A basic tenet in most spiritual traditions is that all people are fundamentally good. In our essential nature we are kind, open, and wise. Yet when we experience the chaos and aggression in the world and in our own state of mind, this can be difficult to see.
However according to this view, chaos and aggression arise because we we lose the connection with our basic being. Since our nature isn’t pointed out to us and since we don’t cultivate it, we lose sight of who we are.
Yet “who we are” doesn’t go away. Whether we’re aware of it or not the foundation of goodness is always there. Even when we’re at our most confused, and even when we go far astray into dark and troubled states of mind, our nature remains unstained.
Not Naive Idealism
This isn’t some kind of utopian fantasy where everything is nicey nice, and we don’t have pain, confusion, and ugly parts. It’s not that everything is sugar coated and we should pretend we don’t have suffering, and we should ignore all our various problems.
Rather, from this perspective, regardless of how difficult or confused or far gone things seem, we can never give up and say it’s a hopeless case. There is some workability and sanity buried beneath even the most confused and degraded situations. We can always wake up and see our confusion and we can move forward. In other words, there is no garbage bin where we throw all the trash, because there is no trash.
All people are fundamentally awake, and when we act otherwise it is simply because we have lost touch with our basic nature. Now granted, with great frequency we stray very far from our nature. Indeed we human beings get lost in dark and deeply destructive states of mind, often for whole lifetimes. We see this in various horrendous forms such as murder, rape, and child abuse, and in systematic grand scale ways such imperial conquests and genocidal movements.
But according to the principle of fundamental goodness, even then, even when we are that far gone, given the right circumstances, we can stop our destructive and violent patterns, discover our nature of goodness, and walk a path back home. This is because deep inside nobody wants to suffer, and nobody wants to see others suffer. Deep inside we all want to be happy, and even though our disconnection often causes us to think otherwise, naturally we we also want that for others.
The Human Situation Contains Tremendous Possibility
From this basic understanding, the journey of helping the world becomes workable because fundamentally, we all want the same thing. At our most basic level we all want to live in a safe and harmonious world that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren.
If we reach out to the world with a message of love, that message will be heard because there is not one person who truly doesn’t want to hear it.
We can achieve unlimited benefit in this world if we expand our vision. So far we have reached out to those close to us, but now with the world being so small, we can reach so much further. It will be a herculean task no doubt but if we are passionate and creative and if we keep at it, we definitely can uplift all of humanity.
We can do this. We can save this world. There is nothing whatsoever in our way except our belief in our own limitations. But those limitations don’t exist, so let’s get on with it.
Let’s move forward and achieve what we really want.
Let’s proclaim love throughout this good kingdom earth! Let’s shout out like thunder, “We are the glorious human race, and we claim our birthright to live together in dignity, confidence, and joyous celebration!”