Tragedy

Randomness and Order

What can be said about tragedy?  As a spiritual warrior the word compassion is often used.  We must have compassion, but must we?  Is that freedom?  Compassion to most ordinary people is pity.  It is a sham ability to separate our selves from the experiences of others and secretly believe we are better, above or untouched by tragedy.   Compassion of a warrior is freedom.  Freedom, when we look deep into it, makes us aware that the universe if filled with random events and experiences, which change on a dime the directions we take.  Compassion of the warrior is the awareness that we are all equal in the face of infinity and freedom.  We are exactly the same.

The warrior does not feel the loss of a people half a continent away.  That drama is drama of the highest kind.  It is the drama of the poor-boy syndrome of self-importance.  Rather the warrior knows that tragedy is a daily event everywhere and is bound up not in the random acts of violence but rather how we respond to the everywhere randomness of the universe in all its mystery and wonder.  We can’t be responsible for the randomness of the universe but we can be responsible for our response to it.

Therein is the key for those of us who walk a spiritual path.  We cannot ask, why did this happen or even search for meaning or revenge, this is the drama of self-importance…. This is as if we could control it all.  But rather we can respond in freedom and awareness and slip sideways or offer a helping hand for no reason at all.  This is what makes humans so amazing.  We adapt and respond to the randomness of the universe as it unfolds around us.  We have been adapting to it for millions of years and our awareness has grown as a result of these challenges.

For it is in the response, the acts of awareness and kindness, of action and ability, of being and doing within a rapid shift that makes us stronger as individuals and even stronger as humans.  This is what can be seen in the middle of tragic times.  Do we need them, probably… should we plan for them, maybe… should we create them, never.  The universe is full enough with random acts of violence, humans aligned with immorality and the like.

Freedom is the ability to see power in every moment, every action no matter how small or large.  Power is as power moves.  It is in tragedy that we see power move rapidly to reassemble vast bands of awareness and charge us with the knowledge that life is awesome.