Out of our wilful disregard for life came the destructive, human, self-conscious intelligence that created the world. We are very clever, very smart children.
But right from the start we have been takers. With our unfeeling intelligence and selfish greed we took from the mother without consideration until a third of her
was reduced to desert, for which we cleverly blamed the elements, and at the
same time we took from each other until half of us were starving or impoverished, for which we again cleverly blamed everything but ourselves. Without let-up the mother and the life on earth continue to be denuded and deprived by our
rapacious intelligence. At every level of existence human intelligence has demonstrated greed and exploitation using the excuse and euphemism of
progress.

The human race has had no real values. Today we still serve nothing of value ­
only progress and convenience. We simply don't know what to do with our intelligence. We're stuck. We're going towards self-destruction and we can't stop.

•

The collective selves of nations and cultures praying against each other keep humanity from realising that great and wonderful ideal of 'Peace on earth.
Goodwill towards all.'

For such peace and goodwill ever to manifest, life on earth has to be freed of
our ingrained, irresponsible way of thinking, and our selfishness. Being selfish
we can't help but project our selves into every thing we do. We know of no alternative because we don't know what is good.

What is good? - I ask you now.

As if you don't know. We all know: Life is good. In times of tragedy you
suddenly realise it again. But soon you forget it and get on with your personal
life ­ until the next time. You don't seem to realise the lessons of tragedy ­
whether it's the death of a loved one, your own downfall or mass slaughter ­
that life, the good, is always here in you. And that at any moment you are undeniably life on earth.

Life on earth is good; or it was until humanity created another sort of life ­ living
in the world. As the world spread over the earth, awareness of life, the good, diminished; and living as comfort and convenience got easier.

So today living is fairly easy with its scientific gadgetry and enlightened dole queues; but life, the enriching and revivifying 'good' is that much harder to find.
And any day now, as the world finally demonstrates its crowning achievement in gadgetry or living, there won't be much life around at all.

But life is still good, isn't it? It was good before the world began strangling it ­
and it is still good beneath the strangulation we all experience.

•

Life is all-intelligent and all-compassionate ­ as we really are. And life will not
leave us to calcify and suffer in our own mortal ignorance of life and death.
So life, our reality, repeatedly exposes humanity to loss and tragedy as the only way of eventually awakening us to our true nature and bringing us to life.

The intelligence of life is as vast, profound and incomprehensible as life itself.

Life is behind and in every living thing. When life withdraws, the thing dies. When life partly withdraws, the thing loses its strength and vitality; gets or looks sick. When life almost fully withdraws the living thing hovers near death.

Life is behind the healthy lustre of living things. Life is behind the night that rejuvenates the bodies wearied and drained from the effort of daily living. Life is behind the infinite variety and beauty of all living things. Life is the architect and creator of all.

Life is behind the regularity of the seasons. The seasons depend upon the position of the sun, so life is behind the sun. And as the rest of the stars need a human
brain to apprehend them, life is behind the entire universe and the brain.

Life, like love on earth, is all.


from 'A Prayer for Life'

© Barry Long



An article related to these themes, "Paranational Terror", is published
in English, French, German and Spanish at www.bigger-picture.net