World in crisis? Can you stand for what you believe without escalating confrontation?

I have always thought of homeopathy as more than just a medical system. Well chosen homeopathic remedies – remedies that are well matched to your state of illness, stress or inner imbalance – seem to have an extraordinary capacity to reduce physical symptoms and to help your inner condition to be more relaxed and at ease.

However my belief in the profundity and capacity of the homeopathic system to help much needed change, can be challenged in the face of global crisis. This week sees a week or so of action in London by the Extinction Rebellion coalition. Reading their website is an extraordinary eye opener. It makes me think about denial. Denial in our own lives, and denial in public life. 

For any kind of change to happen, whether in our own inner lives, or in our collective relationship to each other and to nature, we first have to see things as they are. Actually, not just see things as they are, but feel things as they are. For there to be any possibility of real change in ourselves we need to really see and feel our state of distress. Actually just this opening to what is, is already a powerful initiator of change. We can’t pretend. We need to be able to feel it as it is, without justification, without excuse.

Really, for me, this is the core of homeopathy. This is already a homeopathic approach. In the homeopathic consultation this is also what is required. I, as a patient, need to be able to report, as accurately as I can, what I experience. I need to notice and report accurately my physical symptoms and sensations. This part for most people is more or less straightforward, although people sometimes have to learn to be accurate in their self observation. They sometimes need to acquire the skill for noticing things.

It’s not always so easy when it comes to my inner state. I might be able to report my emotions, or the perceived reasons for why things are the way they are. But what about my deeply held attitudes and beliefs? For most of us they are not so accessible. It usually needs cooperation between homeopath and patient to uncover and clarify these deeper stratas of our condition. But when this deeper condition is brought into the light, there is more possibility of discovering a remedy that can help bring about the long lasting changes in health and well being that we are looking for.

What about our collective situation? It’s often said, and most spiritual traditions would support this, that if you want to change the world, first change yourself, first free yourself. I think this is largely true. But is it the whole truth when you’re standing on the deck of the Titanic, heading towards an iceberg? Maybe it’s not so black and white. Maybe the two can go hand in hand. Most religious traditions would support this view. Take care of the inner garden and take care of the outer garden. The two are not mutually exclusive.

What to do? At this point it might be helpful to remind ourselves again of what was said above concerning one’s own inner condition. The prerequisite for change is to see it and feel it. No ifs and buts. Come naked and face it as it is, without an answer. Then already things begin to change, without you doing anything. This, in essence, is what homeopathy is. The bottom line for homeopathic practice: find out exactly how things are, then give the remedy which was able to cause a similar state in a healthy person. Voila!

So maybe that’s the starting point when it comes to the world situation. Face things exactly as they are. No ifs. No buts. Also be aware of emotions like anger that come up in reaction to how things are. But don’t act from that place. That would be to act from opposites, and not from similars. Then just see what arrives. What opportunities to help present themselves.

Back to homeopathy. Despite all that’s happening in the world, all the chaos and dysfunction, homeopathy is still an extraordinary thing, and still has great capacity to help you be more whole, more at ease, and less troubled by difficult symptoms. If you need to do something in the world, can it be more from a place of love and responsibility, and less from a place of reaction or fear? Is that possible? We could say that acting from a place of reaction – which is built upon past conditioning – while appearing to produce change, actually in the long run perpetuates the cycle of action and reaction. It perpetuates the wheel of karma. Is it possible to act more from stillness, in a spirit of giving?