“Many may know, few will understand.”
Traditional Medicinal
For over 20 years, I have participated in ceremonial community. When I reflect on my experiences, one of the greatest insights I have had is that they are not “mine.” My interpretation of them is irrelevant. Even their benefit and the roles that have come to me from my commitments are insignificant. Another epiphany I had and continue to express to the best of my ability, is being of service to community. I simply hold a space for others to have their experience, however it may manifest, without attachment, control, expectation and influence. It takes everything from me to be true to the tradition and express who I am called to be. When one gives all and becomes nothing, it creates opportunity for everything.
The Human Gene
One of the most heartbreaking experiences I have witnessed on this path is observing when participants fall victim to their ego. It is a delicate and intricate balance to maintain an equilibrium between the prayer we make, and the society in which we live. Many falter in their pursuits to gain personal advancement, power, recognition and status at the cost of their experience and those of the people whom they desire to lead. It is more about manipulation and less about tradition. Many interpret leadership as the quantity of their followers and the control they impose, rather than their service to community. It becomes dangerous when they are insensitive or oblivious to the impacts their personal agendas and strategies cause.
“Spiritualized”
Whenever a tradition becomes congregational or institutionalized, it is only a matter of time before it manifests as social dysfunction, harm, oppression and destruction. Last year, I published “Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.” It expresses clarity into the influence and impact our egos have on our experience and those of others. Many forms of religion have established, enacted and profited by controlling and manipulating parishioners into fear, guilt, obligation and uncertainty to uphold their authority over the many. The propaganda they proselytize is a scheme to prohibit the individual soul-intimation experience. Personal discernment and distinction are vital in creating and preserving our alignment with the universe.
Invention of Programming
All of us are indoctrinated into institutional structures of selective reality. Long before we learn to express consciousness and conscience, we are programmed to emulate a common, condensed interpretation of all with which we identify and relate. This is a social control technique to maintain our enslavement. Most “intelligent” people are cast into a vicious cycle of existence. They choose not to acknowledge the truth that they are imprisoned by their ego with their own denial, doubt, fear and self-righteousness. We have been conditioned by education, mainstream media, religion and society to be right instead of true to our experience. This is what motivates people who believe themselves to be leaders to control others.
“Knowing is an invention of the mind. Understanding is an expression of the soul.”
Knowing and Understanding
Knowing tethers us to thought. Understanding inspires us to be. I would not choose to “know” anything. In my opinion, knowing is too intellectual. Just facts and figures ricocheting in my mind. Knowing is a diversion from observing, understanding and applying what I experience into who I am. Social reality imposes the duality of thought and action into our lifestyles. We are energetic beings with multidimensional potentialities. Our heart and intuition relate us with our soul and the universe. Knowing is merely a fraction of our experience in the universality of our existence. Understanding empowers us to align our body and mind with our heart, intuition, soul and the universe.
Focus of Vision
Epiphanies and insights are occurring in every moment of our present. When we happen upon them, they occur to us as fleeting glimpses, existing beyond our purview. We simply do not dedicate the necessary focus to cultivate our experience. We must express a purpose of awareness and observation to create a sustainable environment in which our consciousness resonates with the frequency of our vision. My initiation into this experience was terrifying, as it was so diverse from the reality in which I had been indoctrinated. It annihilated my adolescent belief, perception, thought and understanding. After I found my balance amidst the fluctuating currents of my experiences, I grew accustomed to the shifts and eventually chose to flow with them.
Observation of Experience
Our experiences are only as conscious as we live them. We exist in a social reality that imposes oblivion as a control mechanism. Our focus of vision kindles our observation to hone our awareness and its expression. Though we are programmed to exercise acuity through a filter of a selfishness, being present to the circumstances and events transpiring around us empowers us to establish how they exist within. Eventually, we create the opportunity to transform ourselves, our existence and our perception of reality. Our observation is the expression of our relativity with the present. The current challenges of the new era are an ideal opportunity to shift and align with the universe and our soul, guided by our intuition, while being conscious of our heart, mind and body.
