Six Spiritual Principles For The Politically Perplexed
I have been noticing what happens when one expresses her opinion about anything political. You've heard of REMs (rapid eye movements). I call politically altered states RIJs (Rapid I Judgments). No sooner does someone express support for a certain candidate or idea than we immediately put them in a box, stop listening, try to persuade them otherwise, dismiss them as idiots with appropriate moral and intellectual superiority OR we find our new best friend who will gleefully swap stories and trash the opposing candidate. We become roving gang members, sizing up each person we encounter, wearing our colors and leaving our tags everywhere.
Why in politics are all bets and gloves suddenly off? Our spiritual beliefs either go right out the window or perhaps worse, get used as a framework for victimizing other humans. Yes, we have separation of church and state. But why separate our spiritually guided self (conscience) from the actions and thoughts in our daily life?
I've noticed some other things. Democracy is messy. Majority rule can leave 49% or more of the population feeling like losers and disenfranchised. Their voices and hopes can't be ignored just because their candidate loses a race. Our entire party system has devolved into making someone else's point of view wrong. That doesn't leave much opportunity to come up with solutions that benefit from taking many points of view into account.
So how do we apply spiritual principles of thought and action in this particularly disturbing and polarizing political season? How do we integrate our best and highest aspirations as human beings and citizens and stay grounded in practical approaches to the social, financial, cultural and environmental turmoil we are facing? Can we start with the following premise?
We cannot change or control everything in our world, but we can change our responses and not contribute to the problem. Much of spiritual practice has to do with empowerment and responsibility based on awareness and consciousness. Reinhold Niebuhr said it best in his Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
Now consider six principles (among many) that can broaden our perspective and inform the personal changes we might need to know and make the difference.
Decisions based on fear almost never create a lasting solution- even if they seem to support good candidates and good ideas. They are even likely to create more fear. Stress hormones are designed for fight or flight- not for blood flow to the brain or compassion for others. To support calm and reduce fear, don't watch too much television. Just the tone of voice used by most commentators is enough to raise your blood pressure, even when you aren't watching. With the addictive input of TV or talk radio and web-surfing, we become hyper-vigilant. We forget to be quiet. We forget to listen to our hearts. With the real issues of terrorism, heath care, hurricanes, financial markets and housing, it doesn't take much to set us off into some sort of post-traumatic stress reaction such as panic, irrationally aggressive or defensive behavior. We need to take a break and get a grip- on ourselves.
We can make molehills out of mountains. The real problems of our society are big enough. Let's not get distracted and disperse our limited resources. Let's not load them up with the burdens of racism, misogyny, religious or philosophical certitude (always a barrier to real communication), and plain old finger-pointing and hysteria. Pile it on and we'll swamp this unwieldy and listing ship of state.
What goes around comes around. Thinking negative thought only further activates the negative in you. You will enhance the negative thoughts within you when you project them onto others. Blaming others wastes energy and means we are not taking responsibility for what we can do. Giving away our power is easy. We do it every time we blame someone else for our situation. Sure we can be angry, frustrated or feel hopeless. See and feel the negative working in you, but don't feed those bears- they'll just come back for more.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few" -Shunryu Suzuki Certainty leads to rigidity and blind spots and ultimately failure. One thing that might mean is that it is okay to see the weaknesses in your candidate. In fact it is a good idea so you won't be surprised when he/she fails to meet all your expectations. Whoever becomes our next president, he is going to stumble. After all, mistakes happen more often when you try something new, go out on a limb, take a risk in the hopes of making a lasting change. Making no mistakes or thinking that your actions are the one and only right way are the biggest risks to our country's future. With the possibility of close to 50% of American voters on November 5 ready to stand on the sidelines to say "I told you so", it is going to take a lot of courage, humility, and flexibility to move forward. It's going to take an open mind.
Be the peace, the solution, you want to see in the world.
Can we end war with aggressiveness? Can we heal racial wounds with hatred? Can we bring integrity to government with divisiveness? I don't think so. So find the center and balance and loving-kindness in yourself. Then you can extend it to others. It is like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first in the airplane. You can't assist others without being able to breathe. Then you have a base from which to engage and empower yourself and others. You can do this through prayer and meditation, envisioning a better world, giving money, volunteering, consuming less oil, learning about the issues in that affect you and your community, and voting.
