Change is the way of the world. Yet at the same time, continued through living transmission, we experience an incredible continuity of love, and the hell of breaking faith with it; relearning old wisdom and learning to recognize the gold glint of truth in teachings discarded by some, ignored by others, and cherished by some all along; the hope for soulfulness to save us, some how, some day, from that of ourselves that we know must die.
What does this have to do with politics? Well ask yourselves - what moves us to make a community out of a population, to use the unmatchable power of unity to uplift us all? What paralyzes us with discouragement and cynicism instead? Who are you going to follow? How are you going to lead? Whether you choose to or not, you do follow, and you do lead. It is soulful to choose; in fact, choice is one of the few proofs we have of our soul. Perhaps that is why we "fight for freedom".
Hope is the coming alive of our soulfulness, the divine, magic discovery that it is not a crutch brandished feebly against despair but is the quickening of faith, the awakening of our personal direct knowledge of our relatedness to the good of the past and the good of the future and that we are the living link to bringing it forward. Hope is experiential knowledge that our attitude makes a difference, it is, in fact, what every fairy tale, every hero, every religious story has been there to teach us all along: there is a good spirit that belongs to us, and it is powerful; it is our power. It can help us survive; it can help us thrive; it can help us help each other, and it can help us change.
It can help us connect to our soul and live more rightly and more brightly. It can help us discover our choices and our part in the continuity. It can help us recognize the falseness and deadliness of apathy and cynicism. These are the lies that would rob us of our living goodness and response-ability and numb us into tolerating the unconscionable, excusing ourselves for indulging in distractions while other souls and families are murdered and mangled in our name. It is a philosopher's stone, to be contemplated until the truth lives in us and we know how to practice and bring into being the spirit of love, the spirit of life, that we want to belong to.
It is not a club that belongs to one religion. It is for everyone to give to everyone, by coming together, by making choices, and by loving action in the world. This action does not succeed when it is motivated by hostility, hate, or resentment, no matter how warranted. It works when these are recognized as the forces that divide, that kill, that destroy peace and peace of mind, and live only through our giving them energy. The way of peace is found through living love. That's living as a verb, not an adjective. This is important because when we are not inspired by a great leader, when we find ourselves coping on our own amidst the forces of isolation, when the sails of our hearts are not filled with the collective breath of hope, we must remember what is true; we must guard our light and learn how to stoke it. When we overcome our pessimism and negativity, together and within, we flex our soul and discover the best that we can be.
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