Guerrilla Nature

Tuesday 24^th March

Essentially, meditation is the best way to build awareness. Meditation does not have to mean sitting crossed legged in an isolated place with some incense and whale music. Although such arrangements might be useful for some purposes, there are plenty of people who remain perfectly calm under these specific conditions but then completely lose all sense of clarity when faced with a slight inconvenience.

There are plenty of those who see themselves as “woke” because they do yoga classes and don’t eat meat, they recycle and seem to direct lot of energy towards criticising anyone who they perceive as not “living their best life”. This is not a description of a particular individual, nor is it a collection of characteristics that are presupposed to exist as a set. One person might consider themselves an avid protector of the environment, but still feel justified in eating meat. There might be people who do yoga but don’t go around criticising anyone for anything ever. No attempt is being made here to be critical about anyone’s behaviour.

Non-judgement is our way out of the loop we have created for ourselves, which is based on a cycle of fearing judgement from others and finding that the best way to avoid really pushing ourselves to address our own behaviour is to point the finger of blame elsewhere. The perceived necessity for this tactic is not only based on fear of being criticised, though. Other fears are at play.

A very prominent one is based on the idea that competition for resources will result in some individuals inevitably losing out. We know that this fear is irrational. We know that under the current system there are some people with so much wealth that it seems inconceivable for them ever to run out of what they need. We also know that there are those who have so little that their day-to-day survival is either in question or the best they feel they can hope for.

As has been highlighted by so many great spiritual and philosophical guides in so many ways, but is probably for many considered to be echoed most recognisably in the teachings of the Buddha, all of these entities are bound to experience suffering in their lifetime. Suffering is relative. If a person has lived a very sheltered life, their comprehension of what it means to suffer will be different from someone else’s.

That’s why it’s so satisfying for those who have been oppressed to see those who oppressed them being treated badly. It seems that the score has been evened because the persons who inflicted the suffering on the victims are now getting “a taste of their own medicine” or whatever term one might use to describe the karmic retribution (again, use of these terms is optional) which is being dealt.

The human propensity for vengeance once again arises as a result of fear. Once the oppressor is dealt with, the oppressed party presume their own fear to have disappeared. Has it?

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This day’s featured creator: Avi Sembhi

Above: Sunny This Position entry 2020-03-24

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