We Are Stewards Not Owners of the Planet

I woke up this morning with the feeling we are Stewards not Owners of the planet.

As my spirit is in the ascendancy of my life and my ego starts to recede, that is separation consciousness is seen for what it is, illusionary, I feel myself seeing the world differently.

I see no traditional owners or property owners, as how can one own a planet that is 4,000,000,000 years old.

We, like the millions of other life forms on this planet, are here temporarily, in truth, we own nothing, as nature doesn’t sell itself. Nature, is life and offered for free.

This is the beginning of free-dom, that is free dominion when you begin to see you need to own nothing, as the world is within you. These are interesting notions in a world that believes you have to earn the right to have, rather than be born and life is abundant.

The false restrictions of the money system is what creates within humans, the false notion there is not enough. In truth, the world has abundance for everyone.

The emergence of the economic system came from barter exchange of goods and services. This was the natural inclination of people to exchange with each other to reflect changing preferences.

Money came in as a system of exchange to make such transactions more universal. Interestingly enough as soon as money came in and the simple notion of accumulation of money became rooted in the human psyche, greed was born.

Humans by nature are giving. The emotional aspect and bonding of humanity is the true nature that gives. When we moved into the money system, the focus of this system was to accumulate more money, so a person could get more interesting things and have influence. As the world opened up through trade and more cultures were visited, more material items were desired. The exotic silk route with the carpets, clothes, ornaments, trinkets, gold jewellery and what came to be seen as riches, haunted the hearts of people. As they found themselves wanting more. It also became an extension of self worth, as people were impressed by what was seen and they were able to buy or trade influence, corruption was born. Other words for this are inequality and unfairness. We no longer shared equally with the group, we started to take more for ourselves and the ego of humankind dominated. It evoked increased selfishness and we disconnected from the tribal culture, which saw itself as one family.

What is the ego, it is known as a separated state of consciousness in some quarters, it is the aspect of the human psyche that feels emotional pain, becomes offended, gets what it wants, demands respect, dominates others, wants to feel special, desires status (better than), is proud of itself and the list goes on. It is a separated consciousness as it only sees its own needs, they are separate from others. As one takes it doesn’t occur that another has less. Another way of seeing this is humanity living in a context of duality or the oscillation between positive and negative emotions. When in the negative, the person is in the ego, when positive or loving, we move into the spiritual nature. So no particular person is spiritual, we all are, as we identify with the higher self in moments, that always seeks to return to unity. When you love, give, feel empathy, join with life, feel peace, express joy, work together, these are expressions of the spirit in ascendancy. You lose that sense of separation and start to join with everyone, seeing all as family and the planet as one.

Returning to the economic system, the focus here is profit maximization and the status that is accorded when a person is successful. The ego is massaged by others and the person feels distinct from the crowd, a winner. Interestingly it is an illusion as no person is greater or lesser than another, we are accorded the same value when born and one’s journey through life is to experience a dimension of life. Who is to say the person experiencing poverty is lesser than the rich person experiencing abundance. One may find they learn the importance of sharing, caring and having enough to eat. The wealthy one may find themselves alone in their wealth, feeling they can have anything, but no authentic relationships that love them for them (rather than money), they may not be feeling the aliveness in life as they come to play a role which becomes a torniquet, as it is not truly them. They are being seen to be. It becomes a spiritual poverty, lacking in love. That is why it is true to say that wealth cannot buy you happiness. Life is about challenges and ups and downs. Many may try to have ‘the good life’ to avoid the contrasts. Yet it is through contrasts that we grow and come to know ‘who we truly are’. In truth you cannot avoid life, but you can choose to learn from it.

The profound words ‘to thy self be true’, is spirit in ascendancy, as you are true to yourself you can be true to others, you begin to see through your own illusions which may place you in moments of judgement or superiority. When you are true to yourself, that is commencing an inner inquiry into your beliefs, you start to see slowly what you believed, if negative, was untrue. So when you are true to yourself, you give yourself permission to free yourself from beliefs, which if negative, separate you from the greater Self of humanity. The poor African is not less than the wealthy tycoon, the child is not less than the parent, the woman is not less than man, the person who does in the eyes of society ‘nothing’, is no less than the person who appears to do ‘everything’. We are being, doing what we choose and it reflects choices and beliefs not personal value.

The economic system is a choice of how to distribute physical materials. It seems likely to me this system emerged from poverty. The rise of wealth in caucasion cultures may be related to coming from colder climates, where food was scarce. The darker people had more abundance in food as many lived in the equatorial zones.

