Happy Sunday!

At work last week I had to attend a mandatory training on diversity. I went into the course with a negative attitude as I was very busy but had to fit the training in my schedule before my upcoming vacation. I entered the room just at the start time of the class so I ended up in the front row in a class that had over 50 people in it. I sat with my mind saying I’m just going to be quiet, not raise my hand for anything to avoid participating; this is not like me as I am usually one of those people who sits near the front and fully participates.

The two female facilitators introduced themselves, a black woman who appeared older than me and a white woman who was 10 or more years younger than me. Both women gave introductions about themselves. The black woman I immediately felt ‘this is a wise elder here’. The white woman gave a longer introduction as if she needed to explain why diversity was a major cause she supported and why a white woman would do so.

I was not happy when I realized the class involved many group exercises that we were supposed to participate in. For the first exercise I turned my chair to join a group in the row behind me. An elderly white lady immediately started to speak about what she thought of related to diversity. She said she grew up in Newark. She expressed that the neighborhoods were diverse and everyone got along, this was because everyone was poor and needed the community support to get by. She added that conflict began when some people started to rise above in their finances, then there was comparison of we’re better than you as we have more.

Later we talked about the influences we received from our family. One young man said his father was in Vietnam and taught him respect for everyone, that we are all the same when working together to survive. An older black man said he grew up as one of 135 as he grew up in the foster system. The children were diverse in race but all shared the same in their experiences.

The room was just full of people with wonderful perspectives because of their experiences. One young woman told our group about how her high school was all white suburban kids, segregated, and yet there were issues with groups trying to come off as better than other groups. At one point in the class I thought I would cry because of the amount of wisdom I was observing around me.

We are waking up. So many people are excited to share their observations and personal lessons because of the experiences they have had.

I look on the training now and can see that in general, as a society, we don’t have an issue with race. Our issues with differences are about economic classes. Who has and hasn’t got the opportunities for monetary gain. Who has more than me to give, who has less than me that I have to fear taking some of mine. That ‘survival of the fittest’ mumbo jumbo we were fed to believe, dis-proven by genetics, but still serving a materialistic economy.

This morning I listened to Father Rohr’s homily from July 6, 2019. It has the title “Evil is socially legitimated before the individual dares”; based on the Gospel reading Luke 10:1-12. Father Rohr pointed out that in the Gospels Jesus only called out woe or treachery onto cities or cultures. It is cultures that make evil acceptable. Cultures honor killing in battle but the individual is not to kill. Today lying has become common and acceptable for Corporations, Media, Government – if it serves profit and power. And yet a person has no integrity if they lie.

What is in one is in the whole.

This must go the other way as well … what is in the whole is in the one.

I know, for me as an individual soul, there is only struggle and pain related to Self-betrayal when I lie.

“Be impeccable with your word.” For me this is the most impactful of the lessons of the ‘Four Agreements’, taught to me by Don Miguel Ruiz. In a society, what is the ‘Self’ that is being betrayed? Where does the inner pain lie?

I know from several teachers that these types of Self-betrayal can lead to disease. What does disease look like on the society level?

If in the human body it could be cell cancer then in society can it also be individual humans turning against the whole? (I’m thinking: crime, gangs, mass shooters, humans wanting to inflict pain on others.)

After the bombing at the Boston Marathon I felt that there was responsibility on our society. I had no clue how to track the responsibility, what was the cause to bring about this effect of youth wanting to attack and kill others within their society.

This writing exercise makes it obvious. It is a cancer; rogue cells hurting and in pain expressing the pain outwardly to the cells around them. Killing pieces of the whole that they themselves are part of.

What creates the rogue cells?

The whole keeps swallowing the pain, not looking at the wrong it keeps choosing over the well-being of its own spirit:

• Part of the whole is starving; let’s choose to ignore that part as long as the face of things looks good.
• Part of the whole is in great pain; let’s numb it and ignore it as we choose to keep moving forward on the same path of materialism.
• Part of the whole is being poisoned from the effects of our choices; let’s hide the filth under the glittering garment of denial.

Father Rohr ended the homily saying that United States society is sick. Obviously.

A collective conscious has been proven to exist (the work of Princeton University with random number generators recording effects on days of significant global events convinced me). There is great healing that needs to occur. Like the individual, the collective of our society can choose to live with integrity.

Wow. Yeah … we are on the other end of the spectrum from that if you look at our media and politics. And they are just pawns of the real power, the corporations.

Where does the mind of society lie?

The wake-up call for the individual usually comes from some illness, pain, loss, hardship on which you can reflect to say I don’t want to choose that anymore.  I think we are way past the possibility that our voting for politicians can bring about the scale of change that is needed. It is obvious that DC is just full of more pawns who are disconnected (a cancer themselves) and not representative of the heart of the whole.

Where does the heart of society lie?

Perhaps in the individuals, who pump along everyday contributing, doing their best, loving their family, caring to contribute to the fueling of others. The collective unconscious.

Is this the same spiritual journey of going from mind to heart conscious? Does this mean it will change when each of us ‘just regular folk’ become heart conscious, compassionate, and realize that we are all the same as well as part of the same whole.

This exercise is doing wonders for my perception. If I am capable to help another then I am part of the healing of the whole. I don’t want the body to die. I am awake enough now to see that individual evils can kill the whole.

As can individual Light heal!

No more fear of the other.

Helping hands.

Lit heart.

I want to do my part.