2012: Last Bastion of the Disenfranchised

Following is Rick’s opinion of the 2012 phenomenon. As mentioned in the previous post, I have a somewhat different perspective, which will be posted here in the near future. All food for thought — and discussion, should you chose to participate.  ~Whitehawk

                                                      

The 2012 phenomenon can all too easily become a form of archetypal mass possession that has afflicted the West since at least the first millennium, when thousands awaited the end of the world. While I do not discount prophecy, the turning of the ages, or the presence of new vibratory rates on the planet, the hope that some external agency will change the core of who we are is ultimately naïve and disempowering. Apocalyptic consciousness and the concurrent belief that some form of angelic or demonic cataclysm will fundamentally transform the earth, takes on many forms, and the 2012 Mayan/Venus harmonic seems to be the latest version.

What is clear in all too many forms of visionary, prophetic discourse is an effort to escape from current conditions, and a desperate hope that some future event will settle the scores of unjust and inexplicable happenings on earth. What they tend to feature in common is an inability to live in and appreciate the present moment in all of its fullness and glory.  In the biblical sense, any speculation about the future violates the commandment (“Thou shall not bear false witness”), for the future is not given to us to know, and every form of futuristic speculation takes us out of the present moment, where all resolution lies.

So why do people jump in the bandwagons of Y2k, 2012, and the like, as lemmings rush down to the sea? I suspect it has something to do with the poverty of our own lives. The day, with its glorious sunrise and sunsets, is no longer enough. The divine songs of the birds, the rustling of the leaves in the wind, and the beautifully profound faces of people pass us by unnoticed, for beauty does not demand our attention. We are free to ignore its divine calls. Hence, we are afflicted with the fever of becoming, egged on by the media and the economy, our lives become so fast and meaningless, that we need the injections of a cataclysmic hope for tomorrow. And finally, apocalyptic prophecy has always been the last bastion of the disenfranchised, as in the Ghost Dance period of Native America. If I am not getting a piece of the pie now, if oppression becomes overwhelming, I can project a better time to come, and allow my unwavering belief and commitment to it to get me through another day.

This is not to say that visions like 2012 do not have value. They can be tremendously helpful if we do not take them literally, but rather see them as visionary constructs that can allow us to see what kind of world we really want to create, and what legacy we want to pass on to our children’s children. Then, when we wake up on “the day after” and see that the same world is present before our eyes, and that our ongoing challenges remain, we can role up our sleeves and commit to the real work: the step-by-step purification of our lives, the visioning and creation of community, the honoring of the earth, and the humility to accept the life we have been given, receive its gifts, and offer them back to the glorious mystery of life.

Something Different re: 2012

Greetings, All~

This space is going to be featuring something a little different over the coming days; I (Whitehawk) thought I’d send out advance notice re: what to expect, and invite your participation.

Setup:  Several days ago, Rick sent me a little piece he wrote about the 2012 phenomenon, to post here. This is not the same one that was posted last week. When that one went up, the traffic here really spiked, and I mentioned to Rick I suspected it had to do with the “hot” 2012 topic. He then said he had another 2012 piece…  something he wrote for the 2012 website that Sounds True has up in support of their blockbuster book, The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities (featuring essays by Gregg Braden, Daniel Pinchbeck, Jean Houston, John Major Jenkins, Jose Arguelles, and others).

Here’s the thing:  Rick was reticent to send me his second 2012 piece, because he suspected I wouldn’t appreciate it.

He was right.

Before continuing with this 2012 issue, it may serve to provide a little backstory about my association with Rick. We have known each other for years. We have shared many experiences and conversations; we know one another quite well. And within this “alembic,” varieties of energies kick up between us… one of them being the occasional spar. We can set off charged reflections in each other. In fact, when we met, he commented that I seem “just like him, but in a concave mirror.” In other words, where he zigs, I zag, in quite an illustrious dance of opposites. Within this context, all manner of themes have received “air time” (not to mention fire, water & earth), and — while we share an overall collegiate connection — the alchemical mix can generate a lively froth on occasion!