Expression of Being
In no other tradition have I experienced such an extraordinary symmetry between the personal and community experience. When balance is established, one can have their individual discoveries within the circle. Whether or not this happens is empowered by our unique expression of being. When the shared focus is for the benefit of the people, personal transformation is possible. It simply requires us to shift our focus from our self alone to the needs of all. Being willing to release the social conditioning of our selfishness empowers us to be proactively empowered by community consciousness. When we choose to embody this way of being, our personal and collective visions manifest.
Full Circle
“One insight I would share with those at the crossroads of their soul; be present to your ego and its influence, or you will never have a spiritual experience.” (“Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.”) The primary element to our social programming is believing and engaging in linear reality. Personal transformation is a multidimensional encounter with infinite facets of vision, observation, experience, expression and being. The optimal way to discover who, how and why we are is our relativity within community. We sacrifice our greatest potential with our social obsessions for selfish inclinations. Community offers us the opportunity to create ourselves with our commitment to all our relations.
“Unity is the soul of community” – (“Spiritualized: The Ego of Spirituality.”)
“Community is our commitment to unity.”
CLICK HERE
ethompson
July 1, 2022 at 11:15 amAwesome post, Iam.
Very insightful.
When I see dysfunction in our spiritual community: I ask myself, where is the prayer?
“One of the most heartbreaking experiences I have witnessed on this path is observing when participants fall victim to their ego. It is a delicate and intricate balance to maintain an equilibrium between the prayer we make, and the society in which we live. Many falter in their pursuits to gain personal advancement, power, recognition and status at the cost of their experience and those of the people whom they desire to lead. It is more about manipulation and less about tradition.”
Iam
July 1, 2022 at 12:08 pmYes!
And the scariest thing about it are the people who bring the most dysfunction are either oblivious to it or that is their conscious intention.
One thing I forgot to put in the article that I felt was very relevant!
“To all whom choose to bring chaos, control and manipulation to your ceremonial experience, you know who you are. Most importantly, WE know who you are.”
“How strong is your prayer?”
For some I don’t think it has anything to do with prayer, or service to the people.
It is all about “their” experience most often at the detriment to others.
The inevitable outcome for them is that they will never have a fulfilling experience.
Then again, maybe they become more aware of their ego. Or not.
ethompson
July 1, 2022 at 5:02 pmI totally agree, Iam. To deliberately sow chaos into a sacred space is unconscionable.
markfarrar
July 1, 2022 at 4:34 pmwell , I can’t speak for all those
unfulfilled , egotistical , agents of chaos ,
but one or two of us distrust and avoid all forms
of community , grouping , society , or tribe . I Individuate
so as not to be immersed in anyone elses narrative .
my perceptions of the world and life I love ,
belong only to me , my ego and any odds
and sods on elvas blog who can still share
a laugh about human beings weird ego doings …..
ethompson
July 1, 2022 at 5:00 pmHugs Mark, I too avoid communities, groupings and societies. No matter how well communities start off they always fall prey to power hungry ego maniacs. I’ve disengaged from it all. Just me, the sun, the creatures, the garden and the joy of connection to the All….
Iam
July 2, 2022 at 2:59 pmElva,
The sun, the creatures, the garden and the joy of connection to the All is fulfillment.
Iam
July 2, 2022 at 2:57 pmMark,
Its the narratives that allow the chaos of ego to exist. People don’t understand that words have power.
Humor is the key!
markfarrar
July 3, 2022 at 3:09 pmha ha , the people no comprende
the power word Understand ,,,
ariel
July 2, 2022 at 8:50 amEach day can bring something different. I managed to do two bouts of sungazing recently while performing the yoga shoulderstand position, upside down with legs apart on the clear days when the grass on my outdoor yoga spot was dry enough.
I like communities, but they’ve got to be real, and based on spiritual practice. And some under and some overstanding. We managed it between 1988 and 1997.
If you have achieved a high enough vibration, chaos and discordance cannot exist in this space, it either cannot enter or has to leave quickly with its brains a bit scrambled. I have had plenty sufficient experience to be unequivocal about this.
xxxxxx
Iam
July 2, 2022 at 2:56 pmAriel,
Absolutely!
It is all about holding the space so it cannot exist. Even if some want to hold onto their ego.
