What happened to transcendence?
Dec. 30th, 2017 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophiaOkay, it was kind of a long shot, but I was out shopping for groceries today at the yuppie grocery* and picked up the latest monthly free local New Age newsprint adfomercial. I used to read the Seattle example of the species monthly back when I lived there, to keep tabs on what was interesting and what was absurd in the world of alternative popular spirituality -- but that was most of two decades ago and the world was a different place.
The thing that struck me, reading the current issue of the Providence example of the species, is that something that was very much part of the scene a couple of decades ago -- and was one of its saving graces -- seems to have dropped right out of it. Call it transcendence: the sense that entering into relationship with the spiritual realm is about stepping into a wider world, waking up to the things that really matter. Walking through the walls, to borrow a phrase, and into the Fire.
That's gone. As far as I can tell, it's all about soothing your nerves, boosting your health, managing your career and your love life, making your life bland and safe and predictable -- with neat little crystal sparkles on it, sure, but still bland and safe and predictable. Take up meditation, so you can lower your blood pressure and smooth out your wrinkles. Practice t'ai chi -- it's so very relaxing, and it makes your bowels regular! Go listen to a trance channeler to get advice on your relationships and tasty vegetarian recipes you can share with all your friends...
Back in the 1970s, when the New Age movement hadn't yet capitulated entirely to the hucksters -- Gregory Bateson counted as a New Age thinker back then, for heaven's sake! -- and I was scampering around underfoot in it, omnivorously taking in anything even vaguely esoteric I could get, it wasn't like that. There was plenty of nonsense and plenty of chicanery and an immense amount of vacuous babble, but in there with all of that you found a lot of people who wanted to tear open the sky and step into the luminous Beyond. People meditated and did rituals and practiced martial arts and did all sorts of other things to become something more than they were. Even the hucksters gave lip service to that.
Maybe I'm just not cynical enough yet, but it smarts to see something that once, for all its flaws, strove for high goals, reduced to a lifestyle accessory for bored suburbanites. I mourn the death of a dream.
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* our apartment is within an easy walk of three groceries: a delightful little Asian grocery, a standard American working class grocery, and a standard American yuppie grocery -- not Whole Paycheck, there's one of those too but I'd sooner trim my ears with a cheese grater than put up with the pretentious snots who shop there, with their "Out of the way, peasant!" attitudes. I'd probably flee from the yuppie grocery too, except that it has a much better selection of the gluten free products Sara needs, and a few other things we can't get elsewhere.
The thing that struck me, reading the current issue of the Providence example of the species, is that something that was very much part of the scene a couple of decades ago -- and was one of its saving graces -- seems to have dropped right out of it. Call it transcendence: the sense that entering into relationship with the spiritual realm is about stepping into a wider world, waking up to the things that really matter. Walking through the walls, to borrow a phrase, and into the Fire.
That's gone. As far as I can tell, it's all about soothing your nerves, boosting your health, managing your career and your love life, making your life bland and safe and predictable -- with neat little crystal sparkles on it, sure, but still bland and safe and predictable. Take up meditation, so you can lower your blood pressure and smooth out your wrinkles. Practice t'ai chi -- it's so very relaxing, and it makes your bowels regular! Go listen to a trance channeler to get advice on your relationships and tasty vegetarian recipes you can share with all your friends...
Back in the 1970s, when the New Age movement hadn't yet capitulated entirely to the hucksters -- Gregory Bateson counted as a New Age thinker back then, for heaven's sake! -- and I was scampering around underfoot in it, omnivorously taking in anything even vaguely esoteric I could get, it wasn't like that. There was plenty of nonsense and plenty of chicanery and an immense amount of vacuous babble, but in there with all of that you found a lot of people who wanted to tear open the sky and step into the luminous Beyond. People meditated and did rituals and practiced martial arts and did all sorts of other things to become something more than they were. Even the hucksters gave lip service to that.
Maybe I'm just not cynical enough yet, but it smarts to see something that once, for all its flaws, strove for high goals, reduced to a lifestyle accessory for bored suburbanites. I mourn the death of a dream.
---------------------
* our apartment is within an easy walk of three groceries: a delightful little Asian grocery, a standard American working class grocery, and a standard American yuppie grocery -- not Whole Paycheck, there's one of those too but I'd sooner trim my ears with a cheese grater than put up with the pretentious snots who shop there, with their "Out of the way, peasant!" attitudes. I'd probably flee from the yuppie grocery too, except that it has a much better selection of the gluten free products Sara needs, and a few other things we can't get elsewhere.
