Recently, I’ve been brought face-to-face with how the world around me can impact how I feel and define the moment I’m experiencing.
If I’m involved with individuals who are caring and compassionate, I experience the moment as one filled with hope and the potential for good. On the other hand, if I’m in a world where there is dishonesty, disregard or disdain for others, I experience the world as one where people are unable to trust others, one where individuals experience a sense of vulnerability.
The Dalai Lama has written:
Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs for food, shelter, safety and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams. Each of us wants the best for our family and loved ones. We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language make no difference.
He goes on to say, “Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence. Therefore, we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.”
Furthermore, he shares that “Compassion and love are not a luxury; they are essential to our existence. Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community. If we are to survive, human beings must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. We must learn to work not just for our own self, family or nation, but for all of [human]kind.”
A course of self-destruction?
“Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community” really grabs me by the heart-strings.
It’s painful to hear our political “leaders” assert—by their words and their actions—that children, the elderly, the ill and the infirm going without food, medical care, clothing or shelter matters not in their approach to governance. Their same disregard when it comes to taking care of the water we drink, the air that we breathe, and the food chain that we depend on to keep the human race from extinction is sobering.
Are we so stupid, unconscious or greedy that we’ll turn our backs on maintaining a sustainable Mother Earth for our future children and our species as a whole? And if we don’t want to turn our backs, what must we do to change our present course of self-destruction? I believe that we need to get back to basics in regard to how we relate to ourselves and one another.
Back to basics: 10 mindful living tips
Create compassionate communities
The Dalai Lama’s assertion that “Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community” can serve as a profound starting point on our journey towards creating compassionate communities with one another.
Choose trustworthy leaders
If we can’t believe what we’re being told, how can we trust other people or make essential decisions regarding the welfare of our various communities and our country? With this in mind, we must choose trustworthy people as our leaders.
Treat others as we want to be treated
Even if we can do nothing else on a particular day, we can begin living mindfully by treating others as we’d like to be treated. When interacting with another person, you should ask yourself, “Is how I’m treating this person the way I’d want someone else to treat me?”
Avoid judging others
Instead of judging someone else, discriminating against them or or making fun of them, reflect upon the fact that, “There but by the grace of God, go I.” Any of us could have been born with a different skin colour or into an impoverished place in the world. Likewise, any of us could have come into the world with a chronic illness or be a different sex or sexual orientation.
Deeply question our anger
Did you know that underneath our anger is hurt, and underneath our hurt is an unmet need? When we get angry, it’s essential that we ask ourselves: “What is my hurt, and what is the unmet need?”
Change problematic thoughts
When it comes down to it, our thoughts control our feelings. If we’re able to change our negative thoughts, we can change how we feel almost instantly.
Respect personality differences
To get along, we have to understand that human beings often use the same words but speak different languages. Some of us are more thinking-oriented or feeling-oriented, while some of us are sensation-focused and others are more intuitive.
The thinking person is at home with ideas, while the feeling person focuses on how something feels and the moral rights and wrongs of a situation.
The intuitive relates to the whys and wherefores of a situation and its future potential, while the sensation-focused person deals with the practical details, such as “rocks are hard” and “water is wet.”
Seek consensus over debate
On a related note, we might find ourselves in a disagreement with someone else because of our different ways of relating to language and life. Instead of arguing with someone (or a group of people) when we don’t agree with what they’re saying, we can try asking ourselves where they’re coming from and what we can learn from what they’re sharing.
Pause, look and listen
Every so often, we need to pause to stop, look and listen as we walk through each day.
As we do so, we can ask ourselves the following questions:
- How do I feel right now?
- Am I experiencing stress, anger, sadness, joy?
- Am I uptight or relaxed?
- What kind of inner conversations am I having with myself?
- How is my body reacting to what’s going on in my daily life?
I try to do this when I wake up in the morning, around midday, in the mid-afternoon and at the end of the day. This helps ground me as I pass through the day.
A thanks goes out to meditation teacher, author and psychologist Tara Brach for her pioneering work in this area.
Always aim to be kind
It’s vital to explore the notion that by practicing kindness, we can create a caring, compassionate and sustainable world for our children and all of humankind.
What would you add?
I encourage you to reflect upon what you might add to this brief list that suggests how we can survive and thrive in today’s world. If you have a specific suggestion that you’d like to share, please leave it below the article in the Comments section.
Sending hugs to all.
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image: Raphael Oliviera
