The Healing of America
by Marianne Williamson

Excerpt

--- LAO TZU, TAO TE CHING

According to ancient Chinese philosophy, the forces of yin and yang are like night to day, darkness to light, feminine to masculine, inner to outer, heart to head. They balance, border, and complete each other, forming together a unified whole.

To understand this dynamic is to be more fully aware of the rhythms that underlie all things. Our ultimate ground of being --- what the Chinese call the Tao --- is the mystical oneness out of which all worldly manifestation flows. To see how the greater oneness is in constant process of giving birth to two --- that yin and yang might then come together again and give birth to another one --- is to hold the key to greater understanding of anything in the world.

Anywhere there is Great Duality, there is yin and yang: the eternal and the temporal, women and men, philosophy and science, vision and politics. To seek their balance in any situation is to seek the healing of the world. For according to Taoist philosophy, when yin and yang are out of balance, there is tension, disharmony, and discord in the universe. To right the wrong, we must seek to reunite the pieces of the whole that have been torn asunder.

This book is about the yin and yang of American history, the Great Duality of our miraculous beginnings, the ultimate tearing apart of our vision from our politics, and an effort that can now begin in earnest to repair the resulting wounding of our collective soul.

Our Founders embodied the ideals of an extraordinary moment in history. Their philosophical vision was expressed in the Declaration of Independence and their political genius in the Constitution. The balance of their intellectual brilliance with personal courage, philosophical vision with political acumen, and mature serenity with revolutionary fervor created a doorway in a seemingly impenetrable wall of history. A paradigm so entrenched as to leave the common masses of humanity little hope of rising above the station in life into which they had been born, was abolished forever by a group of young Americans who stood up to what was then the most powerful military force in the world and said, "No. We have a better idea."

Most major institutions, from the U.S. government to the Christian Church to the scientific establishment, began with a small group of radicals whose thoughts were considered outrageous by holders of the status quo of their time. To use the German philosopher Hegel's expression, they were "world-historic individuals" who took the wheel of history and steered it in another direction. They looked at the world with the pulsating spirit of spontaneity and hope for something better than that which had been before.

America was like a child who was born, grew, and turned out to be a genius. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution raged throughout Europe and the United States, bursting forth from our foreheads seemingly fully grown. Railroads, electricity, factory production --- scientific experimentation and technological prowess came to embellish our dreams and define our ambitions. As this rush of industrial expansion unfolded, the yang of human assertion and physical manifestation was extraordinary. We lost something precious, however, when the yin of greater wisdom, understanding, and perspective was subtly pushed to the side. By the beginning of the twentieth century, attention to the soul had been marginalized by a materialistic focus sweeping across the plains of America's consciousness like a windstorm that wouldn't stop.

Thus was torn asunder the brilliant balance from which America had been born. Money replaced justice as our popular ambition, and the authoritarian business models of the industrial age came to replace democracy as the main organizing principle of American society. We began to backslide, our vision to diffuse. The elements of higher truth and commitment to justice that so imbued our founding were slowly forced into exile in the corners of the American mind. They remained in our documents but no longer in our hearts. The very tyrannies from which we had fought to be free now reappeared among us, but this time we were the oppressors as well as the oppressed.

A fiery personal and political drama --- still raging among us --- began in earnest. America would be home to both slave owner and abolitionist, both conscienceless industrialist and labor reformer, both corporate polluter and world-class environmentalist. The tension itself is not inherently bad, because through it we have the freedom to grow. But we have lost our experience of the great Tao underlying our differences, the coagulating sense of American unity that makes our freedom to disagree all the more important. We have lost our sense that political debate is not what was meant to divide us as a nation, but rather to sustain us. We have left behind the delicate balance between the celebration of our diversity and the dedication to our unity, which lies at the heart of the American ideal.

