by Monshin Kathy Mitchell
Wind and Water Zen
Woodruff, Wisconsin
I’ve sat with a variety of groups, some secular, others Buddhist. In each, the conversation almost always lands on the pervasive despair and frustration that arise in these challenging times. All of us are searching for the wide variety of teachings and skillful means that could ground and guide us through this inner and outer turmoil.
This may be a familiar topic to you.
Here is where I might launch into the Buddhist teachings of compassion, loving-kindness, right action, speech, etc. We chant, study, tattoo, and use any number of methods to keep them at hand. These you can easily reference. Instead, I offer a more practical perspective to help navigate this turmoil.
Feelings are information. That succinct line from our Mondo Zen koan practice reminds us of the value and richness of feelings – ours and everyone else’s. We have to answer the emotional phone! Especially given the world chaos and media that we are currently exposed to, we can be overstimulated constantly with barely a breath in between. Much less be able to hang up the emotional phone and go on to the next call.
For anyone with empathy and awareness, this influx of stimuli can be exhausting, or it can create a chronic state of overstimulation which begins to feel normal. Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses start cycling like a set of juggling balls that you cannot put down.
In this onslaught, there is limited time to rest and digest, which is a necessary step to balance overstimulation and disruptive experiences. No matter what we know about emotions and how imperturbable we try to become, emotions require some time and space if we are honestly trying to deconstruct and use their energy wisely. But most of us do not get or take enough time or make space to grieve change and loss or process trauma. We are not a culture that widely values pausing. We are in a current system that uses drama and change in a manner that is meant to keep us ungrounded, spinning.
The remedy is a time out from as much as possible. Rest and digest. Go back to the cushion where we cultivate awareness and return to the source. When the noise finally settles, it is much easier to see what remains as a genuine problem, and what, if anything, is available for a skillful intervention, for now. What needs to be grieved.
There is no formula for emotional processing or spiritual practice that works the same for everyone. Patience, compassion, determination, and the wisdom of the dharma can help each of us get there in our own way. Guidance in the form of teachers and attuned sangha can support this journey. Pretending that we, or demanding that others, rise above it all can lead to festering and unconscious projecting, simmering depression and anxiety.
Often I dream of going on retreat to give myself an expansive time out. Then I remember there can be moments of retreat and practice all the time, every day. Sometimes, simply giving myself a break from news and media or walking away from my phone for a few hours or a whole day. Not constantly reviewing the state of things in every social conversation.
For better or worse, it all unfolds as it will, without my riveted attention. The gifts of moment-to-moment aliveness in the awe-inspiring world also become apparent to balance the despair.
The wisdom of stopping, pausing, seeing the fullness of reality, is the foundation of our practice. We have to make time and space to utilize the ground of practice. To trust that this is the ground of healing ourselves and the world.
These discussions usually spin into how much we should or should not do in these times. The only solid answer I resonate with is “I don’t know; it depends.”
There is no formula for emotional processing or spiritual practice that works the same for everyone. What is clear to me, though, is that the immediate work is having equal compassion and tolerance for those who are meeting the moment differently, from their own deep caring, in their own way, in their own time. Creating space for everyone to navigate as the unique human beings that they are.
Sound like a lot of work? It is.
There is no way to avoid the work of this human life. No right or permanent answer – just making sure we are diligently grounding in equanimity and clarity to navigate whatever world we inhabit. As Ghandi counseled us, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Trust the power of that.
From the Talmud:
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly now.
Love mercy now.
Walk humbly now.
You are not obligated to complete the work,
but neither are you free to abandon it.