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(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 06:27 am (UTC)Just like physical pain is a message from your body, emotional pain is a message from your mind/soul that something is wrong. It may be that training yourself to ignore the pain is something you need to do, but you need to ask *why*.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 09:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 04:55 pm (UTC)Quite!!!
Date: 2017-12-31 09:42 am (UTC)Seeing local Pagan communities putting on healing days for their members while my Christian and Muslim friends roll up the sleeves to help at soup kitchens and homeless shelters doesn't fill me with hope for the new agers.
I would dearly love to see 2018 give up the bland and predictable (to use your words again) and for us to start getting down and dirty with teh difficult stuff.
Re: Quite!!!
Date: 2018-01-01 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 11:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 04:58 pm (UTC)New Age Newspaper
Date: 2017-12-31 05:17 pm (UTC)Our parakeets know what to do, and have a sometimes uncanny sense of aim. 😁
OtterGirl
Re: New Age Newspaper
Date: 2018-01-01 04:58 pm (UTC)Much the same problem
Date: 2017-12-31 05:29 pm (UTC)Man, I thought Gregory Bateson was a New Age thinker!!
Two, yuppie food stores should be approached with great trepidation...the food choices are fabulous, but I am terrified that whatever the disease that caused them to be such poopheads might be contagious
Re: Much the same problem
Date: 2018-01-01 05:00 pm (UTC)Moola-boola
Date: 2017-12-31 06:07 pm (UTC)Re: Moola-boola
Date: 2018-01-01 05:01 pm (UTC)Hmmm
Date: 2017-12-31 06:36 pm (UTC)I wonder if this is a reflection of these magazines having to sell advertising, perhaps decisions being taken on that level? And that these days, readers looking for something more have the opportunity to read your and others' blogs instead.
At the same time I do get the sense of what I would call a generalized spiritual shutdown out there, so although I have not seen the magazine you are referring to, I have seen similar examples. I get it.
Second note: I have often shopped at Whole Paycheck, which, pricey as it may be, tends to have better quality and selection of produce, dairy, and meats than many of the alternatives (in the places I was living or visiting). I do not recall any unpleasant experience with the other patrons and, if I do say so myself, I am a polite person, not one to plow anyone else over with my cart!! Most of the shoppers there, as at other grocery stores I've been in in recent years, seem to me to be distracted and harried. Some severely so. Putting on my armchair sociologist's hat, it seems to me that, judging from what I see on the shelves, more of the WP patrons purchase things that signal, but may not necessarily seriously or meaningfully address, environmental awareness. For example, I recall seeing a wall of plastic-encased glass water bottles (made in China) for a rather outrageous price at the Austin WF.
Hmmm. The thought of trimming one's ears with a cheesegrater sounds pretty nasty!!
Happy New Year! I look forward to reading your posts in 2018.
MILLICENTLY LURKING
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2018-01-01 05:06 pm (UTC)Re: Hmmm
Date: 2018-01-01 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 08:56 pm (UTC)From your description it sounds like it's going mainstream. Sorry to hear that.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 05:07 pm (UTC)No longer a mild case
Date: 2018-01-01 10:14 pm (UTC)The last couple of times it has been a litany of hate speech by the liberals directed at the serfs who live out in Medford and Roseburg and how "those people" are ruining Southern Oregon.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-12-31 08:56 pm (UTC)(Maria)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 11:23 pm (UTC)https://amritayoga.com/yoga-talks/the-use-of-mantras-in-asana-practice/
The first two paragraphs read as follows:
"Throughout my life, one of my passions has been to attend Yoga classes during my travels so that I could check out the different styles: Ashtanga, Hatha, Iyengar, Kundalini, Sivananda, Anusara, Sridaiva, Jivamukti. No matter what the style, though, there was one thing in common; the class almost always started with the chanting of OM. Even if there were no other mantras and prayers chanted there was at least one OM.
Recently, however, I visited some spas and fitness clubs with regularly scheduled yoga classes, and I sadly noticed ‘OM’ missing. Yoga has become so popular throughout our modern society by appealing to people’s motivations for health and fitness, rather than to their desire for the spiritual values inherent in this ancient science. This is why Yoga has unfortunately lost some of its essence, deceiving the masses that it is only a physical practice."
- Brigyn
An interesting comparison of societal wealth
Date: 2017-12-31 10:16 pm (UTC)As an interesting comparative data point for you. We do not have a "latest monthly free local New Age newsprint adfomercial" down here, and I for one have never seen such a thing, let alone even considered its existence.
