Cosmic Kindergarten: Lesson 4: THINK GLOBAL, NOT TRIBAL

We have been talking about lessons that mother earth teaches us his children who live at the mercy of earth. I say that because, if earth doesn't provide us air, water and food, we are toast.

We live on a round shaped fast moving planet that is attached to nothing. But that is not part of our every day consciousness. Our senses tell us that we live in a specific location, on the ground that is flat and stationary. Let us say I am in Jacksonville and somebody asks “where do you live? I will say: “I live in Coral Springs.” If I get that question when I am in NY, I will say: “I live in Florida.” When that question is asked when I am in India, I say: “I live in America.”

Imagine answering that question this way: “I live on earth.” People are going to look at you funny. So, I need a specific zip code to occupy my physical body. But my mind does not have to be and should not be restricted to the boundaries of that zip code. A man made GPS will locate me in a city called Coral Springs. But the divine GPS does not confine me to one location, because I m traveling in space 1.5 million miles a day. By the way, do you know what the human GPS stands for? (Global Positioning System). Divine GPS stands for God's Panoramic Space.

So the fourth lesson from planet earth is, Think global not Tribal. Let me tell you a story.

Joe smith woke up in the morning using an alarm clock made in Japan. While his coffee pot made in Korea was perking, he shaved with his electric razor made in France. He put on a dress shirt made in Sri Lanka and designer jeans made in (Singapore) and tennis shoes made in Malaysia. After cooking breakfast in his new electric skillet made in India, he sat down with this calculator made in China to see how much he could spend that day.

After setting his watch made in Switzerland to the radio made in Japan, he got in his car made in Germany filled it with gas from Saudi Arabia and continued his search for a good paying American job. At the end of another discouraging day of checking his computer made in Korea, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals made in Brazil, poured himself a glance of French wine and turned on his TV made in Taiwan and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in the USA.

This story is used to illustrate the negative aspect of globalization. I use it to show how inter-connected and interdependent we are to the whole world for our existence and survival.

We live on a globe. Not in a cave. As inhabitants of a globe, our thinking should be global too. Very often tribalism and nationalism inhabit our minds, resulting in fear of the other which leads to prejudice and hate. After the September 11 terrorist attack, I heard someone declare on television: “I only care about America, as far as I am concerned, the rest of the world can go to hell.” Such tribal thinking while living on a globe contradicts the very ethos of the earth. And that is why we have so many problems on earth.

When we hear the word “tribe” we think of the uneducated, unsophisticated, scantly clad people who live in the Amazon jungles and remote African villages. We think of our neighbors in Hollywood, the American Indians from the Navajo tribe. But we will never consider ourselves as members of a tribe. We are not tribal. We think we are a modern, civilized, smart people living in a first world country.

Hello, news flash: All of us are more tribal than we think.

Tribal Mentality, is hard wired into us which is fostered in our earlier years by our family tribe, our religious tribe, our social-class tribe, our race and ethnicity tribes, our country-tribe, our language tribe, our gender tribe. Each of those tribes is interested in its own survival and creates a series of ideas and concepts in our minds. These ideas occupy our unconscious mind.

Tribalism is pervasive, and it controls a lot of our behavior. Tribalism is more emotional than rational. Think of the inhuman things we do in the name of tribal unity. Wars are essentially tribalism. Genocides are tribalism. Remember the genocide in Rwanda in 1994? The Hutu tribe eliminating the Tutsi tribe, killing a million people. Racism is based on tribal thinking. Religious superiority is based on tribal thinking. Xenophobia and homophobia are the result to tribal thinking.

Our political system is a great example of tribal thinking; We have the Democratic tribe and the Republican tribe. Each tribe holds on to their views and opinions without budging or compromising. We see that being played out in Washington, every day.
The “us” Vs. “them” mentality is an “inherent” and “inherited” trait from our origins as tribal people in prehistoric times.

When our ancestors lived among wild animals, as nomads and hunter gatherers, the “us versus them” thinking was necessary for survival. They had to fight against wild animals and rival tribes for their very survival.

So tribal mentality is primordial, primitive and prehistoric. But now we live in the 21^st century. We shouldn't think and act like our ancestors who lived in the jungles thousands of years ago.

Don't wear the most modern designer suits, drive the fastest luxury cars and talk on the latest smart phones and live in the most developed nation and think and act like chimpanzees in the Amazon jungles.

Look around. Look at our politicians. They put partisanship which by the way is tribalism, above the welfare of the country. Think about the uncompromising attitudes towards any type of gun control. It is coming from tribal thinking based on fear and greed.

