When Dark Encounters Light

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

The recent horror of the killing of school children in Amish country has offered us a teaching on the darker side of dependant co-arising. We see immediately as it happens, the activities of people across the globe: bombings in the Middle East, shootings in Europe and America, starvation in Africa. We feel in response. We fantasize in response. We establish a point of view in response. So, when we go outside each day, this response is our understanding.We behave accordingly.

Communication can be a valuable tool. Interactivity can be a golden opportunity to depen our understanding. Yet each can also drive us into dispair and create chains of toxicity that enslave us to our more base emotions.

We must counterbalance these offerings from the communication network with other practices. We must practice deep listening. We must practice stillness. We must open ourselves to this pain so that none of us suffer. An open wound contains nothing in itself. An open wound can flow freely and clean itself. Close the wound prematurely and we capture toxicity, allowing it to hide and fester. The pain from a hidden wound can be surprisingly challenging.

So, this happens because that happens. When a bad thing happens, notice. Then open yourself to your feelings about it and let yourself flow some. Then offer yourself an opportunity to understand, contextualize, and grow from the experience. And in all of this, if you know that your purpose is to be inservice to others, your experience of the suffering of others offers you a starting point.

Be well.


Team Zen: run three miles