Mohammed Mesbahi

How can we bring about an awareness that sharing is the solution to a planetary crisis, and our last remaining hope for rehabilitating a divided world? Central to this question is the problem of 'isms', in which our complacency has intellectualised itself in order to justify its existence as being normal.

The problems of humanity have reached such an apex that it is now critical for governments to implement the principle of sharing within and between every single country. It is critical on several counts: firstly, to release the joy and creativity that is inherent in every human being but widely suppressed through economic hardship and social breakdown, with levels of depression throughout the world now reaching epidemic proportions. Secondly, it is critical in a literal sense for the millions of men, women and children who live without adequate means for survival, and who are needlessly dying from poverty and disease with each passing day. Furthermore, it is vital that we integrate the principle of sharing into inter-governmental policies if we are to stand a chance of averting environmental catastrophe, for the necessary time for transforming our societies is fast running out. The world itself is sick and in a state of emergency, for which only sharing can provide the necessary healing and remedy. But on all these counts we are left in a quandary, because the crucial missing factor is a collective understanding that sharing is verily the solution to our problems, and our last remaining hope. Without an all-embracing public awareness that sharing is the only way out, it is impossible that this neglected principle can be implemented into world affairs.

Thus the question arises; how will this awareness be brought about? What will lead a huge number of ordinary people to recognise the urgency of the world situation, and to realise that we all share the same responsibility to become socially engaged and unite together as one? This is a very difficult question to answer given the complacency that is endemic in modern society, and the free will of humanity that means no-one can predict how future events will unfold. As reasoned in our previous enquiry, the greatest danger in the world today is not commercialisation per se but our constant identification with its inner and outer manifestation, in which our intelligence is led in the opposite direction from nature and spiritual evolution. This is when our complacency and indifference shapes our personalities into a vulgar phenomenon amidst the very poor and hungry, indeed our wayward personalities that have become a burden to Mother Nature, and even a burden to the human soul. From a distance, humanity must look like a herd that is grazing on complacency and indifference, while the benign forces of evolution silently take their natural course within the immutable laws of all the kingdoms of nature, leaving human free will to determine its own destiny. Hence the pain of every human life, the unavoidable sorrow, and the slow progress through time and space of this unfortunate planet we live in.

We have already investigated the malign cleverness and subtlety of commercialisation, as well as its deceptive and elusive nature that is intimately related to our complacency, both individually and collectively. We might even say that commercialisation has got married to our complacency, in a figurative sense and for some mysterious reasons, which eventually causes us to remain indifferent when we hear that people are dying as a result of poverty in distant countries. Central to our enquiry as to why the principle of sharing is so overlooked in our societies is therefore to understand the relationship that exists between awareness and complacency, which could have a powerful and liberating effect on our consciousness. We have yet to fully examine how our complacency has intellectualised itself in order to justify its existence as being normal, which can only be achieved through beliefs, ideologies and isms in all their forms.

A history of isms

If we observe the movement of the mind very closely, we can perceive how the many isms that characterise every society have a great part to play in conditioning ordinary people, which in turn has led us to become confused, fearful and complacent. Most people are essentially benevolent and caring, but throughout human history we have been constantly led astray through our unwitting identification with beliefs and ideologies, and as a result we are all overshadowed by confusion and fear until the soul is denied from fulfilling its purpose during our lifetimes. In simple and psychological terms, an ism can be described as a mental thought-form that divides and misleads us from within and without, and effectively creates a dense fog or ‘glamour’ within our mind that obstructs compassion from reviving the heart with its wisdom.

The isms of all kinds can have a profoundly harmful effect on our personalities through constant illusory and wrong identifications with beliefs, which is eventually transmuted into mind conditioning and spiritual blindness as to the true reality of life. We then limit the expansion of our conscious awareness, and on a societal level we collectively hold entire nations back from evolving faster according to their respective destinies. The history of human civilisation is, from this inner perspective, really the history of isms. This is the awkward and anguished truth of our existence, because our resultant fear, confusion and complacency is a dangerous state of being that has allowed materialistic forces to be created all around us that have caused division and devastation down the ages, to the point of our present-day planetary chaos.