Tell your truth without judgment. There is a difference between discernment and judgment. Discernment (being keenly selective) does not make the person with the other point of view sub-human, stupid or the Anti-Christ.
Try this out. If you are concerned about healthcare for instance, take the time to sit down and figure out what is your idea of what YOU need. Now try to imagine what SOMEONE ELSE in very different circumstances might need. Or read about and research the suggestions or real life experiences of others. Compare that to what is being offered by the candidates. Sound simple? Rational? It is a process that doesn't reduce complex ideas and movements to "us" and "them", "Right" or "Left". Everyone is now our neighbor. The sooner we figure that out, the better.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Along these lines, I highly recommend "You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right," by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield.
But it surprises me that, particularly with conservative Christians, espousing issues on the basis of faith and belief in God, that their arguments are so often grounded in fear: fear of militant Islamics coming to America and taking the place over, fear of immigrants, fear of homosexuality, fear of pretty much anything that doesn't fit within a narrow, tightly-proscribed box.
Fear limits your responses. The easiest is to strike out and attempt to destroy what we fear, and enlist others in those efforts. Thus, you're not shedding your fear ... you're SHARING it and spreading it. Fear has done more damage to our country in the past eight years than anything 19 hijackers could ever have wrought.
I'm trying to figure out how to respond to your post using the guidelines set above. I'll try it this way:
You are attributing the word fear to the motivations of many Christians, even though they themselves do not identify themselves as afraid. It would seem to me that you are unwilling to consider a different motivation for them. Perhaps it is not a fear of immigrants that drives some people to seek stronger anti-immigration laws. Perhaps there is something else driving their dislike of homosexuality other than fear. Strict adherence to a religious code is not the definition of fear.
Fear is an ugly word that has been used a lot to describe Republican/conservative/Christian motivation. I believe this is because it is easier to just call them afraid and make fun of them than it is to try to understand them and reach out to them. My experience has been that most people don't live their lives running around afraid of everything.
I cannot speak for Shadowgm. But perhaps this person reached this conclusion because strict religious code is sometimes dictated by fear... as in fear of retribution.
It's Ok to have an opinion about immigration and homosexuality, but I think what's most fair is to love everyone for who they are and allow each to experience life and learn their lessons here - between themselves and God. We can't possibly know what another needs to learn or how to best learn it.
There are many ways to experience God - there are beautiful spiritual Truths held within many 'religions'. There are many roads that lead to home and each individual, depending upon where they are on this journey or on the many journeys of life, finding their way home will be unique to their person - even if they worship in the same church or study the same text.
It would be difficult for anyone of 'faith' to dispute the fact that we all come from One Source - no matter what name that Source may be assigned by the masses. This suggests to me that no one human can be superior or inferior to another when not being evaluated by only societal standards.
Thanks so much for attempting to bridge the gap between spirit and politics. I am devoted to living by all that you express but have been concerned by my own tendency to fall prey to the divisiveness of this political manifestation.
On the consciousness field on which this is playing out, I understand the reason for the deep emotion it evokes - and at this level it seems justifiable. But what we need to do is to raise our consciousness to consistently explore and express from a higher perspective - if we cannot do this, we all lose.
Initially it may appear that only those whose candidate did not get elected, lose. But because we are all one beyond shallow, societal differences - we will indeed all feel the pain and lack of a country divided.
Sadly for some and more joyously for those who choose to see past the difficulties that are now befalling us, no matter who is elected, we the people will be driven together if only by trial and tragedy - because the time has come, in an extreme way, like no other time before, for man to unite or to fall.
Let's count on the majority making the right choice, not just where this election is concerned, but where the heart is concerned. If this happens, the world will transform in a swift and miraculous way.
Well said Ms. Goldstein. It is difficult to look at a political opponent with love and empathy, but that is what we must learn to do. Look upon them with a heart filled with love rather than a head filled with anger. Everyone needs to be loved. When we can get to that point, we can truly begin to find creative answers that work to everyone's benefit.
