Be Sincere

People say, “Live each day as though it were your last,” but people do horrible, senseless things with their last days. I prefer what Mother Ann Lee said: Live each day as though you would live forever and have to accept the consequences for all eternity. That’s a much harder, but ultimately more life-affirming, way to live.

We have to stop pretending that war is a rational strategy in support of long-term objectives. War is Thanatos: what Freud called “the death wish,” the part of us that seeks self-destruction. If we were honest, we could channel Thanatos into art or meditation or vision. But the nature of war is to be dishonest and project our inner death wish out onto innocent people, whom we take down with us.

On the train the other day, a man was talking very fast. “We had to bomb Iran. Did you watch the Yankees last night? I heard Gina moved out of the city.” War depends on this kind of mental jumping around. Because if we really sat with it, looked it in the eye, felt its reality, we couldn’t go on with it.

In Zen, they talk about the importance of being sincere. It means that, when you’re cooking, you just cook. When you’re walking, you just walk. You pour yourself into whatever you’re doing and let it consume you fully. Being sincere is a way to channel this desire to burn up, to become nothing, into something that is actually of service to humanity.

Be sincere. The quick sound-bites, the talking points we are taught to consume and then spit out are a sign of our impending extinction. Slow down and feel. Try to do one thing at a time, do it well, and do it with love. That is how you can help pull us back from the brink of destruction.

Lord Leighton Frederic, "Hercules Fighting Death to Save Alcestis"