Most free local newspapers tell the local news, advertise local services and products, and there is of course the inevitable real estate section which most likely pays for the lot.
Cheers
Chris
Re: An interesting comparison of societal wealth
Date: 2018-01-01 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 03:15 am (UTC)"[N]ot Whole Paycheck, there's one of those too but I'd sooner trim my ears with a cheese grater than put up with the pretentious snots who shop there, with their 'Out of the way, peasant!' attitudes." That's one of the problems my wife and I have with the shoppers at the nearest one in the northwestern Detroit suburbs. My wife finds them rude. She's from Chicago, where the people are friendlier than Detroit. I'm from L.A. and grew up in a neighborhood very similar to the one around that store. I'm kind of used to the attitude. Not all stores in the chain are like that. The one in Midtown Detroit has a much more pleasant clientele.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 05:11 pm (UTC)As for Whole Paycheck, that makes sense. The store of theirs closest to me is on the edge of one of Providence's yuppie ghettos, and it may well attract the wrong sort. ;-)
From a Deplorable
Date: 2018-01-03 12:30 am (UTC)As regards the stripping of mysticism and spiritualism, again I differ. There was never path offered, because the emphasis is on clearing away the fog caused by our already existing belief systems. Many people I have met embarked on spiritual journeys either in mainstream religions or other occult or spiritual paths. We were just not steered toward any specific system.
Likewise, the path was never towards making me a good cog in the machine. It was to make me aware of the machine I was stuck in and to be responsible for it. If you are on the path of making money, then be on that path and be good at and see if it actually leads to satisfaction; rather than whining that you're being forced to participate against your will.
I don't want to contest anyone's negative experience, but to remind that "if the fool persists in his folly, he will become wise" applies even to us spiritual "deplorables".
Also to note, I have been following and loving your blogs and reading your books for over 5 years and it actually amuses me that this is the occasion of my first note to you.
Thanks
Peter
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 05:30 pm (UTC)The trends you describe indicate an increase in the self-centeredness of society - and nowhere is that more obvious than with the "prosperity preachers". If Jesus had a grave, he'd be spinning in it watching a clown like Joel Osteen jabber on...
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 05:52 pm (UTC)Offering more is not likely to sell well, unless it's offering more of less. Less stress, less to do, less to cope with.
I've never noted a New Age periodical around here. I suppose the circulation base is far too small. Something swapping headlines between Sightings of the Virgin Mary and Sightings of the Angel Moroni might gain some space on the freebie racks, between classifieds, monthly alt-news, auto sales, and house sales.
BoysMom
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-05 02:05 pm (UTC)Interestingly, a thought arose typing this, if I am honest with myself, this personal perspective is the one I seem to take with my AODA studies. Perhpas that is why I keep running up into a cycle of roadblocks and failures, I have a too self-centered perspective or goals in regards to what I am trying to achieve... hmm.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-01 09:25 pm (UTC)Thinking back, I'd say you called this one a few years ago, at least in its broader outlines. I have in mind a post on Galabes (https://www.ecosophia.net/blogs-and-essays/the-well-of-galabes/the-twilight-of-the-neopagan-era/) about the 40-ish-year cycles between religious and political focus in popular culture. By that metric, we're about on schedule for transcendence to be headed out to sea, and a wave of something more mundane (in the etymological sense) to be rolling in.
Looking around at what passes for political discourse these days, I think I can see the incoming wave, too.
--barefootwisdom
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Date: 2018-01-01 11:05 pm (UTC)I just picked up Chogyam Trungpa's book "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" which was published back in '73 when you were "scampering around underfoot." I wanted to research it for the very reasons you related in the message and my own observations along those lines. I do not care whether it is an asian, european, or american school or publication, these days. I look for those that MAKE SENSE.
Thanks for all YOU do,
mac
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 01:06 am (UTC)Yes, it's fascinating to watch how the initial impulse towards what you've called transcendence degenerates into "how can I make a living out of this?" and then progresses to "how can I sell it better?". To the point of explicitly separating people into "marketable" and "non-marketable" - I've seen one reiki teacher doing it in these exact terms.
Another thing I noticed in yoga and reiki industry is... Well, two things actually... First, very few people shy away from the "industry" part of it. And second, both modalities are good at bringing up the emotional/etheric garbage that most of us keep habitually sweeping under the proverbial rug. Very few "... teacher" courses teach how to help people dealing with this stuff when it comes up. The best mention I've seen in one of the yoga courses was to just isolate the person who happened to have a "breakdown" calm them down and send them home so that they don't disturb the rest of the congregation. It did fill me with anger and frustration to see it degenerating into a product "with no bad side effects".
