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The Dharma Moment – Do Your Part

July 6, 2017
Emanuel Kuntzelman

What triggers a commitment to do your work? What incites a sense of personal responsibility? What brings in a shift in personal and societal consciousness? Could it be as simple as exploring a new perspective or changing a belief?

Within the materialistic paradigm that has predominated in the scientific community for hundreds of years, people have clung fervently to the idea that the universe is a meaningless caboodle of stuff knocking around and we, consciousness human beings, are nothing more than the accidental end product of millions of years of random mutations. That kind of underlying philosophy makes it tough to find much purpose in our existence, let alone finding the trigger on personal responsibility. Maybe it’s time to explore a new perspective.

Physics has taught us a couple of things in the last century or so that should help provoke a shift in consciousness. Two things we have learned are that we are all connected and that there is a conservation of energy. Beginning with Bell’s Theorem in 1964, we have now clearly determined that we are all part of what can be called nonlocal mind. There is instantaneous communication of quantum states across vast distances. Likewise we now know that energy is neither created nor destroyed, rather it transforms from one form to another.

These two postulates offer a wonderful entry towards just the kind of new perspective that could bring the sort of shift in consciousness our society needs. Both the conservation of energy and the interconnectedness of all things can help us understand that the idea of karma – that every thought, intention, word, and deed once created, does not disappear—should make us think more deeply about our own behavior, and our sense of responsibility.

To take a hypothetical example, the sounds waves from our last conversation never disappear, they dissipate and continue on forever. Perhaps hundreds of years from now someone will have the technology to capture the words we said and decipher them. Would that awareness change our choice of words in our next conversation? Likewise with our actions, the energy used never goes away. It lasts forever, although the form may change.

If we wholeheartedly recognize and embrace the conservation of energy and the interconnected web of life, it can alter our psyche. Once one embraces the idea that there is a field of stored and active information, it can be a life-changing experience. The concept that our thoughts and action live on and impact the field of existence may make us pause and consider: How are we affecting the field in each and every moment?

Bringing this greater, everlasting perspective into our awareness may cause us to feel a sense of Dharma, or a moral obligation to the whole. Those who practice Dharma cultivate moral principles to improve not only their individual self, but also to uplift society. If we are mindful of every thought, intention, word, and deed that we create, perhaps we would choose more selfless acts or strive to hold an intention of universal cooperation. Perhaps we would feel more empowered as an individual to positively affect our community.

With this awareness, we may choose to practice a kind of right livelihood that contributes to the wellbeing of society, rather a livelihood that extracts from society to augment the material benefits of the individual. Instead of feeling the societal pressure to pursue and accumulate wealth, status, or power, we could feel a sense of individual purpose to create positive, impactful change in our own unique way.

The minute an individual or society chooses this perspective there is a transformative shift in consciousness: we begin to take on a moral responsibility for the state of the world. When we see ourselves as an important role in the greater collective of humanity we can recognize that we are all in this together.

Just imagine: by simply accepting a couple of the basic facts of physics, we could create a new sense of Dharma that could trigger a massive change in how we treat others and what we choose as our purpose in life. What would a society of morally responsible individuals look like? We have a choice to deliberately shift our own perspectives. Which perspective will you choose?


Emanuel Kuntzelman has dedicated his life to raising environmental awareness, promoting cultural understanding, and advocating for world peace. A lifelong spiritual seeker, he is the Founder and President of Greenheart International. Founded in 1985 as the Center for Cultural Interchange, the organization changed its name to Greenheart International in 2013 in efforts to further embody the work of connecting people and planet. Greenheart now encompasses four major branches: CCI Greenheart, Greenheart Travel, the Greenheart Shop, and Greenheart Transforms.

Along with Andrea Dennis and Dustin DiPerna, Emanuel will present a pre-conference workshop at the upcoming IONS Conference in Oakland, CA, entitled When Power Meets Purpose. He will also present Transforming Knowledge into Social Impact in a general session with IONS Director of Education Katia Petersen.


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