I have not written a reflection in a little while. I realized that it was impossible, or so it seemed to me, to carry on as I always have. That is seeing the news or the trends in society, that is the macro world, and then seeing how that same trend or news or story is also present in our micro world. What was discouraging or frustrating was that the macro world has become incomprehensible. So many things are happening simultaneously and in succession, that I can not hope to keep up. Alas, this may have been the inspiration for the algorithm. We can no longer keep track of our lives or life as we once did, and now we need assistance.
For we knew that after winter it would soon be planting season, so it is time to preserve not only our foodstuffs but also our seeds. Or we knew that hunting is good at certain times and in specific places, and so if we can not maintain our food supply during the lean time, we must travel to a new hunting ground.
We could look at the stars and our stories and to our elders and to our tradition and know what to expect in our lives. What to prepare for and what to look out for? But no more, it seems. What is a mystic to do?
What I can do is employ one of my techniques which I call piercing the dualism. It is a way in which we can move through impasses by turning to the opposite. Or going in through or out through, whatever the case may be, the other door. That is the other component of the duality. So if the outer prospects are unclear look inward. As one of our spiritual teachers sang so cogently, “if one door is closed then the other is open.”
So, I have, and I imagine everyone in America at least has been, thinking about the upcoming election. And I am ready for the ending. It seems like one of those 19 inning baseball games or 25 game final sets at Wimbledon which seem fun at the beginning, but after a while you realize, I got to get back to my life. And maybe that is what a lot of us are thinking, it is time to get back to our lives.
But I have not been thinking about the micro politics of election, of course, but of macro political philosophy. And this is not breaking news, but it seems that politics is about power. Who has the power to do what? And our political system in America bases its power not on heredity, as in a royal family, or religion as in a supreme leader, but on law, that is the legal system. And in this case, it is the law that determines who has the power or authority to do what.
Power as well as law as in all things can be good or bad or in between. It can be self-conscious, selfish, selfless, responsible, fair etc. But law and even power are facts of life they are variables they are conditions and circumstances. They are ways that we organize our lives and societies. In other words, they are aides and assistants. But when the aides and assistants become the ends in and of themselves, that is the authority, we have a problem.
We have forgotten our reason why. Why we are doing what we are doing. What is important to us. What is our purpose. What we have come to do.
Contrary to popular opinion we are not good multitaskers. We do not do a lot of things at the same time very well. But we can do one thing at a time extremely well. So well that it can become a work of art. And so, in our modern world of multitasking, what we are doing is not necessarily what we ought to be doing, or what we want to be doing, or even what is most important. But it is what is in charge. It is what has the power in our life. For it has our time and attention which are our greatest resources. And they are all finite. And what is finite increases in value.
I have long thought of our Highest Self or our True Self as what can lead us to the proper use of our power and authority and can help us establish our laws and values and beliefs and therefore bring about the good life. But our True or Highest Self is not always in charge.
In our political system we elect a new president every for years. Sometimes the incumbent wins, but not always. And then there is a regime change. And the installation of a new president. What is true of the macro world is also true in the micro. We have a True Self, but we also have a reigning self. And the two are not always in alignment. Sometimes our reigning self has been in power so long that we have lost touch with our True Self. But we do have the opportunity to have a regime change. And to install our True Self as the legitimate power and authority in our lives, so that he or she also become our reigning self.
Let me end with this. I just naturally am contrary. That is what my paternal grandmother used to say to me. I seem to naturally question common opinion or understanding. For example, we hear it so often that we don’t even question it when we do that the American president is the most powerful person in the world. But to follow the aforementioned logic, he is the reigning self, but he may or not be our True Self. True power is when our Highest or True Self becomes our reigning self. Then the real question is what will we do with our power. As Bob Marley sang “I wanna know now.”
the village 