Caught up in reaction to the sorrow of the many losses of others, I become reactive and mournful, prone to believing this is the end of the world as I have known it. In some ways, it is. Much of the bushlands where we used to walk and play and picnic as children are burnt to the bone, the beautiful canopies of the eucalypt forests are stripped, and so many of those family holidays centered on the natural world can no longer take place.
Communications experts tell us that we should not start the day by looking immediately at incoming news bulletins. Some of them are fake, many are sensationalist and written in a deliberately provocative way, with images and click bait titles designed to shock the viewer.
In addition to this, which destabilizes us and skews our equilibrium on a daily basis, we are subject to the publication of news articles where the content is different in each language. This means our opinions are being differentially shaped and formed, from the very point of our consumption of information.
Looking at this smorgasbord of information and misinformation immediately when we wake up starts us thinking in a fear-fuelled way. Then, in that flight or fight condition, we are more likely to make choices in our daily lives which are aggressive or destructive, thus increasing the challenges in the world.
It is suggested that rather than do this, which will inevitably lead to bad hair days, and further difficulties, we should start our days in meditation and self support. Yoga stretches. Fresh fruit juices. Good thoughts.
Learning and practising the Metta meditation in Buddhism has been greatly helpful in calming the mind. Many people I know do this as a regular practice, both on waking to a new day, and as they prepare to seek some rest at the end of a day they have just completed.
Looking at the words, and the sequence in which they are structured, we can see how intelligently they are chosen and utilized. We start - not with others and their concerns and demands, but with ourselves and anything which is blocking us. This sequence is based on the principle of ‘First, heal thyself’. The self is ground zero.
May I be free of anger and fear.
May I be free of greed, hatred and delusion.
May I be free of conflict and suffering, dukkha.
May I be well, and happy.
May all beings be well, and happy.
See the arc of emergence that our thoughts and emotions can be directed to follow? And note that the first two defilements we address in our own minds are anger and fear: the very emotions related to our anxiety about our own survival that so much of the news media and so many conversations and chat threads in social media knowingly activate.
From anger and fear, which make us crazy with often unexpressed pain, come the secondary deadly sins: the coping mechanisms, the temporary ways of enduring chronic suffering and discomfort which we feel we cannot seem to get to the root cause of. Greed, (Self) Hatred and Delusion.
Then this inevitably affects the way we relate to others: prompted by our toxic feelings, we act out in our relationships. This leads to retaliation, as we humans are such ego-driven beings. Then we get enmeshed in secondary fallout. It is a terrible trap, and wastes a lot of our time and vital energy.
Observing the causal relationships here can help us to stop this destructive circuitry that is created by ignorance and habit, as well as cynically stimulated by the cultural environment in which we live, which profits from our reactiveness.
Only through constant practice and conscious awareness can these neural pathways be altered and a far better default mechanism be created by ourselves.
Only then, feeling well in ourselves, can we truly operate effectively, with good intentions in our world, sincerely wishing our fellow human beings wellness and happiness.
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