Goldsmith talks about spirit as the underlying, fundamental realm of existence. The 'material' world as we know it sits upon the spiritual world. We are spirit, but we think we are material. We think we (are) matter.
Adyashanti talks about how we identify so strongly with our material manifestations - body, mind, thoughts, emotions. But if you search for an 'I' that these are all attached to, you can't find it. This is because our essential being is simply consciousness or awareness. Awareness is the underlying spirit, and this is the fundamental nature of everything that exists.
Unfortunately, most people measure their lives according to the manifestations. They identify themselves as those things. I think about it like this. There is a truck with a trailer attached to it. Wherever the truck goes, the trailer goes with it. Many people get dragged through life - often feeling dragged - because they are whipped around by their attachment to a self that does not exist.
When you stop this identifying with everything you thought you were, you can appreciate that everything is the same. Everything is awareness. What could this mean to how we live our lives?
So much hatred, violence, and suffering is caused by the divisions we draw between ourselves. Conservatives and Liberals. Democrats and Republicans. Blue and Red.states. Believers and Atheists. Muslim and Christian. India and Pakistan. The US vs. the world. Beautiful and Ugly. The list could go on forever...
And although these differences seem to exist on the surface, I think they lose their power when you realize there is something more fundamental that ties us all together. Awareness never changes. It's manifestations constantly change, but it never does. And the beauty of it is that you can sit in that awareness, you can be there all the time if you want. And this is such a peaceful, yet active and vital state of being, that it would turn the world on it's head.
Adyashanti talks about how we identify so strongly with our material manifestations - body, mind, thoughts, emotions. But if you search for an 'I' that these are all attached to, you can't find it. This is because our essential being is simply consciousness or awareness. Awareness is the underlying spirit, and this is the fundamental nature of everything that exists.
Unfortunately, most people measure their lives according to the manifestations. They identify themselves as those things. I think about it like this. There is a truck with a trailer attached to it. Wherever the truck goes, the trailer goes with it. Many people get dragged through life - often feeling dragged - because they are whipped around by their attachment to a self that does not exist.
When you stop this identifying with everything you thought you were, you can appreciate that everything is the same. Everything is awareness. What could this mean to how we live our lives?
So much hatred, violence, and suffering is caused by the divisions we draw between ourselves. Conservatives and Liberals. Democrats and Republicans. Blue and Red.states. Believers and Atheists. Muslim and Christian. India and Pakistan. The US vs. the world. Beautiful and Ugly. The list could go on forever...
And although these differences seem to exist on the surface, I think they lose their power when you realize there is something more fundamental that ties us all together. Awareness never changes. It's manifestations constantly change, but it never does. And the beauty of it is that you can sit in that awareness, you can be there all the time if you want. And this is such a peaceful, yet active and vital state of being, that it would turn the world on it's head.
9 comments:
I think that it's almost as much the divisions that we draw as the collective that we identify with that causes this lack of awareness.
Maybe they are one and the same. I think the loss of selfhood goes hand in hand with a lack of awareness. We are desensitized as a materialistic "mass". Our "culture" is causing destruction...It's easy to be just a face in the crowd of consumption.
Joe Kincheloe writes "...individuals gain little insight into the forces that shape them - the construction of their consciousness. As long as selfhood is not challenged and the status quo is accepted, such education proceeds without concern for the consequences of meaning-making"
PS - a personal gyro record was set today. boo-yah
right, I agree and I think it's possible to break the 'loss of selfhood' and stop thinking like the rest of society. That is what will bring about change, individuals deciding not to buy in anymore.
I agree that our being is essentially awareness or consciousness and that there is little "reality" in our bodily selves. I also agree that when we see the scale on which these forces operate, and the scale of our culture and the destruction it causes, we easily see our selves as infinitesimal in comparison and ineffective as agents of change. But at the same time I think it is more complicated than that. Even if people recognize that the society they are a part of and their actions have huge negative consequences for the world AND that they can actually make a difference by changing their behavior, when people are actually confronted with choices, inevitably they are faced with the reality that the structure of society only allows you to make marginal changes. You can choose to recycle and choose not to throw garbage on the ground, but even if everyone recycled and tried to live a bit greener, our society would still be utterly unsustainable. Likewise, we can choose to try and not over-consume but our society is entirely based on consumption. Even if you consciously recognize the evils of consumption, the structure of our society does not give you the option not to consume. Nevertheless, people do make the choice to try and live more sustainably and consume less and I think that that choice does matter and does have a positive impact on things. I don't want to take anything away from that. But, to really make big changes, to fully stop being a part of all the negative things our society does would require such massive upheaval that you would have to give up nearly all the good things you cared about at the same time.
I agree that we make marginal choices individually, but I think that those are more powerful than they seem at first glance. I've read and I have the sense that one person's actions will affect the people around them. When people are all behaving the same, there is no incentive to change. But when one or two are different, people have something to compare themselves and others to. It's obviously a slow process but I think it makes a difference, because now you're giving people an alternative, not just in theory but you can show them how it's done. For example- taking the bus, biking, making your own food instead of buying lunch etc., recycling everything you can, not wasting food, turning off all your lights/appliances when not in use, conserving heat by wearing more clothes... I don't know. And when you talk about the things that people care about, they aren't really things you'd have to give up. It's like you once said about standards, how that determines your happiness in a given situation. What people DO have to give up is the illusion of becoming insanely rich, having tons of things that go beyond practicality. Having a huge house, a new car every X years, flying everywhere whenever you want, eating at restuarants all the time, hiring people to cook/clean/wipe your ass for you. Gotta go to class
The other part of it, like you said is that society has to make available the tools that people use but in sustainable form. So cars/buses/trains that don't pollute, alternative energy sources for housing. Economically, we have to force companies to change either by forcing them to pay for their pollution enough that they adapt, and/or allow more competitive companies to enter the market.
hey, the shirkey talk and my class on latin american has inspired me, that we should start an NGO, I have to tell you the details..
hey, the shirkey talk and my class on latin american has inspired me, that we should start an NGO, I have to tell you the details..
Sweet, sounds good. Let me know
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