the problem is with us

so to follow up on a post from before, i'll be talking (typing?) a little bit more about knowing our real selves, as inspired from the book that i'm reading, Prescription For Living.  in the book, it is noted that we know many things such as how germs are spread, how to run a machine, etc, but we generally don't know that much about ourselves as human beings.  we don't realize what's going on 'inside'; we don't realize what "capacities are atrophying from lack of use", how we're harming ourselves.  of course, Ruhiyyah is referring to our souls.  we tend to treat the symptoms of problems be it on the levels of individuals, families, communities, nations, and globally rather than really taking apart and getting into the root cause of the issues.  this is true for pretty much everything, you can see the manifestations today; the global economy, education, healthcare, the list goes on.  and this is demonstrated by the many groups of people that verbalize the extent of their unhappiness with the way that things are shaping up, or falling down, whatever way you prefer to think of it.  Ruhiyyah states that humanity jumps from one panacea to the next in an effort to 'fix' what is ailing, and that "the medicine is usually all the same flavour".  there is also a set formula for how you can live a happy life; good job, house, marriage, children, retire and that the product of this should equal contentedness.  she states that when all the wants of society are fulfilled, the "economic, social or political situation is as bad as before" and that "some new calamity takes the place of the old one".  ummm....yes.  all of this, according to the author, stems from the fact that each of us is not living in accord to the laws of humanity, and that of course is because we are not aware of the essence of our beings.  to build on the idea from the last post that we are busying and distracting ourselves; we are pushing ourselves faster and feverishly not only physically but also mentally and emotionally and that it seems as though there is a major force at work "decentralizing us from ourselves".  we work and work and go and go but all of this activity isn't constructive, isn't producing a peaceful, stable society.  i'll end this post with the idea from the book that unless humanity begins to know their essential nature, take some time to self-explore and look inwardly to work on our own character and personality and learn to be the master of them, there won't be a constructive or permanent change in human society.   Ruhiyyah likens each individual to a building block of which society is built upon and the structure of society can't stand and remain stable if the blocks can't bear the weight.  i'll follow this up in a few days, if this part seems to just be talking about our inadequacies, don't worry---it'll get better.  this chapter is titled "The Trouble Is With Us", so of course she talks about what's going on first.  also, this is in no way meant to be preachy----it's just an outlet for me to explore these universal concepts with hopefully some feedback and discussion from others.  please leave a comment below to tell me what you think---do you agree, have a different point of view, ideas from your own faith or belief system about this topic?  til next time-