I found this “short” today on YouTube.
Intention
I want to hear this message with care.
Hearing Myself with Care
I am in trouble, because at first I am indignified and in one millisecond a whole bunch of stories appear in my consciousness. I do not do anything to generate them, they just appear in single flash of a moment. I need more time to spell them out – they appear from unconscious reactivity and I need to make light!
This guy is a Russian-paid agent, trying to dismantle our democratic society. He is paid by Margarita Simoyan, who sends her Russian army of desinformation warriers all over the Western free world. How can he compare opposition leaders and courageous citzens in Russia with people who get into legal troubles in the UK for using racist language?! WTF?!
It is VERY easy to mistake these thoughts for actual reality. This guy is just plain wrong and I need to tell him that! In fact, it is my habit. I usually believe that what I think is actually true. If I do nothing, if I act on automatic pilot, I will try to correct this guy or people who like him and tell them what is wrong with them and how they need to be different.
And then they will not be hearing me in that and then I will get more frustrated and more angry.
So the first moment of stopping needs to honor my thoughts AS JUDGMENTS and hear those thoughts with care for their inherent beauty.
I want to slow down and ask myself – what are you valuing, what are you needing, when you evaluate this message with such judgmental words?
Do you need a shared reality with what is really going on in the world?
Are you needing support and solidarity from people in the free and democratic countries?
Are you scared? Do you need trust and do you value safety, honesty and openness?
Are you wanting a world that is just and works for all?
These questions are beautiful to hear for me. I can take time and feel their resonance inside.
When I ask them and sense into my inner world, I feel more peaceful, less tense. My breathing relaxes and I feel relief.
Hearing Konstantin with Care
Now back to Konstantin. What is he wanting to point out? What am I able to hear?
His first point: He says that more people have been arrested for what they said on social media in the UK than in Russia – 400 in Russia vs. 3300 in the UK.
It sounds to me, that he is requesting to have us take care of our stuff at home, before pointing fingers at others.
“Do you like it, Konstantin, when people clean up their own house first before blaming others for not doing so?”
Integrity – When Consciousness and Actions Match
I feel connection in my body, when I connect with that meaning – integrity – oneness of consciousness and actions. It is so inspiring when people act in harmony with their values, when words and actions match.
In Matthew 7:3 of the Gospel of Matthew (part of the Sermon on the Mount) Jesus invites us to connect with the same beautiful meaning and he also uses Jackal communication:
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:41-46 (New American Bible, revised edition)
I want to listen to more of his message with care.
He illustrates his point with the case of a woman who lost her friend in a car accident. She posted her friend’s favorite song on her Instagram, which contained several instances of the N-word. She was then arrested, prosecuted and found guilty. The verdict included 500 hours of community service and a fine. She was also tagged and would have to remain under nightly curfew for one year.
[Get more information on this case and what happened here. This may not help us to connect with the meaning, if we start to argue with Konstantin about the facts of this case (which seem to differ quite a lot from his version of events). Again, you will probably need more self-compassion, if you want to learn more about this emblematic case. I find myself in immediate reaction and wanting to argue with the guy … indignation and wanting people to treat facts with care and respect.]
Fairness
What resonates most for me in his meaning is the injustice of the British authorities. So I hear he is requesting for people to be treated fairly by authorities.
“I hear you say that you find it unfair if artists are allowed certain ways of speaking, but ordinary citizens are prosecuted for the same words. Do you like when people are treated with fairness, especially when it concerns the way authorities treat ordinary people?”
Respecting feelings
Another request I hear is to respect the vulnerable feelings of people – respect for a person in grief and, perhaps even more strongly, respect for a dead person.
“Do you like when people respect the personal grieving of mourners?”
Or:
“I hear you say that the song for which the woman was prosecuted was actually the favorite song of a young boy, who was killed in a car accident. Do you want the love and values of the deceased boy to be treated with respect?”
Freedom of Expression
A third value might be contained in the way Konstantin talks about the N-word: “The lyrics contained several instances of the N-word, because it was a rap song.”
“I hear you say that the use of the N-word is nothing unusual in rap songs. Are you valuing freedom of speech?”
I do connect to the value of freedom myself, and it gets stronger and more precious, when people try to restrict my freedom by telling me what is right and what is wrong. In the current cultural movements we can see a rise of racist language and attitudes.
In a nutshell this illustrates the whole challenge of hearing people with care. A person using a racial slur is not expressing themselves with care, but hearing them as using “racist” language is not hearing them with care. While understandable that people are both in pain and unable to communicate, all the same, it gets tragic as the spiral of violence is getting wound up more and more.
The label “racist” does not in my view constitute a way of speaking with care. I absolutely do not say that is is wrong to use this label. I am saying that it would be better to hear our needs for others, if we could say it without making someone or a whole group of people wrong. “I like to live in a world where everybody can be seen in their individual beauty, as we are all created in the image of God.”
Such a phrase might be suprising or not even work at all. Yet, I can say this internally and apply first my skill of hearing a meaning of a person, who is acting in a way that I might consider to be racist, homophobic or dehumanizing.
Conclusion
I do feel more relaxed and in connection with my needs and the needs put forward by Konstantin.
The sense I get from this work of compassion is that I feel on shaky ground, as if my feet were not on the earth but on a ship floor on the ocean – moving.
My needs triggered by this short are quite intense.