Resist

I recently saw a video of ICE agents throwing a woman against a wall, zip-tying her, and then releasing her when they realized they had the wrong person. Against my better judgment, I clicked the video’s comments. The majority of people blamed the woman for her treatment. “That’s what you get for not doing as you’re told,” a man wrote.

How did we get here? Hannah Arendt said that authoritarianism ultimately comes from an inability to connect, above all, to ourselves. Modern society puts us in constant contact with each other, but in ways that don’t leave us feeling understood and don’t give us space to reflect. Without reflection, we stop trusting our own judgment and start doing as we’re told.

As a meditation teacher, I sometimes find it exhausting to explain the importance of reflection to people who focus only on politics, people who are sure they think for themselves and it’s only those other idiots who comply. But if the news consumes your mind when you don’t want it to, if fear saps your strength, if anger makes you lash out at allies, do you really think for yourself? The beginning of wisdom, I think, is recognizing that there are forces beyond us that call the shots in our minds.

The Buddha’s image was of a man in a flood. The flood represents how we lose ourselves in sense-experience. For example, I saw that video’s comments and was swept away by panic. The Buddha’s point was that you can’t use the flood to stop the flood: you can’t use another article or commentary to steady yourself. You need a refuge inside — your breath, your body — to connect to what power you really do have.

We have to be informed, but we also have to see the forces that de-form our awareness. The resistance isn’t just out there, but in here too. Set time-limits around your media-consumption. Ask: “Why am I looking at this?” Be honest and vigilant about your intentions, and strengthen your mind by pulling it back when it goes into disempowered places. You can figure out the news pretty quickly if you’re disciplined. The rest is just being lost to the flood.

Francis Danby, “The Deluge” (c.1840)