Although the original ideals handed down to us by our Founders were almost perfect expressions of a commitment to human justice, America has never fully manifested those ideals. That does not mean that we are bad or hypocritical, but merely a nation still in the throes of a greater becoming. We have, from our beginning, been home to both noble and spiritually based political impulses, as well as to the most materialistic and selfish ones. Freedom means that we will be as a nation whatever we, the people, choose to be. The push and pull between two major aspects of our being is the overarching drama of our national life.

In America today, we have critical problems that will not go away without collective dedication and effort. We must apply ourselves to serious problems with a concentration and a sense of purpose that we do not always summon in more normal times. Those who would have us gloss over those problems or deny them do not help us respond. Those who would lead us into cynicism or anger lead us away from healing. We need deep understanding of our collective problems, we need faith, and we need love.

There is so much injustice in America, and such a conspriacy not to discuss it; so much suffering, and so much deflection lest we notice. We are told that these problems are secondary, or that it would cost too much to fix them --- as though money is what matters most. Greed is considered legitimate now, while brotherly love is not. MIllions of us see this as an unacceptable violation of spiritual truth. We must create the restoration of our collective conscience, and turn it into political will.

We are organized in the United States today according to obsolete social principles, obsolete because they reflect separation from spirit. They posit us as purely material rather than spiritual beings, and economically oriented rather than relationship-oriented people. We have viewed competition as the primary motivator of human creativity, though it is not. We have viewed the creation of wealth as the primary goal of human work, though it should not be. We have treated each other as anything as brothers, though that is what we are. These principles hold us back, keeping us limited to the lower energies of dense, material plane consciousness at a time when the species is ready to expand to new levels of awareness and experience. We must withdraw our attachment to those principles, reject their claim upon our imaginations, and assert for ourselves the right and ability to transform.

We are divinely created spiritual beings placed on earth for the purpose of creating the good, the true, and the beautiful. This goal, when embraced by the human heart, is a compelling force that motivates us to higher heights than any contest or economic stimulus could ever come close to matching. There are within each of us God-given talents that do not respond to market pressure yet spring to life in the presence of honor and respect. Spiritual law would have us serve each other rather than condemn each other, and place our primary attention on the extension of brotherly love.

Awareness of spiritual law not only will determine the primary philosophical outlook of the century ahead but also will determine our future politics and economics as well. Either that, or we will suffer the consequences of our continued resistance to the rule of love, too long past the point when as a species we knew better.

The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, Kennedy's Inaugural Address, King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail --- these are like ancient tablets on which are inscribed our fundamental yearnings and highest hopes. At the same time, the Trail of Tears, the Vietnam War, systemic racism and economic injustice, official hypocrisy, violence, and exalted militarism form a dark and seemingly impenetrable forcefield acting like a barrier before our hearts, keeping our hands from being able to grasp those tablets to our chest. It is the task of our generation to break through the wall before us, to atone for our errors and reactivate our commitment to the promulgation of our strengths. It is not just that we need our sacred tablets; our sacred tablets, to be living truths, need us.

We must begin in earnest an archeological dig into the American psyche, that we might retrieve the tablets on which are written the truths that set us free. This is not an easy assignment, for the layers of our denial are thick and encrusted. Billions of dollars are invested in our not seeing our own circumstances clearly; then, in our blindness, we continue to support the very system that blocks our vision.

Never has there been a time in our history when it was more imperative for the average citizen to think for him- or herself. Often, President Kennedy said, "we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." Everyone in America has opinions today, but too few of us are doing our very best thinking.

In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "The greatest danger confronting us is not any particular kind of thought, but absence of thought." We are allowing others not only to determine the answers to our problems, but even which questions we're asking. And in that lies real threat to our democracy.

I think America at this time is like someone who has gotten tired of being sad, so has decided to go back to pretending to be happy. Our political options range for the most part from complaining about what's wrong to denying what's wrong. Such limited options for national recovery result in a psychic pain that has sent most Americans into an unconscious throwing up of our hands. The purpose of this book is to help us get at the causes underlying our pain, and hopefully help encourage the reader to take part in the process of genuine healing

There is a new prophetic voice in America, saying, as do all prophets, that we must repent --- which literally means "rethink" This new prophetic voice is not a soloist but a choir. This time it will not-be possible to silence one prophet, or even a few, and thereby stymie a broad-based impulse for decades. This time, a prophetic calling is seizing the hearts of a critical mass. It is a voice of group conscience and a redefinition of citizen activism in American democracy.

