The world we live in is full of problems and it’s extremely easy to blame and criticize others. We see wars going on in the world and so we blame certain individuals or organizations. We see poverty, inflation, and a cost of living crisis and so we blame the economists. We see environmental degradation of levels never experienced before and so we blame the corporations or the politicians. We see a society rotten to its very core. It doesn’t take much, a glance at the newspapers or a couple seconds spent on Twitter and you’ll be bombarded with a dozen problems. And seeing problems, we find it almost instinctive to look for someone or something responsible.
With the birth of the internet and the rise of social media platforms, sharing information has become easier than ever before. You can go on the internet and access the opinions of millions of people in a few clicks of a button. Regarding any topic in the world, you can go online and you’ll find people arguing amongst themselves as to whose viewpoint is correct. Just look at the Israel-Palestine situation. People are seeing problems in the world and craving an answer. In this search for an answer, it’s very easy to fall down one of the many rabbit holes presented to you online. I myself, surrounding the whole COVID-19 topic got sucked into a rabbit hole, so much so that I didn’t realize how much it was affecting those around me.
I see many people, friends, family, and even my past self, overtaken by a certain type of worldview. I’ve seen people close to me get sucked into what I thought was just a misguided stereotype. That of smoking weed, listening to podcasts and refusing to do anything with their lives because they think they’ve been stitched up. It seems to have become engrained in the culture. There is nothing wrong with discussing the world around you. But there are many for whom discussion has gone out of the window. Some people have become so caught within a certain conclusion, a certain worldview, that they don’t function to question and discuss, but rather to assert and dispute. People fall into this mind state that they are in the know, that they are the arbiter of truth in a world of confusion, and that they need to make others aware to bring about positive change in the world.
I feel for many of these individuals their hearts are in the right place, wanting to bring about change, but their minds have led them astray and they are subsequently lost. One has to realize that you can go on all day talking about how bad the world is, but it isn’t going to bring about any change. One must realize that even if what you’re saying is true, perhaps that the bankers are out to get you, that the rich are trying to control and profit from you, it doesn’t change anything. You’re merely reacting to a problem, and by doing so you are becoming an extension of that very problem. You are not acting any different, you are not bringing about a new world, you’re just going around talking about all the problems in the world. In doing so you’re becoming just like a politician, sitting around all day discussing policies and spouting statistics, but failing to bring about any change in the world.
As individuals, we’re living in a very unconscious and machine-like way. Our memory is serving as the basis of our actions; for our thoughts are limited to the memory and most of us are merely reacting to our thoughts. This conspiracy theory, ‘the world is out to get you’, mindset is doing nothing but creating a structure of fear in your memory. Unfortunately, living this way we are not seeing the world with fresh eyes, for what it is, but rather, we are filtering the world through this fear-based mental abstraction we have downloaded. Every day these people head out and they are filtering the events they encounter in the present moment through this static structure of thought. Filtering the world through this mental abstraction will only reinforce it, and so the worldview they have downloaded becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As Jiddu Krishnamurti said, we are seeing not with our eyes, but rather with the image behind the eyes. If you are living through your memory, and your memory is rooted in this fear-based mindset, then filtering the world through it you are limited to reinforcing it. In this way, this state of being becomes extremely engrained in some people. It’s a strange phenomenon because you can think that you are ‘in the know’ while in reality being completely unaware of how limited you’ve become. You can think that you are liberated, because you are aware of a problem and the people responsible for it, while simultaneously not truly understanding how to bring about any change in the world. People are mistaking knowing about a problem, and those potentially involved, to truly addressing a problem.
No matter how much we talk and discuss a problem, whatever that problem may be, it has been introduced through our actions. It is our actions that create the world we live within and nothing else. Is you talking about how controlling the world is going to change anything? Is that going to bring about a loving world? Are you acting out of love, or out of fear? The truth is the mind is scared. The mind has created for itself this awful worldview. That the world is on fire, that we’re all financial slaves and can’t do anything, that there are deadly diseases on our doorstep. It wouldn’t surprise me if some people are so deeply caught in this dark cavern of the mind that they’re too scared to go outside. If you turn the news on all you hear of is bombings, stabbings, and other violent attacks. It’s all contributing to the creation of this worldview rooted in fear and insecurity.
Living this way is holding so many people back. So many people are residing from the world, almost ceasing to take part, because mentally they see no reason to do so. They don’t want to engage with the world because they’ve been conditioned to believe it is so rotten. Many people think that by sitting on the sidelines, merely blaming and condemning others for their stupidity will change the world. But one has to realize that living this way is holding them back. There are no benefits to living this way. It is preventing you from acting with love in your heart. It is preventing you from introducing anything into the world other than fear. And with your actions being rooted in fear, you will do nothing but contribute to the perpetuation of a world rooted in fear. And then you will remain caught in this cycle of analyzing the problematic manifestations in the world and doing the whole thing over and over until you reach the grave.
