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Originally Posted by richag77
It seems to me that when indigenous tribes come into the modern age when they are dragged into it when they contact our modern civilization that they all seem to suffer in ways that they did not prior to this modernization. Some examples of this are the substance abuse by Australian aborigines, native Americans and Inuit peoples. In Australia, the high rate of domestic violence in indigenous societies is alcohol fueled. The suicide rate among young aboriginals is very high.
Is this because they are displaced from their familiar cultural lands and customs and have been placed in a sort of cultural limbo? Or is it like a friend of mine says that they do not have to struggle to provide for their basic needs and have too much time on their hands and use alcohol as a sort of recreational pastime?
In other words is it a release from emotional pain or merely a lack of responsibility and creativity?
I welcome others comments.
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Who we truly are is INFINITELY beyond ANY conception of race, ethnicity, or complexion....and yet is even "...closer to Thee than hands and feet; nearer to Thee than breath." Or skin.
The true answer to this question, in this or in ANY society, is exactly the same. Ever since mankind's advent on the Earth, virtually the ENTIRETY of our concepts and ideas concerning existence, governmental enterprise, art, war, medicine, science, economics, philosophy, metaphilosophy, religion and RACE has suffered under a SINGLE flaw in our conception. What is this singular flaw ? It is the ubiquitous, erroneous belief that man is merely is a physical being, whose primary purpose on this Earth is to avoid, mitigate, delay, prevent or cause what He thinks of as the death of the body !
THIS is what we’ve taught ourselves. THIS is what we’ve taught our children, because....
WE HAVE FORGOTTEN WHO WE, AND EACH OTHER, ARE !!
It is ironic that Man, usually comes to the knowledge that he can only be the perfect Creation He was created to be AFTER having amassed an advanced maturity of years of pain and suffering in ignoble ignorance of the greatness of His true estate.
It is NOT supposed to be this way.....
What does this have to do with your question ?
It is from THIS height of understanding that we have ALL fallen down.
It is because of this very flaw in our conception of ourselves that Mankind usually comes to the knowledge that He can only be the perfect Creation He was created to be AFTER having amassed an advanced maturity of years of pain and suffering in ignoble ignorance of the greatness of His true estate, ENSLAVED BY HIS OWN HAND AND MIND to false ideas about the immutable Truth of Himself.
What is the immutable, eternal Truth of us ?
As author Baird Spalding says in the 1st reference, ”Becoming aware of yourself as a spiritual being, offspring of an infinite spiritual system and one with all the powers and capacities within that system, is the very essence of attainment. To grow from the present state of awareness of himself as a material being and into the consciousness that he is a spiritual being contains the full secret of man's attainment.'
"Love thy neighbor as thyself"....because thy neighbor IS Thyself.
Know Thyself.....as endowed with the most precious and virtuous of gifts from the One Who loves us so much that He has freely given us the infinite power of His Own Spirit to love Him, and each other, in return...as ourselves, for ourselves, by OUR choice....
....or NOT.
"I and the Father are One"....is just as true of you as it is of all your Brothers and Sisters....HOWEVER they appear, WHEREVER their birthplace is on the Earth, or WHATEVER they call themselves or you.
Whether as adults, scientists, theologians, philosophers, laypersons, or children, we may look at the world WITH our eyes, but we actually “see” it, and ourselves, THROUGH our ideas (eye-deas !) Culture is the habitual behavior of ideas as practiced by individuals, who form larger groups, whose actions are writ large as those groups identify themselves as a civilization. As the individual’s ideas about him/her self change, so does the culture in which the individual resides, which in turn affects the groups that form the civilization. How do these ideas become part of a culture? We, as transmitters and receivers of meaning in our various languages, are taught, from childhood on, to AGREE upon the assignment of meaning. THAT'S how culture is learned, including our ideas ABOUT each other pertaining to selfhood, race, and existance....for good AND ill.
Idea by idea. Individual by individual.
Our Creator did NOT create human beings as Romans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants; Hindu, “untouchable” dalits, atheists, apologetic, apathetic, orthodox, secular; light skinned, dark skinned; believers, infidels, saved, unsaved or any other designations or philosophies that we associate with these OR ANY OTHER names. We are NOT the names we call ourselves, though we mistakenly act as if we were. Such designations, erroneously believed and acted upon as if relevant, only serve to hide the truth that our Creator created each one of us OF HIS VERY SPIRIT AND AS HIS IMAGE. Though WE may have forgotten Who we, and each other are, we are yet Sons and Daughters of the Most High. Again, we are Who the Creator is in Spirit....not subservient adherents to whatever religion or philosophy, belief, or race we profess to include ourselves.
