Title
DARING ENOUGH TO CHANGE THE WORLD
First off, let us establish whether the world needs changing.
By flipping the newspapers or tuning in to world news, one
tends to get depression. A genocide brewing here, a war
escalating there and violent crimes everywhere. Nature is
not sparing us either. Earthquakes follow at the heels of
a disastrous tsunami leaving a trail of total destruction
and tragic loss of lives.
And there is an ever-growing fear that September 11 was
just a tip of the iceberg and that the next attack will
make September 11 look like a street fight. And even more
horrifying is that the terrorists will strike anywhere,
anytime, when one least expects it, just like the Grim Reaper.
In other words, the world has become a horror movie. And
we have to thank the media for keeping the comic strips
and the sports sections and also for regaling us with Janet
Jackson's bare-breast antics and the torrid love affairs
of David Beckham. All these are like the comedic relief
scenes in a horror movie and they keep us from going insane.
So, it is no rocket science to conclude that the world needs
changing, but what have world leaders done about it so far?
I have lost count of the number of peace talks and summits
but I do recall that in 1994, the Nobel Peace Prize was
shared among Yasser Arafat, Shimon Perez and Yitzhak Rabin.
However, peace is nowhere in sight. In fact, suicide bombings
and kidnappings of innocent people have become the national
pastime of some fanatics.
Apart from the Middle East, prominent leaders also failed
to bring peace in other troubled spots. True, there is resemblance
of peace in Vietnam and Korea but it was bought with thousands
of lives. Many of those who survived were either orphaned,
or crippled for life, physically or mentally. Unless we
accept wars as a cost for peace, we must examine why peace
efforts throughout history have failed so dismally.
In the ongoing Middle East crisis, some blame the Americans
and allies for ignoring root causes and shooting from the
hip like the movie cowboy, John Wayne. Americans and allies
blame Osama bin Laden and his fanatics. Unfortunately, all
their finger pointing has missed the real target by a mile.
As for me, I attribute the failed peace processes to a misunderstanding
of the true nature of human existence.
When world leaders sit down at a peace summit, they already
have this concept of "You equals devil, I equals saint."
They cannot grasp the concept that "You" and "I"
are in reality "One" in a gigantic melting pot
called the collective consciousness. Thus, we must first
alter the way we think and act. We must seek out more ways
that will unite rather than divide. One way is to persuade
people to start thinking "You equals saint, I equals
devil" or "We're all saints, so let's not fight".
But that is easier said than done.
Fortunately, there is a radical but effective way: meditation.
In the summer of 1993, four thousand meditators gathered
in Washington D.C. to send out good vibes. Later, an independent
body of criminologists verified that the crime rate in the
vicinity did drop by 25%. And a decade earlier, meditators
gathered in Israel, Lebanon, Europe and their meditation
helped to reduce casualties in Lebanon by about 70%. However,
a majority of these meditators are lay people and they have
to return to their jobs. They have families to feed. There
were insufficient funds to sustain a meditation marathon.
My first task, therefore, is to launch a campaign to set
up W.O.M., short for World Organization of Meditators. To
obtain sufficient funding, I will need to convince world
leaders and all skeptics that meditation is the only solution
that is available to us now. Since other methods have failed
we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. I will also
remind world leaders that the cost of one missile or one
Black Hawk can easily sustain a thousand meditators for
days if not weeks.
I will enlist the help of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and
Dr. Deepak Chopra who are accomplished meditators and they
already have followers who believe in the power of meditation.
Both of them will train and guide the meditators.
However, I still need to tackle skeptics who consider the
Maharishi and Dr. Chopra as quacks peddling snake oil. Therefore,
the next step is to get the support of eminent physicists,
like John Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist.
He and many others have done extensive research in quantum
mechanics and they believe that at the quantum level everything
is made up of protons and neutrons including human thought
waves. And because of that, those brain waves can influence
the world around them, and even change the course of events
through the power of meditation.
I will encourage thinkers, philosophers, and theologians
who believe in the power of meditation to speak up. Many
have chosen to remain silent for fear of ridicule, which
was also the case when Galileo was put on trial by the Pope
for defending Copernicus's theory that the earth orbited
the sun. For the ordinary skeptics who have no wish to research
into quantum physics or get involved in philosophical discussions
I will recommend that they watch a docu-movie titled "What
the Bleep do we Know?". This docu-movie, produced with
the help of well-known physicists, describes the impact
of quantum mechanics on our thought process in a simple
and humorous way. Next, I will have dialog with staunch
Catholics and Christians who feel that meditation is something
alien to their faith. Although they do not meditate, millions
of them do pray for world peace. With deeper analysis and
better understanding, prayer is not that different from
meditation. Both methods involve the sending of good vibes
into our environment for the greater good of humanity. Imagine
the tremendous power that can be generated when millions
of Catholics, Christians and meditators pray and meditate
at the same time for a noble cause.
And I hope that this tremendous power will be sufficient
to overcome the expected obstacles set by manufacturers
of weapons and ammunition. It is not that they are evil
per se. Rather, their survival is being threatened and naturally
they will lobby for the dismantling of W.O.M., and if they
fail, they will try to derail the meditation-for-peace project
with the help of skeptics. They will also garner support
from physicists who, like Einstein's followers, believe
that there is nothing in quantum physics to validate mysticism
and supernaturalism.
Regarding natural disasters, meditators can send out good
vibes so that every government will pay more heed to ecologists
who have for decades warned about the risks of creating
imbalances in our environment for the sake of progress and
development. For instance, studies show that the recent
tsunami could have been less devastating in Phuket Island
and elsewhere if natural "breaks" like corals
and mangrove swamps had not been destroyed for the sake
of tourism.
In conclusion, getting people to change their mindset is
going to be an uphill battle all the way, but I dare to
take up the challenge because I believe that desperate times
call for desperate measures. Also, to paraphrase from Guinness
Stout's campaign, "Someone's gonna do it, why not you?"
And I hope that I will succeed before we blow each other
up into oblivion.
