How do you reconcile believing in acceptance and going with the flow while also standing up for justice and fighting for what’s right?
Over the past week, I’ve been trying to reconcile my spiritual beliefs, anchored in Taoism and Buddhism, and what I’ll call my ‘warrior beliefs’, the part of me that has a passion to pursue justice and stand up for what I believe in. Taoism and Buddhism are both based on the idea of accepting what is, going with the flow, and that people only suffer when they wish the present moment was other than it is. Recognizing and allowing what is happening to happen. But how do these beliefs stand in the face of aggression? Would Lao Tzu and the Buddha suggest, for example, that the Ukrainians lay down their arms and stop fighting to maintain their independence? Would they ask liberal Americans to stop battling against a conservative Supreme Court who are trying to take away their rights? Would they ask each of us, individually, to accept when bad things happen to us, and just turn the other cheek?
My warrior side can’t accept that. We need people to stand up for what they believe in, to work actively to build a caring, compassionate, kinder world. We need to cheer each other on, unleashing a wave of energy when we see good actively triumph over evil. We can’t just give up. But how can we advocate for a better world while still remaining centered in the Tao?
Something clicked this week while listening to a podcast with Tara Brach. In it, she positions the power of mindfulness – of being fully present and accepting what is – as the difference between reacting and responding. When we are not centered, we are merely react to what’s happening to us. When we react from an uncentered place, we usually end up making things worse. However, if we can first acknowledge and accept what’s happening, if we can breathe and ground ourselves, we are in a stronger position to respond. It’s exactly like in Star Wars, when Luke learns to work with The Force (a Taoist movie if ever there was one). People like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. were able to bring about great change in the world, and they did it from a place of being steady, grounded, and fully open to what they were experiencing in the moment. Tara shared this week’s poem, by Dorothy Hunt, on her podcast. For me, it’s the vital step on the path away from reacting and towards responding. I hope it brings you both peace and strength.