Our healing will not happen in a day, or a weekend, or a year. It will happen because of a massive turnaround in the way we view, and live, our lives. There is about to rise up among us, if we wish, a new American consciousness, and a renewed regard for the authority of the American citizen. That authority has not been taken from us so much as we have given it away. Therein lies America's disease. In reasserting the potential power of the American citizen, America will heal itself.

One way to promote healing is to look at the examples of great spirits who have gone before, in this country and elsewhere, who brought illumination to the darkness of their times. There have been those in history who personified perfectly, or very nearly, the balance of soul and political intelligence necessary to right the wrongs of history. From our Founders, to Mahatma Gandhi, to Martin Luther King, Jr., there are those to whom humanity can point and say, "There, they got it right." And we can look at the things they did and make their truths our own.

Our Founders had a job to do: to win freedom from the English, and forge the country's own political identity. Lincoln had a job to do: to preserve the Union, and make this a country worth fighting for. Gandhi had a job to do: to lead a nonviolent crusade for India's independence. Martin Luther King,Jr., had a job to do: to lead the struggle for American civil rights. None of those people whined. They just did it. They didn't give in, they created revolutions. They didn't curse the darkness, they became the light: passionately intelligent people in the service of a job at hand. They put aside their childish inclinations. They were not perfect; they were just like us when first they heard the call of history. They answered the plea for democracy and justice that has been made throughout the ages, and having answered it, were given all the strength they needed to bring forth the resurrection of good.

The Greek root of the word politics does not mean "of the government" but "of the citizen. "We need a new political gestalt in America: an expansion of the political arena to more accurately reflect not only what we do, but who we are and are becoming. Politics should include more than just changes in government; it should also include changes in us. We are what America is. There are internal as well as external aspects to a nation, and to the process of societal change. From hatred, racism, and cynicism to hope, creativity, and forgiveness, both the inner and the outer America are now political issues.

Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke often of our need to have "tough minds and tender hearts." He himself displayed that combination brilliantly. Many tough thinkers in America today lack heart, while too many tender hearts lack mental and intellectual acumen. Fuzzy thinking is just one step above not thinking. We must pool our intellectual and emotional strengths to create an elixir of healing for our national distress.

We have the yang; we must reclaim the yin. We have the intelligence; we must retrieve our souls. We will find a way to put the two together. And out of that union will flow such power of personal fortitude that a revolution of good will occur in America, a reassertion of hope and nonviolent authority. There is a wellspring of love and wisdom in each of us, which is itself, as both Gandhi and Dr. King proclaimed, a powerful political force. Our only true enemy is not people or institutions, but fear laden thoughts that cling to our insides and sap us of our strength. We must make a stand for our better selves. We must recommit to essential truths, both spiritual and political.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln, in his 1862 Annual Message, "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.... We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

To heal America now is a huge challenge for our generation, and as the psychological heirs of our Founders and Lincoln, we have what it takes to meet it. They looked to the power of a great idea --- American democracy --- and it inspired them to greatness. We can look to embrace that same idea --- and if we do, it will inform our minds and ignite our hearts the same way it did theirs. Democracy is profoundly relevant to the evolution of humanity, and as such it carries the psychological momentum to create miracles in the strangest places.

"To some generations," President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, "much is given. From some generations, much is expected. This generation has a rendezvous with destiny." Roosevelt's words, uttered in 1936, carry equal force today. For our generation has a rendezvous with destiny as well; what we're now in the midst of deciding is whether we'll sleep through the date.

Our alternative is to choose to awaken.--------------------------------------

From The Healing of America
by Marianne Williamson