2008 – The Year in Review
As the year 2008 passes into history, there seems to be a collective sigh of relief around the planet. For 2008 has been witness to turmoil and tragedy, and the greatest economic crisis around the globe since the days of the Great Depression.
People everywhere hunger for change. They are searching for a new way of living, and an escape from the trauma that is relentessly stalking them. The election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States is being universally welcomed as a sign of this change. And upon his shoulders lies the burden, not only of an entire nation, but also of a grieving world.
But it is unlikely that one man, no matter how noble his intent or how worthy his goal, can protect a nation or a world from the troubles that now encompass them. For the reason is that the true causes of these world-wide problems lie deep within the human heart, and not within the political institutions and economies of the varied countries of the world.
We do not need a re-appearance of the Buddha to know that anger and hatred lead inevitably to violence, and that violence met with yet more violence leads inevitably to war. Nor do we need a return of the Prince of Peace to point out that avarice and greed lead inevitably towards corruption, exploitation and destruction.
The year of 2008 has seen evidence of all these human failings spread wide upon the surface of the planet. People everywhere have suffered loss. Many have lost their lives. Others have lost their jobs or their pensions. The values of investments world-wide have tumbled with the collapse of Corporations, and the steep decline of Stock Markets across the globe.
2008 has been a year that has witnessed the bankruptcy of some of the largest financial companies of the world, with losses so large that the future wealth of nations has been pledged to staunch the bleeding. No one knows how long these losses will continue, or how low the Stock Markets will descend.
We live in a world of uncertainty and change, and the speed of this change seems ever more remorseless. The moving minute seems to have been replaced by the moving second, and each new moment seems filled with new and frightening challenges.
Yet all this has been predicted long ago, and the alarming events of modern times are no more than the unfolding of an ancient plan. There is a purpose to our lives, and a reason for our suffering. That purpose is to learn, and those who do will rise phoenix-like from the fires of the dying of the age.
This Piscean Age of misery is in its final death-throes. It will shortly pass into history amidst the calamities and catastrophes that have long been foretold. In the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”, the Oracle of Tolemac sets out the events that will shortly come to pass.
Perceptive people everywhere can see the signs of this imminent destruction. As far back as 1945, the great American novelist and painter Henry Miller wrote:
“A new world is being born, a new kind of man is springing up today. The great mass of mankind, destined in our time to suffer more cruelly than ever before, ends by being paralysed with fear, becoming introspective, shaken to the very core, and does not hear, see or feel anything more than everyday physical needs.”
“It is thus that worlds die. First and foremost, the flesh dies. But although few clearly recognize it, the flesh would not have died if the spirit had not been killed already.”