Our ancestors had an excuse, they didn't know any better. They couldn't see a world beyond the trees in their forests. They didn't know anybody other than the next tribe that threatened their existence. They didn't have newspapers or radio or television. They didn't know that the earth was round. They didn't have internet that connects the entire world. For them, the world was their village. But today we live in a global village. But there is very little evidence we act on that awareness.

As theologian Diarmuid O’Murchu reminds us,

We need to begin by highlighting our universal and planetary identity as human beings—our primary home is planet earth, not the actual house we inhabit in a particular town or village in a geographical area of a specific country. Our national, ethnic and religious identities then become relative values in terms of the greater whole to which we owe our primary allegiance.

Think of a space shuttle blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Before lift-off , the astronauts see the fields around them. As the space-craft goes up, they begin to see Florida and a little higher, they see the entire United States and a little higher, they see the continents and once in orbit, they see the whole earth as one blue dot.

So the higher we rise, the more we see. When we are in higher consciousness, we see the bigger picture. When our consciousness is low, we see only what is just around us. We are only concerned with our self-interests.

Lower consciousness makes us tribal thinkers.

As tenants on the globe, we are called to have a global consciousness and when global consciousness becomes part of our everyday awareness, amazing things begin to happen in our lives. None of our problems will miraculously disappear, but they will magically transform.

When we see the whole globe from a higher perspective, we can clearly see the connectedness of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, sectioning ourselves into countries and states, forgetting that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth. We share everything on this planet, whether we are conscious of it or not, with other people, and those people are our brothers and sisters.

We are literally sharing living space with all of them.

Imagine you want to fly to New York. You board the plane but you refuse to sit down, you refuse to fasten seat belt; or you insist that passengers on the seats next to you be removed and you want the entire row for yourself. You insist that the flight attendant serve you a full course meal instead of the dry peanuts. If you make all those demands, you know what is going to happen to you. Most likely, you are not going to fly. But for argument sake, let us say, they calm you down and allow you to fly. It is going to be a miserable journey.

Living on planet earth is a miserable experience for many because, they refuse to follow the rules and ethos of the globe and no wonder it is a miserable existence for them.

In Ephesians 2:15, apostle Paul says: “We are all children of the same God and Christ came to make us “one new humanity” from a divided humankind.” Notice the phrase “one humanity” it doesn't say “one nation.” Every time, narrow minded nationalism creeps into our minds, we should think of Paul's phrase: “one new humanity.”

This is where today's scripture about one body and many parts come into play. Meditate on your body and think about its various parts. All those parts have to co-operate, communicate and compromise for the well being of the body.

Imagine the small intestine saying to the large intestine, I am going to build a wall between us and the Kidney is going to pay for it.

You know what will happen. You will get constipation which is going to be very uncomfortable. If the right ventricles says to the left ventricles about putting up a wall between them, you will die of a heart attack.

You get the point. The body and its thousands of parts have an ethos and a method to their proper functioning. Any variation from that will cause trouble. Same with the earth. It has its own ethos and rhythms. When we refuse to go along with them, we end up not getting along on the planet.

Exercise for the week. Find a quiet space in your house, sit comfortably, breath, look at a globe. If you don't have one, buy one..it is worth the investment...Touch it...feel all the sides..Look at all those countries in different colors..there are 7 billion people living in them.

Start with a prayer for your family. Say a prayer for the people of Florida. Think of the 320 million fellow citizens of this great nation. Think of the simple people of a poor country like Sierra Leon in Africa, say a prayer for the destitute in the barren deserts of South Africa. Think of the millions of people in India who survive on one dollar a day..

You can do this exercise in many ways. For example, each day, choose a country on the globe. Touch it with your hand. Bless it. Say a prayer. Look up Google and learn basic facts about that country and its people. If you can do that for 5 minutes a day, your life will change.

When you turn on that tap and enjoy easy access to cold and hot water, think of the millions of women in third world countries who have to to walk miles to fetch water to their huts every day.

When you enjoy light in your house with the flip of a switch, think of half of humanity who live in darkness, with no access to electricity.

Before you fall asleep on a soft bed in the comfort of an air conditioned house, say a prayer for millions of our brothers an sisters who sleep on bare floors in thatched huts or under a tree or a bridge.

Every day engage a few minutes in global thinking and you will see your mind opening, your heart widening, your soul expanding and merging with the mind of God...that is how we become a godly people.