Dear ones,
We are at a major time of change on this earth, what JoAnna Macy calls ‘The Great Turning.’ This opportunity asks if we as a species are ready to shift from an exploitive, consumer-consciousness to one of interdependence and mutual care. To actually do this, we must first remember that suffering is not the end of the story. It’s never been about an election one way or the other, they come and go. There’s such huge other forces happening right now—climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion energy—huge possibilities and huge problems.
“In my end is my beginning.” – T.S. Elliot
Everything that turns offers a new openness and beginning for something else. There’s a freedom when we accept that things change. We take our seat outside of the small self, we stop resisting, and we fully open into the great movement of life. We finally reconnect to the vast mystery of life, the cosmos, consciousness, and the heart.
We can do this because we know that we’re not separate. You know it when you’re on the mountaintop looking down after an amazing hike, or listening to the music that transports you. You know it when you make love, take psychedelics, chant mantra, sit with someone being born or dying, or open in profound meditation, or dance until you disappear. We all know it. This is your birthright, it is who you are—loving awareness, consciousness itself.
As I share the “post-election decompression” of my Navigating Politics, Dharma Talk and it’s adorning A Loving Heart Amidst It, All Guided Meditation, I can hear my friend Krishna Das singing the Zen prayer given to him from Roshi Bernie Glassman:
“Calling out to hungry hearts, everywhere through endless time, you who wander you who thirst, I offer you this Bodhi Mind. Calling out to hungry spirits, everywhere through endless time, calling out to hungry hearts, all the lost and the left behind. Gather around and share this meal, your joy and your sorrow I make it mine.”
With metta,
Jack
Dharma Talk: Navigating Politics, Impermanence, Suffering, and the Great Turning of the World
In this video Dharma Talk, I explore how we can most mindfully and lovingly dance with impermanence, suffering, and ‘the great turning’ of the world.
“You get to choose your spirit. No matter what.”
Guided Meditation: Election Decompression: ‘A Loving Presence Amidst It All’
Offering decompression from post-election intensity, I share a guided meditation helping us maintain a mindful loving presence amidst it all.
“The seasons turn, elections come and go, whole nations and civilization arise for a time and pass. You are the witness to consciousness, the loving awareness that sees the mystery of arising and passing, and holds it all with love.”
