We've become a society longing for quick fixes.
A multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry has thrived by catering to people's hopes of being able to delegate personal responsibility for cultivating & maintaining their health with magic pills that make painful symptoms disappear without going to work on their root causes. Some people seek their fix in drinking, drugs, gambling, sex, porn, TV, video games, or any other number of self-destructive habits. Nations seek it through short-sighted economic policies, elections of new politicians, and wars. And we've seen a boom in a multi-billion dollar personal development industry as millions have taken to paying both "new age" and business "gurus" desperately seeking quick, simple, and easy answers to their most challenges personal, professional, and relationship problems. Our escapism & avoidance takes many forms, though there runs a common threat through near all the ways we've been trying to improve our lives & world: the belief that there is indeed such a thing as a "quick fix."
Typically, the pursuit of such solutions only leads to more of what's trying to be changed - side-effects from pills taken for one disease triggering another, wars undertaken to "bring justice" only causing more death & destruction, various escapisms distracting from the core issues so they grow & compound outside our consciousness, and the innocent curiosity about self-help unravelling into a self-perpetuating struggle of seminar junkie-dom & new-age-itis. We've bought into the illusions & promises of quick fixes time & time again, but they never work. Why? Two fundamental reasons: 1. the desired changes in most cases can never be quick and easy - what's required is deep transformation that takes much time & effort; and 2. there is actually not anything to be "fixed" - the "problems" only actually exist in the way we are thinking...
Behind any apparent "problem" lies a much deeper web of inter-related causes. Underneath the surface hidden are dimensions of energetic flaws & dynamics governing the phenomena & events we perceive. "Quick fixes" rarely take into account these energetic roots, let alone focus on addressing the underlying dynamics behind the "problems."
Changing results in our outer world requires transformation of the dynamics in the unseen, which often involve complex processes of restructuring entire systems - be they energetic, bureaucratic, belief systems, or business systems. Just as a seed cannot be planted and harvested overnight, so transformation can sometimes only occur over time, in the right seasons, with the right conditions, and the right nourishment.
Many don't want to put in the blood, sweat, and tears needed to create what they really want most; many of us want the payoffs without the growing pains - and so chase fantasies catering to our desires for instant gratification. But, "what we resist persists" - and though pain is an inescapable part of life, we've far too often created our own suffering by trying to change the world to avoid it. Yet, the only way out of the pain & chaos we've sought to eliminate with our quick fixes is by marching right through it - immersing ourselves in the conditions with patience, faith and consciousness to tune into the underlying dynamics we need to work with to bring about deep, lasting transformation.
What we also tend to forget is that EVERYTHING is already in the process of transformation. We are already playing the game of increasing our human consciousness; and while we often project our ego's desires as the ideals of how we, others, and the world "should" be, there's a greater, higher, deeper, Divine force that's lined up everything as it is to serve the evolution of our consciousness. "Problems" are only "problems" in comparison to our view of what the world would look like if it were "perfect," according to our beliefs - which in most cases have been societal & cultural dogmas passed down through generations, rather than universal Truths. Things only need "fixing" when we define them as "broke." But, the natural order of the universe is one of continual death & rebirth, order & chaos, breakdown, breakthrough, and rebuilding. Our transformation is underway, our breakthroughs germinating - though we haven't fully developed the vision to see it...
What really needs to be "fixed" most is our perception - from the limited "we know best" view to an awareness of the vast energetic dynamics beyond the mind and all its preconceptions. From there, we can begin to see the underlying order, where we've interfered to cause the disorder we've labelled "problems," and how to re-harmonize ourselves in nature's abundant flow. THIS is where the real "fixes" are to be found.
People will not need to take drugs if they know how to cultivate health and commit to acting on that knowledge, which is readily available. People will have no need for addictions if they effectively implement the practices to foster a healthy mental-emotional-physical-spiritual-relational balance, which have been known and taught for thousands of years. Wars will become unnecessary as we collectively awaken to the true, abundant nature of the universe and the power of cooperation, and this consciousness becomes reflected in our political & corporate leadership. Nor will people seek quick fixes for their self-improvement as they recognize the inherent, Divine perfection of who they are and where they're at, gaining faith in the power we are each subtly and silently expressing as we grow out of our old, problem-oriented selves and settle into our higher, timeless, infinite self - to whom all the "problems" are just steps in the learning & growth process.
None of this may come quick; though, it is coming, and will last. So for now, there is but one "quick fix:" becoming conscious - and abandoning the notion that such a thing exists.
Disappointment will ensue as our idealistic fantasies die, and pain will be inevitable as we come face to face with the realization of how we've been creating the conditions we've longed to be rid of. But, this is the road to transformation. This is where our power awaits...
written May 2011