Collective Overwhelm
Posted by Colin at 12/15/2007 12:14 PM and is filed under The State of the Union,Fire of Purification 
Robert Masters has hit another home run with this blog post. Here's an excerpt:
Spiritual stamina is essential; don't postpone developing it. Go to the heart of collective overwhelm, beyond the fear and anger and numbness and shock, and there you'll find an enormous grief; take it in, expand your heart as much as you have to, cut channels for the grief to flow, to cut loose, to tear open your sky, until its cry is your cry, and what's beyond all the pain starts to shine forth, inviting us into what we never left but only dreamt we did. This is the healing through which we die into a deeper life; this is the healing that calls to us through all that we are and all that we do; it may overwhelm us at times, but it's the kind of overwhelm that cleanses, purifies, heals, awakens. We might as well move toward it. At this point, what else is there to do?
I read the article and while I am respectful of the point of view, I do not necessarily interpret the signs as overwhelming, but more as part of a cyclical move toward some highly positive developments -- including a divestment of some of the deleterious baggage of religion and an awakening from the miasmal sleep of the last four decades, which themselves followed a similar time of potential awakening. In general I feel we go through cycles in an upward spiral -- I think Martin Buber felt that we did. So, without taking away from this eloquent evocation, I am inclined to see plenty of light at the end of the tunnel and to read the "overwhelm" signs a bit differently.
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Hmm. My view of the my own past life and those around me strongly suggests that most Americans are in a nearly perpetual state of overwhelm. Our spiraling healthcare costs and the fact that most illness that is manifesting in America is known to be related to lifestyle seem to support that take as well. And I read his post differently that you seem to. I see "plenty of light at the end of the tunnel" in his last paragraph. What he writes mirrors my own experience of learning to let go of the overwhelm (getting off the bus), grieving that this is the state of affairs (suffering) for so many of us, and then moving into acceptance and a new way of being.
I do agree that this overwhelm (which isn't a sign; it's an experience) is a potential catalyst for the emergence of a new, more integrated way of being.
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There is another general issue which is not addressed in the essay we're discussing -- or in much else I have seen in the last four decades. It is the issue of human settlements -- the design of communities of the future. I believe this is at the heart of the challenge facing us and my own thinking is that we need to design a new form of community from the bottom up. Two aspects of this are moving beyond the automobile economy and moving toward a truly integral notion of design in which items presently separated are brought into some form of relationship -- as, for example, the integration of wind, solar and water-generation options and their creation on a scale that can serve a community of say 5-10K. This is off topic but that is my point -- it seems to be off the radar of most people who talk with authority about what is going on. To me this problem underlies current frustrations. Most people know things are not working but not the next step.
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Hey Stephen,
Well, you're right about this being off-topic. I see that this is an issue that you are passionate about, though, and I appreciate that. Based on my experience, the biggest challenge we face is what you mentioned before: violence. And I'm talking about a violence that is pervasive, down to the level of road rage and treating your kid like shit after a bad day.
Sure, reorganization of societies and invention of sustainable ways to meet basic needs is a priority as well. Your vision isn't likely to materialize anytime in the next hundred years on even a modest scale, it seems, but if we don't get this violence issue resolved, we might not have a planet left to reorganize. Actually, the planet would survive; humanity wouldn't.
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Agreed my "rational" thought dreams are a mite off the radar. However most of what I propose, I feel, is what needs to be done sooner than later in order to AVOID the dislocations and tensions (violence) that failure to act creates. I am schooled, as you might infer, in the prophetic tradition as I parse it -- that would begin with folk like the poet in Isaiah, Josea, Jeremiah, Amos and culminate and in and branch out from Jesus who also used the see and see bur do not understand sarcasm to show the difficulty of the project. I natter on, but I have also read your profile by now and listened to the lady's song and reflected a little in the musical gulf created somewhat by cultural styles and what I take to be my younger collo-quists tendency toward agony in all things. :) Anyway thank you for your comment as it continues to be on the mark. Someday I will insist that the paths we are on converge and that mine represents a somewhat quicker way (at least for me) than others I could name. Actually none of the above is what I intended to say. I wanted to say in relation to violence that it is conceivable that we could have a sea change owing to people becoming tired of it. This is aided by television and the internet and the lugubrious discourse that would seem to have some end somewhere. The end would be the sea change. Things are moving rapidly. Cheers, S in the heart of Manhattan.
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