Rick’s new 2012 commentary, which I’ll post here in the next day or so, invited some froth. (Appropriate timing: full moon.) When I first read it, I responded in all sweetness and light that I did not appreciate his POV, and he and I obviously come from different universes.

His response: “I didn’t think you would like it.”  He then toned down his attitude a tad in an edit, and that is what will be posted here soon.

Now, here is where the rest of us come in, if anyone else will join the discussion. If not, then I will be a lone soul in the lion’s den (what else is new), because I will be posting my personal thoughts regarding 2012 after Rick’s post has been in the spotlight for a while.

I am a little nervous about this, because this is a space frequented by Jarow fans. I may be mauled here, we’ll see! I know upon whose turf I tread. But letting this one slide by without offering another perspective to the phenomenon generally referred to as “2012″ went against my Aquarian nature.  So… a bit of difference rather than deference on this particular topic.

Stay tuned… and prepare to assume your position at the keyboard to offer your input, if so moved. This is, after all, a community BLOG. I trust we can keep it civil!

Big Frothy Photons,

Whitehawk

2012: The Individual and Interdependence

On the cusp of the 2012 harmonic, we work to integrate our cultural past, to take what can really work for a New Age, and finally let the rest go. Perhaps nothing, in this regard, defines us or confines us, and  also offers us new realities like our over-arching economic systems.  From the point of view of consciousness, however, both capitalism and socialism are states of mind projected outward toward the world, and because these projections have concretized themselves so deeply into our imaginings, histories, and activities, they cannot just be upended. They will not disappear, but they may be transformed.
     
Capitalism may be re-envisioned as more than mindless profiteering. Of course, if individuals acted like some multinational corporations do, they would immediately be imprisoned, by even the most open society. Running around like an elephant in a garden, trampling communities, individuals, and the natural world, and using financial influence to control governments and the like are the extreme manifestations of individualism unchecked by any greater sense of belonging or responsibility.
     
Socialism, on the other hand, may be re-envisioned as more than government-controlled economies and the stifling of individual initiatives to conform to some hardened group concept. The dramatic failure of this approach is visible in the economic and social backwardness of every state-controlled, totalitarian system and in their need to resort to violence to maintain power.   
 

When we look within, however, we see these aspects in ourselves. We are the profiteers, calculating everything in our own life in terms of personal or extended personal benefit. And we are the hardliners who cling to the way things are and castigate the parts of ourselves that may dare to blaze new pathways. On the other hand, the capitalism of inventiveness, awareness of opportunity, and just and free exchange is what has made freedom of expression and hope possible. And socialism, likewise, has offered universal compassion and awareness of the larger ramifications of our actions, along with a genuine inclusiveness that elevates the human spirit.

    
What if we dare to bring these states of mind into the alchemical alembic of our lives, into the vessel of our musings and actions? Might it be possible to hold the opposites of the individual and the group in such a patient and clear way that they ultimately transform one another? Can we create communities that we can depend upon and interact with, and that can yet allow individuals to pursue their own dreams? Can we foster individual strength and initiative that can be simultaneously and joyously responsible to the community, the environment, and the expanse of generations?
     
In many ways, the Advanced Manifestation Groups that have grown out of the Creating the Work You Love seminars are laboratories of future possibilities. We meet in circles, holding a group energy that demands the presence and accountability of every individual. We work on ourselves, clarifying our own intentions and projects, while receiving the support of others, whose experiences and various forms of expertise may be incredibly relevant to and supportive of our own. Everyone is accepted by being listened to, no one is excluded, and with time, a sense of belonging emerges that does not block individual freedom. This, of course, is just one of many like forms that are emerging on the planet, but it is the emergence that is crucial. The life-threatening and oppressive economies of the world cannot be allowed to rob people of their opportunities to live soulfully and truthfully through mindless commoditization, useless productivity, state controlled imaginations, lifeless secularity, and the utter disregard of the natural world.
      
