The physical distancing and travel disruption necessitated by the Covid pandemic have resulted in more people than ever turning to popular media to share ideas, making it possible for thoughts to be shared and global collaborations to develop.
I realised this potential for positive change when my simple idea to develop a blog on a little known subject was able to attract 36,400+ readers from around the world in barely 3 years, until that provider suddenly closed a few months ago.
Refusing to be disheartened, I created a new one and now find it has attracted over 8,500 visitors from around the world. Which confirms for me that many people are open to spiritual matters, and willing to 'think outside the box' just as I did.
I could never have imagined this worldwide sharing of ideas any time previously. So those who feel despairing of making any beneficial influence in the world should take inspiration from this single evidence of a vastly increased potential for real and rapid change. If this is the experience of a single elderly disabled woman living on a distant corner of the planet, just imagine what the great majority who are fit and young could do! Just imagine...
John Lennon called us to imagine. To imagine there's no countries, nothing to kill or die for, no possessions too. To imagine all the people living life in peace; a brotherhood of man. And that the world will be as one.
So you may say I'm a dreamer but my experience with the growth of that blog showed me the power of one individual's thought. The strength of our desire for change and growth is everywhere apparent. At its most destructive this force is like a ripple that acquires enough force to sweep away entire villages; at its most positive, our ideas can spread until they become the desire of others and accomplish the seemingly impossible.
'Abdu'l-Baha promises;
If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.
Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! --- Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks.
I often refer to 'Abdul-Baha's comment that '...the reality of man is his thought, not his material body". Every sustainable outward physical change began with a thought. Therefore it follows that we make real and sustainable change when we change our thoughts. No one and no thing can change our inner thoughts. We are in complete control.
This is one reason why the practice of meditation is so important, as it enables us to become consciously aware of those deep inner thought processes that motivate us.
If it is to endure, the decision to change must be the outcome of a genuine growth in belief and understanding, prompted by recognising the negative consequence of our former behaviour. It takes place when we truly recognise previous shortcomings and then increase in our knowledge. That change exerts a real effect, not just on the individual, but on the planet as a whole. Abdul-Baha expresses this principle on its most powerful and profound scale;
“If you desire with all your heart, friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger and stronger, until it reaches the minds of all men.” - ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks.
More like this at https://www.bahaicomment.com/blog