Hosting The Pain Of The World

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

We are grateful to Rupali Bhuva for offering this hand-made painting for this reading.

When we begin to access fields of collective trauma to begin the healing process together, we often become aware of those who have passed away, often in violent circumstances. Their presence may be palpable in the social fabric until the transgression has been re-owned by those who are living, allowing these souls to rest in peace. Often, societies try to hide or look away from this collective pain, which is why the integration process gets stuck. Looking away from the pain means we can’t be present with each other; metaphorically, we are dispersed in space and time.

When we as humanity are not fully present to what is happening now, and what has not been resolved in the past, we become obsessed with looking forward. We become hypnotized by the idea of building or getting to a better world in the future because we can’t be with the world as it is happening now. This is an important defense mechanism that helps us to not feel the pain or deal with past transgressions. However, if we don’t examine those consciously, we will stay fragmented and re-traumatization will occur. The only way we can build a better world is to build it in this world. We need to use every moment to co-create the world we wish to live in instead of wishing for it to happen tomorrow.

In a traumatized world, redemption happens later: The glance toward the future is the missing embodiment in the now, where we integrate the pain into presence to receive the blessing of the real future, the world that we download together as and in presence. True innovation always happens now.

---

Excerpted from here.