Our lives are too precious to sell out the possibility of true vocation for anaesthetized comfort and fear-based security. Come join us in transforming our work to gift our families and our futures with the best that has been given to us. 

What Happens

Greetings to everyone joining Rick in Europe this week!
Omega Inst in Rhinebeck, NY coming up later in June…

A bit of Hafiz for you:

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears
And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep. 

But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken in this world
To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved will send you one of His
wonderful, wild companions~
Like Hafiz 

Your Life, Your Choices

Creating the Work You Love: Manifesting in Times of Meltdown
Omega Institute June 26-28

“When the world is in the way, the sage succeeds;
when the world is not in the way, the sage survives.”

Attributed to the Chinese Daoist sage Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) this about sums up our situation. The media frenzy around “swine-flu” like the frenzy around the economy baldly appeals to peoples’ fear-base, smallness, and greed. As Dr. Mercola points out, three thousand people a day die from malaria. But because there is no pharmaceutical company manufacturing a malaria vaccine, there is no media attention. People are paying other people to create and sell panic and because the vast panoramic beauty of everyday life has become all but invisible to so many. This is the real tragedy and this is the real illness!

This is your life. It is precious and sacred. And you have a choice to either really learn about your body and how to work with and heal it, or to give your power away to corporate medicine. Likewise you can put your energy into creating truly sustainable work – not an ego-based dream fantasy of “me,” but an open exchange with the forces of life that allows you be where you are meant to be, or you can continue to be a wage slave.

This is not about fruitless corporate bashing or the like. You can complain about the economy, the health care system, and the rest as loud and as long as you want to, but these are ultimately all reflections of our selves, of consensus mass-consciousness. To step off the tread mill, to free your mind from limited fear-based thinking and reactive action, to be courageously who you are, and to make whatever concrete contribution you can to your community, this is what “manifestation and life-alignment” work is all about. To Create the Work You Love is to relate to the world, and to the world of work in particular, with genuine intelligence and wisdom. It is not about ego-based self-indulgence, but is rather about the realty of abundance that appears as we step out of our petty visions of separation and risk becoming who and what we are meant to be. Then in an instant, we realize that Life supports us dramatically, that Life has always supported us, and that our challenges, losses, and frustrations are the gifts that urge us to release our resentments, our habitual darkness, our blaming, and our lethargy.

Let the dead bury the dead; go out and demonstrate the reality of Spirit with everything you do. This power is real, and its alignment can be cultivated. No matter what way the world is in, you are faced with the task of living a life that you can be proud of.  There is no time but now. Leap out of your insulated circle and break on through. You will be glad you did. 

Manifestation in the Time of Meltdown

Following is Rick’s contribution to the CIIS April newsletter. He will be leading two workshops at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco) the weekend of April 3-5, plus a public lecture Friday evening.  Details are available here.

With regard to our collective economic situation, the changes that have happened have had to happen, and there is no returning to business as usual. At best, bailing out a sinking ship is a stop gap measure. Even if it “works” we may just be able to get the vessel to a place where it can receive actual help. Let us be clear, however, that the Titanic of the inflated, consumerist, debt-driven, easy-money economy will remain at the bottom of the ocean. For those whose emotions and desires are controlled by the market economy and its endless flow of products and experiences, this situation is obviously frightening, but there is another side that is much more than just a silver lining.

Philosophies of “unlimited abundance” which have appeared in our midst, tend to deny these dark and difficult sides of our lives. As a result, in times of illness, loss, or economic challenge, many of us initially wonder, “What did I do wrong, where was I not aligned?” The answer is that you have done nothing wrong, that such challenges are a necessary and essential part of soulfulness. The premier American psychologist, William James, spoke of the “sick soul” and the “healthy soul” as two basic human types. The healthy soul (Walt Whitman was James’ example) need not dwell in the experience of the abyss, whereas the sick soul (Tolstoy, for James) evolves toward the light through passages into darkness. James did not make value judgments about these types, but understood that for many, times of loss and disorientation can indeed be most valuable times.

