Today my brother wondered why I keep saying on this blog that I’m not going to engage in politics and then I go back to writing about politics. Since he is one of the smartest people I know and he didn’t quite get what I’ve been trying to say the last week or two, I’m going to take a crack at explaining myself more clearly.
Last week, while discussing or watching anything political, had anyone slapped a blood pressure cuff on my arm I would have been checked into a hospital. I realized my ego — the Eckhart Tolle version — was front and center and I needed a reality check. So I sat with it and realized the lack of humanity in most of the discourse was really bothering me on a deep level. I started rereading A New Earth and meditating on the bigger picture and reconnecting with my Higher Self.
Meanwhile, a friend sent this quote:
We should always live in the dark empty sky. The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment comes, our practice forgets all about it. Then it is ready for another enlightenment.
-Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Yes. I must remain the sky. Whether I’m talking to a conservative or a liberal, watching something that frustrates me, or enthusiastically sharing a piece of writing that resonates with me. Because what I really, truly know is that whatever happens in the world — including this presidential election — is supposed to happen for reasons bigger than me.
So in my view, I’m not going back and forth at all. I’m in a process that is more healthy and freeing. It feels much more organic.