You're selling mindfulness? Isn't it free?
Fuck society. You're a sellout.
There's a word for 🖕🏾society. It's called misanthropy. If you've read my intro, you may be feeling a bit misanthropic.
That's how I felt, too. But instead of trying to separate from society, I'm actually teaching you how to integrate into it.
Wait. What?
I know, I know. There are some days that you just wanna say "Fuck this, I'm out." But, unless you're Nicholas Cage, we can't all just go live on an island somewhere.
We've got to collectively address our own anger and anxiety, which is more deceptive than you think. It can hide under the skin, in something as simple as, say, not caring whether someone throws trash on the ground. It's a small dissociation.
Before we can help make meaningful change in society, we first need to address what's inside. Are we refusing to participate?
It's one thing to (for instance) say no to eating meat, but if we choose to not participate in society and community at large, we're not helping anyone.
Participation? That's not on me.
No, it's not only on you. It's on all of us together.
Like AA, the first step is acceptance. Acceptance that society has a problem, but also, that as members, we are part of the problem.
And we are also part of the solution. Acceptance by no means equates compliance. It doesn't make anything right, but it does make it so that we can move on.
Ok fine, so what's that gotta do with meditation?
Meditation helps you get something called mindfulness, which effectively is seeing what happens inside your head and your body, but not getting carried away by the experiences. It's both a state of being and a skill, which means it can be practiced (through meditation!).
With mindfulness, you'll be able to look at reality more clearly, from a place of natural curiosity and doubt. It's not about the answers; it's about the questions—those same questions that most likely brought you to this site.
Only then can we truly make decisions from a resourced place of compassion and understanding.
Resourced? Compassion?
Yep, I said it. We build up our stores of love, so that we can use its power.
One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
I'm still not fully buying it.
No worries. I try to answer more questions here.