A psychological mutation

Can you and I, then, bring about in ourselves without any outside influence, without any persuasion, without any fear of punishment- can we bring about in the very essence of our being a total revolution, a psychological mutation, so that we are no longer brutal, violent, competitive, anxious, fearful, greedy, envious and all the rest of the manifestations of our nature which we have built up the rotten society in which we live our daily lives?

I think when I was younger I acted a lot out of fear of punishment and I was still a handfull of rebellion bent on destruction. So good thing I had at least that! But now the only punishment I fear is the karma of my own actions. I try not to be any of those things but I still get my knee jerk reactions that "go there" at times. After prayer and thought I hope that in most cases I can say, I back off and become good for the sake of being good because that is the right way to be. And I think it is the right way to be for my own soul as much as for the collective.