How is it that the world can be SO f**ked up? That despite all the marvels and advances of humankind over the millennia, we still collectively have the moral development of a nematode?  That we don’t recognize that violence against others – when there is still room for a political solution (even if it’s only a crack in the door)- is equally a form of self-destruction?

[Forgive me if I'm being arrogant or presumptuous here, not having researched nematode culture; for all I know, they could be more evolved in how they treat each other]

Reading the Sunday NY Times this morning  [I am addicted to Frank Rich], surfing the Internet this afternoon and learning of yet another late-breaking pay-for-play scandal, and following my Twitter social network threads, is at the same time a source of never-ending interest and overwhelming in terms of the barrage of information and emotions aroused in me.

I find myself buffeted between the awesomeness and the terrible folly of the human condition, both my own and others. What’s the solution?

Compassionate dispassion.

Personally, I have to continuously learn and relearn the lesson of compassionate dispassion, or in Zen fashion, being non-attached. Being able to observe what is, be truthful about its existence, and then to let it go, releasing judgment and resistance to that which shows up.

One of my mentor guiding lights, Havi Brooks, said something brilliant in a “blogging therapy class” I just took with her which bears repeating: “Struggle creates resistance creates stuckness.”

So staying attached, which really grows out of the fact that we judge something to be good or bad, happy or sad, rather than realizing “it just is” puts us in the place of resisting it or resisting the loss of it. Either way,  that’s where we get stuck. To release judgment is compassionate, to release attachment is dispassionate.  IN order to evolve, we need both.  

While I haven’t read the book yet, one of my new Twitter friends, Kat Tansey has written what sounds to be an awesome book about this, Choosing to Be, Lessons in Living From a Feline Zen Master. I plan to get it immediately, especially since I consider my 2 beloved cats, Guy and Chloe, to be my live-in Zen masters. You can listen to a 10-minute interview about it if you want just a taste.

I hope this quick note reminds you to be compassionate and dispassionate about whatever may be showing up for you right now that’s bugging you. After all, it’s all “here today, gone tomorrow”, no matter how you look at it.

Tags: compassion, non-attachment, personal development

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 4th, 2009 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Being vs. Doing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.