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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© Dick Rauscher - March, 2004 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.” Please click here to read the Addendum A. 1 Paraphrased
From The Heart of the Enlightened by Anthony de Mello, S.J., Doubleday,
NY, 1989, Pages 184-185 PERSONAL COMMENTS: I don’t care if the ground hog did see his shadow. I’m ready for spring. The super bowl is behind us, there’s well over two feet of snow on the picnic table out on the porch, and we’re down to the last two rows in the wood shed. It’s been a great winter but I’m ready to go out and start looking for the crocus and daffodils. Unfortunately the snow is still a bit deep even for the crocus. An hour hike on snow shoes with friends last weekend proved to be a great hour of exercise; especially for the person who volunteered to break trail. (no it wasn’t me ?) Talking about breaking trail, writing Part 1 of the feature article 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 has certainly created a lot of discussion among readers regarding the future of Christianity and the main line churches. But I would remind readers of this newsletter that I have used the human institution called Christian Church only because it is an institution that I know the most about through personal experience. I am not just picking on Christianity. I am, in fact, challenging the use of primitive ego thinking in every individual and every human institution on the planet. Huston Smith reminds us that the sacred texts of the main line religions are not a very good source of wisdom on human relationships, the role of women, a scientific understanding our universe, planetary or global ethics and values, slavery, what to do with homosexuals, caste systems, or marriage. However, he believes and affirms that the religions of the world do contain thousands of years of human wisdom regarding the ultimate, the infinite, the Creator, God; in other words, things above and greater than us. He warns us to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Smith warns that science does a great job of studying objects beneath us, but humans using science and logic to understand God, is a bit like a community of dogs trying to understand differential calculus using a sniff test. When we talk about God, we must move into story, personal experience, symbol, and metaphor. The primary point I am holding up for consideration in Part 2 of the feature article that follows, is the evolutionary imperative that the human species no longer has the luxury of continuing to use the thinking process of the primitive ego. Some say that they see a more enlightened thinking in many of our human institutions. I agree that enlightened thinking is slowly beginning to emerge in the human family. However, I believe that 1) we need a more intentional or conscious evolution of human consciousness, and 2) we need a model or map to illustrate what a middlepath consciousness would look like; a map that offers the specific skills and spiritual practices that humanity must learn to embrace so as to accelerate an intentional growth of consciousness toward the evolutionary goal of enlightened global community. I believe we are running out of time as a species. My feature article this month is the second part of a two part discussion on why the main line religions of the world will be unable to create a global spirituality for the world. In this issue I will conclude by taking a look at 1) what theological and spiritual beliefs a 21st century church would need to embrace and teach if it hopes to bring a global spiritual consciousness into the world; and 2) what principles, beliefs, and behaviors would such an enlightened consciousness or global spirituality manifest to the diverse cultures and mainline religions of the world. In the April issue of the Newsletter I will discuss in more depth the meaning of middlepath consciousness and some of the specific mental disciplines and spiritual practices that will be required for humanity to grow in self-awareness so as to achieve an enlightened middlepath global community. See you then. Spiritual Practice of the Month: Expectant Listening: Using A Talking Stick The primitive ego is notorious for finishing the sentence of another person, interrupting the other person before they have finished talking, thinking about its “yea but” response while the other person is still talking, and assuming that the other person is wrong. A way to discipline the primitive ego into listening expectantly for the truths in another person’s words is to adopt a spiritual practice used by some Native American tribes called “using a talking stick”. In their tribal council meetings, a person was not allowed to speak unless they were holding the “talking stick”. You could only listen to whom ever was speaking. The talking stick was passed around the tribal circle so as to ensure that everyone got an opportunity to speak. This is a great spiritual practice for families, organizations, and any group of people talking together. A formal use of the talking stick from time to time will build into the community a habit of expectant listening. When the primitive ego begins to take over the communications again, go back to using the talking stick for a while. This is a good spiritual practice for helping people themselves and giving younger children an opportunity to be part of the discussion. It is also a great way of quieting those primitive egos that like to take over any gathering and hear themselves talk. GOALS OF THE STONYHILL NEWSLETTER We live in a world filled with conflict and violence. Almost everyone agrees that something has to change. There is an urgent need to develop a more compassionate global spirituality. QUOTES“….when primitive ego beliefs and the thinking processes of our eight year old inner child conflicts with an enlightened middlepath consciousness, the enlightened middlepath consciousness that embraces diversity and inclusiveness must always prevail. There is simply no other transformational ethical or value system available or capable of evolving the human consciousness toward enlightenment”. Dick Rauscher
“The open heart of an enlightened ego pays attention to the outcomes of its choices and beliefs; it allows the universe to give feedback and teach. 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 closed mind of the primitive ego is unable to take us any further down the evolutionary path toward enlightenment; a path that humanity must travel if we are to survive as a species.” Dick Rauscher When Christian bodies have been dominant in various places in the world, their record for tolerating religious diversity is not good. When they are in the minority, however, it is interesting to note how the Christians support freedom of religions and seek to live under the protection of a secular state. No religious system really believes in separation of church and state if they have majority power. I wonder why Christians are surprised that the Islamic tradition is now acting the same way that Christians at other times and places have acted, when they occupied similar positions of power. From the weekly articles of Bishop John Shelby Spong, www.johnshelbyspong.com Your privacy is important to us. We will NEVER sell or share our mailing list with anyone.
The Stonyhill Newsletter / Blog and the videos related to each Newsletter are designed to teach the insights and everyday wisdom contained in Primitive Ego Psychology. For more technical, in-depth articles on Primitive Ego Psychology and Primitive Ego Theory go to the Stonyhill website at www.stonyhill.com/articles.htm |
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