Today we ask that you sit with people who are very triggering for you.
Sit with them, in your mind.
They may be members of a political party whose ideology you find abhorrent, or oppressive.
They may be people you know, whose very presence, for one reason or another, you cannot stand.
They may be people who abused or wronged you in the past, or abused or wronged someone you love.
They are “hot button” people. You cannot even think of them without feeling agitated, without your emotional body feeling inflamed.
It is easy sometimes to believe that this world would be a better place, if all those oppressive people disappeared.
It is hard sometimes to believe that a loving universe would allow these people to cause so much harm and damage to others, and the world. How can one reconcile faith in a loving universe, when there are so many destructive people in the world?
This is not easy.
Violence begets violence. People who are raised in abusive or violent environments often become violent and abusive. It is all they know.
It is useful to think of this phenomenon more like a disease, than a moral deficiency.
You do not have the same kind of judgments around diseases, that you do about people you deem morally deficient in some way.
But really, anyone who engages in destructive behavior toward others, themselves, or the world is, in fact, unwell. That is a sign of sickness.
If you learned that someone you consider to be abhorrent or destructive had a brain tumor that caused this behavior, would you judge him in the same way?
If you found out that a corrupt politician had a brain tumor, or that an abusive parent had a brain tumor, would you judge him in the same way?
In truth, all humans have a “brain tumor.” All human have the capacity for destructive behavior. Only in some humans, this tumor is very big — so big that it continuously affects the consciousness. In other humans, this tumor is small, and only causes symptoms on rare occasions. In a very few “enlightened” humans, the tumor is gone altogether.
The great work of mankind, at this time, is to cure the collective human “brain tumor.”
This will not happen by wishing that destructive individuals ceased to exist.
It happens when you cure yourself. Your main task is to shrink down your own brain tumor, so that you no longer engage in destructive behavior.
One way to do this is not to get hung up on the behavior of people who are very diseased in their consciousness.
Violence begets violence; but healing begets healing.
The more you heal yourself, the more of a light you shall be in this world. You will heal others merely through your presence. You will become a great physician.
So as you sit with your “hot button” people, instead of labeling them as morally deficient or evil, think of them instead as people with very large brain tumors, who really are not in control of their actions.
In fact, deep down, there is a part of those people that is very horrified by their actions — and yet because the brain tumor is so big, they cannot stop themselves. Perhaps you have been gripped by a compulsive behavior that you knew was bad for you, but you could not stop yourself. That is what the “brain tumor” is like for destructive people.
Obviously, if you were to interact with someone with a brain tumor that made them behave violently or abusively, you would take precautions. You would understand that you need to keep very strong boundaries with such a person. You might even be required to place them within a controlled environment, so that they could not inflict harm on themselves, or others.
But you would no longer judge them as immoral, bad, mean, stupid, or evil.
And doing so will help you immensely, as you interact with such people — even in your mind.
For when you attack people for being immoral, bad, mean, stupid, or evil, you are unwittingly feeding your own brain tumor. Making it bigger. And before you know it, you may start behaving just as destructively as the people you judge as mean or bad.
In general, it is wise not to get obsessed over the behavior of sick, destructive individuals. Obviously take action to protect the innocent. But labeling people as “evil” will do no good.
Just work on healing your own consciousness. That is always the wisest action.
wordfromthewell 