Read an Excerpt
A Promise to All
By Peter G. Anderson
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Peter G. Anderson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-3372-7
Chapter One
A Promise to All
The paradigm shift in thinking, guiding mankind to self, a quest since his appearance on this earth that must now be realized, for mankind has reached a crossroads, a time to choose, and if he does not choose, a choice will be made.
Our Tribal Roots
In contemplating this book and its main subject, toxic shame and tribalism, I visited two major book chains in Canada, and then I did likewise in the southern United States. I saw hundreds of books on self-help, psychology, and the like, but only two that specifically targeted shame, and only one went into any detail, but it didn't mention shame—it used other terms to describe it.
Shame is a subject that must now be explored in detail, for it is the root of humanity's misery, wars, poor relationships, and almost every other area of life. I hear so often of abusive relationships, I listen to the stories, and then I watch as the people go back to them without even a pinch of awareness that their lives are being controlled by shame; they aren't even aware of the concept that shame exists in their relationships. The news each day is a list of dramas, most involving war, crises, and battles of one kind or another—and most of all, people living in misery, all of it with shame as its basis. We must now tear the lid off and expose this vulture for what it is.
Where to Start?
Let us start at the beginning of humanity's presence and briefly and very generally explore the early behavior on this earth. It is important to get a rough idea of our basis before proceeding. This is pretty general but will give you the basic idea.
A long time ago, mankind emerged as an individual life form and force on this earth, finding himself in a difficult situation fraught with many perils and possessing little more than basic awareness of physical laws. Anything that could not be explained was handed to one created god or another, an authority that was feared, for man did not understand what he was dealing with. Eventually he bowed to these authorities, made sacrifices to them, and generally catered to them, based on a simple mechanism: physical survival. He believed that life in his body was all that was, and so he had to fight against these perils to maintain it. One can see in this the behavior of the child in the crib.
From this viewpoint, man developed talents to physically survive, one of the most important of which was to not disturb the gods, the authority. This in turn taught him to feel less of himself, for instead of focusing primarily on his own survival, he was now trying to placate others so that he could survive. At this point his emotional dependency began. The resemblance to a growing child today is inescapable.
He possessed great intelligence but was without tools and the means to survive. He had to find a way to keep himself warm and feed himself, and this he did, developing various tools to hunt, build, and cook. He was in a strange place with much danger, and it was necessary to arm himself and construct shelters to enclose himself, to keep the enemy from taking what was his or killing him. He realized that there was strength in numbers, and so began sympathy, with the drawing of energy from multiple forces. With each step, man lost more of this self-dependency, relying on others instead. Once again, the resemblance to a growing child today is obvious.
As time passed, leaders were selected, and those who followed them did so because they judged themselves as not being of the same quality as the tribal leaders, usually a characteristic based on hunting and fighting ability. Most of the energy was directed to the seniors, and others had to continue to provide this energy, regardless. A growing dysfunctional child must perform in like manner.
And so man separated himself from the very essence that created him, in order to survive. It gave him comfort to keep the enemy at bay, and he fought very hard to survive as a physical form. As he became stronger and began to prosper, he formed communities and tribes based on the realization that there was great force in numbers, and he could better survive if he had others who believed as he did, to conquer this enemy that he was fighting all the time. But through it all, the enemy was ever present in his mind, and he did everything in his power to keep it at bay. And what was this enemy? It was death, the fear that if he didn't fight, he would die, and at the time he was absolutely correct. But from this formed the irrational idea that as long as he fought, as long as he was strong, as long as the rules of the tribe were followed and the gods appeased, he would go on living. This was happiness as he knew it. And here began the illusion of life, an illusion he has carried throughout the years and still believes and follows to this day.
Man's behavioral pattern was established long ago, and although he has improved his living conditions and technology for the most part, he is still living in the same drama that portrays him as less, a drama where he seeks to fill a timeless void with more. He has not evolved beyond his belief in and perpetuation of tribalism.
Chapter Two
Changing Your Viewpoint.
