Swami for Precedent

Precedential Plank Two
Improve Reality!
From Original Sin to Humanifest Destiny
“Why don’t we go for heaven on Earth — just for the hell of it?”

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, a high-ranking military official inadvertently told the truth when he blamed the attack on “a failure of human intelligence.” Truer words have rarely been spoken. With all of the spiritual wisdom and technical know-how available to us to create peace and plenty on this planet, why do we spend so much of our precious livelihood on weapons of deadlihood? No wonder the ‘hood is so deadly. Not much applied human intelligence there!

Which Wolf Are We Feeding?
I have good news. There will indeed be peace on earth. Whether we humans are around to enjoy it is up to us. Because we have free choice. There is the story of the Native American grandfather who tells his grandson about two wolves fighting inside of him. One is the wolf of love and peace, the other the wolf of fear and warfare. “Which wolf will win, grandfather?” asks the boy. “Whichever one I feed,” the grandfather replies.

Humanifest Destiny
Right now, we have two dueling dualities offering opposing worldviews: Original Sin vs. Humanifest Destiny. There are those who insist that humans are natural born losers who can only be saved by the Grace of God. Others who believe in the human potential movement insist that despite all the contrary evidence, we do indeed have the potential to be human. Since I myself am a happy medium, I come down squarely in the middle. I believe in creationism and in evolution, that God created us humans with the ability to evolve in consciousness. Otherwise, Jesus would have said, “Now don’t do a thing till I return.” Instead, he (and all of the other great spiritual teachers) instructed us to “Love Thy Neighbor” and live by the Golden Rule.

Thrival, Not Survival
So we get to choose which reality we feed. We can live our love, or live our fear. We can play what R. Buckminster Fuller called the World Game — using our resources and imagination to create a world that works for everyone — or continue down the familiar path of “I win/you lose” and end up playing the End-of-theWorld-Game. Survival? Been there, done that. Our spiritual teachings — not to mention common sense — tell us that we humans are destined for something better — thrival. E Pluribus Unum Time to get our World Game faces on, folks. Time to apply ourselves to a goal bigger than us, and choose a game worthy of REAL human intelligence. America has a powerful motto: E Pluribus Unum — out of many, One. The complete thrival of all the individual cells of the body politic making one healthy whole. Free individuals pursuing their happiness while using the Golden Rule as an operating principle to improve reality. Who needs a bailout from above? This is do-it-yourself home planet improvement — supply-side spirituality!

But Seriously, Folks . . . After all the philosophy, the religion, the soul-searching, does it really come down to “It’s either you or me”?

Is this what our spiritual teachings teach us?

Is this the best we humans can do?

What if all the people in the world took a vote, and did what all the religions of the world — in principle — have been imploring us to do for millennia: No killing. No stealing. No false witness. What if we started with just these three, okay?

We can see how we do with these, and if we feel the need to add on any more basic rules, fine. But right now, just these three. How many people worldwide would vote to uphold and practice those three? How many would say, “No! We want to continue killing?” Good. That makes things a lot easier. Let’s find these people, gather them on a remote island, and put US out of their misery.

Exerpted from Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction. Order your copy here