Are we all in this together?

Sometimes i believe that a great catastrophe has to happen for people to realize things have to change, kind of like the term "you have to hit rock bottom."
but maybe that wont be the case.

im going to quote a good friend "Only in the face of true horror, do you discover the nobility of humanity."

I love the synchronicities of this site, and its fitting that I got one with a post about our interconnectedness. I was just about to post something similar.

We are all connected, just as we are to rocks, plants, etc., because we are these things. You say we are all affected by the same planet, but I feel it goes deeper than this. We are the planet, and by extension the universe. We grow from the planet like fruit from a tree, and the planet from the universe. We are the universe playing itself out. I think bringing death to the forefront of our minds will go a long way towards helping people realise it, as Aruntabear said above. There are a couple of obstacles in my opinion to the realisation of this interconnectedness - at least there were for me - and these are mostly fallout from outmoded religious dogma:

1. The belief that we are at the centre of the universe. Intellectually I doubt many people really think we are at the centre of the universe anymore, but until recently I never gave much thought to our actual position in the universe, our loneliness as an insignificant, miniscule, backwater rock. Wherever the centre of the universe is - if there is one - it's very improbable that we're anywhere near the middle. It's easy when imagining the Big Bang to think of it as starting from Earth, or from the solar system at least, not intellectually but at some unspoken, abstract level of visualising something that is hard to imagine and bringing it closer to what we know. Realising our obscure position in the wider universe has helped me begin understand and experience my nature as an expression of it.

2. The belief that we are separate from nature . I'm pretty confident alot of people still fall for this one. With respect, it came across a little bit in your post where you said we are "affected by" the same planet. I think it is a very common delusion to think something along the lines of "We are lucky to be on a planet that can support human life", as though human life has some existence away from Earth. In my opinion it is important to really know that we live on Earth because we ARE Earth. We are adapted specifically to Earth's conditions. We are a PRODUCT of its conditions. We can't destroy the planet and move on to some imagined cosmic Zion (I don't imagine so anyway)

The post I was going to make was about the fact that I struggle to reconcile with everything else machinery and manmade things like cars and televisions and road signs. I struggle to see my connection to these things, and these things' connection to the universe. Maybe I find this hard because they are the next step along, being made by us. It is easy for me to see a connection to and between everything that came before, everything that's 'natural'. But then again manmade things, being made by man and therefore the universe, are natural - just as natural as a beaver's dam, for instance. But as even things created by animals seem similarly unnatural to me, I think the reason it is difficult to see these things as the universe playing itself out is not just because they are made by us, but because they are inert - they do not grow in the same way as what I think of as 'natural'. Maybe that's why the realisation of our interconnectedness as a dynamic universe is out of reach to the average conscious mind, because we largely choose to make and obsess over things that are dead. I really want to be able to see how these things are the universe in the same way as living things.

You ask a lot of deep questions for which I have no answer. However, I will try to address one question: "How do I include others with such diverse perspectives in my process of transformation?"

I do not believe that there is any solution on the level of ideology. When we start talking from our heads we just end up arguing, even if the ideas are wonderful deep truths like, "we are all related."

Here is a possible solution: listen with respect, speak of your own experience, and love without judgment. I have faith that the experience of love will eventually break down even the most stubborn prejudices.

Real transformation has to do with the heart.

"Can something happen that is big enough to completly shatter peoples pre-conceptions on life and everything?"

I think that this something can be "big" in another sense than a physical one. A thought - a new aspect in our way of looking at things, a new "wibe" - can change our whole world view on a large scale. And thoughts can spread very fast these days...

http://florries.wordpress.com/
you are unique: what you do is always ground-breaking

I think all it will take is a shift in the way we view the world.. If you think about it, the one thing that connects everything in the Universe is the present moment.. We're all here together right now.. So i believe a change in our collective perception of time is the key to humanity realizing its interconnectedness

With any change there is a mourning that happens.

I don't think this is as shallow as the newscasters make it out to be.

I think humans DO feel a loss.. they perhaps are awakening.

While that first caller said "it's only a movie.. go back to your families and things that matter in the "real" world....."

I think that is what is causing the depression.. the fact that up until they SAW Avatar.. they have been living a shallow lie.. and then something about Avatar resonates so deeply that they are awakening to something more profound they realise they do NOT have.

I find myself in the same position. I am caught in two worlds.

One .. the world where I have a mortgage, pay bills and work at a crappy job... and that is my "reality"..

and then my shifting reality into a more earth centered, spiritual simpler life... that brings me joy. I am depressed and angry that I cannot fully shift into that new reality....