Continued Covid-19 lockdowns still plague the world and in the midst of all of it, shocking events prevail, making the most faithful among humanity to question any spiritual belief system they turn to in times of strife.
Within seventeen minutes after a police car arrived at a now globally renowned scene in Minneapolis on May 25, George Floyd was left unconscious and pinned down, showing no signs of life. In less than nine minutes, he was dead. Then, less than a week later, we saw Trump’s ludicrous photo-op episode at an Episcopal church, which as CNN so poignantly said, “was no Churchill moment.” And, that as the nation and world continues to see: “Trump is a divider who seems more inclined to perform than to lead.”
At a time when the world mourns, aches and feels more uncertain and bewildered than ever, there’s little to no compassion, empathy or ethics at the helm of the first world. Says Michael D’Antonio in his recent article, “the last thing America needs is a man in the Oval Office who is no more substantial than a fictional character. But that is what we have.”
Yes, this is what we sadly have to console us in the aftermath of the tragic murder of George Floyd, yet another wake up call in the systemic racism still so prevalent around the world.
How do we find the sacredness in all of this? Loved ones dying from Covid-19, people losing their jobs and facing financial strife, and systemic racism that feels as if it won’t be quelled anytime soon.
Those who lead a spiritual life regardless of what shape or form it shows up as, innately know (even if they can’t describe it in words) that all living ‘beings’ are sacred. When we realize this, we begin to feel the essence of another and understand that there is no separateness between others and ourselves.
This brings us to a place of oneness, unity or as some call it: non-duality.
The sacredness in knowing –– truly knowing — this oneness, allows us to transcend physical and emotional pain. It allows us to transcend uncertainty and trauma. And, it allows us to transcend systemic racism so we can think differently and in that ‘thinking’ differently, start to show up differently, each and every day.
What does that look like? The conversations are connective, empathetic and relational, not scientific, factual and analytical. Our actions are of love and unity, not of misunderstanding and fear.
BE what you want to SEE
Although these deeply entrenched societal and physiological realities are all around us, we need to BE what we want to SEE and EXPERIENCE in the world, not debate it. To truly understand the pain people of color experience, we need listen to their voices (and raise them up) but differently than we have in the past. We must listen with our emotions and feelings. We must listen from a place of non-violent action by showing up with empathy, compassion and showing ‘the change’ that needs to happen. Not once, but every single day.
This takes courage. It means truly listening and feeling into what they feel, not simply understanding or agreeing with it intellectually.
It means speaking differently. Voting differently. Acting differently, not continuing to be a mirror of the problem, even if you don’t think you are. You see, with a systemic issue, the mirror lays buried and hidden below those intellectual layers.
For those in the “we want change” camp, we need to also remember and own our personal conditioning, biases and prejudices because to deny them by simply saying we are intellectually above them, will continue to support the same system. When we reason with these issues, we simply sweep those emotions under the carpet. You see, these layers still exist as a subconscious elephant in the room afraid to be blown wide open.
Living, being and speaking from a place of logic or fear will never get us anywhere.
We must begin to feel into a place of sacredness — aka that everything in this Universe is sacred and that we are all part of the ‘whole’. Even if we grew up without divisive conditioning, leading from a place of heart and unity can be challenging regardless of where we hail from on this beautiful planet we call Earth.
Why? Because at the root of it, systemic racism is the subconscious elephant which has impacted all of us — yes, even those who put yourselves in the “I’m okay category” because your parents weren’t racist, you didn’t grow up with the conditioning that others did or whatever logical reasoning you have for why you haven’t contributed to the issue.
Sadly, it’s been an integral part of humanity’s consciousness for far too long, trickling out like dead weeds, aching to be reborn into a new higher consciousness, one which embraces connectedness and love.
Humanity needs assimilation, unity and reconciliation, but more than anything else, it needs love. This is our way through.
In order for society to change from a way of thinking and living that is head and order based, to one of the heart, compassion, empathy and love, we need to rebalance the divine masculine and feminine forces that exist within each of us. When these energies are in balance, even Gaia will start to thrive again. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have always known this but sadly modern practices and thinking have led to us forgetting the things that will not just help to dissolve racism, but heal humanity as a whole, as well as the planet itself.
In order to rise above and transcend the pain, suffering and ignorance, we must step into that sacred place of inner knowing that we are all interconnected and all one. We are not separate from time and space because we are time and space itself. That means, we are also the void. If you listen into that statement deeply, can you feel the power in that?
It allows us to step away from fear and have faith in something much larger than and beyond ourselves.
I am not referring to religion here and I don’t mean God in the traditional sense when I say “much larger and beyond ourselves.” But what I do mean is this:
We are all part of Universal Consciousness or what some think of as the Cosmic Soup. Or, you could refer to this higher energy or consciousness as “all that is”, God or Source. Pagans and countless other cultures around the world celebrate the Goddess, whereas the indigenous see Gaia, her plants, fauna, mammals and animals all as living consciousness which is part of, connected to and contributes to the whole. It all contributes to the harmony and healing of all that is: humanity and the planet itself if we could only learn to honor the beauty of this universal system.
Some may resonate with “I am that I am” or “I am what I am,” an awareness that we are all Gods and Goddesses and that the power lies within us, not outside of us. This is the way of some philosophers or Gnostic seekers who find credence in the lost teachings of Jeshua, Magdalene and others who sought to teach inner gnosis over 2,000 years ago, but their ‘truth’ was buried by the Church and other man-made orders, doctrines and laws until finally uncovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945, a mere 75 years ago.
Buddhists see suffering as a perception not a reality and that nothing is fixed or permanent — in other words, change and healing is always possible. Life is seen as endless for others, whereas some believe that there is no beginning and no end.
And, there are those who feel no connection to a God or Source at all, but they feel in some innate way that they are connected to a Higher Consciousness and that there is a sacredness in that feeling and inner-knowing alone.
Perhaps you have a feeling that the Quantum realms and fields that science is only beginning to get their heads around now, is real and that there’s more than meets the eye, beyond what we can rationally prove today. In that quantum space of so called “junk DNA” and unseen energy, a wealth of possibilities exist just waiting to be unlocked. And, if we can tap into the quantum field, imagine the possibilities and probabilities available to humanity.
When we see ourselves as part of a quantum system, its impossible to return to a way of living that embraces racism or war. Once we unveil who we truly are (and science embraces it rather than sees it a facet of mysticism and esoteric thinking), we will understand and know that we are Spirit first, here having a human experience.
In that human experience, the real thing we are here to learn is that we are all indeed interconnected in this Quantum Cosmos and that our potential is so much bigger than we can get our linear minds around. Love is and will always be the glue that binds and connects not just us as a species but every living thing on this planet and beyond. And, I mean beyond……
While the societal conditions and tragedies unraveling before our eyes at this time seem very real (the Coronavirus, lack of ethical leadership, environmental neglect and systemic racism among them), try to think of it all in quantum terms: that is, that it only exists as a perception, in one particular timeline, one particular reality and on one particular Earth plane.
And, that other realities, timelines and potentials of outcomes can occur with a shift in human consciousness.
Let us elevate our thinking and knowing to a much higher consciousness even if we don’t understand it. Embrace it from a place of wonder and curiosity but most importantly, from a place of compassion and love.
We truly are all one and interconnected. And, we truly are all sacred. Don’t think it — BE IT. Don’t try to analyze it, but FEEL into this concept with your heart. In other words: rather than try to get your head around it, is it something you can get your heart around? Let’s start there, shall we?