I share from first hand experience the remarkable gifts that can come through illness and loss: insight, knowledge, true compassion, and the literal metamorphosis of consciousness from fixated to free. These things are hard to speak or write of, which is why I prefer to share the passage through the shadows in a meditative experience; however, one clear expression of this was set forth by C.G. Jung. When asked about his experience of “God” shortly before his death, Jung replied that for him, God appeared as everything and everyone that came across his path unexpectedly, unsolicited, and unwanted. Likewise, at the end of his essay, “Self Reliance,” Emerson challenges his readers by asking if they think that a new job, a new love, new found health or wealth will actually make their life any better. Nothing will do it, says Emerson, but “the triumph of principle.” 

Just what is this “principle” that allows one to deeply receive whatever life offers and transform it into positivity, knowledge, freedom, and peace? It is neither a mystery nor a “secret,” yet we tend to forget it in the clamor and din of events and illusions fostered by contemporary culture. In terms of Manifestation Work, this is a genuine opportunity–a chance to develop the strength of our own resourcefulness along with the living knowledge that our well-being does not depend upon banks or bail outs. For example, rather than getting caught up in media based hysteria, we can instead consciously work with the situation to learn to share and cycle resources, to find out what we are made of, and to deepen our existential commitment: our sense of why we have actually come here at this time. One way to do this is to process our Life’s Work by considering the following four key points of manifestation.

Well Being can be understood in a wider context as something that is for everything and everyone, not just for the separate individual, which pits “I” against others. This  does not mean we neglect our own personal well being, rather we open to see and feel how each is a part of all. If my own well-being is not contributing toward the greater well being, what good is it? The serious mistake of the “Secret,” and like minded programs, is to envision well-being uniquely in terms of individual aggrandizement, feeding on scarcity and egotism as opposed to opening to WHAT IS, which is always well, available, and which can be shared.

Community seems to be what we want and simultaneously fear. We have a long history of being put down by others, limited, oppressed, and abused — like the current back door attempt to dissolve gay marriages — and yet, the work of manifestation is magnificently amplified in community. A group of proactive people who are willing to set both viable and visionary goals and be accountable to them exponentially increases each person’s power to envision and create. Many of us have been doing this work for years, now is the time to make our mark and to demonstrate how we can mutually support each others’ authenticity and direction.

Sustainability can become a code word for new forms of self imposed poverty, which is why I prefer Bernard Lietaer’s term “Sustainable Abundance.” Indeed, abundance and sustainability go hand in hand as organically vibrant and self renewing technologies and organizational systems that foster creativity as well as clarity and discipline. In spite of meltdowns on the macro level, or more pointedly, as a response to them, we are asked to manage our own economy with intelligence, awareness, and compassion. Thoreau devotes a major chapter in Walden to “economy.” What that means in terms of inner work, as I detail in The Alchemy of Abundance, is expanding our sense of “energy work” to include awareness and management of the inflow and outflow of time, money, and resources in our lives. This can be done. The late Joe Dominguez (Your Money or Your Life) had people carrying around little notebooks to note down every single expenditure of the day (Gandhi, likewise, kept scrupulous accounts). The idea here is not to obsess over money, but to take on first chakra accountability, to be aware of what is actually happening on this level. In the Manifestation Work, we not only track expenses and income, we also track our energetic experience of giving and receiving. This allows us to raise our vibratory rate out of ignorance and panic and to begin to literally craft the life we are called to live.

