This message, brothers and sisters, is for you, whether you are in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Venezuela, Haiti, Burma, North Korea, Tibet or wherever else is afflicted by the horrors of war and brutal, grinding oppression and dehumanization.
Living in a comparatively affluent, stable (for now) democracy, I cannot even begin to imagine the suffering you endure on a daily basis, whether from missiles slamming into your homes and hospitals, or from bullet-riddled streets plagued by snipers or drug gangs, from chronic civil strife, state terror and police brutality, imprisonment and torture, or simply from slow starvation and homelessness. Or even the more subtle, but relentless suffering you endure from persistent humiliation by those who despise you simply because of your skin color, ethnicity, social class, or religious heritage.
Though I can never justify violence, I can nevertheless understand why many of you — especially young men — would give up all hope, and embrace rage and hatred in its place, and seek bloody revenge on those you perceive as responsible for a world that has become, for you, hell on Earth.
Breathing in, I try my best to take upon myself your vast suffering, individually and collectively, both outwardly and inwardly, and do my best to feel your pain, even if you hate me because I am white, male, and privileged, and you would kill me if you had the chance.
Breathing out, I contact the jewel of compassion within myself and within all of us alike, the holy spirit, and send you unconditional love, caring, and support. This is the powerful Tibetan practice of Tonglen — taking in and identifying with others’ pain and suffering and rage, and breathing out pure love, comfort, encouragement, and in some cases forgiveness — not only to the victims of war and oppression, but to the morally crippled perpetrators as well — the Putins and Kim Jong Uns of this world. For the horrors they perpetrate are rooted within their own inner darkness, their fears, and their obsession with the illusion of power. They too crave peace and love, whether they know it or not.
This practice is difficult at first, but gets easier over time. I recommend it for all (and that is most of us, these days) who feel overwhelmed by the vast suffering of our dying world. Will it make things any better? Probably not, at least within any meaningful time frame of this life. But it will soften our hearts, and make it easier for us, in the words of Lao Tzu, to reward bitterness with care, or as Jesus said, to love our enemies and bless them that curse us. And in this way, we become a small part of the solution, our awakened compassion, our “limitless undying love” rippling subtly across the universe.