Once upon a time, there was a girl called Earth.
Earth was born with vast forests, nature and lush greenery.
She was a happy child, surrounded by lots of love and positive energy.
Earth had a childhood sweetheart called Humans.
Earth loved Humans very much.
One day, Humans told Earth that he wants to move out of the forests, into the city, and asked Earth to go along with him.
Earth loved Humans dearly, and because of her deep love and affection for Humans, she agreed.
When they arrived in the city, Earth was very surprised.
There were no trees or forests, but buildings and factories.
Everyone was in a rush, and the energy was not kind and gentle, but very cold and unfeeling.
Even the air - it wasn't clean and fresh.
In the buildings, it was all stale, recycled air conditioning, and outside was all smog and haze.
Construction was everywhere.
Land was cleared; trees, forests and nature felled, burned and destroyed to make way for buildings, and more buildings to be added to the already congested concrete landscape.
Earth thought to herself, "Why do they have to dig so much? If they continue digging, one day this place will sink."
Earth didn't like the city at all.
In fact, she felt miserable.
But for Humans' sake, she tried to adapt.
The days passed and Earth got herself a job.
She thought she would be happy but she soon found out that she was wrong.
It was all work and no rest.
The office environment was also not pleasant.
The people were mean and nasty.
Earth observed that there was so much politics and fighting.
Everyone was fighting for personal gain or playing political games.
Everyday was like in a war zone - shooting and firing, burning and bloodshed.
Earth didn't like it at all. She was depressed. She was tired.
She felt burnt-out with all the work, stress and negativity.
But she could not tell Humans. Cos' Humans seemed disturbed lately.
Besides, she didn't want to be a burden.
So, she bottled her emotions.
As the air was terribly polluted, Earth soon developed a cough, which became chronic.
She also came down with a flu that didn't seem to go away.
As Earth's lungs weakened, she discovered more ailments.
She constantly feel hot.
Her body seemed to heat up by itself, and many times, she found herself perspiring profusely.
Sometimes, she felt as if she was going to explode.
On and off, she would also get chest pains.
As if that was not bad enough, her relationship with Humans deteriorated.
Humans became unreasonable and demanding.
He was no longer kind, loving and gentle.
Instead, he was selfish and greedy.
For no rhyme or reason, he would vent his anger and frustrations on Earth.
Earth thought that Humans was stressed with city life and work, and so, even though she was very hurt, she continued to be loving and kind, patient and understanding, and gave in to Humans' demands.
But Humans was ungrateful and totally ignored Earth's efforts.
Even though Earth was unhappy, she would keep it to herself.
Earth felt sad. Every night, she would cry herself to sleep.
One day, Earth saw Humans with another girl, Craving/Greed/Lust.
She thought they were colleagues of friends.
But when they started behaving intimately, she was shocked.
She could not contain her emotions anymore.
She was hurting badly inside. Her chest was in pain. Her heart was pounding furiously and her body temperature kept increasing. She felt the blood rushing to her head.
As she held one hand over her chest, she went up to confront Humans.
But Humans was unrepentant.
He abused Earth instead.
Earth was devastated. She was heartbroken. She felt as if her whole body was torn apart, and her heart shattering to pieces.
All of a sudden, all the bottled emotions seemed to rush out.
Earth started shaking violently and breaking out in cold sweats.
That's when she went to see a doctor who told her that if her body temperature and heart rate continue to rise, her arteries may burst, she may get a heart attack and die.
To help calm herself down, Earth decided to seek alternative therapy.
The energy healer told Earth that her aura was very weak.
That she needed long-term intense healing surrounded with lots of positive and loving energy in an unpolluted environment.
Earth also tried attending different religious services.
Both helped to calm and relax her for a while, but because the environment is such that there's lots of negativity and pollution, her ailments kept recurring, with no recovery in sight.
One day, as Earth sat on a bench in a park near her home.
She reminisced about the good old days -
Where there were trees and nature and space, and not buildings, factories and waste.
Where the air is fresh and clean, and not smog and haze.
Where the people are always helpful, and not fighting for some political power or personal gain.
Where the people are nice and friendly, and not cold, mean and nasty.
Where the energy is positive, loving and kind, and not negative and filled with anger, enmity and hate.
Where there's lots of giving and generosity, and not selfishness and greed.
Where Humans used to love and take care of her, and not abuse, take advantage and neglect her.
Where she was healthy, strong and in the pink of health, and always happy, and not sick and weak and depressed like now.
As Earth was thinking, she fell into a deep sleep.
Will Humans realise the mistake, start making amends, and learn to respect Earth again,
Or will Earth self-destruct and die a slow and painful death?
.
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"As we create, we destroy."
.
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"The 'end' of the world lies not in the forces of nature, nor in the hands of some Supreme Being (God/s), or any other beings (ETs, UFOs etc) BUT in the hands of mankind/humankind.
Mankind/Humankind alone, through an ignorant, delusioned and selfish mind, can and will destroy civilisation.
It's through the irresponsible and egoistic acts of Mankind/Humankind that civilisation will be destroyed.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis etc are all symptoms/results of anger, enmity and hate that is expressed by humans -collective anger, enmity, hate etc of human and living beings manifesting in/through nature.
It's the mind that needs to be changed.
Everything begins from the mind, and therefore will have to end with the mind. (The way in is the way out)
If we don't change our minds (ie. our thinking, attitude, action etc), we'll self-destroy ourselves."
"Man can change the atmosphere of the Universe.
If man is cruel and wicked, always lives against the laws of nature and the cosmic law; through his acts, words and thoughts, he pollutes the whole atmosphere.
As a result of such misdeeds and thoughts, nature may not produce things which man requires for his living but instead man may be faced epidemics and various kinds of disasters.
If, on the other hand, man lives in accordance with this natural law, leads a righteous way of life, purifies the atmosphere through the merits of his virtues and radiates his loving kindness towards other living beings, he can change the atmosphere in order to bring about better results for the happiness of man."
- Venerable Dr K. Sri Dhammananda
P.S : Did you spot the deforestation, global warming, depletion/weakening of the ozone layer, wars, mankind's anger, mankind's abuses on Earth, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc?
If you did not, read Again ... :)
