07-14-2012, 12:00 AM
I was struck by the heavy emphasis on the notion that the vast
majority of them were offering people something other than
reality. The theme of altered, higher, better states of
consciousness occurred repeatedly.
I was surprised at the number of books dedicated to "angels"
The recurrent thread throughout was that of personal entitlement,
getting something, reaching or attaining something. All of it
seemed demeaning in a way, a tacit acknowledgment that there
was something missing, that an individual could find and possess
by reading the book. I could not help noticing some of the
customers browsing the titles, most appeared to be dissatisfied
people desperately seeking some sort of answers.
There was a bulletin board, covered with advertisements for
dozens of "healers," "body workers" and various "schools" of
"mystical arts." This was very much what Trungpa Rinpoche used to
refer to as "the Spiritual Supermarket" a plethora of offerings
appealing to our sense of spiritual poverty, offering relief in
the form of spiritual commodities, "higher" states of
consciousness, travel to higher realms, secrets of the universe.
All of it appealing to the underlying diaspora of separateness
and disconnectedness that is all pervasive in the human
condition.
The overriding theme in this
spiritual supermarket was that there was something missing which
could be provided by the products being sold. Nowhere was the
notion evident that perhaps the real problem was that we had too
much to begin with, and what we really needed was to let go.
Everywhere the message was self centered, me, me, mine...
achievement, gain, and ego reinforcement seemed all pervasive. I
could not help but wonder how many people had come into such
places in search of peace of mind. Someone discovering an
offered technique which seemed appealing, purchasing the
available books, tapes and materials, taking them all home to
begin their new life of spirituality. They would find out in a
short time after the fascination wore off that they were still
deeply dissatisfied. One could imagine people going back to the
supermarket, getting all the stuff for a different "modality"
(they seem to like that word "modality") and starting the process
again. I would imagine that this could become an endless
occupation, jumping from cosmic consciousness to crystal healing
to channeling to pyramidology to energy vibrations, to
out-of-body experiences, to déjà vu, to ESP, to Atlantis,
to reincarnation to endless other "ologies" and "isms." Truly a
never ending story.... always searching, trying to find
something, anything, to fill the perceived need that something is
missing.
The theme of selfishness appears to
exist throughout the New Age trip, it is on the whole supported
by middle class white people who are dissatisfied with their
lives and uncomfortable in their relationships and surroundings.
Invariably it is a money making scene, the books, crystals,
bells, incense, oils, aromas, the tapes and CD's all sell like
hotcakes.
I could find no information in the
store that had any reference to the sign in the window
advertising "zen" the clerk did not offer an explanation, there
seemed no reason for the sign other than the novelty of the word
"zen." This is a common occurrence in materialistic America. Over
the years I have seen numerous advertising campaigns offering
"zen" this and "zen" that. Books have been written with the
word "zen" in the title that have nothing to with zen at all.
"Zen" is a "pop" word that sells.
From this
perspective, there is no relationship between zen and "New Age,"
in fact, they are diametrically opposed. Zen does not cater to
selfish notions of self improvement or egoistic narcissistic
spiritual entertainment. If any thing, zen is about destroying
utterly such preconceptions. There is nothing "New" about zen, it
has been around for 2500 years. Whatever preconceived ideas may
be proffered by so called "New Age" gurus, have nothing to do
with formal traditional zen practice.
New Age notions of "love n' light, peace and harmony, and we are
all one" are in no way aspects of zen training. To think
otherwise is childlike and ignorant. Zen is a far more realistic
and sophisticated than that, more down to earth and ordinary. To
lump zen in with the myriad of New Age endeavors is completely
erroneous. Zen is a method for becoming sane not a self-indulgent
hobby for bored rich white people.
The
"New Age" movement, if indeed it can be referred to as a
movement, appears to be a desperate effort of people attempting
to find the spirituality that is totally lacking in the dominant
culture. Dominant here means more than mainstream, for domination
is an integral element of the pervasive materialistic and
conquest based culture of the West. The power-over dynamic and
materialistic nature of Western culture is a product of conquest
and subjugation that grew out of European feudalism,
patriarchism, theocratic dictatorship and opportunistic desire to
wield power over other beings. The entire history of what we are
taught is "civilization" is in short a story of conquest,
written by the conquerors with their purposes in mind. This
element of conquest is the backbone of materialism and the
materialistic psychology that enables people to visualize their
entire world as objects that can be manipulated for selfish gain,
this manipulation includes people. Materialism and the principle
of conquest are driving forces in the efforts of groups to
control the lives of others. Efforts to legislate morality,
attempts to mold society to arbitrary standards developed by
religious groups based on belief systems all rely on the conquest
principle, the subjugation of others.
