Down the Lens of Collective Trauma
Too much energy in your country Is spent developing the mind, instead of the heart . . . Be compassionate. . . to everyone. . . Work for peace in your heart and in the world. . .Never give up no matter what is going on around you. Never give up. ― Dalai Lama XIV
Recently, I was offered, as guidance, the quotation above (which I have abridged here) by the Dalai Lama. This was not only a reminder to silence my overactive mind and breathe into my heart center, but also to silence judgmental thoughts towards myself and others as I walk through my day, and replace judgment and resentment with compassion and love.
This quotation from a global spiritual leader is also a resounding message to us collectively that we are living too much from the mind and not from the heart. And, the result is nothing less than centuries of unfettered capitalism and imperialism, white supremacy and pilfering of the earth’s natural resources, all of which have culminated in the global crisis and sense of collective trauma that is 2020.
This week, I have attended an online conference on collective trauma, which is certainly an appropriate topic of discussion in these days of confusion and uncertainty: the fiasco of Trump presidency, COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and now the fires that are consuming the West Coast, brought about by global warming and climate change, not to the mention the financial crisis facing small business and the legions of newly unemployed and homeless.
Not only are we living in historic times, but also in a world experiencing one crisis after another, here in the U.S. and across the globe, driving me to reflect as I did on 9/11 on where we sit today in relation to what has come before.
Again, I view the past as if down a pair of binoculars reversed, which creates for me a tunnel to a far distant time and that minuscule moment of confusion and uncertainty 20 years ago funnels back to today in gigantic proportions.
Trauma can be defined as a fragmentation in ourselves, when one unit, our body, mind, or emotions, becomes hurt. Traumatic pain becomes undigested, leaving us frozen in the past, destined to repeat it over and over. Collectively, such damage and resulting fragmentation is also central to a societal trauma that is a pandemic unto itself.
And so, the key question we need to ask is what scar tissue have we personally and collectively been born into and continue to carry. This is important to recognize, because tactics once helpful to deal with a past traumatic situation lose their usefulness. In fact, it creates a filter that gets in way of us individually and collectively reaching our full potential.
I cannot help but think of our 400-year history of systemic inequality: sexism, racism, slavery, and the massacre of indigenous people, as nothing less than national trauma. How has this trauma afflicted on African American and Native Americans, impacted all Americans, white and black, male and female?
How is our collective psyche affected today, for example, as we watch every increasing police brutality in name of “law and order”? More importantly, what would our country be like today if the forces of white supremacy had not been the bedrock of our nation?
I certainly don’t have all the answers to these questions, only that it seems that we must recognize that such collective trauma needs to be healed in all of us, and it must happen sooner than later. The first step is according to experts on trauma is to acknowledge our history, and become aware of the automatic responses that no longer serve us.
For example, does political, social, and racial division serve us collectively in the face of rising anti-democratic forces and economic downturn? I would say not.
And hand-in-hand with growing self and social awareness, we must also foster compassion for ourselves and others. In this way, we can begin to build a shared space to heal modern society’s fragmentation of mind and heart. Finding unity in our diversity requires nothing less than living in compassion and mutual understanding.
And so, in these times of fear and uncertainty, of personal and collective trauma, I turn back to the wisdom of the ancients. I aim to live in more moments of mindfulness (and less of confusion) and with compassion. Yet, a spiritual approach to my personal healing does not mean a life of isolation, but of community activism and service.
As the Dalai Lama suggests, the collective path to healing to work for peace in our hearts and in the world, but more importantly, to never give up no matter what is going on around us.