Grandmother Tree thrives long after a wound …
When we hold on to an idea or notion we feel rigid and less free. It prevents us from arriving at a deeper insight. In the spirit of meta meditation we can wish for ourselves and others to be free from wrong perceptions and wrong desires: “May I have clarity into my habits and shortcomings.” We can practice this in the morning as a reminder to be aware of our perceptions throughout the day. Non-Attachment to Views & Freedom of Thought -- Sr Tuệ Nghiêm (blog from Plum Village website)
I popped into some friends’ home late Thursday afternoon to pick something up. They came running down the stairs excitedly asking, “Have you heard the news?”
“No. What news?” I was clueless having been out and about in town for several hours.
“Guilty! Trump guilty on ALL 34 counts!” they exclaimed. I joined their celebration and continued to do so at my next stop. Upon coming home I logged into network news for the first time in eons, listening to the commentators, feeling both stunned, pleased, and perhaps a bit smug with a sense of ‘victory’.
Journaling early Friday morning these ‘morning after’ words landed on the page shortly before an early Zoom and a full plate of activity for the day: “insight re Trump as the U.S. shadow and reckoning -- and shows me how embedded separation is in me as I celebrated his guilty verdict quickly upon hearing and felt a sense of celebration and 'WOW' for many hours.”
I gulped and set the thoughts aside as I moved into my commitments for the day. But I sense they sat with me; simmering, marinating as I moved through the day.
On Saturday morning, I returned my conscious thoughts to Friday morning’s insight, writing in my journal:
“I want to get back to this idea of Trump as our shadow and reckoning and how embedded separation is in me as I celebrated the decision quite easily and in flow with others who shared the news with me. I feel sad about celebrating for it represents in some way celebrating separation. Victory over another. I'm sad for our vilification of one another rather than recognizing that in each of us, no matter how hidden beneath pain, trauma, and who knows what else, is the seed of Source. Of that which is aligned with what Sources Life. The root of corruption is in our broken hearts - not the broken hearts of romantic love and lust - but the heart severed in awareness from its connection to the Cosmos. To Light. To Love. To Gaia. To ONE Another.”
“We walk around with our broken hearts trying to fix or hold together broken systems that reflect this separation. We blame 'the other side' for the failures and our misery. We perpetuate this blame and division with vilifying social media posts, not recognizing how it reflects our own broken connection.”
“If I truly believe with all my BEing that we are ONE, could I celebrate any condemnation of another? Have we really proven that 'the system works' as many proclaim? Or that 'the system is totally broken and rigged' as others protest?”
Trump was certainly showing me my own shadow and inviting me to reckon with it and, hopefully, to reconcile gaps between what I say the I believe and the loud voice of my unconscious choices.
As I’ve continued to sit with this, I understand more clearly why vilifying posts and drama laden news touch me deeply: they point to my own pain, the pain inflicted by separation. They point to those places where I fall short of fully living what I claim are my values. They separate rather than unify. They show me where I am holding on.
As Sr Tue Nghiem suggests, when I am holding fast to a position, I lose access to deeper understanding of and insight about self and all beyond. I feel rigid, restricted, and I’m out of touch with the field of infinite possibilities. I’m contributing my energy to separation, contrary to the Oneness my heart knows is real. I’m not at peace with myself or the world.
Most of all I’m not contributing to the world that I want for my grandchildren and yours. The more beautiful world my heart knows is possible, if I will do my part to stay the course and focus my actions on building that world rather than feeding the old, worn-out world of separation.
And so this day I move into the world with a deepened commitment to choosing consciously and with heightened awareness of my choice.
Sunset Tree