We usually think of isms only in terms of major political philosophies, religious doctrines or distinctive theories or movements such as socialism, Islamism, globalism, existentialism and so on, but isms are rarely considered as a psychological factor in our consciousness that can inhibit our perception of truth and reality, and even compromise our basic ethics and morality. There are myriads of ways in which isms can be expressed in every sphere of life, for which reason an academic approach to understanding their significance will not help us, because the academic also bears a burden of responsibility for perpetuating the isms that have ensnared us all. Moreover, few academics yet consider the deeper meaning and implications of isms from the viewpoint of our psychological development or spiritual evolution. At humanity’s present stage of advancement, we live and move within a planetary circus of polarising thought-forms. And just as commercialisation feeds off our desire to ‘make it’ and become a so-called success in modern-day society, the isms in their different forms also feed upon our mind conditioning and identification with beliefs.

An ism cannot exist without a process of identification with and attachment to beliefs, although they also play a potentially useful and healthy role as a part of our growth into self-cognisance, particularly in terms of enabling a child to develop within their newly-formed beliefs and ideations. To give a simple analogy, an ism should be like the rockets on space shuttles which, upon leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, are then discarded to enable the astronauts to enter into orbit. Similarly, an ism can help a child to grow and evolve if it is guided within their consciousness by a mentor, who are themselves aware of how the ism must be let go of in the end.

The problem begins when a teacher or parent is also conditioned and attached to any number of isms, and then leads a child to carry a heavy burden of confused beliefs and ideologies into their adult life. Before long a particular ism may become loose and uncontrolled within that person’s nascent thinking, and they may eventually cause harm by imposing their beliefs on other people. It all stems from a mere belief that we grow with, become attached to and then identify with completely, until we say ‘I believe I am this’. To the extent that if somebody insults my ism or my ‘belief in a belief’, I may be so offended that I decide to fight or even kill them, as so frequently happens in the context of ethnic and religious conflicts. The mind has thus become such a domineering influence that the heart is left silently waiting, helpless to overcome the stubborn delusion that I have instilled within myself.

The distortion of healthy isms

An ism in its diverse expressions can therefore be understood as a kind of biological computer that is programmed with beliefs and ideologies, and implanted within the personality (via the mind) through constant identification. The principle reason that we identify with isms is in order to feel safe and secure in a world that is ridden with distrust, fear and uncertainty. Everyone craves psychological as well as physical security, and the great religious isms in particular can give us a needed sense of security and belonging, alongside the illusion of continuity and order. There is also an element of protection in bestowing religious beliefs or old traditions upon a child.

But when a crystallised thought-form is forcefully imposed on a young mind from an early age, then even a teacher with inner awareness and detachment is incapable of guiding the child to put those beliefs in their proper place, until eventually they can be let go of. Whatever the motive of a mentor or parent, to restrict a child’s growth into conscious awareness by transmitting a harmful ism into their mind is a gross infringement of human free will. To compel a young person in our care to become a ‘good Christian’ or a devout follower of Judaism or Islam, for example, is to load all the centuries of pain of those religions into the poor child’s mind. The intentions may be good, but the outcome will be the opposite of that intended if the need for security is distorted and not transcended through Self-knowledge.

It is important to bear in mind that we are not trying to understand the various forms that an ism takes, such as the doctrines of Buddhism or the philosophical views that define liberalism. We are rather trying to grasp the deeper origins of this peculiar psychological phenomenon, and inwardly perceive for ourselves how the creation of isms has become so ubiquitous in society that they can eventually damage us emotionally and hold back the evolution of our consciousness. In every family, group or human activity there are isms involved, some that are harmless and others that are manipulated for the purposes of power and control, especially in the fields of education, religion and politics. Everyone looks at life through an ism of one sort or another. To talk of ‘building character’ is a form of an ism, or to say ‘that is just the way I am’ is the neurotic expression of an ism – although everyone who lives in a society that is saturated with isms is inevitably neurotic in one way or another.