To me, it’s all about finding the balance between the personal and community experience.
Chris
July 4, 2022 at 8:34 amI don’t understand the pressing urge for community or ceremony or unity. I don’t allow any entities beyond the benign and benevolent into my space. It seems to me the puppeteers seek another shot at the Tower of Babel moment. They want everyone speaking the same language, believing the same religion, thinking the same thoughts. Billions doing this in ceremony, community and unity, simultaneously world wide, would be capable of almost anything. As Lenin has said: “The best way to control the opposition is to lead the opposition.” The new age is entirely the invention of the puppeteers. How do Humans differ from factory farmed animals? They do not.
Just as I don’t believe in the pyramid structure for Humans, I don’t believe in the circle structure for Humans. Both are fake and inorganic. Community and ceremony both favor these inorganic structures. I do make purely improvised music with others. It is entirely unconscious and alchemical – like the flocking of birds. To talk of ceremony, community, unity or balance under such circumstance is meaningless. Words betray our weaknesses and are only valuable for foisting the unconscious and wordless upon us. Words are not merely insufficient; they are misleading and prone to support the lie that they reveal truth. In the beginning was the Word… and so began the enslavement of the self-aware.
markfarrar
July 4, 2022 at 2:17 pmin the beginning
was the word understand
and so began the levels of the pyramid .
Iam
July 4, 2022 at 10:10 pmChris,
A lot of good points and insights!
Authentic belonging and relativity is a universal nature that humans tend to lose the deeper the ego digs it’s roots into our being with social conditioning and programming. Unfortunately, authentic being is an ideal that rarely manifests as reality. It is a practice we need to engage in with almost every breath.
To billions of people, Ceremony and community are both important, yet it is the unique, personal path and truth that is lost significant. I have observed in my personal ceremonial community experiences it is possible and powerful to establish the balance to between the individual and community experience.
Chris
July 6, 2022 at 9:06 amIam,
Your and my worldview diverge considerably, but I appreciate your engagement. I ask Infinity daily to end this hamster wheel from hell for all consciousness. We are all trapped between a selfish gene addicted to replicating itself and a selfish soul addicted to collecting new experiences. All consciousness in density/polarity/time face an impossible condition, and most especially Humans. I have no interest in learning, initiation or evolution. Sometimes, by accident, I learn via play. This I accept. Good/Evil is the goad that keeps the hamster wheel turning. In my early years I believed in self-improvement, but in retrospect my only valuable experience was my dozen LSD trips in the mid-70s. As I am self-taught I cannot teach. I can only suggest exploring a psychedelic drug like LSD. The only community that is real for me are those I have engaged with in creating improvised music. They number 7 Humans and an unknown number of unknown entities that have joined in. Beyond my love of my children and friends I care only for the alchemy of art and music. By chance I have begun to engage with the Forest People (Sasquatch) and may find among them play partners. All else is dross.
ethompson
July 6, 2022 at 9:32 amClassic comment, Chris.
“We are all trapped between a selfish gene addicted to replicating itself and a selfish soul addicted to collecting new experiences.”
Ah! but what of the spirit in the three fold man…the spirit that is connected to the All.
Much love to you.
Michael
July 4, 2022 at 5:13 pmVery true, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately many who fall victim to their egos only see this in others and fail to look into the mirror and see it within themselves. Everyone has their own process with their egos. Everyone. Participants need to focus on the prayer and how they are conducting themselves instead of on what everyone else is doing or not doing.
Quoting Elva quoting Carlos Castaneda “Does the path have a heart?”
ethompson
July 4, 2022 at 7:11 pmThank you, Michael.
Much love.
Reminds me of Rumi.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
Iam
July 4, 2022 at 10:20 pmMichael,
Indeed it is important for everyone to be present to their ego and not engage in those of others. In my experience, some either consciously or obliviously allow their egos to impact the prayers and experiences of others. This compromises the focus and expression of the community and it’s prayer. Some seem to have no intention of transforming themselves in the expression of their prayer, only impose their agendas and strategies upon others with wreckless abandon. Community helps us to see the idiosyncrasies we all have. Observing them and transforming them is key in our collective prayer.