You have to find that balance. You have to realize that all you are doing is diverting your energy into upholding this illusory perception of the world you have created. In doing so you are preventing yourself from action that is rooted in creativity, intelligence, and love. You are preventing yourself from truly expressing yourself. Do you think that Van Gogh would have made all of those amazing paintings if all he did was go around telling everyone had bad the world is? Would Tolkien have written all those Lord of the Rings books, or J K Rowling the Harry Potter franchise, if all they did was instead sit on Twitter telling people who is responsible for all the world’s problems? You have to find a way to express your energy free of all the limitations introduced by living in this way. Like Bob Marley, you have to find a loving way to express yourself, not a hateful, judgemental, and aggressive way.
When thought, in all of its manifestations, whether it be beliefs, theories, ideologies, concepts, and so on, when they become a dictator of your actions they can only be detrimental. For many, thought has become the puppeteer pulling their strings, while simultaneously deluding them that they are making other people aware that a puppet is pulling their strings. Regardless of how accurate or inaccurate the perception of the world you create is, living this way can only be detrimental. It can only hold you back and offers no benefits. It is like an anchor weighing you down, preventing you from being yourself, preventing you from creating anything new.
And it’s important to note that this passage isn’t saying not to question anything. It is highlighting the need for you to find an avenue to express yourself, rather than merely react to problems. If you live in this reactive way you will spend your life being blown around by public opinions like a leaf on a windy day. If you truly want to bring about a better world you must realize that it is the aggregate of all of our actions that form the world. And so, understanding this, the most you can do is start with yourself. Find out whether your actions are contributing to the creation of a loving world, or merely perpetuating the societies we currently find ourselves in. Find out for yourself, what is preventing you from expressing yourself, from introducing love into the world, from being happy and simply enjoying your life.
The true revolt doesn’t lie in the YouTube comments sections, in the Twitter feeds, in the office with your colleagues, or in asserting conclusions to friends and family members. You can debate every individual on the planet with the aim of bringing them around to whatever conclusion you are caught in. But this won’t bring about any change. The true revolt lies within each and every individual. You have to revolt against your own mind, against the structure of thought lining your memory. For it is your conditioned memory that is warping your perception of reality, and serving as a barrier to change, to introducing loving actions. You must look into the environmental impressions that have been thrust upon you, visible all throughout the day by simply observing the movement of thought in your head.
This brings me back to a fundamental truth, that it is our actions that form the world, not our thoughts about those actions. Therefore, if you care about bringing about a better world, you should be concerned with clearing everything that prevents your actions from being pure. This is the meaning of so-called spiritual alchemy. To strip away all the impurities, leaving only the base metal gold, or in this case, holistic, balanced, and loving actions. If instead, you continue to live in this conditioned way, filtering the world through a mental abstraction rooted in violence, insecurity, and hatred, then this is all you will introduce into the world. If you’re going around telling everyone about how bad the world is, what are you doing to make it a better place? We can all see a vast array of environmental, economic, and social problems. If you’re so concerned about them, what are you actually doing to bring about a better world?
What good is telling everyone about all the problems in the world if you don’t know how to bring about change? Bringing about change should be of paramount importance, so you must realize that change begins with you. To run away into conclusions, judgments, conspiracy theories, into any mental abstraction of the world, is merely an escape from yourself. The mind seeks comfort in what it knows, and for many people, this is the habitual pattern that the mind knows, to seek refuge within theories and conclusions. To blame anything outside yourself is an escape from yourself. It will only stop you from being a conscious, responsible, and loving human being, and it is only this type of person that can bring about a change in the world.
It sounds cliché, but it’s true, you have to be the change you want to see in the world. If you want to see a world full of people talking about how negative and destructive everything is, then continue to act as you are. If you want a world where everyone goes around reinforcing a worldview of paranoia within each other, going on about how corporations and governments are trying to control us, about how the rich are controlling us, about how corrupt this entire system is, how everyone’s in debt, in financial bondage, with mortgages, car loans, with the cost of living crisis, with inflation, etc, then carry on. But if you genuinely feel driven to change these things, to create a completely different society, it takes something deeper, something within you. Our actions form the world, and so if you can learn to act free of all the baggage that has been impressed upon your memory you will contribute to something new. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, in letting go of this mental abstraction of fear you are left free to express yourself in the most wonderful ways, and in doing so you will effortlessly contribute to the creation of a new world.
The Candlelight 
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