Read Not the Times

 It may seem a little redundant to write pieces on general spiritual themes with all that is going on in the world today but in fact that makes it all the more important to lift our mental focus above the chaos of current events to the deeper reality beyond. It's easy to get caught up in external conflict and take sides but for the spiritual person that temptation should generally be resisted. I'm not saying there is not right and wrong nor that in a dispute both sides are equally good or bad. That is clearly not the case but we do need to fix our minds on the eternal rather than the times (pace Thoreau). Was it not because Jesus did just that that he was betrayed by Judas who wanted him to take a more active position with regard to Jewish liberation from Roman rule? That is one theory anyway, and it is true that Jesus did not involve himself in politics or worldly disputes anymore than any bona fide spiritual teacher has done. Passions can be aroused, the sense of justice can be appealed to but we have to see that our emotions are being played upon to bring us down from a higher standpoint. This does not mean we make ourselves insensitive to human suffering and evil but we do not become psychologically involved because if we do we will lose connection to higher truth. This is what resist not evil means. It does not mean we let evil have free play but we do not let it into our hearts by reacting to it on its own terms and according to the agenda it sets. This can be a tricky balance to strike.

There will be many attempts to distract the spiritually focused from their proper task of following God. To inflame their minds so that their judgment is clouded and they allow themselves to be drawn into worldly battles. I am not saying we should always stand aside but we must be alive to the manipulation that is going on and not react emotionally. That can be hard, especially if one is personally involved and it is equally important that one remains alive to worldly suffering or you risk falling into the spirituality of self-satisfied solipsism. But you must be careful not to let evil pull you down to its own level which is something it is always trying to do to those who seek to extricate themselves from its clutches.

Surely you can see how first thing then another comes about to engage our emotions and pull us into earthly concerns? When one starts to grow stale up pops something else. We will be told we are unfeeling, inhuman, not to take sides especially in the face of evil actions but that is where discernment is called for. Evil is always seeking to draw us into its net and has no compunction about tactics. Don't react to its provocations unless you are directly concerned and even then never lose sight of God, and the real spiritual truth of God not an image of him that may have been created for some non-spiritual purpose as exists in all religions, especially the ones currently involved. This is not a call for pacifism nor for tolerance of evil but now more than ever is a time for detachment and discernment and to remember that love is not an emotion.