Alignment

Dear Friends,

The last time we tried collaboratively to find a shared theme for our inner activism, it may have seemed unsatisfying. We settled, not on a specific place of disaster on earth or on a specific aspect of climate change, but rather on the theme of boundaries altogether. With the conflict in Ukraine, this theme has gained a new focus. We'll make the issues with the Ukraine invasion our theme today.

Yet to continue our practice of self-strengthening, and to make ourselves a better instrument for activism, we will first work on the matter of alignment. Most of the time, we juggle things like the Cat in the Hat. We take on too much, and it is in no sort of balance. And it ends in crash after crash.

There might be an ideal, therefore, of a more perfect balance, like the pyramid of colored rings. But while this image has balance, gradation, and internal harmony, our real lives are more complex, and in continual motion. We may feel our normal alignment is more like that of the hula hoop aficionado, keeping many hoops in motion and a wobbly non-equilibrium.

Ultimately, I think it is up to each of us to become Nataraja Shiva, in the act known as lila or sacred play, dancing with all the instruments of creation, destruction and shameless compassion, in no further illusion about the extreme state of the world, and with the surrounding empyrean as our cosmic hula hoop. Here is the Metropolitan Museum's gloss on Shiva as Lord of the Dance:

Shiva's dance is set within a flaming halo. The god holds in his upper right hand the damaru (hand drum that made the first sounds of creation). His upper left hand holds agni (the fire that will destroy the universe). With his lower right hand, he makes abhayamudra (the gesture that allays fear). The dwarflike figure being trampled by his right foot represents apasmara purusha (illusion, which leads mankind astray). Shiva's front left hand, pointing to his raised left foot, signifies refuge for the troubled soul. The energy of his dance makes his hair fly to the sides.

So today we'll consider the many facets of our lives once again, from cosmic reaches to the most humble or even irritating, and see what it means to bring them into dynamic alignment.

Then we'll be in good shape to turn toward Ukraine.

with love,

Michael