Politics Without Polarity

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(Written in 2004)America’s in a presidential [tag]election[/tag] year. Russia will soon wrap up their presidential election. Pundits in Great Britain are wondering whether the Prime Minister can hold onto his ruling majority in Parliament. Haiti is in the midst of another coup de etat (though nobody wants to openly admit it). In San Francisco the City is defying the law by marrying [tag]same sex[/tag] couples for the first time in California history. The list goes on.

2004 just might be looked back upon as one of those years when “the people” spoke. But for those interested in their own evolution, who wish to live authentically, this year’s political stew poses an interesting question: How do you participate without falling into [tag]judgement[/tag] (the anathema of anyone seeking enlightenment) and thereby participating in the polarities and political divisions?

First, you have to have mastered most of your judgements — all of your judgements, not just the political ones, or not just all but the political ones. This means you’ll be acutely aware of the judgements that remain.

Once you’ve gotten a handle on the judgement issue, you’re in a position to take your power back from the political issues that are important to you. Not because you’re no longer interested, but because the next step is to uninvest — to emotionally, energetically uncouple from the issue. Remember:

That which you resist, persists. There is an old saying: “As within, so without; as above, so below.” One of the most commonly known laws of physics that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. By investing in an outcome, you create its opposite. In every political power system, the energy of the people is divided more or less equally among the major political parties, which usually number no more than two or three.So the greatest aid you can be to any political issue of importance to you is to uninvest!Now you’re in a position to look at those issues through a different lens: That of [tag]compassion[/tag], and intuition. Mystics have always expended their energy profligately in the world, but they always do so from that place Deepak Chopra calls “disinterest.” (Alesia calls it “detachment” in her seminars.) They’re acting from a place of internal and external congruence, which is best summed up as the absolute knowing that All Is One, and they (the mystic) is that one.

One of the most astute and dangerous politicians of history was also a great mystic: Saint [tag]Teresa of Avila[/tag]. When the [tag]Carmelite[/tag] Order sucessfully petitioned the Carmelite Vicar-General to order Teresa’s [tag]Discalced[/tag] Carmelites to disband, she politically outmaneuvered him and had the order blocked. In retaliation the Vicar-General eventually ordered the Calced monks and nuns excommunicated. [tag]John of the Cross[/tag], who had studied under Teresa, was arrested, flogged, given a drum-head trial, and then thrown in a cell. But Teresa could not be stopped. She and her most faithful followers retreated to the tiny convent of St. Joseph’s and for the next twenty-five years she traveled, taught, and wrote — not diatribes against her political opponents, but of her Truth: All Is One.

She wrote a book for the guidance of her followers. She wrote the Life, an authoritative treatise on the four stages of prayer, written in autobiograhical form. She wrote The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle. She wrote poetry, some of which we’re still discovering today.

Teresa saw no difference between her interior work and her external work. They were but two sides of the same coin. The world was the polishing stone that ground away the things that separated her from her Beloved, and Union with her Beloved was the place from which she strove to always act.

Today we like to compartmentalize our lives: Politics over here, spiritual life over there. . . But the Universe doesn’t work that way. All mystics have known this; modern mystics depend on it for their evolution. How you engage in politics mirrors for you your interior and tells you where your judgements and ego investments are. In this sense, the issues and the people are irrelevant and replaceable. In fact, they will be replaced until the internal issues you’re struggling with are overcome. Understand that, and like Teresa of Avila, you just might become one of the greatest politicans of our time.

As for Teresa, twenty-four years after the Discalced Carmelites were disbanded, the Pope reinstated the order. Her work finished, Teresa died a year later.