What is perhaps no so apparent, is the degree to which this
paradigm permeates our personal lives on a day to day basis. The
conquest paradigm has disconsciously been incorporated into our
psychology in ways that are far from apparent.
The conquest paradigm by its nature is diametrically in
opposition to spirituality, and when practiced leaves no room for
the freedom of spirituality, no room to breathe. The root of
spirituality is "spiritus" the Latin word for breath, the essence
of life itself.
In our Western society
materialism has become so all encompassing that we have no clue
as to any alternatives, since our foundation, our psychology, our
spiritual leanings have all been contaminated by materialism. We
have no way to relate to things other than materialistically.
The New Age phenomenon is very much a materialistic approach
in fact it is a thinly disguised system of conquest applied to
what we perceive as the spiritual. In so many cases, our thirst
for meaning, our need for fulfillment, can only manifest in terms
of wanting to appropriate more "stuff." In the New Age this
means appropriating the spirituality of other cultures because we
are so impoverished and have squandered our heritage and
fatally polluted it with our materialistic attitude of conquest
and ownership.
We blithely in our search seek
to appropriate the wisdom of ancient masters, we adopt the
spirituality of other cultures as though they were ours for the
taking. Our spiritual search has turned into spiritual conquest,
we have become rapists, pillagers and looters of other
cultural legacies. We are exercising our conquest psychology by
stealing the cultural spiritual heritage of other cultures
because we have destroyed our own. This goes on and on..... go
into the new age book store and look around -- consider what has
just been said here when you do.
We may buy a
book on indigenous shamanism, we may gather the feathers, the drum, the
medicine bag, the herbs, the pipe, all the "required" paraphernalia...
and pretend to be a shaman. We may go to someone who claims to be such a
person to learn from them. But after we've done all that, after we've
read everything that can be read on the subject, acquired all the props,
dressed ourselves in the native clothes, painted our faces -- when we
look in the mirror -- we are still a white person pretending to be
someone other than who we are. We are a clumsy approximation of a shaman
at best. If we study an Asian tradition we can never become an Asian
person, we can not undo our past and somehow recreate a cultural
heritage. In short, we are who we are and need to become used to the
idea that we do not have the right to steal the heritage of another
culture to satisfy our unbridled greed and arrogance.
You see, what is really needed is not what is offered for sale,
advertised for money and acquired through materialistic gain.
What is needed, is to look at our motivations, to examine our
present condition, to study our history to learn about how we
function. We can do none of this if we are involved in looking
outside ourselves for answers, if we are looking for "higher"
states of consciousness.
What is a
"higher" state of consciousness? Higher that what? We are not
even aware of our present state of mind other than that we are in
pain, feel a lack and want to feel complete. We behave as if
spoiled children who want their situation "fixed" and taken care
of right away. We have not really looked at ourselves, we have
not deeply examined the nature of our feelings, the root causes
of those feelings, the social structure, language and culture
that has produced our world views. In short we are so busy
wanting to escape that we have not taken the time to understand
the nature of our imprisonment. What sense does it make to trade
one jail cell for another, when the prison walls are in reality
our own forgotten creation?
The real truth is
that things are not as bad as we thought.... In fact, they are
much worse! This is the real work of spirituality, this is the
grist for the mill. The notion that we can somehow look into the
mirror of our selves and see some magical vision of purity and
light is mere wishful thinking, an attempt to escape from the
pain of our collective social karma.
The real truth is that there is no escape, no way out. There are
temporary, highly entertaining "trips" we can go on in an attempt
at escape, but ultimately they all wind up back at the same
place, we are left feeling the fundamental dissatisfactoriness
that is all pervasive.
Until we are brave
enough to face the truth, to recognize the dire nature of the
problem, to see that we are not alone in feeling dissatisfaction
we have no hope of coming to any sort of insight and wisdom. So
long as we are totally wrapped up in planning our own personal
escape, we can not see the real problem, we can not see that
there are others who are just as stuck, in just as much pain as
we are.
There is no escape in the New
Age, it is a mere product of the culture of materialism, a
fantasy woven to cater to our neurotic obsession with ourselves
and our personal angst. New Age is for those who have money, idle
time and nothing better to do. Check it out -- How many poor
people struggling to put food on their tables, living lives far
more uncomfortable that our own are in the New Age stores
seeking answers to their problems?
Are we not
really looking to heal our selves in all of this? We are in a
peculiar dilemma, we know that something is wrong but we are so
absorbed in escaping from the pain that we do not take the time
required to learn the true nature of the disease. Our
materialistic psychology prevents us from seeing the big picture.
