Fight or Flight Starts in the Heart

The fight or flight moment—this is the real battle line, where the right choice requires that we use our mind and heart in a much greater way. First, what are we doing to overprotect our mind and heart that may be preventing their greater usage? The fight or flight process is based on fear, causing us to run in fear or fight in fear but a different kind.

It is actually the same attribute but working differently. Running in fear generally works from caring only about ourselves, whereas fighting in fear generally works from choosing to protect others we care about.

The former can create blindness in our heart, the latter vision of who we are fighting for. This is a cleansing of the eyes of our heart. The first image of a loved one in our heart is naturally their physical likeness. But then we may experience their light in our heart, the light common to all human life.

Although we were likely blind to their light prior to our fight for them, that does not mean it was not there. Nor does it mean that this common light is not there for everyone. It is just that we are usually only willing to go through intense experiences for a few close people, except for firefighters and police officers.

However, I do not need to remind you that we are all going through intense social experiences now, one after another. Each of them is capable of making us aware of this common light in those we are fighting for. But since we are fighting for the many in our cause, we may experience this common light on a large scale. In fact, we may experience it on a national scale.

The problem is, we do not want to see those we are fighting against in this light. But they are part of it, no matter how blind they may be to it in themselves and thus to seeing us in it. The same attribute that we chose to fight in, choosing not to run in fear, cleanses the eyes of our heart to see everyone in this light.

Seeing with this light collectively, we are trying to see the blind correctly and know what the right thing to do is. This is the higher love in all of us. Personal love requires getting to personally know others. But we often use it to close our eyes and live in our own world, never learning how to love others with our higher love. But now we are being drawn out of our personal lives and are tempted to hate those responsible for making it happen.

No matter how wrong they are, we are responsible for building our personal worlds and blinding ourselves to something much greater we are all a part of. We are just one of the lucky generations that are made to experience this kind of transformation, no matter how difficult it may be.

So, hold the the bridge over our national conscience (suneidesis),¹ where both sides can meet and learn how to see the common light in all of us.

The Bridge with Eyes

Spirituality and Democracy 3

1. Suneidesis is pronounced soon-eye-day-sis. After reading the link explaining it, you will see how central it is to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive in our awareness. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness.