Here Comes the Nothing!
Today, we live in an unprecedented sort of world -- a reality completely inverted from any known in the historic past. Our world has been gutted of sense and consistency. Propriety, responsibility, even meaning itself have become jokes to exchange in the cynical dialogues that have replaced profound conversation. What should remain private is made obscenely public, while what should be publicly known is obscenely kept secret. We live in a new kind of social space. But less well understood is that we also live in a new kind of psychological space-and even a new kind of spiritual space.
The privacy of all that is public has resulted in the structural
irresponsibility of public actors. Because of the collusion of the mass media
in camouflaging catastrophes, governments and corporations can and do take
risks with our world that infinitely transcend what they can actually take
responsibility for. They routinely lie to the public about both their actions
and their consequences.
What is valorized today in the public sphere is only the effectiveness of the
lie -- and the shamelessness (the chutzpah)
with which the lie is thrown in the face of the public as a lie. The last
bastion of macho capacity is the pride taken in screwing up, and in rewarding
oneself for it. On the other hand, what is valorized in the private sphere is
the shameless self-exposure of another sort of obscene truth -- that of the lack
of phallic potency on any level. The more obscene, and the more pride taken in
its revelation, the greater is its prestige. Where the public and the private
meet is in the display of obscene enjoyment of hatred of the world itself, of
disdain for the Other, the masturbatory jouissance of being a loser who has
caused everyone to lose.
So, for example, it was revealed in a press release
recently that the Transocean Corp., the owner of the deep-water drilling rig in
the Gulf of Mexico that exploded and resulted in the worst environmental
disaster ever, rewarded its executives with a large bonus, because of their
wonderful safety record! The obscenity of such a reward is only exceeded by the
fact that they proudly made it public. It is not hard to decipher the message
contained in such an action. Nor will they or BP or any other culpable actor in
that catastrophe ever have to pay for the true amount of damages they caused to
our world.
Or take the actions of a corporation that is contesting the title of greatest
environmental disaster makers: the Japanese company that operates the nuclear
reactors that are now in process of undergoing world-threatening meltdowns.
They took risks with the lives of every human being, not only in Japan, but on
our planet. They did not construct the facility with regard for the foreseeable
natural events, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, that did in fact occur. It
would have been too expensive to adequately prepare for those. The company
executives cut corners at every decision point, to maximize profits at the
expense of the well-being of our world. Now everyone is paying the price. No
doubt, a year from now, those executives, if they are still alive, will be
rewarded with bonuses for their safety record as well.
The above are only two of a long and growing list of such destructive decisions
being taken by authorities -- decisions which demonstrate either wanton
negligence, a lack of concern for the continuing existence of our world, or a
deliberate effort to destroy our planetary web of life. We could add such
decisions as those of nations going to war without democratic consensus; the
launching of space exploration rockets filled with plutonium that could explode
and harm millions; the corruption of our financial systems; the disseminating
of genetically modified species of food plants, that could destroy the world's
food supply; the use of fracking, hydraulic fracturing, for natural gas
extraction, that is endangering our water supplies; and on and on.
The point of this analysis is not to arouse anger at any particular players in
the current socio-political establishments. Rather, what is important is to understand
the pattern that connects all these events, and its underlying significance.
The use of public media as a confessional space -- and ever more commonly as a
pornographic space -- in which the ugliness of private life is revealed to all,
also has psychic consequences that go beyond the immediate shock, disgust, and
secret obscene enjoyment. The game of the media is to create celebrities, and
then to destroy them, and in between, to give them the space to thrash around
in their dying narcissistic rage and self-justification as they go down the
tubes in front of the world, raising ever greater revenues from the corporate
sponsors. The real obscenity of this focus on private misery by the public
media is to obfuscate the true nature of the dangers of the public
catastrophes.
The effect of all this on the collective psyche of humanity is indescribable.
It is a traumatic wounding of colossal proportion that keeps consciousness in a
stunted state. At the very moment when we need to transcend the normal ego and
reach superconsciousness, the perverse morphing of the social matrix itself has
intervened to block our path of growth. This leaves one last option for the
Atman -- that of opening the wormhole in spiritual space between chakra one and
chakra seven. This is the only portal that is now possible for most people, and
though it is extremely dangerous, it is the stargate that our species has
chosen.
