Spiritual lessons from knocking on doors for the 2020 Elections in Maricopa County, Arizona

On the weekend before the 2020 U.S. elections, I had the opportunity to travel from my home in Los Angeles, California, to Phoenix, Arizona, located in the infamous Maricopa County we’ve been seeing on the news’ election maps.

The plan was to knock on doors to get out the vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President/Vice-President, and Mark Kelly for U.S. Senate.

As a spiritual life coach and teacher, I made clear my intention for this trip: to use the election experience to practice what I call “high consciousness” in the midst of worldly activity.

Especially in what appears to be a highly divisive country where people angrily denounce others, I sought to create an experience of calm and detachment, while still being purposeful.

You see, I don’t approach spirituality as a way to escape the world. I invite ways to incorporate spirituality into my everyday living.

In other words, rather than meditating alone on the mountaintop (which is a great practice, by the way, to commune with nature), my ongoing practice is to bring this mountaintop consciousness to my life.

There’s a popular Zen Buddhist koan (a paradoxical riddle that provokes enlightenment) that…