This is all a part of the nature cycle, I think...

It’s hard to imagine that the system we are currently living in, with its seemingly expertly designed and inescapable conditions: poverty, physical suffering of both people and the planet, and inequality of access to resources for survival - from power-hungry people and systems - are a result of forethought by humans planning hundreds or even thousands of years in advance. 

Rather, I think it has been a slow and collective shift by a growing number of people moving in the direction opposite from self-awareness, and toward a deeper identification with the ego. Our desire to be known, to be in charge, to be remembered.

Similarly, it’s hard to believe that a single person or even a large group could, in one fell swoop, re-design a system in which enough people would immediately agree and participate to counteract or undo all of appeared damages we are witnessing, in a short or immediately perceptible timeline. 

Instead, I think the pendulum will continue to swing. How close is it to switching directions? I can’t be sure. I believe we are existing in a time when collectively, there is a relatively smaller proportion of people practicing and striving for self-awareness. I think this is what yogic philosophers called the Kali Yuga. 

From my relative, small perspective – it appears that a growing number of people are moving toward self-awareness. Yoga has grown more popular – even if it has been primarily for its misinterpreted physical prowess. With its rise, more people may find themselves stumbling into the world I have recently found myself in. Which has introduced me to the practices and pursuit of self-awareness. 

Some people find self-awareness through a means other than Yoga. For some it’s drugs, religion, answer-seeking, fixing cars, baking bread, people-watching. 

From this relative, small world of mine, I would guess that we are shifting out of the Kali Yuga, defined as the last of the four cycles of the world, and is "filled with war and conflict" (Yogapedia). I don’t believe we are witnessing the end of the world. I do believe we are experiencing the end of a brutal phase of the cycle. 

I think the timeline is a lot longer in years than we are.

Charles Darwin’s ‘I think’ sketch… the beginning of detailing his theory of evolution

Maybe humanity ends as we know it. Maybe it begins again. Maybe this is the middle. Maybe our consciousness gets recycled into different organisms and forms of matter and we will always be alive in that regard. We know species which have gone extinct before us, and maybe that’s where we’re headed. Maybe we all reincarnate as amoebas on an otherwise uninhabitable planet. Maybe fungus overtakes the waste humans created and regenerates a new environment. I just can’t pretend to know the answers to such big questions. I cannot create expectations that all humans will abide by. I cannot save the world as I know it. I cannot micromanage the future. 

My human life is short in comparison to the rest of the universe. I believe life will always continue to prevail. 

So… what CAN I do? I can continue to learn, practice, and share – all my resources, material and otherwise. I can continue to learn about the world around me - past present and future. I can continue to value and encourage awareness.