Recent events in the Middle East and New Zealand show how chaos and confusion can erupt at any time. When such events occur, they disturb our equilibrium and our peace; it only takes a few seconds to see them to feel that you’re standing in a different world. We then try to understand why such things happen and if they could happen nearer to home.
In Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya thousands of protestors are dying at the hands of fading regimes in uprising and revolt. The fallen are called ‘martyrs’; a label which brings more of the population onto the streets to ‘avenge’ their deaths and in turn, fuels the resistance.
What could be the tipping point* for these protestors?
Obviously there was oppression, but that could never be enough for these people with stones and sticks to face armed military forces. In screen interviews many of the protestors mentioned “no fear” or “our lives are dead anyway”. That must be the tipping point: the protestors lost their fear. They realized the they had “nothing to fear but fear itself”. This realization freed them from their oppression.
Are we fearful? Of course we are. We suffer many types of fear: fear of embarrassment , fear of being different, fear of causing offence, fear of spiders, etc. Except for the spiders, our biggest fear is about the unknown because it lies outside our vision and our control. The roots lie in our ahamkara.
Another tipping point is the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand which may claim over 200 lives. In this case it was the earth the ‘tipped’ as the competing tectonic plates collided for less than a minute. And we have all felt another tipping point within ourselves. Our certainties about our environment have become less sure as the fragility of our existence is exposed. We realize that the ground we stand on can turn into quicksand, that mountains are suspended on strings, and that so many things are lost: lives , dreams, hopes, futures; all in the blink of an eye.
Throughout ‘Thomas’ Jesus reminds us that overcoming our ahamkara is one and only personal quest. It is through courage—the lack of fear—that we move forward; just as the protestors have done. Once we reach our own tipping point we awaken to this new reality and we can never go back to the old ways. Like the New Zealanders, we realize how precious our time here is. Let us not be like the dinner guests in Logion 64 who were too busy to attend the feast; we only have Now.
We have the choice:
Jesus said:
This heaven will pass away, and that which is above will pass away,
and the dead do not live, and the living do not die.
In the days you fed on what is dead, you made of that, the living.
When you are in the Light what will you do!
On the day you were One, you created the two;
but when, being two, what will you do? Logia 11
When will you reach your next tipping point?
* Tipping Point: the point at which a slow, reversible change becomes irreversible, often with dramatic consequences