20. Until They Develop an Enlightened Consciousness, Liberal Main Line Religions Will Be Unable to Take A Leadership Role in the Creation of A Global Spirituality. Part 2

by Dick Rauscher

Abstract

None of the main line religions, including and especially Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, are structured or equipped to bring a critically needed global spirituality into the 21st century. The mainline religions of the world were localized tribal religions originally founded on the wisdom teachings of an enlightened ego, but this wisdom was later interpreted and then institutionalized by primitive egos; ego’s that unfortunately were unable to understand and incorporate the deeper wisdom of the enlightened teachers.

The world’s main line religions are struggling to bring love and compassion into the world but the primitive ego can only manifest itself. Spiritual growth is growth in self-awareness. Until the main line religions mature to a higher level of consciousness in their theologies and institutional structures, and find their voice, they will not be capable of taking a leadership role in facilitating the transformation of human consciousness.

We cannot teach what we don’t know.

Until the thinking process of any individual, or institution, matures beyond that of the primitive ego, neither will be able to cope successfully with the diversity and complexity of a global culture. They will have little or no ability to manifest the unconditional love of an enlightened consciousness.

(See the feature articles in Newsletters Issue #5 and Issue #6 for more discussion on the meaning of primitive ego and the ego’s growth toward enlightenment).

THE STORY OF A FENCE

A young lion was taken into captivity and thrown into a concentration camp where, to his amazement, he found other lions who had been there for years, some of them all their lives, for they had been born there. He soon became acquainted with the social activities of the camp lions. They banded themselves into groups. One group consisted of the socializers; another was into show business; another was cultural, for its purpose was to carefully preserve the customs, the tradition, and the history of the times when lions were free. Other groups were religious—they gathered mostly to sing moving songs about a future jungle where there would be no fences.

As he looked around, the young lion observed one old lion who always seemed deep in thought, a loner who belonged to no group and mostly kept away from everyone. There was something strange about him that commanded everyone’s admiration and everyone’s hostility, for his presence aroused fear and self-doubt. He approached the old lion and asked him why he was always alone.

After a moment of thought, the old lion quietly replied, “Join no group. These poor fools are busy with everything except what is essential.” “And what is that?” asked the young lion. “Studying the nature of the fence. Nothing, but nothing, else matters.”

The human condition is perfectly depicted in the case of the poor drunk standing late at night outside the park, beating on the fence, and yelling, "Let me out! Let me out." Only our illusions prevent us from seeing that we are---and always have been---free.1

THE BIRTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS

It took the universe 15 billion years to evolve consciousness on this planet. About 100,000 years ago a human species evolved called homo sapiens sapiens. For the first time, at least in this part of the universe, a species had evolved that was not simply aware; it was aware of being aware or conscious of it’s own consciousness.

This amazing evolutionary event marked the beginning of a new evolutionary process. For the first time in 15 billion years, the evolution of a species would no longer be confined or limited by a biological process requiring millions of years of random selection. With the birth of reflexive consciousness, the future evolution of humanity had changed from biology to the evolution of consciousness.

A carbon based life had evolved into a self-aware, self-conscious species that was capable of being a co-creative force in the future evolution of the universe. Since there can be no form without consciousness, homo sapiens sapiens was a species not only capable of creating form through its consciousness, but a species capable of exploring the meaning of life in general, its own life in particular, and the very meaning of existence itself. For this human species, a journey of consciousness toward enlightenment had begun.

The unconscious mental operating system of all humans is the primitive ego discussed in Part 1 of this article. It is simply the ego/mind of an eight year old child; a second grader. This primitive, pro-creative, “survival of the fittest” mentality used by virtually every human culture, individual, institution, government, and religion on the planet for the last 100,000 years represents the most advanced level of consciousness in the known universe.

In roughly the last 20 to 30 thousand years, homo sapiens sapiens has created tools, civilization, theology, art, music, science, atomic weapons, and it has traveled to nearby planets. It has mapped the genetic code of life itself, it has learned to clone these genetic codes, and within a few years it will have the ability to create whole new life forms. It has mapped the universe from the moment of the big bang, and it is currently developing nanotechnologies that will operate at the cellular and atomic level of matter and life itself. The primitive ego of has created virtually all of this progress in the last 25,000 years of humanity’s life as a self-aware species.

Unfortunately, this miracle of consciousness we call the primitive ego is the co-creative consciousness of an eight year old child; a second grade level of human consciousness that is no longer capable of managing the forms and the exponential rate of change it has created for itself. The child has created toys that are fully capable of destroying not only the child, but all life itself on the planet it calls home. The child’s technical expertise and creativity has grown more rapidly than the development of its spiritual wisdom.

THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The greatest challenge facing the human species today is the intentional evolution of our species consciousness. The evolutionary transformation of human consciousness has now become an evolutionary imperative; no longer a process that can be left to evolve on it’s own. We have no choice but to intentionally embrace the “ conscious evolution” our species so as to achieve a new level of consciousness capable of managing the increasingly sophisticated forms we are creating at an every increasing rate.

This means that the primitive ego of every individual must somehow mature; from the rigid, black and white simplicity of an individual self to that of a more mature self-consciousness capable of functioning creatively within the infinite complexity of a radically diverse global community.

When children are culturized into the ethics and value memes of the family and culture in which they are born, they adopt those memes effortlessly by a process of osmosis. During the first eight years of life, these cultural ethics and values become the “oxygen” the child breathes, and thus become the unconscious values and ethical foundation of the child’s primitive ego.

Since every primitive ego begins its journey or “conscious evolution” toward a mature, enlightened, self-aware consciousness from inside the cultural memes and beliefs of childhood, the memes we use to give meaning to our lives, must evolve to reflect the matured consciousness required by that of an inter-dependent global culture.

As parents, teachers, schools, governments, religions, political, and economic institutions struggle to intentionally mature the thinking process they use, the next generation will effortlessly absorb these new cultural memes and evolve to new levels of consciousness, self-awareness, and compassion. In this way, any incremental growth in the evolution of human consciousness is effortlessly transmitted to the next generation. Unfortunately, this also works equally well for de-evolutionary or regressive movements within the consciousness of a culture.

We hear today about the need for a sustainable economy, a sustainable population base, and a sustainable use of the earths resources. I would add that humanity also needs a sustainable, conscious evolution in compassion. Compassion, cooperation, and caring must become the sustainable foundation of our human communication and human interaction with one another.

Simply stated, a hit and miss compassion based on whether or not our primitive ego feels threatened, is not going to bring world peace or help us create a compassionate global community; nor is it going to help us survive the massive changes that we are going to be facing as we move deeper into the 21st century.

If we insist on continuing to use the archaic, survival of the fittest, pro-creative thinking process of a primitive ego, many futurists believe that we are in grave danger of sliding into a modern dark age that will make the dark age of the middle ages look enlightened be comparison. Conscious evolution is not a choice, it is an evolutionary imperative.

A MAIN LINE RELIGION’S JOURNEY TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT

So how do we create a sustainable compassionate way of interacting with one another? How do we learn the spiritual practices and disciplines necessary to manifest an unconditional love? How do we learn to wake up as a species and then stay awake, self-aware, and conscious of how we are thinking and behaving? How can we learn to intentionally and consciously evolve as a co-creative species?

To avoid the necessity of continually referring to Part 1 of this article, I have included the nine basic beliefs and behaviors of the primitive ego in Addendum A in which I offer a detailed comparison between the judgmental, black and white thinking process of the primitive ego currently embedded in the institutional Christian religion, with the unconditional love manifested by an enlightened religion that is based on the consciousness of an enlightened ego .

Using the institutional Christian church in my discussion of the primitive ego should not be taken as a theological attack on the Christian religion or it’s beliefs. I am simply offering a psychological point of view that offers a new way of understanding how most individuals and virtually every political, governmental, corporate, and economic institution in the world presently utilize the unconscious, judgmental thinking process of the primitive ego. In other words, the comparisons made in Addendum A will have similarities and parallels in all human institutions.

I am using the institutional main line Christian religion for two basic reasons. First, this is my faith tradition. After two decades as an ordained pastoral psychotherapist in the Christian religion, this is the human institution that I have the most insight and experience to draw upon to compare the conflict produced by the primitive ego with the unconditional love of an enlightened consciousness. Secondly, the main line religions of the world are already genuinely struggling to bring an authentic transformational spirituality of love and compassion into the world and thus are potentially in the best position to lead humanity into an enlightened future.

Unfortunately, because the primitive ego can only manifest itself, this potential for leadership will not become a reality until the main line churches discover the wisdom and the courage to reform themselves. (Addendum A)

Since a religion cannot teach what it doesn’t know, and because authentic spiritual growth is simply growth in self-awareness, until the main line religions mature to a higher level of self-consciousness in their theologies and institutional structures, they will not be capable of taking a leadership role in facilitating the authentic transformation of human consciousness.

