Now we come to the most important information of all about how we should view Donald Trump, his henchmen, and anyone we might see as behaving in a way we do not agree with. First let us talk about the giant dilemma we face. We know now that this universe is based on a simple activity, observation. Physics has discovered the observer effect, the fact that you cannot observe an experiment without affecting the outcome. This has far reaching implications for how we live our lives. Our observation of something helps to bring it into being, in other words helps to manifest it or create it. However it is not just pure neutral observation that makes the difference. The truth is, it is our observation plus our attitude, expectation, and intention that has the greatest impact. 

So if scientists have certain expectations or wishes for the outcome of an experiment, it will tend to skew the outcome in that direction. If one group of scientists wants one outcome then it will tend to go that way and if another group of scientists want a different outcome, low and behold the experiment will go that way. This is why double blind experiments were brought into being, to eliminate the problem of influencing the results. Translated to our everyday lives, what all this means is that we will experience that which we tend to believe will happen. If we think someone is a real ass then we will tend to experience them more and more as an ass because we are actively promoting that through our expectations and our emotional reactivity. So in a curious way we are responsible for how we experience people and for the outcomes we experience.

Now this is a giant pisser for human beings because it is counter intuitive. It seems so unfair. A person can act like a complete bully and we have to take responsibility for this? What the %#&*+!%^%!!!!!! Well it is not quite like that. Each person is personally responsible for the way they behave and the way they are. We are each responsible also for what we reinforce so when we pile on someone and expect them to be worse they begin to lean in that direction and then we get to feel right and vindicated. So the hard part is that if we don’t want things to get worse we have to watch our anger, our prejudices, our desire to judge and complain and tendencies to attack. Keep in mind here that to judge and be discerning are two different things. To judge is usually to condemn and to discern is be discriminating in our judgments.

To understand this it is a good idea to look at the behavior of someone who is spiritually advanced like for example the Dalai Lama. Now if there ever were someone who was justified in hating the Chinese for what they did to him and his people it would be the Dalai Lama. However, as someone who is an old soul and spiritually advanced he knows that attacking the Chinese and railing against them is not going to help at all. Because of the observer effect this would only reinforce their bad behavior with regard to Tibet. So if you will notice, the Dalai Lama is very diplomatic when discussing the Chinese. He does not call them names and attack them but he does make clear that Tibet needs to be free and that his people need to be treated justly.

People are amazed at his kindness and compassion but if they knew what he knows they would be inclined to take this path themselves, realizing that they are only fueling the suffering by resisting and complaining.

So what can we learn from the Dalai Lama about how to Treat Donald Trump and his clan? For one we can acknowledge him as a human being with a divine essence like each one of us. Secondly we can recognize that he is a younger soul behaving as a younger soul often does. We would be foolish to expect a ten year old to always behave like a seventy year old and be horrified when they don’t. In other words we need to open our eyes and understand what and who we are dealing with and get rid of our unrealistic expectations. Donald Trump is not evil through and through. No one is. He has his moments where his innocence shows through. Sometimes between tantrums and tirades he says something very rational and sometimes he behaves like a proverbial deer in the headlights.

We need to not resist the man just like a martial arts master is never there for the blow of their attacker. We allow that person to learn from their own mistakes and the consequences of their own behavior. This is the most effective way of teaching. Donald Trump and his buddies will learn the hard way just as we have all learned the hard way that certain ways of being do not produce happiness and a feeling of safety. His select crew will end up fighting among themselves, becoming deeply paranoid, building fortresses for themselves against the people at large. The methods they used to rise to power will also be the same pathways that lead to a loss of power because these paths are unsustainable.

The idea of freedom is so engrained in Americans that even though we have given it away as if it had no value we still think of ourselves as free, and in the long run this makes us unlikely candidates for a dictatorship. There may be attempts to move in that direction but there will be massive protests before too long. It will not be easy to crush this spirit that reflects our identities as Americans.

As I mentioned very briefly in the last article, perhaps the greater question is, “Will this nation state be able to hold itself together for much longer. According to many studies most nation states do not last more than 250 years. What is interesting is that a complete Pluto orbit around the sun takes 248 years and astrologers have been able to track this orbit to nation states collapsing within 250 years of their birth. Only a couple have managed to complete two Pluto orbits, one being the Roman Empire lasting close to 500 years, several of the Chinese dynasties, and the Egyptian dynasties. It has been 240 years since the United States was born in 1776 so we are just shy of 248 years of the Pluto orbit. That could be filled by two Trump terms if he has two. Will the United States survive? We shall see. Already there is serious talk of various states seceding including both Texas and California that has the 6th largest economy in the world. However California would have to secede illegally since it is bound by different laws than Texas, which has the legal right to secede any time they want to. This was a condition of their becoming a state in the first place.

