fierce grace for humanity

Years ago, the film Fierce Grace made quite an impact on me. In this documentary, spiritual teacher, Ram Dass shows how his life changed as he surrendered to the loss of bodily control inherent in a major stroke. He sees himself as “stroked” by the divine, and this major health challenge as fierce grace, giving him another opportunity to learn and move towards a more awakened state of being.



With this unending flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, fierce grace is on my mind. My own itchy need to control has been rising, as I feel those painful yearnings of wanting the leak to stop so badly. Moments of rage course through me as I hear about the lack of regulation on the oil industry that had a hand in this tragedy. Insult compounds the injury when I hear that another incredibly toxic chemical has been poured into the ocean to disguise the appearance of the oil on the surface. Just thinking about the situation for a moment can send me into such a deep sense of separation, of fear, of anger.

And then, in another moment, I can see the unity arising out of this crisis. As we work together and share the feelings inherent in this crisis, there are connections being made. All those that depend on the sea for their livelihood just want it to stop. Those that live in coastal regions and fear what will come of their shores just want it to stop. Environmentalists just want it to stop. Even big oil executives dealing with the huge loss of oil and reputation just want it to stop.

But despite our unified prayers, it won’t stop. It keeps flowing, holding our attention, and making us surrender to the fact that we do not have control.

There is a humbling that is happening to us and a break-down of our illusion of control. The planet is holding up a mirror, and we’re being shown that we’re gambling at a table where the stakes are much higher than we thought. We are playing a game with rules far more complicated than our minds can comprehend. The consequences of our actions are upon us, and even as we try, we can’t escape seeing the truth about our destructive relationship with the planet.

It’s so tempting to turn to rage and to blame, but the truth from my perspective is that we all have our hand in the tragedy. Even if we have worked hard to reduce our own oil consumption and dependency, we can’t deny that we are co-conspirators in the human addiction to oil. It’s embedded in just about everything we buy, everything we do, everywhere we go. Even if we believe that we don’t support this paradigm of man over nature, we can't avoid it.

As I work with this tragedy as a form of fierce grace, many questions come to mind. Can I forgive those that allowed such lax regulation to be imposed on such dangerous operations? Can I unite with those that had more knowledge, more choice, and more control over avoiding this tragedy? Can I accept that I too am responsible, I too have oil on my hands, and I too am part of this web of oil dependency? Can I really hold the truth that unity isn’t just about coming together around peace, love and joy; it’s also about sharing responsibility, grief and truth?

This oil leak is an opportunity to evolve. We can use it as a catalyst to humble us to the immense power and harmony of nature. We can let this drive us to rapidly transition into exclusively relying on renewable and clean energy sources. We can come together and accept responsibility as a united human race.

Just maybe this fierce grace will dawn a new way for us to live in harmony with our planet.