People in the news are demanding that the general populace change their lifestyle radically to accommodate what they call climate change. Does everyone know where their demands are leading? Let’s think things through before we demand that everyone change. Global warming ~ what does it mean? I have heard some different ideas but still I don’t have a clear understanding. I heard that Florida is going to be under water in 30 years. That’s pretty drastic.
Do people realize that in order to change what is happening to earth right now they are going to have to make some fundamental changes in their lives. Most people are pretty attached to what they have going on right now. We like to buy food from the supermarket because most of us don’t have the time, knowledge or knowhow to grow our own food. We don’t want factories because they pollute and add to our problems. But we like to buy our toothpaste in tubes, our toilet paper in rolls and our shampoo in plastic bottles. In order to get rid of the pollutions of the factories we would all have to make our own shampoo and toothpaste and soap. Are you personally ready to do that?
Basically from what I have observed people don’t like change but they also want the world to stay pristine and clear of pollution for our children and their children. Something has got to give in this scenario. We can’t have it both ways. We either change our fundamental lifestyles or we are going to deal with the consequences.
Like our dependence on oil in our daily lives. Are we willing to go through what it would take to stop using oil? Are we all willing to get electric cars and do the necessary things that go along with that? Let’s think about how are lifestyles would change before we make extreme demands.
And what about giving up the eating of meat? This is something that we could be trying to do if we are really serious about changing to protect the environment from devastation. But these things are radical for most people to even contemplate. I have been a vegetarian for almost 50 years and have enjoyed much better health then previously when I ate meat. I know what kind of impact the eating meat has on the planet but I don’t think most people are willing to give it up. It is like a part of their traditions, an integral part of their lifestyle.
At one point in my younger days I thought that I didn’t really need anything and so I renounced everything all at once. I soon realized that I had very strong desires that were not just going away. I lived in a deserted sugar cane factory on the Big Island of Hawaii. The town was called Capitan Cook. I had nothing to sleep on and only the clothes on my back. I thought I would live on whatever came to me~~ if nothing came I would just not eat. I thought that I could forage for food, avocados, oranges whatever I could find.
The demands of my body and mind became stronger and stronger each day until I could not control or overcome them anymore. I realized that if we are to try to control our senses and live a simpler lifestyle we must have a higher more palatable experience to replace all of the sensual experiences we are now having.
I returned to my old lifestyle but still I was searching for something more lasting and satisfying than what I was experiencing~~which while it was temporarily satisfying me, it wouldn’t last, and when it was over, I was again left empty.
I guess that old adage really applies which is: Seek and ye shall find. I searched and looked and finally found the Absolute Truth, which is what I was looking for. So it was the starting point of my personal spiritual journey. Earlier, I had found all kinds of relative truths which always changed with the passing of time. But this Absolute Truth had existed for all eternity and never changes. People always try to change it but because it was passed down via disciple succession, by the pure devotees of God, it remains unchanged.
And so I searched out a bona-fide spiritual teacher and learned a method for attaining this spiritual position that transcends the material and takes one to the spiritual world.
I now have a means to take me to the point of living a simpler lifestyle and I am able to give up the sense pleasure I once found so necessary to survive.
I have a method by which I can transcend the emptiness of this material wasteland and experience the higher happiness while still remaining in this world entangled in this mortal frame.
