Originally this article was published in The Spiritual Path newsletters in December 2012. Because its message is so important, I decided to add it to my current blog, with a few thoughts about our world today.
In 2012, President Evo Morales of Bolivia, in an address to the United Nations on September 26, eloquently explained the power and importance of what took place December 21, 2012. He stated, “…according to the Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012, marks the end of non-time and the beginning of time. It is the end of the Macha and the beginning of the Pacha. It is the end of selfishness and the beginning of brotherhood. It is the end of individualism and the beginning of collectivism…the end of hatred and the beginning of love. The end of lies and the beginning of truth. It is the end of sadness and the beginning of joy. It is the end of division and the beginning of unity…”
Our world today, at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, seems more divided, less joyful, with less brother/sisterhood among all peoples. Still, I believe what President Morales stated to be true. We have entered a new era, a time of greater love. Over these past years, I have seen an energetic world emerging, a golden, luminous world like a penumbra emerging from our planet. I believe this is the new world being created with love where President’s Morales’ words will be lived.
If this is true, why then does it seem to be the opposite with guns killing innocent children? With wars destroying countries and lives? With so much anger against others?
Why are so many U.S. political leaders waging a war against women’s health care? Why is a political Republican front runner adding so much fear and hate to already explosive situations?
I turn to Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, to give you an answer. The official religion of Persian (modern-day Iran) from 600 BC to 650 AD, Zoroastrianism is a complex religion that explains the duality of good and evil in the cosmos and in the human mind. Forgive me for simplifying it for my purpose here. Since Zoroastrianism influences many religions that came later, you may notice similarities to other religions.
Life is a mixture of opposing forces – life and death, health and sickness, day and night, good and evil, etc. One cannot be understood without the other, so life is opposing forces. Humans have free will to choose, so some will choose evil acts while others choose good acts. It is believed that when all humans choose good acts – and it is believed that day will come – then goodness will triumph over evil.
We all have to make the choice to choose good over evil, each and every one of us, which leads me back to what I wrote in The Spiritual Path in 2012:
Each and every one of us is either contributing to the beginning of joy and unity in our world or we are stuck in our old patterns that no longer serve our lives or the world. In order for our world to survive, we must be the change we want our world to become. We must stop our selfishness and remember we are all brothers and sisters. We must end our hatreds and fears and anger and be love. We must stop our lies and be truth. We must work through our pain and sadness to find healing and be joyful. We are being called. It is time to answer.
It will not happen overnight, this moving from fear to love, each person choosing good over evil. It will take time, and it that period between now and then, we each must accept our responsibility in the process; we each must choose good over evil again and again and again, not letting hate for those who harm move us from love, but instead strengthen our resolve to choose love over fear, good over evil.
I challenge each one of us to answer, to let go of fear and live in love. The time is now, and we are the people.