The Destiny of Our Globe, And
The Effective Way to Reform It
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
“Give me a lever long enough and a
place to stand, and I will move the world.”
(Archimedes 230 B.C.E.)
It is
always easy and nice in the short term to focus our minds in that which we think
is wrong about the others, and about the world.
Discussing
whatever is not right around ourselves provides us with a sense that we are right, and that we are powerful,
and clever. It takes aside that uncomfortable perception that perhaps we are
not doing everything we can to live correctly. It is as if we had an alibi
to postpone self-reform. We say to ourselves:
“The
world, or this, or that situation, is in such a bad condition that I must reform
the world first, and change this and that situation before I can reform
myself.”
The
reasoning is false because my self is precisely the part of the universe
which - being connected with every other part - is my duty to take care of in
the first place, and reform if necessary.
The
purpose of identifying mistakes around us is but to prevent ourselves and
others from unnecessarily imitating Error.
True compassion
and self-sacrifice are present in sincere attempts to reform the outer world.
However, effectiveness in such efforts depends on applying the principles of intelligent action and energy conservation.
We must
change the decisive aspects of reality, not the secondary ones. We have to act
on that which depends on us. Thus, we must start by changing our own lives. If
we want “a lever to change the world”, the lever is - ourselves. The first task
is giving a clear direction each day to our own thoughts, emotions and actions,
and to teach others mainly by example.
The citizens
of good-will are karmically co-responsible for the future of the Earth. Our planet
is destined to live by the principle of universal brotherhood. There is no need
to worry about the time necessary for that, for theosophy teaches us a
long-term view of life. The birth of the future often takes place by profound
crises and cataclysms, and human spirit must rise to the occasion.
Responsibility
is individual. According to tradition, the famous Greek mathematician
Archimedes said over two thousand years ago:
“Give me a lever long enough and a place to
stand, and I will move the world.”
In the
21st century, one can use the creative power of thought to improve the
psychic and noetic atmosphere of our globe. French philosopher Maine de Biran
was correct in writing that “no one thinks of the obvious”.
One
obvious fact is that each citizen has in himself the Lever of Archimedes. From
a practical viewpoint, the global lever is the altruistic will of each individual.
The
place to stand is his own higher self. The time of the action is right now; however, it also includes
several incarnations.
No
individual is alone in the effort. Each good-willing and self-responsible citizen
is a unique creative center in the universe of mankind’s good karma.
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The
above article combines the ideas present in two notes published with no
indication as to the name of the author. One of them appeared at “The Aquarian Theosophist”, September
2012 edition, pp. 3-4. It had the title of “A Lever to Change the World”. The
other one was published at the March 2013 edition of the same journal, pp. 8-9,
under the title of “Using the Creative Power of Thought”.
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See in
our associated websites the articles “Pascal’s
Sphere” (by Jorge Luis Borges), “The
Center of Pascal’s Sphere” (by Carlos Cardoso Aveline), “The Tree of Universal Brotherhood” (by
Helena Blavatsky), “Meditation on the
Awakening of Mankind”, “The Power to
Change the World” and “Meditating on
Peace in the Middle East”.
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In September 2016, after
a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students
decided to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists. Two of the priorities
adopted by the ILT are learning from the past and building a better
future.
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