AN ALLEGORY FOR DRUG USE AND SUICIDE PREVENTION

Reading about the epidemics of drug dependency and suicide up north, I began thinking about the situation, and came up with an allegory that might help explain what's going on.

The Universe is an ongoing, evolving symphony of incomprehensibly lush, complex, beautiful spiritual essence. However, if you could stop the symphony so that you only heard tones sounding at the very moment the symphony paused, all you'd hear would be a "white noise" of unchanging, monotonous sound. Lost would be the melodies and the artful development of "variations on a theme." In fact, all sense of harmony and meaning within the symphony would vanish. End of Allegory.

So, today in many people's lives, the symphony has stopped. We've done what society expects of us -- jobs, family, consumption -- and that's it. In the lives of many, nothing is particularly inspiring, encouraging or meaningful. There are no hopeful melodies, no agreeable harmonies, no meaning in anything, especially no meaning for ourselves.

For me personally, a great help for restarting the symphony has been the insight that the whole Universe, including mentality, feelings and the Great Spirit, are all one thing. We humans are manifestations within that One Thing. We have a webpage on which The One Thing Concept is outlined in various essays

Here's how the One Thing Concept helps restart the symphony in our lives:

When we begin thinking holistically -- a natural outcome of embracing the One Thing concept -- we see that on Earth at this time what's needed most from us humans is for us to stop destroying the planetary biosphere with our ever-increasing consumption. Thus, anyone consciously adapting more sustainable behavior -- from carrying a reusable bag to the market to becoming vegetarian -- takes a step toward entering into the symphonic melody of sustainable Life on Earth.

When we become an ever-maturing, ever-more aware, informed, feeling and thinking consciousness within the One Thing, struggling every day to harmonize with the sustained general flow of the evolving Universe, we find that we have a worthy identity, a worthy goal, that's there's mystery, beauty, and infinite challenge in our lives.

In that context, the symphony is discovered to have never stopped in the first place. The symphony gushes forward with all the spirit and beauty it ever had. And such a perceived Universe is much less likely, I think, to encourage drug dependency and suicide.