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At the end of July I returned from a Training Leaders Program in Germany full of gratitude. The experience, which was of tremendous value to me, was full of love, intimacy, community, clarity, and humor. Three days before the program began a co-participant informed me that there had been a terrorist attack home in Norway, with only few details. I chose not to give a lot of energy to this, as I wanted to stay present in our process, and there was little I could do, while Jon Symes, his wife Sand and Vivan Dittmar guided us through our process of learning and growth.
An Important Realization
When I took in the information about the terrorist attack, I had the understanding and unexamined assumption that it was “a kind of Arab action”. On my way home after the training, I got a chance to acknowledge my own racism. I looked into the newspaper of the person sitting next to me, and discovered to my surprise that it was a white male, Norwegian, with blonde hair who had killed 8 people with a bomb in the government quartile in Oslo, and 69 people with a gun in the youth camp of the social democratic party on the island of Utøya. After feeling the shame about my own racism, compassion for grieving young people and many others took over. A lot of tears came down my face, and it was good for me to get this chance to connect with what had happened.
Then I let in that prosecutor, Anders had published a manifesto of more than 1000 pages earlier that Friday on the internet, where he amongst others, declared that it was “a brutal but needed action against the multi-cultural society,” which he had planned and done all on his own. I realized that it was people like myself who were targets for this “temple knight crusade” as he called it. I acknowledged the fear coming up for being a possible target through standing for environmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment. Then I remembered Van Jones and his invitation to use fear to expand our comfort zone. Today I enjoy, a lot more than during that journey at the end of July, standing for something that is important to me, and the courage it takes. In times of raising consciousness towards unity, the experience of separation and stress get amplified for people who mirror our contrary energies. We still live in a reality of duality, on our way to Oneness. Sometimes I prefer a smooth tea gathering with guaranteed success and no challenges, and then I realize that my real breakthroughs often have implied some kind of challenge, risk, and inspired actions with regard to growth opportunities.
A Gleam of Hope in Difficult Times
I also realized some synchronicity with regard to what had happened in our Training group in Germany during this event in Norway. When I came home, I found out that the son of our next door neighbor, only 17 years old, got killed in the youth camp as well as other people close to others I know. I was deeply moved by the way many people in Norway had taken in what had happened and processed their feelings together. The evening I came home, half of the population in our municipality came together on the streets of the center with flowers, candles, and tears. In the larger cities, several hundred thousands gathered to fill the streets with love, as crown-prince Håkon said. He also pointed out that it is completely up to us what we do with what happened. Maybe this event even becomes an arena for the masses to realize that what happens happens and the rest is our own story, and to learn to be open to share real feelings and new levels of abilities together. I hold the intention that the love from the streets of Norway is expanding to include the people at the Horn of Africa, in Afghanistan and beyond, and that we hold new possibilities open. Not long ago, Norwegian prime-minister Stoltenberg began riding his bike to get to his office. A lot more is possible in the future.
The Gift of Compassion
A story from the Dalai Lama came to my mind, which he shared from a conversation with his teacher during his youth. The teacher told the Dalai Lama about a situation where he was arrested and tortured by the Chinese police and that he experienced the greatest danger so far in his life. The Dalai Lama had the unexamined assumption that the danger was related to his physical survival and asked a question from that perspective. The teacher answered that this danger was to loose the compassion with the person who tortured him. With this reminder, I could acknowledge Anders in me, with love and compassion. That was a huge gift to me.
Looking Toward the Future
There are many signs that the opposite of Anders´ intended results can come out of this event, both on a personal level and as a society. Maybe it will lead myself and others to come together from different ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds to create new rituals and paths toward unity. The existing churches are mostly empty, with an architecture to listen to one person. Maybe we can create more physical space to be together in circles and in everyday life. Maybe more inner and outer silence will take place- as the leader of my choir described at the end of her first day in Oslo after this event when she noticed that there was no rush, people were taking time to look into each others eyes and share a moment of recognition. The Greek word “Crisis” means choice. Maybe this event invites young people to make even clearer choices – what do I want to create, do I dare to fully go for this vision and co-create the world I want to live in?
On Iceland, the economic crash some time ago created remarkable changes. People could no longer even exchange their money into other currencies, it was declared worthless in other countries. A lot of processing and listening has been going on in Iceland since. In an evaluation so far, the children of Iceland are the most homogenous group with regard to there perception of the gifts of this crisis: My parents are a lot more at home...
It looks like we need these and other crises to awaken the dreamer, change the dream and act inspired.
