I like to imagine that all of the suffering in the world caused by humanity could be solved if we were able to see things - really see them - from the perspective of another: another individual, personality type, gender, economic class, culture, race, or species. And what if this "other" included ourselves - and the planet - in another century or two? Imagine what would happen if we could actually become the other - even for just an hour - and then return once again to ourselves with that transformed awareness? And every time we forgot that insight, what if the vision would return to us once again - full-force? Would we ever again be capable of hurting another - or the earth? Envision how such enlightenment would empower us to work for justice and peace in the world! It seems to me that the root of our problems is not primarily a moral shortcoming, but a perceptual one. When it comes to this sort of enlightenment, we are all like infants. It should, I believe, be the goal of all true spirituality to work for this kind of perceptual shift.
Photo: Sunset at Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, October 28, 2011
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