In today's world, more than ever, we are expected to pick a side.
No one ever talks about the middle.
Being in the middle doesn't mean you don't know right from wrong. Choosing the middle path doesn't mean you don't subscribe to an ideology. Opting to ride the middle line could just mean you're enlightened enough to understand everyone has their own experiences, their own fears, and their own viewpoints.
No one is right all the time. Blind allegiance to any ideology is foolhardy and dangerous. It's our responsibility to take the information given to us and weigh it for ourselves. But all the while we must remember that everyone else is weighing it for themselves too. We are never going to reach a consensus all the time, and this is where the middle path comes in.
From the left, you can only reach others on the left all the time; the same thing on the right. But from the middle you can reach almost everyone at least some of the time. Imagine the possibilities if we could all reach one another, even for just a moment.
Hate comes from ignorance.
Ignorance comes from insecurity.
Insecurity comes from fear.
Fear of the unknown can be eradicated with a single beacon of light.
Be someone's beacon of light.
Your practice this week will be to try the middle path. Don't approach everyone with a differing view as a combatant, but rather as a human being that has thoughts, dreams, and insecurities...the same as you do. Now find the middle ground and simply talk to them. Teach each other and help heal the world instead of ripping it all further apart.
Tikkun Olam: the human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world.
Instead of making others right or wrong, or bottling up right and wrong in ourselves, there’s a middle way, a very powerful middle way. We could see it as sitting on the razor’s edge, not falling off to the right or the left. This middle way involves not hanging on to our version so tightly. It involves keeping our hearts and minds open long enough to entertain the idea that when we make things wrong, we do it out of a desire to obtain some kind of ground or security. Could our minds and hearts be big enough to just hang out in that space where we’re not entirely certain about who’s right and who’s wrong? Could we have no agenda when we walk into a room with a person, not know what to say, not make that person wrong or right? Could we see, hear, feel other people as they really are? It is powerful to practice this way, because we’ll find ourselves continually rushing around to try to feel secure again—to make ourselves or them either right or wrong. But true communication can happen only in that open space. ~ Pema Chodron
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Meet Me in the Middle
Read this book and change your entire perspective.