Putting the Horse Before the Cart - Part 1
Taking small steps to rewrite the narrative of separation
Recently I had a kindly debate with a friend on LinkedIn. It was related to which comes first, economic changes that help the masses of humanity lift themselves up and eventually aiding their progression of consciousness, or does humanity seek to elevate its consciousness so that complex things such as economics solves itself as people begin to perceive things differently.
My assertion has been that it begins with consciousness, that we can’t see through the veil of manipulation unless and until we elevate our consciousness to a point at which we can see through the narratives that have been fed to us our entire lives and begin to question and unravel them.
Clearly one thing that improves dramatically as we raise our consciousness is our level of empathy. We don’t just perceive and analyze with our intellectual minds, we feel people — their words, their tone, their intentions. It’s like the “spidey sense” featured in the Spider Man comics. At first we tend to dismiss the sense as though it’s a little crazy, but over time we come to trust it, and the more we elevate our consciousness the more clearly our intuition speaks to us.
The more we do inner healing work, the more we clear the way to perceive what our intuition is telling us without the influence of emotional baggage or long held beliefs that no longer serve us.
But I’m beginning to question this assertion.
How can humanity elevate its consciousness when we’ve been conditioned since birth with certain beliefs that prevent us from seeking to elevate our consciousness?
Namely, the belief in separation — that you are you and I am me and we are two separate beings. That the U.S. is one country and Canada and Mexico are two other countries. That starving people in Africa are just some starving people over there. That Russia is Russia and Ukraine is Ukraine. And so on.
Just saying it out loud sounds crazy, which is indicative of how firmly ingrained our belief in separation is. Of course you are you and I am me and we are separate. To suggest we are one is just some hippie metaphysical mumbo jumbo. Come back down to planet Earth Glenn.
Anticipating such skepticism is why I haven’t written much about non-duality. In my mind I’ve thought of it as an advanced spiritual concept that people can only perceive after they’ve done years of consciousness raising work. And in some respects I’ve been correct in that contemplating our oneness requires that we become willing to let go of our ego that says that we’re all that and bag of chips on our own.
So yes, but then no.
Non-duality doesn’t need to be so complicated or hard to grasp. I don’t need to wax poetic about particle physics and the scientific proof that we’re all connected. It’s really quite simple if we take it one small step at a time.
If we look to our connection with our children, our spouses and partners, our families, and see that we are a small tribe of connected beings. And our communities are tribes of tribes — small tribes connected to other small tribes. And our cities are tribes of tribes of tribes, and so on. We seek out the connections and celebrate them.
These are the baby steps toward a total embracement of non-duality. And this one belief, this narrative, that has been written into our conscious minds from the beginning — the belief in separation — is the reason we remain stuck in limbo, seeking personal growth while living in a system that works to our detriment.
So, do we seek to elevate our consciousness within a context of a belief in separation, or do we initially seek to shift our narrative around our connection with each other and use that as a springboard for the elevation of consciousness? Which is the cart, and which is the horse?
Maybe it’s both at the same time. Maybe we move between the two. We focus on shifting our narratives and then on healing work. Then we focus on healing work and allow our narratives to shift. Maybe it’s non-linear. Maybe the answers to the problems of global warming, economic inequality, systemic racism, sexism, mass shootings, and all of it is to begin to shift the narrative related to our interconnectedness.
And maybe we don’t use such terms as “interconnectedness” or “non-duality” which are high-sounding terms. We can make it more accessible. Maybe we just call it oneness. Maybe we begin to celebrate our oneness in everything we do. In our music and film. In our churches and Synagogues. In our sports teams and leagues. In our prison system. In our political system. In our scientific communities. Everywhere we see separation we seek to instill oneness by rewriting the narrative.
It's taken us several thousand years to solidify the belief in separation, which has led us to where we are. I’d like to believe that it won’t take several thousand years to unravel it. I’d like to believe we can actively start now by taking small steps.
Typically when certain individuals travel to India or some place and spend five hours a day in meditation for six or seven years, they come back to civilization deeply changed. Then they write books on non-duality and deeper spiritual stuff.
But maybe we don’t have to travel anywhere or meditate for five hours per day, but instead an hour a day would be awesome. Even forty-five minutes. Even thirty. If practiced every day we could shift our narrative more rapidly. In the meantime, we could just do simple things like helping a neighbor or a stranger on the street or make a decision that is to our detriment just because it’s the right thing to do.
Give some money to a homeless person even though they may reek of alcohol. It doesn’t matter what they do with the money, it’s just about helping people, because in helping we come closer to recognizing our interconnectedness.
Sorry, there’s one of those high-sounding words again. Okay, oneness. We come closer to recognizing our oneness.
Small simple easy steps practiced daily. While also continuing the work of raising our consciousness. We can do it.
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