Autumn and The Kali Yuga?

The Yugas, Great Ages

The Kali Yuga is the last of the four yugas in the cycle of Kosmic seasons as represented in the Mahabharata of ancient India.

In the background, as I write, the TV news people are chewing and re-chewing the issues surrounding Bret Cavanaugh’s appointment to Supreme Court Judge. I am no longer emotionally engaged in stopping the trend of current politics. This is because I believe that certain processes must ripen before their destructive nature is revealed. Frantically resisting the power of a rushing stream leads to injury and defeat.  Actions must be timed in accord with the in and out motion of the cosmic breath.

We must hold to our truth but not in an arrogant manner.  Trump may seem incompetent as the president of our country, but he isn’t isolated. He is not an accident he is a symptom. America is still in many ways an immature narcissistic country.  As much as we may not like to admit it, he does represent a large part of our national state of mind. Narcissists are unaware of their dissonances. When they look in the mirror, they see what they wish to see. On the other hand, they see their own welts, wrinkles and intolerant expression when they look at others.  Love, respect and dignity are not the same as xenophobia.  Narcissists can’t admit wrongdoing, assume winning is more important than truth, see self-examination as a weakness, see life in extreme terms of black verses white and assume that their own position is white.  Of course, because this stance is untenable they must be re-energized frequently. This extreme division does not mean that we must just choose whom we believe to be correct, it means we all must look carefully in the mirror, notice all the blemishes and send unconditional love to those parts we don’t like without judgement.  

 The swings of history are the human creation story in process.  It is inevitable that following one’s concept of truth becomes the best way to discover it’s limits and flaws—and yet, awaiting the ripening and eventual decay of a failed belief is a painful process for those who already see beyond it.  Humans, with our short lives and shorter memories seldom notice the repetitive nature of mass consciousness. I am asked, and have myself asked why if I regard reincarnation as a reality, since we do not remember the events of past lives (with some exceptions). Truthfully, I believe we seldom   remember past events of this life if they don’t fit within our preferred narrative.

 Fear and intolerance rule the present age resulting in the opposing forces in our world moving dangerously further apart. Crisis looms around each corner. However, I’m also aware that crisis is as old as life.  At a time not long ago by the vast cosmic clock, our country divided into opposing forces and went to war. The wounds are still oozing.  In fact, it seems that wars are never won, and the combatants suffer their scars as festering wounds until they recognize that there could never have been a definitive victory just as there is never a victory in domestic fights. There are wounds, fear, distrust and alienation but not victory.

Perhaps nature itself is mirroring the state of our world. Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and volcanoes express the upheaval and disharmony in the world we live in. Yet, it is all part of the creation process. We tend to think of creation as something that happened in an incalculable past, and yet, the process of creation is beyond measure, and always mysterious to a finite mind. Our earth and Cosmos breathe in and out over infinite expanses of time.  Creation, destruction and re-creation are the only constants in  this universe and in universes beyond imagining. We can live the best that we know at any given time and yet it is certain that it will seem barbaric and narrow-minded a few generations in the future.

 Completely, independent nations, tribes and individuals no longer make up this world if they ever did.  Energetically, everything relates to everything else and the unchecked expansive drive to prosper at the expense of the environment and all other beings that depend on that environment is ultimately suicidal. Ironically, only a very constricted identity could countenance such myopia.  

 Each body has a short season before falling from this dimension the way a leaf drops from its tree when the growing season comes to an end and the lowering temperature of autumn portends the coming of winter.  It happens gradually. Autumn is a beautiful interlude. In this third act, the year presents intense colors and a snapshot of perfection just before life goes underground.  We don’t count the underground time as life and yet it is very important for a successful spring.

At my age, I think of winter and especially the following spring. That dormant time is very necessary for a successful renewal. Last winter was dangerously dry.  There were perhaps two good snowstorms throughout the entire season and even the grass needed extra help to reestablish itself.  A while back, I was concerned about the human energy dip in Taos. It has become more’ mainstream’, less of an organic community, financially stagnant and worst of all most of its people keep to themselves the way city people do. Now I realize that it is all about rhythm.  Taos is breathing in. The great snake beneath the earth wiggles this way and that on its hidden journey around the planet. Each in breath is a time to go inward and process what we have taken in. The seeds of the next spring are now germinating for the coming year.
  
"Gentleness generally implies that you no longer have a strong ego-inspired desire to dominate or control others, which allows you to move into a rhythm with the universe. You cooperate with it, much like a surfer who rides with the waves instead of trying to overpower them. Gentleness means accepting life and people as they are, rather than insisting that they be as you are. As you practice living this way, blame disappears and you enjoy a peaceful world.” – Wayne Dyer