Man in the Mirror*

No message could have been any clearer: if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change ~ Sung/Performed by Michael Jackson

Whisperia is a weekly email newsletter that helps readers attune to the Self, to spirit and to the divine. It’s free! To receive this weekly encouragement, hit the Subscribe button!

Image: Whisperia/NightCafe

Someone I recently spoke with said, “Thank goodness Trump was elected. Things are going to get much better...”

I didn’t respond, I merely smiled, while mentally querying: How will things be better? What things will be better?

I remember back in 2008, when Barack Obama was elected. Quite a few people I worked with at that time made similar statements: It’s wonderful that Obama was elected! Things are going to get so much better! Our first African-American President - things are going to be great!

What do you think? Did the world become a better place while Obama was President? Do you believe the world is going to become a better place once Trump takes office?

After the “people’s revolution” in Russia, many Russians believed the world would become a better place for them. Under Lenin, many were massacred, properties were stolen, homes were burnt, people were deported, interrogated and imprisoned. It wasn’t long until confiscations of lands (especially farms), engineered famine, another World War, and purges took place under Stalin. According to Professor Norman Naimark, “Stalin had nearly one million Russian citizens executed, others became victims under forced labor, deportation, massacres and under interrogation.” (1) Ordinary people in Russia (then, the Soviet Union) would most likely say that the world had not become a better place.

The Chinese have had their communist revolution. Is the world a better place for them? Perhaps we could start by looking at what has been and is still being perpetrated against those who practice Falun Gong or Falun Dafa. This is a spiritual practice that combines ancient teachings for self-improvement with meditation exercises. It focuses on compassion, truthfulness, and forbearance. Since 1999, the Chinese government, afraid of its own inability to control its population, began mercilessly persecuting Falun Gong practitioners with torture, imprisonment, mass murder and even organ harvesting. It is doubtful that these people would say that China is a better place since the communist revolution.

These are just a few examples, but over and over again, throughout history, we see groups of people in diverse places who thought that the world would become a better place if there could be a new leader, a new or different form of government, a religious institution guiding the hand of the nation, or a different economic system, etc., etc.

Let’s not look to elections, politicians, governments, religious leaders, churches, intellectuals, schools, scientists, universities, artists or anyone outside ourselves as a source to make the world a better place. The only way the world can become a better place is if each of us, individually, makes a choice to make the world a better place. We can do so by making decisions in the midst of the circumstances of our daily lives to act with love and compassion.

It may be said that, in our time, criticism and condemnation are the most common forms of expression. They are the easiest forms of expression, requiring the least amount of energy and diligence. It takes little effort to direct one’s gaze outside oneself in order to examine the actions and words of others. From there, one may haughtily judge, mistakenly believing they’ve divined the thoughts and motives of others. Even worse, after having judged and condemned others in one’s mind, to dehumanize them, counting them unworthy of respect and dignity.

Instead, let’s turn our gaze inward. Let’s work energetically at ourselves. If, while looking inward, we cultivate an attitude of reverence and respect, perhaps we’ll come away with a greater love, a greater compassion, and a greater sense of caring for those roundabout us. This cannot be done by studying, but can only be done through our everyday lives. (2)

Michael Jackson released an inspiring song in the late 1980s entitled, “Man in the Mirror.” Beyond his electrifying vocal performance, the lyrics are inspiring. I hope you’ll take a moment to listen to this song and to allow it to shed light on a particular sense of purpose.

As long as we look outside ourselves, we will continue to falsely place responsibility outside ourselves. We can judge and criticize what others are doing or not doing and we can blame them for the state in which we find our world.

No, let’s start with ourselves.

Look in the mirror. Who do you see? That is the person who can make the world a better place. Whose lives do we touch? With whom do we come in contact each day? With whom do we live? For whom do we say we care? Is there someone we see each day on our way to work? Is there a person we work with who would benefit from our compassion? Is there someone we can help, even if it seems only in a small way? Let’s start here.

Let’s start within.

Until next time,

K. M. Anderson

PhD, Metaphysics

PhD, Spiritual Counseling

Whisperia

Notes

1. Stalin’s Genocides, by Naimark, Norman M., Princeton University Press, 2011.

2. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, by Steiner, Rudolf, CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014.