It has already begun to open, and every day it is opening wider, until
one day it shall consume our cosmos. In the yogic paradigm, chakras are not in
our body; rather, our body is flowing through the spectrum of consciousness
that contains the chakras as powerful vortexes of psychic energy. This energy
underlies and permeates what we think of as reality. As we enter the magnetic
field of the primordial vortex of chakra one, it acts as a black hole, in which
our entire reality will be absorbed.
In order to successfully cross the event horizon of this phenomenal plane from
the outskirts of chakra one, a state of consciousness that could be called
passive anal nihilism, into and through the blackness of nonbeing, to the
yonder shore of absolute nonduality, it is useful to at least understand that
the world is a hallucination. Reality as we know it is a construct, an effect of
discourse made of images and words. As the wormhole opens, the proliferation of
psychotic discourses and their concomitant senseless and impossible perceptions
will flood the consciousness with anxiety.
The basic fear is not death, but
madness, lostness in an empty, insane, and loveless world. Once the shadow of
this wormhole overpowers the ego's faith in its own capacity to master and
endure, a gradually increasing desperation will start cracking the wall of
denial. Generally, one will try to ward off collapse with escalating but
absurdly futile means: massages, aromatherapy, and exercise classes will give
way to alcohol and anti-anxiety medications. It will be as foretold in the film
Neverending Story: as the Nothing
approaches, the world begins to crumble. This is what we now face, writ large.
Our age of disasters is reaching its climax. But hidden within the
world-ravaging radioactive fires of destruction are little pearls of the Real
of love. The tiny seeds of a new world of supreme beauty, goodness, and divine
healing are secretly taking root. We must be unafraid of the end of our old
dying world, and surrendered to the will of the Absolute, we must dedicate
ourselves to become instruments for the birth of God-consciousness that will
create our new reality. But to do so involves the purification of our
all-too-human consciousness through constant meditation. Only in the perpetual
silence of inward surrender to the Supreme Presence will the ego and its
anxieties be dissolved. This must now be our highest priority.
May we learn to live in the Absolute Emptiness that has the power to contain
even the Nothing, and to transmute the Nothing into the Fullness of God's Light
and its power of divine creative love.
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
Image by Eric Perrone, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
Tweet- 6-7-11
- Shunyamurti's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
Comments
Inertia
So much of the ability of Corporations/Bankers and Governments to thrive at the expense of the masses is due to mostly our inertial dependency that has come about from decades/centuries of complacency.
Like bailing out the Bankers ... without them we can no longer borrow money ... which has become our ingrained habitual mode of thinking in regard to sustenance. Rather than help our neighbor we compete with each other for morsels ... the only difference in the conglomerates is that they compete for larger amounts.
This is why protest will only go so far ... who will go beyond their accepted lifestyle to the very rock bottom of directly sharing in life necessity {style free}
All of us in human society have and will be forever subject to the polarity between the fruits of good and evil. even though the media may have exceed in making this a collective art form, without a participatory audience how would it everr have gotten off the ground.
No matter how much we hear of mind control and other subliminal exploitation, still there have always been awoken minds at every step offering clear vision into the folly ... it just has never reached a tipping point. In older movies from the 1930's-50's there are plenty of cautions plainly projected about government and corporate take over ... financial industry manipulations ... both in humor and in drama.
All the way to Americas forefathers there have been all kinds of voices in protest ... yet the mass complacency forever reigns supreme when it comes down to nothing but "getting what you want .. right here right now."
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
Superconsciousness
i love the way this article
i love the way this article transitions from an awareness of the medias orgi'astic worship of death and destruction in their negative aspects into what it means to be a spiritual being in the midst of all this chaos. I agree it’s time to let go of our anger about the horrifically corrupt socio-political establishments, and begin to participate with the radiant emptiness that is unfolding with the coming of a new age.
I found it fascinating that you mentioned “As the wormhole opens, the proliferation of psychotic discourses and their concomitant senseless and impossible perceptions will flood the consciousness with anxiety.” I believe that it is the ability to work through this anxiety and psychotic knowledge that brings us to the threshold of Truth; to awaken to a simple paradox. Who is inside? Looking at the question with sincerity and openness reveals that there is no answer. The mind is disarmed, a glimpse at the emptiness of reality is not known but felt. There are no words for the experience.