I have written about my dozen "Near Death Experiences, which is my
testament to the existence of God. I call my book, 'My Guardian Angels'.
Although I was raised and received my Catholic confirmation as a teenagers, I consider myself a Theist. My spiritual reawakening was in 1963, and I prayed for God to take over my life.
I do not pretend to know or understand God or the meaning of life, but I know that we are all one family regardless of religion, ethnicity, or race.
And caring and serving for and WITH others is the essence of love and the purpose of a spiritual life.
The second line of the Serenity Prayer.....
COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN.
This is time to make change in this country and by all means do what we have to do to insure we get the right people in to help this country and its citizens. I feel it's important to speak the truth. If it upsets some, so be it. This is a democracy and we do vote every four years for president. And, the last 8 years have been the worst. So, should everybody just be "spiritual" and not say anything? Hell no!
wow! You totally missed the point of this article! Think 'Positive Intent'. If you consider that others Intentions are also Positive, even if you disagree, it allows you to empathy. Whoever is elected, whichever initiatives are passed, lets move on and make the best of whatever the results.
Right! Don't be such a dreamer!!! Positive schmositive.............reality bites!!!
Major snag...
But what if the person with the other point of view is stupid?
Seriously... How else can you explain it?
See Kay Goldstein's Profile
Gotcha.
Let's just be practical then.
Does it help solve the problems we face as a nation to think others are stupid? KG
You could explain it by seeing that everyone alive has had a different experience growing up, a different set of circumstances leading them down the path they have been going down. A path that led them to the moment when you confront them. They are obviously going to look at the world in a different way than you. How different is dependent upon how different their life has been. If their life has been completely different than yours, and they have come to believe in a different set of values than you, that does not make them stupid. And if you call them stupid because they don't agree with you, then you have just bombed out of existence the bridge that may have given you both a way to meet in the middle ground.
The best and simplest spiritual principle is also a psychological one: we seem to have lots of different emotions, but in fact we have only two. Love and fear. ALL of our emotions all boil down to one of those two. No exceptions.
And once we realize the truth of that simple fact, we can advance to the next step in applying it to conflict and, as John Nash proved mathematically ("A Beautiful Mind" was based on his life) and for which he got a Nobel Prize, realize that if ANYONE is to win, EVERYONE must win.
And where spirituality unites these concepts of psychology and mathematics is to recognize that no human mind can conceive of all the potential possible solutions through its own very limited perceptions and must open up to the Infinite and ask for that solution to be presented. At which point we start to get into the area of Quantum Physics.
Science and spirituality are never in conflict - they actually fit together almost precisely - once one realizes that science can find laws that predict cause and effect in the physical universe only because God, Himself, is entirely consistent, both within and beyond His physical creation.
"....but in fact we have only two. Love and fear."
As so beautifully expressed in "A Course in Miracles".
So true, so true, so true. Labels have only one purpose: To divide us. There are some things I can't hide: My gender, my age range, my skin color. The next tier of visible identification: My family makeup, my choice of pets, my choice of car manufacturer. Beyond that, I prefer to keep my 'labels' private, because I want to know how others genuinely feel, not how they think they should speak and act in my presence. I'm tired of hearing, "Y'know, I used to have friends who were -whatever-. Damned decent people!" As if the speaker was shocked that they were just... like.... us!
The world is not binary. People who look for a yes-no, good-bad, one-zero, on-off, love-hate, right-wrong solution are setting themselves up for disappointment at best, anger at worst.
When I was a manager and had employees in conflict, I'd sit them down and ask them to plead the other's case. Convincingly. It worked when they didn't resist.
Ms. Goldstein,
This is a great article, as I do believe that most of us truly want to do the right thing. And making decisions out of fear (and the illusion of control) tend to add disharmony in the long run.
Thanks again...I've saved this article.
Pat-GA
kay, you are absolutely right. It is so easy during these times to become polarized and judgmental - which doesn't do a bit of good. I agree with your comment that many people feel disenfranchised when their party loses, particularly if it occurs more than once. We can then feel as if our voices are not being heard and that our power to choose change is nothing more than an empty phrase.
Removing ourselves from the fray and doing what we can to remain centred is the best remedy.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
