“The last thing you want to be is just well-adjusted to injustice.” Just fitting in, adapted to indifference”- Cornel West
“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself” – Abraham Heschel
“Indifference is the one trait that makes the very angels weep” – William James
Post practice journaling this morning:
Trump Energy
He is not the cause, he is a symptom, a product of our imbalance. Our dis-ease to systemic disease. The cumulative catastrophe from the genocide of indigenous peoples – America’s original sin, of 400 years of slavery, to Jim Crow, from predatory capitalism, hetero-patriarchy, oligarchic and pending totalitarian rule, to the military and medical industrial complex, poverty, 1 in 5 American children without access to healthy food and on and on. We are indifferent and numb or we are in fear and lashing out, shouting All Lives Matter!
Reactive energy stuck in scarcity real or imagined, fear-based
Fear outwardly manifested in hatred & greed
Where property trumps sacred human life
Scapegoats are always the other:
Immigrants, people of color, muslims, the LGTBQ+ community
Easy distraction targets, perpetuating denial and violence toward the most vulnerable communities
The cause is trauma, a primary root trauma of not being seen and heard as holy beings
Part of Solution:
Not walls
Not more separation
Not more war, now only for corporate wealth & defense industry stock holders, war that creates the terrorist response.
Not more militarized police
Not more prisons
For African Americans we need to dismantle racism.
Part of solution is seeing one another. Listening to one another. Listening and talking to your other.
Solution in self interrogation. Feel what comes up. Feel the sensations in your body, observe and maintain the breath.
Part of the solution is the reallocation of funds to vulnerable communities, toward safe housing, water and food access. A living wage. And end to Animal Ag subsidies, reallocating to local organic farming. Free access to medical care. Free access to education.
Practical tips:
Protest/support peaceful protesters. Don’t go back to sleep. Vote and vote out most incumbents on both sides. Join community movements. Support Black Lives Matter.
Listen to black leaders, read their works. Watch 13th on Netflix or YouTube. I Am Not Your Negro on Amazon. Just Mercy.
Start a meditation practice. Commit to 5 minutes a day, slowly work up to 20. Routine.
Walk, appreciate nature daily.
Drink water, phase out intoxicants, processed foods and animal products
Prioritize sleep
Connect with other humans in tolerated doses.
Listen, inwardly and outwardly
May we see and hear one another.
See one another as holy beings. One human family.
Triggered? Go back to your breath. Ask for help. Be gentle. We are all apart of this. Racism is within all of us. We all have work to do. It is beautiful and essential work. Do you want to go down loving or hating? Do you want to go down in fear with hatred smothering your heart or in fierce loving courage? May we choose the latter.
There is a peaceful love warrior within all of us. Even within Trump.
A prayer for a reclamation of fierce love for all perfectly imperfect human beings, fierce love and service to all sentient beings and our Mother Earth.
Peaceful warrior protests & civil disobedience. Non-violence towards all. Kindness & compassion for self and the other.
Has everyone watched 13th?