All is not well…

 

I’ve an inner tension when it comes to politics, religion and human suffering. There is a part of myself that feels called to be in solidarity with suffering of others by DOing something…to be one of a million voices speaking, “This isn’t right…injustice abounds and this is NOT okay.”

 

Ringing in my ear, I hear the voices of the prophets who are not alright with the state of the world. 

 

What do you do when you see a social injustice?  What do you do when nature buries villages under water?  What is your response when someone you love experiences a debilitating illness or you witness the death of a young person from a disease with no cure?  Do you rally for science to work her magic to prevent insidious afflictions and loss?

 

What about our insides?  We’re an inner holy mess.  I’m a teacher and student of the Enneagram and witness countless obstacles to Love and think, “The inner Work is a life long practice..keep working.”

 

The Work requires examining obstacles to Love which can be patterns of personality or untested assumptions about other groups of people we consider to be outside of our in group.

 

These are moments I can feel my heart breaking, moments when I’m angry at our ignorance, moments when I want to curse the proverbial heavens as I shake my fist.

 

All is well….

 

Then, there is this other experience of an Inner Knowing that all is well. That there is a sort of divine order in things and that there is an Absolute Reality out of which all suffering, chaos, joy, beauty arise.

 

A Big Heart and Big Mind hold a container for all that is and is not in this world made manifest.

 

That there is a holy perfection in the chaos and suffering that cultivates awakening and births deeper love. There are moments in meditation when there is an expansive quality…an interconnectedness to past, present and future and all that it holds…there is a timelessness in these moments…no need to DO anything.

 

Compassion arises without our help or willfulness.

 

In these times, we don’t have to work to understand another or change anything for there is an “is-ness” in all perspectives.

 

All is NOT well and all IS well is an ongoing paradox.

 

As a child of the U.S. where fixing messed up shit is what we do, this unresolvable paradox causes me no small measure of consternation. I’ve often thought this inner tension is mirrored by my practice of Buddhism and Christianity.

 

Jesus and the Buddha both speak to me. Both have provided a template for spiritual practice and transformation.

 

Buddhist teaching tends to privilege the notion that all is well and that we are swimming in a sea of illusion and the suffering in the world is a mirror of the suffering we create inside of limited minds.

 

Sit at the feet of Buddhist teachers and witness the scales of individual and collective ignorance fall like leaves in autumn. 

 

On the other hand, Christian teaching tends to privilege the the directive to Love one another which requires concrete acts of service and care.  When I asked Ken Wilber about Christianity’s contribution to the integral map of consciousness he responded, “Christianity is the only tradition whose prime directive if to Love.”  Contemplation births this remembrance.  

  

Contemplation births compassionate action.  Visit contemporary temples of suffering and compassion…developing countries, hospices, homeless shelters….find countless Christians responding.

 

Buddhism and Christianity: each inform the other and my path has been circuitous because of this paradox.

 

So, imagine the “aha” when I stumbled upon this clip. Ken Wilber once again illuminates the nose on our face. 

 

If your time is limited, fast forward to 4:48.

 

If you’ve no time to watch, here’s the abridged version:

 

Suffering…

 

As you awaken: 

 

1. It hurts you more; and

2. It bothers you less. 

 

The Christ figure is an archetype of the first and the Buddha figure is an archetype of the second.

 

Integral spirituality weaves these and other traditions in a divine matrix and an unsolvable paradox.  

 

Amen.

 

Om.