There is a great deal of confusion afoot in the world today about how to conduct external affairs. I suppose there always has been.
Yet the inner or spiritual eye of man seems more closed than ever, and the intentionally and triumphantly destructive actions of individuals with no real sense of Self continues to multiply. I see it all around me; those who not only ignore the adage, "above all, do no harm," but those who see no fault in doing harm to anyone they disagree with. Our society and our politics are filled with individuals like this, who expresses a selfishness that has nothing to do with compassion or right action.
Such individuals have no interest in truth or wisdom; they are interested only in themselves, how they can oppress others, and, commonly, how much money they can make. They hold people different than themselves in contempt. They lie about everything; not just the small lies with which all of us keep our lives moving forward, but large ones, which undermine others and cause right attitudes to collapse.
Can outward action stop such things? It's a big question. There are those with right conviction and right attitude who believe that they can; yet if the spiritual eye of a man is not open, how can he see that what he does is wrong?
And is there any outer action that can open the spiritual eye?
I don't think there is. It is left to those of us who have a wish for the good to strive with every fiber of our being to take in a higher influence and manifest it in life; because only a light that shines from within can set an example in the midst of the confusion we face. A man or woman needs to go quietly first within themselves, and then quietly within life, setting the standard and refusing to stoop to the level of those who would destroy things. Outward life already draws us into this action to some extent no matter what we do; and only an upright inner attitude can go against that force, which affects everyone. I see this question every day in myself, when I see awful things going on and have reactions that are inappropriate and do not befit the dignity of a human being. It's easy to forget myself and wish to do violence in one way or another to stop those who would do violence.
I don't quite know how to sort this out, because there are indeed moments when one actually has to fight. The distinction between the moments where one must just
see and the moments when one must take a regrettable but inevitable action to oppose such forces are not clear, except in the moment itself. I suppose that the difficulty is that there is so much armchair theory regarding these questions. It is in the midst of life, in the actual action of being human, that these choices have to be made... not on sheets of paper or in Internet forums.
And the difficulty is that if I am not present in life, I cannot choose right action. My inner alignment is the first thing that needs to be attended to; because if I am not aligned with
the greater good, nothing can come of anything I do.
May your soul be filled with light.