“Surrendered to the will of the Absolute, we must dedicate ourselves to become instruments for the birth of God-consciousness that will create our new reality.” -amen
Witnessing and Surrendering....Healing our Media Porn Addiction
Thank you so much for your unflinching description of the media porn paradox....it is good for me to know my husband and I are not alone in watching TEPCO fade from the news while Representative Wiener's namesake leads every headline and wondering if everyone in the media is mad? The answer is, yes, they are mad. Madly trapped in everything you described.
I am not versed in the yogic pathway for redemption and survival you described, but its scatological nuance wafted off the computer screen. Again, thank you for letting me know we're not alone in smelling it.
Finally, your admonition to meditate actually made sense and did not smack of New Age narcicissm. I appreciate that. Your post empowered me this morning. Much more than anything in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Namaste,
Kimberella of Sydney
I have great respect for
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
????
"...the purification of our all-too-human consciousness through constant meditation."
What kind of non-sense (no offence) is this..?
"The SACRED (whatever that means) is surely related (somehow) to the BEAUTIFUL (whatever that means)..."
Gregory Bateson
luxury
08 June 2011 Wednesday 7:54am
Interestingly enough I am constantly reminded through reading these articles as I do every day, of just how parasidic I am. The paradox is how supportive and helpful I am to others in my everyday life. Duality indeed.
I am a corporation's worst nightmare. I refuse to listen to the garbage being belched out by and through humanity, just by simply turning off media. I am a minimalist to the tenth power...yet I am lured by the carnival of all that goes on around me and with which I must exist.
The truth is I can live wherever I am, in whatever surroundings. Could you? Really? How about live without soap or toothpaste? Or God Forbid -- in a war zone with your family being shelled every day? Or in a raped and burned village, or a hurricane and cholera-ravaged community or in the aftermath of tsunami with nuclear holocaust burgeoning in nearly every breath you take...they live in my mind every single day... Could you do it?
All I really want to know from you though -- is about the soap and toothpaste... Would your chakras center sustain you? Meditation is a luxury in the face of these things and I wonder at the mega-American community because of it...
It is a daunting task for society to consider; one that zero percent of the people around me will even have a conversation about...not conceivable.
Do you have a streaming conversation with yourself in your head when standing in a grocery contemplating Guatemalan bananas? I do. What am I supporting when I purchase these beautiful fruits that satisfy my senses and meld into my being, replenishing my soul and cells? Am I supporting a family somewhere? Or am I buying a genetically perfected product from a multibillion dollar industry that oppresses and strips the same family I hope to support...
Bananas are my secret luxury though, a lust that I must quench with my defense of the popular nutritionist viewpoint of it IS what my body NEEDS...potassium and such. All with the knowing that it takes enormous effort and fuels to get these delectable delights shipped to me from around the world. It is Knowing the Implications.
And the wheel goes round.
In every fucking thing I do or think.
Sitting here contemplating is a luxury. Having this screen and the electric to run it, is a luxury...Columbian coffee in my cup, is luxury...overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandover...
That is the parasidic in me. I know the exponential possibilities of even my most base needs (and wants, think bananas and coffee) being fulfilled are somehow both good and bad. How I do the least damage possible is by buying only the very basic and essential in most of my days.
Corporations hate people like me. I turn off ads, don't click banners, shop in resales, anything I can do to shut them out and off. However, a little deoderant goes a long way to please those around me. You see? I must adhere to a degree, I am forced to adhere to societal expectations or I am belittled and relegated to the fringe if I choose NOT to buy. Being a minimalist is not popular. The IPad is. Coming soon to the theatre of all...the ICloud.
I Cloud. Brilliant!!!
Cloud, indeed.
I have to say (and I am sorry to you for it), but I can't wait for Mother Nature to shred our systems and annihilate humanity and return us to our caves, my friends. For it will be some of us --not all-- that will have to give up the beloved bananas, but it will be worth it because those that will remain will have finally, Truth, and we'll all be in it together. Stinky, but rapturously happy and taking care of one another.
For today, I am going to contemplate "Event Horizon" while I make some baked (Tyson) fried chicken with plenty of herbs cut from my own garden, that beautiful luxury I helped to cultivate with purchased seeds from far-off lands...
