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{Editor’s Note: Elephant is a mindful community that hosts different voices—as long as facts and caring are present. From my perspective, we care about good journalism. Truth. Empathy rises from knowing, not ignoring. As Trungpa Rinpoche noted, “Compassion automatically invites you to relate with people because you no longer regard people as a drain on your energy.” We can afford to do more than “I’m gonna ignore the news and hope all this blows over” and “good vibes only” mentality. ~ Waylon}
On Saturday in Paris, I saw peaceful protestors being gassed and attacked by police.
And I also saw looters dressed in black with balaclavas smashing windows and running around with clothes under their arms. (I don’t feel sorry for LVMH but feel immensely for independent shops that were destroyed.)
In the morning, I cried, so moved by the courage and principles of young people protesting for better lives; moved by the love permeating the air.
Later, I cried from the violence, hate, and fear that was in the air and literally happening all around me as I walked around the city as looters were smashing up streets and shops.
The beautiful all-encompassing spiritual principle of non-duality comes to mind, with binary thinking as a cause of fracture and suffering.
It’s possible to be supportive of the student demands (access to equal educational conditions and opportunities for all, including more teachers, fairer university placements, more menstrual products in schools, a more adapted timetable…), to feel distraught by the physical destruction brought on by looters, to feel ashamed of the treatment of the police towards peaceful protestors, to feel outraged for a mother and her child who were verbally and physically threatened, to feel compassion towards those who are so desperate for change, to feel resistance to change, to feel scared, to feel hopeful, to feel moved, to feel inspired, to feel ashamed…
All these feelings can exist at once, and it would be a disservice to humanity to allow only some of these to be “correct” feelings.
Structural violence reinforcing oppression and prejudice directed towards minorities is real.
Abyssal wealth inequality is real.
The traumatic impact of physical violence is real.
And the violence we have inside us is real as well. And one feeds into the other in an infernal cycle.
I’ve seen a lot of hate on social media directed towards people with different points of view, from all points of view, with calls to vote far right or far left from people who voted for Macron a few years ago.
In between the fighting there was one comment that stood out: “divide and rule,” a tactic that has been used by empires for thousands of years to keep power in the hands of emperors.
Part of this tactic is keeping us separate from the direct experience of love within us; it’s similar to the way organised religion controls people, by telling us we need things or people outside of ourselves to connect to the beauty and divinity that exists within us.
It’s the same tactic used in neoliberal states, with “capitalism (being) the most successful religion ever invented,” as Yuval Noah Harari writes. We feed into this with our obsession with stuff, how we are perceived, what brands to wear, and our deep longing to belong to something which doesn’t really exist in the places we are told to look for it nowadays (I’m looking at you Dior).
I also saw something disturbing, and that was the apathy of people walking around watching without trying to stop either the police or the looters. A lack of courage from a place of comfort that we are afraid to lose.
The same fear and comfort that destroys nature. I’ve seen what happened with movements like “sustainability”—when we had to give up too much of our own comfort and the injunction to be sustainable died down, resulting in most of us losing interest. Next, Temu and Shein sprung up.
And I wonder why we think operating according to divisive binary thinking is going to create lasting change?
From experience, I’ve come to learn that the way to change the way we act is to change our hearts, and go to the places where the pain is causing us to bring fear instead of love in the world.
It’s to continue to connect back to that direct experience of love within (through prayer, connecting with others, in meditation, time in nature, with animals…), so much that we realise that we do belong, that we are inherently loved, that we don’t need brands or stuff to make us feel that.
That is our work, alongside getting our information from all sides and keeping conversations and our hearts open.
{Author’s Note: I want to make it clear that I recognise the privilege I have to be able to have the space, stability, and comfort, to be able to make that choice in the first place. As a woman I have had my own experiences with structural and personal violence, but I have never found answers or respite in hate or revenge. And maybe when we have that privilege, we have the responsibility to practice love in our lives? If you’re reading this, I am guessing you are in a similar position.}
And love does not mean inaction, as demonstrated in Mary Magdalene’s Gnostic Gospel, another pointer to how we change the status quo by looking outside of the status quo: “Become content at heart, while also remaining discontent and disobedient; indeed, become contented and agreeable only in the presence of that other image of nature (Love).” (Mary 3:12-14)
Meggan Watterson, who has written extensively about Mary Magdalene’s gospel, interprets: “We are asked to become anchored in the direct experience of love. To become rooted in the presence of love. To listen inwards daily. To know love, meaning to experience directly from within you that you are love. So that you can remain discontent with and disobedient to all that is not love.”
So I pray for the courage (heart) to make uncomfortable choices for the wellbeing of others, and to have the strength to connect to the experience of love within, even when hate feels like the easier choice.
Leaving you with a quote from David Hawkin’s book Power vs Force:
“We mostly experience force in our world—force that feeds on low-vibration energies like fear, shame, anger, and desire. Force cannot withstand real power, which is channeled from energy currents like love, peace, and joy-in time, power always prevails. Power appeals to that which uplifts, dignifies, and ennobles. Force must always be justified, whereas power requires no justification. Force is associated with the partial, power with the whole.”
~
Learn more about the topics discussed in this article:
The student demands in these Paris protests can be learned about more here and here.
Read about the impact this has had on small businesses.
~
author: Ophélie Bédier
Image: Author's Own
Editor: Molly Murphy
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