My hope is democracy is still a viable option for helping me, and you, as American citizens, make our contributions, and our nation’s contributions, to a world that works for everyone. This, even though our version of democracy - the two party/primary system, is close to hopelessly broken, and as a result of this disfunctionality, voter turnout is declining. My hope is that people can learn to chose differently, guided by a sense of their reality as spirit and their connection to the spiritual intelligence described in my last two posts, and thus, vote differently and make our democracy more viable, less disfunctional and able to contribute to a world that works for everyone, not just a few.
The first step, and most fundamental learning, is on the spiritual level. When you and I come to understand that everyone of us here - no matter our political, religious or sexual preferences, and everywhere in the world, have the natural inner capacity to awaken from the ego’s nightmare and realize our potential to contribute, things will start changing for the better.
The second step is realizing that this awakening is not a once in a life time experience, but an ongoing process. There will be moments of joy, enlightenment and compassion engulfed in hours of fear, hate, blame and loathing. We all crave red meat and it’s good for us occasionally, but its destructive and dysfunctional as a regular diet.
So, the third step is becoming mindful and taking responsibility for our cravings, and while feeding them occasionally, mastering them and choosing how, when and where to surrender to them. Being mindful is controlling and choosing which thoughts and cravings we will feed. If, for example, I’m feeling rage, anger, fear and blame, it’s my choice whether to honor those feelings by looking for ‘reasons’ like being victimized, illegal immigrants, Muslim terrorists, the budget deficit, or just appreciating the feelings and realizing that there really are no ‘good’ reasons for them, despite of the evidence presented by self-serving politicians and media folk who benefit from conflict; that these feelings are just there and arise and manifest and, if we let them, will dissipate.
Feelings, ‘good’ and ‘bad’, are like clouds, wispy and insubstantial, unless we nurture them and make them solid and ‘real’, and will pass across the sun – our reality as spirit, temporarily blocking it, scaring us perhaps, and making us feel cut-off and bereft from it’s warmth, light and energy. But in truth, the sun is always shining…somewhere, and we can never be separated from it.
How comforting is that thought, that feeling! Its thoughts and feelings like that, thoughts of compassion, self-love, brotherhood, and responsibility for choosing, that we want to nurture. Conflict, rage, anger, fear and blame are not the sun, not a part of our reality as spirit, but are a part of the ego’s nightmare, designed to keep us from our reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment