It’s funny the things we identify with isn’t it? Consider national pride… such a curious belief. After all, why would we take pride in something we have no significant part in shaping? We pop out on a specific patch of land and it can seem to define our whole life. We use it to measure our experiences against, identify with, and even recoil from. A pride or shame, basking or wincing, heightened and deflated egos based on something wholly external to our being, out of our control.
Someone tells you: “Your country is beautiful!” How do you react? Does your heart swell with pride? Of course, it’s not really your heart but a part of you that identifies positively with something that is not you. Are you proud because the area of land you live on looks postcard pretty, has a fascinating history or is abundant in wealth or creativity? Again, it is not you – you should be taken neither up nor down by the accolade in relation to the value of you as a person. And yet do we not do this.
What is a border… who decided where to put it? Can your self-worth be crushed or your spirits be raised by the fate of ‘your sporting team’ from the country you have on your birth certificate, or even the region you identify with, hating those living 20 minutes the other side of a man-made boundary because an idea planted in your head calls them ‘different’? And what of the politics of your nation, the culture you get steeped in, the religions that permeate your life, the beliefs forged, the history known, the ‘achievements’ recognised? It is worth repeating – none of this is you!
‘Scotland Shame’ ran one famous headline from my country of birth regarding the blight of Sectarianism, and the violent religious prejudice that divides a great many. But is that every person in the country’s shame? Whose shame is it? And why feel shame – what is it offering? Is there within a true call to responsibility to address the issue that led to the headline? Where is the healing in this? We can so easily be undone by a man-made loathing wrapped up in a geographical location that has reverberated beyond our current lifetime.
Is it national pride that keeps us from caring about people suffering in the Mexican drug wars with its mass-scale corruption and violent soap opera culture – (a readymade Netflix series, ‘Narcos,’ for a new century re-cycling Columbia’s past – same energy, different location); or the human rights abuses in the Middle East where women can be raped and put in jail as if criminal offenders, as we in the West turn a blind eye because our comfortable pasture ranks higher in importance than the rights of women in a ‘foreign’ country? Even the madness of gun control in the self-proclaimed ‘greatest country in the world,’ USA, where some minds want to arm teachers rather than address the root causes that have normalised gun wielding security guards in their schools. It’s not our country so who cares… leave them to their mess.
Yet perhaps it is your country. And if so, do you measure up and say, “Well, we have this problem but at least we’re not in Damascus or Mogadishu or Palestine,” or you justify and defend the loveless situation because something made you proud of ‘your’ nation and its culture; the proud relief that you do something ‘better’ than someone else. We might have a problem with domestic violence or religious bigotry but we grow the best tasting peaches.
Where do such feelings of attachment lead us, such identification with an area or a race of people? It has led us to a ‘look after our own’ mentality, to disconnect us from our natural brotherhood, blocking our loving intelligence when at heart we know we are inextricably interconnected. Must we live in such a protective bubble against the ‘unknown others’ who we perceive to look and be different, and even consider dangerous, when in fact they are just as we are – only born into different circumstances?
To have pride in the culture, food or language of our geographical location strips us of knowing who we are beyond the things we do, the way we live, the illusion of individuality.
National pride is so often narrow-minded. Have appreciation for where you live for sure, feel blessed, enjoy what’s on offer, but to identify as a nationality, separate to another, better, unique, keeping others out of your heart because they occupy a different piece of land on this globe is not our truth. It is in fact a lie. This is the lie we easily believe, and this is madness. It doesn’t tell the truth of the Ageless Wisdom that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe.
Don’t believe me? So be it. But one day you’ll come to see that we are all from one source, that those particles are bound up in each other far more than our current ways of living allow us to see, with not a national flag in sight, and no one’s shame or pride to carry, no burden we need bear. Love where you grew up, love where you live, but know you are so much more than this. This current world needs you more than ever to be everything you are, not a symbol of one small patch of land but a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.
(*denotes man or woman, not gender specific)
By Stephen
Related Reading:
Countries in Comfort
We are all one
Understanding the Energetic Responsibility of a Nation
Words on Serge Benhayon 
Recently there was some conversation though the Microsoft TEAMS software where anyone using this system can communicate with each other no matter where they are in the world. This particular conversation was about American Football and the bets between staff on a recent game. The looser of the bet had to do a forfeit. So not only do we have country against country within the country we have divided ourselves again by sport and the argument can get heated, aggressive and very abusive. It seem we are set on this trajectory that we must find ways to be separate from each other, the lie is so big and so deep and set up in such a way that we value our differences over each other. so that there is seemingly no possibility to consider that we are actually more united than we are divided.
Corruption and greed are the vanguard of the spirit and our spirit creates as much turmoil from as many differing agendas as possible to create confusion and separation.
The word ‘humanity’ knows no boundaries, we are all one and the same.
The only pride we should talk about is Lions, you know the King of beasts, and when we understand that our Love is as non-imposing as possible then why would we not live in a way that allows others to be free to do as they please as long as they are showing at-least decency and respect for others, so would this not take away any barriers we place on others because of where they are born?
The insularity that national pride brings is divisive and invites comparison and tension. As soon as we identify with what is without to bolster the emptiness within, we are lost to it all.
Judgement seems to be a spirits way of isolating itself by placing others on the other side of the fence or perceived wall or so called iron curtain, when the reality is that nothing keeps another out. We are, or our spirit is, refusing to re-claim that we are all connected and thus in doing so is retarding our evolution back to Soul.
Where is the Ageless Wisdom indeed. The truth is it has always and will always be there it is just what do we choose. I am truly going to celebrate when we have, know and live the Ageless Wisdom above anything else ✨ #itswhatsneeded
DNA tests are showing more and more we are a mixture of other cultures already. Mixed race marriages and children are increasing. Even our particles don’t stay with our body they shift and move from each other. There’s no such thing as an English particle that makes up an English body and same for every single nationality.
I love this Leigh. It reminds me of a very funny line in “To The Manor Born” when the main character insists that God is English. When we take ourselves down to the particle level understanding how interconnected we all are, to identify ourselves as British or French, or Italian, etc., simply doesn’t make sense.
National pride and shame are two ends of the same seesaw of identification with something outside of us.
It is a great excuse for abdication of responsibility when we choose to ignore the impact of the way we live on others. If we were to consider ourselves citizens of the world, a one humanity, it might encourage us to consider that bigger picture. Even that does not do justice to who we are and what we are capable of but it is a good start.
Yes we accept particular situations because they are perceived as better than another has it, yet we cannot ignore the things that are abusive in our environment regardless of how it compares to anywhere or anyone else. Time to raise the standard of love in our own lives so it can have a ripple effect far beyond the eyes can see.
Nailed it Ariana! It is a way to avoid the all that we are.
Another way to consider the false notion of borders is when you look at animals – birds, whales and many other animals constantly migrate north and south throughout the year. And yet they have no passports and no security control to check numbers going accross borders. There is a union and a harmony that reigns when they do this and it is all done with due respect. Animals generally do not prescribe to this notion of borders in terms of countries and nationality, but as humans we have decided this is an important way to identify who we are, rather than looking deeper within and knowing that in the end we have the same blood coursing through our veins.
Borders are an interesting one to consider, and I like to think of children sometimes with this – when we are young it does not matter to us what colour a person is, what their so called nationality is, or where they have come from, we just play with them. And of course then comes a time when we grow into seeing ourselves as individuals and we begin to see differences and think that we are different. And we can draw the line on the couch and say “this is my side and you may not even put a finger over that line or else I will get mad and get at you” – I certainly recall doing that with my siblings growing up. But this is a learned behaviour and not one that is naturally at our core.
Henrietta interesting that you have mentioned learned behaviour because a friend of mine has just sent their young child to nursery and within a few weeks they were using toilet humour in their way of speaking. The child is only just three years old and has obviously picked this type of behaviour up from nursery. The child has no comprehension that what they are saying is rude and often offensive this shows me how at such a young age how quickly we conform to social groups and the need to fit in so that we leave our true selves behind, this is how borders and nationalities are born because we follow like sheep rather than standing up for what we know to be true. We all become enablers and this is how the separation thrives.
National pride is a trick to get us to compete against each other and to separate us, defending our place of origin as if it was special. We have no need to be divided from others, when in essence, we are all the same.
Having pride in being “…. a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity” is far grander than in a nation, so why choose less?
Maybe if we consider reincarnation as a possibility, our national pride acutally comes from a spiritual pride of being born in a certain country with a particular group conciousness that we were attracted to?
This is a great blog to read because it highlights the true mess we are in, we have swallowed a lie and made it a living truth.
I just love the title of this blog – like where is our ageless wisdom? We all have access to it and all can live it. Is national pride really so desirable once we see the divide it triggers and the subsequent suffering?
Some people may deny the Ageless Wisdom or turn their backs on what they know in their bodies, but the Ageless Wisdom does not bother, it goes no-where but waits patiently for us all to get it, and one day, we will.
It is weird to have pride in an ideal, a belief, for that is what national pride is.
Yes I agree and would add it is strange to be proud of something so contrived and arbitary and made up which I guess is what ideals and beliefs are.
When we live on an island your border is easy to define or a single continent, but who are the original natives. The more things change, the more they remain the same. National pride grows out of conflicts that are settled by war and who has won the battle. Is the biggest battle that still has not been won, the one with ourselves?
Steve I agree with you when you say
‘the biggest battle that still has not been won, the one with ourselves?’
is it possible our pride and arrogance gets in the way of us admitting that we have been completely taken in by the lies that have been peddled to us, that this planet is a paradise and we have a right to live here. when in actual fact this plane of life is horrific, ugly and abusive and the battle is with ourselves to reign in our wayward spirit who has made all this mess in the first place. To me the wayward spirit resides in our minds so that we think we think when in actual fact we don’t think we are given thoughts from a pool of consciousness. If we listened to our bodies then we have a chance of reigning in our wayward spirit as our bodies through the particles that make up our bodies are connected to the universe and the universe is a source of infinite intelligence. This is way beyond my comprehension, but I know it to be true because I can actually feel heaven within me and as we are all a part of heaven it makes sense.
On a large and small scale our identification with ourselves as individuals, groups, nations etc perpetuates our deviation from what is our natural unity and pull to work together. And we call ourselves intelligent?!
It would be far wiser to consider ourselves as a one humanity, borderless and not as individuals. I find nature a great inspiration for that because the only borders in nature are defined by water and that has a flow and a movement that illustrates the impact of movement through ripples and waves. Everything affects everything and it is illusion to consider what we do, say and the way we live does not impact on another.
The other day I pondered about Europe. Most of it would fit into the same space as the US or Australia. How did so many different languages start that were held behind their borders? Could it be, the ultimate device to keep us in separation that we call National Pride?
We may use our origins to identify, to give us a sense of who we are. Our culture may make it easy for us to connect with others of a similar culture, our social norms may make it easy to fit in – but neither of that means that we are our true selves, that we are in connection with our heart and express from a loving place.
The thing is, in national pride, there isn’t even an ounce of true care and love. It’s just a convenient identification we can choose to associate with every now and then to feel elated and/or stimulated. It’s not even skin deep. If we were able to truly relate to and care what we feel belong to, whether that is a family, a country, the Universe, we would not be allowing any kind of abuse whatsoever in any corner.
Despite Brexit…! I might be wrong but I am getting an overall feeling in general, and from listening to comments from others, that there is a deeper call for a one humanity.
We are seeing the deep seated ills of national pride and individualism and where this takes us.
The pull to unity is always there. It is innate in us. So our deviation from it, well demonstrated by Brexit, has to be constantly fuelled and perpetuated. This takes a lot of energy and keeps, for example, a rotten media industry in business.
There is a huge amount of disruption, panic, drive, unsettlement and possibly fear of the unknown that clearly is showing our deviation from unity through Brexit… but I am wondering if through the mess the path of national pride and individualism is being highlighted even more, so we can see it more clearly?
I’ve just seen a programme about the US/Mexican border and the full-time effort and quantity of resources being put into enforcing it. The man patrolling the area seemed passionate about ‘keeping the US safe’ – no country wants drugs being smuggled across but also there are also many people involved. It mentioned the children who had died in the US detention centres. Despite promoting what he was doing, the patrol officer mentioned many times he was just doing his job, enforcing the law and that he didn’t make the rules, the people decided them. I have to say I’m always dubious when people refer to the rightness of enforcing the laws of a country as a reason for an action without considering the purpose of the law itself. Needing to refer to ‘I’m just doing my job’ and not the purpose within that job, seems to relay a doubt in what one is doing.
What happens when you blindly follow and/or enforce anything that you just do because it is your job? Throughout history there have been executioners just doing their job, but what have they given up within themselves?
In this process of identifying with things outside of us we have created a separation and division that is in fact not true. We are by nature interdependent and harmonious within a divine order.
‘What is a border… who decided where to put it?’ I remember geography and history as a child and being amazed at how obviously arbitrary borders were and yet people didn’t seem to question this or the bloody acquisition of land. I questioned our collective sanity, repeating atrocities for something so false. But then there were some wars I felt weren’t about borders at all, they were about standing for truth and love on epic scale. Those I could understand.
One of the most awesome antidotes I found to the separation between nations before I came across the Ageless Wisdom Teachings was to travel and live in different countries. From a step back I was able to assess my own culture and put it into context against other ones as well as meeting so many people from various backgrounds. It really did not take me long to understand that we are really all the same, with the same aspirations and need to love and be loved.
Michelle, I felt this truth at school being brought up in multicultural London. With so many children and adults from different backgrounds, cultures and religions it was easy to observe that we are all the same in heart.
True – often we don’t have to go far to realise that humanity is in our back yard.
I work in a place in the centre of London that has one of the country’s highest footfall of visitors. I get to sample the multicultural world every day at work.
michelle819 we are all the same just below the surface and there is a worldwide well known Airline that prides itself on it’s multi cultural diversity, where it’s not about your nationality, colour or race but are you the right person for the job. So if an Airline can put aside borders and nationality then surely the rest of us can too?
I can’t say that I have ever accepted ‘national pride’, for what’s the pride in – Do our smiles radiate the love inside us? Are we living truly vital lives into our old age? Do we get on with our neighbours better than ever? Is our alcohol dropping enormously? Do we have no homelessness and no jobless? If not, what exactly are we proud of? Our rate of sickness and disease? How many people die each week from domestic abuse? How many lives are wrecked by drugs?At the unemployment levels? Globally, that’s nothing to be proud of.
‘Globally, that’s nothing to be proud of.’ So true. There is nowhere that is not affected, some places are more obvious, others are trying to hide away in comfort pretending they are unaffected. We are all in this together.
Not so long ago I saw an awesome cartoon of a boat that was sinking at one end. The two people at the top of the boat were not concerned about the people closest to the water in their comfort of not feeling like they were in immediate danger. It certainly cut through the arrogance that believes the hardships of life only affect a certain portion of humanity
We miss out on so much relationship when we limit ourselves to our nationality and/or have boundaries with anybody.
National pride causes separation and what happens when it becomes divided? As an example; Brexit has polarised the country to the point of vacillation.
Said like this it really puts things into perspective ‘We pop out on a specific patch of land and it can seem to define our whole life.’ I have never understood boundaries and borders in how can we claim a patch of land and call it our own (country) when it is not ours at all!!!!
‘What is a border… who decided where to put it?’ Great question that highlights the arbitrary nature of things. And when it’s this arbitrary, not based on any truth, we can question and change it. Interesting how defended the borders are, as if they define who we are when, in truth they don’t.
Pride; means we value something more than something else. What the ‘else’ is, doesn’t matter because it is a judgement. Which is a wedge we pound in between us and others?
I wonder if pride is a defence and protection. A tenuous wall we build for ourselves that says I/we are this, which is better than that.
What happens when you lose national pride? Brexit and the orange vests in France are just two examples of people losing fate in something they had left others to deal with. Anarchy and apathy can creep in, both cause us to contract.
National pride is a substitute for the love we avoid. When nationalism breaks down, we are still left with the lovelessness we looked to nationalism to provide the antidote for.
“National pride is so often narrow-minded. Have appreciation for where you live for sure, feel blessed, enjoy what’s on offer, but to identify as a nationality, separate to another, better, unique, keeping others out of your heart because they occupy a different piece of land on this globe is not our truth” I love this Stephen. We need to come together, not separate.
