Awakening
Within Buddhism, the lotus is used to represent enlightenment, or “Bodhi” - the realization of the true nature of reality. An enlightened being perceives the world without the distortions of attachment, aversion, and delusion, ultimately experiencing a state of peace and compassion for all living beings. An enlightened being realizes there is no separation between us and nature.
The pressing issues of our time-inequality, exploitation, poverty, injustice, oligarchy, violence, war, tyranny, and ecocide- are all thanks to a system premised on competition. We have become a competition driven species ruled by fear and insecurity. Whether fighting for jobs, wealth, against rival businesses, as nations for planetary dominance, or against all other living beings for our profit and security , everything is rooted in this delusion of seperation.
In this very dark, uncertain time in history the only thing that can save us is a mass awakening of consciousness that pushes us towards collaboration . There is no future without the widespread understanding that the earth and its beings are not resources for us to plunder but rather our sacred community.
“We suffer because we erroneously believe we are separate. It’s why humans suffer as individuals, and it’s why humanity creates so much suffering as a collective. We generate suffering in much the same way as a collective. We imagine ourselves to be separate from other humans, so we compete against them, and can even be convinced to fight wars against other groups of them. We imagine ourselves to be separate from nature, so we work to dominate and enslave it even when doing so destroys the biosphere we ourselves depend on for survival.”