24 Sep
2014
Posted in: Resources, Teachers
By    Comments Off on Never! Always! Everyone!

Never! Always! Everyone!

Today I want to point you to an excellent blog post by Ajahn Sucitto, titled Sex, Sin and the Inner Tyrant, in which he talks about….well, sex…and the terrible things that result when the “Inner Tyrant….is supported by, or morphs into, the Outer Tyrant of political or religious repression.” (His post was written after teaching a retreat in Ireland, so the grim accounts of the Magdalene Laundries are particularly on his mind.)

On the “Inner Tyrant”:
Take note of the tyrannical voice: “never,” “always,” “the rest of your life,” and “everyone thinks” are standard references. The Tyrant always presents perceptions and impressions as solid truth, and based on that, operates in terms of black-and-white realities, prophesies and judgements. Justice and “what they/I deserve” are common slogans, messages that blaze through the mind with such conviction that we never examine their logic — and how they sour us.

Once infected by the Tyrant, the mind can justify any action; particularly a wrathful response to perceived evil. Hence Crusades, missions, jihads, witch-hunts pogroms, torture and jails. The Tyrant often masquerades as the Just God.

Justice? It’s too often a mask for self-interest and revenge…….

Meditation offers a resolution of the conundrum of passion. All compulsions grab the heart and deprive us of freedom; without meditation, people just use the Tyrant of blame, repression and punishment to ward off the Tyrant of compulsive desire. When we’re thrown between these two forces, we lose self-respect, empathy and clear understanding.

But when we operate in terms of present-moment experience, and a clear and empathic approach to meeting the energies of fear, rage and desire as they happen to us, then there’s a way out of the tyranny. The energy of desire can then be held and correctly channeled  not into prophesies or assumptions of what others think or God wills, but into the full fruition of the heart.

***

Click here to read the full post on Ajahn Sucitto’s blog.

Comments are closed.