Is Nationalism just a reaction to the fact that we do not acknowledge that we are in essence the same and we want to differentiate ourselves from another in order to feel superior or control another group?
Having been born in Germany and moved to other countries while young only to be deposited in the UK at the age of 14. There was absolutely no sense that this was my country or that I was British therefore I should have a claim or a right to it. To me, it felt like I had just moved to another country no different than all the others, the only difference being is that I had extended family here and I could understand everything that was being said to me. I stayed in the UK for five years and then I was off again.
“…. we are all from one source, that those particles are bound up in each other far more than our current ways of living allow us to see, with not a national flag in sight, …” I love this Stephen and its so true, especially with all the nonsense that’s going on politically in the UK currently.
I recall a close friend who periodically visited me from another country, with whom I enjoyed sharing things. At times when I would point to something beautiful, like a beautiful aspect of the scenery or something amazing about someone, the response coming back would be about how the scenery in her country was just as beautiful or more magnificent, or how the people in her country did this or that. I always found it strange that things got translated into a cultural comparison, and it felt like a block for us in truly enjoying and appreciating what was in front of us.
We seem to have forgotten we are all from the same one source, that there is a wisdom, the Ageless Wisdom, that binds us, and we have an interconnected past, present and future. All we need to do is look up at the stars at night and we can feel our connection to the stars and the Universe, this is much grander and greater than any national pride.
Yes gazing up at the stars at night transcends borders. I am acutely aware of this when I travel, knowing that the stars I am viewing are the same everywhere, but form a different angle maybe or a different constellation. We are made of stardust.
If we imagine the world as one body, and each nation representing a different organ or body system, it would appear that this body is very dis-eased and unwell due to a lack of harmony and oneness which is actually against its natural order and way of being.
Great analogy that hightlighs the truth of the ills of separatism we have all engaged with.
What a great analogy. How we approach the malaise of the world is just like how we treat the body – specialists in one area, sure they are needed, but no universal, holistic approach; little communication between departments and a lot of repetition of scans and tests etc. costing us time and money. I’m seeing with Brexit how much we are invested in drama, complication and delay. I know I have to commit to what’s needed next and not wish for a different decision but bring all I can to the table.
When a crisis happens so far away or ‘not in my country’, how easy is it to turn a blind eye and continue in the same comforts that we have surrounding us. It is a classic situation where we do nothing until such time that we get affected by this in some way. This is not to say we should all sell our homes and go overseas to fight wars, but rather it is about us understanding what is happening on a macro scale and seeing how we might perhaps be contributing to this on a microscale. This alone can begin the change that we know is needed in our current world.
Pride has much to answer for in this world – whether it be personal, groups or national pride, it has the same affect.
It seems to me the whole notion of separate countries with borders and boundaries is so arbitary to begin with and creates the division and the separation that leads to one nation competing or comparing themselves to another.
Yup. Self made, false and endlessly volatile, borders are a human creation that impinge all our relationships, unification and development.
Yes and it occurs to me now after reading your comment that these borders extend beyond the obvious country ones and are everywhere – religious groups, sports teams, genders, jobs and professions….we humans put up ‘borders’ everywhere designed to segregate and divide one another and perhaps this is where we need to start and if we dismantle these daily borders then maybe the global picture of what our world looks like will start to shift?
National pride is trying to stand up in the UK with Brexit. It was offered as a lot of things that on the surface sound good. But, it depends on who is selling it and what their hidden agendas are. The European Union is like a Siamese twin and very difficult to separate.
Hitler was also big on national pride…just goes to show what you are saying here is correct Steve. Rather than blindly just believing the hype and spin, it would pay us all to really discern what the real agendas are behind the scenes.
Yes Steve and Andrew, history shows that national pride can be used very efficiently to manipulate and control the masses. And unfortunately we do not seem to be that great at learning our lessons as the media hype that led to the Brexit vote demonstrated and the nonsense that is still being circulated because the winning cards of ‘national pride’ and ‘looking after my own pocket’ mentality is being played.
‘We pop out on a specific patch of land…’ and then can choose to be identified by the beliefs that come with that place or explore the responsibility we have for being there and what our life purpose is.
Pride flatters egos but never unites people.
So true Paula. Pride by default seems a separating concept altogether, never designed to be inclusive of the person you are showing off to.
Is New Year’s Eve the only day of the year that nationalism is globally celebrated and gives you a get out of jail free card for our actions?
With national pride we become blind to the things that we need to see, be honest about and work on to change together. It’s like seeing ‘my child as doing no wrong’. I have always felt that the reason for people from multiple nationalities end up living in the same place (for any reason) is so that we do come to understand that there is no difference between us. To go beyond the surface of language, appearance, food and see what is the essence of us all.
And perhaps that is the reason for the current refugee crisis … for all of humanity to learn to live together as one nation.
I recall when I was around 8-9, there was a nursery rhyme going around and sung by the kids in my class which was very derogatory to a neighbouring country. There had been some disagreement between the two countries about who owned something or another and this jingle seemed a defiant reaction to that. I hated it, I found the words disrespectful and unkind and did not want to have anything to do with the whole behaviour.
Looking back I can see that example shows how we get to identify with nations and become nationalistic. It is not by any means shape or form innate – it is taught.
I’ll never forget the shock horror another New Zealander went into when they heard me (I’m technically a New Zealander) say I was Australian when asked where I was from. I don’t really mind where I’m from but it seems other people do!
Is having national pride in where we live and who we belong to a huge deflection from claiming and living our innermost true nature and our belonging to the all?
That question gets a resounding yes from me.
Sometimes we go to places and act in a way we would never do in our own country and then wonder why people give us a bad name. This behaviour is evident with tourists and it comes down to seeing others as less and not having an appreciation for yourself and those around you and the country you are in at that moment. If we treated every place we went to as our home there would be more of an appreciative relationship with that country and its people.
National pride serves no-one and holds us separate from each other, the Ageless Wisdom teaches we are all one and the same. It really is time to break down the borders that exist on land and in our minds.
We pride ourselves on geolocation of birth but on our behaviour and contribution to society… seems strange when we take a step back from our antics.
It simply doesn’t make sense. We generate fear by generating separation and exacerbate things further by feeling our fear is justified.
‘National pride is so often narrow-minded.’ With national pride we become so closed and disconnected from others. I have just learned that at the end of WWII many of the Polish RAF pilots who played an incredibly significant role in the Battle of Britain, were repatriated. A poll taken by the British public at that time showed that 56% of the people wanted the Polish airmen to go back to Poland despite the fact there was very little left to it to go back to. Many that did were either imprisoned or killed by the Russians. When we filter relationships by label rather than simply connecting to another human being as another human being we are failing each other and ourselves hugely.
The Truth of things goes much deeper than what we can identify by, the truth of things is an energetic truth that considers the quality and intention behind everything in life.
Anything that separates us, be it national pride, gender division, comparison and/or judgement leaves us so much less than our true nature and way to be together.
We will never know the power and magnificence of our true stupendous nature while we keep perpetuating individualised and separative ways.
I learned the other day that: there are No statistics for missing female Native American Indians!
When we identify with anything we are really talking about ownership and membership and that really goes against our own true nature.
Britain is right now learning that national pride has consequences and those consequences are not exactly fun.
Britain was sold a pig in a poke by politicians, that even they there were surprised the referendum actually won!
And as someone in the UK at the moment these consequences feel awful. What is also of note is that it has become a major distraction, time and money drain whilst all round us very real and pressings things need attention… health, education, social standards…
What is it that we are proud of in our nations? The beautiful scenery, great climate, the ease of travel, lots to do? The increasing rate of illness and disease, including mental ill health and suicides, increased relationship turmoils, more suspicious of those from differing cultures, increasing use of drugs and alcohol? We need to be able to see it all, not just focus on the pretty and not see where we are heading.
I wonder why we have to keep our divisions. If there is something to celebrate why not share it, with no personal identification, so that everyone else is at the same level and also benefiting from it – and if it can not be truly shared, is it something to be celebrated in the first place?
Is it possible that cultural pride keeps us falsely inflated at the expense of another? I am wondering, what if we all celebrated our similarities and collective humanity… would we not be more united?
Yes and from such a foundation we will enjoy the particular expressions we all have of this oneness.
Yes, we would fully appreciate the differences of each expression, whilst appreciating the divinity of each too. This would cut out our need to compare, belittle and judge others who may be different from ourselves. There would be no ‘bigging up’ ourselves either, as equality with others would be truly known.
National pride we use to gain something, to inflate oneself to feel better than the other and in that activity we are completely ignorant of the fact that we are all one.
The pride we can hold because of an external feature of our culture is from the tendency to inflate the self to crush the self-worth of others that do not have this cultural feature. It is just one of the forms we use to keep us separated and not connected as one.
That which involves the reduction or crushing of another is not ever anything to be proud of.
As of young, I could not understand why you should hate people coming from a certain country as I saw people doing around me. And now I can say that I hate the division in countries, cultures and languages as it separates and keeps us in all kinds of divisions while in the core of our being we are all from the same source.
Perhaps pride involves bolstering the individual by taking credit for making something happen or even just being associated with it.
Yes I feel that we use the word pride to hide what we really want to say. A mother or father can say I am so proud of you but what do they really mean? I feel that we need to ask the question.
National pride is comparison. My country, your country. Which one’s better. Leads to protectionism by assuming that every country has different values. Sure we may look different and speak another language and eat different foods but is that as far as it goes. But really underneath all of that we are no different from one another. In fact we all have much more in common that we do any difference. There is nothing wrong with seeing the value of where we live, so long as we also see what it is that needs to be learned and understood from the culture in which we live. Which is no different from anyone else.
This is an ongoing process till all of a sudden you realise you are a citizen of the world and that where you were born is simply where you are to do your work – “in connection with and for humanity”
“Love where you grew up, love where you live, but know you are so much more than this.” To be identified by one’s nationality, job, or in fact anything, is to reduce you to be less than who you truly are as the identification confines you in a box when in truth you are boundless.
This is the irony – that we think the more we gather external factors to validate and justify ourselves, the greater we are. But the actual evidence throughout society is that the more people hide behind such props and labels, the less freedom there is to live the boundless, expansive and inclusive grandness of our true expression.
Well expressed Golnaz as it is such a powerful illusion we live in that the more material accolades we have – wealth, university degrees, fame, etc. – the freer we become when in truth we become constricted within the identification we have chosen and hence less free.
That is a beautiful quote.
The country that we are born into does not define who we are as people, we define who we are by the choices we make.
To have pride in the country we were born into keeps us small and contracted and for as long as we fuel and feed this pride in our daily lives we remain small and contracted; there is So much more to us than this belief we purposely attach ourselves to keep and delay us from living the expansive and loving human being that we are.
Seems illogical that we have so much pride over something that happened by chance!
See one suffer and for it to be acknowledged in the sense that it is happening but turning the blind eye and choosing to have nothing to do with it because it is not of the land you are apart of and believe you have some form of ownership over is very very very lost. Great to get this discussion going.
It is so limiting to close off to each other based on our geography. This narrow mindedness is one of many things we choose to stay in separation and avoid the magic of brotherhood. Why?
I hate nationalism and all the conflict, violence and division it creates; it is absolutely against our nature to be adversarial.
Ownership is a big thing – we are proud with what we like / ie a nice country, a better system – but we deny that all that is between us is water and that we have a responsibility to see the whole picture and the state of the world not just where we live.
Our natural essence is love and if we expressed our innate qualities, the ones we are born with as a baby, without it being tainted and twisted by such things as ideals, beliefs, hurts and fed thoughts, we would naturally be caring, considerate and loving of one another. Anything that promotes and encourages anything less than this, keeps us from re-connecting to and living our divine essence. Nationality consciousness has throughout history not only separated groups of humanity from one another, it has also sanctioned wars and major atrocities. Does this concept have anything to truly appreciate? Not in my books.
We should be proud of the qualities that serve all of humanity and not hold back in sharing it with the world but everything that we use to make us superior, better or grander we need to understand fosters separation and does not evolve us in anyway, none of us.
We seem to have national pride but not species pride – as in we don’t take pride in what we live, we just do what the done thing is hoping we can make it look better than the next.
National pride is a bit like alcohol when we use it, however small the amount or however we behave responsibly with it, we allow its existence and its effects like aggression, abuse and so on.
When it comes to considering the issue of “national pride” do we want to champion the pride in belonging to one nation or the belonging to a universe?
“Love where you grew up, love where you live, but know you are so much more than this. ” Yes Stephen, when we honour the grandness we are first and beyond any external identification, we can genuinely appreciate what our birth place can offer to us. But if we do it on the contrary way, we can lose ourselves in those identifications and easily be fooled by them.
Yes I hadn’t considered it this way round but it makes so much sense that to love where we live and where we grew up but that it does not define us. We are clearly from the same source even though some may argue what that source is, there is clearly a human being-ness that connects us all. Perhaps the connection should speak louder than the man-made borders.
We can make it all too easy for each other to relinquish personal responsibility and stay ignorant – or justify the facts of what is going on in the wider world. Great Stephen that you bring in the Ageless Wisdom to highlight and offer an opportunity for deeper consideration.
When I lived abroad in Italy, the prejudices I would hear about the English would sometimes shock me and likewise amongst English colleagues conversations could run to a dismissal of the way Italians would do things. The hurt this could generate for people thus creating an ‘us and them mentality’ was not considered nor was it considered that we are all the same in truth. So important that this is nominated.
National pride when it becomes nationalism is very harmful – seeing the world as an us against them place eschewing co-operation.
What about the pride we take in who we think we are? Or the hit we get from being a seeming failiure? It’s all absurd ways of replacing the simple joy of being connected.
It is kind of ironic that by accepting the far lesser form of brotherhood like Nationality, having borders or being part of a certain religion, we are keeping true brotherhood, at bay for so much longer than could be possible.
Long-term inmates can become institutionalised. Do we not do the same with borders and beliefs?
Okay so it is kind of strange that we create random invisible lines by which we split ourselves up into grouping that we call countries. But when this extends to ‘us and them’ disagreements and transgressions, and when we conveniently close down our awareness of atrocities and abandon any sense of responsibility and care just because it is not within our defined borders, the true evil behind such an endeavour starts to show.
We are so much more than a border, flag or language. What rich society we will make when we eventually see through all the false identities to the core of us all, a precious Love and all encompassing Wisdom that innately knows we are all one family.
It’s like with national pride there can be a selective ‘unity’ – a togetherness with a select group but still a ‘better than’ others way of thinking rather than recognising that we are one race – one nation of humans.
Sometimes I feel like its almost a reluctant unity because within the one nation there are still divisions – Lancashire against Yorkshire for example, North vs South, racial tensions, gender tensions and so on. There can be no national unity with these divisions in play and so our national pride is exposed to be false when there is such disharmony within it. I agree we are one race – all interdependent on each other, but until we can sort this out at home we haven’t a chance of recognising it globally.
In this ‘selective ‘unity’’ we do truly separate. Simply focusing on two football teams in a match illustrates this point. One team may be unified but at the expense of another. It’s the same with Nations… but when we break it down, how unified is a single nation really?
I giggle at this phrase ‘selective unity’ because it shows how mad we are to think that nationalism is in any way a positive thing.
I noticed that Ireland beat the all blacks last weekend it came to my attention by a Facebook post of someone saying how proud they were to be Irish, I couldn’t help but think of this article and how strange it is that we should fall for this false brotherhood.
National pride is like one of the biggest pair of blinkers you can find; literally reducing our view of the big picture.
We could call it myopic exclusion dressed up by many a name.
“What is a border… who decided where to put it?” We have some great examples of man made borders, such as The Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall and Hadrians Wall. However high we make them though we can never actually block each other out, at some point the Love in our Hearts will always prove stronger than our man made notions of separation.
And even when they are real like the Irish Sea or the English Channel, they still don’t block each other out.
It’s almost difficult to conceive how we have come to live so far disconnected from our true way of life and nature until we feel the influences which keep us repeatedly making the choice to be separate from each other by remaining in separation from our self. This is the trick – to keep us seeking outside of our self with a false pride in our achievements despite the fact that they further engrain the separation and bolster the division we have created.
