Today a gunman opened fire in a movie theater just 60 miles from here, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 38. The youngest killed was a 3 month old baby.
My spiritual mentor - Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk - used to say that a spiritually transformed person understands at a deep level the fact that "Given a change in circumstances, that gunman could have been ME."
With this insight in mind, I ask:
What is it about the society in which we are embedded that causes those living on the edge of sanity to "snap"? Do we feel disconnected from any sense of ultimate meaning because we have lost touch with a Greater Whole - a divine Presence to whom we are all eternally united?
Does our society's extreme obsession with individualism make us fail to see the common humanity we share with others, a humanity that is rooted in the Divine? Does all of our stress and busyness lead to a sense of disconnection from others - a feeling of alienation and loneliness? Do we ever truly listen to one another? Does the fact that we feel unheard - especially because there are now SEVEN BILLION of us - cause some of us to act at times like an adult version of a bratty kid - trying to draw attention to ourselves by doing extreme things?
We may feel that we are blameless in all of this, and perhaps - on an individual level, at least - this is true. But remember one of the core motifs of spirituality: a Christ figure - or a "bodhisattva" in the Buddhist tradition - takes upon himself or herself the evils of the world. In our union with the divine, WE are called to do the same. What Thomas Merton says about monks is true of the "monk" in all of us:
"The monk, who abandons himself to the love of God, who takes upon himself responsibility for the sins of all and holds himself responsible to all, by that very fact places himself below all, recognizes himself as worse than all, and spiritually 'washes the feet' of everyone in the world . . . By his or her very presence, the monk brings the Holy Spirit to the hearts of all."
Please understand that this is not an attitude of destructive self-denigration. Rather, it is an attitude we CHOOSE - in God - to take upon ourselves. That, of course, is precisely what Jesus did.
How do we find the strength to live in this manner? To embody this level of connectedness, solitary time spent in the wilderness - both inner and outer - can help put us in touch with these more cosmic realities. That, at least, is what the high country does for me.
Photo: Western Yellow Paintbrush and the Nokhu Crags, American Lakes Trail, Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2012. "Nokhu" is a shortened version of an Arapaho word meaning "Eagle's Nest."
