Interacting with the Good and the Potentially Dangerous

People that we have ever deemed to be potentially dangerous, and deemed so with applied patience, understanding and compassion, create a complicated human landscape for us. What to do with this subset of people has always been fraught with frustration and mistep. It is through our misteps as a baby that give us the potential to walk as a child. We're learning how to navigate a rich, fertile and dangerous environment. This is much more than walking we're after.

Believing again in someone isn't an accurate portrayal of our intention, as our belief in others is quite firm. Being an active participant in unearthing their basic goodness is quite another. Instead of actively engaging the person, observation and considerate interaction seem warranted and accurate. Everyone does learn differently and at their own rate of adaptation.

The pitfall here is in not being open to the truth of change. We need to be open to allowing others to improve, descend or to make no effort whatsoever. What is the alternative?

We see a see-saw here. We want to get off of the see-saw and throw away the pivot point. That pivot point is us grouping people in for and against, worthy and unworthy, good and bad.

When we take a fresh examination with this realization coupled with our history with people, we see our role in what's happening for these people. No wonder they're so dazed and so confused. How can someone go from us seeing them as basically good to only dangerous with good intentions?

What a harsh reality for someone to experience, especially if they're caught up in that pivot point. No wonder people keep walking back and forth on the see-saw trying to find a happy balancing space and finding none. No wonder we suffer as a result. When they realize they're on a sinking ship, they just keep walking back and forth hurriedly, making the whole see-saw system increasingly dangerous.

All of this life is dangerous. It is OUR decisions that bring about our own dangerous repercussions. These people are no less or more dangerous than before or ever again. The repercussions are a product of our life decisions and our intention. It's our karma.

This crew of people are perfect vessels to give away our merit, our lack of ignorance, and to ferret out of us our remaining ignorance. Lack of ignorance isn't a thing at all; we're giving away nothing.

How is there merit in being on a ship and stopping that ship from sinking? We got on that ship by our own decision. That was our call. There is no merit at all in stopping it from sinking. The merit is not getting on that sinking ship of ignorance ever again.

The emblazoned sun, shining it's rays on everything. That is real merit. We should bestow upon all we encounter all the patience we can muster, all the understanding we can develop and all the compassion their suffering requires. We should shine in all directions, not in just one or a few. We're engaged in removing our pivot point in our human interaction so we can do just that, radiate our basic goodness in all that we do and everyone that we meet.