A Species Wanting Attention

Shared non-profit with full accreditation, within accordance with International Fair Use policy for Educational purposes; as part of the ITZA IS ISHTA - Aquarian era for Humanity focus on social upgrade. Introduction of Sins of the Spirit Blessings of the Flesh, Lessons for transforming Evil in Soul and Society, by Matthew Fox A SPECIES WANTING ATTENTION A year ago, following a lecture I gave in Hawaii, a young man approached me with a story. “I have AIDS,” he said, “and the day I was diagnosed you came to me in a dream wearing the white coat of a doctor and you said to me, PWA does not mean a person with AIDS. PWA means ‘a person wanting attention.’ This dream changed my life.” He explained how he was, for the first time, taking care of himself and his heart issues, had moved from Boston to Hawaii to live a gentler lifestyle, and was feeling strong and joyful for the journey that lay ahead. I believe this story can be adapted slightly to apply to all of us. The acronym I suggest is SWA, our “species wanting attention.” In the wars and violence of the industrial age, our species has been neglecting our heart needs. We have also neglected the needs of other beings with whom we share this planet. We need to probe more deeply and more communally into who we are as a species: our strengths and our weaknesses, our power and mis-use of power. Paying attention includes going into our capacity for destruction and self-hatred, our resentments and our avarice, our envy and our listlessness, our despair and our cynicism, our addictions and our projections, our arrogance and our malice – in short, for lack of a better word, our sins. This book is an attempt to set out on such an exploration. As our species evolves spiritually, we must take another and harder look at our complicity in evil and at how our spiritual traditions may assist us in growing beyond our violence. Spiritual advancement is not restricted to increasing light in the world; we need also to increase awareness of those shadow forces with whom we must wrestle. If we don’t, we will pay a price. Scott peck, in People of the Lie, speaks of the issue at hand: “The major threats to our survival no longer stem from nature without but from our own human nature within. It is our carelessness, our hostilities, our selfishness and pride and willful ignorance that endanger the world. Unless we can now tame and transmute the potential for evil in the human soul, we shall be lost.” Yet Peck warns that “the naming of evil is still in the primitive stage.” Martin Buber, in his book Good and Evil, raises the question, What should be the “point of attack for the struggle against evil?” And his reply is, “The struggle against evil must begin within one’s soul – all else will follow upon this.” first published on facebook 11.8.2012