A family itself can be an ism, just as the longing to be rich or famous can be the expression of an extremely venal ism. Our very identity is an ism within a society that is bombarded from all sides by wrong attitudes to life, until isms become lodged into our personalities, our perceptions, and how we see ourselves. We even see an ism reflected back to us in the mirror when our personality is identified with glamorous beliefs, which can lead some people to believe that ‘I am the chosen one’. Humanity is literally a factory of isms as a result of a multitude of factors, including a predominantly emotional attitude to life, ever-present mind conditioning, and a lack of awareness and Self-knowledge. The mind has a great capacity to condition itself through believing in the beliefs of others, and it is curious to observe how the personality often wilfully induces mind conditioning in order to be accepted as part of a social group. Without exception, the fact that isms pervade everywhere around us means that we ourselves live from within these isms. It is not ‘I think, therefore I am’, as the philosopher said, but rather ‘I believe, therefore I am.’

In sum, isms are essentially founded upon our need for psychological security and a sense of meaning, certainty and purpose, but as a result of our living in a society that is permeated by endless conflicting isms and beliefs, our existence remains characterised by a deep-rooted sense of futility, confusion and anxiety. We could even say that our actual being has moulded itself into an ism, and as a consequence our being is infused with fear. In a society that is subjugated by innumerable isms and beliefs, it almost appears as if humanity’s favourite pastime is to be anxious and afraid, albeit unconsciously and often without due reason.

Imprisoning the Self

We should explore for ourselves the many serious consequences that result from our constant identification with isms, which is generally an automatic process that takes places beneath our conscious awareness. It means that we predominantly live from within our mind conditioning and act on that basis, even if we think that our actions are free and not based on conformity or beliefs. It means that we do not look at how things are, but only at how we think things should be. A mind that is filled with isms cannot look at the reality of life, which includes being able to live in the moment, to appreciate the beauty of life without naming it, to experience a quiescence of thought that is not constantly measuring, comparing and projecting images.

This is the unspoken tribulation of living our lives from within the conditioning of isms: it doesn’t allow me to know who I truly am, because I am always following what my conditioning tells me to do. I don’t even know what it means ‘to know who I am’. So I am not in touch with my true nature, and I cannot see you as you are, and I will not allow you to be who you really are. It means that many people today do not have an awareness of their inner Self, and often do not want to be alone in the quietness of that presence, because the ‘I’ is trapped and imprisoned by the conditioned mind. As soon as the mind is active it is caught in an endless cycle of isms, which means that the heart is forced to remain quiet until the mind finds balance and reason, and hopefully begins to think in common sense terms. Isms are noisy, disturbing and divisive, whereas the heart can only reveal its presence through awareness and silence.

In personal terms isms of all kinds can lead to the denial of intelligence, creativity and Self-awareness, and in broader social terms they can prevent the promulgation of right education and the expression of goodwill or right human relations. However, it is the dominant isms throughout human history that have caused the utmost damage and division within our societies. While we may clearly understand this from a historical perspective in relation to the great political and religious ideologies, it is much more subtle to perceive how psychologically it is an act of violence towards the Self to define ourselves by such labels as a communist or socialist, leftist or libertarian, anarchist or neoconservative, or else as a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Theosophist and so on. The teachings and beliefs of the various ideologies and doctrines are not to blame, and they may serve as precious guidelines that can help focus our minds upwards towards a higher understanding and purpose. But those guidelines become dangerously divisive when humanity identifies with such beliefs systems in their entirety, and thus turns them into an ism that opposes other isms.

