Guest post by Kanika Sethi

I am a big Beatles fan.  In fact, right after the 2016 election, when people immediately starting forming “resistance” groups and gathering in protest outside of Trump Tower shouting obscenities at him, I half-jokingly told friends and families that the only way I’d be standing out there would be if I were with a group singing, “All You Need is LOVE!”   

During the weeks prior to the election, like many Americans, my anxiety became so intense that I hardly slept. I could do nothing but obsess over the news, feeling in my gut that everything was going absolutely wrong.   The only way I knew how to calm myself down was by offering nightly loving-kindness meditations toward Donald Trump.  I thought that his suffering must have been so intense in order for him to be such hateful, spiteful, bitter, angry man.  And he desperately needed more love and compassion. 

I am a firm believer in the ideal of Ahimsa – Sanskrit for non-violence in word, thought and deed — and the idea of “resistance” or even just the term itself has triggered an inner conflict. I’m in awe of and absolutely grateful for the resistance groups and incredible activism that has emerged during this very troubling time in our world history.  Yet, although I firmly believe there are evil forces struggling to retain power, I have been conflicted about being part of a “resistance” when I fear it will only cause more harm and violence in the end. Continue reading →