232. The Spectacle Consumes Us

The spectacle consumes our attention. We see major events happening around us and we cannot look away. The events themselves might not impact us directly, but we know they will eventually produce problems for our community and our future.

We are unable to stop ourselves from watching every change in the emerging situation and every action taken in response to it. We feel we must focus on these things, for it is here that the problem seems to be located. We believe power originates at the top, and we think any possible solution must also be implemented at the top. Our sociopolitical structures reflect this understanding, and they frequently demonstrate how the decisions of a single person with power can have an enormous impact.

231. Liberation From Suffering

To become free of suffering, I first need to see how it originates. But this is not as straightforward as it might seem. I cannot simply understand rationally what it means for suffering to arise, in the words of my language. I have to investigate my own experience of suffering and observe how that unique experience arises from its sources.

These sources are the intentions we call by the names of desire, aversion, and belief. I must see the suffering that arises, for example, from a specific desire. When I can see how my attachment to that particular desire causes a particular kind of suffering, for example, stress, then I’m beginning to see it fully.

230. Change Is Primary

As we experience the world, we naturally get used to it. What was once novel becomes commonplace. What was once unknown becomes predictable. We adapt our actions to our new understanding and we develop habits that allow us to navigate the world with greater ease.

Eventually, we might come to feel we’ve experienced everything and there is no longer any novelty left in the world. We might then begin to live mostly in our memories, the only place where joy still exists for us. We might even become so profoundly bored that we start to tire of life itself.

229. Relationship Harmony

To have a relationship with another person is always a challenge. It is necessarily so because you have your desires, aversions, and beliefs and the other person has theirs. While there is often significant overlap, there will also be many differences. Perhaps they want something that you do not want, or you believe something that they do not believe. When these differences come to the surface there will be tension between you.

228. Looking And Looking

My shoes sink softly into the sand as I stroll across the beach. The bay is calm today, and there are no significant waves, only slight surges of water that wash over the sand before retreating back to the sea.

I’m watching the world when I see you up ahead, sitting on a large boulder. I’m far enough away that you haven’t noticed me. You’re staring out at the water, blank-faced and unmoving. You do not know me and I do not know you. We are two separate beings in our own separate worlds.

227. Awareness Through Compassion

If I’m unable to see the reality of my own experience, then I’m less able to act from compassion. I need to be open to the totality of the world around me and to all of the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions arising inside me to even have a chance of seeing clearly.

For my awareness to expand, I need to pay attention to everything that exists. I need to question my understanding of it and of myself, and allow for the possibility that there is more than I’ve already seen. As my awareness grows, my sensitivity to myself and the world around me improves. I notice changes in myself and my environment more easily, and my intuitions tend to guide me towards more compassionate actions.

226. The Emptiness That Is You

There are many subtle ways of binding yourself. You might have a secret desire so powerful that you feel you must fulfill it or not live at all. You might have an aversion to a certain kind of experience that arises regularly and operates quietly throughout your life. You might have a belief buried so deep inside you that it feels like a fundamental part of your being. All of these attachments prevent you from being free, from seeing clearly, and from living joyfully.

225. To Become Better

We generally try to follow the rules because we value the order, predictability, and safety they provide. We also know that a significant deviation from the rules could result in consequences that would make our situation worse.

But strict rule-following can also be harmful. By emphasizing conformity to rules above all else, we tend to become more rigid and mechanical in our actions. We learn to see the path delineated by the rules as the only one available to us, thus limiting our expression and creativity.

224. Language Is Political

If a text appears even slightly political, we approach it with certain expectations. We expect it to take a side, to strongly support one position and argue forcefully against the alternative. We see it as a combatant in a battle with clearly-defined boundaries articulated through centuries of political discourse.

In this discourse, there are always two sides, the good and the bad. The conflict between the two sides is constrained to this binary. Always the argument is for the good side, whatever that might happen to be. Every verbal and factual resource is mustered to tear down the bad side and prop up the good one. The intention is to defeat the bad side by showing it leads to nothing less than moral collapse and ruin, while demonstrating the good side is, in fact, right and good. We’re deeply familiar with this, so we approach such texts with our guard fully raised.