The ‘Look after our own’ mentality is such a protective and contracted way of living, if that is the foundation a country, city or neighbourhood stands on then there will never ever be true expansion and brotherhood.
‘What is a border… who decided where to put it?’ Exactly – how arbitrary is this! It doesn’t come with any purpose or sense but people buy into it so much. People I feel like to belong, to feel a bond with others and take on board this nationality stuff because it’s as good as the world seems to offer. What’s horrible is that nationality takes away the true brotherhood that people truly crave by dividing us into opposing factions.
This comparison and competitive thing between nations is so damaging and not even achievable as no nation has it all, so rather than picking and choosing and championing certain things it might be better to celebrate and collaborate and learn from each countries strengths.
andrewmooney for prime minister I would say – what a great standard and inspiration to work towards.
Yes, absolutely, there is so much we can learn from one another and collaborate is something we could build on so much more.
It is good to look after oneself and those nearby and then it may be time to look after others as well once we are able to do so without detriment to ourselves.
We go to such great effort and resort to so much destruction to protect those imaginary lines in the sand and to protect something that divides us and keeps us apart from one another.
We have had many opportunities historically to bring nations and people together but we seem to prefer separation.
Exactly Shirley-Ann… There is a desperation to belong… And all we have to do is simply to know ourselves, who we truly are and we will sense and feel that in the oneness that we truly are.
“…. making the leap, to not needing to belong in order to know that we already belong.” Contrary to all that we taught/conditioned to be yet so true.
It is as if humanity is always looking for something to identify with, rather than knowing who they truly are and feeling the sense of oneness that is innate within us.
We are not broken, but spend enormous amounts of energy and resources to get more from outside of us by any means, forgetting we are all complete.
Yes well said, it is also like there can be a false sense of security in being identified with a specific nation rather than the true settlement you describe of knowing who we are in essence and appreciating that in everyone else as well.
It is quite exposing what it is we give our power away to, the external factors under the illusion of thinking that it defines who we are. But when they change, as they always do, what then of our knowing of who we are? And so, the chase continues at the mercy of an ideal that we try to fit into, governed not by the truth of who we are within, but the lies of all that we are not. There is a far greater and more powerful way to live guided by the truth of who we are from our connection to our essence that resides within us all, and The Ageless Wisdom Teachings have throughout the ages offered this as way of living in true power for us all to return to, today known as The Way of The Livingness.
I witnessed the other day how with complete surrender came an immense power, it sounds like an oxymoron but I saw it with my own eyes. There is sooooo much more possible in life when we truly accept and live to the Ageless wisdom principles.
Gill we are all so protected now we often don’t feel close to our own neighbours.
It’s a great point about the borders we employ based on land or other differences to justify not embracing our fellow human beings as equal brothers. Ordinarily when we are in a work, family or friendship situation and someone needs support we employ our skill or offer our wisdom and care depending on what’s needed – no questions asked. Should we really turn this off because of differences in culture, race or nationalities?
Because we do not dare being who we truly are we cling onto anything we can find identification with. It is a step by step process to let go of the many borders we have each build around ourselves to feel safe but which in truth have made us lonely and disconnected from each other. We are not here on our own, in fact there are more than 7 billion people on this planet, how can we possibly think any of us is better than another.
I cannot imagine the engagement with ‘pride’ ever not drawing us into being more separate and more insular form others. By nature it is a call for “look at ME and MINE”. It is saying “I (and not you by the way) am great BECAUSE of this”. So it even holds within it a dismissal the true magnificence that is within us irrespective of any external factors and pinning it on some abstract element in our life.
Yes, pride is a substitute for love. Is it a good one?
“Hello I am George a Son of God from the beautiful Australia.” .. “Hello I am Joss another Son of God from another gorgeous place in this universe of ours called Amsterdam.” Indeed one day we will communicate this way.
Nationalism and culture are indeed very divisive and serve us not; they foster adversary and easily pit man against man, team against team and nation against nation. And this has been our very long in the tooth history to date. Time for a change? Maybe we are not ready yet and prefer to hang on to the outer and rather superficial identification that nationalism and culture bring to some.
It is pretty crazy how people can have so much pride over a piece of land – and this cones in directly to keep us all in separation rather than taking responsibility for where we are at as a humanity
It is very addictive to be proud of the country we were born in or in which we are living. The question is why being proud of those two countries especially? What is different about them as other people do the same about their two countries?
‘…. hating those living 20 minutes the other side of a man-made boundary because an idea planted in your head calls them ‘different’?’ – how can we truly hate people that we’re not even willing to get to know? Perhaps it’s the lack of love that we have for our selves that allows us to feel this way towards a fellow brother that we hate.
It is not borders themselves which create separation but the intentions of those who govern or lead the lands they contain.
Caring for ‘our’ country/nation and people is the same as caring about family over strangers. It is first and foremost a separation form the fact that we are all one and everything we do, think and say affects everyone else. It normalises conditional love that only gives out when there is an expected return or benefit. This I know is not true love.
Identification is definitely the name of the game with nationalism, culture and many religions otherwise how do we show that we are better or less than, or belong to or individualised from another group.
We cling to labels such as nationalism, religion or culture in a desperate attempt to gain some kind of identity when the outer can never truly deliver what we are after.
Borders, nationality and other artificial divides are a reflection of the spirit’s quest to see itself in separation to the whole.
I recall those times at school when we picked teams and competed with one another as sad times. I and others seemed to get into a frenzy of wanting to win, so we wanted the people on our team that would give us the best chance of success. In that scenario any friends who were not on your team were your ‘opponents’, in effect the potential hurdles to you and the limelight. So much of the national competition and exclusivity seem to be the same thing on a bigger scale.
Your comment about picking teams at school reminded me of that feeling when people are selecting who they want to be in their team and the feeling of dread that maybe I’ll be picked last, and the shame that comes with that. But someone has to come last, so why shouldn’t that be me? We only feel it as a negative through eyes of competition and comparison. Accepting that we are all equal, being last would be no different to being first.
so very true Alison…… “Accepting that we are all equal, being last would be no different to being first.”
This should be plastered on billboards around the world.
Gill, I love that, ‘All countries have a beauty to reflect to us…’ I have always loved travelling and had a super sense of joy in experiencing different cultures and ways different people look at life. I even love the way different countries feel and smell. In appreciating the beauty of different countries, I find it takes away that needing to own or hold where I am from. (In the end, I know it’s not where I am born that makes me… it’s something far grander, something we all have access to, something universal and much bigger than our planet earth!)
Ditto Rachel. I have lived in America, Australia and Italy as well as traveling to many other countless countries and I have loved learning about the angle of life each culture has, each culture offering something slightly different. But when all is said and done every culture offers some truth as well as having deep flaws in the pride that keeps the people identified with it. This narrows down perspective and prevents us from us seeing the whole global picture and the wider one from there, which places planet earth as a part of a vast, connected and integrated universe – our true home.
Where we live doesn’t belong to us anymore than it does to someone passing through, perhaps if we let go of this concept of ‘ownership’ we would be more open to appreciating and learning from the differences between the countries around us. Supporting each other as we evolve together.
Being reliant on short term ‘successes’ external to the way we are choosing to live as a way of measuring how ‘well we are doing’ seems like a ‘hail mary’ attempt at best to justify why we are ‘ok’. It’s through the consistency of our livingness, choosing to live from the love that we are, knowing that everything we say and do is having an effect on us all, that we will bring about true change, not just for our selves, but for everyone.
We cannot box off just our little part of the planet and pretend to not notice or care about what is happening in other parts of the world, because how we live affects everything. If nationalism were to have any worth, it should lie in how well we look after our bit, so that it supports and nurtures the bits next door and so in turn the whole world.
Yes, it starts in our own backyards… in how we treat ourselves and our neighbours.
Is not pride actually arrogance of the spirit in it’s quest for anything that identifies it as separate when in truth we are one and the same?
That’s a great point. There are many differences between countries but why should some countries be better than any other country?
We do not need to look far to see that the us and them mentality is not working for us, on the micro and the macro level. We are all under the same universal laws no matter the self made boundaries.
It’s about appreciating the reflection and beauty it all brings, with out attachment or ownership.
The safest way of avoiding our Ageless Wisdom is to look and walk in the opposite direction, i.e. outside of us instead of turning inwards. We know where to find it and hence how to avoid it, that´s no news, not even specifically esoteric knowledge or so, it is common sense as we all know it from phrases like ‘soul-searching’, ‘taking stock of oneself’, ‘sit with it’, ‘let it sink in’, ‘come to your senses’, ‘digging deeper’ etc
It’s Armistice Day tomorrow and ‘the war to end all wars’ wasn’t heeded like all the wars before it. Sadly such a continuing apt blog for us to consider this notion of national pride and the destruction committed in its defence.
The Ageless Wisdom is the fabric of who we are.
Very exposing of the ill consciousness that we subscribe to that then has us believing that we are different to another due to our nationality, so much such so that we loose sense of the reality that we are all the same beings in human bodies and so if one women lives under the standard where rape is condoned then the reality is that we all are allowing this standard to be permissible for all woman and children. National pride is our choice to indulge in comfort and irresponsibility, to live with tunnel vision and the attitude of ‘not looking’ at what the reality is in the world around us, that which we are inescapably part of and through how we live and the choices we make in our day to day lives impacts every part of the world and us all.
What the world needs more than maybe ever before is for us to Iive our true qualities, different in expression, but in essence the same and what truly unites us.
It’s the only way forward out of the mess that we have created for our selves – for us to start taking responsibility for the way we are choosing to live, with the understanding that we are a part of a whole and that every thing we do affects every part of the whole, always.
If their where such things as aliens from another planet I’m sure if they arrived, they wouldn’t believe that we all live in such separation and making lines in the sand that we cannot pass without a little book explaining who we are and where we belong? No wonder they have been stuck on this planet for so long without being able to evolve and leave back to the stars.
Yes, it seems crazy how we confine ourselves to such a small definition of who we are as described by a few sentences in a little book – the colour of which to some has seemed so important!
Would it take an alien invasion to pull us all together as is often displayed in movies and in real life when major natural disasters happen? But in the disasters do we just send a few people and give them money to provide the illusion of coming together? Most large countries have finical budgets for these moments. Could it be, these are just a box of band-aids that they can hand out?
I went overland from Europe to India one time and the overwhelming feeling I had was that we are all one family, different skin, clothes, houses, ideas perhaps but within we all want the same.
That’s beautiful we are all the same and we all want the same, no mater what we are, where we come from.
I agree, there are so many ideas around today about our difference, pushing us to be more separate from one another, and yes we are all unique and bring our own angle to life, but we can so easily appreciate what links us, connects us and what we share…which is so much more…we would not fight and harm each other if we chose this everyday. We can understand and appreciate our differences, while celebrating what we share.
We are all part of the whole, so we would be wiser to consider the health, well-being and behaviour of humanity. including virtually constant war, crime, murder, rape, slavery, greed, corruption, addictions, obsession with entertainment, social media and disconnection from each other through technology, and without us feeling separate to any part of it and then consider how proud we feel…
…and in such circumstances ask not only how we can feel proud, but which part of us can be so ignorant to all of this and still have pride. Until we collectively do this, we will be lead down the same paths which have caused such an ill way of life time and time again.
Yes we are a long, long way from things changing at the fundamental ways that they need to.
National pride, a belief that our country of origin is something to be proud of takes us away from the fact that our true origins are actually much greater than the land mass we praise. The Ageless Wisdom has always shown us that we are so much more than what we have allowed ourselves to believe and we bury what we know to be true and accept something that is so much less.
There is a purpose behind and in our geographical placement at birth which unless we understand that we are where we are for a reason we will miss entirely. We have much to learn and are placed where we are best to do this and also because of what we can bring to an area which needs it. Through separation we have managed to reduce this amazing science to national pride.
Is this identification outside of our selves allowing layers to form? We don’t just pick one and stop there; country, town, local area, my school, bar, team and family! Are these lavers the way we cement ourselves from who we all are?
‘Where do such feelings of attachment lead us, such identification with an area or a race of people? It has led us to a ‘look after our own’ mentality, to disconnect us from our natural brotherhood, blocking our loving intelligence when at heart we know we are inextricably interconnected.’ – we are wilfully choosing to live in a way that dis-honours the truth of who we all are.
It makes sense though, the further we live the opposite of our natural qualities, the more harm we will live with and we won’t want to look at that as harm because then we have to truly look at what we walked away from.
Whether we are aware or not we are deeply affected by abuse inflicted on another. Often we don’t know how to process it so National Pride, or any type of they’re not part of the group I affiliate with and therefore care about, is an effective way of thinking we aren’t affected by what actually pains us deeply. It prevents us from standing up and saying this is atrocious we must stop behaving like this to one another, instead we fight, and, as I am discovering in myself, resort to righteousness which only creates more separation and conflict.
It seems strange in the 21st century, an era of global communications systems, satellite navigation and the Internet that these inventions have not accelerated our move towards being a one nation. If we can dismantle the borders in cyber space, then it seems only natural to remove them from the physical space we inhabit.
Like the long list of words we have bastardised; we have removed borders in cyberspace and used this as a way to attack others on a new level. The WEB has become the wild west where there are few sheriffs. Some countries try to rule and control it, but it is like herding cats. The more we feel into what is presented we expose what is true.
Borders have been created through mistrust, control and abuse. There is nothing loving in borders. And as we are seeing, life is constantly moving out of those borders through war and refugees migration. We are all one family and this separation is a creation based on protection not true developments and evolution.
Great point you make there, but question is are we ready to do this, are we ready to dismantle the borders ?
Grab a piece of the puzzle and ignore the bigger picture and you have found the recipe for separation; consider the bigger picture before looking at the parts and you will recognize the whole contained in the piece.
Great words of wisdom Alexander when we allow ourselves to consider the bigger picture we will know that everything is contained within.
So true, Alexander …. we are one tiny fraction of a very large and beautiful puzzle, where all the pieces are equally needed. To be open to this being true immediately changes our perspective enormously.
When we consider that all country boundaries are man made, is it going to be possible for us to live in harmony while these borders exist?
Yes, we really have to look at what has motivated these borders and heal that. I was once told a story about a small, mostly farming country had tiny fields that became too small to actually farm on and produce crops. What was happening was that, as parents died, their land was split equally between the children. Rather than work together the children built borders making smaller and smaller fields until farming was no longer tenable. This illustrated the craziness of trying to horde things for ourselves and not work collaboratively.
Just as we have imposed these borders, we can just as easily take them away, if we want and choose to do so. It’s up to us to be honest about what it is that we are actually choosing as our next step – love or the complete opposite.
I’m reading a book at the moment which spoke about how after a major war why did we not realise that nations and boundaries should not exist? And it made me stop as I would have not looked at it from that perspective before.
Good fun and properly expansive to consider a world without borders and nations…
Is it national pride that keeps us from caring about people suffering in countries and situations that are hundreds if not thousands of miles away? When we see ourselves as separate, as nationalistic borders, traditions and religions foster, then it is easy to turn a blind eye or even remain ignorant of the fact that other fellow human beings are under such persecution, suppression, poverty, imminent danger, living in fear, or barely surviving with the basics.
An illustration of the fact that we have chosen not to use our ability to feel energy in everything. When we do we discover there is not so much to be proud of in national pride.
We pride ourselves in everything outside of ourselves. The penny has just dropped and I understand what a huge set up we have made or allowed our lives to be. We glory life on the outside even if it stinks and is rotten to the core; we have all had a hand in its making. Rather than glory what is on the inside of us that we all carry around within and yet dismiss because we prefer to act selfishly rather than as a collective. There is no self in a collective as it represent the all. Is this the reason why very few people can tear themselves away from acting from selfish gains?
Focusing on the ‘glory’ on the outside instead of the glory on the inside. Crazy isn’t it, it will be great when we start to focus on the glory held within first ✨
It takes enormous effort and great diligence to keep the Ancient Wisdom Teachings buried beneath our un-addressed hurts and emotions to live in separation and isolation from others – in our homes and work places, both Nationally and Internationally.
Our disconnection from the Ageless Wisdom creates the need to constantly be seeking and searching outside of ourself for confirmation of who we are – information, borders, possessions.
That is so true, when we disconnect we are constantly seeking outside of ourselves for confirmation of who we are.
