If something is necessary, it’s also important. When what is necessary is no longer important, we put ourselves at risk. In an increasing interconnected world the health of Earth and a cooperative social community are necessary to sustain Life. Unfortunately, political, religious, and economic predations along with the persistence of environmental and spiritual ignorance compromise this importance. A mature caring connection with each other and Earth are necessary for our shared survival. Without individual personal responsibility and the shared sense of community (common unity) for a cooperative connection with each other we’ll continue to endure personal suffering, community fracture, environmental degradation, and social disparity.
Religious, social, and political institutions, the products of spiritual, philosophical, scientific, and technological inquiry serve as the connecting fabric for communal values and social discourse. For this to work there needs to be a common agreement on the shared altruistic nature of our humanity. When such a discourse is threatened by self-serving strategies of endemic political, economic, and religious institutions, then indifference, ignorance, and prejudice will persist. The urges to dominate, monopolize, manipulate, and control using nationalistic or authoritarian beliefs and discriminatory social structures it undermines the emotional, social, and spiritual maturity so necessary for understanding and cooperation across ethnic, cultural, and economic differences.
By recognizing the altruistic symbiotic nature of our humanity, universal social, economic, and political cooperation, free of bias, is possible. Each single person of us has the capacity to grow and mature mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually regardless of superficial physical, cultural, or economic differences. We experience the same joys, sorrows, and vulnerabilities. Each of us has the quality of Virtue allowing us to bond and work together for protection, production, and procreation; we have the same innate capacity to recognize the interconnection and interdependence so essential to our shared survival.
Contemplative and meditation practices can and will free us from the suffering of conditioned self-cherishing assumptions and beliefs, attitudes of negativity, being critical and judgmental of ourselves and others causing us to feel we’re different or unique. Self-cherishing, the sense of “I” wanting to be right by making others wrong, unaware of, or unable to do, the work of finding peace with oneself and the loving bond with others.
Short of total enlightenment It’s safe to say we’ll never be entirely free of the unnecessary suffering we cause ourselves, it’s how we learn. A moment of difficulty, whether from outer or inner causes, is a moment of reflection, the opportunity to recognize and take responsibility for my part. For us to participate in creating our best life socially, there would need to be agreement on processing shared responsibility in the context of altruism and how deeply interconnected and interdependent we are on and with each other for everything. Nothing, spontaneously arises or exists in a vacuum, everything has both cause(s) and result(s), and nothing lasts forever. The nature of everything sensed, felt, thought, or imagined is interconnected, interdependent, and impermanent.
The spiritual truth at the heart of every religious tradition is the profound notion of our essential altruistic nature that allows us to bond, have empathy, and feel compassion for the joys and suffering we all share. In this way we are ‘of a kind,’ and as humankind, we express this as Kindness. Without human altruism, there would be no interest or ability for the kindness and cooperation so vital to our survival.