There is yet a path awaiting us, even unto this very day, which would indeed revolutionize the way we live....and which would eclipse the industrial and information ages by many orders of magnitude. As the industrial revolution was built upon a renaissance of ideas, so would this path, except that, this time, the new path would be based upon a renaissance of Man, himself.
How to rise ? You don't change the culture. You change erroneous ideas about yourself within YOU. Then, and ONLY then, can you BE THE CHANGE you've discovered as truth within.... for YOURSELF. Others, within themselves, decide FOR THEMSELVES, to accept or reject the idea they perceive you presenting as Truth. For instance: do the Heavens still revolve around the Earth? Not after Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. Are time and space separate from one another? Not after Einstein. Did you get your vaccines this year? Thanks to Pasteur you did. Is the Earth still flat? Ask Ericson, Columbus or Magellan for the answer. Do you have to study your science homework or read the scriptures of whatever faith you profess in the dark? Not after a little help from Gutenburg and Edison. You can readily see the impact of individuals with new ideas helping other individuals change THEIR ideas about these things, which eventually results in the civilization changing, right?
It is only AFTER we've changed our own erroneous beliefs about normality that we can objectively see that what becames the "new" normal.....has ALWAYS BEEN THE TRUE NORMAL waiting for us to discover it all the while !! Our subjective beliefs about what is "normal" must then be seen to be SELF-IMPOSED, and if self-imposed...THEY MUST BE SELF-REMOVED !!
The impact of changed ideas on culture and civilization doesn’t end with truths that others found THAT WERE JUST WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED. What would you think the impact would be on a civilization if the individuals who comprised it found the ‘truth that set them free’?
I believe we have been just as mistaken to miss the truth about ourselves as Spiritual Beings, as earlier civilizations were about those previously mentioned ideas that were erroneously considered true. That is, until someone, like a Galileo, or Magellan or Einstein, or Jesus reveals the error in our thinking.
After flawed ideas have been proven wrong so many times, it should be obvious that the principles of Life operate perfectly, without the slightest deviation, variation, or attenuation at ANY time or in ANY place for ANYBODY! If ALL the principles these people discovered were in perfect operation just as eternally BEFORE as AFTER their discovery and application, this has to include spiritual principles.
What would such a civilization whose culture UNDERSTOOD, TRANSMITTED, AND ACTED UPON TRUE PRINCIPLES BE LIKE?
As Baird Spalding wrote, ' training children to react to constructive ideals and band together to promote harmony, developing the mass instinct in this way, would destroy the root of all unhappiness, misery, want, and war in the world.'
Such a civilization, comprised of adults and children, who understood that they, created as immortal Spiritual Beings, operating under perfect, eternally unchangeable principles, would be nearly unrecognizable.
Almost as unrecognizable as our present civilization would be to those whose ideas and lives helped profoundly change our false views.
Unrecognizable, perhaps, but waiting to be discovered as true, nevertheless!
The Creator Himself IS the VERY pattern by which mankind was made. Jesus' message and reason for coming to this earthly dimension was to show us, in as stark, as uncompromising, and as definitive a manner as possible, that we are as He is, which is as our Creator endowed us all to be, and that is as immortal, Spiritual beings who are the Spirit and Image of our Creator. We are NOT physical beings. We are Spiritual Beings like He is! Our Father created Jesus just as He created us...the exact Spirit and Likeness of Himself. We are PERFECTLY CREATED SPIRITUAL BEINGS, who have forgotten Who we are.
Here’s another truth: “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. When you understand, as Jesus revealed, that the Kingdom of Heaven is right within you, and has ALWAYS BEEN, then IT IS at hand, isn't it?
Not after you die!!
Right where you are, READING THESE WORDS!!
Now imagine, as He does, each of us living
as a culture of individuals who understand, transmit and act upon the idea that our Divine heritage as immortal Spiritual Beings, created
of the very Spirit and
as Image of our Creator....is
....Truth, right at hand, awaiting our conscious RE-cognition to apply, this very moment !!
Hope this, and the references below, helps us toward that discovery...
Reference: Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East Volumes 1 - 6 by Baird T. Spalding
Reference:
http://www.thechristmind.org/iamthat.htm
Reference:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174590
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