Participating in selfishness

“Mindfulness must be engaged… Once we see that something needs to be done, we must take action. Seeing and action go together. Otherwise, what is the point in seeing?  Nonviolent action arises from the compassion, lucidity and understanding you have within”   Thich Nhat Hanh

“We have the wrong perception that we are separate from the other,” he said. “So in a way Trump is a product of a certain way of being in this world so it is very easy to have him as a scapegoat. But if we look closely, we have elements of Trump in us and it is helpful to have time to reflect on that.”  Phap Dung (Buddhist Monk)

“Trump’s grand and vulgar self-absorption is inviting all of us to examine our own selfishness. His ignorance calls us to attend to our own blind spots. The fears that he stokes and the isolation he promotes goad us to be braver, more generous.” 

          James Gordon (American physician, Mindy Body Medicine)

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I lost it last night

Truly lost it

I had been stunned previously, by the Trump administration sleathly implementing a draconian expulsion policy which would force severely ill children,

not immigrants, but children invited by our hospitals to participate in critical medical research on rare diseases, to leave our country within “33 days”.

It was one of those moments when evil hit me square in the chest

This policy was, and is, incomprehensible from any perspective other than racism and intentional cruelty

Then came the news that the outrage created by this policy had caused the administration to “back off”

Then came the news that in reality, although they administration

n was pretending to reverse this policy, their actually “reversal” was not a reversal at all.  It only applied to some, and did not reverse the possible expulsion, such allow the families to appeal expulsion (no guarantees)

Which then reminded me that although ordered by the court to stop separating children from parents, and in spite of saying that they would do so, this administration is still separating children from their parents

So I lost it

I became consumed with anger

And then providence put an amazing article in front of me

This article had two lessons

The first lesson was this

DON”T LET THE EVIL AROUND YOU CHANGE YOU

Or to put it another way, don’t become the evil you resist

Don’t let angry, fearful, hateful, people make you

Angry and hateful and fearful

If you want to resist, take care of yourself

Use mindfulness (and prayer)

Go inside, find that Sacred part of yourself

Let it grow

Nurture it

Let the Spirit move

And then from a place of peace

Move out, and into action

As Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, we must let our responses emerge from

“the compassion, lucidity and understanding you have within”

Or as Paul would put it, “let yourself be transformed by the renewing of your minds,

then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12)

But there was another lesson as well

Don’t just take care of yourself

Be honest about yourself

As you confront those things, those people

who roil your soil

REALIZE THAT WE ARE ALL CONNECTED AND YOUR SHARE THAT PERSON’S HUMANITY

It is easy for me to pretend Trump and I have nothing in common

That Stephen Miller is an anomaly

I can make them scapegoats, and I can separate myself from them

But I can’t

“if we look closely, we have elements of Trump in us and it is helpful to have time to reflect on that.”  Phap Dung (Buddhist Monk)

“Trump’s grand and vulgar self-absorption is inviting all of us to examine our own selfishness. His ignorance calls us to attend to our own blind spots. The fears that he stokes and the isolation he promotes goad us to be braver, more generous.” 

          James Gordon (American physician)

If I am honest these people, and people like them, draw out of my soul

the same things that appall me.

I can deny that, and become what I resist

Or I can be aware of that, and use it (hopefully)

As an opportunity to grow.

The gift (and curse) of interdependence means

As Phap Dung suggested

“that people we perceive as our greatest enemies can be our greatest teachers, because they show aspects of ourselves that we find unpalatable and give us the chance to heal.”

So here is to taking care of ourselves

To Meditating

Walking the dog

Singing hymns (and other songs… how about some 60’s rock and roll)

Praying

Reading

Here is to nurturing our connection to our Sacred DNA so that

we are working from that place of peace and compassion

And here is to connecting to our share culpability

Here is to nurturing our awareness of our own blind spots

So we can be “goaded to be braver and more generous”

and not just replicate the anger, fear and hate

that is being dredged up from within us

This brings me full circle to the words

which Martiin Luther King Jr spoke so many years ago

words to which I give lip service,

but find it very hard to live

“I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems.  I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I’m talking about a strong, demanding love. For I have seen too much hate. ... I have decided to love.”