However, overtime, the weakness in the system is that it moves us away from our true nature. It does not encourage sharing, caring, revealing or healing (love), it fosters separation through fear of loss, not enough, wanting more, competition, status, superiority, success and so on. We are witnessing the demise of the economic system around the world as it is truly not sustainable. It has created great misery on the planet and gives more substance to the notion by Edmund Burke “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.” This in my view, refers to the disempowerment of people through systems of government that do not represent them or give them a true voice, systems of work which dominate and use their energy rather than collaborate for a greater good. We have created dependent populations on systems of work, governance and resource distribution, which in the event of collapse, do not know how to survive. They have low resilience (adaptation). That is not to say the knowledge is not out there, it is, but for high proportions of people, they have no clue how to grow vegetables and build a house. I include myself in this group.

What I found interesting in my experience of this system was the task oriented nature of it. I saw a documentary the other day on the world of work. The person was followed through their day. They found it hard to get up at 7am. They are not choosing naturally to get up, they are forced to if they want money. This is the first addiction that moves us. Then he goes to the office and sees the same faces, no-one says good morning. He takes his place at the workstation next to the other guy. He then tries to look busy. He gets a little joy in flirting with the female colleague. He tries to invent ways to speed up the day, walking around the office looking productive. He finds himself endlessly waiting for the clock. Mapping his day by morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, to try and make it go faster. When I watched this film I smiled, as I knew this reality intimately. Having worked in up to 400 companies myself, I used to yawn so much, I had tears in my eyes and for me getting up was really hard (I am a night person). I would go to work, grab a coffee, then go into the toilet to try and get away from the computer. Time to think for myself. I would have conversations to just kill off the monotony. I was not interested in what I was doing at all, but I was told I have to work to make money. I found myself in a system where I have to pay for where I live, buy food, buy clothes, enticements all around me to buy more. Marketing of course is the mover of all goods and services and oils the system globally. The creation of demand. Without manufacturing false desires and communicating wants as needs, humans would return to a more simple life naturally. I was trained in marketing so learning about how to communicate through advertisements, to make people feel somewhat deficient is the name of the game, that the product or service will fill that gap, somehow make them stand out etc. The more they buy the more wealth is generated. All of this is recorded as GDP and the government sends out signals of keep consuming, it keeps us all working and the system goes round and round. It is fascinating to watch the traffic snaking its way into the city. When I lived in Brisbane I’d watch from my balcony, sometimes at 4am or 5am in the morning, through the mist, the endless lights of cars going to work. I wondered at their lives.

The problem with the working scenario and the need to work as a means of survival, is that it conflicts with the true situation that we are born free, into a free world. Human beings feel the pull towards their nature to follow their own rhythm, yet through the social norms, education and structure of the economic system we have created winners and losers. The losers don’t have jobs and are seen as failures. They do experience impacts on their social standing and whether they are invited to dinner or not. So anyone opting out of the system is socially ostricised in subtle ways rather than respected as a sovereign person making a choice.

I remember I was working for myself as a manager in a independent research company. Money went from boom to bust in my work, so sometimes I’d be going on welfare. What I noticed once was I went to a meeting with an green energy company and was treated with respect, as I was a manager and perceived as well educated ‘one of us’. Then I went down to welfare and joined the queue. I noticed the difference in how I felt and perceptions. Yet in truth, I was unchanged. I find that fascinating the power of social norms and perceptions, how untrue they really are, you have to smile. Another experience I had when I went on welfare, I had been teaching at a TAFE college and my partner had to go to Canada to care for his mother dying of cancer. After paying his ticket, I had no money for myself. So I went and lined up. One of my students was in the group who came together to talk about benefits. She was shocked to see me unemployed. I was slightly embarrassed, but not much to be honest. Over the years I have been on and off welfare but I feel no social stigma at all now, as I fully accept it and I am grateful for it. It has given me the opportunity to be with those who are not the economic winners and I am able to see the other members of my community from different countries, single mothers, youth, elderly and so on. I have no ego attachment at all to status now. I actually look forward to going in and meeting the people.

My life has become a journey not a statement of success. I see success now in terms of self determination, being true to myself, living from my own rhythm, as I return to what is natural, I return home. This means letting go of attachment and perceived self worth through external influences, I become my own self worth by learning to love not only myself but others. I need nothing from others to feel good about myself.

