Apology Week comes to a close today. Since I posted the picture above on December 15th, I refrained from several pleasures, like sweets, entertainment and music, ate mostly vegan food and meditated about collective guilt. After three years Apology Week has now become a more or less established personal tradition. It is a part of the Gamma Tao and, just like the Gamma Tao itself, it is always open for others. It would certainly help my own practice of Apology Week, if other people would join next year. It is a bit awkward to observe a period of fasting nobody knows about. Especially during a week in which all kinds of Christmas sweets are already coming your way. It is hard to refuse them and even more complicated to explain why.On the other hand the timing of Apology Week is perfect. It leads right towards Winter Solstice and precedes all the religious celebrations from the Northern Hemisphere that are related to the return of light. Apology Week has become a very meaningful tradition for me. I even believe it has some potential beyond my own personal Gamma Tao. To my knowledge there is nothing like Apology Week in this world. A tradition of collective regret could help to improve relations between human beings. Apology Week addresses a lot of suffering that exists in the world, both in the present and from the past. Apology Week in its present personal form is not about reconciliation. I do not go out and apologise to people. Apology Week is about collective guilt, not personal guilt. In our interconnected world we do not have to play an active role in order to be part of something bad. In some cases we contribute only a very small part to a bigger problem, in other cases others may do or did the dirty work for us. Apology Week is for me a way to recognise that I have a share in the suffering that, along with all the good things, my species, my nation, my tribe or any other group that I am a part of or related to, has done in this world. It is most of all a mental practice to develop a deeper environmental awareness and more empathy. Apology Week is still a personal tradition in development. My own practice of it last week was still far from perfect. For next year I plan to collect stories, films and other materials that can help me focus better on the themes of the day. Especially here participation of others could help. It would be nice to receive dedicated guided meditations. This week I realised that a form of Tonglen meditation could be helpful for the purposes of Apology Week.
