Our World
Barbara Hebert – USA
When we look around our world today, we can quickly become overwhelmed with all of the problems and difficulties we see before us. Poverty and hunger are endemic in many areas; intolerance, discrimination, and inequality continue to plague the world; violence seems to be the primary means to solve conflict. Around the world, we face the scourge of substance abuse with its multiplicity of venal tentacles that cause untold suffering and sadness to its users and to the loved ones of those users. As we look around our world today and see the reality of suffering, it seems as if the only solution is to sadly shake our heads and whisper quietly, “Oh, this orphan humanity.”
As Theosophists, we have been accused of “hiding” in our books, of not living in the real world. We are accused of being “head” focused, not “heart” focused. That is, knowing that individually we cannot even begin to make a dent in the tragedies suffered by humankind, we can return to our studies, safe in the understanding that suffering is the way of the world at this time in evolution because it is the Kali Yuga. Correct? Absolutely not.