The Arrival Attempts of Brendon O'Brien

Up late.

The "transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel's maintenance of their presence" is "contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention", a panel of 15 judges from around the world said.

The court said Israel must end the construction of settlements immediately - acts which render "Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful".

We shrink away from the experiences that make us feel squeamish: fear, awkwardness, shame, self-consciousness, and the like. Not knowing how to manage the involuntary cringe, we try to force a deliberate ignorance to make it go away. We avert our gaze, cover our face, or look at our phones.

Some people want so badly to avoid feeling cringe that they will carefully shape their words and actions, continuously monitoring and censoring themselves until it becomes conditioned into their consciousness.

When we kill the part of ourselves that is cringe, we become rigid and contrived. We lose access to the freshness and authenticity discovered in unconditioned spontaneity. As a result, we also become predictable and more easily manipulated.

What is the alternative? Freedom, of course.

If instead of hiding you stay with the experience, feeling all the cringe and enduring all the squeamishness, you create the opportunity to see through its illusion. You weaken and eventually break the power these experiences had over you.