So in truth no-one owns anything, it is a system set up by humans that says we all agree that when we pass these notes or coins and call it money, it means you can have something in exchange. It was originally not about social division or better/less, hence class status, it was simply to exchange items as an efficient means of sharing diversity. If you do not have notes and coins you have no right to it, you do not own it. The key word in the sentence is ‘rights’. Property rights through the money system created notions of poverty and wealth. it also created crime, as anyone stealing what wasn’t theirs, was a thief, even if that item was bread, as they were hungry. The system of property rights was clearly unnatural as nature distributes equally, nothing is excluded from natures bounty, unless there are natural changes such as drought or flood etc. Rights means I cannot walk into a paddock as it is owned by someone. That person may have the right to shoot me for trespassing. I cannot sit at a table in a shop, I must purchase something, I have no right to the freedom of movement, to simply move across my planet. If I wish to travel to places across the ocean, I have to have documents that give me permission to travel, as the notion of nation state is born from conquest and ethnicity. So human beings divide the planet into nation states and name them. People identify with the name and can be induced to fight for their nation. In truth they do not own the land, the land is 4,000,000,000 years old, we live to 80 years if we are the winners in the first world, perhaps 40-50 in the third world. Thus we divide and restrict what was naturally abundant and free.

The restriction of human beings can distort behaviours. As we are restricted we feel subconsciously or consciously a sense of not enough, when we feel that, we want more or resent those with more. Some even admire those with more thinking they are smarter etc. To want more evokes the desire of greed, at a deeper level staving off poverty or not enough. These are unhealthy distortions to our perceptions.

All of the life we see is based on perceptions, none of it is real as our beliefs define what we see. If we have never questioned that box, the world remains the same, when we start to question, the world changes as you see differently. That is what is meant by ‘when you change the world changes’, it literally changes. For me when I stepped out of work and started to try to go it alone on my own, I found my creativity emerging, my sleeping patterns changed, my poetry expressed my deepest feelings, my questions became more and more as I began to explore the world outside the current paradigm. I lived life on an edge financially but made myself experience what that was like facing fear or disappearing fear. Was I really needing to work? Is it wrong not to work? Will I be socially isolated? A loser? etc. What I discovered is my happiness increased. I never had that much money, but always seemed to have a roof over my head and enough food. I saw the basics of life as all that was important. To have no responsibilities of a mortgage, partner or children, meant I could take a chance and explore this edge and see where it takes me.

As some of you who read my blog will know, it took me to into the realm of being a clown. A mature woman choosing to clown, naturally. I like having fun and being silly. I particularly love connecting with people as I feel genuine love for them, I don’t care what they look like, their status, I just love the fact they exist for me to meet. I didn’t care at all what people thought of my choices, as I am not restricted by convention. I don’t need approval to be myself. I couldn’t care less if I am a woman and have lost the chance at children, I never saw the loss as I lived in the moment and trusted life. I saw many women working 24/7 and finding life stressful, sure they loved their children, I saw the importance of family, but in my journey that was not perceived as important. I found myself following a thread, having no idea where I was going. The world of uncertainty was born, and this is the aliveness in life, it is not predictable, I have no idea who I meet and where I go. It is exciting and it keeps your mind alert. You don’t become dull in the senses, falling into patterns, as you are constantly with the change of life rather than living in a false reality that appears stable. In truth it is in a sea of change, but when we keep rhythms the same, sameness occurs, most people are bored with that. You only have to look at the faces on the train and in the workplace to see they are bored, but they feel trapped to have to work this way. They have kids and responsibilities. They wait for the end of the day and retirement. This is the life for many people who are in industrialized systems, the majority don’t enjoy their time here on the planet. They live for their children, so their children can have the same life. Interesting thought hey. Although deep down I am sure they feel they are working for a better life for their kids, that is how beautiful their hearts are.

So back to the core issue, we are stewards we do not own the planet. This is a fundamental truth. It is not possible to own it as we pass away. Our stay on this planet is fleeting and how we treat each other and the planet has implications for those beings, human and otherwise, who come after us. When you break out of the human made world, governed by television, work, social norms and home. When you venture around the world looking at the natural wonders of the earth, you feel your insignificance, it is a beautiful feeling to feel yourself in awe of the natural world. To see your proper place as part of not in dominion over. You see you are here for a short time and that your stay is to honour what you have been given, for free. I see that system of giving through my life when I have little money. People give me places to stay, food, friendship and I find myself not needing to buy the house, as always I stay in nice houses. Even if they are not, they are to me. I float through life rather than securing to one place and I find this dynamic world transforming before my eyes as I see life as change and I never know what will happen, thus I have no control over it. Not dissimilar to the parachute jump from 10,000 feet where I felt myself not falling, but the forces of nature rushing up to me. I felt myself completely in the moment, with no control. It was freedom. Yet we are taught control is freedom, yet in truth it is a bondage. Those who enforce control and those who feel subjected to it, are not free. When you break the fetters of fear, that is when you jump from the plane, metaphorically and free fall (perhaps without a chute). Imagine if you could do it without a chute? Interesting. You allow life to be in control and that is the natural way of it. You let go of stress, let go of force, let go of expectations and welcome wonder, being wrong, challenges, beauty, new friendships, new experiences. All that because you chose to let go and allow life to be the master, rather than in service to my needs, I am beginning to serve the planet (as service is natural, it is love in action) by learning to allow life to serve me and to serve life. Isn’t that a beautiful thought.

