Desire to Exist
(Our Basic Needs)
Desire,
to exist,
to be happy, and
to express ourselves,
is our primal yearning.
This drive can be
the tremendous force that
moves mountains and changes the world.
We need
physiological security in
air, food, water, clothing,
shelter, and sleep.
Our
emotional satisfaction includes security,
health, self-esteem, self-acceptance,
sexual intimacy, recognition,
bonding, and connection.
Our
spiritual self-actualization requires
creative expression,
spiritual communion, freedom, and
transcendence.
Not meeting the needs of
the body, mind, and spirit
can leave us feeling frustrated,
incomplete, and deprived.
Desire is the radiant energy that gives
us the aliveness, creativity, and
momentum for life and love --
to be the essence of who we are,
to realize our own nature, and
to actualize who we long to be deeply.
To be born is enough. All are
entitled to these needs.
Sylvia Young Chu, April 8, 2024
In the Gaza-Israel Conflict *
In the Gaza-Israel Conflict,
intense violence, and
immense human suffering
have nailed my attention, and
pierced my heart --
the coordinated land, sea, and
air assault by Hamas and
the ongoing displacement, killing, and
withholding of basic needs by Israel.
The region has become a polarized world
engaging in visceral attack and reactivity,
of fear, anxiety, and rage, and
each side seeing the other
as the horrible enemy.
The conflict has escalated into
heightened emotions and
hardened stances.
Both parties want nothing but
to hurt the evil other.
My heart honors people's right
to exist in safety and
to seek justice and fairness.
Conflict, however, will continue
if both parties persistently say,
“We are right; they are wrong.”
“It is us versus them.”
Other humans are never
our enemies to attack, nor
our opponents to withhold from them their
basic necessities of
water, food, medicine, and electricity.
For a peaceful and loving solution,
all life
must be cherished as a valuable treasure.
We act from a compassionate presence
to relieve suffering.
We cannot rest in silence or passivity;
our intention and action matter.
Let us take a minute of silence
to pray for the Gaza-Israel Conflict --
that the conflicting parties may have
attitude change
and see the other as ‘a friend,’
that both sides may come together for
policy change
as collaborators and equals, and --
to be open to surprises and possibilities,
to work not as enemies but as ‘one of us,’
to treat the other with respect and reverence,
to understand each other’s perspectives,
to engage in dialogues and idea exchanges, and
to listen to the basic human needs of the other,
to learn where the other is coming from and why,
to interact socially in meditations, sports, and gatherings,
to recognize the pressures from extremists on both sides,
to know that terrorists may not reflect the view of the country,
to find a common ground, solving a common problem, and
to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.
As Rumi’s poem says,
“Beyond right and wrong
there is a field,
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other'
do not make any sense.”
Let us take another minute of silence
to be aware of our own humanity, and
our deep, inner spirit.
Our practice has taught us
to pay attention
to our oneness with other beings;
to go within
to our tender presence
and
to feel --
the shocking
existential fear,
retaliation, injustice,
racism, starvation,
destruction, and carnage that
have taken place
in the region.
There is shocking and
undeniable suffering.
Wisdom rises from the
full presence
with
all there is
moving through our body,
mind, and heart.
Let us be intimate with
our body sensations of
muscle tightening, eye twitching,
tension, and fatigue.
Let us connect inwardly
to recognize
our innermost feelings of
grief, heartache, anxiety, and anger.
We let in the pain of those traumatized and
to feel their fear and loss.
We open our heart to their sorrow in starvation,
their homes destroyed, and their families killed.
We grieve with them in their devastation and
taste their gripping desperation.
We deepen our understanding that historic
causes and trauma have led to the current conflict.
That hatred is healed by love alone;
that violence begets more violence.
That pain cannot blind us to what is needed --
the sovereignty, dignity, security, and basic needs of all people.
Our future depends on our intention and action --
what we yearn and what we do.
We can no longer look away and allow hunger,
brutality, desperation, and death to innocent people.
What is humanity asking us to do?
Sylvia Young Chu, April 8, 2024
*In the Gaza-Israel Conflict: After reading Tara Brach, “What is Love
Asking from Us?”
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