Lesson 18: I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.
So far, the previous lessons have focused on us as individuals and how we perceive – or misperceive – the world. Today’s lesson invites us to expand our view and know that what we experience out here in the world isn’t just for us alone – others are experiencing the world we are creating. Why? Because, as the lesson says, “all minds are joined.”
This is the big “collective consciousness” all the woo-woo purveyors speak of – except, of course, it really does exist. We humans are joined in our minds – and when one of us sees a world of fear, greed, hunger and war, we all experience it. Perhaps in different ways, but what has entered one mind has entered all minds.
The idea of “all minds are joined” is to say that there is a field of energy to which we all belong – a place of divine unity where we create on an individual level, but also at a collective level. Since we have free will, we choose what we create – a world of fear, or a world of love.
Sociologist Emilie Durkheim coined the term “collective consciousness” in the 19th century in reference to industrial societies and explained it as: “The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of a society.” Societies displayed an “organic solidarity” he wrote, driven especially by religion and social infrastructure.
What he describes is how we create this bodily world – based on beliefs, based on opinions, based on judgment and perception. We create not just our personal world this way, but the collective world through shared beliefs in competition, lack, greed, fear, violence and despair.
If we can collectively create this ego-driven world, then it stands to reason we can create a totally different world – one based on love, abundance, equity, peace and joy.
In this ego world, we need contrast to perceive a miracle. We need to see the suffering, the anxiety, the despair of the world so that we can perceive the peace, ease and joy that we can create instead.
The Muslim poet Hafiz likens our collective egoic predicament as a “skinned knee,” one we needed to experience to awaken us to the truth that all minds are shared.
“Since the Beloved is involved in everything,
it has to be this way:
“The skinned knee is better off for having ached.
“And a face that has known a tear’s movement,
it may not show right away any signs of change,
“but a magnificent inner canyon is being formed
from the currents of sacred elements touching –
shaping us.
“When will tenderness reign? When will love govern?
There is a court you rule that affects any you near,
so you tell me.”
This is the point of today’s lesson: We rule the court here in this bodily world. We keep asking when tenderness and love will govern this world. That day is entirely up to us. Because all minds are joined – if we dedicate our minds to thoughts of peace, love, joy and compassion, then our reality will soon be filled with them.
Again, this is not spiritual, positive thinking, woo-woo. It’s hard work for us to overturn our belief in the ego’s insistence that the world is a horrible place of suffering that we have no power to change. It’s not easy for us to believe that love can overcome fear – but it can. This is the importance of all of the lessons – to train our minds to stop believing the lies the ego constantly tells. It’s not easy work – but it only works if we’re willing to have our minds changed and believe those changes can affect the collective consciousness.
Hafiz continues:
“Some great thermal force is within us that
can warm
and comfort many.”
That “great thermal force” is the
presence of the true, divine Self within all of us. When we understand that all
minds are joined, and we train ourselves to properly use our thoughts, we will
not just “warm and comfort many,” we will save the entire world.
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