For the past 10-15
years or so, I've told myself a version of this line: "Bad things
(weather/crime/disease/war/dictators) have always existed. They only seem scarier now because we see
them instantaneously, instead of waiting a week to read about it in a
newspaper, or waiting days for a news crew to get there, and now we are
bombarded by repetition of these images in a way that never existed
before." That was my story. Now, I'm not so sure.
There is no denying
that we are living in constant turbulence; and maybe we really always have been
but didn't know it. Maybe it IS the hair-trigger speed of the spread of news
that contributes to our collective uneasiness. But we are clearly uneasy; as Americans, as citizens of the world, as a
species. Am I speaking for all of us? Yep.
The uncomfortable nature of living is felt more by some than by others,
to be sure, but I'll go ahead and step out here to attempt to speak
knowledgeably - not because I know more, or because I feel more, or because I
care more, but because this is the outlet I have available to me. This is my
way to share. I'd rather be a painter or a pianist, but this is what I have to
give, so I am gonna give it.
Thinking humans like
to try to solve problems. Arrowheads. Printing presses. Combustion engines.
Microchips. We are in an election year in the U.S., in case that may have
passed you by somehow, and for every problem there are solutions aplenty coming out of the mouths, the keyboards, the
iPhones, you name it, of politicians at every level. Myself - I'm just trying to solve problems
on a micro level. I'm just trying to keep my nose above the emotional
water-line. I'm trying not to sink, and
if I do sink, I'm trying not to take anyone down with me.
As a result, I've
been meditating more. I've been reading more. I've been praying more. And I
want to share a little bit of this journey. First, from Peace Is The Way by Deepak Chopra, this gem:
…the
mentality of us versus them is always an expression of the root problem, which
is dualism. Dualism is the belief that
there are no final or absolute values, but only the play of opposites. In a dualistic world humans are separate from
the source of creation. We are in its
grip whenever we feel alone, isolated and fearful of the world out there. Spiritual people are just as prone to this
form of anxiety as non-spiritual people. They are prone to it for a different
reason, however, because they devote themselves to fighting against duality all
the time. Germs are always around the doctor who fights hardest against them.
In Nietzche's famous phrase, if you stare at a monster long enough, you become
the monster. Which is a provocative way of saying that if you dwell on duality
long enough it swallows you up.
The
solution, as I understand it, is to find a practical way to escape the
divisions that duality imposes. These
divisions run incredibly deep. Good versus evil. Dark versus light. Body versus
soul. Us versus them. Even when you try with all your might to be on the side
of the angels, the inescapable fact is that good defines evil and vice
versa. The day that good was born it
discovered that it had a twin in the cosmos and both are immortal. The way of peace leads beyond duality. There
is no other road to take for someone who wants to end war and violence. (pp
47-48)
This is not easy,
particularly in a world where we are persistently reminded of our differences.
We are in perpetual "us versus them" mode, even when we don't realize
it. To pull ourselves out of that mindset and into a collective consciousness
feels impossible. While meditating, it's
easier. While praying in your place of worship (where, by the way, everyone there is
"us") it is easier. But try watching the news, driving in traffic,
attending a baseball game, or singing the national anthem as simply a human and
nothing else. The struggle is real.
Lately, I've
wondered if this growth of my prayer life, and this urge to connect has been in
vain. Aside from the comfort and calm that meditation and prayer bring to me
personally, I've wondered if these actions are doing any good. And if they are,
how can I tell? (If you didn't think this piece was "woo-woo"
already, it's about to go way out there, so maybe stop now and watch Jeopardy
or something if you think this smells funny.)
The spiritual side
of humans has always been interesting to me, so I've read books, attended some
lectures, and attempted to grow my own awareness and abilities in understanding
the unseen part of our existence on Earth.
And while this has resulted in a belief system that is bit of a
mish-mosh, I feel that at least I'm moving forward in this experience, and work to apply "coming from a place of
love" to my outlook in most areas. Even in traffic.
Last week (July
17th) I read Doreen Virtue's Facebook post just by chance, and it struck a
chord. Here is the part that grabbed me:
This
is a message for you personally and globally, showing that your prayers for
peace ARE making a big positive difference.
The
message is to keep praying for your personal peace and world peace. Your positive energy is counter-balancing the
fear energy and negativity. So please
keep up the good work!
You
may read the news and feel that peace prayers aren't working; however, the
angels are saying that it would be much worse without the contributions you and
others are making.
And suddenly, I got
it. It's like our lucky cabbage! My mom had some interesting ideas and a few
superstitions which have embedded themselves in me for better or for worse. One of her unfailing traditions was to cook
cabbage every New Years Day in a pot with silver coins dropped into the
bottom. She would carefully scrub the
silver coins then add them to the water, then add the cabbage. Over time, the U.S. minted coins that were
less silver and more nickel or other metals, so she searched out
"real" silver coins and kept them safe to reuse every year. The purpose of this ritual is to ensure that
the coming year will be financially healthy.
Now, here I must express that I have yet to have what anyone would
consider a financially healthy year IN MY LIFE, however; I INSIST on making the
cabbage, and having my family eat some of the cabbage every year, just as my
mother did. Even if someone is away on
New Years Day and cannot be there for the actual dinner, I will save out some
of the cabbage for them to eat as soon as possible. And while my family may wonder aloud as to
the effectiveness of the silver-boiled cabbage on our bank accounts, my answer
has always been "Imagine how bad off we would be if we DIDN'T eat the
cabbage!"
And there you have
it. While it feels like we are flailing away down here on Earth, and that our
collective consciousness is not healing, our divisions are growing, and our
suffering is multiplying, imagine if we were NOT praying, meditating, or
envisioning peace for each other.
In
2014, NBC News carried a story about a physician who has studied what happens
to the brain during prayer. His name is Dr. Andrew Newberg, and he does
not view prayer as a "cure" for any disease, but he does note that
the brain changes during prayer, which he has been able to capture in images.
The best quote from this story returns us to Dr. Chopra's idea of losing our
sense of duality:
He (Dr. Newberg) said it was particularly "fun" to watch what happened inside the brains of a group of Franciscan nuns when they joined together in a meditative prayer. The area of the brain associated with the sense of self began to "shut down," according to Newberg. "You become connected to God. You become connected to the world," he said. "Your self sort of goes away." Aha.
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