Americans only embrace the present moment during racial cases. Chauvin verdict
Not since Rodney King or the O.J. trials has the country anticipated a verdict. We’re people going to loot and riot if Chauvin was innocent. With the Chauvin verdict being released last week, were reminded again that public opinion and current events can keep us engaged in the present moment. Oftentimes more than most other things, unfortunately. Despite the growing popularity of meditation and self-help gurus, the masses remain in a trance by current events. In our series the internal riot, we exposed the spiritual inner battle of advocating for morals and justice. How and why were triggered by those who disagree with our ideals.
Furthermore, the media is dividing the population with stereotypes. This is effective because the majority of people don’t take the time to understand those who think differently from them. Let alone taking time to understand themselves as well. In our hectic rat-race society, we rarely take the time to stop and smell the flowers in our own lives. Especially with social media, we have become our own masters of distraction.
The media has managed to confiscate our sense of morality along with our attention span. Media manipulation is so advanced that we will suspend our addictions and distraction to “tune in”. In regards to the Derek Chauvin verdict, the masses were in a premeditative state of being reactive. This is giving power to the very system we despise. Is it juvenile to think rioting and civil unrest in this first-world society are going to intimidate the “oppressors” into serving justice from our perspective?
With this mindset, they have the power to make us joyful or riot. Two extremes that we should have as much control over as much as possible.
The stronghold of police injustice and racism is so ingrained in us by the media that many people of color feel it’s impossible to not do something. While we’re taught how to deal with the police, we’re never taught how to channel our righteous anger. Righteous anger for black people will never be accepted by white America en masse. Trump supporters will defend their storming of capitol hill, and label domestic terrorists as heroes. However, blacks are labeled as a racist, terrorists, and radical extremists. Both were fighting against the system, in their own ways and committed illegal acts. The only difference was skin color.
Buddhist philosophy tells us the desire and ignorance is the root of all evil. Despite our gripes with the American system and government, the majority of our suffering is self-inflicted. 90% is how you respond and is your fault. Social engineering has managed to trigger and invoke our responses based on things out of our control. We have no control over a jury or judge verdict. To place our decision to riot or not in the hands of people we don’t know, in cities and states we don’t live is unproductive. It keeps the same people in office who let the things we despise continue to happen.
This goes to show that acts of terror will not be perceived as what you think they will be perceived as. Rather acts of righteous anger will be perceived as confirmation bias for whites who only see blacks through the lens of media-manufactured stereotypes. However, how much justification can we give righteous anger? As anger will cloud our objectivity of the present moment no matter how we use it just for our moral actions.
When the country realizes that every present moment is a great moment, we will cease to be controlled through media headlines. We will regain control over our attention spans and our lives. Our emotions won’t be scripts based on the injustice or justice of a system.
Every slave movie, civil rights movie and video of unarmed police shootings triggers PTSD in black people. To deny or suppress these feelings is impossible. This is why this article, meditation, and Buddhist philosophy are so important. It takes damn near superhuman willpower to remain calm during these times.
But you have to protect your mental health. Righteous anger, rioting, protesting is taxing on the human soul and spirit and are thankless job or lifestyle. This isn’t to discourage people from advocating, it’s to say, similarly to the verdict, don’t base your happiness on the expectation and actions of others.
In conclusion, access to information has two sides. We can inform ourselves on knowledge to improve our lives. Or we can become trapped into the illusion of the material world and its expectations even more. Remember during the kali yuga age, for the next several thousand years expect quarrel. Expect people to not agree to disagree. It’s time we became realistic about our impact on society. How much can we really change?
Are we implementing change effectively? Undoing 400 years will take numerous lifetimes, that’s if it is ever eradicated. So should we treat every verdict as if it depends on our efforts? It is a great relief to the spirit to try our best, be objective and realistic about our advocacy and be ok with where the chips fall. Our mental health will thank us later.