 To be unaware of the scale of problems confronting humanity would mean that one's "living" is occurring in a bubble: isolated from everyone else and from reality... and, on the other hand, to open oneself to awareness is to take a profound risk: awareness can lead to despair and the desire for a "bubble"... or it might, it just might, lead to the conviction that this Planet matters: that life matters: and that it could be our personal responsibility to make a difference with the fact of our living... this personal responsibility puts us -- for better or for worse -- in proximity to our sacred potential...
Our sacred potential is a path that surely leads somewhere! It is a path that identifies itself as not "against" something, but instead as "for" something: we are not just about the business of identifying every wrong, so much as identifying where it is that we should be consciously tending in our practices and in our policies. The screamers (like Senator Ted Cruz) feed on fear and seek to amp it up so as to personally benefit from it (perhaps riding that wave to the pinnacle of the Presidency)... the builders, on the other hand, know full well all that is "wrong" and supremely challenging (like war, fundamentalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, greed, ecocide, etc.) and yet direct their energy to the construction of alternatives and bridges to the future we want for our children and every child... The builders begin with justice... What is justice? Perhaps we might answer by way of "mercy": if mercy is the awakening action that follows after embracing the pain and suffering of others, then justice is the wisdom that seeks to remove every cause of pain and suffering... a just and merciful community (nation) lives and operates from within this "praxis of solidarity"... Mercy embraces the broken hearts and lives of everyone in our community (nation: world)... Mercy is the very human act of grieving with another -- this grief is the spark of empathy and compassion... Without mercy, we ultimately fail in both our humanity and in our "proximity to potential"... Justice is the activation of compassion: justice seeks out the roots of suffering in the darkness of every separation, applying the radical remedies of forgiveness, kindness, neighborliness, and the unity of solidarity: no one is safe, free, or filled with potential unless everyone is safe, free, and in proximity to potential... The screamers demand walls: the builders want bridges... The screamers demand boots on the ground and missiles in the air: the builders want diplomacy and the creation of the conditions for peace... The screamers demand unlimited access to weapons of mass destruction: the builders want a civilization worthy of its citizens... The screamers demand the domination of women, other races, different sexual orientations, and the freedom to extract every cent of profit possible from the Earth and the "open market": the builders want equality for everyone and the wisdom of serving / working forward seven generations into the future... The proximity to our sacred potential is the manifestation of justice, mercy, and civilization... (which is also, by the way, the practice of genuine religion...)
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 Politics: the art of "right relationships"; the democratic conscience elevated to civic discourse; and the common means to the pursuit of justice and equality for all... Pleasure: the art of "right relationships; the human desire for a life of harmony and happiness; and the common means to the pursuit of harmony and beauty for all...
Now, of course, these are not the standard-everyday-variety definitions: they are not really meant to be definitions at all. Rather, they are meant as a sort of "map" to the One Place we all really want to get to: and I am not thinking about anyone's particular version of "heaven": but I am thinking of a Paradise of Possibilities... A parade of candidates for the Presidency of the United States are each attempting to be a primary substance for media attention: a few deserve attention (like Senator Bernie Sanders) and a few do not (like Donald Trump): but who is going to deepen our understanding of the importance of "right relationship"? Some might think that this is a Buddhist concept. It might be. But it is also not a Buddhist concept. It is a primordial yearning that is part and parcel of soul: soul begins in beauty and wonder: and engages (or disengages) with the world around it primarily in response to beauty and wonder... Religions of the world, generally speaking, represent the inordinate attention that history has given to men who derive satisfaction and domination from the political and privileged division of soul from body: equating pleasure with "sin" and "holiness" with discipline. The need that men have to define and categorize and divide is the root cause of "wrong relationships". While the Divine Universe would have us live in the Unity of Desire and Contemplation and the infinite blessings of kindness, the divisions of the world, especially profiting men, only benefit those with privilege and power: god / devil, good / bad, beautiful / ugly, moral / immoral, saved / unsaved, us / them, male / female, spirit / sex and on and on... Where are either the politicians or the religionists who have experienced the sublime mystery of "right relationship" with power? In other words, whom does power serve? This is the crux of "right relationship": power exists to manifest all the possibilities of beauty and wonder! Imagine a politics of "building the Earth" for all the peoples of the world to enjoy in peace, justice, equality, and harmony! Imagine a religion of "adoration": "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One"! Imagine the Oneness that is our true nature holding sway over every aspect of both politics and pleasure! How would a genuine spirit of "right relationships" change the face of the Earth? And how would a politics of service and kindness, and a spirituality of pleasure, give rise to a "new heavens and a new Earth"? |
AuthorRobert Daniel Smith was privileged to serve the homeless and marginalized for 30 years in California. He is living now almost within shouting distance of the Twin Cities. He is a poet, artist, writer, and long-time Companion of the Way still dreaming... Archives
May 2022
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