Journal of Sacred Work

"All we need to do is cleanse the door of perception, and we shall see things as they are-infinite." ~William Blake

Increasingly, we live in a
world of habitual thinking with all-or-nothing terms. Our mind interprets what
we see by making comparisons between what is good or evil, right or wrong, with
a win or lose attitude. We make distinctions and classify in an
oversimplified manner. As we judge we are quick to dismiss what does not fit in with
our preconceived notions. Rigid thinking does not leave room for a both/and option. To lump people into categories and label
them distorts reality. Herein,
lies a great danger, we can lose sight of a real person who loves and suffers
as we do. We can risk becoming enemies.

Today dualistic thinking is
especially prevalent in public forums. One need only turn on a T.V. or talk
radio to hear arguments with ranting and raving, name-calling and blaming about
liberals versus conservatives. People yell over one another to make their point
without an intention of listening to understand the other person. Unfortunately,
thinking about complex issues this way leads to polarization. These extreme viewpoints
lack any middle ground and can escalate to the point of paralysis. This is
readily apparent as  congress's stalemates on several important issues.  

Globally, one of the major
obstacles to peace in our world is polarized thinking. Recently, I listened to
an inspiring interview by Krista Tippit on Speaking of Faith (http://publicradio.org, No More Taking Sides, Feb.,18, 2010.) The program
highlighted an unlikely friendship between two people who had suffered
tremendous loss. Robi Damelin is an Israeli woman who lost her son to the
bullet of a Palestinian sniper and Ali Abu Awwad is a Palestinian who lost his
brother to an Israeli soldier’s gunfire. Tragedy
has brought these two together along with a growing number of Palestinians and
Israelis who are turning suffering into hopeful possibilities.

Damelin
made this appeal, “Stop taking sides. Please do not be pro-Israel,
please do not be pro-Palestine. Look for a solution. Because if you're pro one
of us, you're not helping.” Ali Abu Awwad elaborated, “If
you want to be right, it's very easy. 
But to be honest, it's very difficult. Nobody wants to be honest.
Everybody wants to be right, and this is the problem. Being honest, it means
not to give up. Being honest, it means to be a human. And if you consider
yourself as a judge, you have to be honest. And if you consider yourself as a
democratic country, you have to be honest. And if you consider yourself as a
human, you don't have just to feel sorry about that, but to understand what the
other needs to live as a human and to give them those needed by understanding
their pain and by representing your pain as a human to allow them to understand
you. I feel that I start discovering many things. I start discovering the fear
of the other side. I start realizing why we don't want to recognize each other,
because we are afraid, because we cannot deal with daily suffering, because the
Jewish cannot deal with the history of the Holocaust and so on, so because the
Palestinian cannot deal with the daily occupation life. And the life doesn't
become better, but it became possible.”

In Richard Rohr’s
enlightening book called “The Naked Now,” he posits that we impose this all-or-nothing mentality on ourselves too. Unable to live up to the demands of flawlessness
we deny, repress, or become hypocrites because we can never be worthy enough, pious
enough, or perfect enough. Rohr 
encourages us to embrace the tensions in our lives, “Any allowing of the
hidden side of things, the “more” side of things –while also holding the
attractive and knowable side- usually marks the beginning of non-dual
consciousness.” Rohr reminds us that we
are spiritual beings who are learning to become fully human. To be human is
to be vulnerable. Can we let go of this struggle for perfection with acceptance
of one another?  If we open to one
another, person to person to share our story, we begin to see with a new awareness.
We recognize our shared human experience, our shared pain, our unity.

  I believe one of the best
ways to get beyond resistance is through contemplative prayer. This is an essential
practice of learning to be quiet and listening for Love’s unconditional response.

 Today, let us take some time to sit quietly with this question, Do you want to be right, or do you want to live
Love?

~Liz Wessel