Thoughts On the Real Possibility That Individual Awakening Can Become Community, Societal, and Eventually Worldwide Awakening

Ron and me at our Vancouver home with our friends Ahadi and Maiwand

My husband and I recently enjoyed such a lovely visit with our friends Ahadi and Maiwand. These two young men — once fighter pilots who had joined with US forces in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan — are among several friendships that we have cultivated over the past year since first beginning our volunteer work with refugees. Today Ron and I are so grateful for our Afghan and Syrian friends and the many ways that all of our lives are enriched.

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Sadly, and in contrast, so many of us remain separated from others who are seemingly so different from ourselves. This was certainly once true for me. And today I recognize that there is a great cost with remaining in small communities where so many are excluded from our understanding, awareness, and caring. 

Over time, and certainly in the times that we now live, it is illuminated again and again how powerful the illusion of separation is. When we humans are blind to the sacred thread that weaves us all together, it is this trauma of disconnection that perpetuates and feeds the endless cycles violence and cruelty and overwhelming suffering. 

We build walls on the outside that mirror those we have unknowingly built on the inside. We disparage refugees — and especially those who are people of color — and support inhumane, immoral, and brutal immigration laws and policies. We support those who ban books and make teaching Critical Race Theory illegal — and even as we may support Martin Luther King, Jr. day or believe ourselves to not be suffering from the impact of racism. We say we are kind all while dehumanizing those who we do not understand or truly know — those of different religious faiths and spiritual traditions, who identify as LGBTQIA+, who are people of color, who are homeless and living in abject poverty, who suffer from addictions and anxiety and depression... 

And the list goes on.

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There is another way, a path that leads to shedding our illusions and trading in our ignorance and harmful beliefs that we've been taught for truth and understanding, compassion and connection, awareness and altruistic joy, equanimity and love.

Decades ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected, "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated."

The great Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet and teacher, Thích Nhất Hạnh, spoke of how "we are here to awaken from the illusion of separateness."  

And then there is Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic who offers this powerful teaching: "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

I'll close with the wise words of Jan Chosen Bays who has gone on to say that we humans can heal and transform "the illusion of a separate and flawed self" and, that as we do, "there is the real possibility that individual awakening can become community, societal, and eventually worldwide awakening."

May it be so. 🙏💗🙏 Molly