The belief itself is not dangerous, but only the belief in a belief that is sustained by wrong identification. Even to call oneself an atheist is a divisive and violent act, because the atheist cannot exist without an opposing set of beliefs in God, and where there is division there is also violence – of an intellectual or psychological if not of a physical nature. If I call myself a Muslim and you are a Christian, there is nothing human in the division that stands between us. And even worse, we are divided in the name of a God that is merely defined by our myriad beliefs. Which may lead us to reflect upon the following question: were past and ancient wars really based on religion, or were they the result of our wrong identification with contesting beliefs? From a worldly perspective this is what we call human history, but from an esoteric or spiritual point of view it may be perceived as a most vainglorious human drama, hence the enduring need for a Shakespeare in the memory of men. In the midst of all this unnecessary conflict and tragedy, the Self is ever held hostage by impenetrable isms while helplessly observing our errant personalities from lifetime to lifetime.

A war of beliefs

An inward investigation of this age-old problem may help us to appreciate why the principle of sharing holds no appeal or profundity for most people at the present time, when at every turn we are stuck in a maelstrom of conflicting isms and beliefs. No matter which direction you take in the arena of politics, for example, an ism will be immediately bestowed on you by one faction or another. If you are a politician that tries to bring about a fairer distribution of resources, you will soon be called a socialist. If you try to promote free education and free healthcare for all, you are likely to be called a communist. If you stay in the middle to try and please a majority of voters, others will call you a dirty capitalist. To the point that humanity exhausts itself through so much senseless wrangling and disputation, and altogether acts like a classroom of tiresome schoolchildren.

It is not the politicians that are most responsible for all of our struggle against common sense and reason, however, because we ourselves hold back our social advancement by constantly identifying with the movement of political isms. We have previously considered how commercialisation offers us happiness in order to win our complicity in perpetuating the system, and in a similar way the theatre of politics co-opts our allegiance by offering us a measure of dignity and hope. It is very dignifying for us to identify with the beliefs of a political party, and in any social revolution or partisan following there is a sense of dignity among those who say ‘we are the people’ or ‘we know what is right’, but it is a false dignity that we uphold when our ideology is based upon opposition and conflict. An ideology that is opposed to another ideology will eventually lose itself in a fight of isms and beliefs, in which humanity itself becomes the enemy.

This was certainly the case for the principles underlying communism, which were not only manipulated as a tool for infringing the free will of entire populations, but were also mobilised in opposition to another set of principles – which from the outset foreordained the downfall of the Soviet Union. The true principles of communism have in fact never been manifested, and have only ever vibrated within society. Capitalism is now a lonely boy who won the war of isms in the end, which is largely because the infringement of free will in capitalist societies is far more covert and marginalised. It is a very sophisticated ism in that there is no particular club for those who define themselves as ‘capitalists’, and it has managed to hide itself in a devious way behind the torch of liberty or the idea of individual freedom. Nonetheless, it will always cause stress within society as long as we think in terms of capitalism or socialism, left-wing or right-wing, and the very existence of these terms will inevitably bring division and consequent suffering.

From both a psychological and spiritual perspective, the moment one says ‘I am a socialist’ or ‘I am an anti-capitalist’ is the beginning of war. It is the beginning of conflict between you and I, of inner turmoil and psychological division, if not a war of actual fighting. To call yourself a socialist, or to even think you are opposed to an ism such as capitalism, is the essence of conflict in which you essentially separate yourself from the spiritual unity of humankind. In actuality it is an absurdity for one ism to say ‘we know what is best for everyone’, only for an opposing ism to contest ‘we have a better idea for how to organise society’. Thus all of the political isms have tried to win and yet inevitably failed, because there can never be any peace or real social progress as long as we attempt to change the world on the basis of conflict through isms. Even if the Christ Himself suddenly emerged and declared that the only future for humanity is libertarian communism or anarcho-syndicalism, it is impossible that it could work in the best interests of everyone.

