If You’re Not in Awe, You Must Not Be Paying Attention
This is my answer to the bumper sticker “If You’re Not Outraged You Must Not Be Paying Attention”.
I’m not suggesting there aren’t things to be outraged by in this life, and especially in this modern age when our overgrown clever minds have now brought us to the brink of extinction. Are we really so intelligent? hmmm, I think not…
True intelligence is about much more than our minds. The fullness of who we are must participate for true intelligence to be present, and that means our hearts, bodies, our spiritual nature, our very essence. Intellect without this is more dangerous than anything else as we can readily see by just looking around at the condition the planet is in. The Dalai Lama has observed this in our culture, that our minds have far outpaced our hearts. This imbalance will not bear fruit for any of us.
But to insist that if one is really paying attention they must be outraged is more lack of true intelligence. There are injustices and outrageous things happening and we can make strides towards correcting them, but not if we’re outraged. If we try to do “good” things from a place of outrage we only create more outrage in this world.
And, truly, when one pays deep attention to the now, much deeper than the very superficial layer of what appears to be going on, one will be in awe, in awe of the vastness of reality, awe of the miracle of being alive. Beyond that, when one truly pays attention one will see there is no problem right now. From this place of peace and gratitude and “nothing wrong” we can all be much more effective in the world. We add beauty to the world, not more suffering. If you really care about the planet, this will be your first aim, as Gandhi said, and I paraphrase, “Be the Change You Want to See in the World”
Much Love,
Ralph