The Zen of Trauma

the spirit or soul as part of our ordinary daily experience. While many of us go to houses of worship and many of us pray, there is still a felt absence of the sacred in our daily lives. It is as if the Sacred has become a puzzle to us. The keys to this puzzle are lost and we have to find them. From a Zen point of view, most of us are commonly asleep to the real world, i.e., the world that is alive around us and includes the spirit or essential nature of things. In non-dual cultures, the spirit of the universe is with us in everything, as we discussed above, the world is alive. This is in stark contrast to dualistic Western belief systems where there is often a separation between God and Man, the animate and the inanimate, the alive and the dead.
 
    Unless we have had an experience where God actually speaks to us, we do not usually consider God in our daily lives, yet many of us profess a belief in His existence. Are we asleep to the Spirit? I do not think so. Rather, I think we are too busy and our lives too cluttered with imaginings to think much about it. Quite literally, and with no judgment intended, we are uncomfortable, at best, and indignant, at worst, when spiritual matters come to our attention.
 
    This is interesting. Why should we be either? The spiritual hunger in America is well documented. Could it be that generations of baby-boomers are coming to a point where death, impairment, and other losses are looming quite large on the ever-closing horizon? Could it be that we are disenchanted with the power of technology and science? Could it be that many feel alienated from our more traditional religious institutions, yet search on our own for the water that would quench our thirst? Could it be that many of us have now had a few brushes with death and are wiser for it? I do not know, nor does it matter much. The reality is that we are searching for something to add depth and meaning to our otherwise busy, but unfulfilled lives .
 
    Even our language has become like milk toast, as we are not- so- subtly nudged toward the “politically correct” as opposed to what we would prefer to say in order not to offend anyone. We often "talk the talk," and avoid "walking the walk." Worse, for some of us, "spin doctoring" words and images has become a deceitful, yet acceptable way of life.
     
    As language becomes more a tool for positioning, flattering, and winning, we are becoming the poorer for it. For since we cannot speak our minds, our heart felt responses  cease, and our souls suffer from a lack of honest truth. Trauma, when faced, allows the truth to come directly into our lives.
     
     

    TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE
   I like to think of traumatic experience as the sword of Manjushri, a blade that cuts through the curtain we have woven in order to make sense of our world. Traumatic experience is sudden and unpredictable. Although the diagnostic text revisions excluded the notion that it stands outside of our usual and customary experience, I believe trauma, to be trauma, must.

   Trauma, like Zen practice, makes clear to us that life, as we have grown to know it is not true nor can it be counted on. When this happens many things result. First, we are often in shock. A kind of denial and disbelief is drawn like a screen before our eyes. This is often a normal and natural defense mechanism provided to us by our brain to protect us from the horror of the experience. Second, we begin to question the reasons the event happened. Third, we seek someone or something to blame for it happening . Forth, we attempt to "bargain” our way out of accepting it. Finally, we find a way to organize it and incorporate it into ourselves and our understanding of the universe. These are stages not unlike the loss and grief process. The difference is mostly a matter of degree.

   The trouble is, often there is no "rational" explanation for the questions the event poses to us. Moreover, even if we were to find a way to make sense of the experience, the meaning of it is toxic to our belief system. It can be ego-dystonic, ego-alien, or be, quite plainly, counter to our social, philosophical and/or religious beliefs. Our minds and souls are, however, tenacious. They will not easily let go of the questions.

   You see, in order to feel safe in the world we need to believe it is som ewhat predictable. We cannot go to bed every night wondering if the sun will rise in the morning. Though there is no evidence that because the