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Effectively in the Midst of Politics By Arleen Lorrance
I had this thought while reading about our Congressional happenings, or should I say non-happenings. Repeatedly politics is the antithesis of decency. Those who claim to serve the nation are instead self-serving, focused on power, and utterly devoted to the election of their party to office. Democracy needs a cleansing! On further reflection I see that I am mixing up several elements which I wishfully think should go together but which, in truth, do not. The elements are “politics,” “decency,” “service,” “power,” and “democracy.” At age 76, I have moved through many of the phases of being human in relation to how the world works. As a child, I knew very little but I was imprinted by the bent of my school teachers and influenced by my beginning studies of history. As I look back I see that I was already testing the workings of the world on the streets where I played and in the young friendships I developed. I was a natural leader and I didn’t shrink from embodying power. Once I discovered the power, I used it often to my advantage. If other children were “ninnies,” I simply took over situations and became a dominant force in the neighborhood. Sometimes the line between leader and dictator was unclear. I was in charge of the play-court (the gutter in front of our apartment houses.) When I wanted to play others had to clear out because I had established the rules. The “ninnies” were very helpful in my sustaining of power. They turned and walked away. Today, I see how this works with real dictators and those who simply allow themselves to be overrun. And in a democracy, the “ninnies” today are the ones who believe everything is hopeless and who never show up at the ballot box. As a young teenager, I knew everything (don’t all teenagers know everything?) and from 18 through 20, I had endless opinions based on nothing but personal preference because I was basically ignorant of facts and the history of how certain human conditions arose. None of these deficiencies stopped me from shooting off my mouth and proclaiming how others didn’t do it right. The Larger World Then I started reading newspapers and watching television reports on what was transpiring in the world. I was greatly influenced by Walter Cronkite. He was an unwavering model of integrity and truthfulness. He was an impersonal mentor to me, someone who showed me in his reporting and in the way he functioned, how to live life as a mensch (a person of honor.) It was because of and through Cronkite that I developed the notion that those elements: “politics,” “decency,” “service,” “power,” and “democracy,” all belonged together. Over the course of the rest of my life I have focused on being a person of honor: one who is inclusive of all people, one who champions equality on all levels for everyone, one who protests injustice, one who seeks to avoid the temptations of manipulation of the system for personal gain, and one who works daily to make the world a better place for all human beings. I have done all this and while there has been change, things are pretty much the same, albeit with achievements here and there. When the Tea Party originally flooded the political scene, I gleaned that their message had to do with returning power to the people and away from big, dominating government. They rose high and fast and, from what I see now, they have fallen head-first into the trap of overpowering the people (not to mention the Congress) and becoming the big, dominating force themselves, running over everyone else who might hold a different point of view. It’s a sad story. Their version of politics seems to be “eat everyone before they eat you.” If politicians were in “it” to serve the people, they would ask the people “What do you need? What do you want?” They are, after all, supposed to be Representatives. Instead, politicians tell everyone what they should need and want. And those same politicians jostle each other on the crowded stage of power-seekers and push each other off into the pit whenever possible. These politicians invest an inordinate amount of time and energy working toward re-election. Some have been in office for decades establishing powers bases that effectively thwart anything new coming into being. And, these days, millions of dollars buy elections and enable a handful of wealthy people to dominate life in our nation. They have the blessing of our very own Supreme Court. When I was a child I didn’t know much. Through my 20’s I gained more information and struck out for what I believed. Throughout it all I clung to idealism even though I was I disappointed a hundred times over. During the last few decades of my life I haven’t opted out but I am opting in in a whole new way. I am focusing my attention on bringing about change in and through the Energy World. Change In and Through the Energy World Here is what I know. Everything I have discussed above, interesting and worthy as it may be, is Maya, Illusion. None of it is really real; I mean Really Real. All of it is human entertainment on the physical plane: a congealing and dissolving of atoms that form and re-form as events, and even people, appearing substantive. If you don’t have any idea what I am talking about you may either go on talking about the woes of the world as actual and therefore needing to be dealt with on the same level, the actual level, or, for a few minutes you can humor me by wondering if there is something valuable in what I am saying. Everything that seems to Be is merely an idea, a formless swirl of life force, held in the Consciousness of the Divine, the Creator of All That Is. Everything that seems to Be is constantly shifting and changing, ebbing and flowing. Everything that seems to Be is Energy. How then can I bring about change in and through the Energy World? First, I need to know “I am not this.” I am not the personality/character through whom I live in the world (which in itself is a constant congealing and dissolving of atoms that form and re-form.) Well then, who am I? I am that I am. I am That which is Energy, That which is in and of the Greater Consciousness that is creating and being created. Because I Am I can participate in the congealing and dissolving, in the bringing about of evolution and change. To achieve this I hold in my consciousness the question, “What is wanted? Then I listen in energy, not in my personality’s head, for guidance about how to participate; in energy, in the More that is ready to come into being. If I were functioning through personality I would “try to think what that might be,” a useless or delaying endeavor. What I am doing instead is entering the Creative Swirl, becoming One with it, and, then, through what I know as my personality, becoming the change that is ready to emerge. I do it in my very miniscule way, knowing that billions of cells are doing the very same thing and when all those come together, major shifts occur; indeed, whole ways of life change and evolve. Proceeding with No Expectations This process requires going beyond the illusory representation of self with its expectations, and even hopes and dreams. We can’t know the Greater that is on its way and so we need to stay out of the way. We can’t know because it is as yet unformed. We can only be surprised, or at least cognizant that way has led to way and “this” has come into being. In my own life, I “suffered” heart disease in 1968. From my character’s perspective I was laid low for six weeks and on limited activity for six months. The pericarditis, caused by a virus, was the result of lowered immunity while in a state of grief. That was the form to which I related. What I didn’t know was that it was that the time of “going to bed” was in order to have a spiritual breakthrough and the opening of my heart chakra. My entire life as I had known it up to that point changed radically. I gave up a career in the theatre, moved on from my marriage, and began a spiritual work that has lasted until now.
