A New Earth summary

Most people say we live in crazy, overwhelming times. One of the most renowned Indian sages, Ramana Maharshi, once said that the “mind is maya.” In Hinduism, the word maya describes a form of collective mental illness.

In fact, most ancient religions agree that dysfunction – even madness – makes up a large part of our natural way of living.

Buddhism articulates this idea differently, describing the mind’s natural state as dukkha, one of suffering and misery. Buddha saw dukkha as an essential component of the human condition.

In Christianity, the concept of sin, when translated from the ancient Greek of the New Testament, means “to miss the mark.” Therefore to sin means to miss the point of human existence.

And yet despite humanity’s profound achievements in art, medicine and technology, we still seem to be tainted by an insane, destructive force – regardless of whether we call it suffering, madness or sin.

In fact, people of the twentieth century have both created and witnessed some of the most horrific, systemized methods of destruction, from bombs and machine guns to poisonous gas. Such developments led to the mass killings in Soviet Russia and to the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, responsible for massacring a quarter of the nation’s population.

Even today such violence, greed and hate continues, not only among ourselves but also toward other species and even the Earth itself. We destroy forests, pollute the air and water and mistreat and slaughter animals in factory farms.

Though many religions have tried to provide ways to counter or mitigate these apparently very human tendencies, none have discovered the way to stem violence.

So what is the solution? Read on to find out.