1: I am utterly convinced that one of the most challenging complex emotions that we have got to come to grips with as contemporary practitioners (inside & out) is cynicism.
2/ For those of us who are self-identified skeptics (🖐🏼) it’s the thinnest and finest line toward being cynical. I confused & conflated the two for years.
3/ Skepticism is a state of mind in which we tend to question assumptions, pre-established authorities, and conventions.
4/ Cynicism is a state of mind in which we’ve given up hope in the human heart’s capacity for goodness.
5/ When the horrors of humanity are being being amplified at the speed of light and our negativity biases are lighting up non-stop, it’s not hard to see why so many fall into the despair of #hypercynicism.
6/ That this is happening because of the failures of hypercapitalism (ad dollars and attention dollars fuel the amplification systems) is also obvious. Millenials know this system is beat. We just haven’t gotten unhooked from it enough to grieve and let go.
7/ I dream of a future where we can decentralize our most important infrastructure and become more resilient and less dependent on systems and ideologies rooted in scarcity. Abundance is our future, if we can learn to be it first.
8/ On a practical level there are two meditative disciplines that I can think can help us with this: Practicing embodiment and practicing heartfulness (particularly gratitude and compassion).
9/ Embodiment meditation gives us the tools to process personal and collective trauma directly and to reconnect with the earth beneath us.
10/ Gratitude rewires the negativity bias of the brain and inclines us toward seeing the good (which is actually there whether we see it or not). Whatever we put our attention on grows. This is an ancient truth.
11/ Compassion creates an unselfish space in the heart where suffering and anguish (which are also extremely real) can be held with tenderness and the kind of fierce care that can stand up to corruption & delusion.
12/ Who and what do we want to become? Who and what are we being right now? How do we bridge the gap? These are the only questions that matter right now.
