Being Spiritual in a Political World

Getting quiet to find the truth within

Sep 01, 2023

This past weekend I went to an in-person meditation for a half day sit. I looked forward to being in-person with the energetic silence of others and finding respite in the depths of my own mind. The schedule was one I was familiar with arrival, sit for 25 minutes, zombie-walk without the outstretched arms, (that’s what I call it) for 15 minutes, sit for 25 minutes, dharma talk by teacher for 25, sit for 10 minutes and then conversation. The morning is slow, mindful, inward, connecting to the body, breath, and surroundings. I applied my experience and knowledge of mindful awareness or vipassana tools throughout the time and felt the familiar inner calm arrive.

During the dharma (universal truth) talk, the teacher began to speak of his experiences, background and how he came to the practice. As he went on talking about letting go of the self or the ego, I began to realize that this was a different type of Buddhism and made the connection that his talk was from the Zen lineage.

From the Zen Buddhist perspective, the certainty of the individual self is an illusion.

That we come into this world with the experiences of dukkah or suffering and it takes us away from how our lives can be with ease. Breaking down the word, disease is dis-ease, any suffering is the existence of this dis-ease. As humans we cling, hold onto with tight grips the need for things to be different, for our need to be right.

He went on saying lots of esoteric things that I translated and identified with things that I was familiar with through my own practices. Meditation can continue to strip away our ego-self and ability to see ourselves from a bird’s eye view. When we get quiet enough or stop the inner chatter enough, we can see ourselves from above and can see our dramas play out. We are responsible for our selves by creating emotions, feelings of suffering, of pain, and once we chisel away at those identifications, we can get back to our heart’s space where we are all one in the same.

I remembered that while there are different flavors or versions of Buddhism, they are all rooted from the same teaching and it is up to the individual to find the right entry point. The fact that you care to at all is what matters on the spiritual path.

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However, when a participant asked the teacher about vipassana, mindfulness he responded with that it was “base camp” version of Buddhism.

I found this offensive as I translated it into being judgmental of what I found to be so very important in my growth. I believe there is as much depth and importance to be found in this version of Buddhism that while is an approachable entry-point it is so vast! I found my own dis-ease arise and felt disappointed. And then again, this teacher is still in practice of becoming the non-self so it wasn’t a righteous expression, simply a version of himself reflecting his self.

Being the observer to reactions of others and ourselves in political conversations can be a great tool for understanding if done in a calm, grounded way. We don’t give ourselves the time to take a breath and have deep discourse on how we truly feel about one political event or another.

If I remember that people are mostly acting out of their own fears and self-righteousness because they truly believe things should be a certain way then I can release my own need to be right. We are simply mirrors for one another.

And! While we are not all the same there is something that is the same within us all. We are the total sum of all of our relationships. Our self interest actually isn’t what we think it is when fear is stripped away. When we trust in ourselves as an individual and when we trust others in their individuality acting from our truest nature we will act for the benefit for everyone.

My cynical self does not feel like this all the time! Sometimes my cynic is helpful.

When we truly see how everything is interconnected from the trees, the soil, the plants, the food from the soil, the sun, the birds, the whole ecology of our planet and that we are connected to it only then will we act for the benefit of everyone. And it begins with YOU.

Shifting of consciousness takes time to see that we are all souls in the form of many. We are connected inside with the same hearts of love and we forget that because of our needs to be different and right. We turn off that heart to protect to block from pain and suffering and yet all it perpetuates is more pain and suffering. Social action happens when we start to live life remembering that we can see that a starving person, frightened person, is YOU. It’s not them, her or him. It’s YOU. When you look inside, anchor and see that all your projections are reflections of yourself and your own fears, doubts and righteousness.

So how do you want to live in this world? With the tight gripping needing to be right or with the open heart seeing that reflections of pain are simply another person’s soul. There is no us vs. them.

Alone we are a drop, together we are the OCEAN.

Have a listen on Insight Timer to hear guided meditations especially for parents.

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