What can I do?
At the desk, 8:31 a.m.
I had kind of a crisis last night. I was driving to pick up the husband from his job in Boulder. The radio blared the latest details of our hate-ridden world, a crashing economy, and the wealthy who care more about me than we. It's almost as if Cinderella's horrible step-mother has taken over our world and our values now champion the selfish and cruel bully.
That's not to mention this interview with two longtime Washington experts who say that this is the first time in more than forty years that Congress is more interested in their own selfish agenda than solving problems.
What can I do?
I feel hopeless and helpless.
What can I do?
Have the values of love and light failed? Have the selfish and vainglorious truly won?
What can I do?
Somewhere between Denver and Boulder I had two consecutive thoughts:
1. I am powerful. Sure maybe I'm not a best-selling author (yet). Maybe I don't have an audience of billions of people. But every religious leader from Jesus to Buddha to Lao Tsu to Ghandi to Mohammed believed and preached that God is the individual and the individual is God.
I am an individual
I am God or have a piece of God or Goddess or spirit or the universe or a power greater than myself inside me.
A spirit on fire is unstoppable.
I am powerful.
...and...
2. Hate breeds hate. I know this to be true. If you were here, I'd take you out into the backyard and show you. Hate at a beehive, they will come after you, remember you, and hate you back. Love a beehive, even a moment later, and they will love you back. It's true for people. All of those people you secretly hate? Well, they know it, feel it, and return the favor ten fold. You have to be really good at hating (which I am not) to start a chain like that.
Hate breeds hate;
Love destroys hate.
This is a universal law. --Buddha
But what can I do?
This is what I'm going to do.
If I am powerful and love destroys hate, then the most powerful thing I can do is to wish love and kindness or loving kindness to my country and the world.
How exactly I'm going to do this:
1. I'm going to say this loving kindness meditation (because it's the one I know):
May my world be filled with loving kindness,
May my world be well,
May my world be peaceful and at ease,
May my world be happy.
I'm going to start with "my world" but may change it over use and time. This is the kind of thing that evolves.
2. I'm going to say this meditation 108 times every single day.
3. I will keep track on my mala. Not dissimilar to a Catholic rosary, a mala is tiny beads on a string to help keep track of the number of times you say a prayer. A mala has 108 beads. Ironically, a rosary has 54 (exactly half) beads plus five. Islam uses 99 beads. The orthodox churches use a rosary with 100 beads. And, not to get too off track, the mala is an ancient way to keep track of prayers. Something like it is used by almost every religion in the world.
4. When presented with the cruel and selfish bent on destroying the world, I will return to my meditation for them and for my world. May my words and thoughts be an antidote to their cruelty. Because there's one thing I know well, these people only seem like they win in the short run. In the end, they have to live what they create. Hate and greed make for an awful life.
Will you join me? If so, let me know in the comments section. Let's create a network that spans our country and the world. I can make a difference; we can make an even bigger difference.
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