The West's Call for Alternative Wisdom
The Ills of the West and Our Need for Eastern Healing
Oct 29, 2008
If we view the West as having a strong ego, full of its self centred demands and charms, we can also see how we need a deeper layer, a more mature vision for viewing our bodies to help us deal with the concurrent development of the individual and society’s psychosis.
Physical and Mental Focus and Its Effects
Our current life style in the West, is based on satisfying the superficial needs of the self, grooming, maintaining an attractive physical body and high speed mental stimulation.
As a society, we have traditionally validated high achievers. These include people who use time efficiently, who show physical prowess, who look good and make money. We value power and beauty and more recently, youth. Youth and vitality have become commodities to buy via cosmetics, surgery, pills and elixirs.
The Ills of Our Society
We spend our time in indulging our physical needs, often to extremes, resulting in physically debilitating diseases like obesity, drug addiction, depression and alcoholism.
We suffer the need to be constantly entertained. Our lives are fast paced and hectic and there are thousands of methods to reduce stress for busy people. ‘De- stressing’ the West has become a thriving industry of its own.
Consider that while we are in a moment of the world’s history where we are experiencing the largest leaps in technological advances for health and well being, we are suffering epidemics in diabetes type 2, depression, and record breaking cases of mental illness, especially with our children.
The Awakening
Just as we shifted though the dark ages, where conformity and stability were the norm, we have now entered into a time, let us say an era when we are awakening ourselves to the new. Change seems to be the only constant. Never in recorded history have we seen so much advancement on all levels of human knowledge and achievement.
More than this, we have now access to the internet – a communication technology that has changed the way we speak, communicate, share information, read, and learn. There are two effects of this – positive and negative. On the negative side, we feed our fast paced lives, we indulge our superficial wants faster and easier than ever before. On the positive side, we have access to the most amazing information system that allows people around the globe to connect and share ideas, thoughts and information.
What is the New Age?
Some people believe that we used to live a life closer to the earth and more in tune with nature. Some believe we used to have access to higher states of awareness. The new age is where we will merge the technology of our present with the re-emerging awareness of the link between mind and body, humanity and earth.
For the first article in this series about chakras and their importance in our society, please read Fundamentals of Chakra Basics. For the third and subsequent article, please read Basic Chakra Questions Answered.
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