Who Do We Choose To Be?

by Jessica Girija Jewell

What a week.

I’ve spent a good amount of time resting, practicing yoga, and searching for guidance on how to be with personal heart ache and collective upheaval.

I read the Shambhala warrior prophecy in Margaret Wheatley's book, Who Do We Choose To Be? and wanted to share a short version of it with you. If you’d rather listen to the longer version, here’s a link to the late, great Joanna Macy relating the prophecy as shared by her teacher.

"There comes a time when all life on Earth is in danger. At that time, great powers have arisen who waste their wealth in preparations to annihilate each other. These powers have weapons of unfathomable devastation, and technologies that can lay waste to the world. 

It is at this point, when the future of all human beings hangs by the frailest of threads, that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges. You cannot go there, for it is not a place. It exists in the hearts and minds of the Shambhala warriors. 

The Shambhala warriors know that the weapons can be dismantled because they are manomaya, mind-made. Made by the human mind, they can be unmade by the human mind.

The Shambhala warriors train in the use of two weapons: compassion and insight. 

You need compassion because it provides the fuel to move you out to where you need to be, to do what you need to do. It means not being afraid of the suffering of your world. When you’re not afraid to be with the pain, then nothing can stop you.

But the weapon of compassion is very hot, it can burn you out so you need the other weapon: insight.

Insight shows us the radical interconnectivity at the heart of all existence. We are so interwoven that even the smallest act done with clear intention has repercussions through the whole web, beyond your capacity to see.

But the weapon of insight is a little cool, a little abstract, so you need the heat of compassion. 

I'm meditating on why the world's suffering causes me to grip in fear and how fear can be transformed into something more useful. I know the practice of yoga, of mantra, is at least part of what's needed.

Does any part of this story touch your heart? Please feel welcome to let me know.