Is a collective awakening possible for us humans do you think? Could we break free of the vines that seem to be holding us?
Some years ago I had this little dream. I dreamt I went upstairs above a restaurant to where a woman was doing a one-woman show. The show was that she stood on the stage and said what was on her mind . . . that was it! She just reeled off a daring stream of consciousness. I was amazed at the courage and couldn’t turn away for wondering what she’d say next. She didn’t know either but it didn’t seem to matter.
I think that’s the quality we need now. Telling the truth to one another. Or telling the truth to ourselves, which is what I imagine that dream-lady was doing.
Many years ago I was in an event that attempted something similarl - an Enlightenment Intensive. There were about 30 or 40 people sitting opposite each other on the floor in two rows. Every five minutes a gong sounded and the people in one row would ask the person opposite, “Tell me who you are.” Then they’d switch. After they’d both had a turn, one whole row would move a space over and repeat the same two questions with a new partner. And on it went. For three days. It was an astonishing experience. After you get rid of the superficial details you get down to sharing who you are in that moment.
That was a long time ago but last Thursday I signed up last minute for what was essentially the same thing - online via zoom. You can read about the event details here. This was astonishing too, intense and uplifting. Not because of any belief system or concept, any content, but because we were on our own, eyeball to eyeball, with an ever-shifting other for long days.
It put me in mind of that collective awakening. This kind of practice has one characteristic that would surely contribute.
It’s performance-busting.
There’s no way to put on a fake, cover-up, I’m-all-right-Jack face, or pretend to be special or uppity (or downity) when you’re face to face with another human who is listening to you and can clearly tell something real from something that’s fake.
And we have that ability. All of us do. It’s extraordinarily well-developed in us humans. We can tell bullshit when we hear it.
And we hear a great deal of it in this world. And we know it. We find it harder to live the simple truth of being human. Yet every one of us is already that, all the way down.
Well yes, performance busting! It’s a beautiful thing. I’m not speaking of true performance - of the dedication and devotion shown by those who’ve worked to become expert in a craft or art. I mean the need to play a part in something we don’t believe or care about, and feel we must go along with. I’ve been steeped in performance myself and found it hard to escape. It’s like fly-paper or the tar baby in the old story. Layers and layers of performance. more layers than an industrial egg farm. The more we shed the layers, the more something new starts to become apparent. We’re in an unlimited system. Literally an unlimited system. Nothing is preordained. The continuance of bullshit is not mandated by a divine decree or by a bureaucrat somewhere.
Yes, it’s true we’re attached to our identity, our story, our conditioning. All of us are and certainly me. But according to the truths of sages and saints of all ages, that’s not who we really are. Beyond performance we’re in an unlimited system where anything can happen, including what we most deeply want. And including that collective awakening.
Your writing always awakens me unto myself..and that space where we breath together...deep inside this womb of awakening...in the season of no one..in the land where thought collapses in on itself ..and i am gone.....until the water breaks....seeing without looking...knowing without thinking..loving without desiring...blessings..m
Andrew, you say it so well. The world, the planet, needs more thinkers like you. People who can put in words what most needs saying. Thank you for being you and for sharing what you are feeling and seeing.