Dear friends,

In a recent session at Clear Dharma Sangha, I explored the question, “What role can mindfulness play in meeting collective suffering and the challenges of our time?”

Like many of you, I've been sitting with these questions—feeling the turbulence within and around us and doing my best to stay anchored in care without being swept away. Here’s a summary of my reflections. Check out the full talk here. (Link broken? See the end of this email.)

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Mindfulness begins with a quiet act of turning inward—pausing, noticing, and recovering some measure of steadiness in a frenzied world. But it doesn’t end there.

As Krishnamurti once said, “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

True mindfulness doesn’t make us more comfortable with the crises around us. It makes us more awake to them—so we can see clearly and find our place in the vast work of healing and transformation that's needed right now.

We are living through a period of profound change. Political systems are straining, ecological crises are escalating, and social institutions are undergoing deep upheaval. Regardless of your perspective, it’s hard not to feel the tension. Many feel a sense of dread at the sheer scale and pace of what’s unfolding in our world, pushing us toward numbness or overwhelm.

Here are three ways mindfulness can help us meet this moment with clarity, courage, and care—without shutting down or burning out.

1. Mindfulness helps us stay present to suffering.

Mindfulness brings us into direct contact with all of life, including that which is painful or frightening. With practice, we begin to relate to difficulty not with reactivity or avoidance, but with a steady intention to understand. We stop seeing suffering as a personal failing or something to escape, and begin to ask, “What is this?” “What’s happening here?”

This shift in perspective is crucial when facing collective suffering—climate catastrophes, authoritarianism, war. Mindfulness nourishes the courage to stay awake in the face of hardship, to remain present and curious rather than collapsing into despair or denial.

2. Mindfulness helps us metabolize strong emotions and return to balance.

Being awake to pain—personally or collectively—often brings up strong emotions: fear, grief, rage, helplessness. These responses are deeply human. They’re not something to push away or override. They’re a reflection of our love, and call for our care and attention.

Mindfulness transmutes these emotions into grounded power, helping them move through us rather than fester. In my own life, I often feel stretched between the immediacy of raising two small children and the enormity of what’s unfolding in the world. Mindfulness doesn’t make that tension disappear—but it helps me stay present without being consumed.

Whether we’re directly impacted or feeling the ripples from afar, we need honest ways to acknowledge how we’re doing. The first step is simply naming the truth: “I feel overwhelmed... numb... angry.” Acknowledging the truth opens the door to processing what’s here—one breath, one moment at a time.

3. Mindfulness helps us stay engaged without burning out.

Processing our own pain, we begin to see more clearly. And as Thich Nhat Hanh reminded us, “Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what’s the use of seeing?”

Mindfulness supports the deep listening and discernment needed to know what we are called to do in the midst of this polycrisis. It also guides us so we can respond in sustainable ways. 

When we act from urgency or outrage, our energy may be intense—but it’s often unsustainable. Over time, we burn out or inadvertently contribute to the very cycles of violence and division we wish to heal.

Mindfulness roots our engagement in something deeper: love, clarity, and a commitment to stay connected to what matters. It helps us track when we’re overextending and recalibrate.

These three threads—seeing clearly, metabolizing emotions, and acting sustainably—are not linear. They unfold together, informing and supporting each other as we practice staying awake and responding to our world. 

I invite you to reflect: How are you relating to collective suffering right now? What emotions arise? Can you bring some mindfulness to your response, even for a moment?

We don’t need to have it all figured out. But we do need to keep returning to what matters, and to ourselves, each other, and the world we’re part of.

With steadiness and care,

Oren

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• Listen to the reflection: www.orenjaysofer.com/blog/sati-2025#sati
• Learn about the sangha: www.orenjaysofer.com/cds