Grief as Ecstatic Practice

Mirabai's bhakti was ecstatic—crying, dancing, singing her longing and devotion. She did not suppress emotion but channeled it toward transcendence. In anticipatory grief for civilization, we face enormous feelings: dread, sorrow, rage, helplessness. Rather than pathologize these as depression or paralyze into activism, we can alchemize them into a practice of presence and intensity. Like Mirabai's ecstatic devotion, grief becomes a legitimate form of depth engagement with reality. It heightens perception, dissolves trivial concerns, and creates community with others who feel. Grief-as-practice means letting sorrow move through the body, voice, and consciousness—not to wallow but to touch something true and vital. The intensity becomes clarifying, even, in strange moments, alive.