1) Establish the "sacred" in the context of "society”. *************
2) Promote an awareness of the common ground of Earth's
Sacred Wisdom traditions.
3) Master the lessons of spirituality within the context of embodiment.
4) Cultivate the ground of model communities where Awakening is the prime underpinning.
1) Establish the "sacred" in the context of "society".
One of the dictionary definitions of sacred is "deeply revered or cherished." It doesn't require much insight to see that in our typical present day modern society there is very little that is actually held in reverence, and it is debatable whether we honestly cherish very much either. This is the age of information and rapid consumerism, the “throw-away” society, having its roots in the European mindset that incubated in the ancient Greek world-view, evolved during the Renaissance, took form with the "Age of Reason", accelerated in the Industrial Revolution and blossomed in all its metallic glory with the technological explosion of the 20th century. Of course, it would be facile to dismiss "scientific materialism" as some sort of “evil” that must be got rid of. The reality is, life in the age of machines is much easier than it was during previous times, which may have been romantic in their bleakness but afforded little opportunity for most forms of creativity (duly noted as I write this on my computer). Nonetheless, it must be obvious to all but the most myopic of materialists that something essential is lacking amongst the luxurious (or at least comfortable) protectionism of our materially sophisticated way of life.
During the 19th century, when the US bluecoat military was gradually wiping out the native Indians of the Great Plains, they had occasional opportunities to communicate with these rightful inhabitants of the land, but as translations happened it became clear that a fundamental difference existed in the world-view of the Indian, as expressed in part through the syntax of their language. What was most notable was the tendency to see and express many sides to a particular issue simultaneously, as differing from the white man's approach of focusing with particularity on one thing at a time. To the invaders the Indian mind probably seemed chaotic or frustratingly obtuse, but an equally valid argument could have been made that the European mind was narrow, rigid, and closed to an appreciation of the sacred.
Much of this has to do with the "roots" of what may be called the Western ego. Martin Heidegger, a 20th century European philosopher, once distinguished between "calculative thinking", the rational powers that lead to the harnessing of the elemental universe in the service of "progress", and "contemplative thinking", that ability to experience the profundity of the here-and-now. In the proliferation of technological growth that has occurred this century as the crowning achievement of the gradual development of the rational faculties, there has been an inevitable decline in other areas, perhaps most notably in the appreciation of the sacred, as known via the faculty of Heidegger's "contemplative thinking". Of course, a deeper understanding of spiritual forms of mindtraining and/or meditation will reveal that such a consciousness is ultimately not related to deductive thinking at all, but rather is the pristine awareness that remains once the mind has fallen silent, either through ecstatic rapture, or through correctly applied methods of witnessing the thought processes, until one becomes unidentified with them, and thus understands one's essential nature to be a mirror of consciousness that is free of confused thought.
This is the gradual development of a "meditative consciousness", the ability to see, that is the outgrowth of sustained efforts of work upon oneself. With the growth of such a consciousness comes a corresponding growth in sensitivity, and the appreciation of sunder (beauty). I use the Sanskrit word here with reason, to indicate a meaning above and beyond what we traditionally associate with this word, for it has nothing to do with mentally-generated conventions of "beauty" (such as symmetry of form, etc.), but rather with the inherent harmony and richness of something that has been imbued with heart and higher meaning. This "something" may be an object of art or it may be an internal condition expressed through a poem, dance, song, simple gesture, or spoken word. It becomes sacred because of its association with the intention to awaken to truth or the higher.
Most older spiritual traditions understood all this as a matter of course, but in time the appreciation of the sacred became both lost and distorted. How it became lost we have already touched on, through the growth of scientific materialism. How it became distorted is a somewhat trickier subject. As spiritual fellowships grew big and had to satisfy the needs of people who may not have been particularly committed to true wakefulness, they gradually became more political. Those is control naturally wanted to provide a kind of spiritual umbrella for their throngs, and in so doing cemented the forms associated with their way into a religion. At this point the founder of the particular way and his/her immediate followers are usually long dead, and the "priests" have taken over, people who may be sincere (or very corrupt) but who suffer the disadvantage of following a system that has gradually become more moralistic and righteous, rather than spiritual and numinous. One of the most potent tools used to solidify such a religio-political movement, as well as to assist in imperialistic ventures, are icons, or objects of art that symbolize certain aspects or personages within the system. This in itself is not a bad thing, but it becomes a distortion of the sacred when such icons become more meaningful than the actual inner Work of the spiritual process. Sacred art objects then become simply political tools, seals of ideology, rather than the activators of the archetypal spiritual energies they were meant to be.
When Gautama Buddha passed away around 480 BC, statues bearing his likeness were unheard of. In fact, for several centuries after his death he was remembered through a sacred design that included the Bodhi tree under which he experienced his great enlightenment, and a model of his footprints. No Buddhist statues appeared until the second century BC, and this had meaning, for the purity of his presence was such that it overshadowed the need for any material image of him. In time, however, such objects could in fact serve the awakening of adherents to his path, by stirring the longing and appreciation of what his teachings represented. This is the correct use of the objectified sacred. The incorrect use would have to do with the tendency to hide behind such icons, or use them to justify laziness and resistance to practice and mere contentment with membership in the organized religion.