The world appears to be going backwards at the moment as well with England trying to leave Europe, America and Russia tearing up the thirty year old nuclear agreement and the cold war seems to be back with a vengeance as well as all the conflicts and refugees running from war and persecution so more than ever we need to get a grip on national pride and start looking to a new way of caring for everyone not just those within the borders that we have created.
How far do we have to go, tearing our selves apart, before we are finally ready and willing to be honest enough to let go of our pride and admit that it’s not working, that we have been wrong. To accept that we have been sold a lie and allow our selves to re-connect with the truth of who we are and choose to live in a way that honours this.
Shame or guilt is man-made and not something our innermost understands or knows how to deal with it. Wielding shame or guilt is only to crush people in their natural divine expression in binding them so to say with hands and feet to this three-dimensional planet earth.
I really hate border control as while we think it gives us security and protection, in fact, it is a form of suppression of the delicate, tender and borderless universal beings that we are.
The Ageless Wisdom has no borders, it is a Universal Wisdom that we cannot escape and no amount of man-made glorifications will ever measure up to our truly majestic heritage.
To have pride in our own culture, food, landscape seems very insular – there is a sense of ‘we’re all ok over here’ – yet, we’re not ok, unless everyone everywhere is ok too.
‘National pride is so often narrow-minded.’ – It feels like nationalites are designed exactly for that reason, to keep us insular and unable to see the All.
The same energy that made us separate from our Soul makes us feel separate from other people, from our neighbours, from people in other streets, from people in other villages/cities, from people in other countries, separate from the universe and from this separation created the boundaries that do now exist.
I agree Eva, every aspect of the ‘National’ image is designed to keep us in judgement and separate from knowing, in a very everyday-way, that we are all utterly equal.
That’s very beautifully expressed Gill. And yes it’s undeniable.
It’s easy to look at the country I live in and say it is ‘better’ than another. This really does make me consider why I segregate the world based on what is better than another part. A great blog to help remind me that if we are all one, then the world is all one, and should be looked at en mass and not compared to in sections.
Nationality keeps us from feeling our true origins and the fact that we are so much more then we currently think.
“Your country is beautiful”. “Yes, I live in a beautiful place.” Is it *my* country or the country I live in / was born in?
Good point Christoph, we often lay claim to a piece of land being ours. It’s a bit like being a small child who doesn’t want to share.
‘It’s not our country so who cares… leave them to their mess.’ This is an interesting point that not only do we seek to champion a nation of birth, despair due to its internal issues but we stop and disconnect from caring about those of other nations. This is a deep separation from our true nature which would not allow us to be separate from each other at all. But in order to address this we need recognise that nationalism and national pride are the signs and symptom of a disease which starts first with separation from our true self.
So very true Gill. If we looked at the totality of ‘the all’ for ‘thee all’ we would then clearly see how connected we truly are. No Boundaries No Nationalities just Oneness and Equal – ness for All.
One day we shall all come to see & feel that we are equal, that we are all the same, that we are all one. As we all walk the same planet, we all breathe the same air, we all bleed the same colour blood and we all seek the same thing…… Love. To be loved simply for who we are, to live in harmony through joy and with purpose each and every day.
‘This current world needs you more than ever to be everything you are, not a symbol of one small patch of land but a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.’ Doesn’t it just! We are at war with each other – whether that’s in war zones or a single incident of road rage- it’s not who we are but the love that does connect us all to one another in brotherhood.
I can feel the Ageless Wisdom in my veins.
Pride – identification and self-glorification through something we are not as it is outside of us, in other words, an idea, belief, concept, picture that makes us individual and hence makes us distinguishable from others.
Yes, pride has always puzzled me. Growing up I remember people saying, full-chested and beaming, that they were proud of me; but I couldn’t feel any appreciation of me at all, indeed it was like I was invisible. It seemed like it was some kind of self-gratification of theirs in something they considered I did well. So I wonder what is at play when someone says they are proud of someone they know because often I am just hearing they approved of what that person has achieved because it’s in line with what they consider worthwhile, good etc. We are love whoever we are, whatever we do.
I love that you raise this point Karin, I always cringe when I hear people say how proud they are, or even worse see it posted on facebook. It’s as though the person isn’t being treasured for who they are first, rather, it’s whatever they’ve done that has prompted this high praise and recognition from others. When we allow ourselves to meet another for who they are, we realise, nothing can ever be as gorgeous and magnificent as who they already are.
I recall in my early school years, there was a nursery rhyme type of jingle going round in my class. The basic gist of the lyrics was the leader of the neighbouring country making claims to a section of shared sea passageway and our country responding no way it belongs to us. Looking back I can see how surreal that was. Where did this jingle come from? I was shocked by how crude and disrespectful it all sounded – no one ever spoke like that in my household! Besides how could anyone be claiming that a part of the sea belonged to them or anyone else?
National pride and other behaviours which champion divisiveness are certainly not something we are born with – they are learned, built and fostered.
Americans in particular appear to have a gun culture, stemming from the olden days of needing protection, but the manner of invading the country set up an us and them situation right from the start. A society that lives in harmony needs no guns.
Well said Carmel.
I’m with you Carmel – sadly it seems like a lot of our societies are are moving further and further away from harmony.
It’s a part of the American constitution – ‘the right to bear arms’, however, they are not under siege. So, what are they, in truth, protecting themselves from? In choosing to let go of this right, laying down their weapons would be a huge step towards living in a truer, more loving and harmonious way with each other. Perhaps the ‘protection’ has more to do with not wanting to be vulnerable, than a real threat.
‘National Pride – where’s our Ageless Wisdom?’ – great question. Our Ageless Wisdom hasn’t gone anywhere – we are the ones who have chosen to step away from all that we know to be true to create what we ‘think’ and believe we want in our lives. Yet, without the truth, without our connection to the love that we all are life feels hollow, leaving us searching for things to fill the void and around and around in circles we go, chasing our tails.
‘One day you’ll come to see that we are all from one source’, just like when you strip away skin colour, nationality etc.. we all have the same blood flowing through our veins – no one is special or gifted, as we all are and no one is lesser as that would be impossible. The more we let go of seeing people as purely physical objects and see them as the being we are then we will see everybody as as equal beings just having made different choices.
I saw this great picture post the other day of a line of skeletons, each one with a different nametag to distinguish either their religion or role in life etc, and yet by nature they were of course all the same. So it is with us in life when we re-connect to that which gives us life rather than what identifies us.
Very true Victoria and goes to show that no matter what we do or subscribe when we strip everything away we are the same.
Yes.
Like it or not – we (humanity) are all in this world together and to re-discover the true purpose of our life on this planet is that of returning to the true equalness of brotherhood that we our inner core. No suffering of another would be upheld in any form, even comparison of being better off than another.
“Well, we have this problem but at least we’re not in Damascus or Mogadishu or Palestine,”
Yeah Stephanie it is horrible to look at how separated we are in our thoughts and actions towards each other. How much we accept because that’s how it is over ‘there’ as if it doesn’t impact us.
Whenever there is ownership, protectiveness, emotional energy of right and wrong or arrogance, there will always be a great division with the mentality of ‘them and us’.
And that is exactly what nationality is about – creating divisions.
I remember reading that piece about arming teachers in the US and nearly fell off my chair and thought about how far apart we humans actually are in our way of thinking and there was the other one where if a child hits another with a stick do we give all the other children sticks? There are so many people that are like minded and would love a united world but there are still those that seem hell bent on destroying it.
Yet when we are born and small children we couldn’t care less where a person is born or what religion they are a part of. Kids just love and play and feel each other with no boundaries, until they are told or taught otherwise.
What a thought provoking or more so heart provoking blog! What you’ve shared makes total sense to me. It’s our perception of ourselves that we are different in some way because we live in a certain place or country that seperates us more than anything else.
When I lacked connection to my wise and graceful essence then it felt quite normal to seek a whole range of insubstantial tokens to hang my identity on and build relationships around. The more I have worked to re-kindle my inner connection, the easier it has become to transmute these external needs in favour of the immutable Universal qualities that reside in all of us equally without question.
When there is little or no love in our life – emotional love is not love, it is an emotion – then we need substitutes, such as identification, recognition, distraction etc.
‘And what of the politics of your nation, the culture you get steeped in, the religions that permeate your life, the beliefs forged, the history known, the ‘achievements’ recognised? It is worth repeating – none of this is you!’ It is worth repeating until we get who we are is far grander than anything of this which keeps us small and knowing together we are magnificent and there is no-one who is separate from our collective magnificence.
Our Ageless Wisdom has never gone anywhere, it is we who have walked away from it.
It would and will be amazing when we choose to live in this way, Richard. Accepting that we are same, same but different, embracing our differences, learning from each other and building on the same same love that we all are.
It has never worked to create a border and withdraw behind it as a source of protection or defence and yet this is the solution we have come up with many times over the centuries when different nations have sought to destroy another.
Yes, it’s never worked. It’s only created self-imposed prisons.
England’s history is littered with people hiding behind their castle walls with the belief that the walls were impenetrable. Do we also build our own walls to keep others out at our own peril?
Whilst we are doing this in our bodies – going into protection and withdrawing from life or from others then what we are seeing outwardly is simply a reflection of what we are doing inwardly.
Yet we have people all over the globe promoting walls and seperation as our only way forward. It can be quite disheartening and it feels like we are in a time when it is very spilt 50/50 never before has it been so important to be love and stand up for truth as it literally could tip the scales in the direction we all truly seek.
The Ageless Wisdom is never not there, it’s just that we cover it up constantly with static.
And, are we the primary source for the creation of this white noise?
I have always found it very ironic that historically there have been tensions between the Scottish and English for example and yet when it comes to sport, let’s say, in an international competition then the distinction between English and Scottish is morphed into Great Britain, and there is no delineation. When we want to we are willing to let go of the separation that divides us, so what is it precisely that we think we are getting out of separatism and how does this identification really serve us in comparison to the richness and openness that true unity would bring?
Absolutely Richard. There is nothing that fills me with more joy than to connect with another, especially someone new or to connect more deeply in existing relationships. To me this is the stuff of life!
Whenever we identify with something which does not hold us and all other in equal glory and unity, it ought to raise the alarm bells that we have abandoned the call of our Soul and are playing the game of the spirit.
‘What is a border… who decided where to put it?’ Aren’t wars always about dominating or exterminating people to take full ownership of land and borders? We are the ones that decide this – by whatever means, despite earth being created with no such delineations, restrictions or disharmony.
I recently watched a short video about the Australian Melbourne Cup, we have the same in the UK with Ascot. Men and women dress up, women wear outrageous hats and they all drink champagne and bet on horses that race round a course with no purpose other than to win. It is a huge social event but very cruel on the horses (many are injured as a result of the intense pressure to win) and yet it has become a national treasure for millions of Australians.
What freaks me out about us humans is that we don’t seem to learn from our mistakes, wars never solved anything and borders and nationalism cause wars so what would the world look like without them? After that we could look at unifying religions, getting rid of all that is untrue.
Pigeon holing each other in this way, based on a set of completely subjective beliefs, is a very effective way of causing division and separation, setting us at odds with each other, discouraging connection, open-ness and unity which is how we all truly want to live.
‘“Well, we have this problem but at least we’re not in Damascus or Mogadishu or Palestine,” ‘ If we have a problem anywhere in the world it is all our problem. If we keep on cordoning off parts of the world we don’t like the look of and saying they’re not my problem then we’ll all be in our little rooms checking out on TV and video games. I know I’ve felt overwhelmed but then I have felt the power in being present and seeing the rot of us versus them. This willingness to see and live knowing we are all equal and connected makes a difference.
Our choice to pride ourselves in our acheivements is what got us into this mess on planet earth in the first place.
Our choice to pride our selves on our achievements feeds the illusion that we’re doing ‘well’. In reality this is far from the truth, we are so much more than how we are currently choosing to live.
How true Paula – we are totally caught in the identification of what we do.
Surely we should champion wisdom that’s been delivered and lived, throughout history all over the world. Yet our way of living is more like conveniently ignoring that so much truth has been shared before. This colllective amnesia lets us carry on in utter irresponsibility and the false national divisions you have outed so beautifully Stephen.
I like that Joseph, ‘collective amnesia’ – and all the ways we use to dull ourselves to feeling what’s going on, numbing it out, going into fight and protection and giving ourselves a buzz to not notice a bean of it. Yet we know full well the whole mess.
I so love this sentence: ‘the truth of the Ageless Wisdom that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe.’ I would say, let’s talk more about this to remember where we come from, why we are here on this planet and where we are going back to.
Absolutely Monika… an open and honest discussion of this worldwide would have profound effects on many levels of society.
I agree, Monika – so much is expressed and can be felt in those few words alone – inviting us to explore what may lie beyond the self imposed confines of how we currently see our life here on earth.
I agree, Alison, it feels like an invitation to look and feel beyond our physical form and planet earth and allow multidimensionality and the existence of God and the universe into our lives.
It really stands out to me these days when people identify in something superficial and/or beyond their control, like skin color or sexual orientation… I feel like ‘aren’t we beyond that yet?’… I even get the feeling that pride in whatever one is identifying in is perpetuating the same thing the hate & prejudice on the other end of the scale does; the illusion that ‘we’ are different to ‘you’/separation.
Though there are important factors to honor in ourselves and each other I do not ‘identify’ in race, orientation or even in belief systems because those are not who I am, just what I am and the ‘what’ is so much smaller than the ‘Who’.
The Ageless Wisdom confirms what I have always known, that there is an essence within us all (beneath our issues/hurts, beliefs & ideals) that is True and one-unifying and it is this quality that I now bring my focus to, in myself and in others.
It’s a beautiful way to live and be with people.
Is there not an arrogance in pride. For how can we have a feeling of pride in something we do not own? For example we do not own our ethnicity or sexual orientation or our children or the country in which we were born in. It just is. So yep pride feels like wanting to own something that is not ours to own, it feels very superficial, especially when we allow ourselves to connect to the true innate love held within, when we do this much is exposed … like pride.
I find it interesting to observe around the world how men have invaded countries and taken possession in such an arrogant way that the indigenous culture, much of it rich in philosophy and science, has been lost to us, and the new society appears to go backwards in its ability to live in harmony with each other and with the land.
Yes the colonialism is a long shadow on our history, the arrogance is beyond what most of us can comprehend. I remember seeing a show where a white man from Italy went to some African country and he and other horticulturalists were ‘showing’ the natives how to plant food for them selves in a particularly lush area only to have their smugness undone when one night the whole crop was destroyed by hipppopotumus. The locals just shrugged knowingly. The man left and humbly rethought his contribution to ‘helping’.
As long as you remember the past as something that was taken away from you, you will always have someone to blame, and the hurt never heals.
Yes, blame really doesn’t work (other than to keep you small or ‘less’). It’s only when I started to see my own part in things that I became more responsible for my choices and life changed accordingly.
People in major cities like Paris and Rome don’t call themselves french or italian, they love to say they are parisians and romans. This is taking the individuality and pride another step further into separation.
When we bring in the understanding of re-incarnation, that we have many lives and in many different countries and areas of the world it further highlights the ridiculous nature of national pride.
Knowing I have had lives in many different cultures supports with being open to learning and understanding why I have incarnated in this one.
Exactly, so we have an appreciation for where we are born and why as opposed to pride in something which we do not truly belong to but is really an opportunity for us to learn.
This is a really great explanation. The distinction between pride and appreciation is vast in terms of how it makes you feel. As we know pride divides, appreciation unites – and so in giving myself permission to appriciate the fact that I live in the UK and all that this offers keeps me open to appreciating what other places have on offer too without identification.
The Ageless Wisdom turns all the ideals and beliefs about ‘our’ country on the head.
Exactly, Michael – we are citizens of the Universe, our exact location within varies depending on the year and lifetime – but we are all a part of this magnificent whole, equally so.
Good question, Richard – how far will the ‘them and us’ mentality go? We are going in the wrong direction it would seem towards co-operation and unification.
When we give some of our control away, say to be ruled by other countries in a consortium and then decide separation is better, how do you separate our self from the whole that we have become part of the one?
Identifying with the culture and history of where we grew up keeps us in delay of embracing our future, where we will be borderless, unified and in true brotherhood.
