Anjali Appadurai at COP17
"Your joy, sadness, spiritual and physical health are part of your politics. I was fortunate to meet the Dalai Lama when I was 16. I asked him if it was possible to feel compassion for ourselves in this work. After he finished laughing, he asked how I could have the capacity to give this to others if I did not give it to myself. I have too often forgotten this wisdom, but I am entering my 30s determined to remember it."
For more info go here https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/07/18/opinion/anjali-appadurai-not-afraid-make-run-climate-action
So write a letter to the editor, to your political party, your relatives, your neighbours, to encourage them to see the wisdom in compassion. Write humbly as a single unit in a vast universe, avoid generalizations if you can and be uplifting in your criticisms.
It's easy to say people are angry, they want justice and truth, but we either know this or we dare not think it.
Call the people you know and ask how they are, what are they feeling today, right now, about life, their life. It's a way to connect more than simply wanting their opinion. It says I care about your world as you see it. As long as they don't feel judged by your query.
Talking, listening, singing, reading, giving space for their feelings - is how we begin to use our power.
In the Art of Power, Thich That Han writes, the only thing power is useful for is to make someone happy. Violence only begets violence first by removing the power of humanity with hardware, weapons.
Laughing or crying is better than nothing.
So what's new? You ask? Nothing! Now there are weapons to kill the entire planet and end all life here.
Getting the last word is not as great as giving birth to the last being. And that is what causes despots to live in a perpetual state of rage.
All too often we want that last word...
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