“Notice what you love and let that guide you.”
- Jack Kornfield
“When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.”
- Pema Chodron
This is not the world I would create if I had the power to create worlds. I am confronting an existential climate crisis that continues to get worse, due to lack of adequate human action; it’s happening right now in the midst of rampant apathy. The suffering on earth is intense, profound, worldwide and epidemic. Truth has been banished from the mainstream, taken over by various stripes of self-serving propaganda, the results being a global disconnect that has given rise to conspiracy theories and illusions put forth by the multi-biased media and enthusiastically consumed by our restless species, obsessed with the escape of all types of acquisition. The dehumanizing nature of civilization robs people of their needs and brings impatience, anger and despair. The world is in trouble and so far the stark reality of that fact doesn’t seem to be registering very much on the human radar. Love is desperately needed and yet in terribly short supply.
But this is our world and I am firmly committed to its well being. With my commitment, I am aligning myself with millions of people who care deeply about the state of the planet and recognize the need for love, peace, kindness, patience and truth. I join forces with those who value inclusivity, practice patience and respect the humanity in everyone. Those of you reading this have also made that commitment, for which I am profoundly grateful.
In Buddhism, we find the Three Poisons: Greed, Hatred and Delusion. Buddhists are big on lists; you’ll encounter many of them. This one, however, speaks with profound clarity to me. Greed, hatred and delusion seem to be at the root of all the problems we are facing.
Let’s look at these poisons one by one: Greed is antithetical to interbeing because it creates a hierarchy of entitlement – those operating from this poison feel entitled to all that their greed desires and are okay with others having little or nothing. With an awareness of our interconnectedness, greed becomes more tempered at least and at best, very significantly reduced. Unbridled greed is largely responsible for economic instability, exploitation of natural resources, social unrest, corruption, various means of exploitation and our climate change. Greed can have far-reaching consequences for our society, its economy and environment, highlighting the importance of ethical and sustainable decision making at all levels. To live ethically, however, must be done willingly, and at this point greed itself is manifesting resistance to that.
Hatred is the enemy of peace; anyone who has peaceful aspirations is well advised to put great effort into managing, if not eliminating hatred. It can be found behind conflict and violence, discrimination, all forms of oppression, polarization and division, economic chaos, and psychological wounding, including trauma that can uproot lives irreparably. From hatred comes war and other existential conflicts, discrimination and suffering on a global scale. There is a disturbing amount of it in this country right now.
Delusion brings about all sorts of instability. When our leaders are deluded, their decision making is compromised and easily leads to conflict and breakdown. Poor financial decisions coming out of delusion can destabilize an economy and bring about market crashes and other forms of instability. The delusion of superiority has caused great pain and suffering for millennia.
If these three poisons are like scalding hot water, then generosity, love and living out of truth can be the cold water that cools things down. The more we manifest those three helpful qualities, the lower the temperature becomes. To switch metaphors, the darker it gets out there, the more important it is that we become light together, aware that our feelings are shared, that we are far from alone; this is sangha, the joy of really being together in this world.