The Unexpected Occurs What is wanted? What is coming? I may not know, but it is for me to go forward blindly in energy and open to the More. Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus, but more than her personality took an action. In the Energy World a great change was readying to become manifest. Mother Teresa needed to get help to children in the midst of a raging war zone. Impossible? For characters, yes. But she was responding to what was wanted and an unheard of cease fire occurred. An incident in a bar set loose a gay pride movement and in less than 50 years closet doors opened and as of April 2015 same-sex couples can legally marry in 37 states. We don’t create the new but we register it coming and lend our consciousness to enabling the More to happen, even though we cannot imagine what it will be. Another case in point is this article I am writing. I started out ruing the state of politics in our nation and ended up reporting on my Energy World discoveries. I didn’t know I was heading there but I kept proceeding with the question “what is wanted?” Being a Tiny Conduit Power struggles for personalities/characters will go on as long as there are people because it is in their nature. There will always be struggles and push-pull and life and death, and all other polarities. It is the very essence of this plane of existence. And our lives and their dilemmas which seem so paramount in each moment will also go on that way because it is the illusory out-picturing of thoughts and feelings. Knowing this, I am choosing to express in a different way. I’m not exactly giving up, throwing in the towel, saying ‘it is the way it is’ (even though that is very true). I invite my personality to remain involved in the Maya while I, the Real Self, (the Player) seek out the Light and draw it in so that I might shine it on the whole of the human condition. My focus is not on who will win an election, who will rule a region, who will fight for rights. It is rather on what is wanted and how I might be a tiny conduit for the evolutionary process, for the elevation of life-as-we-know-it to life as it truly is beyond form. Being a tiny conduit is a full time job. I need to remain aware throughout each day to see what contribution I can make, in the Energy World, to create a positive imprint. I can, for example, add to bliss and peacefulness in the world by choosing to be in the flow of life rather than putting up resistance to anything or creating irritation over small things, or even outrage over large things. Choosing to be in the flow enables energy to move, atoms and cells to restructure, and change to come about. I am aware every day, when I read letters to the editor, that divisiveness is rampant. Everyone has an opinion about an issue and too many prefer to go on the attack against people with whom they disagree. This can be about gay marriage, police treatment of Black Americans, gay adoption, immigration rights, minimum wage issues, you name it. I hear opinions forming in my own head. As thought leads to thought, I can hear my thoughts going in the direction of attacking those who are attacking. Sigh. This is what personalities do as they get caught up in the illusions. But I can remedy this. Effective Daily Living I can remain alert to any group that is suffering in anyway and embrace them with my heart and compassion. I can merge and become one with them and send them support on the frequency level. I can do this instead of engaging with a mental process that takes issue with their needs and demands. I can acknowledge that this is a need of theirs even if I don’t understand it, knowing that when their issues are heard, change for all of us will come about, needed change. I can actively practice kindness and bring a smile wherever I go. I can be a voice that further opens explorations and I can contribute to people feeling met and whole. I can speak what I know to be true wherever I am to cut through trash-talking and lift conversation to new levels. I can ask strangers what is most meaningful or important in their lives to shift their reflection to what is meaningful and important. I can bring feeling and knowing to instances of mental haranguing so that energy can move toward something new coming into being. In all these ways, and many more, I can be an instrument of change and play my role in the whole that is emerging. And that is how I can live effectively in the midst of politics.
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