As I awaken to this incredible experience, called life, there is less and less that I need. I find myself slowly surrendering to no career, to no plans, to no partner, to little money and as I surrender, I relax, as I relax my world changes. Freedom guides my choices through impulse and when I am afraid, I question my thoughts. When I am tired I recognize imbalance, as I attempt to find harmony within myself, it translates into the planet as all life is connected. We breathe the same air that Buddha, Lao Tzu, Einstein, Jesus, Muhammad, Rumi breathed. For we are living as one breath. All is interconnected, the cities appear separated but in truth they are part of the dynamic changes.

As the earth changes intensify the rhythm of routine will be disrupted. A little like the glitches in the matrix, I feel. People will be forced to question, which they are now, as they are losing faith in the secure world they thought was real, to find truths emerging. The illumination of truths is occurring in alignment with the earth changes as we are entering an evolutionary shift. With this shift our whole world will change and many will wake up. No human can stop the changes, as they are not human induced. The climate change appears human induced, and indeed pollution and imbalanced extractions from the planet have impacts on the natural system. Nature, however, is incredibly adaptable and responds to even the slightest variations. Nature is aware of all change, as all is connected. The planet is a living system, an organism, no less orbiting a central sun in space, part of a greater ecosystem and infinite universes. So our awareness is only a pinprick of the greater reality that is completely different to what we think we know. What we know is infinitesimal compared to the greater scheme of existence.

I love that thought as it renders me ignorant. Ego’s will rise up thinking they know, as they seek security in knowledge, whereas when you don’t know, that is the beginning of allowance which opens to knew knowledge, that is how we realize how much we don’t know. I experienced that somewhat when I first went to university, as I grew in knowledge I saw my profound ignorance, that realization was the beginning of my own enlightenment. The less you know the more you became aware you do not know, and allow for more of what you don’t know. If the mind lives in utter certainty it does not open to possibilities. I found this true for interpersonal relationships, when you think you are right you cannot possibly make any space in your mind for the possibility that you may not know, we then harden our positions of right and we may ignore the other, treat them disrespectfully or separate from them. When we make allowances for our role, take responsibility for our part (separating from others) and choose unity, we then see our role and apologise or seek to join with the other. This is a unity consciousness, always seeking to return to what is termed oneness.

When I clowned in a refugee camp in Northern Thailand and in a slum in Cambodia, I felt the sense of connectedness with fellow humans. The moment I saw this was because a boy chased after the vehicle that was taking the clown away. He and his friend ran for ages. The realization that this was a significant moment dawned on me, I reached out the window and our hands touched. A little like God and Adam image (Sistine chapel), I have to say, that is what it felt like. God was when we touched, the feeling of oneness, that he and I connected through love. He loved the clown, I love the children. So we had our moment of reconnection. It was profound and through tears I told senior Rotarians in Bangkok, that peace is connection. In truth peace is oneness, it is where we all join as one body, one mind and one planet. It is coming home to fundamental truth.

So we do not own our beautiful planet, we are here as stewards. The economic minerals in the ground are not going to create a secure future, that is the illusion of economics, what will create the security is a returning to the oneness, where we are each others keepers, where what I do for you, I do for me (I feel empowered) or what you do for you, you do for me (think of self improvement) the sense is that we are one, it is not selfishness, rather self awareness. Rather than let me take as much as I can from you and feel like a winner, when in truth we are part of the one system as I take from you, I take from me. That is why we are uncomfortable about the starving millions in Africa, India and China (the latter floated into my mind). We walk past such horrific poverty, deformity and beggars, averting our eyes, as we don’t know what to do. The problem seems so enormous and we do not feel connection with the person begging on the street. As a clown you do, you bend down and ask them, as I have done many times. I told a beggar I’d been homeless and he sat with me, he joined with me, it was like respect. Wow what an insight there, he didn’t respect the community as they just gave but didn’t join him. I loved that moment. So connection is the key. Do it with love and it will give you the greatest security that money can’t buy, as our world is rather magical. Harry Potter symbolizes the future in the sense that it is all magic. We are not in control and dreams can come true. So don’t give up by 40, the magic is within you. It is a wonderful life, when you wonder at life.

Enjoy your life, face yourself, embrace diversity and live to the fullest. As you change your world changes.

Just imagine what the world would be like if everyone chose what they love as the message of their life. Every human would indeed be living to their highest vision, it would make the great philosophers and thinkers look like child’s play. Everyone is great, when they let go of fear or step off the cliff, and fly.