Thinking, Feeling,
Willing
In these difficult times, my great hope
is that we can move to a culture that balances our needs
and wants with our actions and insights.
Insights come from our capacity to think
in ways that are creative and relevant to the present time;
needs and wants come from our feelings and desires; actions
and deeds in the world come out of our will. These
three soul forces in every human being -- thinking, feeling
and willing -- need to come back into balance. Each
of these soul forces and qualities is reflected in society
at large as well.
So we cannot just focus on the economy. The
economy is but one leg of a three legged stool. Culture
and human rights are the other two. We need to focus
our creative capacity on developing a culture that has an
emphasis on education, the arts and our connection with spirit. This
needs to be in tandem with a society where fundamental human
rights are honored and differences are celebrated.
Each of us has different abilities and
gifts. However, when it comes to feeling, we need to
recognize that this makes us equal; we are all the same when
it comes to our basic human needs and emotions. Keeping
this perspective in mind, we can effect great change in ourselves
and in our world. We can truly take up our role as
fellow citizens and reconnect with our local and regional
communities with fresh ideas and action plans.
Clearly, we have become disconnected from
the soul force of "feeling". How can it be that some
executives believe that their contributions to society deserve
compensation 400 times or more than that of their lowest
paid employees? When the company cannot contribute
to retirement or health care for its employees, how can this
be perceived as progress? Times like this provide an
opportunity for all of us to be re-educated. We need
to "educate" our conscience as well. Imagine if we
took the time to really listen to our conscience. What
would an education of conscience look like?
