So much of our despair comes from cooperating with a system we know to be evil. When we know the right thing to do, but don’t do it, our heart closes even if we are successful. When we know the right thing to do, and do it, our heart opens even if we are defeated.
If you had a choice between betraying humanity so you could make more money, or emptying your life into a hopeless cause that would forever enrich humankind which path would you take? If walking the noble path gave us a great heart, would any betrayal of our cause be worth what we exchanged our heart for?
It is a paradox, but when we live for ourselves alone we lose our own human hearts. When we numb ourselves to the world’s pain we are like flowers that have closed themselves to the sun. It’s very much as if the people on a sinking ship decided to waterproof their own cabins instead of working together to face their common danger.
What we reap we will sow. There is no invisible hand of the market, there is no political pendulum that will swing us back to sanity if we do not take responsibility for our world. If we keep going in the direction we are headed, that’s where we will end up. Is that good news or bad news? It depends on what we do, doesn’t it? Can we come together as a species knowing it may be too late? Can we scream from the rooftops and work and meditate on behalf of humankind, knowing that it may be useless?
Sometimes ant mounds get invaded. Sometimes the queen is killed or removed. There is quite a bit of turmoil when this happens. Sometimes the mound is able to gain a new queen, but often the mound dies. What happens in either case is that the ant soldiers still soldier, the ant farmers still farm, the ant workers still work. If they all die, they die in their roles. They die in harness. They die doing their duty.
Our species faces many grave perils. It is possible we will be able to pull out of them, but we don’t need to know that in order to do our duty to humankind. Just because we look and see what appears to be an apocalypse coming does not mean we have to endure one second of despair in terms of our own duty. There is a power and a joy and a sense of value that comes from committing to do our duty no matter what. It’s our best shot to get out of the crisis, but even if that doesn’t happen, it’s is the only way we can earn life’s greatest treasure- a living human heart.