Texas Faith: Is it really possible to heal the world?

The human inclination to see justice in one’s own life time causes people to lean on the end-times, where no one goes free. They are fixed up here, pay for it in the next life
(Abrahamic) or go thru reincarnation (Dharmic). Religions offer those beliefs
to heal one’s soul. The mere thought of justice relieves one from the anguish. Christmas,
Hanukkah, Ramadan, Navaratri and other festivities are restorative therapies to
heal the soul.  Continued: http://nabsites.net/demo/texas-faith-is-it-really-possible-to/

Rabbi Michael
Lerner wrote last week about Chanukah, describing it as “the holiday
celebrating the triumph of hope over fear, light over darkness, the powerless
over the powerful.” 

He went on to say that Chanukah is about
“understanding that when we connect with the transformative power of the
universe, the Force of Healing and Transformation, YHVH, we become aware that
the powerless can become powerful, that oppression of any sort is in
contradiction to the fundamental nature of human beings as loving, kind,
generous, free, creative, intelligent, attuned to beauty, caring for and
needing each other beings created in the image of God. When that energy and
awareness permeates our consciousness, no ruling elite and no system of
exploitation can possibly last for very long.”

Of course, this also is the month when Christians will
hear much about bringing joy to the world, peace on earth and goodwill to all. 

But is that so? Is it really possible to heal the
world? 

Some whose theology predicts end-times see the world
as marching from bad to worse, with God intervening at the end. Others hold to
a theology that sees them as being used by God to bring his kingdom on earth as
it is in heaven. Still others are neither so fatalistic nor optimistic.

Where do you stand? What does your faith tradition say
about healing the world?

The physical or the spiritual world sustains its
equilibrium through the self-balancing mechanism built into it. When that
balance is knocked off through our recklessness, like global warming or the
destruction of nations and families through wars and egregious selfishness, the
God-given system becomes energized and becomes capable of restoring to its
pristine equilibrium, as it was created, provided an effort is made to heal.
That way, we can live freely from anxiety again.

When the world came into being through evolution,
creation or big bang, it produced two significant things: matter and life.

Every piece of matter in the universe is programmed to
have its own balance whether it is the sun, moon or other galaxies. In chapter
55: 5-8, the Quran says, God has set a place for everything in the scheme of
things and has designed them to maintain their own cohesion.

On the spiritual plane, God advises in Quran (55:9),
“weigh, therefore, [your deeds] with equity, and cut not the measure short!”
Indeed, the human life is not put on auto-pilot like matter. We were endowed
with the free will to strive for that continual balance.

Rabbi Lerner sets the fundamental loving nature as the
base of balance and peace. Human selfishness continuously knocks that balance
off.

If the balance is not restored in our life-time, when
tyrants get away, murderers cannot be found, then the end-time scenarios come
into play.

The human inclination and desire to see justice in
one’s own life time causes people to lean on the end times, where no one goes
free. They are fixed up, pay for it in the next life (Abrahamic) or go thru
reincarnation (Dharmic). Religions offer those beliefs to heal one’s soul. The
mere thought of justice relieves one from the anguish.

We have the responsibility to heal the world to live a
conflict-free life. Chief Seattle puts it precisely, that we are all
interconnected in this massive web, which we did not create, but happen to a be
a strand in it. If we mess with any strand, we mess with the whole web and
ourselves.

Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Navaratri or other
festivities are restorative therapies to heal the soul.

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!