Quote: Rumi

"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.  Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."

Peace in oneself, peace in the world

This article and video explain Thich Nhat Hanh's beliefs about how to best make change in the world.  At this time, it is particularly important to understand these concepts.

Insufferableness

Something that sickens me is the callous disregard that many people in our culture have for each other.  A good example of this is when white people think they know enough about race relations in our country to make a statement, but then immediately show that they really haven't thought much about it.  This action tells the victims of racism that their suffering isn't really worth thinking much about.

Those of us who have thought a lot about it and have experienced it can see right through that weak stuff because we made the same mistakes, many years ago.  Think about if you watch a kid do something.  They make mistakes that you know they'll make ahead of time, because you made the same mistakes when you were a kid.  It's all entirely predictable. It's the same way when people who haven't experienced race issues in a deep way try to make a statement about race.  They make predictable mistakes that show they don't have much experience, but they're still willing to paint themselves as the experts, by making the statement in the first place.  Imagine if while watching that kid, you realize that the kid is in a position of power over you and that the kid thinks he's smarter than you.  It's insufferable.

That insufferableness (I'm sure that's a word) bothers me and I know it bothers many others as well.  Unfortunately, it's everywhere, which is another reason why emotional health is so important:  To help us survive the insufferableness.

Alienation

Do you ever go somewhere and suddenly realize that you aren't like the other people around you?  That, on a fundamental level, you are different?  I bet some of you do.  I've seen enough of this life to know I'm not the only one who feels this way.  But I wonder how many of you feel that way because of emotions.

I went somewhere last night where there were a bunch of people interacting.  One of those people was what I call "pushed".  Not physically shoved, but propelled forward by the intensity of their own repressed emotions.  Have you noticed this phenomenon?  It happens to everyone, but sometimes it's a bit more.  And that was the case last night.  It was clear that the "push" wasn't limited to that evening.  This is an on-going problem for that person.  And clearly, it's not my responsibility, so that's not my concern.  

What did concern me, however, was the impact it had on me.  It was clear that the other people were not aware of the push.  My awareness made me an outsider.  It was alienating.  I definitely felt alone.  I took steps to address the alienation, but they failed. The others weren't interested in connection.  So, I'm left feeling isolated, still today.

I recently heard a talk by Thich Nhat Hanh where he says something to the effect of, "people are too concerned with connection".  At first, this shocked me.  I value connection highly.  As he himself says, "we are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." So, connection is important.  He went on to talk about what I would call "hyper-connectedness", such as constant emailing, texting, getting Facebook updates, etc. That's different and doesn't really describe me, so I thought I just misunderstood.  Now I'm not so sure.

What if my problem last night wasn't with the person's "push"?  What if the problem was located in me?  Maybe instead of wanting connection I should be connecting to myself. Maybe that bad feeling inside is caused by my actions, not others'.  I have to admit that the idea makes me a little angry.  I've felt pretty alone for most of my life.  The idea that I might have caused that is upsetting.  I guess there's only one way to find out.  Meditation is a good way to connect to yourself.  It's time for me to return to meditation as a regular aspect of my life to see if developing a stronger connection within will help mitigate these feelings of alienation.

Time to get yourself together

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.

7:01 AM - 6 Feb 2017

This is truly upsetting. Where is the rest of the media right now? Every legitimate media source on the planet should be calling this out today.  "Any negative polls are fake news"?  Are you kidding me?

I hope your emotions are in a good place, because they're going to need to be pretty soon.  Any person who would say the above quote is really confused.  A President who would say that is dangerous.  It won't be long now.

Be a Home for Yourself