National Pride keeps us small and insular, whereas the Ageless Wisdom opens us up to the bigger picture that re-unites us with our grander origins and true Universal Pride. Why identify our selves with a tiny part of a planet when the entire Universe is our home.
It is quite an eye opener when we leave our country of origin and are able to see all its idiosyncrasies for what they are but still know we are all the same really where ever we hail from and that one day the unnatural manmade boarders will cease to exist.
‘We can so easily be undone by a man-made loathing wrapped up in a geographical location that has reverberated beyond our current lifetime’ – it feels as though once we have subscribed to this belief it becomes the very essence of who we are – and yet that is so far from the truth – the truth is that we are indeed ‘ a Universal Man’ at one with ourselves and equally at one with one another.
‘Consider national pride… such a curious belief.’ – Indeed it is, national pride is an absolute imprisonment.
What if we have international pride, as in what if we celebrated all being part of the one humanity. Now that would be different.
It is interesting to note that when a natural disaster rips a country apart, in general, we are all very willing to step over our cultural differences and borders in a bid to help. So why can’t we be this open, loving and generous with one another all the time?
The Ageless Wisdom is of no country nor of anyone, it is of every country and of everyone.
Absolutely!!!
‘After all, why would we take pride in something we have no significant part in shaping?’ and at the point that we take pride in it it remains something that we do not fully understand, the moment that we have that understanding it is not something which is something to be proud of.
‘Can your self-worth be crushed or your spirits be raised by the fate of ‘your sporting team’ from the country you have on your birth certificate, or even the region you identify with ….’ not unless our self-worth is severely lacking and we are looking for something to fill the void on the outside, rather than re-connecting within. With the fickle nature of what we find there will always be a yo-yo affect with constant ups and downs.
A true way to lovingly build our self-worth is appreciation, allowing our selves to appreciate the magnificence of who we truly are, knowing our divine light and all that we can offer in this world – this is how we are able to walk each step replete with the love that we are.
Indeed Stephen… where is our Ageless Wisdom – “the truth … that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe.” Found in the presentations and workshops presented by Universal Medicine which encourages all of us to live the innate truth we all deeply know, “… in connection, with and for Humanity.”
Universality and Brotherhood are a deepening religious path of The Way of The Livingness and the transparency of The Students of The Livingness is a testament to the simple fact we can all re-connect to our essences and feel how our Loving movements are aligning us to being a “Universal Man” Which is not gender specific!
Where’s our Ageless Wisdom? Hidden behind things like national pride!
National pride – a cynic once said that people are proud of their country because they are born within it. That is distorting it but why would a country be necessarily superior? There are lots of countries with many positive traits, just as all countries probably also have negative traits.
True, the interesting thing is that so many of us choose to be blind to this fact.
Interesting what you write:
‘a part of you that identifies positively with something that is not you.’
Just like it is not true that you identify positively, the other way around also is not true: identifying negatively with something that is not you, although we also do this and love identifying with things outside of us.
The word ‘pride’ about something is in itself so very different in the ‘joy’ of witnessing something that benefits the All.
Actually that is the nub of it – pride instead of joy is a very common choice.
‘one day you’ll come to see that we are all from one source’ this is not taught in schools – we are taught how different we all are and then grouped into classes, cultures, nationalities, History and Geography lessons are full of information on separation. Religion is taught according to the religion we belong to. It is such a mess when you consider the harmony that could prevail.
A form of nationalism in families based on clan or tribe is obsessed with preserving culture and language often in competition with and to distinguish themselves from all others. This is also be distasteful and leads to separation.
Borders are illusions, creations of the mind, activated in the physical world as a form of protection and identity. They are used pragmatically. For example, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has decided to meet a recruitment shortfall by recruiting outside the UK in Africa, India, Asia, Australia and Canada and as we know this is nothing new. Borders and boundaries are elastic especially when required to protect national security or further economic interests.
What if we were so proud of the country we called home that we would welcome anyone into that country instead of abuse those that we don’t feel have the right to also call it their home?
So Brexit is abuse on so many levels as it causes such a division in society.
Beautiful David. When said like this the ‘pride’ that is felt is really an exclusivity based on supremacy, fear and prejudice.
I had great grandparents and grandparents that came to London during the pogroms and who were welcomed into the UK, made a living as tailors in the East End and successfully assimilated and built up their wealth quite quickly. I could be wrong, but it seems we were more welcoming of others in the past than we are today?
Nationalism only brings separation.
and you have to be separated in the first place to be a nationalist.
We are behaving like animals defending our own territories. Maybe one day we will wake up to realise that we are so much more than this…
One day we will look back on the ridiculousness of borders, nationality and different religions and beliefs when we get to the realisation that we are just all one race of people and I just hope we can get there on our own and not by the huge disasters that will come if we continue down the route of separation.
I look forward to that day, the day when there may be practical differences in parts of the world but we are able to live as one world.
How can I be proud about the history of my country as I do not have any relationship with it? And above that, the stories they tell me to be proud of are mostly of an abusive or even violent behaviour, like combats in war, or the former overseas colonies my country had. Not really something to be proud of in my understanding what the word proud means in society.
Can anybody explain to me what you understand pride is as it has absolutely no reference in my body?
“one day you’ll come to see that we are all from one source…” A nation’s flag, country boarder, colour of skin or culture don’t actually define who we truly are, for we are equally of the same essence.. it simply goes to show how wayward and separated we have become in the pursuit of individualism and identification.
Reading this I can really see how where we are born or our parent’s birthplace, race etc. can be all about identity and pride – or shame which is just a different side of the same coin. For years I was gutted my parents didn’t stay in Australia so I could be born there and have a dual passport, and live there if I so chose. But I’ve come to realise what if where you are born has a different significance, one where you may have a specific job to do or lessons to learn that that place and people require? We can be universal no matter what the borders say.
There are no mistakes, coincidences or random happenings in life. We are all part of the big plan.
Karin, I like the wisdom of your statement, ‘We can be universal no matter what the borders say.’ I often think about the migration of birds as they leave one county for another due to the seasons. No passport or checks for them… they are all the same and free to travel where they choose. Living in cycles with the seasons their rhythm does not clutter, overcrowd or impose on any one place. They have a natural order, If we lived in a natural order perhaps there would be a natural flow for humans too.
Seeing beauty when we visit another country or not – we often see what we want to see, there is beauty all around us, but perhaps we are conditioned to having certain pictures about what beauty looks like for us, so we miss the beautiful details that surround us each day, that just aren’t on our radar. When things are different do we remain open to appreciating the new and interesting angles on offer, or do we dismiss them because they are different and don’t fit our picture? Being open to differences, whether they be in landscape, buildings, people, ideas, ways of doing things they all offer the potential to deepen our understanding and expand our horizons.
Why live within parameters and limits, closing the curtains and only accepting things in a certain way, which is effectively what we do when we are nationalistic. We pride ourselves on where we live, feeling it’s superior to anywhere else – yet this just feels like a belief to make us feel better, to make up for a deep hurt that we’re not wanting to feel – perhaps the fact that we have lost touch with the exquisiteness and divinity of who we truly are.
The only thing we identify with and what is our compass when we come into this world is love. Everything else comes thereafter and is outside ourselves. Each of us brings their part of the puzzle of love and all we have to do is live that. What a different perspective this brings to parenting.
“This current world needs you more than ever to be everything you are, not a symbol of one small patch of land but a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.” A powerful blog and a powerful sentence to end it Stephen. Something we would all do well to ponder deeply on particualrly in regard to the future of our world and the place of humanity in relation to it.
That is why I do not understand that protectionism in people about their countries as eventually, we will all join together as one, as Universal Man – why not start with living that already now.
Pride brings an arrogance and superiority – the exact opposite of what is innate within us all … love and equality within brotherhood.
I’ve experienced people who exhibit great pride in their cultural identity, but if there’ s a note of arrogance or superiority, then it is all wasted. We can instead choose to celebrate our uniqueness as part of one human race united in love and equal to all others.
The Ageless Wisdom has the answer to everything because it comes from The Everything and therefore encompasses everything. All the other solutions that we have ever come up with have always been compartmentalised fragments and that is why all we are ever doing is simply pugging up holes here and there and never panning back and taking in life in it’s entirety.
It is definitely a consciousness that is passed on to us, however as adults, what we choose to align with is always our responsibility.
‘why feel shame – what is it offering?’ – National shame or pride, all provides the same energy but of course at opposite ends of the scale – both allows us to indulge in inherited stories and pictures that makes us dismiss our origin and the truth of who we are.
‘A pride or shame, basking or wincing, heightened and deflated egos based on something wholly external to our being, out of our control.’ How different life could be if we didn’t have sport. We could be living in equal harmony.
You say: “How different life could be if we didn’t have sport. We could be living in equal harmony” – but perhaps it is the other way. Because we choose to live in disharmony, we have sport. Sport and competition is a consequence of how we are choosing to live and a movement that then energetically reinforces that choice. Once we live in true harmony we can’t compete or harm another.
Living in harmony does not mean that we do not exercise and take care of our body and equally does not mean that we can’t play games and move – it just comes from a completely different energy. In fact we take great care of our bodies which have different requirements in relation to exercise and weights etc depending on our ages and work needs.
Power-fully written Stephen – I would like to read that again.. Having no nationality we would reduce if not eliminate the fight because, it is true as you say what are we fighting, and who are we fighting against??
It’s easy to think we are defined by the country we live in and this can really become limiting as we feel that the outside of us defines us, being it beautiful or messy it does not matter, as it does not let us know that we stand free from that.
And standing free from what lies around us enables us to have the clarity to see the truth. We are not attached to things being a certain way, or needing to be better than somewhere else – we see things for how they really are – this is the only starting place for true change to occur.
I think a lot of people voted brexit solely to keep other nationalities out, with no thought to what it would do to the economy or the country, we need to relax or remove borders not build them back up again or keep the ones we have.
Maybe some people are so racist and separative that they rather keep others out regardless of the cost or consequences.
You can also substitute the word “hurt” for racist because in order to have that attitude to another equal person you must already be in a form of deep separation that is disconnected from your natural loving essence.
How many voted to leave, that have not considered these foreigners are doing jobs, they do not want to do themselves? The old phrase of cutting off one’s nose to spite their face comes to mind!
Deep down we all share the same essence, hard as that is to admit and surrender to.
How strange that we find something so beautiful hard to admit!
The divisions in this world are typically the polar opposite of the truth of the Ageless Wisdom and universality that is common to everyone. If we really felt the depth of this connection and the sadness of the division and distance we hold with people- even those deemed ‘close’ to us- friends and family for example- then we would feel the connection we all crave and actually naturally have.
Great article Stephen, it exposes so much prejudice with our perceptions of national pride. We are saying ‘my country is better than your country’. It incites violence, separation and hatred.
I remember as a child watching the World Cup every four years with family and friends, and being shocked by the heightened emotions, the aggressive comments and behaviour of grown men who were normally quite rational and sedate, all in ‘support’ of the national team.
I look forward to the day where we say to each other ‘this world we all live in is beautiful’.
Indeed Andrew … and when we have one humanity and one ‘country’ ie: the whole planet.
‘Someone tells you: “Your country is beautiful!” How do you react? Does your heart swell with pride? Of course, it’s not really your heart but a part of you that identifies positively with something that is not you.’ I can really relate to this. This is how I used to feel when visitors from abroad would come and stay and I would definitely feel that sense of national pride. But now I can definitely see through it for what it is, see beyond it and past it and really get how national pride separates us.
The reality of the human race being a oneness from the same source of love and the Universe, is so far from the way we live in separatism, division, borders, nationalities, countries, religions and so much more in our everyday lives. Serge Benhayon offers us the truth we know in our hearts and from the Universality we all are.
When we feel proud it always says more about us than whatever or whoever we’re feeling proud about.
Pride shines a light on where we are holding ourselves as less than others – where we are not holding ourselves as equal.
Feeling proud brings an unnatural hardness to the body.
Yes, could it be the hardness of individuality and a delineation of self which closes off from being naturally at one with others?
True – it also comes with a feeling of defence as well as a twisted form of security, a shield.
I noticed there are different qualities to life to be experienced in different countries. How blessed would we be as a human species if we would let go of the man-made borders and openly share all these qualities so we can learn and evolve all as one?
Although I like the country I live in and in general can appreciate the way things go, I cannot say that I am proud, that it is my country and that I would fight for it whenever that would be asked of me. It is just a piece of land I choose to live in, to live my life to the best of my ability and to learn what I need to learn in this incarnation. National pride has absolutely no place in that as to me this is only a distraction of the true purpose of human life here on earth, that is to reunite as one into the one.
I can echo your feelings Nico. I wanted to write I live in the UK as to even write I live in England in the context of this conversation, feels like a narrowing down. However, live in England I do and whenever I clock the excitement or investment in others for being English or celebrating particular ‘English’ events/occurrences it makes no dint because I see the distraction in this excitement or investment, which no longer has any pull for me.
What happens when you go into being proud of particular qualities of your country, you then also are not willing to share these with people from other countries and instead prefer to keep it for yourself alone.
The world does need us to be universal with no barriers. I love talking with people and doing away with any of the needing to know them first, or know them a certain amount of time. People love connecting when you start the ball rolling. They love the warmth and joy of connecting without having to earn it in any way. Sometimes people can be distrustful – where’s the catch, what’s the ulteria motive – but I ignore that and they feel I’m not wanting anything from them so let down their guard. It’s fun.
National pride cannot help but create separatism and competition, which can only lead to conflict yet those same people who laud nationalism crave love and peace …………
“What is a border… who decided where to put it?” Great question, because borders are so arbitrary and can shift over lifetimes depending on who went to war over a particular piece of the planet in an attempt to claim it as their own. It does seems a ridiculous thing to identify our selves by, a shifting manmade barrier that only exists because we say so but has no actual footing in natural world we live in.
Yes, the simplest of exchanges, when eyes meet, there is a connection, with no need or premeditated intention, just a simple meeting where each is confirmed. That is joyful.
If we are all from the same source and therefore all equal, we in the end can identify with nothing.
Although the ridiculousness of nationalism is clear, it is harmful to us as individuals and to humanity. It creates separation between people based on something that is nothing to do with who they are and it leaves people feeling they know who they are, based on something that is completely external to them.
And in turn, we use these pictures and completely ridiculous beliefs about how certain nationalities are to judge each other. It feels incredibly imposing and unpleasant to be pigeon holed in this way, as though the essence of who we are is of absolutely no interest or relevance.
The Ageless Wisdom is all about truth and brotherhood … and whilst we have borders, division and separatism. ie nationalism, there can be no true brotherhood.
‘It doesn’t tell the truth of the Ageless Wisdom that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe.’ – Beautifully said Stephen, the Ageless Wisdom makes everything make sense, where we all come from and where we eventually are all going.
I love what you have written here Stephen. Very timely to ponder the impact of nationalism – the extent to which it influences the psyche of people and how, even though we yearn for unity, we seem unable to appreciate how the divisiveness of nationalism is holding us back from uniting us all as one and being able to live in a manner that will see us evolve out of here.
Nationalism reduces everything back to the individual, our path forward is to re-connect to all that we are a part of and feel ourselves as the magnificent beings that we truly are, so very much more than how we are currently choosing to live.
The Ageless Wisdom cuts though all the false borders, ideals and beliefs we have created in life and brings us back to the simple truth; that we are all the same.
We have become masters at fighting the simple truth.
We are all the same and yet each bring a unique part to the whole.
So, true Rosanna, underneath we are all the same and yes, we bring our own unique expression to the whole. One person alone cannot express it all and like a jigsaw each of us completes the full picture. We all need each other which makes it all the more ludicrous that we create boarders, separate ourselves from each other and put others down with a supremacy attitude… (this is what national pride creates). Imagine a jigsaw with pieces missing and lines carved through it to separate the images into different sections… the picture would not be a very good one to look at; not much harmony in it and definitely not pleasing to the eye.
Bottom line is that we all have the same colour of blood, we all have a Soul and we all have a Spirit so no matter what lines we draw in the land and claim as a country, we are all the same. This is true brotherhood equal as one living together. How far are we really and truly away from this when we have war, sports and division.