We remain entranced with our individual problems and can not see
beyond the immediate issue to the much wider picture of how
we exist in a state of interbeing with all our sisters and
brothers and all our fellow sentient beings.
majority of them were offering people something other than
reality. The theme of altered, higher, better states of
consciousness occurred repeatedly.
I was surprised at the number of books dedicated to "angels"
The recurrent thread throughout was that of personal entitlement,
getting something, reaching or attaining something. All of it
seemed demeaning in a way, a tacit acknowledgment that there
was something missing, that an individual could find and possess
by reading the book. I could not help noticing some of the
customers browsing the titles, most appeared to be dissatisfied
people desperately seeking some sort of answers.
There was a bulletin board, covered with advertisements for
dozens of "healers," "body workers" and various "schools" of
"mystical arts." This was very much what Trungpa Rinpoche used to
refer to as "the Spiritual Supermarket" a plethora of offerings
appealing to our sense of spiritual poverty, offering relief in
the form of spiritual commodities, "higher" states of
consciousness, travel to higher realms, secrets of the universe.
All of it appealing to the underlying diaspora of separateness
and disconnectedness that is all pervasive in the human
condition.
The overriding theme in this
spiritual supermarket was that there was something missing which
could be provided by the products being sold. Nowhere was the
notion evident that perhaps the real problem was that we had too
much to begin with, and what we really needed was to let go.
Everywhere the message was self centered, me, me, mine...
achievement, gain, and ego reinforcement seemed all pervasive. I
could not help but wonder how many people had come into such
places in search of peace of mind. Someone discovering an
offered technique which seemed appealing, purchasing the
available books, tapes and materials, taking them all home to
begin their new life of spirituality. They would find out in a
short time after the fascination wore off that they were still
deeply dissatisfied. One could imagine people going back to the
supermarket, getting all the stuff for a different "modality"
(they seem to like that word "modality") and starting the process
again. I would imagine that this could become an endless
occupation, jumping from cosmic consciousness to crystal healing
to channeling to pyramidology to energy vibrations, to
out-of-body experiences, to déjà vu, to ESP, to Atlantis,
to reincarnation to endless other "ologies" and "isms." Truly a
never ending story.... always searching, trying to find
something, anything, to fill the perceived need that something is
missing.
The theme of selfishness appears to
exist throughout the New Age trip, it is on the whole supported
by middle class white people who are dissatisfied with their
lives and uncomfortable in their relationships and surroundings.
Invariably it is a money making scene, the books, crystals,
bells, incense, oils, aromas, the tapes and CD's all sell like
hotcakes.
I could find no information in the
store that had any reference to the sign in the window
advertising "zen" the clerk did not offer an explanation, there
seemed no reason for the sign other than the novelty of the word
"zen." This is a common occurrence in materialistic America. Over
the years I have seen numerous advertising campaigns offering
"zen" this and "zen" that. Books have been written with the
word "zen" in the title that have nothing to with zen at all.
"Zen" is a "pop" word that sells.
From this
perspective, there is no relationship between zen and "New Age,"
in fact, they are diametrically opposed. Zen does not cater to
selfish notions of self improvement or egoistic narcissistic
spiritual entertainment. If any thing, zen is about destroying
utterly such preconceptions. There is nothing "New" about zen, it
has been around for 2500 years. Whatever preconceived ideas may
be proffered by so called "New Age" gurus, have nothing to do
with formal traditional zen practice.
New Age notions of "love n' light, peace and harmony, and we are
all one" are in no way aspects of zen training. To think
otherwise is childlike and ignorant. Zen is a far more realistic
and sophisticated than that, more down to earth and ordinary. To
lump zen in with the myriad of New Age endeavors is completely
erroneous. Zen is a method for becoming sane not a self-indulgent
hobby for bored rich white people.
The
"New Age" movement, if indeed it can be referred to as a
movement, appears to be a desperate effort of people attempting
to find the spirituality that is totally lacking in the dominant
culture. Dominant here means more than mainstream, for domination
is an integral element of the pervasive materialistic and
conquest based culture of the West. The power-over dynamic and
materialistic nature of Western culture is a product of conquest
and subjugation that grew out of European feudalism,
patriarchism, theocratic dictatorship and opportunistic desire to
wield power over other beings. The entire history of what we are
taught is "civilization" is in short a story of conquest,
written by the conquerors with their purposes in mind. This
element of conquest is the backbone of materialism and the
materialistic psychology that enables people to visualize their
entire world as objects that can be manipulated for selfish gain,
this manipulation includes people. Materialism and the principle
of conquest are driving forces in the efforts of groups to
control the lives of others. Efforts to legislate morality,
attempts to mold society to arbitrary standards developed by
religious groups based on belief systems all rely on the conquest
principle, the subjugation of others.
