Good morning! Welcome to the DKos Sangha weekly open thread.
This is an open thread for members of the DKos Sangha and others who are interested in discussions concerning how we integrate our progressive political activism into our spiritual practice. If you have observations about the political discourse of the week, or about practice, or about anything else related to walking a spiritual path through the political world, if you wish to share, or if you seek support, or if you simply want to say hello, please do; this space is for you.
If you would like to write a diary for the DKos Sangha, please let me know.
If you care nothing for spiritual practice and only wish to denigrate and disparage, please do so elsewhere, and respect that this is a community diary for the DKos Sangha.
The Sanskrit word Duhkha is traditionally translated as suffering, but is inclusive of all kinds of dis-ease related to the separation we experience because of the attachments and aversions of ego/self.
This past week there was a deadline on my calendar; a decision needed to be made, and action was to be taken or not taken. There was resistance arising; conditioning was generating stories in response to this thing on the calendar, thought patterns that were being held a little too tightly. Stories about money and demands on "my" time. When I mentioned this to my teacher, she reminded me that they're just stories; conditioning that needs to be met and allowed to dissipate.
There as an unfolding of the universe, the tao, the way of things. And for each of us there is an unfolding of our path, our journey through life. When there is separation, when conditioning fills the space and we are not fully present with what is, then we are not in harmony with the unfolding of things; there is dis-ease, duhkha.
As we awaken ever deeper into our true nature, as egoic conditioning dissipates, we move more harmoniously through our world.
This path of awakening will be different for each person. Some conditioning dissipates quickly; some must be met often, slowly dissipating over time; some is hidden, arising only when certain events bring them to the surface. Some may be right in front of our noses, but go unnoticed until we realize the duhkha they cause, the agitation, the uncertainty, the annoyance, frustration, impatience, etc; the disharmony.
When duhkha fills the space of our experience, whether it's the seemingly big ones such as anger and jealousy or the seemingly smaller ones such as annoyance and impatience, our ability to see the way forward is clouded. Our stories get in the way of seeing how we move forward in harmony with the way of things.
But this isn't a bad thing. When conditioning arises, we can open our hearts to that; we can meet whatever is arising with love, tenderness, compassion. Through this meeting, conditioning dissipates; and our experience of now, our presence-awareness, deepens.
Just as in our daily lives with its calendar deadlines and unexpected challenges, our work here on Daily Kos also gives us plenty of opportunities to meet conditioning. Here we are faced with all kinds of things that push our buttons daily, that cause reactions, stories, dramas; suffering. We may be tempted to leave those things unmet, but that too is suffering.
So it can be helpful, it can be healing, to notice our reactions and to open our hearts to that. If you are reading a front page diary about injustice, and you notice the anger arising within you, take a moment, close your eyes, feel what your body is experiencing, notice where this anger is manifesting in your gut or your neck or chest, open your heart and meet this compassionately. Breathe, be present with what is, open your heart to what is.
Of course, this isn't to say that we ignore injustice. We can still read the diary, and we can take steps to make our world more just. In meeting what arises, in the dissipation of our conditioning, in the dissipation of our own suffering, our ability to see our way forward, to see how we are best able to help others, is made more clear.
All of it, our calendars, our political engagement, our daily activities, is grist for the mill; all of it is part of our spiritual practice, all of it is part of the process of awakening, all of it is the way of things, the unfolding of the universe, the beingness that is you in this moment.
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May you find peace in this day.