I did buy one issue of Yoga Journal too. Tossed it into a bin the moment I saw an OM pendant with diamonds advertised on one of the pages...
What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-02 11:38 am (UTC)Suddenly more people wanted to represent this guy, but as we had been the first, they had to work with us - what happened was that the new people came to us and asked us to put up our prices (double or triple), we had been reluctant but what was said stays with me still, the new teachers told us:
"...but one rich person is worth ten poor people."
We decided to withdraw into the background shortly after that.
On zen sickness, when we were running workshops (1988/89) we got a lot of practitioners coming along - I don't remember reiki from then, but the most grounded people (and I generalise) were those doing Alexander technique. The least grounded were the Shiatsu people, who we cruelly described as 'space cadets'.
We also used to get what were called 'kundalini casualties', looking for practices to ground themselves rather than frying their brains.
But, re zen sickness and this mindfulness palaver, I have ended up being puzzled as to what is going on. The meditation techniques (taoist related) were always about doing something, not sitting there blissed out with an empty head. Whether engaged in sitting or standing meditation or movement, to be mindful was to be aware of what you were doing and to pay attention to the process you were working on and to let distractions drop away, not to have an empty mind.
An inherent part of practice was to understand that the practice would in all likelihood bring up hidden/repressed emotional energy because once you start working with the subtle energy systems, that is what happens. It is not a bug, but a feature and it was important for people to know what to do.
Things surfacing could be mental or physical, but it was important to have things to use to handle stuff like that.
Perhaps similar in a way to a term we didn't learn until recently 'trauma splitting', where energy is stored away but is still there. Inner aspects of yourself can be cut-off and locked away as a survival mechanism, but that really isn't the end of the matter.
Internal practices are going to result in changes - allowing that process to unfold with an empty mind seems like a recipe for trouble.
[earthworm]
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-03 12:25 am (UTC)If this wisdom has been buried by the current crop of teachers, where is the best place to "plant a shovel", as it were?
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-04 12:10 am (UTC)Exercises of both physical and internal practice can cause effects.
Primary aim was to ensure an energy channel to help balance energy.
Baseline practice included:
1. Gaining awareness and the ability to relax.
2. Using sound/vocalisation to gain awareness of organs/emotional states and cleanse/strengthen them.
3. Using focussed meditation to work on the dantain (below navel) and from there, parts of the Ren and Du meridians (essentially up the back and down the front). Also called the microcosmic orbit.
4. Using the five elemental processes to gain an understanding/feeling for emotional energy and then, with focussed awareness, cause changes to emotional state.
Essentially, rather than being driven by emotions, you choose how to act by creating a dynamic tension/equilibrium by paying attention and manipulating emotional states.
It is not a matter of becoming emotionless, rather, you actively express emotion how you want rather than just reacting to deep limbic responses.
The issues we came across fitted into three broad categories:
Physical
Mental
Energetic
These could overlap, but to generalise:-
Physical: could be as simple as overdoing exercises and associated physical reactions, aches and pains, sleepiness, or some other manifestation.
Mental: starts to get more complex because it seemed to be emotionally related and that can manifest in many ways. The mental stuff is often the result of 'buried emotions' that are released through practice. The practice aimed to provide the tools (open the microcosmic orbit, use the five elemental processes to 'manage the farm').
Energetic: for practitioners following the system, an example of this could be too much energy at the heart or head (crown/third eye) and this could usually be resolved by shifting concentration to the dantian or, grounding out through the kidney points on the feet.
(aside – too much energy at the heart could occur through chi kung practice and actually manifest a physical response).
For those not practising the system who had been working with chakras rather than meridians and had too much energy at a particular centre, learning to allow energy to flow could often help.
All practices ended with storing energy at the dantian (or if too intense, out into the earth).
For a place to start, I have always been impressed with Wong Kiew Kit's explanation of the Five Elemental Processes (emphasis on processes), but any system worth its salt should have things in place to deal with this sort of thing. The taoist system I first studied, just baked the tools into the process cake. I'm sure others will have valuable ideas of where to look.
Of course, this is just a personal opinion, I've been messing around with stuff for a while and am probably more of a mongrel than a practitioner of any particular system. Mr Greer is very correct though, be very careful about hybridizing systems – I've been lucky, but mileage may vary!
[earthworm]
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-05 09:51 am (UTC)For example, going on a retreat where many hours a day are spent in some sort of practice could could be troublesome if there isn't a solid foundation on which to work? By foundation I do not mean 'knowing of practices' but actually having done work in gradual steps.
