Coming from a small remote village, Kan worked hard to enroll in a top university in the capital city. 10 years into his career, he achieved huge financial success. His biggest dream was to buy a house for his mother near him, so he could take care of her as she got older. Kan’s mother was a single mother and endured extreme hardship to raise him.
The day finally came. A beautiful house with a garden on the outskirts of the city. However, a few weeks after moving in, she started coughing and had difficulty breathing. Thinking that she might have an allergy to the building material, Kan hired a top inspection company to make sure the house met the strictest safety standards. But his mother’s condition worsened.
Next, Ken checked her into the best hospital in town and hooked up to a respiratory machine and an IV. After going through every test the doctors could think of, Kan’s mother was exhausted. Nearly 2 weeks later, they found no problem, and the mother’s condition remained the same. But the hospital stay burned a hole in Kan’s wallet the size of an average person’s half-year salary.
Devastated, Kan asked for help from friends and came upon a famous alternative medicine doctor and made an appointment. When Kan and his mother came to the clinic, before they even sat down, the doctor took a quick glance at the mother, then started writing the prescription – eat a kilo of locally produced soybeans for a few days. Then, the assistants ushered Kan and his mother out of the clinic.
Kan was stunned and furious. After such trouble finding this doctor, waited nearly a month to get an appointment with high expectations, all he could do was to tell us to eat soybeans? The doctor didn’t even ask a single question about his mother’s condition. What a scam!!! With many other patients waiting in line, there was nothing Kan could do. He almost threw the prescription paper directly into the trash bin. But upon a second thought, he decided to give it a try. At the cost of a cup of coffee, what did they have to lose?
A few days later, his mother fully recovered her health.
Many people might think this is a story of a miraculous or even mysterious health recovery. It is, but much more importantly, it is an illustration that very complex problems often have simple solutions. This is true not only related to health issues. It is true with every human-related issue in life–marriage, parenting, business, organizations, industries, societies, and politics.
Unlike the doctors in the hospital, who focused on symptoms and scientific analysis, the doctor in the clinic could instantly recognize that the mother had an allergy or physical resistance to living in a new environment and new climate. Locally grown soybeans had natural healing power to facilitate her adaptation. Nature has already given us most of the solutions to our problems, if only we know how to recognize and respect them. That ability to see connections between the visible and the invisible is wisdom, the result of high consciousness.
From low consciousness, we create problems. From high consciousness, we create solutions. Wars, conflicts, pain, and suffering or healing, unity, joy, and peace are the result of our collective creations. We are constantly creating, through thoughts, emotions, and actions. What we create is a matter of choice, consciously or unconsciously. They are completely within our control. However, due to social conditioning, many of us think otherwise.
Take the example of Kan. He considered paying a high hospital invoice and receiving treatment without result as normal. Yet, he considered the lack of expensive tests and inexpensive natural remedies a potential scam. Such a perspective of life is against nature.
We judge the value of a product or a service based on its complexity or time required to produce it. For example, we think thick books are worth more than thin but concise books loaded with wisdom. We are willing to pay more for a plumbing job that takes 2 hours to complete than one completed in 1 hour with equal quality. And our social and economic systems reward such ineffectiveness. We think lacking time is normal or that a busy schedule is a sign of productivity or ambition; we think stress, overwhelm, suffering and pain are part of life design; we think working hard is the answer to our problems.
As illustrated by the clinic doctor, there are better ways. The best way comes through raised consciousness. The higher the conscious level we have, the easier it is to see the reality–the invisible but critical connections beyond the obvious (or symptoms). When we see the root cause and offer the right diagnosis, that itself is already 90% of the solution. The higher the conscious level we have, the simpler the solutions are, always. Just imagining what kind of world we can create if we can tackle issues related to Covid-19, global warming, health care, education, economy, and politics from a higher level of consciousness.
Raising consciousness isn’t just about practical benefits. It is the only reason we are on earth. We came on earth in human form to learn and to practice how to move from an ego-driven existence to expressing the God-like divine qualities that are already within us.
In fact, consciousness is the only thing there is. While our bodies are temporary, our consciousness is cumulative and eternal. Everything we do in life – family, business, or relationships – is only “homework” we do as part of our consciousness school curriculum. Every circumstance, pleasant or unpleasant, that we experience existed for our spiritual growth. Every person in our lives – family members, friends, and foes are supporting actor, who is here to support our spiritual journey.
When we understand this, we can set life priorities accordingly and focus on what really matters. The quality of life or business or anything else we create is a direct reflection of our level of consciousness. To raise consciousness is to manage our thoughts moment by moment, which is 100% within our control. The most direct path to high consciousness is mindfulness practice – be present, increase self-awareness, make conscious choices. Excellence results from habits.