I was reading the site of some “healer” person who claims to help people by identifying things that cause their suffering and dealing with them.
This same person also expresses how they are afraid of President Trump.
What if there are problems with the world because people like this “healer” are themselves fucked up? What if the way that this “healer” person lives actually is complicit with the perpetuation and increasing of bad things in the world, for which other beings must suffer? How useful is their therapy then?
I think this type of thinking comes from a delusion about what life really is about and what it means to be a human being in a society, in the world. Who we are, and the types of discomforts we endure are connected to everything around us. We cannot simply excise one undesirable component of our existence as if it’s totally separated from everything else and act as if we are free to deal with it as we want.
Often we cannot. There are many things in life that we cannot change, that we must accept. We may endure substantial discomfort and suffering in our lives because the world we are in is fucked up, and that itself may mean that the people around us – our families, our communities, our societies – are fucked up.
Yes in esoteric Buddhist teachings ultimately we are responsible for everything including being born into a shitty family or shitty community or society in which we are going to experience suffering.
While technically true, if you use that as your sole operating principle in determining how you interact with others, it is extremely uncompassionate.
I feel that Taoism is actually one of the most compassionate spiritual practices because it always involves being in the moment with complex situations. There are actually some classic stories about this in the writings of Chuang Tze regarding Taoism and compassion.
Part of being compassionate for others involves actually taking responsibility for the fucked up world around us and being good citizens. Unfortunately too many people are so deeply attached to their need to virtue signal that they are out of touch with what is actually occurring in their worlds. You cannot help a society nor help others if you don’t even know what is going on and if you are not involved with it.
Being compassionate, which means being able to make some actual difference with respect to causes of suffering – for ourselves and for others – means being skilled and being aware.
We live in a culture which in many ways rewards people for not being aware. Such a condition of society is full of pitfalls because what is actually promoting suffering through ignorance and lack of skill may actually be able to appear as decreasing suffering.
My experience is that a lot of “healing” is just copping out from dealing with things in the world that need to be dealt with. They may not be dealt with because the person is cut off from them, or because they avoid them. Usually it’s some combination of both.
Humans have a productive side and also a destructive side. Any form of healing must deal with the destructive side and be aware of it. The work of dealing with such things is not glamorous. It will not be some popular topic for a class or symposium. It is messy and deals with hard realities that have to do with the core of human behavior.
Unfortunately there are many people in positions of authority who are not sufficiently adept at understanding much less dealing with the core of human nature to actually make real changes. Ultimately such people may substantially increase suffering in the world.
I’m not necessarily saying this is true for the healer person I read about. But reading about this person made me think of these things and about the danger of things that claim to reduce suffering.
Any good teaching will tell you that suffering is part of the world and always will be. It will not delude you into a false belief that you can change what cannot be changed. A good teaching will help you stay grounded and in the moment, and keep you attentive to and focused on reality, not less attentive and less focused.
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