Dear Subscribers,

Yes, today is the ten-year anniversary of the day we will never forget and a number of people wrote asking if I will discuss this date in history. No, I will not because I have very little to add to what has already been published by others. I will however acknowledge the turning point and perhaps make some highly personal comments, not about the crime committed on American soil, but about the return to authenticity that I believe has saved my psyche.

On this date ten years ago, I was awakened by a phone call from Gail telling me to turn on the TV. Shock changed to horror to incredulity in seconds. Like many, I was glued to the television for hours on end, but a point came when I realized that my psyche was being abused by massive assaults on my nervous system and intelligence. I realized I had to wean myself from this box or a point would come when I could not find even one corner of clarity inside my own being. The process of trying to unsubscribe from satellite television was proof positive of how dangerously invasive the television had become.

Ignorance or Bliss?

In a matter of days, I realized that when Jay Leno asks someone on street who such and such a famous person is that the person on camera is not just disconnected from mainstream news but living in a reality that does not depend on that news. The question is whether the disconnect is a recipe for ignorance or bliss. I decided to keep my mind open. Of course, at my age, my aspiration was not to surf my worries away but rather to connect with something dependable, in short, to find authenticity.

Before discussing this, I just want to make two comments. The responses of grieving family and friends to loss and horror touched me deeply. It was obvious that the core of the human heart is not broken despite absolutely enormous suffering and that nobility can emerge like a Phoenix from the ashes of mortality. In this case, however, it is clear that the hell of 9/11 was created by mad men. Second, what I am writing is just my perspective and other viewpoints are just as valid. Being ignorant of politics — as is typical in America today — absolutely guarantees that the majority will not rule. The majority is indoctrinated or apathetic or disempowered and has practically no influence at all on national politics, but it is for each of us to decide whether this is a good or a bad state of affairs.

The Path to Authenticity

When I worked for the government, four years out of my very short early adulthood, I was unable to decide whether government was incompetent or evil. I tended however to see incompetence because the power behind the bungling that was obvious was largely hidden. This has probably been the case for centuries so I became interested in puppet makers and their puppets. If one takes up this hobby, patterns begin to emerge. Nearly all people who are suddenly catapulted to the "top" have some sort of (tragic) weakness in their relationships with their own fathers. They rarely met their fathers or perhaps did not know their fathers at all. They were adopted or their fathers were away a great deal. Personally, I doubt that anyone can become a good much less great leader if the model for functioning in the outer world is incomplete. Let's just say, this insight gave rise to worry and then to obsession with the relationship between the yang and the yin.

This issue is important because as a society, we put great emphasis on outer achievement so the symbols of this particular kind of success mean a great deal. If there is a void, the question is how does one, a politician or just ordinary person, deal with that void and what does it take to make it feel less like a void and more like a coherent part of one's being. The best example I can give of this is Olympic athletes. In the countless interviews that help us to "know" the champions, we see several patterns: almost total parental devotion to providing the opportunity and coaching required and equal support lavished on the athlete by the coach. If this works as intended, the athlete would at minimum have proper training but most likely also a measure of self confidence . . . without which, certain synapses cannot be expected to fire correctly, especially when under competitive stress. Politics and sports are both, of course, yang games.

So, let's translate this thesis to the White House or No. 10 Downing Street and we begin to see why the relationships and preparations are necessary and how feeling voids under pressure is a recipe for disaster. If "the top" were not important, someone with a missing model of yang influence could go inwards and develop insights and awareness that do not require explanation or expression. This would be an easy choice unless one were restless with the desire to prove something to oneself and others. You can tell, I do not attribute some miraculous super powers to politicians. I think most of them are rocketed to the top only because of mega investments by those who exploit malleable pawns for their great games. In short, getting to the White House on one's own merit rarely happens, probably has yet to happen, in the rapidly fading history of this failed democracy.

It would be hazardous but realistic to ask how many people on Wall Street suffer from similar yang disorders? They are so inwardly convinced of their invisibility that they never expect their lies or scams to be noticed. Wake up would thus occur when that particular bubble bursts. This would probably result in many scoundrels racing to get off the sinking ship, the remaining ones being left to take the fall. I believe we would see a similar pattern in any place where success and high visibility define part of the role, in short, if the truth about Congress were known, there would be empty seats just as we will soon find fewer White House advisors — though that exodus has already begun. It is however still largely meaningless because the revolving door syndrome hasn't been addressed.

I do not, however, want to use this date to discuss politics so much as the journey to authenticity, meaning that one cannot really expect one's psyche to remain in tact if sleeping with the devil. One must first get out of hell. Ironically, this is not actually all that difficult. Just as noble spirits expressed through the horror ten years ago, the world can be an absolutely beautiful place the moment one tunes out the racket that dings our cognitive apparatuses day in and day out.

Nature

The two polarities that are inescapable for all of us are spirit and matter. These are the two forces/powers we must each learn to harmonize because our survival literally depends on it. Matter without spirit is inert and spirit without matter is unmanifest. The two need each other and we need to work out our relationships with both. Therefore a certain amount of time and energy needs to be devoted to this task, preferably daily. Being with Nature awakens our appreciation of the beauty of the world in which we live whereas meditation, inspired music or art, acts of spontaneous caring, compassion, wisdom, insight, understanding, appreciation for everything and everyone, and willingness to share give expression to our own divinity. Sitting on cushions does not guarantee satori much less entrance into Nirvana, but working with the downward flow of inspiration does.

In retrospect, I would say that 9/11 served to polarize those who used the event to unleash more horror on the world and those who seek to end violence once and for all. We have a choice. Let's build the world we really want.

Many blessings,

Ingrid

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2011

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