The Spirit of America

If we can think of spirituality as pain experienced beyond the level of the physical body, then our country and much of the world needs nothing short of a spiritual revolution. Collectively and individually there is a large disconnect between the suffering of the world and our conscious awareness of it as well as a failure to raise the pain of the world into a spiritual dimension. Daily we are confronted with the madness of our society yet there seems to be an unwillingness to engage in conversation about our predicament. We fail to take the next step and ask how the events in the world make us feel, in turn perpetuating the collective denial that we have succumbed to. In our failure to do this we reinforce the myth that there is no suffering in the world or that we are separate from it. It is crucial for us as a nation to begin a dialogue which will allow us to feel the current state of emotional condition of the world. If we do not, this repressed collective pain will continue to dominate our way of being, increasing our infatuation with ourselves, continuing the numbing of our spirit and leading to polices that divide the world even further. The reason for this disconnect and repression has to do with a problem of faith. Some say we lack faith. In reality, there is no shortage of faith; there is a problem with what we have faith in. Our faith is rooted in the belief that our money, technology and individuality can provide a suitable replacement for emotional experience, discipline and the need for community. Our faith so strongly rooted in this belief, we find our identity and purpose here. It is rather ironic that our security comes from this place, considering the madness it has created in the world. Yes, this is the society that taught us to make fun of the overweight person, to not sit next to the “nerd”, to divide the cafeteria in a “cool” side and a “loser” side, to associate only within our race, to humiliate people, to put faith in money and material things, to continually seek out pleasure from obsessions with drugs, alcohol and sex, to organize around violence, guns and warfare and to place a strong emphasis on the individual. This image in which society represents to us is no doubt a reflection of our creation, the problem is that we believe that this image is who we actually are. In many ways this image is held as an organizing principle in our culture, finding a home in government, education, media, music and families. On some level we say to ourselves that since our society is filled with many forms of violence then our true nature is violence. Or, we find ways to rationalize the state of the world because is has become familiar to us. This image that has been perpetuated within our society is the world that we “know”. People often say that we are afraid of the unknown, however this is not true. It is not that we are afraid of the unknown, rather that we are afraid of losing the known. What we know is a world driven by an addiction to a way of thinking and an identity formed by the drama and violence in the world. We don’t want to get rid of it because it is so well known to us, so familiar, so close to home. We have been deceived to think that if we get rid of it then we die or our humanity dies and we lose our foothold. We feel threatened to end the violence, separation and faith in material things because that is where we get our identity. To counteract this extreme focus on individuality and faith in the fear of the world, we must extend ourselves and create a societal dialogue to gain the crucial awareness of the reality of the state of the world. We must tell ourselves that it is o.k. to have a conversation about how we feel about the world. It is o.k. to let ourselves feel and contemplate the pain of the world if need be. This common dialogue and emotional healing is humanity’s best chance to turn the tide of organized fear and self-destruction. Through this genuine experiencing and identification with others suffering we can begin to feel what is going on in the world. When the world begins to feel this suffering true change can occur. However, our emphasis on technology (Internet, computers, T.V., video games…etc) increasingly produces more individuality and reduces our capacity for compassion. There is nothing wrong with these technologies per se, rather our confusion lies with our identification with them and belief that they can fulfill aspects of the human experience that in reality cannot be addressed by them. Thus we end up with a profound numbness, which dissipates the energy necessary to feel responsible and to want to make a change. Our need to turn to our neighbor and communicate has been becoming almost non-existent, thereby reinforcing this cycle of social alienation. Dr. King defined our priority when he said, “Through our scientific and technological genius, we've made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood." In conclusion, the answer is thus to understand that what we have been taught cannot be trusted as an accurate representation of our humanity and cannot be turned to for security. Is this not a system rooted in something that identifies with the madness of our society and is itself subject to the violence that it is teaching? We must ask of this system why is there an emotional and spiritual starvation, while many other societies are rich in spirit while poor in material wealth? What encouragement has been provided to discuss the emotional state of our country? We also must ask what is the intelligence that guides those who run our society? Fear is a keystone element in our society, organized through the government and media. Surely this is not intelligence. The process of becoming intelligent means being free from fear while learning. How can we trust a system that’s intelligence is based on fear? We must challenge ourselves and ask tough questions. Throughout our daily activities we must ask am I doing this because the center of who I am believes this or am I imitating what my friends, the T.V. and society has told me? Do you have the courage to revolt against what you have been taught about the way we should be and start to see for yourself what is real? It is easy to be a slave to society, to have blind faith and to continually believe what the television and our friends tell us that we should be. It takes courage to challenge and revolt against what society has taught us about love, education, morality, our role in the world and freedom and to begin the genuine process of searching. A genuine “experiment with truth” as Gandhi said. “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein