Dissolving Illusions - Ivan Granger

We are going through a collective process of disillusionment,
whether we like it or not.  We are being required to drop
our illusions and witness unpleasant truths, about ourselves
[individually and as a nation], and about the world around us.
We may ask: What have we ignored that has allowed such
fear and hatred to fester?  How have our political and social
systems become so damaged that they are unresponsive to
the needs of society?  What cruelties are encoded in society
that I have ignored or made excuses for?  How did we
imagine things were solid, when they are so fragile?  How
can my neighbor [or family members] believe such things,
and what is their hurt that I was blind to?  These are the
questions we are forced to ask now.

Painful though it may be, we can only be strengthened by
the process of disillusionment.  We want to drop our
illusions.  We want to see things as they are..

As a meditative exercise we can look at the reality we see,
the terrible and the beautiful together, and just sit with it;
[just be with it internally, meditatively].  It may break our
hearts, but we can just sit with it.  It may overwhelm us with
its immensity, but we don't run, we don't seek to merely feel
good.  Instead we just sit [be] with it.  We allow ourselves to
see and feel fully.  We watch our reactions to it, but are not
hooked by them.  In this way, we begin to inhabit a bigger 
reality.  Our personal sense of reality becomes more 
integrated and a truer reflection of what actually is.  As we do
this, we become more capable of fashioning healthier
 lives and healthier societies.

When I stop trying to assert some idea of how reality should work,
and just really notice what is.....everything just opens up.  The
heart opens in unexpected ways, making healing possible where
only walls seemed to stand.  It's easy to think that reality is
somehow broken, but when we really look, we discover that we
inhabit an improbable wholeness instead.  It's not entirely logical
amidst the world's fear and suffering, but look for yourself and see.
Really see.  Seeing the full picture, our actions become more 
effective and lasting.  Looking honestly, we become capable of
compassion and connection, where there was only anger and hatred....

Ivan Granger
Excerpt from a commentary on a poem by May Sarton
at Poetry Chaikhana

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering
taken from inside, reflecting objects in the room in the window -
giving the illusion of another reality...