National pride is an extension of personal pride, which I have always found to be a slippery slope to separation, which is fed by comparison and competition and leaves us all feeling lesser as these feelings cannot be maintained as they have no true foundation.
“National pride is an extension of personal pride” … how true is this! How we are in our own lives becomes how a nation is and becomes how our world is, so it all comes back to us and the daily choices we make.
National pride is underpinned by comparison with other nations. When we feel comparison, we tend to go one of two ways. We can engage in it and try to compete to be ‘better’ than others or we can reject the comparison and drop out of the race. Either way we are not ourselves simply based on who we are.
The acronym NIMBY was born: not in my back yard. I surprised a lady the other day who used that phrase in talking about not wanting migrants in her neighbourhood and I said ‘The whole world is your back yard’ in other words, whatever we do involves everybody on this planet and we need to consider everyone not just our immediate community.
I had not heard that acronym before, Carmel, but it definitely fits what most people feel on a whole range of global matters. One of the things I love most about the Universal Medicine teachings is that everyone and everything matters, and we are not getting out of here until every single one of us returns to our naturally loving essence, so borders and separatism are simply anti-evolutionary.
Often the hate of people that live on opposite sides of a border has gone on for centuries, even millennia, but imagine if every second household had to trade places with one across the border, integrating everyone with each other. I’m sure after a time we would find that underneath it all we are all the same and that the hate would fade away in time as we see that we are all innately decent folk.
This is what wars or natural disasters do to communities; breaking down the barriers, walls and garden fences and throwing us all into the same pot irrespective of backgrounds and it is fascinating to observe how, in these situations, we do all innately know, love and walk towards brotherhood. So why do we not live it when things are going ‘well’??
The truth is out! We’re part of each other and need to work with and not push away our equal brothers. Many forces want to deny this truth, but we, the opposite and forces of light are here to show there is another way.
The divide that comes with nationalism is most obvious to me in sporting events and more often than not I feel these are fueled with an approach that the athletes need to prove themselves in some way or show they are worthy. And though the many that do get medals are celebrated for their ‘successes’ many more do not get the medals, and are often left feeling the massive efforts and preparation was lost as the medal was not achieved, and this has ripple effects on the nation. Victory over another is not a true celebration. However, working together as a team is an amazing way to bring people together, and by this I mean as a larger team of all nations such when a natural disaster occurs and everyone bands together to support regardless of race, language, gender, age or nationality.
I wonder if feeling ashamed for being a particular nationality is just as strange as feeling elated to be part of a particular country? Would both be the same?
In both cases we are making our nationality part of our identity when this is not true, we are not our nationality this is just where we were born and if we connect to what and who we really are it is almost totally irrelevant.
Is this the same as those people that love supporting football teams which continually and invariably perform badly – all wallowing in the communal pity of their team’s (same as nationality) ineptitude.
When we focus in on national pride, we become protective of things that often need to change. We reminisce to a past long gone (and needed to move away from). It also has a supremacist quality to it, putting us as better than someone from somewhere else or its my way or no way. There is no live and let live here and no way that we can learn about the best each one of us offers, no matter our background or country of origin.
National Pride …. ‘It has led us to a ‘look after our own’ mentality, to disconnect us from our natural brotherhood, blocking our loving intelligence when at heart we know we are inextricably interconnected.’ We find ourselves at war with each other as we fiercely defend our home-grown prejudices, when in truth, we crave to unite.
Perhaps we need to first look at why we are at war with our own family and even ourselves. Could it be that if we are willing to unite with ourselves we would naturally unite with others?
Super wisdom.
What determines where we belong to anyway? Is it where you’re born even if you only lived there for six months, where you live now, where you have spent the most amount of your time, where you like the most – it’s all so arbitrary it’s laughable. Considering ourselves as caretakers of this planet and not ‘belonging’ to one particular place completely changes our perspective and perhaps enables us to be more honouring and considerate of how we choose to live, knowing this affects the whole of our planet and everyone on it, rather than only caring for our own ‘backyard’.
A cutting expose on the ridiculousness of borders and nationalism.
Borders and nationalism are the manifestations of how we try to soothe the constant pain of our disconnection with our Soul.
Absolutely. And easy to see how nationalism is simply a desperate attempt to feel a belonging to SOMETHING, because we all innately crave the brotherhood of the one glorious universe that we all belong to.
Sometimes nationalism is simply used as an excuse for a fight, in exactly the same way as suppporting different football teams is. The thing is, the fight’s gonna happen anyway, it’s just a case of finding something to use as a flimsy excuse for a punch-up.
I had to laugh recently when a comedian pointed out the absurdity of borders and Brexit when he was explaining how in Ireland there are places where one side of the street is in Ireland and the other in northern Ireland and how, if overtaking, you’d need you passport ready!
Xenophobia seems to stem from identification with our superficial differences, instead of living from the wisdom and knowing that we are all really the same. We all have a basic human need to love and be loved, see our loved ones do well, make ends meet, and be safe and healthy. Many years ago I travelled to Japan to live in homestay with Japanese families, at the time I thought as people they would be very different to me because their diet, language, appearance, culture, etc, were all very different to mine, but what I found was essentially we are all the same underneath the surface differences.
The fever pitch that people can get to with national pride is quite aggressive sometimes when watching or playing sport. It is quite ugly to witness and so untrue when we know we are all the same.
Re-visiting this blog several times, there is a deeper sense of individualism being a curse rather than a blessing for humanity.
We have constant access to the Ageless Wisdom, it’s never not there, it’s simply that through our movements we choose to plug into an alternative source of energy that does not contain The Ageless Wisdom. The alternative source of energy does contain a counterfeit version of The Ageless Wisdom but it is a shonky, corrupted version that harms the body no end, as opposed to the pristine original Ageless Wisdom that heralds the body.
I like always taking it back to natures example when it comes to this subject. When we see birds migrate for instance they do not think of themselves as English or Dutch or Spanish, they just think of themselves as birds and that is it. Birds are birds just like humans are humans.
Very true Joshua, I love the example. Nature is such a great reflection for us.
It’s well known that political leaders, are always desperate for sporting success in their country as it makes the people proud of their country and less likely to want to seek a change in leadership. So it seems that in that pride we are happy to forgive or forget any shortcomings of the ruling government. Thus it appears to be true that national pride makes us blind.
Bingo. On the money you are Otto.
Blind and bigoted – a very reduced and false reflection of who we all truly are. When we’re open to considering that we’re not even from this planet and are, in fact, more magnificent than we could ever imagine, allowing ourselves to re-connect back with the truth of who we are – we realise how differently we can choose to live together on this planet.
True Otto and the same is said of the effects of a well-chosen war strengthening the support of political leadership. The costs of our sperate and individual pursuits costs the lives of others.
Well what you say here Michael is a fascinating discussion and takes it much deeper. A highly contentious subject – but how many lives have been destroyed by the greed, corruption and power-mongering of our political leaders (that we voted for)?
I recall the frenzy of picking teams for our school sports classes. Everyone wanted the ‘best’ players on their own team to ensure they would win. Was this cold calculating and divisive competition taught at that point, or is it something far deeper in the psyche of mankind that such situations simply perpetuate?
Whatever the answer, I have seen how easily we can choose to identify with a ‘group’ we imagine we belong to and make choices to look after your own, in disregard and at times even at the expense of those outside of your group. And how insane this is when only a few moments each of those outsiders was simply another classmate who you studied and chatted with all day long.
Taking pride in what we are not means to go to war with oneself and anyone else.
Nationality is the figment of the imagination, yet we are willing to kill and die for that ………………….
Oh gosh Jonathan that’s a real stopper moment. It really makes so much of life seem farcical.
I 100% agree with that Vanessa, gosh Jonathan this is very very powerful statement, I am stunned in a good way. It is so true. More of those raw real and honest commenting please.
And then, for me, is the question, ‘How many, or rather, what other things in life do we also hold with that importance yet are also illusions – personal or societal/cultural?’
I like it, yet it is and has been something many of us have held onto very tightly – mind blowing when we see how much we have deceived ourselves.
‘We can so easily be undone by a man-made loathing wrapped up in a geographical location that has reverberated beyond our current lifetime.’ Wherever we are in the world we bring our prejudices and we meet the prejudices of the people in our locality, hatred of another culture can travel through generations and it is time we opened up to Brotherhood and recognise everyone as equal.
It’s like we are walking around with 13 jumpers on wondering why life is tough. Each jumper is another ideal we’ve taken on of who we are. What would life be like if we took them all off? Vulnerable, aware and powerful most likely.
No more jumpers, no more masks that we put on to fit in or be a certain way. We are magical when we show the depth of love we are, yet we hold it back. It’s time to let the love out. I like the analogy of the jumpers as they feel comfortable and warm yet the real warmth comes from within and we receive it back when we allow it out.
I went to see a play in London about the refugee camp nick-named “the jungle” in Calais. There was a specific line that stuck with me “we are all refugees, we are all running away from something”. What I liked about it was that it is based upon the fact that we are all ultimately the same, we all have issues in our lives, some are very dramatic and life-threatening, some less so…but once that is stripped away we are the same.
What I also was fascinated by in this play was how, when the English aid workers arrived at the camp, the first thing that they did was create borders in the camp!! Dividing the camp into sections dependant on which country the refugee was from.. So we have refugees fleeing their country because of the separation caused by borders, then arriving, as an equal group, in No-man’s land, only to have themselves re-divided back into borders?!
That is so crazy Otto – one of the saving graces of finding yourself in any sort of dire circumstance is the feeling of brotherhood with others going through a similar situation.
It’s interesting what you say here Helen. When disaster strikes, we seem to be very good at brotherhood – so we do absolutely know what it is and how to live it – but then when the comfort creeps back in we return to our individualism.
Otto, I like this take on refugees – for in some way we have or are running away from something, and this applies to every single one of us and the little or big things on a daily basis that we try to get away from.
Ah this running away part of life,the wanting to get away is something I’ve experienced and observe in pretty much everyone. It can be very varied in how it presents itself – the I can’t wait until the weekend, the holiday, the lunch break, the remission from the health scare. I work with young asylum seekers who become care leavers and get all the same support as UK care leavers, more so in many cases as they need specialist accommodation and education. They are often disappointed and angry that what is given to them is not enough. Initially I was quite surprised at this but then remembered something. When I was growing up I promised myself certain things that I thought would make me happy saying it’ll all be ok when I am older and live in a nice place, and achieve x, y and z. But I could never escape the reality of the world and what I needed to address and heal. These young men have escaped atrocities for a new better life only to discover they can’t escape their past and no materialistic wealth can heal it, only a loving consideration and understanding of all that has past.
And so who are we to judge or compartmentalise another for what they might be running away from and if in that running away, they make some unwise choices (the play was not afraid of showing that these refugees weren’t saints) as we have all done.
We take on so much burden when we rely on nationality, religion and steroetypes to inform us of who we are. The unburdened light is always there equally within each one of us.This is who we are.
Nationality etc are very useful if we don’t want to feel our light as they are a good distraction. However, the light will still be there.
We compliment one country but put down another, this mentality of comparing countries and places creates a sense of better and/or worse which is of course just a seed of separation.
The seed of separation comes first and from that all comparison becomes possible. Whereas when we are aligned to the truth of unity there can be no comparison because there is nothing to compare anything to because everything is part of the same one thing. And that one thing is God, there is nothing else.
It’s a great point Viktoria about the broader sense of comparison and competition we can feel with other regions and countries. It’s seems that comparison and competition is currently a huge part of the foundation of society, with it occurring on an individual level in the minutiae of our lives, right up to nationalism. It’s just as well we don’t know about life on other planets as we could be in comparison and competition with them also!
Very true Melinda, we’d probably go off bombing other planets for whatever reason we create a problem with them. This war mentality is not just in regards to other nations but within nations, between cities even area codes. We search high and low to find something to differentiate us, to give us a characteristic which will make us “better than” someone else. Our insecurities are so deep that we are constantly searching for something to make us feel as if we’re enough. as if we’re worth it and in that we are prepared to fight with other fellow human beings.
Reading your blog Stephen it doesn’t make sense how we can have national pride in something we have little to no say in. We just go along blindly agreeing with everyone else not seeing the arrogance we are in of assuming that we are somehow better than another nation rather than working together to unite us all.
Yes, Stephen, sectarianism is surely one of our greatest human ills and the exact opposite of our true nature. Dictionary definitions describe it as excessive attachment to a particular sect, religion or party, but I reckon it happens the moment we separate from the union with our soul and with God to become the self-preserving individual.
It is funny and ridiculous that we become so attached and stubborn to an area of land and its people yet we do and this way of being can be very hidden thinking we are free from every attachment and belief because we know the truth yet we are not. Ignorance or pretence does not heal and it is unless I place myself in situations that test me in my relationship to nationalism where I place my country, its race or sports team before that of any another do I find out… the spirit is cunning and certainly does not like to be exposed.
I so agree Stephen that “national pride” can make us very narrow minded and with myopic vision which only allows us to see within our own boundaries, sometimes within our own provinces and even within our towns. It is everywhere, so insidiously part of our society that we cannot see the harmful separation it causes, not just between countries but also between people, which is crazy when you consider that we are all part of the same, one big family of man.
We have allowed ourselves to lose sight of the fact that on a particle level we are all the same and that these particles are what make up our universe, we are the universe. However there is an energy running our bodies that is determined to obliterate any sense of brotherhood and keep us in the separation of who we truly are.
I’ve witnessed and experienced this strong identification with race. Only when we drop these labels and identifiers can we truly connect to others as brothers and sisters.
We see the rise in nationalism intensify, but also witness its demise as millions of migrants around the world, not respecting national borders, move of free will, because of war, poverty or famine, to new pastures, This is a well practiced tradition, human and animal migration is as old as time. What is different is renewed determination by some nation states to entrench false national identities founded on separation and feelings of superiority. Clinging on to the false sense of ‘national pride’ at the expense of others and a blunt refusal to share with others what innately belongs to us goes against the natural order of the universe.
Could nationalism be a place to hide your self in a mass group? Is it not the same as being in an arrangement with someone that only serves you?
The old saying, ‘Pride comes before a fall and Nationalistic pride is not exempt from this and until we get over ourselves and drop it and start breaking down borders instead of talking about putting new ones up we will never evolve on mass. Ok we will, but it will take a hell of a lot longer.
Thank you Stephen you expose the way we live brotherhood in the moment is not what it truly means . . . most of us got caught up in this untruth version of it what is more a separation than a togetherness with all.
‘‘why would we take pride in something we have no significant part in shaping?’ – great question, Stephen. I feel perhaps this comes from a lack of self worth and, therefore, the need to identify with something and be recognised as a part of that something, whether it be a sporting team, our village, or country etc.
However, with identification comes comparison, judgment and the very unpleasant behaviour that comes with ‘one up-manship’ and the need to be ‘superior’. Such behaviour is becoming all too prevalent all over the world particularly in political arenas. What a sad reflection on our society that our so called leaders are fighting to protect the borders of their ‘own’ patch on this planet, rather than working together to relocate the millions of people who are fleeing from the most horrific situations.
There are many things in life that blinds us from seeing who we truly are and pride is one of them. It is an energy that aligns to separation and individuality.
Pride is deeply insidious and I’m feeling as I read this where pride does in fact seep in, and often too, and it can be the simplest thing … where I’m told my accent is this or that, or where I’m from and yet there’s just a small part of me and in fact beyond all these differences we are the same, and pride in our differences takes us away from that.
I can relate to your comment Monica, it’s something that is very common. It also shows how little we know ourselves by our essence, that we all live on the surface of life and on the surface of ourselves. This is also a direct reflection of the systems of human life and their lack of focus on fostering the depths and truth of who we are.
It is an odd habit of humanity to define our selves by our external environment and activities, when we truth we are so much more glorious than all of it combined.
I don’t enjoy watching football, I don’t understand the hype and I’ve never cared who wins which games, I’m practically oblivious to national games being played and yet there is still something in me that feels good about myself if my country wins. That makes no sense whatsoever and shows just how ingrained and insideous separation is.
Brotherhood, something that we all deeply crave yet when we look around we are very very far away from. It has not left us we have left it, it is a matter of returning to our true origins and each one of us will do this when we feel the absoluteness in us ignited and we re-claim our truth.