Just the other day I was in an airport in California and the vendors were all selling hats that said, “California Republic.” I’ve never seen that blatant phrase of independence before.

The United States at this time is seriously polarized and consists of populations of people that have entirely different value sets and who want entirely different social structures.  Is there a way of bridging this divide and finding common ground? It is difficult to imagine. On the other hand if the country were to break up into a number of smaller countries we would still be living right next door to neighbors who most likely would hate our values. That is the situation in Europe and it doesn’t look any easier than being one big nation.

Simply put there is no easy solution. We have to be prepared for change, something that is inevitable. The changes coming may be foisted on us by people who don’t share our values or they may be influenced by our own deepest desires and wishes. That would be better but not necessarily easy. You may think you have no say in the matter but that would not be true. The paradox is that each person is a tiny drop in the bucket of our nation but each person has enormous influence and power to steer the nation toward a variety of future scenarios. Even if you sit back and think you are doing nothing at all, you are still casting your vote one way or the other. The more of a vision we share the more power that vision has to come about.

What you can do? First of all, what can you do about Trump? Well there are several things. Instead of hating him it would be better to bless him, something that does not mean you agree with him or support his agenda in any way. It can only help. The other thing you can do is visualize him inside an octahedron, a stabilizing force. Better to have Donald Trump more stable than less so. Regarding his crew the same would apply. Bless them all. The alternative, hating and attacking, is not good for them or for you. This is what Jesus meant by saying “Love your enemies” and what the Dalai Lama means when he says his religion is “Loving Kindness.” Both of them have learned by hard experience over many lifetimes what the consequences of attacking and criticizing are. These responses only produce more and worse of what you don’t want. That is the way everyone learns, the hard way. Finally it dawns on people that after centuries of making things worse, they can have a different approach and things begin to improve instead. Every one of us who is learning this lesson also learns it by noticing what happens when other people are kind to us and forgive us for being complete idiots at times. We begin to notice how we ourselves respond as opposed to our own response to hate and vengeance. The difference is no contest.

So what is the place of anger in this scenario? Is anger a no no? This depends upon how you use it. Anger can be a good motivator. It can make you angry to see an adult abusing or beating a small child or even an animal for that matter. You may be motivated to intervene or take action so that this does not happen again. You may be motivated to help create educational or public awareness programs to deal with the source of the problem. Anger is a motivator and has often helped people to act constructively. However if anger fuels vengeance or attacking those you are angry with, then it is not at all helpful.

In other words, anger directed toward problem solving can be good; anger directed toward a person is usually not. With that said I often find myself exasperated with younger souls, their values, and their attitudes. However I have learned to immediately recognize that they are behaving just the way I behaved when I was a younger soul. Over the lifetimes I have seen that I have done just about everything one can do wrong from being a dangerous murderer to being a slave owner, a prostitute, a betrayer of friends, a thief, and a liar. I have taken advantage of others, broken their spirits, manipulated people, created scandal, and spread false rumors that destroyed people’s lives. I have waged war, ordered forests cut down for military purposes, and sent hundreds to their deaths in battle. All I have to do is to reflect on this for one second and I am humbled. I get it. I am looking at myself as I once was and instead of going into knee jerk rejection, I find it more interesting and challenging to choose compassion as I look at my reflection in the grand mirror that is life. This is in no way easy. It is a discipline and a practice that brings many hard earned rewards. However I am no saint at this time, just  someone learning a better way through advisement from my Spirit helpers.

Perhaps you too are on this path and need encouragement and reminders, often. I know I do. In the end it is best to respect and honor our enemies, even if we have to fight them, and fight them we will if they try to take our freedoms away or attempt to destroy this planet. There is a ring-pass-not at some point.

2017, like a worthy opponent, will provide ample opportunities for these lessons. There is no faster process of spiritual growth than adversity and challenges. Perhaps we can sneak in some hearty guffaws, belly laughs, and chuckles in between appalling events. Happy trails.

JOSÉ STEVENS

José Stevens PhD is an international lecturer, corporate team builder and organizational coach, consultant and trainer. A psychologist, licensed clinical social worker and author of more than twenty books and numerous articles, he is also co-editor for A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism and a board member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He is the founder, with his wife Lena, of the Power Path School of Shamanism and The Center for Shamanic Education and Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth in indigenous cultures. He has completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol Maracame in Mexico and has studied with the Shipibos of the Amazon and the Paqos of the Andes for the last thirty years.

Go to: www.thepowerpath.com