Maturing to a higher level of consciousness would mean that, regardless of where it is found, when rigid, black and white, primitive ego thinking, challenges or denigrates in any way, for any reason the equality, value, dignity, or rights of any human, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic roots, religion , faith, or political affiliation, it must be removed or rewritten so as to reflect an enlightened consciousness; an inclusive middlepath consciousness that embraces the diversity, the sacredness, and the systemic, inter-dependent oneness of all creation.

The responsibility for this intentional, conscious evolution of the human species is the basic responsibility of every individual, every culture, every institution, and especially every main line religion.

I believe that the conscious evolution of humanity is an evolutionary imperative if we are to survive as a species. But I also believe there is hope. Mental health professionals, social workers, enlightened clergy, enlightened political leaders, and spiritually oriented people from virtually every culture are beginning to challenge the self-focused, all or nothing, survival of the fittest thinking of the primitive ego.

This ever-increasing collective awakening of humanity is giving voice to our need for a more enlightened global consciousness. They are urging us to develop a more mature consciousness; to cultivate a species mindfulness that pays attention to global issues and concerns. These prophetic voices need to be listened for, supported and encouraged, especially by the main line religions of the world.

These voices reflect a growing awareness that the judgmental, black and white thinking of the primitive ego is the fuel of terrorism; an awareness that terrorism is contributing to the de-evolution of human consciousness and the deconstruction of global culture.

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam’s focus on the salvation of the individual, and their increasingly passionate defense of conservative, theological beliefs that advocate the use of primitive, millennia old scientific and social norms, is rapidly moving them into a position of irrelevance in the world community.

John Shelby Spong, a retired bishop in the Episcopal Church warns “ We have lost the ability of self-reformation. We warn others against idolatry, but we’ve not listened to our own warnings.”

Every main line church was founded on the wisdom teachings of an enlightened teacher who taught others how to love unconditionally so as to bring justice, caring, compassion, happiness, and enlightenment into the world. The mainline churches must give up their parental demands for blind obedience to their primitive, outmoded orthodox teachings; a vertical “power over” that says “because I told you so.” Blind obedience is not a virtue, and the more a religion insists on using the rigid thinking process of the primitive ego (Addendum A), the more that religion meets the criteria used to define a cult.

A cult employs mind control, encourages a philosophical/theological isolation from non-members, avoids and punishes independent thinking in areas of its orthodoxy or theology, demands that members demonstrate purity in thought and behavior to orthodox teachings, uses spiritual manipulation by the threat that only cult members will be saved in the end times, advocates rigid claims of absolute truth, loads its members with cult language filled with non-thought words such as “the truth”, “are you saved”, “grace of god”, “moving onto perfection” that are primarily designed to stop conversation, controls which books can be read, and carefully defines the kind of “non-members” with whom members can associate. Pagans, Wiccans, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, homosexuals, atheists, agnostics and unsaved non-believers are high on the list of those to be avoided by Christians.

An authentic, enlightened religion would be teaching the ethics and values necessary for the authentic transformation of human consciousness from that of a closed individual primitive ego, to that of an open, enlightened, global, middlepath consciousness. (Addendum A)

Grace has been described as a touch of truth that allows us to see the world in a new way: but only if our hearts are open enough to take it in. The open heart of an enlightened ego allows the universe to give feedback and teach by paying attention to the consequences of its choices and beliefs, it pays attention to the karma it is manifesting in the world, and it is compassionately empathic to the needs and feelings of other people.

Summary

As futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard reminds us, creation feeds on entropy. The universe creates new forms when the old forms disintegrate through entropy. The old forms must be allowed to obey the entropic process so as to make room for new forms.

When the judgmental thinking processes of the primitive ego attempts to stop change and thus conflicts with the unconditional love of an enlightened middlepath consciousness that openly and creatively embraces change, radical diversity, and inclusiveness, the latter must always prevail.

The negentropic energy of unconditional love is the only transformational energy capable of increasing complexity and supporting the evolution of human consciousness. 2

Will we intentionally learn the spiritual practices and disciplines necessary to manifest the unconditional love of our essential self and thus support the evolution of our consciousness, or we will continue to unconsciously create conflict and suffering through the judgmental, conditional love of our primitive egos. These are the only choices available to homo sapiens sapiens at this point in the conscious evolution of our species.

The closed mind of the primitive ego has taken humanity as far as it can toward enlightenment, it cannot take us down the conscious evolutionary path that humanity must now travel.”

Paraphrased From The Heart of the Enlightened by Anthony de Mello, S.J., Doubleday, NY, 1989, Pages 184-185
Epistemology, Fourth Order Consciousness, and the Subject-Object Relationship, Robert Kegan, What Is Enlightenment: Spirituality for the 21st Century, Fall/Winter 2002, p. 148