Who Are We? We Are Awareness, Empathy and Compassion

  

Over the past seven years, the American people have existed in a politically toxic environment. I have been attempting to understand how I am able to apply my Mindfulness Practice to relate to and neutralize this toxicity. The question is, are we simply at the mercy of those who are delusional, dishonest and disregarding of the feelings and needs of fellow members of our American family? Or, is there a way that our practice can express itself to correct the ugliness of what has been going on in our political world for the past seven years? Many have written that this negative course of behavior, if unchecked, will lead to the destruction of our political institutions and Constitutional Rights as American citizens. 

 

I have found Adyashanti’s writings to be of great help in this discovery process that I have been following. Adyashanti writes: “Awareness is that part of us that perceives, observes and witnesses our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and bodily sensations. It can be quite transformative to realize that you are not your thoughts, you   that you are not your feelings, that you are not your beliefs, that you are not your personality, that you are not your ego. You are something other than that, something that resides on the inside, at the innermost core of your being. For the moment we are calling that something awareness itself.”

 

When our awareness is in the present moment, we are in touch with who we really are, with our very essence. When we respond from that place, our decisions will not only be expressions of our awareness, they will also be expressions of our empathy and compassion for ourselves and others.

 

America’s recent election demonstrated how it is that our awareness can reveal and express itself in such circumstances. It was a matter of who are, at our core essence as human beings, that spoke out. In the face of all of the dishonesty, conspiracy theories, hostility and delusional behavior and words, and all of the dire prognostications of how this election cycle was going to be a disaster, something took place that was truly transformative. Instead of members of the American family buying into a continuation of what has been going on in our political life, people began to realize that what was happening was poisoning the well. Our awareness has become an active part of our experience of who we are, where we are and what we need. 

 

As a consequence, there were many who voted for facilitating our ability to grow, heal and assist one another, in spite of others whose long-held beliefs would only add to our darkened political night. Instead of losing both the Senate and House, as had been predicted by many, conscious, caring voters won the Senate and are close to nearly tying in the House results…

 

It is quite amazing to realize that the 8 million votes that separated Biden from Trump in 2020, amounted to the nearly 8 million votes that changed a Democratic disaster from happening in 2022…When we, as individuals, are able to bring our awareness to the fore front of our life circumstance, we are able to live in the now and relate to the now…we are able to see the light and follow it…

 

Our practice needs to be seen and trusted as an integral aspect of who we are. We are awareness, empathy and compassion. We need only to remember and internalize that and move ahead in life with that assurance. We are our essence and need to embrace that truth in each moment of our lives. 

 

On the occasion of this, my eightieth birthday, I wanted to share this essay with you… With warmest regards… 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Walking the Road, We Need to Walk, To Be the People We Need to Be, In Our America of Today

 

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave… Has regretfully become the Land of the Unconscious and Home of the Fearful. Am I bring a bit too harsh? 

 

There will always be the free and brave in this home of ours. That group of members of our human family will always be present and willing to feed the poor and provide medical care of the sick, public education for our children, and address what is wrong by asserting what is right and the truth.

 

The Marjorie Taylor Greens and Donald Trumps of this world are not a part this family. Their disregard for the needs of others, their misrepresenting of the truth, their outright fabricating of reality is what represents who we can be, and who we are at our worst. There are too many of these types of people in present day America that suck the health and hope out of our realizing our potential as a community. If you can’t believe someone, how can you trust them? And a democracy is dependent of being able to believe what we are being told, so we can make decisions that have a basis in reality, for the good of all.

 

A country that was founded by immigrants, vilifying immigrants, a country that was founded on an economic system that depended on slaves, treating human being as inhuman or subhuman, is our history. It has taken us four hundred years to correct that attitude among our communities and we still have not been able to get it right. This is an example of our unconsciousness and fear at its worst. That which is different from who we are, seen as a threat and treated as something to destroy.

 

When will we see the light? When will we see a Trump as sick, a lying sociopathic blow hard, and a threat to our welfare? We already have January 6^th in the history books. 

 

When will we see a Marjorie Taylor Green and the Ted Cruz’s, the Lindsay Graham’s, the Jim Jordan’s and the Matt Gaetz’s as the limited, ignorant, disregarding of others,’ blowhards ‘that they are? My God, what are we waiting for? The time spent reflecting on and anticipating the impact that such people have on our society is a waste of time…we can talk, and talk, and talk and in the end, we need to see what is before us for what it is, decide on whether or not we can live with what they are promoting and, then to decide to do something about it.

 

The place where this needs to begin is in the corridors of the very political forums where these folks were selected to represent the people who voted them into office. Next, we need to, each of us, speak out, as I am doing in this article.

 

With the demands of our daily life, where do we find the time to address such issues? The simple truth is that if you have a cancerous grow in your body, YOU TAKE THE TIME to seek out the necessary medical care you need to maintain your ability to live.

 

In our American Family we are a body that can develop various cancerous processes. If we treat other family members in an inhuman, disregarding way, we cultivate pathological consequences in our body politic. We will only become more diseased if we remain ignorant of what is destroying us as a community.  

 

There are two truths that I believe, that will bring us together as people, generally, and as American’s in particular: ‘To treat others as I would like to be treated.’ And ‘There, but by the grace of God go I.’

 

The Dali Lama is one of my spiritual teachers.  His writings address our humanness and needs as a community of people living together to live in awareness and with compassion.

 

He has written: ‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

Again, as the Dali Lama has written, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.