To the Elated and the Devastated

It’s done. The results are in. Some of us are elated; some of us are devastated. This is what is now.

What strikes me as I reflect on the U.S. election and the aftermath of analysis, reactions, and opinions flooding my inbox, is that, for every one of us on a spiritual path, our practice hasn’t changed. The outcomes of this election will be starkly different and the beneficiaries of this election will be different, but nothing has changed for those of us on a spiritual path. 

Our path, our attention is and has always been two-fold:  to be benevolent agents of change in both the outer world and the inner world.

The call of a spiritual path is always to think beyond the self. To see where the other is marginalized, scapegoated, hungry, hurting, or afraid….and then to act.  Since I was a small child, I have heard the phrase, “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps.”  Recently I heard someone say, “Yes, but first you have to have boots.”  So maybe one way to think of this part of the work is to do what we can to make sure everyone has “boots.”  It is to ask the question, “What can I do to ensure that others have the simple, basic needs of life?  What can I do so the non-human world thrives?  What can I do so that the beauty and purity of the natural world is held in its sacredness?

We can’t speak for others if we are exhausted or overwhelmed or numbed out.  To be benevolent actors in the world requires nourishing, nurturing, and being benevolent with ourselves.  [Note the words nurture, nourish, and benevolent have nothing to do with self-indulgence,]  It is from a place of well-being and fulfillment that compassion and caring overflow to others.  

The other half of the spiritual discipline is the work in the inner world.  It is to come to terms with what sits inside us and then to nourish what is good and life-giving.  It is to plant the seeds of kindness, trust, courage, and generosity and to pull the weeds of fear, greed, self-centeredness and cowardice that live within.  It is to be diligent keepers of our minds and our hearts.

It is from prioritizing this internal work that we can meet the hate within and around us with love,  we can meet the greed within and around us with generosity, and we can meet the chaos within us and around us with stability. 

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