Although there are very prominent wars happening right now you can probably think of, this also goes into the war within that much of humanity is seeing expressed outwardly.
The Waking Dream, I chose for this question, because it's one about lucidity, attention, intention, excitement, imagination, and integrity! Navigating our cocreated dreams.
We witness through others and maybe our own lives these expressions of great disempowerment, extreme suffering, dire trauma, and physical pain. There is much said about what we're 'obligated' to do, what we have to do to help stop this — there is much said about having our attention constantly on it or else it will continue happening and nothing will be done, no one will be held accountable.
If actively engaging with the wars is not in our excitement, how do we define it so there isn't a contradicting definition of, "I want to follow my excitement, but I am a bad person if I am not actively engaging with the war(s)"? This goes for any form of suffering happening in the world that we're asked to bring attention to.
As well, how can we engage with these mass, intense expressions of suffering in a way that still empowers us and those around us? Without denying or invalidating the suffering of all involved?
Thanks Elan and whoever else answers!
I hear you. Any empathic person will feel the pain that is happening around us today, whether it's the climate, animals, human suffering and wars.. and we want to do something about it to stop the pain, be it participate actively in movements to protest and perhaps represent the oppressed in some way.
I understand this all too deeply simply as I've been there and the pain and anger towards those who are 'responsible' for the destruction was driving my actions and activism.
It was only when I truly internalized and integrated spiritual teachings be it loving compassion from Buddhism to Sassani ideas that I was able to 'handle' the duality. In a way, the latest session, 'The Referential Preferential You' is exactly addressing this, when the meditation led us on a path where we were faced with war and destruction on one side, and peace and love on the other.
Using the energy from the 'peace and love' facet, we are able to face the war and destruction with love and compassion, knowing that too, is just an exploration that is valid. My referential preferential self knows that the way to affect the outside reality is to become the fully integrated me, and that fully integrated me will inevitably be in a world that is integrated and that this extreme duality is only one option, among the many 'earth explorations' that exist in the multiverse.
So rather than focusing on 'helping' (the way I was involved in campaigns), with an energy of a savior, I now look upon the pain with love and compassion (buddhism taught me a lot in this regard) and choose to act throughout my day in this way. This is not about turning a blind eye, but truly acknowledging that all explorations are valid, including THAT. I myself do not choose to explore that level of pain now, but I acknowledge that these explorations are still an option in the world I am currently in right now, until one day, it will no longer be. I certainly choose positive actions that are immediately within my control knowing that everything is interconnected, even if others are in a land far far away.
I am speaking from my own experience, hoping that this translates better than abstractions.