We like to own and to belong – both serve us as a form of protection through identification and the resulting individuality that associates itself with what it likes/needs while it dissociates from others who are not of the same ‘liking’. In the end it turns out that we cannot own anything really and that we only belong to the one same source we all are belonging to, hence actually no separation, dissociation as such but only by choice on an awareness level, ie. by ignorance.
It is the comparison and the so called differences and above all the inequality that divide people – when we can make it about who we really are, and bring true brotherhood to the mix, then all the divisions can dissolve.
I had an unusual upbringing, growing up in many different countries including Finland, Iran (middle east), Sierra Leone (Africa), France and Switzerland. In each country we adopted family and adopted ourselves as a family – with many sisters, brothers, parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles etc. There was no distinction to us in this extended family when it came to skin colour, language nor culture for when we connected to the person, these superficial factors were, really just superficial. This was my “normal” growing up: a multicultural upbringing, where I learned to speak 4, 5, 6 different languages, move from school to school from country to country from culture to culture etc. Living such a broad experience leaves you with an openness and a fondness where you hold each person dearly with all they are there to reflect to us. This shows we can all be citizens of the world, and that our birth country does not define us, and that we can keep developing our capacity to connect to ourselves and those around us no matter where we go.
When we have the opportunity to connect with others from different backgrounds it soon becomes apparent that we are all the same, but few have your multicultural experience of growing up so get caught in the feeling of security of being part of/identified with one particular group/nationality and make that their focus to the detriment of all.
In the end we are all citizens of the world, with a knowing that we are all equal and all the same deep inside in our essence. What nationality we are born into, what language we speak, what culture we can appear to be from are all superficial markers and not identifying factors of our true essence.
“To have pride in the culture, food or language of our geographical location strips us of knowing who we are beyond the things we do, the way we live, the illusion of individuality.” – what is our priority? To know who we truly are, or play roles and take on identities that are not truly representative of the essence that lies within us all?
“We might have a problem with domestic violence or religious bigotry but we grow the best tasting peaches”
Bam….and the truth be told. No holding back on this article – telling like it is on what the true effect of our borders have on us. Love it.
‘ Is there within a true call to responsibility to address the issue that led to the headline? ‘ this is what heals, a responsibility that comes from understanding we are all equal and have each a responsibility to bring to the world, wherever, whoever we are what we’re uniquely designed to bring – else we all miss out. My experience of shame is that it keeps us away from responsibility in a prison of believing we can bring nothing of worth to the table when we can bring everything required for healing and change. Seeing the pointlessness in shame and accepting my responsibility in life is a great beginning.
Anything that is true unites us, brings brotherhood and everything that is not true separates and makes it about me, mine or ours.
The ‘look after our own’ mentality is literally everywhere. It is in companies that instead of growing the business and working together only are after growing their profit.
Yes, Monika. Everyone is striving to get ahead, to be the best rather than growing everyone equally and working towards the optimum quality for all.
It is a bastardisation and false brotherhood we seek in nationalism it is pure separation.
Bastardisations are so dangerous because they take us further away from what we truly are searching for. So Nationalism as a means of feeling brotherhood just causes great separation and conflict until it becomes every man for himself.
Man, this is a good one – so much to think about and, if you’re like me, to think about the areas of my life where I am proud of things that aren’t mine. Yeah and that separates us doesn’t it.
Yeah Nick I also take personally any negative comments about my country ‘my’ I should write! Gosh it is insidious this ownership/identification.
Or the opposite – where we are embarrassed by our country – which is still a form of identification.
It sure does Nick and we often miss seeing this insidious form of separation because pride is recognised as a good thing, so we are less likely to question the energy pride is aligned to.
Whether or not we feel defensive and protective about where we live, our family, our religion, our football team etc, it’s neither here nor there, it all stems from and in turn fuels the same divisive energy. An energy that doesn’t give two hoots about what gives us the impression that we are separate, as long as we continue to believe that we are.
We have come to believe that feeling pride is a good thing but pride is always centred around me, mine or ours and never around all of us.
Spot on Alexis – even being proud of one’s child’s achievements is an ownership of something we cannot own and hence an investment in something that is not a part of our deepest essence.
And with ownership come expectations – what an imposition for our children who are trying to figure out how they will share their own divine expression with the world, in their own way.
You touch on a big topic here, Henrietta: our children, their achievements and being proud of them. There can be true joy when we are witness of a step they take in their evolution, but like you said no ownership is possible, for they are not ours in the first place.
When the truth is there’s no such thing as individual people, then it stands to reason that there can be no such thing as ownership because there’s no one to own anything. Which, in turn verifies ownership as being part of the illusion, because in order for us to believe that we own anything we must first think that we exist as an individual.
Pride is like winning! Once you win, then what?
Then you either need to repeat it or replace it with something else.
That’s a great observation Alexis. And it feels like the individual pride of each person binds together to create a national pride, but a pride built on separation, therefore it never can be about the whole. Lots to ponder on here.
A game of one-upmanship that again leads to the path of individualism.
A lot of the ground swell around Brexit was based on nationality, people holding onto the belief that Britain was better – we only need to turn our radios and TV’s on to see how divisive and disruptive Brexit has been.
National flags are the symbols of our pride, we learn from young different countries will have different flags and another thing is will have different national anthems, only played with official occasions. All part of the illusion that keeps us apart and will not let us feel we are equal and our own grandness.
Nationality keeps us blind to the reality of who we truly are.
and who we truly are opens us up to the truth of who we are not.
Why would we want to be labeled with all the ‘perceived’ traits and values of a particular place anyway? It has nothing to do with the truth of who we are and how we are choosing to live, which affects everyone on this planet. Now that is something worth talking about.
The truth of who we are, is in fact the same no matter what culture, country, religion or state we are from or what language we speak.
I can recall feeling ashamed to be British when there were gangs of football hooligans travelling abroad with the sole intent of getting drunk and causing problems – other countries did not like us because of that reputation. And now, living in Australia amongst many friends, I have a small feeling of not-quite-belonging because I am not living in my own country. But I wasn’t even born in the UK even though I lived there most of my life. I don’t recognise the cars, that’s been quite unsettling.
Thanks for your comment Carmel, it opens up the conversation on just how identified we all are with our nationality, as opposed to living from our essence which is untouched by such things.
I am from New Zealand, work for a company in New Zealand, am married to a Dutch woman live, in Belgium, have friends in Australia and all round the world actually and regularly visit the UK. Indeed, no matter the language, geography, culture or belief, we all are human, we all have a spirit and equally all have a soul.
Pride is a dangerous game, and nationally even more so… it only seeks and succeeds in dividing people when we innately know and love brotherhood.
I thought of football when reading this comment and how so much anger and aggression as well as pride can be hurled at another just over a ball being kicked around. Quite ridiculous really.
“Life might be very different if we appreciated all that unites us rather than all that divides us.” Absolutely Richard… what if we all focused on what unites us? Truth, love, brotherhood.
This is a truly inspiring blog Stephen… this is the type of message we need the media to be presenting to humanity worldwide!
All these identifications to let ourselves off the hook from responsibility, any excuse to say ‘That is not my problem’. We can say and believe whatever we like, but the mere fact that we are having to create all those name tags of divisions tells us that the truth speaks much louder than we like, and we do know.
‘It doesn’t tell the truth of the Ageless Wisdom that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe’ Beautifully expressed Stephen and in fact it is designed to keep us from this truth as this truth would otherwise be so easily accessible. It is hard work to keep ourselves identified which is precisely the reason we have such a wide range of choices available to us. Thank you for tackling this one so clearly and lovingly Stephen.
The things we take pride in as a nation or a culture or even a community are worth having a second look at. I travelled to places where they did not have the material richness and technology that we have in the part of the world where I live in and I saw how they were striving to get it. But I also saw what was being sacrificed in that drive, things that have such greater worth then any material wealth could ever give us, such as a sense of connection, family, community, working together, interconnectedness and love. What would it look like if from now on we only pride ourselves on our ability to live love as a community and share this with all equally so?
Thanks, Stephen. Growing up in Northern Ireland was a whole other level of identification with nationality and religious separatism. It is incredible how far we can go from our innate impulses of co-operation and brotherhood.
If we put the energy we put into national pride into loving each other regardless of colour nationality or religion, our existence would look very very different.
Indeed it would Michael … life would be about community: common unity = brotherhood.
It would for sure Michael, when we shift our energy and choose love instead of separation how amazing would life on earth be?
‘This current world needs you more than ever to be everything you are, not a symbol of one small patch of land but a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.’ Beautifully expressed, for it is only by changing the individual will humanity change and so it is the responsibility of us all to be a Universal Person.
Stephen, this is a great article. What you are exposing is huge. I can feel that when we identify and pride ourselves with our country, our home town or our culture that this can cause separation from those who do not live in the same country or share the same cultural beliefs.
National pride has brought war and terror to every piece of land on this earth. Surely that is telling us that it is a harmful pursuit.
Simply and directly expressed, here, here.
Well said, Elizabeth. It is so easy to blame another person, group or country for your problems rather than have to take responsibility for what is going on in your own backyard.
So true Elizabeth… and yet it seems we only care when it directly affects us or those close to us. It is time we deeply considered the bigger picture, the worldwide mess we have all allowed.
Absolutely, what more proof do we need? And yet we continue to pursue this and ignore the wisdom that the Ageless Wisdom offer, ‘that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe.’
History keeps repeating itself, when will we learn?
I remember when I first came to Australia and people used to comment about ‘wingeing poms’ as a ‘joke’, but it didn’t feel that way to be on the receiving end of it time and time again – I reacted with defensiveness – not so much to defend my countrymen, but to protect the hurt I felt from not being met for who I was, irrespective of where I came from.
It is such a lie when racism and prejudice are cloaked as jokes … everyone who hears it knows and feels the energy these ‘jokes’ come with and it is never pleasant!
‘We can so easily be undone by a man-made loathing wrapped up in a geographical location that has reverberated beyond our current lifetime.’ – so true and so unfounded. I remember growing up with prejudices against certain nationalities purely based on conditioning from those around me. How sad that we allow ourselves to be so easily manipulated.
A great exposé on national pride. It does seem time that we took a look at this huge topic. Rather than championing it as something to celebrate we do need to look at the global harm it causes.
With the on going saga of Brexit this is a stop moment to say what are we really asking for here? Are we choosing to entrench and cement our separation from the rest of Europe? Are we choosing to strengthen our boarders instead of opening them up? Are we saying we don’t want to be part of humanity, and we will only play ball if we can cherry pick the best bits and leave behind what we don’t like. As long as we have borders we will want to protect them and keep people out, this is not and can never be true, but is has been going on for eons, fighting for our own individual space instead of moving towards a united world…. or even a United Kingdom
Perhaps we could have a ‘one world/one humanity’ as a United Kingdom.
I have been very privileged to travel extensively and to live abroad a number of times. One of the most awesome national pride busting techniques was to have space from my own culture and to live in a different one. In this space, I got to observe more and weigh up the pros and cons of each place I was living – however within this what I felt most keenly of all was how we are all the same at heart and really when we strip culture out of everything we all crave the same love and feel empty when we can’t access it. All the alignments, identifications and pride are simply a distraction we engage in to numb the hurt of living in disconnection from ourselves and each other.
I love how you bring us back to unity Stephen, by simply unraveling how small and simple the world in fact is despite all our trying to make it complex, big and overwhelming
Strip away all of the outer identifiers – nationality, culture, religion, location, age, sex and class and we see clearly they are just as we are – only born into different circumstances.
There is a lot here in this article, very powerful and touching. A great call to all people everywhere to stop and reconsider the values that we each live by.
National pride has us believing that we are better than others.
This is an instant pitch of ranking and immediate separation of many, in one fell swoop.
Love is our nationality, sacredness our place of birth and stillness our true flag. If we lived celebrating these, we would see the utter futility of amplifying perceived differences.
Beautifully said Joseph. This is what we all have in common, we only need to claim it and live it.
There is only pride in nationality when connection to the universality that we are (all) from is not apparent or apparently known and hence lived.
Separation from our true essence is an energy of pure evil, controlling our thoughts and fostering disconnection with others.
A great exposure of identification with outer things (e.g. from roles we play to boundaries we establish etc) are absolutely nothing to do with who we truly are in our innate and divine essence of love, joy, harmony and stilness. This essence lived heralds the return of true brotherhood for all.
I often found it a bit weird how I could get the pride thing happening about how beautiful my country was, as hey I was just lucky being born there and had nothing to do with its beauty or be proud of how good the All Blacks are when, I never had a hand in making them that good.
I see borders on the street that I live on that religion has created and have to ask when will it be that we will realise that separation in any way has never worked and never will.
This is so true in that borders are not just those we have made in countries, they are in our streets, companies and possibly even homes! For these (the borders we currently have in countries) to have existed in the first place, the first border of keeping or wanting to keep people out would have had to have come from within. Which brings the question why were borders ever brought in in the first place .. to create separation, because of a hurt, to make us feel ‘better’ about ourselves, because of arrogance, pride, because one person wanted to feel greater than another. You are right. Separation has never worked and never will.
The most ridiculous thing is that there is an abundance for all on this planet, no one would go without, everyone could be educated to a standard they wanted if we all joined together and shared our lands, our technology, our food and resources, and stopped wasting it on building weapons to keep others out and keep our so-called borders safe from those who are trying to keep safe from us.
Borders are the most unnatural thing that got invented from human beings. It magnifies and supports a separation we are not naturally coming from. Great you expose this in this powerful blog.
How ironic is the current US deployment of tropes to its border with Mexico to stop immigrants from illegally entering, by a country that was founded by immigrants?
Ironic indeed Steve. All encompassing brotherhood goes straight ‘out of the window’ when our supposed ownership of territory is threatened and self-righteousness and indignation arise.
Who needs pride if you are already everything?
Currently, I work in a company where we work together with people from 30 nationalities. And although there is national pride, there is to a connection that goes beyond our nationalities simply because we work together.
Brilliant blog Stephen, you’ve raised so many very important points. National Pride is a form of separation and when you explain it in such detail as you have here Stephen, it is clear to me that separation is spread across many aspects of our lives. Some of us are aware of this separation and some may not be. It is great what you have shared for us to ponder on and to bring our awareness to.
I live in HK I never consider there is a belonging to anywhere, neither Britain nor to China, and we have many international influences. Your questioning makes me feel a bit light headed.
Unity is in all of us. And spaciousness is what which allows us to feel this.
Superb discussion Stephen. I love how the science of genetics is confirming just how international we all are and hence disproving the notion of Nationality, because all of us have many nationalities in our genes. The more we come to embrace this irrefutable fact, the simpler it will become to address the ill begotten ideas and practices that we have allowed or invented that have been founded on total lies.
We all have the same blood pumping through the same veins, only a thought can differentiate them.
Michael love this, same blood – different types of thoughts. Lets not unite to fight but see how society could truly live united.
National pride never really was one of my ‘things’, but playground pride certainly was! By that I mean that to be respected and liked by the many meant everything to me, and consequently I sold out a lot of myself for it. I imagine this is a similar experience to those who have national pride instead.
Yes there is a real difference between appreciating where you live and being identified with it.
Wow, what a brilliant piece of writing, thank you Stephen, you have so clearly and eloquently expressed the ill in the way we separate ourselves from one another, and from our innermost.
It is interesting to observe that in different countries there are totally different norms, ideals, beliefs and cultures even though the only difference is man-made, by making borders and giving pieces of land a name. All of this making it seem we are different even though underneath we are all the same inside.
National pride builds upon an eagerness to feel we belong to something bigger (great); one scheme where we are one of many. Of course, the blending ends there because it only works under specific circumstances. Other than that, you are on your own and you mind your own business and do not care too much for what happens to others. This gets later reproduced on a global scale. Limited, punctual blending is what it is even if what we are really after is brotherhood.
“to identify as a nationality, separate to another, better, unique, keeping others out of your heart because they occupy a different piece of land on this globe is not our truth.”
Hear hear. It is definitely not our truth – and this is evidenced during a natural crisis such as a earth quake etc…when everyone drops nationalities, countries etc…and they simply are humans helping humans.
I used to be very identified with where I lived and so proud! It wasn’t easy striping this away as I had to feel how ugly I had been to people visiting the area just in my attitude, cussing them for clogging up the roads and driving slowly (I know!)