Sometimes on your path, you must step aside to understand where you are going. —Master Wong
Master Wong would often say, "Is there life on Mars?" when I went to him for guidance. At first I thought that he was making fun of me, but then I began to realize what he was doing: the personal sphere of life is being created from the mind, based on a belief system or viewpoint, and by changing one's viewpoint, greater awareness is available, not to mention another course to pursue. Later on, he explained what he was trying to say: if you mentally went to Mars to view Earth, or for that matter to the Moon, or simply into Earth's orbit, you would see how irrational behavior is on Earth, and how the irrationality has nothing to do with God or Satan or whatever else one can contrive as a deity. It is all about humanity, and the fact is that it is asleep, unaware, disconnected. It doesn't have to be this way.
Where do you begin? Look around at life where you live—listen to the news, read the newspapers—and you will witness a constant horror story of people who are living in a trance, acting out irrationality and unable to help themselves from being exploited, tortured, abused and killed en masse. Invariably it's about "creating a better world," following some person's agenda. The reality is that although we have lived through many declared wars, we are living in an undeclared war (as did our original tribal brethren), whether globally or microcosmically in our own homes or streets where we live. We do not live a life of rational, logical thought. We do live lives of irrational drama, acting out old and tired behavior patterns like programmed robots, destroying life and this earth while assigning the responsibility to one deity or another. Perhaps some of you remember Flip Wilson, a comedian, and one of his characters who stated, "The devil made me do it!"
We came to this earth to experience Paradise, but instead we have created the very hell that we claim we are trying to avoid. We look to God for answers and salvation, but it wasn't God that created this mess or continues to create it.
Why is man unable to live without all of this drama? How can we proclaim that we are sane if we live as we are doing, choking cities with people, endless buildings, pollution, traffic, crime, and worst of all stress? And then there are the various declared wars going on, many of them in the name of peace and God.
There are lots of books out there on just about everything you can name, and there are many self-help books that offer ideas and guidance regarding the mental health of us all. This book is meant to focus on something else: the requirement for change in our root behavior, a requirement born not only out of personal need or suggestion, but from the guidance that comes from watching the insanity. We must come to the realization that we must wake up, that we can't brush off the insanity any longer, that the universe is, in many covert and overt ways, directing us to change not only as guidance, but also from the point of view of the universe saying, "or else." It is time to change our viewpoint, time to realize that what we call normal life is in reality a theatre of insanity. We must realize that it must be changed if we are to survive on this planet, and that the process of making this change involves not doing, rather than doing, despite what infamous marketers and TV ads will say to the contrary.
Your reply to this will probably be something like, "Well, I'll have to think about this." And therein lies the problem—too much thinking, too much doing, too much more, more, more. In mankind's present viewpoint lies a powerful irrationality, and it is from this point that he can learn to change. That powerful irrationality is his belief that the cure for everything is more. He eats, sleeps, and lives more, and the evidence of this is clear. What is most disturbing is that he believes that by choking the earth with more people, he will create a better world, and this he has been working hard at for hundreds of years. He is addicted to producing more children, but he has little awareness, knowledge or ability relating to their purpose in appearing, their purpose while they are here, or any form of guidance commensurate with purpose. For many people it is an old pattern to follow, to grow up and simply repeat what has gone before, and of course this entails the production of more children, along with more consumption, more pollution, more waste, and more problems that they are incapable of dealing with based on their present awareness. Left to his present course, man will populate the earth until there is no food left—something that is becoming a danger as this is written—among other issues, without regard for his own requirement for space, until the stress level is such that his need for war will be his only desire. Many on the planet are living this now or are not far from it.
What part do you play in this?
I recently witnessed a discussion on one of the internet social media sites involving a few mothers who were chatting about their children. I felt that this was an excellent example of what I've been saying in this book. One of the women was crowing about how "wonderful" her two children were, and how "all was right with the world." One of the other ladies immediately said: "Time to have another one."
I sat back and thought about this comment, and it connected with higher awareness which asked the question: "Why is it time to have another one? This sounds merely like ego, rather than any understanding of purpose." Yes it sounds like ego, despite how "wonderful" it all was to the mother. I witnessed the ladies chatting about their children, as if there was nothing else in the world, my higher self saying: "It is almost as if being a mother is their only identity, and so they must perpetuate it." It appeared to me as if it was all that they were living for.
