Liturgies

Monday, September 9th 2013

What do we need to do, to heal the world?

By Terry Fitzpatrick

It is interesting that this is our gospel reading on the night/day we consider and choose leadership in our country.
A day when we ask : what are my values, what is best for us all, what and who will I choose?

Almost every major religion or spiritual practice puts a low value of having or hoarding possessions- having and possessing more than we need.
I love the Indian story about the Zen master Ryokan.

The master Ryokan lived in a poor little hut on a mountainside. One moonlit night he came home and found a burglar looking for something to steal. But Ryokan was a hermit who owned nothing. Poor fellow, he said to the robber. You have come a long way and found nothing. But I don't want you to leave me empty-handed. Please take my clothes. And Ryokan stripped, and handed the clothes to the robber. Poor fellow, said naked Ryokan, going outdoors again when the inconsiderate robber had left, How I wish I could have given him this wonderful moon.

I am not sure I could do that, but I would hope there is a place within me, in my truest parts, my essence, that I could do this.

Tom_Shadyac_fit_300x300Recently I watched a documentary called "I AM" by Tom Shadyac a famous Hollywood movie director ( of movies including Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty and the Nutty Professor) who had made it big time. He made lots of money, bought big houses, many cars, planes, etc.

One day he was out riding his bike when he came off it and suffered multiple fractures and a head injury that saw him spiral into deep depression which lasted 3 years. During this time he sought many avenues, procedures and methods in an attempt to cure himself.

Nothing seemed to work. During this process he became more and more withdrawn and solitary and in this space of quiet and stillness he gradually found a peace and a healing that surprised him.

During this time he read numerous books written by many people in an attempt to heal himself and his world. When he got well he decided to interview some of these people who had inspired him and to answer the question "What do we need to do, to heal the world?"

He interviewed people such as David Suzuki, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Pema Chodron.

The answers many of them gave were very similar, that the human species is at its best when it is sharing and caring for all around; not competing and involved in survival of the fittest.

Moving from the primitive earlier brain functioning, that of the reptilian brain, to the higher brain functioning - that to which we evolved.

Sharing and co-operating is how we have survived as a species, and it is what we need to learn to do once again. Native Americans had a name for someone who hoarded food or possessions and kept them for themselves instead of sharing them - for them it was a mental sickness.

But today our society rewards those who hoard and gain possessions at the expense of those around them. We have elevated competition and down-played co-operation. All the people he interviewed said "we continue to do this at our peril, for it is a sickness that will lead to our destruction.

Researchers have found beyond a certain amount of possessions a person's happiness is not improved. If people have enough to eat, shelter and a roof over their heads, and are warm and comfortable, it is more than adequate to be happy and contented.

As he was making this documentary, Tom realized the hypocrisy of his own life. So he sold all his possessions and bought a simple cabin in a caravan park by the sea. He said he has never been happier.

When he was loaded up with possessions he had to hire people to manage them, and hire people to manage them. It was a constant headache.

As Australians, are we all in that same spiral? We need to realize that in the full context of global security and wealth, we are one of the wealthiest countries of the world. We have, on the whole, far more than we need. We suffer from illnesses that are a result of over-eating, over-indulging our luxurious lifestyles.

Maybe we are mentally sick. And have that sickness that Native Americans referred to when someone hoarded for themselves to the detriment of the tribe. The tribe is the global village we live in. Will we wake up and realize we are all in this together and that only together we will survive?

The rich will need to live more simply so the poor may simply live.

...
I would like to show you a music clip about refugees which we will be showing all weekend on the back of Robin De Crespigny's homily. Look into the eyes of these people and see them as your brother or sister. I invite you to feel the connection.