The correct spiritual usage of the sacred is now called for in these times, owing in no small part to the damage to the ecosystem wrought by the techno-revolution and its concomitant failure to appreciate true beauty. It would be within the vision of an awakened society to kindle in its members a renewed regard of the sacred, both in artistic expression, and in the cultivation of that conscious sensitivity that leads to an intimacy with all of life.
2) Promote an awareness of the common ground of Earth's Sacred Wisdom traditions.
Part of the mandate of an awakened society is to promote the unity of humanity, both microcosmically in the Work of its smaller communities, each serving as a prototype of an enlightened civilization, and macrocosmically through cultivating a foreign policy of intelligent open mindedness that fosters the sympathy and curiosity about other paths to truth that is the earmark of the authentic seeker. In this case, the only “religion” of the state would be that of self-discovery, through meditation, the cultivating of relationship skills, etc. (Interestingly, the only major culture in recorded history that seems to have come close to this condition was that of Tibet, for periods between the 16th and 20th centuries, when the senior master of the Gelukpa Buddhist school (the Dalai Lama), was also the political head of the country, though he usually had a "patron" Mongolian overlord. And the Mongolians may have been the only major power in history to openly invite to their courts and attempt to learn from the representatives of the world religions, the glitch of course being that they subjugated the societies of their spiritual inspirers to their military rulership first!).
At the same time, it is acknowledged that the consciousness that develops through the awakening process is inherently honest in nature, in the sense that it does not hesitate to discriminate between the gradations of quality that mark the myriads of ways currently stocking the spiritual supermarkets. However, such a discriminatory ability is essentially personal and intuitive, and it is the Work of an awakened society to help its members to develop such a faculty, thus promoting the healthy self reliance that permits a true appreciation and gratitude for one's elders, teachers, community, and the meaning of interdependence, as distinct from a submissive, insipid dependence, or a resentful, rebellious independence.
3) Master the lessons of spirituality within the context of embodiment.
Many, if not most, forms of spirituality currently extant tend not to fully address the lessons of true embodiment, rarely finding the balance between a rigid, closed cultism and a too-open, diluted atmosphere that is weak on commitment. I personally have had extensive experience with both the dusty cerebralism of conventional forms of religion and psychotherapy, as well as with the silliness of many forms of new age fluffiness. In the end, what both extremes tend to fear and resist is assuming full responsibility for being incarnate in this body at this particular time and place. Ultimately, the keystone of such a "grounding" is the healing and development of the emotional body, for it is the feeling-center that provides the anchor between our soul and our physical body, thus permitting the full, authentic, passionate expression of our true nature in the simple richness of the here-and-now. Therefore, within the schooling systems of an awakened society there would exist a mandatory curriculum for studying and understanding the dynamics of the emotional body, leading to a balance between personal intellectual development, and interpersonal, relational development.
4) Cultivate model communities where Awakening is the prime underpinning.
There exists a famous paradox in the realm of spirituality, and it is this: our true nature already is, and yet we must undertake some form of sadhana (spiritual practice) in order to experience this. Hence all seeking is ultimately fruitless, in that there is nothing to find, as we are already Divine and whole. And yet, we have fallen so deeply asleep that without making some kind of effort, following some system, trusting some teacher(s) or guide(s), and employing some discipline in our efforts, experiencing this “true divine nature” is virtually impossible. Therefore, having an aim is essential. Since enlightenment encompasses the sum total of our vast nature, expressed in a way that is in harmony and alignment with the Cosmic Will (the Will of the Whole, or God), any other aim for a sincere seeker of Truth would be irrelevant, or beneath the true birthright of that seeker.
Conventional societies as we know them to be do not include such an awakening as part of their overall spoken or unspoken dictums. Rather, they are based more on routines, status quos, and a general dislike of too much truth. In a future time our planet may well be populated by sincere seekers of Truth, living in harmony with both each other and the ecosystem, and where such things as geopolitical boundaries, deprivation, and military technology will be largely unnecessary. For the time being, though, as our planet transits from what astrology calls the Piscean Age (individualistic and subjective) to the Aquarian (expressive and group-oriented), the community becomes increasingly relevant. Such communities, if founded on the individual and collective aim of enlightenment, become prototypes of a future, better world.
Of course, none of this is likely to come to pass for a long time, perhaps many decades or even hundreds of years, and possibly only after further major calamities to civilization on the whole occur. There is even no guarantee that we will continue to evolve as a race. The ancient Egyptians of thousands of years ago appeared to be advanced spiritually, and were smart enough to build structures that we with our present day technological wizardry still cannot duplicate or even fully understand. Mysteriously, the Egyptian culture went into gradual decline, and by the time of Christ was only a vestige of its glorious days. The Tibetans appeared to have carved out an eminently spiritual and generally peaceful culture (if somewhat xenophobic), but one day the Chinese arrived in force to claim what they felt was theirs. Though the Tibetan spirituality has perhaps fared better than the more ancient Egyptian, in terms of its living dissemination to other cultures, the point here is that the spirituality of a society, even if advanced, does not ensure the survival of that society, much less its evolution. What is needed is a radical transformation on the political and educational levels, albeit a gradual one.
Copyright 1995 by P.T. Mistlberger, All Rights Reserved
Over to:
Home