Awake in This Life

I was impressed years ago when I read Paul Kennedy’s book, Preparing for the 21st Century. In it there is a chapter on the dilemma that the US faces: whether or not it has the capacity, or desire, to adjust to a changing world.

Among the many topics that fascinated me, none was more powerful than the idea surrounding America’s ability to mobilize and meet military challenges anywhere in the world within forty-eight hours. This global reach and access to “hard power”, as Kennedy puts it, has its limits and its costs, however. Just because the hammer works well, as the cliché goes, doesn’t mean that every problem is a nail.

So in the International Herald Tribune this morning, Kennedy writes about the potential for the US to begin using “soft power” as a way of getting its needs met. In my reading, I was struck by how his description reminded me of what enlightened communication might look like geopolitically:

What the next president needs to do is recognize clearly what the hopes are that have made him so popular in so many different parts of the world: the African hopes that he will give real help to their troubled continent; the desires across Latin America that he will keep to liberal policies on trade and immigration, offer to ease the impasse with Cuba, and pay their region real respect; the yearnings in Europe, Canada and Australasia that he will take seriously America’s obligations toward international institutions and treaties, including environmental and anti-protectionist commitments; and the moderate-Arab hopes that he will offer more than lip service to the Palestinians.

Let’s hope that opening replaces closure and power can manifest as something that serves to increase the world’s consciousness as opposed to something that serves the one-sidedness of egoic self-interest.

This election process has taken a toll on so many around the world. In our sangha, the choices have been at the forefront of several discussions and has ultimately proven itself to be a dharma door for many of Infinite Smile’s members.

It’s also a dharma door for me. Listening to Obama’s acceptance speech broke something wide open in me. I hadn’t realized how much I’d become hooked by the whole process; by the last eight years; by war and economic catastrophe. So often I can hide in my role as teacher, or on my cushion as a meditator. As Obama spoke, I simply held my daughter and wept.

But I worry about the egoic projection of “savior” onto this man we’ve elected. Doing so only distracts us from our journey along the Path. Successful navigation of the Path involves a committment and a practice of no longer clinging to the activity of the mind. The conscious expression of this non-clinging into our day-to-day lives is Awakening.

So when I see comments from people like French intellectual and America-watcher, Bernard-Henri Levi, I worry a little:

“Junk politics and immorality have come to an end.”

Let’s hope. But let’s not get caught by our hope. What kind of attachment must be going on in the hearts and minds of people around the world? Getting hooked by our elation, just like getting hooked by our disappointment, douses the flames of insight. Meeting our elation, or our disappointment, with our full heart and mind, in each moment burns up what we no longer need.

A reader forwarded me a letter sent out by Gangaji to her followers recently.

Dear Sangha,
In 1947 India was in extreme crisis. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs were
killing each other. Enforced mass migration was causing anger, fear,
and despair. The country was in chaos.
At the same time, Papaji sat in bliss at Ramana’s feet and at the feet
of the holy mountain Arunachala. One day, after reading in the
newspaper of the horror, Ramana asked Papaji about his family and the
dangers they were in as they were being forced to leave the Punjab and
relocate to Hindu governed Lucknow. Papaji responded, “That is all an
empty dream. I am here in the bliss of your grace.”
Ramana looked deeply at Papaji and said, “If it is all a dream, where
is the problem of taking care of your family? Go and help them.”
Papaji left that night for the Punjab. He was able to help get all his
family out in time. Just in time. He was on the last train allowed
out.
It is my view that politically our country is at an essential
crossroads. In my lifetime, there has never been an election as
important as the upcoming one.
I strongly invite you all to look deeply into your hearts and using
what you value most in your self and in all your relationships, choose
a candidate for President and vote. You may also be called to work for
Voter Registration or to help with voter turnout. I support you fully
in support of our precious democratic process.
Finally one discovers there is no difference between inside and
outside. Between form and emptiness. To cling to either is to miss the
whole.
In deep love and respect,
gangaji

Nice one.

May each of us let our votes reflect the expanse of our heart’s deepest longing.

Deepak Chopra compares Sarah Palin to the shadow of Barak Obama in a recent commentary:

Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind.

His essay is worth a read since doing so reminds us of how sticky politics can be for any of us. Then again, anyone on the Path can let the attachments, both gross and trivial, point them in the direction of Awakening. Watching our clinging, in other words, offers us disidentification from whatever our attachments might be.

I admit that I was transfixed by the Olympics last night. It was amazing to watch Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt do the impossible.

But I Tivo’d Rick Warren’s interview with Obama and McCain last night and upon my early morning review, and then listening to the Sunday Morning TV Gab, I came away with an interesting mix of feelings.

First of all, I’m interested in how many Americans are truly interested in the depth of a candidates religious convictions and what this might or might not imply.

Further, what does it say about a person running for office if they cling to the ideas that support a mythic god?

Then, to what extent, and in what capacity, should those of us who don’t cling to a mythic god care about what the candidates said last night?

Michael Paulson of the Boston Globe writes well about the event, as does Andrew Sullivan.

Over at the Huffington Post, Steve Posner wrote a great piece last week on the convergence, and divergence, of politics and faith:

Churches are among my favorite places to meditate. Even in the middle of a bustling city, whether it be morning or evening, in the American midwest or northern Italy or southern Spain, I can always find a quiet place inside a church where I may sit comfortably and freely meditate in silence. I have never once been asked about my religion by any priest or minister, or asked whether the meditation I was practicing used the mantras of India or the prayers of the Vatican

Whether I am praying, meditating, or reading the Bible, the Vedas, the Koran, or the scriptures of any other religion, it does not matter to any of the priests or ministers. All they expect from me is that I respect the church’s quiet space. Such is the national consciousness of the West, one which allows us to seek self-realization in the manner and place of our own choosing. This is why Obama’s spirituality is patriotic.