121. A More Immediate Need

When people with power bring harmful changes to your community, your attention is immediately captured. You cannot look away from what is happening because you know the changes will have meaningful consequences. You feel anxious because you can see that the people you care about will be harmed. You hate what is happening, and you oppose it with every fibre of your being. You are angry at those who are responsible and outraged that such a thing is even possible.

Absorbed by this new problem, you cannot stop thinking about it. It requires a response and you know you need to do something. You want to rally others to oppose these wrongs. You want to create a movement so large that it will not only stop the changes but prevent the problem from ever happening again.

Your efforts are strong at first, but you quickly find yourself exhausted by the scale of the project. Your attention keeps drifting towards news of the latest atrocities, which in turn rekindles your disgust and anger. Rather than supplying the motivation to support your struggle, these intense feelings consume both time and energy.

In your determination to fight what is wrong, you have lost sight of a more immediate need. Great energy is required to achieve great results. You can only sustain your energy if you remain free of attachment to particular desires, aversions, and beliefs, as any such attachment can drain it completely.

You need to counteract the wrongs you see without being consumed by anger, hatred, or the desire for vengeance. You need to see the people whose actions you oppose not as your enemies but as fellow sufferers. They might also be delusional, but that does not detract from their humanity, for we all have delusions.

Your efforts must come from compassion and not hostility. Acting out of hostility will only perpetuate suffering because your attention will be limited and you will not be able to see what is needed to prevent the wrongs you hate from arising again and again. To act from compassion is to heal and to help. It is when you allow your attention to remain open and free that you also grant yourself the energy needed to creatively solve the significant problems before you.