Once again, that word called “ISIS” arises together the bleak fibres of unconditional cruelty into the spotlight of the collective consciousness.
In the world of the global media, they say a picture is worth 20,000 words. Yet sometimes, it seems clear that even 7 billion words could not relieve the horror of an innocent aid-worker facing decapitation, or of Australian citizens suddenly exposed to the insanity of unconditional cruelty. As we take in these stories – as they go viral across the social media – what is happening to the perception of humanity?
ISIS – Egyptian goddess of unconditional love.
“When we witness the uncontainable, perception by reflex deforms itself.”
This is the ISIS challenge – the challenge to the spiritually awake individuals determined on the one-ness of mankind to answer the question: is ISIS also part of this wondrous unity? Is humanity ONE, or are we internally ONE, on the basis of a condition that cruelty is never aroused among us?
This is the ISIS factor – the factor within the world of inner growth, meditation and self-development that can send us spiralling back into judgement, beliefs and exclusion. This horror threatens, above all, to make hypocrites of us all.
Last century it was the Hitler factor. In 2014, it is ISIS. ISIS has become 2014’s iconic point of focus for an archetypal suffering, horror, cruelty, senselessness and inhumanity. Yet, we would be liars if we were to pretend that these predators multiplying across the planet were not human. They are part of our humanity. This is a fact.
Right now, part of this dimension called humanity, is horrific beyond belief.
“One love, one heart . . .
Let’s get together and feel all right”
Bob Marley, Bob Marley – Legend
Before going on, it’s important to stress that there is no argument here against intervention to stop the activity of ISIS, to put borders to the cult-like syndrome of collective psychopathy affecting these individuals and to section this chronic disorder just as we would section all those who are of danger to themselves or others. Yet despite the present vulgar art of modern psychiatry, sectioning is an activity arising out of a need to protect and heal.
Yet, this article will delve a little into the social fields of spiritual seekers, of nonduality, and of the awakened, so as to try to open a clearer sight of the ISIS factor, among us, between us, and within each sacred universe of embodied peace and love.
“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”
The book I AM HERE – Opening the Windows of Life & Beauty outlines the three windows of perception: consciousness, awareness and perception through emptiness. Consciousness – connected with awakening and mind, is the area where perception selects where to engage and where to release. Awareness – connected with the felt sense, being, or the heart, is the area where perception is purely sentient, responsive and responding from behind and through all phenomena, sharing atmospheres, feelings and processes. Perception through emptiness is the means through which both consciousness and awareness are able to expand or focus, it is that which allows focus and refinement, as well as the co-existence of the individual within the unified field.
“ISIS is nothing other than a symptom of the trauma of the collective whole of humanity.”
Yet it is in this dimension of emptiness, the “unconscious” of humanity, that we tend to collectively discard all that we don’t want to feel through our sentient awareness. This includes whole fields of voice-less suffering, including the hidden horrors of sexuality, shame and rejection. Poignant examples include incest, insanity, addiction or murder. The proverbial “skeleton in the cupboard” of the family home. The shadow suddenly denser because of the light. The “other” that gives form to fear.
We have the misconception that when we withdraw perception from what is anyway here, then it ceases to exist. This is not the case. When we throw something away, it is still somewhere. There is no such place as “away”. It will come back to haunt us – firstly by setting unchosen limits on our perception (we cannot look at it, because we decided it doesn’t exist) and later, in nightmarish form based on fear and threat. As such, the rubble in the emptiness begins to gain power as the demonic “other” waiting to get us.
When we witness the horrific beheadings of Westerner on Facebook, or the enslavement of women and children on Twitter, perception by reflex deforms itself. Shocked and terrified by the apprehension of cruelty and horror, we shift quickly upwards to consciousness, to take control.
Rapidly, we move into judgement. ISIS must be stopped. They are not human. It is an outrage. Send in the army. The whole area of horror in living sentience is thrown again into the emptiness. We try to bypass the agony of what is occurring among us by instigating greater force, greater control, and by rejecting the phenomena of cruelty. In this, we leave the victims alone in a field of abuse, and we serve the insanity of the perpetrators with the prize of its secret agenda – the closing of the human heart.
“Consider your own place in the universal oneness of which we are all a part, from which we all arise, and to which we all return.”
― David Fontana
It doesn’t work. The war will be back in Gaza. ISIS will be back, with other faces, other agendas, other names. The cruelty will come forward, because it is part of the unified human field. It will come forward again and again until humanity itself lets the pain back into the unified field of perception. It will break open in suddenly violence, until humankind recognizes the trauma in its own blind-spot and awakens to the need for healing.
What does it mean to open the perceptive window of awareness to scenes such as the kneeling British aid-worker and his laconically posing ISIS executioner?
Feeling awareness is non-selective in nature. As it expands, it will run through the desert atmosphere, the helplessness and surrender, the field of arbitrary cruelty shared by killer and slain, abuser and abused. It will run through the deformed plain of the so-called ‘individual’ ready to murder for a so-called belief. It will meet the hollowness that is there in the heart of the perpetrator and even grieve the agony implanted in the closure of the murderer’s sentience, the lovelessness or the inevitable self destruction.
This pathological destruction follows an ideology of ‘kill or be killed’. This leads to a rapid narrowing of the field of possibility until the battle becomes internal with the inevitable play-out of suicide: killing one-self; the place where the murderer and victim become one. If humanity continues to invest in the belief of ‘kill or be killed’, then how can it’s final destination be anything other than self destruction?
Does it make a difference if we allow ourselves to sentiently “feel through” the whole drama – even on the projective screen?
Yes. Without any doubt, the perceptive window of awareness is the headquarters of integration between consciousness and emptiness. It is the transforming motor of healing, through which we evolve rather than self-destruct. It is the place of inter-being and unity in manifold form. It is the area through which we can welcome all the parts of humanity today back into the heart of shared evolution. It makes all the difference.
The closure of the sentient window will lead to an escalation of projection, rejection, division, and suffering. That suffering will not be in the other. It will manifest (as it does) in our own hearts and homes.
When we foresaken demons rise out of the gut of humanity and manifest within the transforming zone of human awareness, our conscious attitude has the chance to become not controlling, but guided by wisdom. That means we make different choices for the benefit of the whole; choices that transcend the knee-jerk, fear-based instinct of ‘kill or be killed’. Choices which see beyond the pictures of the imagination and the endless projections of blame for collective suffering on any particular group or tribe.
If the agenda of ISIS is to close down human sentience, then the agenda of humanity, for the sake of all that suffering, must be to open it up.
We are all tempted to pour our own hidden suffering and trauma in the projected field of ISIS. In this, we are seeking healing, the healing of our individual form through the projection on an imagined ‘other’. But the next time we find ourselves leaping cavalier-style into the closure of judgemental thinking, perhaps we could consider: what if that executioner were our own son, brother, friend? How would we feel about it then? In fact, how do we feel ourselves responsible in allowing the suffering in our own hearts, in order to allow the transformation of healing?
There is no escape from the ISIS factor. What humanity has created, only humanity can transform. This is the work of human responsibility through allowing the expansion of perception.
Unity is not a sanctuary or a recluse. But it is the bedrock out of which the shared process of manifestation and healing evolution is perpetually born.
