Over the years I have explored many spiritual concepts and ideas. I have been taken quite a few classes on psychology, as well as have done a little bit of comparative religious study. When I was a teenager, the New Age section of the library seemed like the only place where one could find books on topics that were not overly religious or biased. When properly understood, the concept of “New Age” simply means, the modern progression and evolution of spiritual thought. We have far progressed from the Dark and the Middle ages, and have now arrived at the New Age. This indicates the evolutionary advancement of spiritual thought concepts and fundamental ideas for practicing something similar to how it was practiced hundreds of years ago.
By the time we reach the New Age, we are supposed to have made progress from the previous ages. Unfortunately, this idea has created a lot of confusion and misunderstanding which has gotten in the way of both human and spiritual advancement. Many New Age concepts and ideas are not new and you may find many of the ideas come from texts regarding Hinduism, Buddhism, and sometimes Taoism. There is nothing wrong with this concept. The question is, are you ultimately leaving one school of thought, only to find yourself trapped within another? For instance, if you are learning something like the subject of chakras, you should ask, what is the historical origin of that concept and idea? What did it mean back then? How was it discovered? Is it even real? I feel these questions are not being asked within the spiritual community.
In today’s spiritual community, all I mainly hear is the same parroting of anecdotes: “Try this because it worked for my friend, so it will work for you.” “Take this, because this will help heal your psychological baggage and issues.” These people are rarely professional psychologists or psychiatrists. What I observe is more like a cult-type mentality rather than a group of critical thinking individuals who are genuine knowledge-seekers. This type of cult mentality is usually cultivated from the previous belief-system that they were in before, yet now dressed and coated with new fancy spiritual jargon. It devolves into a cultish mentality, where the guru is always this person followers’ place on a pedestal. The guru is seen to have no flaws and is perfect all of the time. While I do believe it’s great to have someone who is a good example of great moral and ethical character, it’s not realistic to believe that one person reigns over a group of people with superior characteristics and never makes mistakes. I believe it’s great to have a teacher, for instance, for someone who has dedicated many years to a particular practice and knows the in’s and out’s pretty well. It isn’t that they’ve mastered the art itself, but they have adequate experience with it. For instance, to learn something like Kung Fu, it’s best to have some sort of Sifu to correct your movement and posture. The aims are a bit different than spiritual practice, however. If you sit in an asana, nobody can say you are doing that wrong, because that’s how dynamic yoga is itself. All that a teacher can say is, “You are not practicing that in the way that would achieve the most benefits that we know of so far.” However in Kung Fu, the Sifu could say “If you practice something like that, you’re going to end up with broken knuckles.” So, you see the need for a teacher in certain arts is helpful and necessary.
Another concept that I’ve observed in the spiritual community is this concept of “One-ness.” The ideology is that we all live and harmony and come from the same source, but the problem is where is the discernment? If you get kicked in the face by a horse, are you going to say, “Well, me and the horse are one; it doesn’t really matter”? For my response would be like “Oh hell no, that horse has to got to apologize or else!” In reality, the horse is, most likely, just responding with its natural instinct. For the person getting kicked, they have to deal with the force of the impact, as well as finding a way to fix their broken nose and hope none of their teeth got knocked out. This is an example of why there must be discernment, especially when engaging with other individuals. If somebody tries to bite your ear off when you are meditating, you are not going to be like, “Oh that’s fine; that’s just a part of myself trying to bite me.” No. You’re going respond to like, “What the hell is going on here? Did this stranger really just try and bite my ear off, the same ear I use to hear with?” So, my argument is not that we do not come from the same source, but its practicality has been misunderstood. The reality is that, in this world, we need an ego, we have individuality and we are not born physically glued together. I do believe-as quantum physics proves-that we are all connected, but that does not mean that we cannot differentiate between what is good or bad collectively, or what is valuable and not valuable. If someone says cannibalism was valuable and respected greatly in their culture and they still wish to practice, I’m going to choose to not engage with that individual for reasons that are self-apparent.
One of the more zany things I’ve noticed in the spiritual community, besides a lack of personal boundaries, is that it’s becoming somewhat similar to communism. Where it does not matter if you make an accomplishment or an achievement, because we all have the potential to do the same thing. To which I argue, not everybody is an Albert Einstein, Issac Newton, Plato, Aristotle, Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Winston Churchill, etc. So, clearly we either have differences genetically or we are not all driven towards the same type of careers and fields of study. What I’ve observed in the spiritual community, is more of this “Not only are we equal, we must think the same, we must have the same type of diet, we must practically have everything in common!” Tell me: Where is the individuality in that? I don’t care how transcended my consciousness is, I will always have a signature or a certain mannerism in the way I do things and will leave my mark of authenticity wherever I go! See, this is what I believe the human being is all about, the aristocracy of spirit! If we are all the same, I can’t imagine how boring that would be. We are all connected, but we certainly have a wide scope of individuality that can be expressed at any moment-especially within the spiritual community.
While I do think it’s fun to fantasize about a Utopian society, the reality is we have quite a ways to go. We are still dealing with issues about women’s rights, lesbian, gay, and transgender rights, islamophobia, racism and prejudice issues, climate change with the melting of the glaciers, ad infinitum. Although I do believe we’ve certainly come along way since the early 1900’s, we have a long journey ahead of us. I’m appreciative of the sixties and the Hippie movement, as I believe that anchored into a society an appreciation of living in harmony with nature and spreading peace and love. I do believe what we need now, is a new Renaissance! Perhaps, similar to the sixties, but not so much involved with taking psychedelic drugs, as it is with making a social and political change towards upholding values and traditions that we see as beneficial and important.
