Dear Dhammanusari: (those who love Truth)
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” When an individual first starts to walk a spiritual path, they find that, in contrast to the loving kindness they are trying to develop, they see more negativity in the world and in the people around them. Perhaps negativity that they did not even see before. This may seem puzzling at first and it can be quite frustrating. It seems almost as if the decision to become spiritual has made that person into a negativity “crap” magnet. This is not the truth; the negativity is just standing out more, in contrast to the chosen goal of loving (spiritual) growth.
This occurs mostly because people who have chosen growth are not also choosing anything alternatively for themselves (in kamma formations i.e. ways of action) and are giving into what appears to be true, rather than seeking out the real and greater truth. The world comes along and presents a person with reasons for dissatisfaction; they have no basis to experience anything else. So people mostly choose the very things that are so dissatisfying to focus upon and hence live them out (in experience).
This is not uncommon; Mother Teresa, herself, did the same thing in her early years. It was decades before she “awakened” to see it differently. (She had a mindset in the beginning times of her work that all came from love. Then looking at the world, it saddened her to see what others were doing in, amidst and with that love). We too look at the world and see all the selfish things that people do and know that we all could be doing better. This, for those walking a path, is not in any way judgemental, but rather it is a sadness, a disparity, a frustration, with what is and what could be.
These frustrations occur because of the difference between what is “wanted” (spiritually and otherwise) in that person’s life and how it is actually accomplished. What does this mean? You must “Be the change you wish to see.”
Most lovingly and respectfully,
Namo Amitabha, don
