Daily life is direct and immediate. Media sources are not. It’s so important to remember this as we aim to be responsible citizens and keep up with what’s unfolding in the public sphere.
Reading the news on-line can catapult us into a swirl of anxiety, mental confusion and stress. Anxiety arises when we don’t have access to our immediate ground. The media version of facts, alternative facts, disinformation is a dense collective trance that is difficult to awaken from. What is real? What is true? Any source we consult from afar is hearsay.
Our own direct experience is our ground. When we have no direct experience, we are prone to listen to a cacophony of others’ views. Their versions are to them real. But not the same as true.
What is true? What are your trusted sources? Even with these, it’s recommended that we maintain a “don’t know mind.” Provisional. A question. The Way of the Bodhisattva does not depend on doctored images. Dharma is not hearsay, not someone else’s opinion. Not even our own opinion, our own view. Dharma continuously steers us back to the ground of the present moment, temporary and local, directly accessible. This is where we encounter the current of conditions and where we are personally called to take action in response.
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 right here, the freer we are to serve what is true and to stay in alignment with the actual. Direct awareness, grounded in ethical precepts, helps us steer the Middle Way path of patience, clarity and kindness, no matter what the conditions are calling for.