Democracy and complacency

The political isms are also most peculiar in their mechanism once the personality does identify with them, for they become increasingly subtle and elusive in expression after a long period of existence. By carefully observing the inner conflict that derives from our constant identification with political beliefs and ideologies, we can also begin to perceive the psychological relationship that exists between such isms and our complacency. The act of voting within a society that is riven by polarising isms is often, in truth, a foremost expression of our complacency.

By analogy, when an election campaign is running and politicians are canvassing in the streets for votes, the politician can be likened to a car that will not run without petrol – the petrol in this case representing our complacency that we express through ballots. For after the election when the car crashes or breaks down completely, we blame the politician for tricking us with his promises – despite the fact that without our ‘petrol’ this disaster would not have happened. We believed the politician that it was a good car, hence we ‘believed in a belief’ and gave the politician carte blanche to do whatever he wanted with the vehicle. Then all most of us do when everything goes wrong is look for another car or ‘ism’ to put our petrol in, instead of engaging with society in a creative way to play our part in trying to heal our divided world.

In this way, the act of voting exemplifies the evasive link between isms and our complacency: I believe in a belief that is propagated by my political party, and the moment my party fails me, I automatically look for another belief to believe in. In so doing I abdicate my responsibility for all of the problems within society, and I psychologically divide myself from you and everyone else who doesn’t think in the same way as me. This sense of psychological separation eventually moulds itself as a form of complacency that hinders the expression of my creativity, uniqueness and innermost spiritual potential. Even if I become somewhat aware and stop adding my energy to the dominion of party politics, like millions of other people today and during previous generations, I’m still stuck within my complacency and set adrift in the endless commotion of propaganda and electioneering. In the meantime, the rich and powerful continue to make money behind my back and profit from the world’s misery and destruction, while the rest of society fights within political isms or else remains indifferent and apathetic.

This is not to deny the very important role that free elections and the democratic process has played in humanity’s development, but we have reached a time when the passive selection of candidates for public office is far from enough to safeguard the future of our world. If we can foresee a more enlightened economic era that is predicated on the cooperative sharing of resources, then what use would we have for mass political campaigns - at the cost of billions of dollars - to promote a socialist or capitalist candidate with a conflicting set of policy priorities? A united world that shares its wealth and power among everyone will require a new kind of politician in government who serves humanity as a whole, and is not beholden to the present-day laws of society based on the interests of the privileged few, with immense lobbying power lurking in the background. As long as we give energy and authority to the partisan political leaders of today, humanity will continue to appear from afar as a herd that is grazing on complacency and indifference. The true expression of democracy has never existed in any country, and will never be revealed until our political leaders are educated in the Laws of Life through Self-knowledge. It is impossible to know what democracy even means while our minds are conditioned through fear and insecurity, and while there is no trust or equality within our societies. What kind of democracy can such a society produce?

The globalisation of our indifference

Ultimately it is the non-ending psychological conflicts caused by communism, socialism, capitalism, and all the religious mess surrounding them that has created both physical and spiritual poverty, as well as the collateral damage we know as hunger. This is obvious to perceive within a contemporary society that is being torn apart by a war of isms, as in many Middle Eastern or African countries that dominate newspaper headlines. No matter who it is that perpetrates the militarily-led destruction - Al Shabab or the Shiite militia, NATO or the CIA - it is always the poor and hungry who represent the inadvertent or incidental casualties. What we are more reluctant to acknowledge, however, is the part we also play in creating this collateral damage through our combined public complacency. We may blame our governments for siding with vested interests and pouring billions of dollars into the machinery of war, but the government can do that, has the right to do that, and will continue to do that because I shut my mouth and look away. And why do I keep my mouth shut? Because I am preoccupied with my personal conflicts within society, while isms take increasing hold of me - almost like a thief who diverts my attention so he can pickpocket my wallet, with the wallet in this case representing my common sense, goodwill and reason. I eventually become conditioned in such a way that my relationship to the reality of life is haplessly fragmented and misguided, because my perception is so clouded by isms that I cannot see reality as it is, or even have a basically moral or ethical response to the human suffering that is all around me.

