What is happening in the world is supposed to be happening, not because God wants it to happen but because man created it. There is no advantage, as a normal citizen, to get disturbed by violence in the world. Impact your own sphere of influence by being a peaceful person, radiating compassion and concern for others. Take responsibility, realizing karma is the source, our creation, attracting the people we encounter, the experiences we go through.

Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva, Lesson 106.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

This morning, reading our daily lesson. Merging with Siva Lesson 106 and 107.

"Nowadays meditation is becoming very popular. Everyone is talking about being centered. If you're right in the center of yourself, you don't hear any of the noise or activity. You're just peaceful within yourself. It's only when we come into the cross-section, the cross-fire of life, that we feel we're not all right. Then we begin living in the great lie of the universe, the great fear that if we die we might be gone forever. We forget all of the wonderful philosophy and beautiful teachings that we've been studying, and we're just not all right.

"My satguru Yogaswami, made the very bold statement once, 'There is not even one thing in this world that is not perfect!' ...Some of us look around at the world, and we find plenty of things that are wrong with it. I never have. I have always thought this is a wonderful planet--wouldn't have missed it for anything. It is a great time now to be alive, even though some of us don't think so, even though the planet is somewhat polluted, and some people have a myriad of complaints."

Definitely, it's a different perspective that there's not even one thing in the world that is not perfect. Generally, every week, somebody asks me about the world, complaining about this or that. Why are all these things going on in our world?

Well, what does it mean to say: "There is not one thing in the world that is not perfect?" It means that what is happening is supposed to be happening. And why is it supposed to be happening? Not because God wants it to happen but because man created it. You created it, I created it, different tribes created it, different nations created it. Man is responsible for what's happening on the planet.

Some parts of the planet have more basic problems than other parts. Some parts are doing pretty well. That depends on the people that are living there. What state of consciousness they're in. Said another way: There's no reason to become disturbed by violence in the world. Doesn't do any good. We read about violence and we become disturbed. We think it shouldn't be happening somehow. That doesn't stop the violence and just gives us a less productive day, right? So definitely no advantage to getting disturbed by violence in the world. If we were in a position to do something, you know we were Secretary of State or something that would be different. We could, we should get disturbed about it and then come up with a plan to try and reduce it. But just as a normal citizen we don't have any power to effect these things.

Therefore, it's better to focus on what Gurudeva calls you own sphere of influence. Everyone has a sphere of influence depending on family, friends, religious ties, political ties; we all have a circle of people that we influence. And if can try and impact them in a positive way then we've made a contribution to the world. But, if we think beyond our sphere of influence it's just frustrating. But we can impact our sphere of influence by just being a peaceful person. By radiating compassion and concern for others. That's a positive way to impact the world in our own sphere of influence.

And then, our personal life, to always take responsibility for what happens to us. Ordinary consciousness wants to blame it on someone else when things go wrong and take the credit when things go right. "Thank you very much for praising me; I'm a smart person. Of course, it went well." We're willing to take the credit but when things don't work out right and everything seems to fall apart temporarily, we're not willing to take the blame. No, somebody else's fault when it goes wrong.

But of course, in both situations it's our creation. And that's the basic, or the building block one, of the whole puzzle, is taking responsibility and realizing that inside of us is a big magnet. It's called our past actions or our karma. And that magnet is attracting whatever happens to us to us. The people that we encounter, the experiences we go through, it's all attracted because of what's inside of us. And therefore, that's the source of what we experience.

And what's inside of us is constantly changing. If we let it change randomly then what happens to us on the outside can seem a bit random as well. If we control what's going on on the inside and change ourselves deliberately then what happens on the outside seems more rational to us. We're constantly changing what's inside of us by our actions, our thoughts. Religious actions, selfless actions cause it to become more refined and the experiences, therefore, outside of us become more refined. And the opposite is true as well.

Said simply, what God did is created man and gave man free will and then the mess that man is in is up to his own doing. It's like letting the kids play without supervision. You know, you don't know what'll happen.

But it's getting better; that's the point. Is that, the example I always give is Europe. Before World War II countries of Europe, every so often, would go to war with one another. That's what they did. One was trying to dominate the other. After World War II there's no more wars in Europe. We came up with the idea of the European Union, working together, closely, but maintaining national and linguistic identity. Not giving up your identity but still working together and not needing to go to war. And, it sets a good example of cooperation that other parts of the world can follow. But we can work together and without having to be exactly the same. Cooperation among different groups can happen as Europe shows.

So it's sets a good example for the rest of the world.

Have a wonderful day.

Aum Namah Sivaya.