Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Silent Revolution

Movements don't appeal to me, especially when they are of a spiritual nature (and more so in the political arena). Religion has an unfortunate history with millenarianism, whereas it's better to have a movement in oneself than a society. We all need to sort ourselves out before we overly concern ourselves with what the world should be.

When Christianity ruled a nation, it almost always became corrupt: proving even Truth can get co-opted by power. Now, Christianity has become more feeble in the West (while gaining some traction in the East and South). Instead, we see western New Thought people gravitating towards the exotic, whether it be the Eastern traditions or the more progressive spiritual scene. Being someone who has dipped my toes in Integral/Evolutionary circles and intoxicated with the idea of being part of the new, new thing, I now see the error in my ways. 

As I see it now, these scenes should remain as powerless subcultures. Sure, they offer some emphasis in an experimental nature that may help correct or re-align the extremes that went off kilter in the western traditions. But they are not truthfully better since Truth is more eternal than progressive. These intoxicated aspirants are more consumed with being builders, than gardeners (and so few have tended to their own garden). As Tomberg mentions, the fruit is in devoting ourselves to the tasks of growth instead of those of construction.

My meditation teacher, albeit very good at his craft, is convinced Buddhism needs to come fully to the West. Another friend of mine wants cultural change at all costs with his neo-Advaita spiritual disposition. I know of others who want to use these spiritual movements to refashion the world politically. God forbid we hit the 10% tipping point (or whatever arbitrary Malcolm Gladwell number makes it all go parabolic). 

It's better if we have the competition of narratives. That's not to say there can't be some unifying principles that holds it all together, but in the post-metaphysical age it would be nearly impossible to put the pieces back together in any fruitful way. But these principles should not be just ideas of the mind, but of the heart too. In other words, I would prefer not to see a movement of the new, but a renewal of the eternal. Maybe then we can recover something worthy in the mustard seed, and revolt silently.