Creativity need not be about making a “mud pie” that I can market or show to you to prove my self worth. It is the voyage to the deepest part of oneself to bring back what is most valuable, what reminds each of us of why we are here and that inspires us to remember, to put wholeness back together. Creativity and soul work both need time above all else, and creating more free time, more aware time, can be done. A first step, in this direction, is to monitor and reduce both the external use and internal capitulation of the words “should,” “ought,” and “have to.” This may sound pedestrian until you actually experience how these thought forms seep into your most subtle modes of thinking and feeling.

Now these are all just words, and most of us have had enough of them. Now is a time for action: I cannot reiterate forcefully enough that this so called “crisis” is the opportunity that we have been waiting for. It is an opportunity to share, to grow, and to carve out an honest, joyous, and sane way of living. It is an opportunity to live with intention and vision instead of apathy and apprehension. And above all, it is an opportunity to leap out of our pettiness and self absorption, to meet the expanse and embrace the alchemical marriage between “what is” and “what can be.”

Rick’s Recommended Reading

Rick has compiled a list of 10 books that he holds in high regard, and would like to share with you.  His list and brief commentary on each book can be found on the new blog page created for this purpose, 10 Books.   Many happy page-turns…  ~W

Jewel in the Darkness in NYC 2/28/09

All,

On February 28^th I am offering a completely new workshop: “The Jewel in the Darkness” at the Open Center in NYC. This workshop is the distillation of my past years of experience with ongoing Pluto transits, and their attendant manifestations (which in my case have been chronic illness, separation from loved ones, and the loss, and recuperation, of a home.)

As a part of this work, I went into retreat from public appearances for six months to nurse my wounds, but more importantly to allow myself to receive and fully experience the total impact of the “darkness” that was enveloping my life. It has been said that some souls inherently open toward the light while others move toward the abyss. In my own case, it has been both. As a result, I came out of this period with a profound sense of the value of darkness and of the gifts that could be received if there is enough patience and openness.

All this occurred in my life before the economy crashed, but I look at the economic landscape as an absolutely analogous situation. If you remain, consciously or unconsciously, in the mode of the victim (“How or why has this happened to me?”) you deeply disempower yourself and pass that off to people in your immediate life. On the other hand, if you can take the words of people like Hilda Charlton seriously, who emphatically declared that every problem is an opportunity, you can grow, not sentimentally, but profoundly.

I share from first hand experience the remarkable gifts of illness and loss – insight,  knowledge, true compassion, and the literal metamorphosis of consciousness from fixated to free. These things are hard to speak or write of, which is why I want to share the passage through the shadows as a meditative experience in which each person can process their own journey.

This was best expressed by C.G. Jung, shortly before his death when an interviewer asked him about his experience of God. Jung replied (paraphrase) that for me, God is everything and everyone that came into my path that was unexpected, unsolicited, and unwanted. Likewise at the end of his essay, “Self Reliance,” Emerson challenges his readers by asking if they think that a new job, a new love, new found health or wealth will actually make their life any better. Nothing will do it, says Emerson, but “the triumph of principle.”

Just what is this “principle” that allows one to deeply receive whatever life offers and turn it into positivity, knowledge, freedom, and peace? It is neither a mystery nor a “secret,” yet we tend to forget it in the clamor and din of events and illusions fostered by contemporary culture.

This workshop functions as a staff of strength, remembrance, and awareness that we all have the power and ability to come through whatever we have to go through with full integrity, power, and peace.

Rick Jarow

Praise from French Connection

When I saw this review of Rick’s book by a woman living in France, I was so charmed I made the executive decision to post it here, without running it by Rick first. (He can be reticent re: blatant self-promotion.) However, I’m sure he’ll enjoy this, as he does love France.  The photo sealed its fate to be posted here. It comes from the new blog http://soardreamfrance.typepad.com/ … should you care to share this woman’s fulfilled dream of living there  (or share her joie de vivre if you already do).  I actually could not find her name or email anywhere on her blog, otherwise I’d love to thank her  personally for her inspiring post, which holds more juice than your typical review. (Presumably she’ll see this and discover my appreciation.) How could a blog packing the words SOAR, DREAM, and FRANCE all at once, backed by deelish expressiveness, be anything but tres bonne?   ~Whitehawk

