After a day engaged in work activities, where we respond to conditions directly and immediately, reading the news can catapult us into a swirl of anxiety, mental confusion and stress. Anxiety arises when we can’t find our ground. The media world of facts, alternative facts, disinformation is a dense trance that is difficult to awaken from. What is real? What is true? Any source we consult at that level is hearsay. We have only our own direct experience to consult and when we have no direct experience, we are prone to listen to the distressing cacophony of others’ views. Their versions are to them real. But not the same as true. When we look into what is true, we can be guided by Dharma wisdom, which we can only awaken to for ourselves, directly. The Way of the Bodhisattva does not depend on someone else’s words, or doctored images. Dharma is not hearsay, not someone else’s opinion. It always steers us back to the ground of the present moment. This is where we experience the immediate conditions and where we are personally called to take action, to respond.
Our daily practice keeps us grounded in just this. Even though we may feel pulled in many directions and be captured by our grief for the world, the more we can appreciate the blessing of direct and open awareness, the freer we are to serve what is true, what is in alignment with the actual. What is fundamental. Direct awareness, grounded in ethical precepts, helps us steer the Middle Way path of patience, clarity and kindness, no matter what the conditions are.