In the first two parts of this series last week, I suggested the developing presidential campaign offers a great opportunity to apply the skills and values learned from sustained practice of meditation. Please see the last post in this series for more background (the archive of posts is on the lower right hand corner of the home page).
Here is another suggestion about how to apply mindful awareness when you think about politics, or read or listen to news reports on political struggles.
Offer positive wishes for the well-being for all candidates and their families.
In the past I have often written about how the process of working towards unconditional love and forgiveness for all who live is usually, at best, a gradual process.
Working with the anger and resentments that arise when you think about certain political figures is another way to move towards offering positive wishes to wider and wider circles of people. But as I said, this will probably need to be a gradual process. Nothing could be more understandable. It is easy for people to get angry and fearful when they hear politicians talking about programs they feel will be, or already are, harmful to many people.
Offering wishes of good intention to them may be the last thing you want to do. I do get this.
Still, it is of critical importance for greater numbers of people to learn how to extinguish the fires of their anger, resentments, and fear. This practice of offering love and positive wishes to wider circles of people will help. Politicians just happen to be a very visible group of people you can apply this practice to.
As individuals gain greater skills in this regard, wisdom will arise. From this wisdom people will gain a broader perspective on the true underlying causes of serious social injustice and conflict. The greater clarity and insight will also help people develop more creative and more practical solutions in their own life and community and the larger society as well.
If enough people in the center, center left, and center right learn these skills, we will get to an important tipping point. There will be enough mature and rational people at the broad center of society with sufficient skill and compassion to create a fresh consensus that will allow us to move beyond the sharply polarized divisions in our country.
For more information on this process of working with anger and unconditional love please see the free workshop I offer on the “Online Workshops” of this site.
But generally here is what I am suggesting. Start with those politicians you like, or at least sort of like. Offer the following positive wish for them when you are listening to or reading about the latest developments in their campaigns.
“May they know the joy, health, and prosperity that all men and women want for their family and their community.”
Offer your best wishes for their marriage, and their children, and for the people in their extended family and their campaign workers and supporters. Offer your best wishes for their health as you come to understand that the incredibly hard work it takes to run for office, or to hold an office, is very stressful for the body and mind.
Over time, and at a realistic pace, work towards offering the same positive wishes to those candidates you do not dislike to much.
“May they know the joy, health, and prosperity that all men and women want for their family and their community.”
At some point, you will realize that doing this work benefits you and leads to a more peaceful meditation practice and the further arising of wisdom. These benefits will allow you to extend these positive wishes to those people in politics and the “media” who by all ordinary reckoning deserve neither love nor best wishes.
Imagine what will become possible when great numbers of people on the center right, the center, and center left are patiently offering positive wishes for all the candidates in all elections.
This process begins by remembering to remember to notice with clear awareness when anger and fear have arisen within you.
The process proceeds by realizing there actually is a way out of the sharp polarization in our country.
It sounds so simple. Would it really work? Yes, and it is free.
It will also make the next 12 months much more bearable.
More next week
Please let me know what you think. I will respond
Peace to you and your family,
Will Raymond
Author of the Simple Path of Holiness. Host of Meditation practice dot com.
will at meditation practice dot come (Spelled out to limit spam)
774-232-0884