Over the course of the last two days, The Option Institute has received many phone calls and e-mails from students, program participants and families who were searching for a way to digest the events of September 11, 2001 in which the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were the objects of massive terrorist attacks and destruction. As a way to respond, we at the Institute wanted to share with you, our family and friends, a portion of Bears’ address at a staff gathering which occurred on the day these events took place. We hope these words will have some meaning and present one possible perspective as our hearts open and we send our prayers to all those involved.

“A profound question has arisen today for so many of us: How can we be happy in the face of the catastrophic events of this day?

How many people here {addressing the staff} believe in a benevolent universe or a God that is ‘good?’ {Almost all the staff members raised their hands.} If we do believe in a benevolent universe or a ‘good’ God, can we trust and accept the events that unfolded today even if we don’t understand why they happened?

There are events and situations that we often do not understand. Yes, when we explore within ourselves, we can find our own answers and come to understand the beliefs behind our own behaviors and feelings. However, we cannot be within the hearts and minds of others. Therefore, we can, at best, only guess at the reasons or rationale behind their actions. And when such actions seem to be beyond any reasonable measure of comprehension, we are most challenged, as many of us have been today. We want an explanation! We want to protest what clearly appears so unjust and merciless for those who were so violently and senselessly killed. We might take swift action to try to create barriers so future such events might not take place. But, in the end, even if we might find those responsible and listen to their reasons as we bring them before the courts of justice, we will still wonder, deep in our hearts -- How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why do people, no matter what their beliefs, act in such a manner? Where is the justice for those people and the families whose lives were so abruptly ended?

We can ask such questions and sincerely seek the answers in the hope that the answers will console us -- allow us to feel safe in a world with such apparent chaos. But the answers never quite explain what we seek to understand. So we can search elsewhere . . . not in predictability or a human version of order but in a trust that the very universe we hold to be benevolent is benevolent, though we are unable to explain the deeds of the day within that context. So we can jump beyond the need for a final explanation and, as an act of faith, still trust -- in fact, deepen our trust -- in a divine universe that we do not (and can not) fully comprehend. Not needing to understand while still keeping our hearts open to love brings alive, even more vividly, our power to choose our thoughts and feelings -- and our power not simply to survive but to thrive.

On the planet today, a wide variety of actions took place. Here, at the Institute, we focused on teaching happiness and love. At the same time, some people were premeditatedly crashing commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands of people without warning and without mercy. There is permission in the universe for love as well as hate, for nurturing as well as killing. That’s why it is so very important for us to dip into our wellsprings of inspiration and dedication -- so that we might stand tall for love and nurturing, so that we might help sway the balance, if not now, then in the future, toward communion and acceptance among people.

We can find a way to accept what happened today. Acceptance does not mean that we endorse it; rather that we are willing to look at it with eyes wide open and decide not to create anger or hate in the face of such acts of violence. Acceptance means dealing with our fears and defusing them -- for if we scare ourselves, we then blur our vision and incapacitate ourselves, perhaps retaliating without first creating an effective approach to accomplish whatever our goals for safety and justice. Anger blinds us; acceptance opens the door to clarity of thought and purpose. Acceptance is not passive, but rather the attitudinal stance which allows us to powerfully take the strongest action, to be proactive rather than reactive, to make a clear and positive difference rather than add to the confusion and pain around us.

When some staff members pulled me from class in order to inform me about the events of the day, I took a moment to consider how to present it to a large group of participants who had come from around the world to attend a week-long program. When I returned to class, I said, ‘I know we’ve only been together for a day and a half, but can you apply what you’ve learned thus far to whatever is about to unfold in this class?’ Most of them felt they could. ‘No matter what?’ I asked. Some of them said it would depend on what unfolded.

When I shared with the participants the terrorist events of the day, approximately 50% of them did not believe me at first. They thought I was fabricating a class dynamic by telling them something that was untrue. Then I asked the question, ‘Do you think I would teach authenticity by modeling inauthenticity? Do you think if something was blue, I would call it green for the purposes of teaching?’ After that comment, about 15 more members of the class reconsidered their position and decided to believe what I had just announced. But still others smiled and laughed. One member of the group said thoughtfully, ‘Actually, I don’t want to believe you because I’m not ready to look at this and see it as reality.’ Throughout the remainder of the day, many of the participants were able to successfully digest and affirm a place of inner strength and peace about the events. When I inquired as to how they those in the group were able to accomplish this, they raised their hands and, over and over again, said, ‘By being present,’ ‘By dropping my judgments,’ ‘By being grateful.’

An international participant commented that it was easier for him to handle the news because the devastation did not happen in his country. He did suggest, however, that if something similar had happened at home, that would touch him more personally. I then asked the class, ‘What kind of citizens of the world do we want to be? Is our sphere of concern limited to our family, our neighborhoods, our countries? Is what happened in New York really different than what is happening in Belfast, in the Mideast, or what happened in South Africa or Kuwait or Cambodia? We could decide to truly see ourselves as planetary citizens and that what touches our brothers and sisters around the world has profound meaning for us.’

As I look around the room at all of you tonight {referring to The Option Institute staff}, I am aware of how grateful I feel to be among you. For as the world was spellbound by a massive act of destruction and killing, you stayed on course, even doubling your efforts and energy to be supportive, nurturing and loving with all those adults, families and children attending programs at the Institute.

How can we be happy when others are unhappy? Maybe the very best thing we can do is continue doing what we do: teach happiness, teach love. What could be more important to do at a time such as this? This is a time for us to be strong in our intentions. This is a time for us to spread our love. We could hate those for their acts against humanity today and then, in some fashion, we become like them. Or, we can continue in what we do, focusing on teaching happiness and love. We can continue to spread love even while others around us choose to commit seemingly incomprehensible acts of violence.

It was useful for the participants and the families here on the property to have a meaningful forum in which to process these world events in an open, accepting and responsive environment. So many of them shared with me how meaningful it was to see teachers and facilitators model their sense of centeredness and lack of judgment and fear as a way to experience and digest events all of us wished had never taken place.

I want to share with you a portion of the Prayer of Peace by St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace
That where there is hatred, I may bring love;
That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
That where there is error, I may bring truth;
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
That where there is despair, I may bring hope;
That where there are shadows, I may bring light;
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
To understand than to be understood;
To love than to be loved.

Let us all join hands, close our eyes and say a prayer for the thousands who lost their lives today and for the tens of thousands who lost a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, a son, a daughter, an uncle, an aunt or a friend in today’s attacks. Let’s visualize our love lifting from our circle like a golden blanket drifting over New York, Washington, D.C./Virginia, Pennsylvania and around the entire planet. Let’s believe that if each of us brings that love alive in our hearts and in our actions, it will be meaningful and it will make a difference.”
Sincerely, the Staff of The Option Institute Learning & Training Center.