Science And Jain Philosophy

Author(s): Raksha J Shah, Abhijit Muni, Pooja Banthia
Publisher: International Conference on Science and Jain Philosophy

Page 140

International Conference on Science and Jain Philosophy 2016
We need to be aware of this as we create our responses to each of our challenges, such as ISIS. The dying consciousness casts the issue of ISIS as good us. evil and savage us. civilized. The emerging consciousness sees it as a matter of love and fear. The pursuit of external power originates in fear. The creation of authentic power originates in love. Fear excludes, judges, and attacks. Love includes, accepts, and reveres.
In the emerging consciousness, love and fear are the fundamental intentions that determine the consequences of all other intentions. For example, if our ISIS strategy is containment, military action used wisely, reaching out to mainstream Islam, opening our homes and borders to refugees, etc. - it will create constructive consequences only when the intention behind it is love. The same strategy will create destructive consequences when the intention behind it is fear. Fear separates, shatters intimacy, and prevents healing. Love heals everything.
If we see ISIS as a "cancer that must be cut out" and "systemic rot in the collective consciousness" we become like ISIS. They see us the same way. Their attacks in Paris targeted symbols of Western culture - a sporting event, a rock concert, and people simply dining out - which they see as "cancer that must be cut out" and "systemic rot in the collective consciousness."
In order to change the world, we must ask ourselves continually. "Am I doing this from loue or from fear?" To be specific, changing the world requires me to ask myself continually. "Am I doing this from loue or from fear?" independently of others. It requires you to ask yourself continually. "Am I doing this from love or from fear?" independently of others. We can support one another in creating authentic power, but we cannot create authentic power for one another. Creating authentic power is not a mass movement or even a small movement.
The emerging consciousness understands that world transformation begins with self transformation. The dying consciousness dismisses self transformation as irrelevant to global change, which requires participation of millions. This is the biggest chasm between the emerging consciousness and the dying consciousness, and our evolution requires me to change myself in order to cross it. It requires you to change yourself in order to cross it. If we attempt to find strength in numbers, validation in numbers, we miss the point. My creation of authentic power makes me the authority in my life. Your creation of authentic power makes you the authority in your life. Creating authentic power is an intensely personal, heroic journey. It cannot be crowd-sourced.
Like many of you, I have traveled a long way to reach where I now stand. I earned a degree in International Relations from Harvard; I attended the lectures of Henry Kissinger; I was a Green Beret officer in Vietnam; I wrote an Award-winning book on quantum physics. I did even more, but none of these things prepared me at the time to say, unequivocally as I do now, that recognizing all our aduersaries, including our ISIS brothers and sisters, as our teachers and learning to respond to them with love instead of react to them with fear creates authentic power, and there is now no other way to change the world.
I am looking forward to cocreating a new, healthy, and joyful world with you.
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