Tikkun Magazine, March/April 2009
Swami’s 2009 State of the Universe Address
Welcome to the Sane Asylum
By Swami Beyondananda
The shift has hit the fan!
Humanity has shifted its karma into surpassing gear, and political climate change has come to America. Thanks to a grassroots up-wising, we the people huffed and puffed together in the same direction, and the winds of change blew in a breath of fresh air—and a new president: Barack Hussein Obama. After eight years of insanity, we can proclaim to the world, "America has a President Hussein!"
So now, we must face the awesome truth: We are living in a world gone sane.
Welcome to the sane asylum.
The vote in November was more than a vote for a new president. It was a vote for a new precedent—to overgrow the "lowest common dominator" paradigm and take a step toward government of the people, by the people, and for the people, where the government does our bidding, not the bidding of the highest bidder. It was a vote for a society where the Golden Rule finally overrules the rule of gold. In the short term, the up-wising has been successful, and the American Evolution has begun. The first big shots have been fired, and we are on the road to recovering from an eight-year bout with Mad Cowboy Disease and Electile Dysfunction.
But now, if we want to heal the body politic of conditions like Deficit Inattention Disorder, Truth Decay, and the deadliest one of all, an unchecked Military Industrial Complex, we must elect ourselves.
Heartland Security and Purple People Power
So ... how do we do this? How do we go from an "every cell for itself" consciousness to acting on the evolutionary truth that we are in reality "all cells in the body of humanity?" How do we shift from survival of the fittest to thrival of the fittingest?
First we must move from the fear-based Homeland Security to the love-based Heartland Security, and realize our one true security is in the land of the heart. While the beliefs in our head fool us all the time, the love in our heart is foolproof. When we face up to love, we can face down the fear.
What this means in practical reality is that we must step across the "red-blue" political divide that has kept us separate, and show our true colors as one purple people. Yes, we have all been wounded by polarizing politics, so let's give ourselves a purple heart, and take the next courageous step to cohere around our shared "heart-core" values and become ... we, the purple.
I have a dream ... that the rednecks shall lie down with the blue necks, and that we shall tune out the polarizing mainstream media, which is sadly a brainwashing machine stuck on spin. More than ever, we need forums, not againstums, and dialogue instead of debate. When the body politic stops mass-debating and chooses to have healthy, pleasurable intercourse, we will finally create a healthy brainchild together.
This February, we celebrate Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial, and our friend Richard Lederer (the anagram master known as Riddler Reacher) tells us that when we scramble the letters in "Barack Hussein Obama," we get "Abraham is back: one U.S."
You don't have to be a Barack-backer to see that instead of relying on leaders from above, the next evolutionary step is for us to become the leaders we have been waiting for. In other words, I am Lincoln. You are Lincoln. We are Lincoln. And by linkin' together, we free ourselves from slavery to the divisive beliefs in our minds, and form a more perfect union in the land of the heart.
Sure, these ideas may seem far-fetched, but we are nearer to fetching them than ever before. Remember, we are now living in a world gone sane. Change is ahead, change is afoot, and everything is changing from head to foot. Like it or not, we are destined to have heaven on earth. Might as well get used to it.
Swami Beyondananda is the comic alter ego of Steve Bhaerman and can be found online at http://www.wakeuplaughing.com.
Source Citation
Beyondananda, Swami. 2009. Swami’s 2009 State of the Universe Address. Tikkun 24(2): 80.
