“I want to be disturbed. When I read about or see dismaying things, I want to be dismayed. To be cooled out and indifferent to what is going on around me seems like a bad idea. If I am burying my emotions, it is probably unhealthy, and even if not, disengagement is inhumane. I want to be a human being like other human beings, who feel bad when conditions are bad, cry when there is something to cry about, and whose compassionate emotions spur them to act to make things better. In the Buddhist analysis of the kleshas, the key element is clinging, holding on. What makes a klesha a klesha is that it compels you—it contains an element of clinging that produces even more disturbing emotion, and it takes you over. So my anxiety, or anger, or attachment, isn’t necessarily a klesha if I am not compelled or controlled by it—if I can experience it fully and let go of it.”
“Disturbed But Not Disturbed”By Norman Fischer
Lion’s Roar November 2022
And so goes my struggle to deal spiritually with the horror of war; the shame and fear of violent rhetoric and action in my home country. The ebb and flow of ocean waves has become my spiritual touchstone lately. I breathe grace on an in-breath and send it out where it needs to go on an out-breath. Breathing in divine movement and sending it out to my companion humans. Grace in, Grace out. Grace. Grace. In. Out.
If I am faithful to the breath, I live into hope. May it be so.
Spirituality Without Borders: Reflections on Spiritual Practice 