Building Heaven on Earth

This is a continuation of the previous post "To be Present"

Especially in relation to the group I was not seeing and realizing how I'm really living. And by 'the group', I mean 'life on earth'. I was totally oblivious that I had been separating myself and had moved further and further away from the group. And that I had come to live and exist in 'the illusion of self'.

The 'illusion of self' is where you start paying more attention to your 'self' than to 'the group', or rather where your 'self' exists as something separate from 'the group'. Where you don't realize that really, the group is all that exists. There is actually no 'self'. Or that, self IS the group and the group IS self. There's no distinction and no separation.

Only when self is the group and the group is self will you place the group before yourself and will you place another before yourself. As long as 'self' exists as a separate entity we can never manifest a heaven on earth because we're unable and unwilling to set aside our personal wants, needs and desires to do what needs to be done.

The 'self' will always 'want, need and desire' and will always place those 'wants, needs and desires' before anything else. The only reason our systems are so fucked up in this world is because it all exists and revolves around protecting and safeguarding the 'self'. It's not about the group, it's about 'self'. But, the problem is that no one can really agree on anything because all of our 'selves' are so different, depending on your religion, language, upbringing, social standing and background. There is so much separation in this world and so many people fighting for their separation that all we're left with is inequality and conflict.

The only solution is to recognize 'the group' AS 'self'. Instead of asking ourselves, "what can or must the group do for ME?", we need to ask ourselves "What can I do for the group?" And within that we need to realize and understand that what we do for the group as life, we do for ourselves because we are part of that group. When we take care of the group, we are taking care of ourselves as part of that group. When we build a heaven on earth for all of life on earth, we are building one for ourselves.

 Changing inequality and conflict starts with placing the group before self. With having a genuine care for the group and for all beings in the group. We also need to realize that when we try to protect and safeguard our wants needs and desires from others and separate ourselves therein from the group, we are not actually safeguarding anything. If we don't safeguard life then what are we left with? What will be left of our wants, needs and desires when there is no more life on earth?