Our sense of community in the U.S. is being lost and this is most obvious when we look at what other advanced democracies have achieved. In nations where public funds are used to pay for elections instead of private donors and PACs, lawmakers are free to respond to the needs of all voters from all economic classes not just the oligarchs.
“Strict gun safety laws, not dictated by gun maker lobbyists, increase kids’ chances of living out their life spans. Child care benefits enable both moms and dads to work and raise stable families. Health care is guaranteed for all, without excessive profits to insurance and medical businesses. Higher education is subsidized, so graduates are free from huge college debt. Youths can get job apprenticeships in high schools, gaining skills to earn a living. Unions are accepted.” We have just read a description of communities where compassion is more in evidence than it is in the U.S.
Because of our immersion in P-B and the apparent reality of the world of form, including our own bodies, as the ultimate expression of our identity, the experience of our world seems anything but perfect. Probably few of us will be able to transcend this delusion but for those who can “feel” P-A when entering the ineffable present moment, we will not doubt our experience and we will have the insights to banish any doubt. One of the principles undergirding P-A is that of compassion, that is to say, serving and caring for others (including the other.) In our community today, if we are alert, we can see the evidence of our neighbors’ compassion being made manifest.
Compassion, one of the inherent aspects of the inner wisdom possessed by every human being often lies dormant because the American narrative is more supportive of the behaviors surrounding the pursuit of plenty, pleasure and power, and competition over cooperation. But any of us can experience the insights of an awakening True self and change from reactive to responsive behaviors. For example, Barbara Bush, the daughter of President George W. Bush, was arrested for underage drinking in 2001. (Her father had surrendered to the same temptation during his “formative” years.)
We all come to many crossroads during our lifetimes and these are opportunities for a change in direction if not a shift in paradigm. Enough of these conscious choices, electing a response instead of a reaction, can add up to an awakening, a profound transformation in both our story and our identity.
In 2003, Barbara Bush accompanied her father on a trip to Africa. She was shocked by the human toll of AIDS in Uganda. This was her crossroads opportunity. She could have continued her narrative of self-medication expressing the sensation energy center of her false self. Instead of staying focused on her personal pain and suffering she “felt” the possibility of the genuine satisfaction in helping others.
“So she returned to Yale and took health classes, and then quietly took a job (while her father was still in the White House) in a South African hospital, often working with children with AIDS.” With five friends, she started Global Health Corps. She became chief executive at age 26. Today (2015) Global Health Corps receives 6,000 applications for less than 150 positions.
“‘I’m a big fan of the Global Health Corps,’ said Dr. Peter Piot, who helped discover Ebola and later ran the United Nations program on AIDS. ‘They engage nonmedical people in global health’—and that, he said, is a central challenge of health care worldwide.”
Whatever Americans think of the controversial presidency of “W,” his best legacy may be the example he set for his daughter in expressing his own True self. He responded to the AIDS crisis with his program called Pepfar which has saved millions of lives. Why are acts of compassion and programs like those started by Barbara Bush and her father not more common in the American community?
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in the Simple Reality books:
Where Am I? Story – The First Great Question
Who Am I? Identity – The Second Great Question
Why Am I Here? Behavior – The Third Great Question
Science & Philosophy: The Failure of Reason in the Human Community
