Mass shootings every other day, judges threatened and shot for verdicts handed down, masks ripped from the faces of those who need protection, coups plotted, police and military infiltrated by far right extremists. Enough of the list. I know I am nearing the end of my rope when I stop reading a work of fiction, or stop watching a drama which features a selfish, arrogant, seriously wounded character. Too much reality for me right now. The stakes are too high.
Somehow this insight from Ursula K LeGuin in her translation of Lao Tzu : Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way gives me a way to cope:
“…values and beliefs are not only culturally constructed but also part of the interplay of yin and yang, the great reversals that maintain the living balance of the world. To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. To let go of that belief is to find safety.”
Perhaps, I am wondering, this moral upheaval is part of the process of reversal, and the outcome will bring us a re-visioning of communal values and beliefs. The way I see things now is morphing into how we see things, although at a painfully slow pace. It is given to me to live with integrity while paying attention to what is emerging. I pray to remain open, making every effort to understand.
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Spirituality Without Borders: Reflections on Spiritual Practice 