What was underneath it all was insecurity because I didn’t feel worth in myself so had to feel it in trying to belong somewhere – somewhere I wasn’t born and because of that not considered I did belong by those already there.
‘Love where you grew up, love where you live, but know you are so much more than this’. To look beyond the colour of another person’s skin and the geographical boundaries of a country means we must be willing to see and know that all others are our brothers, and that we have a responsibility to hold all equally. Is it as simple and as narrow as choosing ‘comfort’ overall else? To see what is true in what you have shared Stephen means ‘taking responsibility’ and knowing we are so much more than our nationality.
This is beautiful Stephen. The fact is that culture and countries are man made dividers. We seem to think we have something better being in a certain country without considering that we are all part of one world. That our DNA is so similar no matter where we choose to call home.
Great call out Stephen. We are all the same under our skin. It is ridiculous to have the separation we do. Looking recently at an animation of the border changes in Europe pre and post wars shows how countries change shape and have done so for centuries as one country tries to dominate another. The British Empire turned a lot of the world map pink – I recall from my school days. Was this something to be proud of? Not for me. As mentioned in comments we are one big family – called humanity.
This national pride can even come down to smaller areas. towns, cities and suburbs. There is a competitive feel to discussions essentially saying where I live is better than where you live. But really we can live in the most beautiful place in the world but be very disconnected lonely and isolated and then we can live in the most undesirable place and the opposite be the case.
Thank you Stephen. when reading this I could feel how small we play. How we shrink ourselves down to the roles we play – whether as a son or daughter, father or mother, person in the workplace, or narrow ourselves hugely by nationality, sexuality, race, gender etc. We are not these things. There is so much more to us but we are so fixed by the things we identify with
It’s strange, as I totally see this way of looking after our own in societies but then we have so many stories and movies that we all love because they champion equalness, the hero’s see thru the surface differences in the end, but then we still have this separation in our real everyday lives. So is that because we prefer to not see, and we’re stuck in our comfortable material world? I feel like most people will only wake up and bring the love when it’s absolutely needed, when there is life threatening situations. So in the meantime maybe we need to dig out those subtle acts, thoughts and choices that just look after self and those close….
Awesome reminder Stephen of the other identifications we can get lost in. I absolutely love your concluding paragraph ‘This current world needs you more than ever to be everything you are, not a symbol of one small patch of land but a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.’ thank you. Indeed us living our universality and not us playing small.
I love this paragraph too Johanna for it reminds us of and calls us to our innate grandness. In a way it pulls us back from the narrow view of our plot of land and own community and into the spherical view of the Universe we are a part of.
If we look out from a body that believes that it’s skin is a border between it and everyone else, then it will also recognise geographical borders but if we look out from a body that knows that there is no real separation between itself and everything else then geographical borders will appear totally arbitrary.
We are in a body and we have all that comes with that, including skin. However this does not mean we can not live and emanate all we are and even hug another as if there is nothing in between us but the depths of the heart. We can in actual fact be like this in all aspects of life through our walk, our relating, our voice, our movements and so on. Applying this on a worldly physical scale means we are part of the world and not one patch of it.
That is a great point! When we already regard ourselves not as being connected energetically and see bodies as a limit, we will never reconnect to the fact that everything is interconnected. It is never about physicality- everything is energy and our bodies are simply a vehicle to express that, but never a limit to be accessed.
The deepest True feelings are those that come from our connection to our essence and thus when re-connected there is no “pride or shame”, jealousy, emotional passions, fear of idyllic religious beliefs, deflated egos, right or wrong only the Love of all equally to live as “ a Universal Man* living in connection, with and for Humanity.” So the roller-coaster ride of emotional turmoil has its brakes applied so from a deep place of stillness the Truth can be observed and lived.
Yes true. These emotions do not exist with the inner grandness at all. They are a poison to the body and offer us nothing but tension and lack of feeling clearly what is before us.
And these emotions only identify us and offer us constantly having a problem, which puts us into constant motion. When in our true connection, we know, how utterly ridiculous all these reactions are.
Could it be that these poisonous ways have become addictive patterns that we feel justified in supporting so we do not have to look at our true responsibility as a divine being?
How lost have we become that the emotional health and sense of self worth of entire countries can rest on the outcome of a football match?
So agree Alexis – the outpouring of emotion and even violence against supporters from another country makes no sense at all.
In some ways yes and in some ways no. Violence against another person who supports another team makes sense when you consider that many people are fuelled by their deep hurts and are impulsed by an energetic source that is dedicated to keeping humanity in the illusion of separation. We are slaves to the energy that we align to, none of us are choosing freely in the way that we think we are.
Stephen I love what you have shared. You have gently but surely made it clear that to be identified with geographical locations is utterly non-sensical. Not only that but identifying ourselves with specific areas of land contributes to our already long list of ever growing false identities.
Brilliant and very timely. We draw borders and then fight over them…and we call ourselves evolved??!!
Very timely in a world seeking security in smaller and smaller pieces of land rather than embracing each other. I was with an asylum seeker who was being very racist and I said hadn’t he had first hand what it is like to be at the receiving end of racial attack. It was a lesson for me to always connect to another’s amazingness and not let any prejudice get in the way.
Great article Stephen. Love unifies and borders divide; we are all either brought together or pulled apart by the source of energy we align to, be this love or be it not.
Love is borderless and will eventually destroy the man-made separation we currently are living.
Insightful and powerful writing Stephen. The possessiveness of claimed territory and its man-made borders are really quite ludicrous in the grander scheme of things. Claiming air space, fishing space and territory is a collective form of individualism that serves only the needs of those in the locality. We, humanity, have strayed a long way from true brotherhood, respect and care for others perceived a different by colour, race or country.
When we make our lives truly about people, there cannot be any boundaries or attachment to any country or piece of land we live on. We simply love people. We open and welcome people into our hearts and then we find out for ourselves what truly matters in the world.
Very true. People are people and when we see and feel life from love and essence first then it is impossible to categorise and make one better or lesser. Our essence is pure and is very different from the behaviours we may choose to live with.
Nationalism is like religion. Borders and beliefs about those on the other side of our border have been the cause of much blood shed. Why is it that we reduce ourselves so when could appreciate our differences and let them be rather than putting them in box and giving them a label?
It never ceases to amaze me how much energy and money is expended supporting and getting emotional about a sporting team.
So true and what are they cheering for anyway??? Probably none of the players are from the region, town or city there are representing and any single one of them would swop teams at the drop of a hat for the right price…meanwhile the fans pride themselves on their ‘loyalty” to their team. It’s beyond ridiculous.
In my own life experience pride in anything has never brought me closer to anyone.
Really everything you say applies to any area that we identify ourselves. For example we can have pride and separatism in our attachment to a football team, where we work, our profession, our family, the area we live in, being gay, being a woman, being a man, our religion, our politics, our favourite ice cream flavour etc etc ad infinitum.
Yes interesting that we tend to be proud of things that identify us as being different, special or better than someone else usually.
Yes, and the joke is that pretty much everyone seems to think that at some level they are special and different. We can be especially great or especially bad etc etc once again it comes in all flavours!
Pride is nothing more than a glorified attachment to that which we profess to ‘own’ and through this ownership achieve the necessary recognition and identification we so desire.
When we think we own things in the way you refer to we are ourselves owned and not the owner.
I hold two nationalities, British and American. I’ve never really classed myself as strictly one or the other and my accent is too English to be American and too American to be English! I’ve always felt a bit blah when people try to define me via a nationality as I don’t treat myself as one or the other. Coming from Oxford to London has been an amazing move because I love the multicultural aspect of it, I love those huge melting pots of places but even here nationalism creeps in even if one is not on their native soil. But regardless I love living in an amongst people from all over the planet.
I’ve always felt that areas where there is a mix of people from all around the world living in one place is about us learning to live together and knowing that there are no differences between us. To me its wonderful.
This current world needs us all to be who we truly are, not identified by geography, culture, race, religion, blood lines, family names, our roles at work or at home.. we are so much more than all of the labels we identify with and know ourselves by. When we see and know ourselves to be part of the all, an equal part of the entire universe, so we see others in the same equal light.
Thank-you Stephen it feels so important to discuss and question the constructs that shape our every day lives. My kids bought a new pack of top trumps recently called the worlds deadliest predators, according to the game the mammal with the highest killer rating is man; If Homo Sapiens are indeed king of the food chain then would it not seem that we have become predators of one another?
If homo sapien translates as wise man then we have to ask where is the wisdom in arrogance, separation and the resulting complication we have created and formed as our lived reality?
Fantastic article Stephen and so well written too. You touch on a topic that I have become so familiar with having now lived in Europe for a while. I see many many people from various cultures and lands. Over 100 in fact in the city in where I live. What stands out starkly is the constant separation in language, culture and belief. It is like we are living together whilst we are living completely separated from each other. It will take a looooooooong time for humanity to let go of national identification
Well said – borders are such haphazard human creations on the earth’s crust which, after all, cares not about race, culture, ideology or beliefs.
We know that we are belonging to something greater but when disconnected from it we choose to belong to something that identifies us, gives us shape, form, boundaries, safety and thereby we disconnect even more from the one unifying source we are inevitably part of and know ourselves to be brethren of equal making.
What your blog so easily reveals is the ‘us’ and ‘them’ that is so rife in our society today. We have a hard time keeping ‘us’ together’ so let’s not be bothered about ‘them’. This separation is a big lie and when we come to see this we will know that not ever can one be truly well if not all others are well at the same time and so taking care of ourselves is only true if it is for all others too.
Borders are an invention of humanity and though it naturally does not make sense that there is a difference from one side to the other, the truth is that we have made it so through the collective consciousness the inhabitants have subscribed to. So even though the landscape does not suddenly change drastically, the energy can change palpably so simply by the engrained ideals and beliefs we call nationality and culture. So not only are the actual borders man made, so is the lived separation in humanity. So we invented it, we created it and now we are continuously perpetuating it as without it, it would simply no longer exist.
I know we are all from one source, have known if for a long time now that in truth we are all one and even though we have man-made borders there are in truth none energetically. With regards to the headlines in newspapers like ‘Scotland Shame’ to be honest I would not give this the time of day. Journalists are only interested in creating sensationalism or wanting to ‘sound good’ or catch people’s attention it is all to do with self and nothing to do with the all, integrity or truth. Growing up I would hear people say things like ‘didn’t you know the north and south never get on’ with regards to countries, like it was a known fact and was accepted. The question I had though, like a child was ‘why?’ as this did not make sense to me. When the majority truly understand that it is the love we hold within our hearts that counts and how we live it will be a day worth celebrating.
We may have evolved physically to adapt to our environment: from the Sherpas in Nepal to the deep free divers that harvest oysters. The world is getting to be a tiny place with our ability to travel to any location in a short time on this blue marble we occupy. We are all unique but at the same time all from the same family. Only values and beliefs that we have created keep us in separation!
“Love where you grew up, love where you live, but know you are so much more than this.” love this Stephen, wherever we are we can make that home. The thing that stays the same is our quality of heart and being.
Beautifully unravelled how we have made the world we live in the way it is whereas our hearts tell us differently.
When we lose the connection with ourselves and thus the connection of the all we belong to we will seek belonging outside of ourselves, on many levels, from our nationality to the social group we are part of and the kind of ideals and beliefs we hold.
Yes, Stephen, we think that our protective bubbles are shielding us from harm, when in fact separating from one another and our true nature is the greatest harm of all.
Well said, separation that happens inside of ourselves, from our true nature, love, becomes separation between us on the outside.
It certainly is Janet and a majority of our population are unaware of where this harm originates and therefore can easily play ignorance to the separation we as a race have created.
Nationalism limits our potential, divides humanity and thereby the foundation for conflict.
“It doesn’t tell the truth of the Ageless Wisdom that binds us, the science of our interconnected past, present and future, the particles, the stars and the Universe” – yes and the fact that due to our inter-connectedness and the science of reincarnation, there is no actual point to nationalism and its separative ill simply because we have been every nationality over the many lives we’ve had to then live, walk and be the truth that where we come from universally surpasses any country or border on a man-made map of this world.
Very true Stephen and well said, we are so much more than any place or label can ever put on us, the moment we limit ourselves we are accepting a lesser form of the love that we are.
A really great article and sharing Stephen on what is really going on in the world and the way of living needed more than ever now. The narrow-mindedness and separation of national pride religion and race is something to see beyond and not restrict ourselves within the beauty and universality of who we really are, living in connection with and for humanity with love as our guiding way.
This is a great question; ‘Consider national pride… such a curious belief. After all, why would we take pride in something we have no significant part in shaping?’
Stephen, it is beautiful how you talk about the bigger picture. I can feel how identifying with our nationality and not seeing all of us as equal can cause separation and conflict.
That’s great Rebecca because not many people are willing to see this and often think that National Pride is something to be celebrated.
Great piece of enlightened writing Stephen. Nationalism is such an ugly energy. I have lived in England for 25 years and neve consider myself a foreigner as home is where I am loving not a place I was born. And as you beautiful expand our true home is in our particles that belong to the Universe.,
Yes – nationality offers us a unity we inherently seek, but stops short of the total truth keeping us entrenched in us vs them. So it just perpetuates separation and hate. If we realise our true connection we’d have to face our responsibility.
Without the Ageless Wisdom we easily live separate, individual lives, taking care only of our own little corner, in our own little nation. When we reconnect to the Ageless wisdom, we are able to see the bigger picture, and that we all come from the same source; love. When we bring love to anything, everything changes.
We have strayed very far for the truth that we are all interconnected and I’m sure this can be proven if we looked at our chemical makeup under a microscope the building blocks of who we are atoms will be the same. We all come from the universe.
Stephen this blog is very interesting to read I came to an understanding that the way we are educated is to constantly look outside of ourselves and to see this way of living as the only way to live. But it keeps us in the separation of them and us mentality and there are people who whip up hysteria based on the ‘them and us’ mentality so that certain people or nationalities feel they have more rights than anyone else, or are the chosen few.
And what about reincarnation? Could it be that we resist reincarnation so much because of our attachment to our nation and we are not even aware of it because we choose to be identified by that which is not true. If there is a possibility that we come back doesn’t it put things into perspective in this life and our attachment to one particular country or state. We are so much more and grander when we see and accept the bigger picture – the divine plan and our purpose in life into consideration.
The so-called ‘United’ Kingdom is experiencing many problems with those living in a specific area of land pulling up the drawbridge of individualism in believing they will be wealthier if they go it alone. It is creating separation and comparison between families and friends everywhere, whereas, when all work together for a shared way of living there would be harmony not division.
I have often pondered on this subject, I come from New Zealand where a large majority are very proud of the country, its beauty and its national rugby team and its sailing prowess and this is fine but any of us could have been born in Scotland or any where else. I would love to see boarders relaxed, sure things may get a bit crazy for a while but it would sort itself out in the end. We are all brothers we just need to start living that way.
I agree Kevin. The current Brexit nonsense in the UK is one example of some wanting to leave Europe to go it alone – a far cry from brotherhood.
Super cool Stephen – the sparkle inside each and every one of us is the same – no race, nationality, gender etc can change it and when it shines it lights up all around it no matter what the circumstances. It ridiculous that our sight should be so myopic and skewed…. we are part of a one humanity and the more interesting question for us all is can we see that sparkle in each and every person?
I love that Simon, that’s exactly the question I’m going to ask myself when I feel like I’m getting annoyed with people or traffic etc. There is a sparkle in them I’m ignoring and that usually means I’m grumpy or rushed or distracted. It actually lifts me out of that grump very quickly when I remember to connect with that other human being. ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Borders are often created out of natural barriers; mountains, rivers and seas. Man is clever and creates things like the Suez Canal, the Berlin Wall and big fences. Could it be that all of these barriers are things we create outside of us to ensure we stay separated from others?
An absolutely brilliant expose Stephen, on the ridiculousness of the way we live (exist) in this world, allowing ourselves to be separated by an imaginary line on a map, by nationality, by colour, by religion, the list is endless and, in most cases, living with a “look after our own’ mentality”, that says, no one else matters. So why is this a ridiculous state of global affairs? Simply because, under our skin and in our inner hearts, we are all the same, members of one big, glorious family; the family of humanity.