I think I've been afraid to speak my
deepest truth. Especially since, when I have, it hasn't been well
received. People don't want to talk about changing and dying, even
though that is the nature of all things, even though changing and
dying can lead to healing and initiation and rebirth. And even though
I believe with all my heart that being able to talk about changing
and dying is profoundly necessary for guiding us into the future.
I started to touch on this in previous
posts and since then I've discovered that I'm not
alone.
Consider this from The WorldWe Have by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The wisdom
offered in the Buddha is that we accept impermanence – our own
death and the inevitable death of our civilization. And after having
accepted that, we will have peace and strength and an awakening that
will bring us together. Then we will have the opportunity...to save
our beloved planet.” (pg. 56)
Or this from Coming Back
To Life by Joanna Macy: “Pain is the price
of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world. It is not only
natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective
healing...Pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to
trigger remedial action. The problem, therefore, lies not with our
pain for the world, but in our repression of it. Our efforts to dodge
or dull it surrender us to futility – or in systems' terms, cut the
feedback loop and block effective response.” (pg.
27)
In The Green
Boat – Reviving Ourselves
In Our Capsized Culture,
Mary Pipher talks about the Trauma-To-Transcendence Cycle – a
process which “requires us to face the truth, feel the pain of
(our) experience, and ultimately transform that pain into action and
authenticity. As we move through this cycle, we can acquire the
skills we need to overcome our sense of doom and discover our own
capacities for transcendent coping...we can find deep within
ourselves new strength, deeper courage, and an enriched capacity to
love the world.” (pg. 4)
In So Far From
Home – Lost and Found
In Our Brave New
World, Margaret Wheatley writes: “If we fully accept the
world as it is – in all its harsh realities – then we can develop
the very qualities we need to be in that world and not succumb to
that harshness. We find our courage, morality, and gentle,
non-aggressive actions by clear seeing and acceptance. As we accept
what is, we become people who stand in contrast to what is, freed
from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time. With that
clarity, we can contribute things of eternal importance no matter
what's going on around us – how to live exercising our best human
qualities, and how to support others to discover these qualities in
themselves.” (pg. 11)
Mary Pipher, in another of her books -
Writing To Change the World - tells this story:
In September 2003, when I was fifty-five years old, I visited the
Holocaust Museum, in Washington, D.C., to view the Anne Frank
exhibit. I looked at the cover of her little plaid diary, and at
pages of her writing, at her family pictures. Meip Gies, Otto Frank's
employee, who brought food to the family, spoke on video about the
people who hid in the attic. She said that Anne had always wanted to
know the truth about what was going on. Others would believe the
sugar-coated version of Miep's stories, but Anne would follow her to
the door and ask, “What is really happening.?”
Even though Anne Frank ultimately was murdered, she managed (through
her writings), in her brief and circumscribed life, to tell the truth
and bequeath the gift of hope. She searched for beauty and joy even
in the harsh, frightened world of the attic in which her family hid
from the Nazis. Her writing lived on to give us all a sense of the
potential largesse of the human soul, even in worst-case scenarios.
(pg. 20)
We are now facing a potential “Worst-case Scenario.” If pain is
the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world then
perhaps these are the gifts: peace and strength and an awakening that
will bring us together...new strength, deeper courage, and an
enriched capacity to love the world...(becoming) people who stand in
contrast to what is, freed from the aggression, grasping and
confusion of this time... the potential largesse of the human
soul....
Is it possible? It sounds so compelling I'm willing to go there. And
it looks like I'm in good company.
*In the dark times, will there be singing?
Yes. There will be singing about the dark times.
- Bertolt Brecht
