Outrage – Fire or Wave?

This has been a humbling and difficult post to write. It began with great energy after I read a report of a recent event that demonstrated once more the lunacy and cluelessness of modern society. I searched and selected powerful images that would illustrate my point. I wrote several paragraphs of highly entertaining prose that would make all of you who agree with me smile and shake your heads in wonder, “Boy, Bill sure hit the nail on the head there.” It felt good to express the energy of pure outrage that cascaded through my mind and body. How could a person not feel appalled at the injustice, destructive ignorance, and greed that fuels the economic engines of our society?

But what is the next step? What comes after outrage? Too often the habitual next steps are some combination of depression, despair, denial, and distraction. These responses are part of the conditioned process that keeps everything in line for the benefit of the few. A depressed and despairing population will quickly turn to some form of denial and distraction that keeps the engines of destruction purring along. I’ve lived with the teachings of Lao-Tzu for long enough now to realize that his quietist philosophy is not born of despair and denial. It arises from an ocean of serenity in which the outrage and fury, which are natural responses to destruction and injustice, can be transmuted into an energy that moves with the fluid and unstoppable power of water rather than the destructive fires of anger.

I tried for several days to find a fitting conclusion for my rant of self-righteous outrage. I began to see that my own feeling of outrage was, itself, a distraction. Everyone feels outrage. Some feel it at things that I think are actually helpful. I feel it at things that don’t bother others in the least. But outrage itself is rampant and media flocks to it like vultures to a carcass. I became aware that the post I was writing to share my outrage at a truly “outrageous” event, was itself just another diversion, another post of “ain’t it awful” at which we can shake our heads and then return to our own private sleep. Even at this moment I feel the urge to sneak in a comment about just exactly how outrageous this event really is; some snide slap at idiocy and lunacy. What would that accomplish? How would it bring me one more step along the path of Waking Up?

I have made a vow to use everything in my experience to see how I habitually go unconscious and asleep, so that I might wake up and discover my oneness with the Tao in all of its Mystery. So I stood and put on a DVD made by Lee Holden, my Qigong teacher, and did 20 minutes of practice in transferring that furious energy into the waves of Qi coursing through my body. By the time I was finished, the destructive fire that was burning in my mind and body had been changed to the power of water and I started writing a new post, not with blind anger but with all the clarity and compassion I could muster.

Nothing is more important than Waking Up and learning to pay attention to What Is. This task is ultimately a personal one. No one can take it on for me. It requires the mobilization of heretofore undiscovered personal resources, personal courage, and unflagging willingness. I must pinch myself awake hundreds of times each day, not so I can be a “good” person but so that I can experience more and more connection with the Mystery that is Life; so that I can open myself to the flow of resources and wisdom that are deeper, higher, and broader than any small conditioned human mind. This is the only answer to despair; the only way to transmute the fire of outrage into the cleansing wave of Tao; the only way to save the Earth.

Perhaps the melting of polar ice is a metaphor. As our polar caps melt and return to the ocean, the ocean will rise and begin to quench some of humanity’s hubris. You and I are like frozen drops of ocean water. As  frozen drops, we are pretty much powerless. But if we allow ourselves to melt back into the ocean, we reunite with That which is Infinite, Powerful, and the Only Energy that can cleanse the Earth. It is not enough to unite with other frozen drops in a protest march. We must melt, dissolve, and let our experience be that of Ocean rather than ice. We are part of Tao, God, Buddha, Brahman, Great Spirit, the Nameless Mystery. Only as we become That can we do and be what is necessary.

Only a Consciousness greater than the conditioned mind of humanity can restore balance to our world. Connecting with that Consciousness is the most important individual task for each and every person alive. What must we do to transmute our outrage and anger? We must take every moment of life as an opportunity to use our own personal practices of waking up; to melt, reunite, and become That Which We Are. Then, and only then, will justice surge through our lives and actions.