May I trust my own goodness.
May I see the goodness in others.
A prayer shared by Tara Brach
Let’s start with this spiritual chestnut:
Our greatest challenges are our greatest opportunities to grow and evolve.
We are met with a critical and necessary point in human history where the "sins of our fathers" have been visited upon us.
We have allowed corruption, greed and violence to persist and we are now, all of us, paying the price.
It doesn’t matter if we, as individuals, caused it or didn’t.
It doesn’t matter if we participated or not.
We are at a crossroads where we can no longer deny the outcomes of our collective behaviour.
This may seem like bad news, but only if we are resisting what is.
There are times, many times, when I experience my own resistance to all the occurring injustice.
This is a necessary step in moving through my own evolution.
But when I am present to the pain, I reach a point where I am compelled to do something.
Do I numb it?
Avoid it?
Fight it?
I’ve tried all of these but none give me freedom.
Fighting against gives me some temporary sense of agency, but it requires anger and even rage, which are quick-burning fuels.
Ultimately, this path wears us out and wears us down.
We give up and sometimes even give in.
At the very least, we are resigned.
At worst, we burn out.
I have burned myself out on far lesser struggles, and that may be the gift that brought me to this place.
So far as I can see, the only viable option is surrender.
To accept, but not necessarily approve, what is.
In acceptance, there is no longer a struggle, no longer an expenditure of energy.
The mind-body-spirit refuels.
Energy — natural, universal, abundant energy — fills us up.
There is no striving or reaching.
It is simply here, now, in the present moment.
That energy is love.
English has perhaps diminished the power of this natural force by attempting to contain it in one word.
The ancient Greeks did far better, recognizing eros, philia, and agape among several others.
“I love this ice cream” has virtually no relationship to the most powerful energy in the universe.
And yet we use the same word.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the power of love.
As did Mahatma Gandhi, from whom King learned "non-violent resistance."
It’s not merely the “right” resource, it’s the most effective.
It is an eternal, abundant, and omnipresent energy.
It is not merely sustainable, it’s regenerative.
And it is our greatest challenges that awaken us to the power of love.
When anger, hatred, and all the other derivatives of fear are used up, love energizes us to create rather than destroy.
We are living in the greatest age.
It is not in spite of but because of our "sins" that we can create something unexpected, unforeseen, unprecedented.
We can build the beloved community that Dr. King envisioned.
We can use love to rediscover our connectedness, with each other and with the planet.
We can leave our past behind and free ourselves rather than merely fix ourselves.
This requires a paradigm shift.
A complete change of context and consciousness.
We must, even for a moment, step so far back that our individual pain is barely perceptible.
We must see the really really big picture.
We must trust in Life itself.
As Byron Katie says, “Everything happens for you, not to you.”
How would we approach our days, our lives, our state of the world, if we surrendered to the idea that Life was for us?
If we trusted in the evolutionary process that is apparent everywhere?
We don’t even need to “believe” or “know” this to be true.
We simply need to shift our view and declare our trust.
While I would greatly prefer that this coronacrisis was not happening, that people wouldn’t needlessly suffer and die, the degree to which I can accept it is the degree to which I can transform it.
I can only start with myself.
As I transform myself, so those around me are transformed, so is the world transformed.
Our ego identity asks, “But who am I to do so?”
That small self knows it is not enough.
But the Self that recognizes it is part, not separate, of all of Life simply trusts and acts — not to accomplish any mere goal, but to be its greatest, grandest, most glorious Self.
Simply for the sake of living well and truly, full of the energy into which it was born.
Life is a creation and we are now faced with our greatest opportunity to step into creating a compelling alternative to all that does not work.
On Saturday, November 20th, I hope you’ll join me at a Worldwide Freedom Rally.
You can find a location near you by going to https://worldwidedemonstration.com/ or joining their Telegram channel.
What I love about World Wide Demonstration is that it celebrates life and offers people an opportunity to stand for something.
From their website…
We are taking a stand for 5 important Freedoms:
• Freedom of Speech. • Freedom of Movement. • Freedom of Choice. • Freedom of Assembly. • Freedom of Health.
These are joyful, peaceful, and energizing rallies for people from all walks of life and all ages.
Despite the mainstream media’s persistent absence, or focus on negative aberrations, millions continue to gather.
And at these gatherings, I find my goodness and see the goodness in others.
If you plan to attend, let me know.
We are making history.
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