Facing the Shadows

 During the book discussion group today, a comment emerged about how certain politicians in our time could benefit from Buddhist practices, particularly around Silent Illumination (which I will abbreviate as SI). I have written about this practice before (based on the little that I truly know and experience), but the essence of SI Chan is that one is both silent in mind (calm) and illuminating the world around us (illuminating) to the point where one experiences immersion in phenomena with a clarity of awareness---almost like a camera taking a photograph. This is a little bit oversimplified to say the least, but a person in power would likely be doing a service to other beings if she or he practiced clarity of awareness that is not focused on the self or reputation. This does not necessarily mean that a person have no feelings or be completely numb to their personal needs or reactions to things. Rather, the attitude becomes to see those things with a clarity that does  not get attached to reactions or want to do something about them. It is also not operating from self reference, but considers the gain of the whole, not a single person or a party.
  I do think that it's important to, however, to get an insight into why people don't practice such illumination. Why? It's because knowing how the shadow works helps us to be more reconciled to others when they don't practice clarity of mind. If I never experience moments of sorrow, pain, frustration, set-backs, or even times when selfish inclinations might arise in me, will I be able to understand the other person who does have these inclinations? Possibly yes, but likely not at all, because I lack the context to realize those inclinations in myself. The fact is that sometimes what I think is "someone else's problem" is really my own inner projection. What I am seeing is not another person's problem at all but rather my inability to reconcile with aspects of myself that I find difficult or simply don't like at all. Knowing how I can give into the same things that others give into can allow me to feel more compassion for people, particularly knowing that people aren't choosing these states of being at all. Rather, they simply haven't found a teacher who speaks to them and can relieve them of the stresses that overwhelm them.
   To truly illuminate is not to say, "that belongs to them; this belongs to me". It is rather to be fully reconciled in mind and heart to the way people are, and not to feel that anything that is happening to people is caused deliberately by themselves. It is also to embrace moments when people have not quite found the way out of their suffering--to see that this very suffering mind is not flawed but is truly a profound mind that hasn't quite realized its greatness yet.