What is Your Zone of Action for 2025?
Dear Friends,
I recently transcribed a talk by Brother Phap Linh, a Plum Village monastic in which he spoke about scientific materialism, faith, and determining our appropriate action/zone of action. Zones of action are the places we are most suited to where we can have the greatest impact and offer the most benefit. His talk inspired me to consider what my own appropriate zone of action might be for 2025.
Phap Linh says:
When you look at the Linden tree in Upper Hamlet, do you ask it to make a statement about the war in Gaza? Are you dissatisfied with the Linden tree because it hasn’t said something online? No. You want the Linden tree to be a real Linden tree. And it is, it’s doing very well. It’s beautiful and it’s offering refuge to all of us. It’s up to each of us to identify our zone of action. To reclaim our own sovereignty.
We aren’t all called to the same actions because we have different skills, awarenesses, and experiences. I have found that when I take time to calm myself and breathe, appropriate action becomes more clear, and I am able to rest in understanding and love more often. Not every moment, by any means.
Instead of trying to force myself to conform to someone else’s ideas about what I “should” be doing, I can act where I can be most alive and most helpful. Like the Linden Tree. At this time of polycrises, we really need all varieties of wise actions – the small and subtle, the large and noisy, and everything in between.
As we move into a new year, as an alternative to setting intentions, perhaps start with the question posed by Adam Bucko in his book, Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: what breaks your heart? And then reflect on:
What gifts do you have within you that you can share with the world?
What is your personal form of activism?
What can you offer that will generate more happiness and help heal suffering inside yourself, your community and in the larger world?
May we all gain more and more clarity about the actions appropriate to us as we move into 2025. And may we have the courage and strength to act from that place to create a world filled with less suffering and more compassion and awakening to joy.
with love,
annie.