The stuff I have studied has never claimed to be the be all and end all of things, quite the opposite, that people need to find things (system/method) that suit them. What was there was a gradual progression, each stage building on the previous ones and 'baking things into the process cake' was not so much about the detail of the practices as providing something that functioned like a mechanic learning to use tools… i.e. a new mechanic doesn't begin by trying to take the entire engine apart on the first day etc
Since everyone perceives and experiences things through their own lense, a careful and steady approach seems prudent – putting a toe gently onto the accelerator with the gears in neutral to get a feel for the things rather than smacking it straight into gear and trying to accelerate the vehicle up to 100mph in X seconds.
In a culture that promotes instant gratification, 'look at me', and consumerism in relationship to internal practices like meditation, it is actually surprising that more and ever more people haven't lost the plot…. Uhm… too difficult to generalise perhaps. I need to think more on this.
[earthworm]
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-06 03:58 am (UTC)Would it be fair to say that if your instructor can't answer some of these
questions it should be a red flag to look elsewhere?
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-06 11:20 am (UTC)Also, the terminology and jargon from one system may not be immediately obvious to someone from another system.
People often put the 'plus points' out as as part of the sales pitch, maybe asking about pitfalls and side effects might be one approach? Even then the person being asked may genuinely not know.
Of course it may depend on how far people get into practicing.
Our host here has previously touched on issues between magical practices and oriental practices; I haven't had experience of that; but to my mind it is a subject that bears closer examination.
I mean. okay, all these different teachers and masters have developed their arts based on their own perception and empirical practice; but ultimately since we are all humans (hahaha), is it a mistake for one to expect the fundamentals of energy to be the same?
Perhaps it is something along the lines of 'always add the acid to the water; never add the water to the acid'.
i.e. systems might be working with the (ultimately) similar fundamentals, but how those ingredients go together determines whether you achieve the aim of lowering the pH or get covered in acid!
As I say, I need to think about this some more. Maybe JMG and others have some thoughts?
[earthworm]
Re: What happened to transcendence
Date: 2018-01-06 01:27 pm (UTC)Simplistic and maybe stretching the use of metaphor too far, but here goes; recipes & cooking:-
Random hybridizing of systems:
Putting on a blindfold and selecting ingredients with the desire that it will taste good.
Zen sickness and empty-mind mindfulness:
Ingredients might be good, but you've used too much, put them all in the pot, turned the heat up to full and left the kitchen for an extended vacation.
Finding a teacher / system:
Picking up an over-packaged, mega-processed, industrial ready meal where the dojo is a microwave
vs
Asking an experienced cook to take you through the steps of cooking from scratch and building an earth oven
[earthworm]
Sucess of the New Age and hard work
Date: 2018-01-02 04:09 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, there may be a limit to what can be accomplished by this process, some practices don't really lend themselves to dabbling or don't play well with others, traditional Zen and Sufism come to mind, some of the new ideas where dead ends, and a lot of work is often required to make these traditions meaningful.
Not sure when this movement lost it's mojo, or even if it did, since I was never a real participant but I do notice that I no longer run into people with a dedicated New Age lifestyle that includes anything beyond individual interests. Our community does have an active New Age presence (the Maine Holistic Center)and a Pagan temple (Temple of the Feminine Divine) although the two don't necessarily mix except at the fringe. I know good people in both places.
Re: Sucess of the New Age and hard work
Date: 2018-01-04 02:40 am (UTC)Could the embrace of such harsh limits on the inner world be a "return of the repressed" from the denial of limits in the outer?
The Razor's Edge in Spokane...
Date: 2018-01-03 09:02 pm (UTC)After reading your review of The Razor's Edge I went to Worldcat.org to see if there were any local copies. It turned out that there was a copy at the main branch of the public library. However, it was checked out with 2 holds in the queue! I've got to think that other locals are reading your online material.
Shortly after your move, you indicated that you would eventually provide more information on your decision to leave Maryland. Have you done that and did I somehow miss it?
I recently looked into the Ashland market as the consequence of someone on PeakProsperity indicating that she moved there from California. I had sticker shock -- Spokane is certainly cheap by comparison. However, it doesn't hold a candle to Boulder. One of my brothers bought a small rancher in Boulder in 2009 and the appreciation since that time -- according to Zillow -- is twice the amount that my wife and I paid for a house in a nice neighborhood with a large lot here in Spokane (2016).
All the best for 2018... Matt
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-10 05:23 am (UTC)Kevin
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-10 05:34 am (UTC)Kevin