The Greatest Power

Like so many people I hear about the things that go on in the world and try to think of a way that we can end all the terrible things that we do to one another and to the environment around us. What kind of power would bind the whole human race in mutual compassion? 

Love

Most people would tell you that it is love, that love would bind us all in a mutual bliss that would end the suffering in the world.  There is just one problem with this, the world is full of love yet here we still are discussing how to make world a truly great place, so what is missing? Growing up in South Africa we were all inspired by Nelson Mandela’s sense of Ubuntu. I however find the idea of ubuntu lacking in that it relies on a person’s interpretation of community. In South Africa with our fractured past people formed strong but isolated communities normally caring very little for events  and people outside of their circles sometimes leaving those outside to starve.

Truth

Many people in talking to me have exulted the purity and humanity of science and the quest for the truth. The core of the idea relaying to the concept that we don’t have to love one another to peacefully coexist we simple have to strive for a common goal being the quest for some ultimate truth. While there were many great scientists that ended up making great human I can think of many great scientists that experimented with great zeal on their fellow man just ask the victims of the Nazis. Truth in itself lacks compassion, searching only for some great answer. If that answer brings some sense of kinship great, but I wouldn’t rely on it.

Courage

There is an old saying that the only thing evil needs to thrive is for a good man to stand back and do nothing. The premise of this statement is that many people feel that there is something wrong with the world but feel to small or sacred to act. The sad truth really is that our lack of action is due to a lack of empathy. We only react to a situation in front of us and most of us make a choice to stay clear of troublesome predicaments. It’s true that standing for something in the right place at the right time can make a difference(I’m reminded of Nelson Mandela’s trail) but these times are far and few. What we truly need is the resolve to make small incremental changes everyday. Nelson Mandela refused his freedom everyday until his people were free.

A little bit of everything

Reflecting on what Nelson Mandela achieved in South Africa I feel that it’s a little bit of everything, the essence of it: the courage to love driven by the simple truth that we are all one. We are all energy vibrating to the same frequency, we feel the same emotions, joy and sadness. It’s simple fundamental love born from realising that the person walking by on the street is exactly the same as you.

We need to measure our success in the simple compassion towards all things, even a rock. To have ubuntu without communities or borders, to realise that what happens on the other side of the planet affects you. Because of South Africa’s past I realised something, watching someone else's humanity suffer breaks down yours as well. Nelson Mandela once spoke of his jailers as prisoners, I believe this is what he meant. I AM BECAUSE WE ARE.

The greatest power is the courage to love even when you are not loved. born form the simple truth that we are all one.