part of why dogma is comforting to us is because we fear betrayal and disbelonging. we’re trained to think that if others think and believe the same way we do, they’re less likely to betray or abandon us. dogma is a result of a distorted need for belonging on a collective level . but distortions of your need for belonging will always betray you. this is because dogma is about dominion and dominion in the colonial sense can never create a true home of connection for the heart.
as many of you know, dismantling puritanical political ideology is a passion of mine because I tried to find belonging in that dogma and only ended up more separated and fractured than before. one of the textures of this dogma that I’ve been sitting with lately is how we think being invested in the liberation movement means no joy or pleasure while suffering is occurring, which is just a perpetuation of the binary thinking empire installed in us. we wonder why artists and mystics are walking around confused and separated. we celebrate them in “good times but shame and distance them in “hard times”, as if Suffering, like Change, aren’t constants.
binary thinking leaves us with incomplete understandings of how to be in and with the world without being consumed by it to the point that we are actually no longer available and stable enough to be relied on to sustainable contribute to it. this is by design.
a natural consequence of repairing our wounds of disbelonging is that we’re no longer so fogged up by our unmet needs. this enables us to engage in thinking beyond the binary and developing our own nuance and discernment to navigate the world and its seeming ever increasing complexity. when we enter the heart we remember that while life is complex some things remain exceedingly simple, such as what is and isn’t love. we remember our humanity, and that is the ultimate antidote to every festering wound operating at overwhelming scales on the planet.
let yourself lean into the world that is right before you, the people and the meaning immediately surrounding you, and ask love to reveal itself. where is joy? where is pleasure? where is peace? it’s there, in your now moment, that you will find belonging.🌹
if you have questions about any of this, worldbuilding tensions, or general advice requests drop them in the comments before 7pm Tuesday or in the box on Close Friends on IG.
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