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 host a weekly open thread, 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.
As I sat down to write something to share with you this week, the American advaita teacher Gangaji came to mind, so I ran a search. I found this beautiful article that she wrote for Huffington Post in October, 2009; it's well worth taking a few minutes and reading the whole thing, but I'll try to pick out a few quotes.
Her article is about change, both political/social change and the changes we experience in our everyday lives.
We are hardly ever at peace with change ... We fight to keep it away, or work to get it here sooner.
We may work for change in our political, social, or personal lives, and even rejoice when change appears, but all too soon we become fearful that it won't be enough or that it will disappear ... There are certainly deeply destructive changes that threaten us now as individuals, as societies and as a planet. We are right to work to bring about positive change and try to defeat negative change ... We can recognize and empathize with the anger, driven by fear of loss, in those who are desperately trying to keep what has already happened from happening ... the essence of their argument is to bring back what has already changed.
If we are willing to admit to ourselves both that change is here and change is a force that is always coming, we can - paradoxically - take a moment to be still. At least for a moment we can stop fighting what we don't like and stop clinging to what we do like, we can let ourselves be humbled by forces beyond our control.
Here is the opportunity: in a moment of stillness we can recognize that through age and experience, through trauma and healing, through successes and failures there remains within us the same wonder that was revealed in our initial recognition of being. The initial I am sense is still here, unchanged ... When our attention returns here we are fulfilled in ourselves ... We may still fight for what we love, and resist what we think to be destructive, but we are no longer owned by those things that come and go. We are free in the midst of all that has changed and all that will change.
I tried to stay within fair use but still include enough to give you an idea of what the article is about; but if you have a few minutes, read the whole thing. Her article really gets to the heart of practice, that our true nature, our awareness, is that place of stillness, of inner peace, within which all that occurs is made manifest.
Enjoy your Sunday!
David