Between the annihilation of the “somebody”, and the rejection of form in processes of enlightenment, is the valley of the shadow of death. Although death can be understood as transformation by the mind, the agony of transience casts a shadow. In walking this valley, humility towards a source greater than anything we could feel or believe ourselves to be is critical. This source is not money, not success, not adoration, and not an etching in the annals of global history. This source – at the heart of all we are – is that which out of a burning passion, is able to let every form be – in all its manifestations and process.
The “Here and the Now” is not an escape shoot from human responsibility, it is the means through which we can become authentically, compassionately and miraculously human.
When I was a student, the great existentialist Paul De Man, was a seen as the guru of literary theory. Humming around Prof. Terry Eagleton, the Oxford crowd was immersed in the inquiry into the disconnection between a word and its apparent meaning – the sign and the signified. The trend was to apply “deconstruction” to show that meaning is inherently empty. “The death of the author” was announced with great intellectual bravado, and anyone who believed that a text of Shakespeare actually had an independent, objective existence was a moron.
It came as quite a shock to the Wadham College crowd when someone uncovered something of Paul De Man’s biography. A European intellectual, he (unlike his many of his peers) had collaborated deeply with the Nazi occupation of his country, even publishing overtly antisemetic articles in the Belgian Newspaper Le Soir. Revelations of his domestic and financial life-style further added fire to the flame, opening the question:
“Is the existential movement fueled by an agenda to evade responsibility and accountability?”
Today, in nonduality circles, it seems that history is repeating. The death of the author has become the death of the “somebody”, and the same dynamic of rejecting fundamental human goodness is often being played out.
In the avenues of online spirituality and nonduality, shadows can be encountered – shadows that fall between enlightenment and narcissism, or between claims of self liberation, and subtle agendas to escape the responsibility of living. There is a simple reason for this – the enslavement of the human in the agenda to avoid pain and to go for pleasure – even if it is at the expense of the whole.
Within this, the classic question would be, “After the Power of the Now, what Now?”
Luckily, Eckhart Tolle is reflected in his teachings as pure, humble, kind and committed to the interpersonal benefit of the whole. Yet many take the liberating message of the escape door called the Now, and abuse this in order to bypass individual and interpersonal responsibility for feelings and emotions. This is a phenomena that extends far beyond the worlds of Eckhart, Deepak and the thinly-masked “Nobodies” of non-duality, and deep into the history of spirituality and human striving.
When the “self” is realized as fallible and illusory, there is the possibility to move with rejection (perhaps one of the greatest cruelties of nature), espousing a mandate to trash self-hood, the mind, and all dimensions of human – especially as perceived in ‘others’. This in effect, is a closing of the human heart. When the heart closes, awareness will also shut down, making the whole so-called liberation conceptual, aggressive, ego-driven and vastly superior to the masses.
There is a thin line between a living teaching and the illusion of teaching, just as there is a thin line between a guru and psychopath. The damage done to the world of inner growth, nonduality and spirituality by teachers such as Andrew Cohen – leader of EnlightenmentNEXT – for whom egoic grandiosity and contempt for weakness opened the way to self destruction and the collapse of a commercial enterprise – cannot be underestimated. In a way, it breeds more cynicism towards spiritual teachers, more contempt, more superiority, and less togetherness in compassion. There is always a way back. But it is a way of humility, hard-work, emotional responsibility and unconditional service to the whole.
Inner growth is a spiralling process through creation between the aspects of existence and dimensions of form. To dictate an end point to a process is to espouse an agenda – an agenda based on the needs of ego under fire.
There is never an arrival point – although there are many landmark shifts, such as awakening and enlightenment. There is no such thing as private liberation or private happiness. The very idea of this betrays its own lie of separation and the great hook of narcissism embedded in the belief that disunity is absolute.
When spiritual teachers begin to receive money for their services, the literal investment in “being right” and in offering an “end-point” is further inflated. Can they literally afford to be humble? To make a mistake? To be in process? Are they allowed to change their minds?(!) Can they risk being equally human? How does a spiritual teacher navigate between the physical needs (financial, sexual, etc) and his own elated position as one free of all form?
In a fast food culture of quick fixes and instant gratification, the temptations of egoic whiplash can be huge, almost taking on the mythical proportions of Satan with his horns and tail. Key words are humility, trust, responsibility and above all, humanity.
The opposite of humility is grandiosity. Equality has no opposite. Equality is always here.
“Stay without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual.”
–Nisargadatta Maharaj
