Post by ADMIN on May 13, 2004 19:02:14 GMT -5
Awareness or arrogance?
Am I really aware, or am I actually being arrogant?
I have written a lot about spiritual awareness and not so much about spiritual arrogance. In the last few days before writing this Modest Proposal, I received two emails, and in my reply to both of them, the principal of spiritual arrogance was described. I see now that awareness and arrogance appear as one of those two sided duality coins which I maintain don’t really exist, but as long as anyone (including me) thinks they do, then they do. This is not an easy topic for me since I know at the outset that I am often spiritually arrogant. There I am at the AA (Arrogants Anonymous) meeting, standing, and saying, “Hi, my name is Ron, and I am arrogant.” Whew, I really did not like saying that so there must be something to it.
So, taking a deep breath, here I go.
I think it is easier to start with awareness and then back into arrogance although historically and behaviorally, arrogance comes first.
Awareness is a topic that I mention over and over. My fixation with it stems from the understanding that I cannot really evolve without it. Consciousness is not enough. Basic consciousness is one step up from brain dead or asleep (even then there is the consciousness of dreams). Consciousness is knowing what is happening around me – at least one or more of my perceptions are fully active and registering the activity within their ability to perceive.
Awareness is the highest level of consciousness because it is the state of knowing the choices that are available to me in the moment especially the choice to lovingly accept whatever and whoever are the subjects of my thoughts. That is the essence of spiritual awakening and walking one’s path purposefully. Even in an aware state, we may not do anything differently. That of course is a choice as well. The gift of choice does not come with strings attached. We have free will to exercise choice regardless of which choices we make. There is no judgment (other than human) around our choices just as there are no right or wrong choices… just choices.
Arrogance stems from thinking we have made a “right” choice for ourselves or for others. Remember: there are just choices with no plus or minus signs attached. Arrogant is a strong word; it can evoke powerful emotions that are often calls to action to right a wrong, to use one’s “right” to interfere with others’ spiritual evolution especially when we have judged them as “wrong.” It happens all of the time. It happens to me, and I bet it happens to you as well. A common occurrence is one person’s insistence that his or her spiritual practices should be followed by everyone. “Spiritual people don’t let other spiritual people eat meat.” Pardon me, pass the A1 Sauce. Not eating meat is fine; just don’t tell me that I should not. We each have our own path, and although it intersects and may parallel the paths of others, each is unique.
Well, I don’t have the “right” to enforce my notions of “right.” If I use my influence, strength, or power to do so, I am simply piling up karma for myself. What the other person does with respect to my misguided efforts to enlighten him is his concern and his karma. So when I am spiritually arrogant, I simply create karmic moments for myself and others. Ain’t life grand?
So spiritual arrogance is not “wrong;” it is another tool in the cosmic tool box. Life is perfect in the sense that in every moment we can be loving acceptance or something else. Either way is fine with God. The last thing God wants is to tell us what to do. Although humans really like to do that for fellow humans, God defers from doing so that we may enjoy the gifts of choice and free will.
If I am loving acceptance, I release karma. If I am anything else, I increase my karma. Every moment is an oyster. Shall I open it and discover the pearl of love? Or do I discard it “knowing” that there is no pearl inside. I have news for you: every oyster of awareness has a pearl. I need but open the oyster and find love, and I must be the one to open it; no one else can do that for me.
I wanted others to give me pearls. I begged, beseeched, paid, groveled, and gave away my personal power to obtain bags of someone else’s oysters. When I arrived home and quickly began to examine them, I found no pearls for they had already been harvested; the empty oysters offered to me once had pearls, but they were never meant for me. The oyster shucker had already removed the pearls, but I believed the empty shells possessed great value. When I realized those oysters were empty, I sought another oyster shucker and another and another – all with the same result – no pearls.
What took me so long to learn was that the real value offered by the oyster shuckers was HOW to shuck my own oysters, not to take their empty shells for my own. It was easier to be “hopeful” that this was THE shucker I sought and all that I had to do was simply take his or her already opened oysters, so I resisted learning how to shuck. Finally, that moment of awareness came when I realized that I have my own bag of oysters, and each one contains a pearl. I began to learn how to shuck and that was the awakening of my enlightenment (and it continues to expand).
Life has not been the same since nor will it ever be. Awakening awareness is a one way turnstile that does not permit reentry into the solely human world of mind, body, and emotion. I have irretrievably landed in the domain of spiritual awareness and the path of my evolution is always before me. To be sure, sometimes I am at a dead stop, and sometimes I wander off to the side, but the path remains perfect and patiently awaiting my next, aware footstep.
Coming full circle, let’s now disappear the awareness-arrogance duality coin. Are there really two sides? Am I either aware or arrogant in any moment? Certainly it seems that way. The real question is: am I lovingly accepting or not? Loving acceptance is the great solvent – it dissolves everything of human manufacture that holds me back from who I really am: a spiritual being in a human body sensitive and reactive to the demands of humanness at the cost of forgetting my spiritual roots. When loving acceptance is poured into the seething caldron of human experience, there is a transformation into clear, cool, reflecting water. There, no arrogance, fear, frustration, suffering exist for all is dissolved into the One. Arrogance thus becomes only another tool to use along my path of spiritual evolution and not the other side of an imaginary coin, for the pearl of love is always there.
