Going Cosmic Again

Zen and the Art of Political Sanity

When I start talking about Zen and paradox and get going cosmic again, I think that every conservative in the world who reads me probably smashes his laptop onto the floor in little bits, or kicks his PC into shards of glass and metal. Probably liberals don’t know what to do with me in this mode either. After all, going cosmic is a liberal frame of being. They wonder if I’ve had too much sake or went back to smoking weed, or maybe I’m doing a Reagan, going senile and falling asleep in the middle of meetings.

Nah! It’s just the old hippie in me, the New Ager, the Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Bob Dylan-listening secret part of me rearing up and looking around. I want to check out my place in the universe from time to time. I sincerely want to listen to God, speak the truth, and do good, so I look and listen. I try to spot the gurus I meet, which might be you, whether you are liberal or conservative. If you are a guru, I listen hard. You are God talking to me through you, and you might not even know it. I love you, though, for your messages to me. I love you for the love you give to the world. Part of your love is your passion.

I know some of you will remember my hit piece on Wayne Dyer. Today, I want to praise him. All of his concepts are true, on some days. (On other days, they aren’t.) Today, he is my genius, my guru. I’m not going to tell you why—that’s private. Trust me, though, he has saved my life on more than one occasion, sometimes literally, and sometimes figuratively.

Now that the conservative laptops are broken, and the intelligent liberals are scratching their heads, what does this have to do with anything?

All right, let me swing back to politics. I find our present situation in the world, particularly with Korea and Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear bombs and terrorism, to be overwhelming. I admire Bush and Bolton and Snow and the rest, who appear to have kept their heads in all this dire. I personally am not as calm about these things as they seem to be. So, sometimes, when I start to panic in life, when things get too dreary and overwhelming, I turn back to my New Age stuff. Yes, I open my Wayne Dyer (or, in my case, I turn on my audiobooks of him), and listen to his kind of wisdom, and find it comforting.

The gist of the relevant message is that there is a reason for everything. There is a plan for each one of us. Everything is as it should be. The trials and tribulations we must face are part of the learning process we must endure in order to get closer to true happiness and fulfillment, closer to God.

I believe the same thing is true for countries. We face our collective karma together, reaping the results of what we have earned for ourselves by our past behaviors, and helping change the nature of our future karma by what we choose to see and do now.

We are constantly being tested and purified by fire. Individually, and as a country, we face the tests of war, the flames of uncertainty.

Trust me, we will get through this.

Your Political Philosophy and Timing

I understand what it is to be a liberal. I was one. I understand what it is to be a conservative. I am one. Liberal and conservative are merely philosophies. I believe a healthy person is both. But I also believe that some times call for liberalism and some times call for conservatism. So, I can’t condemn you for being liberal. What I criticize is your timing.

If you were a liberal during WWII, then your timing was off. If you were a conservative during the Depression, then your timing was off. If you were a liberal during Vietnam, then your timing was—you make the call.


Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)