Have you ever noticed how much of our lives are impacted by boxes?
Consider this:
- we live in separate countries within rigid borders
- we live in box-like houses
- we travel in box-like vehicles
- we work in box-like buildings
- we spend alot of our time watching a tv box
- we find it challenging to think outside of the square
- we end up in a box when we die
There are numerous other examples however you get the idea!
This is unusual because if you look “around” you will notice that nature and the universe seem to prefer circles. We live after all on a ball in space which has as neighbours a round moon and a round sun. Other planets in our solar system are also similarly round.
Nature also comprises many revolving concentric patterns like day and night and the change of seasons.
The box conveys a sense of en-closure whereas with the circle there is interconnection with no beginning or end.
We have also become boxed in mentally. Our boxes are made up of our preconceptions about life. We really don’t see things as they truly are because everything we sense and observe is filtered to fit our perceptions. This is how we have always been.
Imagine how liberating it would be if we could be just present to what is in the moment without our mental pollution.
One of the biggest impacts of our “boxed-in” lives is that we see ourselves as independent and separate from everything and everyone else. We have become alienated not only from each other but also from nature itself.
No wonder we show so much indifference to the plight of others and the environment. No wonder there is so much fear driven hatred and discrimination and a general lack of respect for life.
If all there is – is the individual “I”” why would you give a damn about anyone else unless it benefitted you to do so!
Our boxed way of living has brought us to our current dilemna – disallusionment with the lack of meaning and purpose of our lives, a disregard for this fragile planet we occupy, our narcissitic attitudes and a pre-occupation with spending more money than we possess.
We are living in a world on the edge of a precipice where the push of a button could wipe out human civilization as we know it for the simple reason that we see ourselves as different and special and we need to protect that difference at all costs.This is Darwinism taken to the extreme – the survival of the fittest. Unfortunately not even the fittest of us are likely to survive a nucleur war.
We must embrace a new paradigm which fosters inclusiveness and interconnectedness before it is all too late. We can all do our part in our own spheres of existence.
Human civilization must evolve to survive.