How can one regular individual help make this world a better place? This is a question I ask myself quite often. In our daily life we want the good things. Our educational system teaches us to get a career, have a good social standing, to become something. Materialism is popular; we want a nice car, a nice home, and nice clothes. We achieve this is by earning as much money as we can in order to attain a certain lifestyle. So money becomes important and relationship begins to be about what you can get from another.
No one denies that we need skills. There are many positive things achieved through our education. We have had many amazing inventions. However there seems to be many imbalances, on one side of the world we have everything and on the other there is great poverty.
As an individual you can feel hopeless in the wake of all that is going on in the world. Your actions may seem useless, when weighed against the greater scheme of things. Environmentally your recycling may not add up to much. Why bother anyway if everyone else does not care. What will I be left with?
There are no easy answers. It is true, The thing you do will not add up to much, if you compared it to everything else. So what can an individual do? It is easy to say care, have affection, be patient, help others.
The truth is you can do this. The truth is you can make a difference. This difference may only be in one person's life but it is a difference. However if the reason you do these things is to feel good about yourself then it is more about you than others.
If your question is why should I? or what will I be left with. Then the inevitable answer is that your chief concern is about yourself. In the outward fashion you may take action but ultimately you will not be helping, you will be adding to the problem because you perpetuating the importance of me, myself and I.
The truth of being selfish is hard to deal with. You may have all sorts of reactions to it, like tomorrow I am going to think of others. The problem is, this is a reaction. Reactions are always in conflict with themselves. Therefore you will always be just reacting and not understanding.
To really help this world you must begin with yourself. You must find out the truth of who you are. Sure you have to eat, sure you need a roof over your head, and sure you need money. No one can deny these things. However beyond that, why do you need self importance or self indulgence? Find out for yourself. Take time out and ask this question of yourself. Do it today.
Paul Hegarty is the owner of learningfromdvds.com - your guide to Spirituality DVDs . the site that makes learning fun and easy.