May you discern with compassion,
Ron McCray
Am I really aware, or am I actually being arrogant?
I have written a lot about spiritual awareness and not so much about spiritual arrogance. In the last few days before writing this Modest Proposal, I received two emails, and in my reply to both of them, the principal of spiritual arrogance was described. I see now that awareness and arrogance appear as one of those two sided duality coins which I maintain don’t really exist, but as long as anyone (including me) thinks they do, then they do. This is not an easy topic for me since I know at the outset that I am often spiritually arrogant. There I am at the AA (Arrogants Anonymous) meeting, standing, and saying, “Hi, my name is Ron, and I am arrogant.” Whew, I really did not like saying that so there must be something to it.
So, taking a deep breath, here I go.
I think it is easier to start with awareness and then back into arrogance although historically and behaviorally, arrogance comes first.
Awareness is a topic that I mention over and over. My fixation with it stems from the understanding that I cannot really evolve without it. Consciousness is not enough. Basic consciousness is one step up from brain dead or asleep (even then there is the consciousness of dreams). Consciousness is knowing what is happening around me – at least one or more of my perceptions are fully active and registering the activity within their ability to perceive.
Awareness is the highest level of consciousness because it is the state of knowing the choices that are available to me in the moment especially the choice to lovingly accept whatever and whoever are the subjects of my thoughts. That is the essence of spiritual awakening and walking one’s path purposefully. Even in an aware state, we may not do anything differently. That of course is a choice as well. The gift of choice does not come with strings attached. We have free will to exercise choice regardless of which choices we make. There is no judgment (other than human) around our choices just as there are no right or wrong choices… just choices.
Arrogance stems from thinking we have made a “right” choice for ourselves or for others. Remember: there are just choices with no plus or minus signs attached. Arrogant is a strong word; it can evoke powerful emotions that are often calls to action to right a wrong, to use one’s “right” to interfere with others’ spiritual evolution especially when we have judged them as “wrong.” It happens all of the time. It happens to me, and I bet it happens to you as well. A common occurrence is one person’s insistence that his or her spiritual practices should be followed by everyone. “Spiritual people don’t let other spiritual people eat meat.” Pardon me, pass the A1 Sauce. Not eating meat is fine; just don’t tell me that I should not. We each have our own path, and although it intersects and may parallel the paths of others, each is unique.
Well, I don’t have the “right” to enforce my notions of “right.” If I use my influence, strength, or power to do so, I am simply piling up karma for myself. What the other person does with respect to my misguided efforts to enlighten him is his concern and his karma. So when I am spiritually arrogant, I simply create karmic moments for myself and others. Ain’t life grand?
So spiritual arrogance is not “wrong;” it is another tool in the cosmic tool box. Life is perfect in the sense that in every moment we can be loving acceptance or something else. Either way is fine with God. The last thing God wants is to tell us what to do. Although humans really like to do that for fellow humans, God defers from doing so that we may enjoy the gifts of choice and free will.
If I am loving acceptance, I release karma. If I am anything else, I increase my karma. Every moment is an oyster. Shall I open it and discover the pearl of love? Or do I discard it “knowing” that there is no pearl inside. I have news for you: every oyster of awareness has a pearl. I need but open the oyster and find love, and I must be the one to open it; no one else can do that for me.
I wanted others to give me pearls. I begged, beseeched, paid, groveled, and gave away my personal power to obtain bags of someone else’s oysters. When I arrived home and quickly began to examine them, I found no pearls for they had already been harvested; the empty oysters offered to me once had pearls, but they were never meant for me. The oyster shucker had already removed the pearls, but I believed the empty shells possessed great value. When I realized those oysters were empty, I sought another oyster shucker and another and another – all with the same result – no pearls.
What took me so long to learn was that the real value offered by the oyster shuckers was HOW to shuck my own oysters, not to take their empty shells for my own. It was easier to be “hopeful” that this was THE shucker I sought and all that I had to do was simply take his or her already opened oysters, so I resisted learning how to shuck. Finally, that moment of awareness came when I realized that I have my own bag of oysters, and each one contains a pearl. I began to learn how to shuck and that was the awakening of my enlightenment (and it continues to expand).
Life has not been the same since nor will it ever be. Awakening awareness is a one way turnstile that does not permit reentry into the solely human world of mind, body, and emotion. I have irretrievably landed in the domain of spiritual awareness and the path of my evolution is always before me. To be sure, sometimes I am at a dead stop, and sometimes I wander off to the side, but the path remains perfect and patiently awaiting my next, aware footstep.
Coming full circle, let’s now disappear the awareness-arrogance duality coin. Are there really two sides? Am I either aware or arrogant in any moment? Certainly it seems that way. The real question is: am I lovingly accepting or not? Loving acceptance is the great solvent – it dissolves everything of human manufacture that holds me back from who I really am: a spiritual being in a human body sensitive and reactive to the demands of humanness at the cost of forgetting my spiritual roots. When loving acceptance is poured into the seething caldron of human experience, there is a transformation into clear, cool, reflecting water. There, no arrogance, fear, frustration, suffering exist for all is dissolved into the One. Arrogance thus becomes only another tool to use along my path of spiritual evolution and not the other side of an imaginary coin, for the pearl of love is always there.
May you discern with compassion,
Ron McCray
