Human Adult Vs Spiritual Enlightenment – Jed McKenna
―The difference between adulthood and enlightenment is that the former is awakening within the dreamstate and the latter is awakening from it. Shallow, early-stage adulthood is often mistaken for, and sold as, spiritual enlightenment, but it is not. It‘s just the first real glimpse of life, the death/rebirth transition from womb to world………human adulthood is what everyone really wants, not the truth or enlightenment. This is where you find all the good stuff and a lot less of the bad.
You have to grow into it, or course, continue to develop and mature, learn and expand, but that‘s where all the perks are; profound and abiding contentment, the ability to manifest desires and shape events, the ability to do less and accomplish more, find your true calling, connect with your higher self, never stub another toe, and so on.
And human adulthood is what everyone, spiritual or not, religious or not, atheist or not, should be setting their sights on. This is what I‘ve come to understand in my years of teaching and writing. If I were to give advice, I would recommend adulthood to everyone and enlightenment to no one. Human adulthood is life-positive, enlightenment is life-negative. Human adulthood is the real prize. Spiritual enlightenment is pointless and meaningless, and should only be sought by those who have absolutely no choice in the matter.‖
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My Impression On Above Chapter: „Maturity – Coming of Age‟
Our state of ‗Semi-Awakening‘ is not something we are stuck with. It is just a reflection of our as yet incomplete inner development , both as individuals and as a species.
Our individuality begins to dawn after we move from total dependence upon our mothers towards greater independence. We learn how to use our hands and how to create change in the world. We discover relationships of cause and effect, and develop a will. Through this growing interaction with the world comes the realisation that we are independent entities (people in our own right). And as our facility with language develops we begin to give expression to this realisation. ―I like this.‖ ―I want that.‖ ―I can do this.‖
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These steps in inner development would seem to mirror the stages that early humanity passed through. To begin with, the general consciousness was probably similar to that of a young child (people were aware of the world and aware of themselves as physical beings but had little sense of an individual self).
If there was any sense of identity it was of oneness with the ‗Great Mother Earth‘ (1) (nature, the provider of all).
It was the development of tools and the move away from an ‗Agrarian Culture‘
(2) towards urban civilisation that sowed the seeds for the emergence of a more
‗Egoic Consciousness.‘(3)
We discovered our ability to change the world, to influence the behaviour of the
‗Great Mother Earth.‘ A new sense of identity had been born. We were something special (separate, independent beings with a will of our own).
The Wisdom of the Young
One almost universal characteristic of young children is their purity. What parent has not looked at their young child and marvelled at the light that shines through them? Children have an innocence that adults have lost, an ‗awareness of simple truths‘ that we have forgotten. They are reminders of how we too once were.
This purity seems to be something instinctive. Children do not learn it from their parents (on the contrary, parents frequently find their children to be the teachers in these matters). Nor is it something they are educated into (if anything they are educated out of it). More likely it is a ‗reflection of human consciousness‘ in its natural, unsullied state.
It is the same with the development of our species. What evidence we have of life in early communities suggests a much greater respect for nature, and less materialistic attitudes than is found in modern civilisation. Some of the evidence for this is archaeological, but we can also get a good idea of how our ancestors may have lived by looking at various contemporary indigenous cultures that have not yet been overly influenced by contact with western civilisation (the Kogi of Colombia, the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the Penan in Malaysia).
These people often know many simple truths that we appear to have forgotten.
They smile at our attachment to things, and the energy we put into trying to be
„masters of our world.‟ In general they are content with life.
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They have a deep respect for their local ‗Ecosystem,‘ (4) and how to live in harmony with the land and other living beings. Moreover, like little children, they can be teachers to us, reminding us of the innocence we have lost in the rush of progress (and of the wisdom that we are now seeking to regain).
The Descent into Matter
This loss of purity (both in the growing child and in a technological society) is probably unavoidable. It is part of the process of development, part of our engagement with the world of matter. The more children learn how to control the world the more fascinated they become with their discoveries (with what they can do and with what they can achieve).
This also applies to our social development. As our tools became more powerful and our understanding of the world deepens, we become fascinated by the changes we can create.
Our urge to improve the quality of life led to the ‗Industrial Revolution.‘ (5)
And its successes reinforced our infatuation with the material world. The more ways we discovered to manipulate and change the world, the more our belief that we were individuals in control of our own destiny was strengthened. As our abilities grew we seduced ourselves into believing that such expertise could satisfy all our needs, psychological as well as physical.
This obsession with our own well-being led us to become increasingly ‗Self-Centered.‘ More and more we saw ourselves as separate individuals, each concerned with his or her own fulfilment, competing with others for the means to achieve it (and with all the dangers that entails). Less and less were we prepared to devote ourselves to the group. The more industrialised we became, the more self-interest became a virtue.
This sense of separateness was further boosted by a ‗Scientific Paradigm‘ (6)
that saw the world as a mechanism, devoid of spirit. Like an energetic teenager we became full of ourselves and our capacities, relishing our new-found sense of freedom from the family. Except that in this case the family that had brought us up and supported us so far, and from which we were now separating ourselves, was ‗Mother Earth.‘
Ontogeny Heralds Phylogeny
Important as it is to see our absorption with material things as an unavoidable phase in our development, it is equally important to see it as a passing phase.
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Most of us do move beyond adolescence. We learn from our experience (to varying degrees). We learn to be less self-centered; we learn to take responsibility for our actions.
As we grow older we admit that there is much we do not know and will never know. We become wiser about human nature (its virtues and its failings). We accept the ways of nature. We become less attached to our possessions; less upset by events of little consequence; less needful of others’ appreciation. Many of us become better at living in the present. And some of us come to accept our own mortality.
A few of us may even come to know that we are free, that our well-being is not dependent upon the world we ‗Perceive.‘(7) These ‗Enlightened Ones‘ (8) may release themselves from all their imagined burdens and find true peace of mind.
They may even complete their ‗Inner Awakening‘ (9) and come to know the
‗Nature of Consciousness‘ (10) as fully as we now know the world of form.
These are the ones we call the saints and mystics (those whose lives have illuminated the history of humanity – ‗The Awakened Ones‘).
At the moment full maturity is still a rarity. But rather than considering such individuals as exceptions we should think of them as ‗Scouts.‘(11) They are
‗Omens‘ (12) of what could lie ahead of us as our own inner maturity blossoms.
They are also ‗Omens‘ of what could lie ahead for the human race (should we survive our troubled adolescence).
In this respect ‗Ontogeny‘ (13) heralds ‗Phylogeny.‘(14) Both as individuals and as a species we are heading in the direction of ‗self-release.‘
FOOTNOTES
1. Wikipedia – Great Mother Earth;
2. Wikipedia – Agrarian Culture;
3. Wikipedia – Egoic Consciousness;
4. Wikipedia – Ecosystem;
5. Wikipedia – Industrial Revolution;
6. Wikipedia – Scientific Paradigm; 7. Wikipedia – Perceive;
8. Wikipedia – Enlightened Ones; 9. Wikipedia – Inner Awakening; 10. Wikipedia – Nature of Consciousness; Page 42 of 179
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11. Wikipedia – Scouts;
12. Wikipedia – Omens;
13. Wikipedia – Ontogeny; and
14. Wikipedia – Phylogeny.
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