Perspective

To think ... we (as in the States) are less than 250 yrs. old (as of 1776) ...
Australia is about what 400 yrs. old.......
Brazil, even older....
India, even older than that....

yet when the States sneezes, everyone else runs to grab a tissue, and the nearest antihistamine....

It's very important to understand one's place in the context of the world, in the context of history, in the context of the evolution of the human psyche and the contribution of that ....

The need to succeed, what success is measured by, who "am I" in relation to the struggle for that success....contextualizing these things are important if one is REALLY interested in finding one's place in the overall scheme of things ....

There's a difference between spirituality (the ability to connect to the spirit and find its expression) and religion (which is often intertwined with a warped power dynamic and structures created for some to maintain a sense of control and power).

In English, we have the verb "is" ... I am 26 yrs. old, I am a male, I am Parth .... while in Spanish there are two very different and distinct verbs for "is". One that connotes a temporary form (I am happy) and another that connotes a more permanent sense (she IS my mother). In the languaging of age, the actual transliteration of "I am 26 yrs. old" is "I have 26 yrs.". While this may seem like an incredibly simple distinction, the implications are quite profound .... it formulates the very basis of Identity inside of language and the way we formulate and articulate our observations of the world around us.

Inherent in "I am 26 yrs. old" there is an association and identification with the body, whereas in "I have 26r yrs.", there is "I" who simply has 26 yrs. old (based on the body that I have), the "I" is beyond the physical form.

Linguistically, English is a linear language, where one word can have what, 2 maybe 3 different meanings, whereas in a more conceptual language (like Sanskrit or Chinese), one word can be a plethora of meanings depending on the context of the sentence (which is reflective of the depth of it's world view).

In Aramaic, the language contemporary to Jesus Christ, the term "Abwun" was used meaning "the origin of my existence" whereas in the Latin translation, it became "father" ... what a shift from an egalitarian perspective to that of a more patriarchal homogenization of that originating phenomenon. Beginning to inquire into the context of things doesn't package our lives into neat little boxes, but rather blows the top off of what we thought we knew. I'm not saying that everything I'm saying is 100% accurate, I make no such claims, but rather highlight the importance of being engaged in the inquiry of understanding the construction of those mechanisms we hold so near and dear, of those mechanisms that have created the pedagogies that we've been fed ever since we knew how to rationalize and articulate our existence as individuals.

To question these are to question the very things that "the powers to be" have deemed to be "the right way" .... to question these are to fly in the face of authority .... the key, however, is to engage in this inquiry in a respectful way. If we can understand the value of established conventions while inquiring into their limitations, we can actually get present to the best of all of these modes of rationalizing our existence and our place within it. It is in this space that wisdom arises, very different from knowledge.

To be interested in how to form "community", (etymologically, "a common ownership - http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=community), let alone a global community - the question now becomes, what are some platforms or underlying currents which would speak to a sense of globality? What are the actual underlying values/experiences of what it is to be human? This would of course take quite an exploration - some have certainly taken ground in this - Joseph Campbell, being one of them and I'm sure a plethora of others who have taken a look at the underlying threads which run beneath various culture's myths, stories, and articulations of experience.

Loaded, I know....it's interesting though isn't it? That as our "context" changes, our experience of ourselves as "content" within it begins to shift....this is what's meant by "critical analysis" and thereby begins the process of awakening ...