What is perhaps no so apparent, is the degree to which this
paradigm permeates our personal lives on a day to day basis. The
conquest paradigm has disconsciously been incorporated into our
psychology in ways that are far from apparent.
The conquest paradigm by its nature is diametrically in
opposition to spirituality, and when practiced leaves no room for
the freedom of spirituality, no room to breathe. The root of
spirituality is "spiritus" the Latin word for breath, the essence
of life itself.
In our Western society
materialism has become so all encompassing that we have no clue
as to any alternatives, since our foundation, our psychology, our
spiritual leanings have all been contaminated by materialism. We
have no way to relate to things other than materialistically.
The New Age phenomenon is very much a materialistic approach
in fact it is a thinly disguised system of conquest applied to
what we perceive as the spiritual. In so many cases, our thirst
for meaning, our need for fulfillment, can only manifest in terms
of wanting to appropriate more "stuff." In the New Age this
means appropriating the spirituality of other cultures because we
are so impoverished and have squandered our heritage and
fatally polluted it with our materialistic attitude of conquest
and ownership.
We blithely in our search seek
to appropriate the wisdom of ancient masters, we adopt the
spirituality of other cultures as though they were ours for the
taking. Our spiritual search has turned into spiritual conquest,
we have become rapists, pillagers and looters of other
cultural legacies. We are exercising our conquest psychology by
stealing the cultural spiritual heritage of other cultures
because we have destroyed our own. This goes on and on..... go
into the new age book store and look around -- consider what has
just been said here when you do.
We may buy a
book on indigenous shamanism, we may gather the feathers, the drum, the
medicine bag, the herbs, the pipe, all the "required" paraphernalia...
and pretend to be a shaman. We may go to someone who claims to be such a
person to learn from them. But after we've done all that, after we've
read everything that can be read on the subject, acquired all the props,
dressed ourselves in the native clothes, painted our faces -- when we
look in the mirror -- we are still a white person pretending to be
someone other than who we are. We are a clumsy approximation of a shaman
at best. If we study an Asian tradition we can never become an Asian
person, we can not undo our past and somehow recreate a cultural
heritage. In short, we are who we are and need to become used to the
idea that we do not have the right to steal the heritage of another
culture to satisfy our unbridled greed and arrogance.
You see, what is really needed is not what is offered for sale,
advertised for money and acquired through materialistic gain.
What is needed, is to look at our motivations, to examine our
present condition, to study our history to learn about how we
function. We can do none of this if we are involved in looking
outside ourselves for answers, if we are looking for "higher"
states of consciousness.
What is a
"higher" state of consciousness? Higher that what? We are not
even aware of our present state of mind other than that we are in
pain, feel a lack and want to feel complete. We behave as if
spoiled children who want their situation "fixed" and taken care
of right away. We have not really looked at ourselves, we have
not deeply examined the nature of our feelings, the root causes
of those feelings, the social structure, language and culture
that has produced our world views. In short we are so busy
wanting to escape that we have not taken the time to understand
the nature of our imprisonment. What sense does it make to trade
one jail cell for another, when the prison walls are in reality
our own forgotten creation?
The real truth is
that things are not as bad as we thought.... In fact, they are
much worse! This is the real work of spirituality, this is the
grist for the mill. The notion that we can somehow look into the
mirror of our selves and see some magical vision of purity and
light is mere wishful thinking, an attempt to escape from the
pain of our collective social karma.
The real truth is that there is no escape, no way out. There are
temporary, highly entertaining "trips" we can go on in an attempt
at escape, but ultimately they all wind up back at the same
place, we are left feeling the fundamental dissatisfactoriness
that is all pervasive.
Until we are brave
enough to face the truth, to recognize the dire nature of the
problem, to see that we are not alone in feeling dissatisfaction
we have no hope of coming to any sort of insight and wisdom. So
long as we are totally wrapped up in planning our own personal
escape, we can not see the real problem, we can not see that
there are others who are just as stuck, in just as much pain as
we are.
There is no escape in the New
Age, it is a mere product of the culture of materialism, a
fantasy woven to cater to our neurotic obsession with ourselves
and our personal angst. New Age is for those who have money, idle
time and nothing better to do. Check it out -- How many poor
people struggling to put food on their tables, living lives far
more uncomfortable that our own are in the New Age stores
seeking answers to their problems?
Are we not
really looking to heal our selves in all of this? We are in a
peculiar dilemma, we know that something is wrong but we are so
absorbed in escaping from the pain that we do not take the time
required to learn the true nature of the disease. Our
materialistic psychology prevents us from seeing the big picture.
We remain entranced with our individual problems and can not see
beyond the immediate issue to the much wider picture of how
we exist in a state of interbeing with all our sisters and
brothers and all our fellow sentient beings.