
Look at Trump’s face being called out by the Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde during his inauguration as she talks about compassion and mercy.
I’ve seen it before.
This is the same face I get when I ask people about their compassion and mercy when consuming animals. Fascinating. Exactly the same face.

You see, this is one of the reasons why in communism The Church was highly restricted, banned even. A lot of priests were silenced, imprisoned, sent to Gulags or murdered. This is why when Poland emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, when it finally fell, it seemed like everyone was religious. And probably some were deeply religious, but not necessarily compassionate, as these two are not the same.
When one lives in a state of ‘survival’, there is no space for compassion. We simply cannot access this virtue inside of the brain as it lies in the sphere of the Parasympathetic Nervous System, not the fight-and-flight.
However, if every day you take the time, to meditate (or pray), be mindful, aware, conscientious and calm, it’s not difficult to see the big picture.
Once you finally stop the rat race, once you finally stop being busy for the sake of being busy, habitually busy, distracted, restless, mindless (stupid?), you start seeing the big picture. You elevate yourself from the bullshit of everyday tediousness and repetitive thoughts of the Dark Side.
When we’re habitually busy / distracted / restless, it feels painful to stop. It takes a tremendous amount of force and willpower (mind-power) to slow down, take a deep breath and asses the situation: Is this true? Or is this only what my mind is telling me?
It's hard. It’s an everyday job to keep discerning. To keep deciphering.
“God, grant me the serenity… and the wisdom to know the difference.” – yes, serenity. A quiet mind.
Without serenity there is no discernment. Without a quiet mind, we’ll be forever drowning in the dark.
But look what’s happening. The opposite. I try to venture less and less onto social media of any type, but when I do, everyone is arguing. The amount of noise out there is deafening. Nobody is listening, everybody is shouting. Nobody is debating. It’s just noise. Loads of noise.

Be quiet!
Stop. Just stop.
The pull of the Dark Side is so alluring: the busy-ness, restlessness, the arguments and conspiracy theories. The whinging, complaining and getting busy writing about your cynical attitude that you somehow call ‘woke’. It feels good, doesn’t it?
Wow, well done. You deserve a pat on the shoulder. The little child that just had a tantrum is satisfied, exhausted, might be quiet for a while.
We hate talking about compassion and love and kindness in a world that is full of restlessness. You are so busy with your everyday tedious crap that these qualities seem like speaking Vietnamese.
And what we do when we don’t understand something? We make fun of it. We take the piss. We belittle.
That is the Dark Side creeping in again. The Dark Side is always there. Waiting. The Dark Side, unlike most of us, is patient. It’s tempting. It’s easy.
No, please stop. Stop complaining that you are too busy to think about compassion. You fell for it again. You are doing it again, can’t you see?
The blind are those who cannot see. The blind will never be free.
Because true freedom is to live from a space in your heart. The space of the mind that is calm and clear. When you see things for what they are… but with an open mind. A mind that is calm.
You’ve got this.
We’ve got it. We can live in a world that is kind and beautiful.
But we need to quieten our mind. This is an inside job. To reconcile with the Dark Side, to calmly look it in the eyes and choose.
To face the truth and choose. Give off light, or darkness. Be a candle, or the night. – Master Yoda

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