Spirituality and Democracy Plus One
Two levels of polarization
The chaos many of us are experiencing due to the new administration puts focusing on higher spiritual needs out of reach.
May you catch your breath, reach into your sublime inner strength, and see that we can rebuild our inner world without having to wait for circumstances to change.
In due time, we will turn ourselves around and attend to spiritual needs in order to attend to physical ones.
Review
As discussed in Spirituality and Democracy, the first hurdle we are overcoming is to stop seeing each other according to our physical appearances. In developing our collective vision of democracy, we are also overcoming the second by agreeing to see our singularity in spiritual terms. We are light, more specifically names of light, in a unity held together by the common intelligence of the light of Word in each of us.
The Practical Guide, introduced in the previous post and included again below, explains how to keep our unity by blessing those of us who have lost sight of it. Losing sight of it creates a polarization in our mind, the illusory battle between light and darkness, illusory because there is no darkness in Name. It draws every mind so engaged into the world polarization between autocracy and democracy, where different values only appear to be the real problem.
Two Levels of Polarization
Polarization is difficult and almost unresolvable, but not between the two extreme groups. Commonalities exist between them but neither side is willing to give up their values, and yet, this is not the most difficult polarization. Even with commonalities and similar values between the diverse groups on the democratic side, it is we who pose the most difficulties. We are simply unable to sustain clear awareness of the singularity in and between our democracies.
The only thing that brings us together every generation or so is the threat from the autocratic side. Then when the threat is gone, we go back to our little worlds and tolerate each other at best, competing with each other and never learning how to create the unity that stays strong perpetually. With strength we would never stop reaching out to resolve the extreme polarization.
Some of you see me or yourselves outside the process. That demonstrates the point. We use a form of equality to see each other in a tolerable-type unity. Those we do not see or are not willing to see as equal to us or others are excluded in our minds from any serious unity.
The key is to make all others more important than ourselves without being against ourselves, the principle of conscience (suneidesis)1 in The Practical Guide. This does not make anyone more important in essence. It is an attitude, which is not against our nature, only against our present way of thinking. It is a process quite natural to learn by understanding the seven rules of thinking democracies.
To respect our different beliefs during discussion, the word Name is used to refer to God, “the Name of God”, or Life, “the Name of Life”, depending on our beliefs. And likewise, the word Word refers to “the Word of God” or “the Word of Life”. Use your own beliefs to give them specific meaning and to interpret what others mean when they use them.
The moon pearl orbits around all of us, uniting or polarizing us. It is in the cover picture and referred to as “Plus One” in the title. The moon pearl symbolizes the gravitational force of unlimited agapé (love) uniting us through political parties around the world. But it polarizes us when love is confined to our groups, called limited agapé. After reviewing the guide, we will discus both forms.
The Practical Guide
Four Basic Rules
Visually respect all others in your heart by making the light of their identity (without gender, ethnicity or age) more important than your own in the light of Name. With the goodness of the light of Word, see their light through yours without blocking either so that you can give Name all your agapé through them.
While visually respecting everyone like this, reject any illusion in anyone who does not know who they are in the light of Name—seeing through their illusion with every thought and feeling in the light of Word.
While visually respecting everyone and rejecting all illusion, see the inner act of disrespecting others as the loss of spiritual will. Assuming it is willful when we cannot know only tempts us to judge others or ourselves.
While visually respecting everyone and rejecting all illusion, see the act of carrying out such actions physically as the loss of physical will. Since we cannot know on the spiritual level, we cannot assume we know on the physical level. Either way, distinguish between the good, bad and ugly and bear with the bad but resist the ugly—while still loving those who commit them in regards to who they are in the light of Name, not who they blindly think they are in their physical attributes.
Three Refined Rules
Visually respect Name by loving the aspect of its light that perpetually cleanses (yirah) the eyes of our heart. But at the same time, it blinds them with fear when we do not do our part, through our oneness in the light of Word, to fully restore our spiritual and physical wills and respect all others on both levels. Seeing the light of the cleansing aspect both ways at the same time helps us realize that nothing originates in totality from our position in Name’s light. We partake of everything in the light of Name through the light of Word and are blessed or cursed in it by our own choices, individually and collectively.
Visually respect Name by loving the aspects of its light that cleanse our eyes and fill us with a healthy anger, one directed toward those of us who do not respect all others. At the same time though, they are misusing Name’s aspect of anger in themselves so as to disrespect others, trying to make anyone fear who they can through misuse of Name’s cleansing aspect. Seeing these aspects both ways at the same time frees us from thinking anymore that we can see anyone independent of the light of Name. We are blessed or cursed in it by our individual and collective choices.
Visually respect Name by loving these two aspects together with the purity of desire for Name and its memory in us. It fills the eyes of our heart with the past and present goodness of Name in the light of Word and reveals it in the disrespectful as well. They misuse even this in themselves to foolishly strengthen what binds them, binding themselves tighter in Name’s anger. They do so to hopefully see fear in those they disrespect, making their binding complete in these three aspects of the light of Name. Recognize them, without anything of their own, blindly wrestling with the light of Name in themselves, despite the outer appearance that they are in control of themselves. Witnessing it empowers us to see through their illusion and bless them for who they really are in the light of Word. This keeps us aware of the singularity of our democracy and its full blessing in the light of Word—while resisting the ugly things they commit without judging them in the light of Name. For we are not against ourselves.
Illusory Boundaries
Blessing others for who they are is foremost blessing them as the full agapé light of Name. This kind of agapé is evident in the agapé between Name and Word, who never block out the other’s light to see themselves first. But we, by not knowing who we are, block out the fullness of our agapé and others’ in our awareness and believe that a limited form of us exists. Those of us with similar blindness seek each other out, creating illusory boundaries in our house where limited agapé appears to thrive and fulfill each other. In the rest of our house, we unknowingly wrestle against Name and Word, revealing the agapé darkness throughout our house.
We are the full agapé light of Name in Word, and we always do what it takes to restore our awareness of who we all are—when some of us hide within illusory boundaries. By not loving the enemies of our conscience, we are hiding too. For that is what Name made its agapé light to do.
Spirituality and Democracy 2
Suneidesis is pronounced soon-eye-day-sis. After reading the link explaining it, you will see how central it is to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive in our awareness. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness.
No-one needs this 'spiritual' mumbo jumbo.
Life just is.
People just are.
The rest is all accident, coincidence, context, conditioning, experience or whatever.
The only common element is that we are all composed of precisely the same constituents and when dead will return to those constituents which, in turn, will each end up wherever they do.
In that sense, we are all eternal. However, it has no more meaning than that. All of our smallest constituents is eternal so we can consider that we are, though not at all in the 'spiritual' way in which human beings mostly consider eternal existence.
The human construct of gods and heavens and hells and good and evil and right and wrong and blame and forgiveness and love and hate and so on are all just that, human constructs which are neither real nor worthwhile.
Only when humanity uses both its individual and collective intellect to put aside this puerile nonsense will it have any chance of life in a peaceful world as opposed to living in a dysfunctional idiocy.