Election Special – Nov., 2008
I have a lot going on in my life right now, as do we all. All of it is an opportunity to achieve a more constant state (or station) of awakening to compassion. One of the largest of my personal challenges to living in my compassionate heart is Sarah Palin.
Why? To begin with, she’s the iconic proof that we haven’t “come a long way, baby!” at all. Palin represents the dumbing-down of America, but more painfully to me, she is the “answer” to Senator (Hillary) Clinton’s “ball-busting” demeanor. Palin is hailed by some as the perfect feminine candidate; MILF-esque, down-to-earth (folksy), and seemingly, dumb as a doornail. Ouch.
So here’s the practice I am sitting with in accepting Palin as part of the undifferentiated all-that-is: three steps to cultivating compassion.
1. I recognize Palin and my feelings for her as my own shadow, my own wounded self seeking the light of acceptance, my own wounded femininity aspiring to recognition in a “patriarchal” world, my own fear and my own failing.
2. I awaken my “witness self”, the one who easily sees my own broken parts, and loves me into wholeness, even when I feel unlovable, or unloving.
3. I allow my heart to open and grow, and visualize Palin held securely in my own heart, or enveloped in my heart-energy. I breath into this love, and allow myself to heal in, and through, it.
I undertake this practice for the benefit of all beings, pervading space and time.In the process, I heal my own heart. I address my own shadow, and in moving through the pain of it, I become more awakened to the process of integration.
In the healing of my own heart, and the growth and expansion of it, I come to have more faith in the possibility of healing. Anger is a poisoned blade that harms the one that holds it.
I am only capable of healing myself. But, perhaps in healing myself, I heal the world.
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