Disruption as Invitation — Discovering New Ways of Being

We are living in a time of great disruption. This pandemic is shutting down the world, closing business as usual—for both individuals and the systems that we are used to operating in daily. Especially in the early days of disruption, there is a desire for a return to normalcy. When we can breathe normally again and go back to the way things were.

There is uncertainty and insecurity. The way of the future can diverge in many different pathways and directions. The old path is the one our minds gravitate toward because it is the most familiar. We remember that which we miss. The unknown is much more daunting.

Last week we looked at the Jesus path through the pandemic for dealing with fear, disease, and the eventuality of death. This week, I want to consider how we might accept the gifts of this present time and look at how we can begin to imagine a different way ahead. Business as usual won’t work anymore. It wasn’t working before. Our way of life is not only killing the planet but is also keeping us from moving into the consciousness necessary to save it and ourselves.

The World Breathes

While humanity’s lungs are under attack, the world is breathing. Our earth is getting a chance to rest. The smog in Los Angeles is dissipated as the freeways are nearly empty. The Venice canals are clearing as boats rest, and the city is quiet. You may have seen this NASA satellite image of China showing the massive decrease in pollution as a result of factories closing. It’s estimated that this two-month reduction in pollution alone saved 77,000 lives, including 4,000 lives of kids under five years old.

While the business world worries about supply chains and stock markets, we’re getting a glimpse into the kind of massive pollution reduction that would be necessary to flatten the curve of global climate change, which would claim countless lives.

Many of us haven’t wanted to face this reality, and some are still in denial about “global warming.” I am no expert in this field and don’t claim to know all the degrees of systemic change and transformation that are necessary. I follow some who do work in these fields—regenerative design, complexity research, cultural evolution, ecotourism, etc. We need to turn more of our attention to learning from them.

What is clear is that things that were thought impossible a month ago are now being enacted all around the world. Is it sustainable in the long-term? I don’t know. We do, however, understand that the alternative is not.

Now I can’t keep the factories in China from starting again. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed looking at the big picture. This work is for some with the support of us all. But each one of us can also take the same pause, the same deep breath to consider what internal systems and modes of operation need to change in our own lives.

Turning this Arrow into a Flower 

“We try to re-create ourselves when things fall apart. We return to the solid ground of our self-concept as quickly as possible. Trungpa Rinpoche used to call this ‘nostalgia for samsara.’ When things fall apart, instead of struggling to regain our concept of who we are, we can use it as an opportunity to be open and inquisitive about what has just happened and what will happen next. That is how we turn this arrow into a flower.”

—Pema Chödrön

New Ways of Being

If you are tuned into the sharing circuit on social media, you may have seen this prose poem from writer Kitty O’Meara. It’s beautiful and alluring. It’s restful and hopeful. May it be so.

In one of our WeSpace groups about a year ago, I was offered the phrase, “New Ways of Being.” I remember my first thought, “How in the heck do I learn a new way of being?”

After a lot of processing and searching that is still unfolding, here are a few insights I want to offer:

1. It will not just happen.
Many of us have been presented with something we have long sought and pined for: time. “If only I had enough time to ________.” Fill in the blank. Well, now you have it. There are no more excuses. Perhaps early on this will reveal how our explanations in and of themselves were not enough. They were not what was keeping us from the work. They were what we used to avoid the work.

We can still find distractions and avoidances. Harder now, yes. So take the opportunity we’ve been given to consciously shift into a state of presence. Into practice. Into asking the questions.

2. Our default compulsions are very powerful.
A lot of introverts out there are inwardly rejoicing at being told to stay home and not go anywhere (while of course, acknowledging the awful reason for needing to do so). They will read books, but that’s what they normally do. Extroverts may find themselves plugging into social media and digital connections. Young men way want to play video games again. 

These are the shadows we will meet. Self-knowledge will help us see what patterns we turn to in the midst of stress. Within these natural self-movements are both shadow and gift. There is good that can come from them and, there is also distraction and unconsciousness. Engaging in these compulsions alone will not lead us to new ways of being. Keep going. Go further than what seems easy or natural.

3. Now is the time to build up inner resources.
Rely on those that you already have. Your spiritual practice. Your family. Your exercise habits. Cooking healthy food. This time will also reveal the inner resources that you lack. Do you find it hard to focus? Is it difficult to read a book for an extended time? Can you remain present with those around you? With yourself? Faced with having to cook more, what are your shortcomings? Are you healthy?

It’s much easier for us to focus on the things that come naturally to us, but it’s necessary to pay attention and recognize our own inner deficiencies. This is certainly not for the purpose of feeling shame or discouragement, but an opportunity to receive the time that has been given to grow and develop. There are so many resources for learning online, but even more, it may be an opportunity to think about the people you know who could teach you. They probably have some extra time on their hands too! Call them up. What resources do you have that you could swap with others in a gift of reciprocal offerings?

4. You are not alone.
The whole world is participating in this time of incubation.

What is happening right now should not be called “social distancing.” In another age, yes, this title would fit. But not anymore. What we have is physical distancing with the opportunity for different forms of connection.

While solitude can be an important discipline if practiced well, isolation is not the path. In this time more than ever, it will be important to reach out. To reconnect. And to build new connections.

As we wrote about last week, this includes the spiritual guides who are with you for comfort and support. Learn to talk to them, listen to them. My guide has slowly led me along the unfolding path into discovering more of my new ways of being. Indeed, that’s why she’s here for me now. Who is here for you? What gift might they be offering? You can use the Individual Whole-Body Mystical Awakening practice to move into this awareness.

It’s also important to remember in this time that not everyone has this privilege, and we must not forget those who are experiencing homelessness, disenfranchisement, poverty, abuse. Those for whom “home” is not a safe place but, somewhere they try to get away from—and now they can’t. We must hold them too in the midst of this. We must ask how we can continue to help and love in new ways. And we must offer them the gifts we are able to give.

Incubating the Questions

We can only discover new ways of being by beginning to discover the questions that need to be asked of ourselves and the world. These questions do not arise easily. Some that we hear will not be for us, even though they are good and important questions.

Our questions will come from deep within—not just to who we are now, but to who we are to become. Who we will be. They will vibrate within us with the clarity of the bell rung just for us, for this moment, in this time.

This is a time of incubation. What is growing inside the heart of the world? What is growing within ourselves? What will be born in the days to come? What are the new ways of being that exist beyond what we can see of the path?

I invite you now to raise your questions. Listen for the bell. What are you being invited into? Listen not for the answer, but for the question.

I also encourage you to share your question with someone who can hear it. We need to hold these questions together. Some will be private—for just you and your guides, maybe perhaps one other person. Others will be for the collective.

While it may not come to you right now in this moment, when and as they do, I invite you to share your questions with our community. You can do that by commenting below, by sharing in your WeSpace group if you are a part of one, or by offering them to your spiritual community.

What are your questions for the new ways of being on the path ahead?

This 10-minute guided meditation is made just for this writing, just for this discovery of our questions. You’re welcome to practice it now, alongside all the others seeking to glimpse the new horizon and hear their questions for this time.