Books… On the Beam

I’ve titled my TypeList entry “Books…on the Beam” for a couple of different reasons. First, there’s the expression that someone or something is “really on the beam”-meaning that they really know what they are doing, are really good at what they are doing or that something is a good thing. You’d think someone who reads as ravenously as I do, would have a Chatette full of bookshelves. No, I don’t own a one but I have something better-huge beams in my semi-vaulted ceilings where I keep all the books I have and have read. The beam in the guest room is getting full and at some point I won’t be able to stack comfortably anymore. I’ve imagined one of my guests screaming in the middle of the night because Robert Ludlum or Donna Lyon (in hard back of course) has fallen on their head while they were sleeping! Books in English are at a premium here in France. I hate to part with any of them, but am always happy to make a loan. We trade around the village and often go to the market in Villefranche where there is a gentleman who has a stall where he sells English and French books. He’s always happy to see me coming! I would like to tell you that every book on my beam is “on the beam”, and most are. You can expect very high stars from me on any of the books that I choose to share here with you. Why would I want to recommend something that I didn’t enjoy or believe was some of the best I’d ever read?

At the moment I have one book listed-Rick Jarow’s “Creating the Work You Love”. I discovered him quite by accident when I was wandering through the Bookstar that used to be on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Bookstar regularly closed out my Friday night ritual that began with drinks with friends at the Napoleon House. I was struggling with my job and wanting something to really push me to look at my life and my work in a new way. I found it. I can’t recommend him highly enough. I’ve lent the book to friends and recommended it to clients. As you can see, the book in the photo has been well-loved. What you can’t quite get from the picture is the wonderful aroma of gasoline that wafts by with the turn of each page. The last friend I lent it to left if in the trunk of his car. But this book, highlighted in at least 7 different colors by now, pages falling out and reaking of gasoline had to come to France with me. It helped push me on this journey and continues to help me stay the course when I’m discouraged or need a little tune-up. My books were the most important to bring along when I could, and the most difficult to part with when I had to. I was able to find good homes for all of my books or take them to used book stores in New Orleans before I left. It killed me to give up my whole set of Southern Living Cookbooks to the second hand store. Guess I’m doing another kind of “southern living” now.

I’d like to close with the quote from Rick Jarow’s book that pushed me on my way. I was reading him that fall of ‘97 when my friend Wendy picked me up at the train station in Cahors. The first words that came out of her mouth were: “We have to move to Belgium, can’t you come stay in our house for a year?” It appeared impossible at the time she asked, but after a week of watching the morning mist rise over St. Cirq Lapopie I began to wonder if maybe it really was possible. And then I was smacked by this quote by Robert Johnson found in “Creating the Work You Love”:

“If a fantasy is not responded to, it becomes an energy leak. It is the creative faculty, squandering itself into wishful thinking. Wishing for what one does not have is a symptom of unaligned energy.”

Where Do I Belong?

Following is the 4th and final installment of Rick’s series, The Gate of Power and the Flame of Life.  An unmistakable energy of inclusion, cohesion, and re-creation has been unleashed–not only in the U.S., but globally–with yesterday’s presidential inauguration.  The loom is prepped for a new tapestry of participation to emerge, into which we may weave our vibrant threads of individual expression and contribution.  May you feel encouraged to pick up your thread and work (or at least playfully experiment) with it!  Life is less about ‘finding’ something than it is about creating it.  This post seems tailored to the moment.
Fertile blessings to all ~ Whitehawk 

The flame of ignition is brilliant, sometimes spectacular in its bursting aliveness, but it needs much support, not only to generate the threshold energy to start, but also to maintain itself. A good and constant supply of fuel is needed, as well as shelter from wind, rain, and other factors that may block the blissful burning. Many of these factors can translate into the power of belonging: the whole complex of interrelatedness that we bring to what we do. Belonging is not “do I belong to this club” but a deep sense of participation that is the very root of power, strength, and abundance.

