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BORDERS and BOUNDARIES - Refugees and the Relationship Between Self and Other
The ‘spiritual’ becomes ‘practical’ when we are not ruled by fear and instead seek new solutions to the problems at hand, the problems of caring for the needs of all. These new solutions are on our collective horizon. They are being brought forward into consciousness by the needs of our time.
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We hear many discussions, today, of national ‘boundaries’ and ‘borders’ based on the influx of millions of immigrants seeking both political asylum and hope for a better life. We hear these words and do not know that they are penetrating our individual consciousness, activating an awareness of our own ‘boundaries’ and ‘borders.’ This awareness can take place consciously or unconsciously. It can be met with fear or with openness. Yet, in either case we cannot remain unaffected by the messages transmitted to our consciousness by the global events we are witness to.
The disturbance created thousands of miles away in other nations affects our awareness even if refugees have not become a major issue within our own country. Refugees and their situation of risk and vulnerability, of hardship and pain, evoke not only sadness in us, but fear, love, helplessness, generosity, and many other feelings. Our entire world is affected by the global confrontation of masses of people who have left their homelands because they feel they must.
‘Boundaries’ and ‘borders’ rise to the forefront of our awareness, today, because it is time - because they clearly define the separation of one thing from another. They define what is inside and what is outside, who is ‘inside’ and who is ‘outside. Each of us in our deeper perception are being called, today, to answer this question: To whom do we belong and who belongs to us? Who is like us and who is ‘other'? The world’s confrontation with this issue is our own confrontation. In addition to it being a practical dilemma concerning nations and their need to provide for those who seek entrance, it is also a spiritual question raised by the time we are in.
This spiritual question is: Do we care for others even if it may seem to be 'at our own expense'? Do we care for them no matter what changes must be made in order to do so? Beneath this question is another of great importance, that of self-protection. What does it truly mean to ‘care for another at our own expense?’ Is this a real possibility, or is it based on fear which closes down our willingness to find new ways of relating to problems and new ways of relating to others? Is it possible that what brings us good individually can be separated from what brings good to all? Can we trust that what is good for all will be good for ourselves as well? Put differently, can we feel safe seeking the ‘common good,’ knowing that as we hold others as belonging to us we increase, not decrease, the possibility of our own well-being.
It has often been felt that there is a difference within the human realm between the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘practical,’ that it is one thing to hold ideals and another to put them into practice. However, the ‘spiritual’ becomes ‘practical’ when we are not ruled by fear and instead seek new solutions to the problems at hand, the problems of caring for the needs of all. These new solutions are on our collective horizon. They are being brought forward into consciousness by the needs of our time. This is the meaning of ‘borders’ and ‘boundaries’ – the creation of a new awareness in the presence of expanding light of the relation of ‘self’ and ‘other’ so that all obstacles to the presence of love may be removed.
May the consciousness of one be joined with the consciousness of all so that the needs of all may be met.
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