Again this is obvious to perceive in many political or religious fundamentalists, but we are less likely to acknowledge how the more subtle isms have intellectualised our complacency in order to make our illusions look real and civilised. In many spiritual groups, for example, it is common to casually discuss the millions of people who are dying from hunger and then to rationalise it as their ‘karma’, which unconsciously exempts our lack of concern and disregards our collective complicity. What is evil, after all, without our freely chosen identification with its manifestation? Karma is, in reality, a dynamic expression of love and freedom, and by its definition gives every person the right to live, learn and grow. This basic fact starkly illustrates how our personalities have been shaped into a vulgar phenomenon through complacency and indifference, when we would rather intellectualise the needless starvation of our brothers and sisters by even blaming it on their souls. People who like to turn ideas into isms are liable to see humanity itself as an idea, but the child who is dying from hunger is not the subject of an academic study called hunger-ism.

The truth, if we can face it, is that to allow a person to die from hunger in a world of plenty is the greatest sin there is, and it is a sin that we all commit through our complacency on a worldwide basis. If you accept that every living being is part of God, and God is evolving Life, then to deny a person from meeting their basic needs is to deny them the right not only to survive, but to freely evolve. The freedom of a soul to evolve on Earth and express itself through a personality is the basis of morality, the basis of responsibility, the basis of everything that is. The end result of our identification with isms is therefore tragic to behold: we have effectively globalised our complacency and indifference; we have held back the expansion of human consciousness; and we have allowed history to repeat itself again and again, while the intelligence of man has taken a disastrous wrong turn from the benign forces of evolution.

An impossible conversation

How then can we bring about an awareness that sharing is the solution to humanity’s problems, and our last remaining hope for rehabilitating a divided world? Even to have this conversation requires us to be open-minded and aware, otherwise there is no humanity inside our thinking but only ideology. On the one hand we are conditioned by market forces that have penetrated every aspect of our lives, to the point that many of us now equate profit with the common good. And on the other hand, we are conditioned by the forces of politics that lead us to equate sharing with the ideology of socialism or communism, until the idea of sharing resources between nations is considered ‘utopianism’ or plain nonsense. Can we perceive the enormity of the problem when we ourselves identify with any number of isms and beliefs – so many that, if we could look at ourselves impartially, we would be surprised and even scared? Our perception is so clouded and fragmented by isms that we hardly know what it means to have an honest and sincere response to life, or to appreciate the freedom of being inwardly detached and aware.

So how then can we leave our house and bring about our so-called revolution when we live in a society that is based on isms, when we are not educated to serve or love humanity, and when we are not encouraged to care for one another as we care for ourselves? Am I going to help you because I am a socialist or a Christian, or because you are my brother and you need my help, because you desperately need some food and shelter? If I knew what justice really meant without any distortion through isms and beliefs, would I shout in the streets for ‘my rights’ and justice for myself – or would I demand justice for the dying poor and hungry of the world?

Rather incongruously, it is also due to mass public complacency that some isms are forced to come into existence, such as the environmentalist who fights for the rights of nature and future generations. If the whole of humanity was moving in tune with the need to save our planet, there would be no such thing as environmentalism; there would only be a united people’s voice that embraces a simpler and more sustainable way of life. Similarly, if everyone was active in transforming our world for the better there would be no concept of ‘activism’ and no difference between the activist and the rest of society; there would only be the one humanity in which everyone lives in service to the common good of all.

We urgently need a new kind of education that can help us to inculcate awareness and Self-knowledge, which is a prodigious undertaking in a world that is not grounded in a spiritual understanding of life. To talk of right education is impossible without considering the problem of isms, of mind conditioning, of wrong identification with beliefs, and of the need for harmlessness, inner balance and freedom. Education, in the truest sense, is a dictionary of the Laws of Life that should prepare every person to evolve within their own uniqueness and creativity, and thereby enable them to express the beauty of being who they truly are. Commercialisation has done a good job of trying to eliminate right education in every way, because it knows that Self-knowledge represents a brick wall that it stands no chance of getting through. Not even love, but simply knowledge of the Self would be enough to challenge the structural foundations of our unequal world. It is Self-knowledge alone that leads to contemplation, detachment, and the overcoming of fear and psychological insecurity.