In pre-industrial cultures, where a deep sense of tribal identification was the norm, the worst thing that could happen to someone would be to be shunned. When a person or people were cast out of their communities, they would not be able to physically survive. Likewise, the discussions in psychology about the differences between monkeys brought up with and without touching, affection, and the like attest to this same issue. And while belonging may indeed begin with good mothering, it continues on into the fabric of our days. To doubt whether one belongs (as James Joyce does in Finnigans Wake when he puns on his homeland Dublin as “Doyoubelong?”) is to tear the fabric of existence; and yet this is something that has happened to many of us. Perhaps it may have to happen. The tear, the rip, the fall from childhood grace, and the need to recreate a sense of belonging is one of the challenges of our post historical era, in which most people do not have table altars filled with pictures and mementoes of the last five to seven generations of ancestors. 

Of course, there are many realms of belonging. One could say, for example, that you do not belong to this society if you do not have capital, a bank account, a retirement plan, insurance, and a mortgage, and people without these things might appear to be as bereft as people who were shunned in other cultures. The popularity of television shows like “Cheers” and “Seinfeld” that model cute dysfunctional communities that somehow work, reflect the desire for a place of belonging.

Perhaps we are being asked to revision and rediscover belonging in new ways. A sense of commitment to a place, or a neighborhood is one such way, a sense of belonging to an institution was once a way in which work gave one a sense of belonging, but with athletes sold to the highest bidder and companies regularly swallowing one another, it is increasingly difficult to have a sense of loyalty to an institution. The vocational sense of belonging is a bit different; it is an inner prompting if not certitude that I am here to do something, and that path is a way of belonging in the world. And such a path flowers when connecting with a community that can mirror one’s sense of calling. 

There are those who experience a pervasive feeling of not belonging, not to a church, a family, a nation, or what have you. This level of alienation often produces marginal drifters, loaners, and the like, but it can also lead to the discovery of a deeper level of belonging, belonging to life itself: to be able to thrive in nature, to read the signs of the wind as well as one’s dreams, is to participate in a most profound way. I once attended a Native American sweat lodge in a state park. On the second day of the ceremony, a very black man appeared out of the forest, out of nowhere. I do not think he knew the sweat lodge people personally, but he had such a sense of belonging that everyone acted as if they knew him well. 

What is often dubbed “the sense of meaning” is actually a sense of belonging. It has just become deracinated from a community and its participation mystique, like the modernist detour to find meaning in literature and art without religious commitment and the post modern dissolution of meaning altogether; are we to all just go back to church? This takes us back to the “pursuit of happiness” and to the radical idea that this can occur, in its most authentic sense, through the free conscience of each and every individual.  A culture that offers you the possibility to be anything you can dream of and then qualifies those dreams according to their marketability will not sustain the flame of desire.

Belonging deeply to life, on the other hand, sidesteps the ego-inflation of needing a “life mission” and offers “the rapture of being alive,” as Joseph Campbell put it. Great ambitions, as well as great salaries, may be but literal “compensations” for the loss of this deepest sense of belonging in which nature, society, and soul weave themselves together in an offering of fullness. 

Entering this first gate is entering a precinct of power. A power emerging from the full support of nothing, from vast emptiness becoming vast openness, the world as a field of possibility, the constant, ongoing encounter with the regenerate possibility, with the greatness of the imagination. Abundance then is the natural evolution from the material of your own life as in Rilke’s letter to a young poet

“Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you without trying to interpret it.”

This rooting of the flame, this abundance of acceptance, is the direct opposite of speedy acquisitiveness. What you can do better than anyone else is to be you; but since you don’t know yourself, the only alternative is to constantly surprise yourself. Here, the first gate, the struggle of the individual is to emerge out of the matrix of the collective, and the willingness of the individual to continually morph and integrate into new form.