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science
October 2007 
Politics and Spirituality
Posted on May 25th, 2007
by 
Shane
Shane
We've just had a national election round these parts. It's been quite an interesting experience for me; I was quite the political theorist before I entered full-time into the world of meditation. I guess it was just another stage in the ever-continuing search for happiness, both for me and for the rest of the world. At that time I used to bring myself almost to the point of illness searching for the ideal system in which we could all live together, one that would not be removed in some far-off Utopia and would appeal to the ordinary decent man on the street.
Now you could say the pendulum has swung the other way, and I try to have as little to do with mental theorizing as possible, preferring the lasting experiences of the heart to the mind's fleeting glimpses. Nevertheless it's interesting how meditation has changed my attitude to politics and politicians. There is a tendency to blame all ills on politicians; it conveniently distracts attention from the contribution of people themselves to society's woes. In Ireland, we basically have a one house parliament (plus another talking-shop house) in which the members are expected to do two full-time jobs at once - be both national legislator and local advocate. For most, their personal life is non existenct; family problems and marital discord are apparently quite high amongst politicians here. In any analysis, I generally tend to look past politicians to the system in which they have to work - and the analysis tends always to end up at the same basic point: ultimately, the buck stops with you and me and six billion others; the responsibility lies with each and every one of us to find the way in which we can make the world better. My teacher, Sri Chinmoy, has written hundreds of thousands of meditative aphorisms which often for me sum up a situation quite perfectly - here are two I find particularly illumining in this regard:
The answer to the problems
Of this world
Is for every one of us
To go beyond
Our present capacities
And become better
Every day
You can inspire others
Through your sincere concern
For humanity's happiness
And progress
p.s my new blog is at http://www.shanemagee.com/blog
Now you could say the pendulum has swung the other way, and I try to have as little to do with mental theorizing as possible, preferring the lasting experiences of the heart to the mind's fleeting glimpses. Nevertheless it's interesting how meditation has changed my attitude to politics and politicians. There is a tendency to blame all ills on politicians; it conveniently distracts attention from the contribution of people themselves to society's woes. In Ireland, we basically have a one house parliament (plus another talking-shop house) in which the members are expected to do two full-time jobs at once - be both national legislator and local advocate. For most, their personal life is non existenct; family problems and marital discord are apparently quite high amongst politicians here. In any analysis, I generally tend to look past politicians to the system in which they have to work - and the analysis tends always to end up at the same basic point: ultimately, the buck stops with you and me and six billion others; the responsibility lies with each and every one of us to find the way in which we can make the world better. My teacher, Sri Chinmoy, has written hundreds of thousands of meditative aphorisms which often for me sum up a situation quite perfectly - here are two I find particularly illumining in this regard:
The answer to the problems
Of this world
Is for every one of us
To go beyond
Our present capacities
And become better
Every day
You can inspire others
Through your sincere concern
For humanity's happiness
And progress
p.s my new blog is at http://www.shanemagee.com/blog
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