Yet this is such a monumental task in a world that is overridden by isms and social divisions that we have no time to reform our education systems and teach the young along the right lines, at least before the destruction of our planet becomes irreversible. Hence right education in the context of a sick and combustible society means simply to come out of our complacency and to be aware. In many respects we are not to blame, we were all born into a culture that is spiritually blind and woefully misguided, but to experience Self-awareness is enough to permanently change our consciousness and liberate us from mind conditioning. To perceive the reality of our true spiritual nature for even a moment is so powerful that its effect will always remain with us, will never be lost and will never end. We previously reasoned that the atheist cannot exist without a contesting belief in God, but even the belief in God has to be let go of eventually, to be replaced with Self-knowledge and awareness of the One Life that is eternal and omnipresent.

Our only hope of escape

In the long term, there can be no escape from the problem of isms until the education of humanity is fundamentally developed along more spiritual (not religious) lines, whereby each person is equipped with the basic teaching and inner guidance needed to practise the art of living. At the same time, however, the entire edifice of our economy must be structurally transformed in order to ensure that every man, woman and child is guaranteed access to their basic needs for sustaining life. When there is a material basis for trust and security in society alongside a universal teaching in the Laws of Life, there will be no further need for people to identify with and proliferate the manifold isms in all their forms. This may suggest that humanity needs much more time to rise above the morass of conflicting ideologies and beliefs, considering the unprecedented transformation of society that is necessary to reform all the laws and structures that maintain an unjust economic order. Time is clearly necessary, but alas within that time we are all involved in perpetuating a crime against humanity – a continuing tragedy in which thousands of people are dying each day from preventable diseases and poverty.

Herein lies the dire conundrum: we cannot blame our governments for humanity’s problems when we ourselves are not aware of the urgency of the world situation, and continue to remain complacent and indifferent. The government may sustain a divisive belief, but we are more to blame for our ‘belief in a belief’ which leads us to remain passive in the face of appalling human suffering. And even if we ourselves are suffering from our own government’s policies, our complacency is such that there may be no change within our consciousness if our financial situation returns back to normal. Time is therefore necessary for humanity to grow in Self-awareness, but alas within that time appalling crimes are being perpetrated against humanity and the Earth for which we are all collectively responsible.

The only hope that we have for implementing the principle of sharing into world affairs is for ordinary people to centre their awareness in the heart. It is the mind that misguides us by blocking the attributes of the heart through isms and conditioning, but our heart is always waiting for its moment to communicate with us. The heart cannot communicate with our minds; it can only communicate from heart to heart. And because the minds of humanity have become so domineering, constantly trying to take us over, the heart is left helplessly silent until the mind finds balance and reason, as we have already noted above. At this point the heart is activated and speaks not verbally but through the expression of its attributes which, as anyone knows, are defined by such qualities as generosity, sharing, benevolence, and of course love.

The heart doesn’t think or calculate like the mind with its manipulative intentions, although it has a wisdom that is incomparable to mere intellect of whatever degree. There is not even such a thing as a ‘pure’ heart, despite outward appearances when we encounter a person whose outlook is not unduly polluted and conditioned; there is only the one heart per se with its intrinsic attributes. Either the heart is engaged, or it is silent. Like a new-born baby is just a baby, and cannot be considered ‘bad’ or ‘cold’, the heart is always just a heart. No doubt if we tell the successful businessman to ‘just use your heart’ he will dismiss us as being naïve and simpleminded, yet even he engages its attributes when falling in love, and perchance generously shares his wealth with the object of his affection.

