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Culture in Need of Lovingkindness
September 16, 2013
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Today we watch another mass shooting unfold in DC like the reality show that it is. The constant reminder of violence must have something to do with the growth and spread of violence. Lovingkindnessis the remedy for our growing epidemic of right and wrong. If everyone is busy deciding to be right and seek vengeance from those who are wrong who will get in touch with reality? Have we given up reality to watch it on television and tweet it live? How riveting will it be to live tweet the IPO of twitter? While some see gun control or calorie control as the way to solve of cultural problems, I believe we are highly delusional as a society. The guns and the health issues are symptoms of systems that do not work. Our distraction is killing us as individuals and as a culture.
Numb and nihilistic as we witness weather and violent torrents of human hatred wash over our land, we twist the truth by looking for the single issue or party on which to place blame. The events in the world must blur for those who play computer games as well as absorb world tragedy as it unfolds. The digital distance we have from other other humans and the truth is dragging us in a downward spiral of delusion. I wonder if people can wake up and think they are in the World of Warcraft…or some variation on it. We are cultivating violence and maya, when our only hope is in truth and lovingkindness. Each of us generates energy that fuels the hatred; none of us is perfect. On an individual basis we must take responsibility to feed and care for the soul of the world until al beings are free. This will require centering. This will require a shift in focus and a pivot in the direction of our thinking.
But the greatest of these is charity.
November 9, 2012
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Charity
We are asked to give in many ways. It is important today to regognize one of the meanings of the word charity. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, according to Paul. This charity is the virtue of charity, not at all the same as the generosity and giving of gifts. This charity is the one that thinks of all other people charitably, or with kindness. We have been on a rampage of enemy creation around here. The enemy is not a group of people you don’t know, or another nation you can not even locate on a map, as you may believe. The enemy is your very own inability to be patient and kind, and think of all strangers charitably.
It is an internal rather than an external practice. Your tax exempt giving does not exempt you from generating kindness and compassion for strangers. Your participation in public service does not give you a pass when it comes to being patient and loving. Your bright and shiny holiday lights do not prove that you are in some positive spirit, but only a willingness to electrically decorate. Loving kindness is a state that can only be shared. This year as you budget your end of the year donations, find willingness in your practice to think kindly of others you have never met. Do your part to keep the nation from hurdling off the charitable cliff. I am not asking you to do the difficult job of thinking kindly of people you know and think are incredible jerks. Start with something easy, like political parties, Europeans, the Congress of the United States,or other groups of perceived enemies about which you honestly know nothing. Just love them up and start to bring the concept closer to home as you get stronger in your ability to be patient and kind.
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