Will The World Find Peace and Ancient Wisdom In 2012?
Some people think that we are all going to die in 2012. They're running around trying very hard not to soil themselves. People more inclined to think positively are welcoming 2012 as being the end of the fourth cycle as described by the Mayans and the beginning of the fifth. Now, according to these happy go lucky folk, the fifth cycle will herald the resurgence of ancient Mayan wisdom.
Do I think this will happen? No.
Why not? Because right now there is more than one person building a bunker to protect themselves and their family from the end of the world. Do you think the sort of person who believes that we're all going to die because a calendar carved by a civilization that fell in 900 AD is ending is the sort of person who is going to magically become enlightened? No.
See, enlightenment, if there is such a thing, requires introspection and years of real spiritual work. Those happy Buddhist monks and nuns you see have worked their little butts off to give up attachments and become more introverted, discovering the deeper truths of themselves and the universe. The same goes for almost any spiritual discipline. If you want to achieve peace and enlightenment, you have to work for it. It is not going to be handed to you just because the Mayan calendar goes out of date in 2012.
I'm not claiming to be any sort of real spiritual authority. Meditating makes me feel like I'm falling through the floor, which is just too weird for my liking, plus it requires a great deal of self discipline and what not. But you don't have to be Mahatma Ghandi or Siddhartha Gautama or Jesus Christ to know that true spiritual wealth and ancient wisdom never comes easily. It's the Mayan calendar people, not some ancient advent calendar with wisdom locked up in the middle of it like a little liquid candy treat, which will come pouring out at some point in 2012, covering us in its wisdom goo and transforming paranoid nutjobs into calm saints and whackos with guns and oil lust into loving people. There are no easy answers in life, and the Mayan calendar is not a shortcut to wisdom and a new age of peace and prosperity.
If you want to discover ancient secrets, then learn the ancient languages and read the ancient texts, or more simply, read the many translations available today. Don't wait for the hype of some ancient event to work its magic on you and the world around you, or you'll be waiting a very long time.