How strange and sad it is to observe the flippancy with which we treat the great attributes of the heart in our present-day culture, and how we likewise consider the principle of sharing to be so trivial and inconsequential. The reader will have to wait to see what happens once the hearts of humanity are activated on a global scale, because the heart cannot be mobilised on the basis of an ism that is ‘against’, or on behalf of ‘my rights’ or justice for myself, but only on the basis of the good of all. All this writer can say is that at such a time, if we can envision millions of people on the streets together demanding that our governments share the resources of the world, then we will recognise the presence of soul purpose in the coalescing people’s voice. And that is when isms will begin to be cancelled from the contents of our minds.

Sharing is who we are

For this reason it is extremely important that we should not demonstrate in the streets for an idea, but rather for who we are. There is no political party or ism that can give a solution to our civilizational crisis, because the answer belongs to the people of the world. It is good and necessary to have ideas for reforming our political, economic and social structures, but it is the people of the world who will express those answers through an engaged heart and massed goodwill. So you cannot come along and say ‘I have the solution’, because only ‘we’ have the solution through a united people’s voice. Even to come along and ask others ‘what should I do?’ is to remain unaware and heedless, because there is no ‘I’ or personality involved in the rise of ordinary people with a single voice – there is only thinking of the group and humanity as a whole, which naturally leads to commensurate right action.

First must come the public awareness that sharing is the last resort for humanity, as expressed through a heart awakening to a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude, and only then can we foresee the implementation of that awareness through inter-governmental policies and massive civic engagement. There is no other prospect of our governments coming together in a cooperative effort to rescue the world, and to share resources on the basis of an emergency because they have tried every other route over hundreds of years, and now there is no other way out. We already see nations borrowing financial resources from other nations in these times of economic upheaval, so why can’t governments also help each other in terms of food and other material resources, as well as through shared knowledge, technical capacity and expertise? With our combined human ingenuity and rapid technological advancements, can we really not work out an international plan at the United Nations for how to help each country feed and care for all its people, and then give that reciprocal help on a permanent and structural basis without any need of interest, profit or strategic advantage?

There is no ‘ism’ in such economic and political arrangements if the principle of sharing is allowed to underpin human society, by this means freeing pressure and competition between one nation and another. The effect of implementing a process of sharing within and between nations will be to put the ideologies of capitalism and socialism in their right place, so that they can finally work in unison together. It will also enable us to look at the world’s problems without the energy of being ‘against’, but only ‘for’; and it will guide us to acknowledge that capitalism is a needed tool in an innovative economy, as much as socialism is a necessary instrument for meeting the basic needs of all. Only once we have implemented a process of sharing across the world can we perceive how this universal principle is the antidote to ancient social problems and national rivalries, for sharing also means freedom from conflict brought about by the above isms. And once we recognise that the interminable fight of isms and beliefs has sunken humanity to the point of evolving very slowly, we are already close to understanding how sharing the world’s resources will speed the way ahead.

Therefore it is imperative to intuit the energetic alignment that exists between soul purpose and the principle of sharing, which our mind conditioning and wrong identification with beliefs has clouded for millennia. To meditate on one’s existence at this critical hour will enable us to realise the actuality that sharing is who we are, which will naturally inspire us once again to appreciate the beauty of being human on the ladder of evolving consciousness. Deep in our shared unconscious lies the knowledge that humanity is one, which is a truth that has remained hidden within each individuality for countless lifetimes. The principle of sharing is well equipped to transfer this fact from the unconscious to the conscious mind via the centre of the heart (fused with reason), which in the end will lead humanity to an amazed and humbling realisation: that we should have implemented this principle into world affairs a long, long time ago.

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http://www.sharing.org/information-centre/articles/discourse-isms-and-principle-sharing

Mohammed Mesbahi is STWR's founder.

This article was based on a series of dialogues and edited by Adam Parsons, who can be contacted at adam[at]stwr[dot]org. - See more at: http://www.sharing.org/information-centre/articles/discourse-isms-and-principle-sharing#sthash.vIaCGzA1.dpuf