So often when guidance tells you that change is required, you decide that just a small change in your life is inconsequential, just a few grains of sand on the beach, so why bother? The truth and what is real is that that is the only place that you can effect change. As Master Wong says, it is the responsibility to self. You spend your life thinking, and it is this that has created this world, your part in All That Is, or God, or the universe. That is your starting point. That is where change is required
Chapter Three
Real Change
What we have thought, what we are thinking now, and what we will think in the future is what we are, but it is not who we are. - Master Wong
We speak of change, but most of us have no idea of change, and instead we hold onto the past. Our past is tribalism, and our behavior is tribalism—something that was necessary thousands of years ago but that only perpetuates insanity today. It is through the realization of this that change—real change, not simply change of things—will take place. It isn't a process of doing, as your ego might direct, for all that your ego will tell you to do is "More, more, more; do, do, do." It is a paradigm shift in thinking, one that asks for focus on not thinking, on allowing the intelligence of the universe to make our decisions rather than the limited mind—or, less than that, the very limited, programmed, and irrational ego.
As adults, it involves introspection, but we must face a reality that a lot of damage has been done to each of us, and that the task of repairing this damage is monumental. Where we can effect the greatest change is in our children, breaking the old tribal patterns, throwing away the old molds, and teaching them a simple truth: your life is not me, it is you. For most parents, it is just the opposite, and their belief system states that they must teach their children what they believe; it is the old irrationality that dictates individuality means ego. Unfortunately, ego means insanity. Look around you, and you will witness the products of the ego. In fact, if you look into the mirror, you will see it staring back at you.
Master Wong often says, "There is only one responsibility, and that is responsibility to self. From this springs responsibility to everything." This is a powerful truth. If you are not responsible to yourself, if you do not love yourself, if you are not connected with self, then you live a life of lies, falseness, and ego. In many cases, they are lies that you are not aware of, but they are lies nevertheless. If you aren't responsible to yourself, you are unable to be responsible to anything else. If you don't love yourself, you can't really love anything else. The truth is that it all begins with you. Master Wong states, "When you are blaming another, pointing the finger at another, your best course of action is to swing your arm around 180 degrees and point the finger at yourself." The guidance at this point is to carry a mirror around with you, and each time you get angry, each time that you point the finger, each time that you are tempted to shame or humiliate another, however subtly, then you should pick up that mirror and take a good look at where it's all coming from. Revenge may seem sweet, but regardless of what is going on, what is the source of the situation? Didn't you create it yourself?
Are you living a life of your own design and steering your own ship, or have you assigned that endeavor to another? Are you living an agenda that is being imposed upon you or was a belief that you were taught as a child—the effect of which is like having someone else steer your ship?
There is a powerful tool available to us all that has slowly progressed so that it is accessible by almost everyone on the planet, and that is television. With this tool, many people of higher awareness could help guide consciousness so that the present state of mind could shift, could become increasingly aware of itself. But television, for the most part, is simply a marketplace, a place where programming is secondary to the quest for more; it is the place where if it doesn't sell products, it's gone. Even a simple situation such as the nightly news has become a stage for dramas; one of the topics presented a couple of years ago on a daily and dramatic basis was what was referred to as swine flu, or H1N1. The delivery of this drama was quite perplexing, as it seemed to inform, however it ignored a very powerful and basic truth: since the beginning of 1900, millions of people have died at the hands of man via wars, murders, and genocide. Today, thousands of people are dying on a daily basis from disease and hunger, but most of all from ignorance. But the human ego isn't interested in this; this is not deemed a threat. But swine flu is, and if it isn't, the media will try to make sure that it is, because it needs drama of this nature to attract viewers to whom they can sell products.
As stated, we have great technology, and our toys are a delight, but our basic thinking—that is, tribalism—has remained the same. It is the same endless tape looping for all, and so we continue to create the same state of misery, destruction, stress, and insanity, believing that it is "normal" or "perfect," which makes it perfectly acceptable, often without question. It is this insanity that we have taught and will continue to teach our children, unless a paradigm shift in our thinking takes place.
It is time for humanity to take a close look into the mirror, to assume its destiny and its place in the universe, and to give up the old stage plays. It isn't the change to something new, something more that is required, but only the realization of who we are.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Promise to All by Peter G. Anderson Copyright © 2012 by Peter G. Anderson. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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