From both attachment and aversion freed,

There comes the peace in which all sorrows end,

And you live in the wisdom of the Self.

It means that you are not overwhelmed by good or bad fortune. It means you do not long for possessions or pleasures. It is a state of mind called detachment. With detachment you will find no cause for anger or fear. I should add that I am a long way from detachment myself.

Sophia: That’s for sure. Anyway, back to your key to inner peace. It sounds like a cold-hearted peace to me. Like the peace of the ascetic living in the cave.

Me: It does not mean that you should not love, but that you should not become attached to the object of your love. Detachment means being able to do without. Detachment frees you from the wheel of fortune. Then it opens you to the fountain of creativity that lies within.

Sophia: Buddha said desire is the cause of suffering.

Me: And the Bhagavad Gita also emphasizes that man must give up desire. I have trouble with that. It takes desire to walk across the room, to be born, to do anything. I think it would have been better if Buddha had said, “Attachment and aversion are the causes of suffering.”

Sophia: Do you want to hear my three rules for living? First, don’t dwell on the past. Second, enjoy the moment. And third, only think positively about the future.

Me: Those are three great rules to live by.

Sophia: And easy to remember. Next question: “What is your goal?”

Me: “We are fighting for nothing less than world peace,” in Gandhi’s words.

Sophia: “How can you be fighting for world peace and be detached at the same time?”

Me: Gandhi said, “By detachment I mean that you must not worry whether the desired result follows from your actions or not, so long as your motive is pure, your means correct. Really, it means that things will come right in the end if you take care of the means and leave the rest to Him.”

Sophia: “What is love?”

Me: Love is willingness to sacrifice for others. Love is unconditional. Love is trusting. Love sees the grace in others. Love does not seek to dominate, possess, or bind, but gently encourages growth.

Sophia: “Have you said we choose the events we participate in?”

Me: Our beliefs, intents, and desires act like magnets, drawing people, experiences, and material objects to us.

Sophia: “What is the path to God?”

Me: A 16th century mystic said to two disciples who asked the same question:

Path presupposes distance;

If He be near, no path needeth thou at all.

Verily it maketh me smile

To hear of a fish in water athirst!

Sophia: “What is the purpose of life?”

Me: Some people think the purpose of life is to live as long as possible while collecting and consuming as much wealth as possible. I think the purpose of life is value fulfillment—leading a life of quality, growth, and action. When that is no longer possible, it is time to get out of the way.

Sophia: “Do you believe in reincarnation?”

Me: Yes. A belief in the immortality of the soul enables one to understand why God creates some men sick and poor and others healthy and prosperous. It also relieves the anxiety of death.

Sophia: “Do you believe in karma?”

Me: I believe we are all responsible for our actions. Until we appreciate the power of our thoughts, we will not be able to move on to more advanced planes. I also believe our reincarnations are simultaneous: Our lives do not occur one after the other, but all at once. Our past, present, and future lives affect each other, then. This concept will take much more time to explain. Maybe I can get into it in another book.

Sophia: “Do you believe in good? Do you believe in evil?”

Me: Answer to the first question: Yes. The universe has a benign design. It is easier to be good than to be bad. Answer to the second question: Evil as in the devil, no. The devil exists only in men’s minds. Men are generally of good intent. I do not deny that some men have treated nature and other men horribly, but many crimes are misguided attempts at achieving justice. Often men have made the mistake of assuming the end justifies the means.

Sophia: “How would you reply to this statement: ‘I am just a bag of bones that will soon die and rot in the grave. You can’t convince me of life after death.’“

Me: In a certain sense, we are like icebergs: What we see of ourselves is only a fraction of our entire identity. We are multidimensional souls, living in many bodies, some not physical, in many times, and in many worlds. I like what the poet Jane Roberts wrote about death: “A death is but one night to the soul.”

Sophia: “What did Gandhi say about Jesus?”

Me: He said, “It was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who believed in him would have everlasting life. If God could have sons, all of us were His sons. If Jesus was like God, or God Himself, then all men were like God and could be God Himself. My reason was not ready to believe literally that Jesus by his death and by his blood redeemed the sins of the world.”

Sophia: I’m tired of these questions. I have one for you: “Do you support the Equal Rights Amendment?”

Me: If in one life I am born a man, and in another a woman, how can I say one sex is superior to the other?

Sophia: You didn’t answer the question.

Me: I’m all for it, except I think there should be a clause in there about cooking. I can’t cook. Look, I’ll wash the dishes, okay?

Now I want to introduce the Aquarian Gospel as an alternative gospel. It was written in the last century by an American who called himself Levi. It covers the travels of Jesus in Egypt, Greece, Persia, India, and Tibet during those lost years the Four Gospels make no mention of. I’m going to read a passage from a speech Jesus made at a feast in his honor in Benares, India:

With much delight I speak to you concerning life—the brotherhood of life.

The universal God is one, yet he is more than one: all Things are God; all things are one.

Now, men and birds and beasts and creeping things are deities made flesh; and how dare men kill anything?

‘
Tis cruelty that makes the world awry.

When men have learned that when they harm a living thing they harm themselves, they surely will not kill, nor cause a thing that God has made to suffer pain.

The God I speak about is everywhere; he cannot be compassed with walls, nor hedged about with bounds of any kind.

When men become afraid of God, and take him for a foe, they dress up other men in fancy garbs and call them priests.

When man sees God as one with him, as Father-God, he needs no middle man, no priest to intercede;

He goes straight up to him and says, My Father-God! and then he lays his hand in God’s own hand, and all is well.

And this is God, You are, each one, a priest, just for yourself.

Sophia: This is the last question I’m going to read for you: “We have been taught by Christian religions and Freudian psychology to distrust ourselves. Christianity says impulses are the work of the devil. Freud said the unconscious was a dark pit full of ugly desires. What do you say?”

Me: Strong, natural impulses are the soul’s guides. I am not talking about the impulse to have another scoop of ice cream or to punch your boss in the nose. In the words of Jane Roberts: “Natural impulses always direct you to actions that will lead to your own greatest fulfillment, and to the fulfillment of all other species at the same time.” I think you should use this rule to determine if your impulse is natural: If it directs you to hurt another living thing, then it is not a natural impulse.

Me: Sophia, do you have a final word?

Sophia: Whenever you find you are taking yourself too seriously, you should think about your death. In relation to your death, nothing can be very important. I am not saying this to make you sad, but to help you be humble and to allow you to laugh at yourself.

Me: You can write my epitaph now: “He saved the best for last.” Ha, ha! I want to end with a poem:

Happy are those who can sing:

A brave new moral order is blowing in the wind.

Bright is the dream from which it will spring.

Love and sharing for everyone.

This is the dawn of the Aquarian Age,

When man will know, “My God and I are One!”

Leaves of grass tumble down, kissing Earth,

Children play the circle game. Walls fall down.