I will take some to my elderly neighbors with a salad that I am going to cut from that same garden and whipped (Idaho) potatoes laced with (Wisconsin) butter and more herbs, so they can gum it with relish. Their happiness for a moment is my life's pleasure at no cost to them.
Or none they will know about, anyway...for these contemplations and mental tortures are my own.
They won't think of the Tyson Corporation --AND ALL THAT the word TYSON has come to represent. They won't think of the fattened, government-subsidized Idaho farmer that has enormous land-moving equipment, enclosed in his air-conditioned megatractor complete with cd player and a cup holder...They won't contemplate the genetically altered and mutated Wisconsin cow...but it isn't for them to know, is it? And it isn't for me to say...
Otherwise the poetry of sensing this beautifully gifted meal to them will be lost...
No. All they will know is that they didn't have to struggle to help themselves with boxed frozen dinners for a meal...
Those two will in turn give another neighbor a dozen of their farm fresh eggs for free, even though it is so difficult for them to maintain even their fifty little Rhode Island Red chickens, so hard for the two of them to get around these days, aching hands and swollen feet... They will be joyed and give in joy to others and not give it a single thought. This is how I choose to spend my days until the horizon is under my feet...
And the wheel goes round.
I agree that we are all
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
You know, I have never understood our world
Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Meditation isn't a luxury ... just the next progressive step in furthering ones own contemplative prowess along such lines. It could be said that it is the very lack of the meditational depths that come as the end fruit of such day to day contemplations that has us in this exploitative mess to begin with.
In other words Meditation is a natural state of mind, above and beyond any rituals or associative techniques, which in and of itself is really nothing more than the allowing of all ones thoughts and feelings to find their actual overall context within the very "space of awareness" before,during, and after any acting out upon such ...
It is more likely a "self-granted" luxury to forever act upon impulses without due contemplation-to-meditational integration, as all the mind could ever know of things good and evil will all find beginning and end in ones conscious awareness itself.
There is virtually no other way to gain appropriate depth of context without conscious awareness. Surly within everyones grasp at every level of humanistic drama is such an opportunity.
It only appears as a luxury to the degree one has become habituated beyond this inherent art form ability. Nothing more than paying attention to such an infinite degree will the value of each and every premise find actual context among "All That Is"
"Wonder is what Mystery would do if it was conscious" ...
"Wandering is for every other possibility"
Pippalayana Muni
Ouch
...and Amen!I was with you until you got to "We must be unafraid of the end of our old dying world, and surrendered to the will of the Absolute, we must dedicate ourselves to become instruments for the birth of God-consciousness that will create our new reality. But to do so involves the purification of our all-too-human consciousness through constant meditation."
While I agree that purification and surrender are critical to preparing for whatever is to come, any blanket statement that points to ONE way as being superior or necessary, sends up a red flag. There is no one way. And, people have different purposes here. I do agree that raising our vibration, in whatever way we can, and as much as possible, is imperative. But there are other ways to raise your vibration than constant mediation, which would suplant other paths. Certainly there are other ways to achieve ego death than meditation. I once spoke with a woman who said she realized a different reality existed, and it changed her life. She had been to other dimensions - seen them. She had been meditating daily for over 20 years. I didn't have the heart to tell her I had a similar shift in reality after seeing those dimensions in a 7 minute DMT trip. Oh, there are other ways.
I assure you, HOURS of meditation would not raise my vibration as much as spending an hour with my students, and seeing the light go on in their eyes when I open a window for them to look through, and their perspective is forever broadened. My personal call is to educate people about the very corporations and media of which you speak. if I spent my time meditating instead, those kids may never meet someone who could show them that the low prices at WalMart come at a high cost to others, or that the corn they think is a "vegetable" is really a genetically modified vehicle for corporate control on a level that belongs in a science fiction movie.Perhaps someone else would encourage them to question everything - authority, the media (especially the media), but maybe I'm the only one who will. And something in that education of others gives me the feeling I AM dedicating myself to become an instrument for the birth of God-consciousness that will create our new reality.
Yes, I am preparing to give birth to the God-consciousness. but, I want to light the way for others, too, not just sit in "constant meditation." Maybe that's YOUR way; maybe it's even a more effective way than some. But, there are valid paths that constant meditation would hinder.Still, I liked the progression of your essay, and your remarkable command of the English language. (I USED to teach English :-))
I agree that there is no one
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
a technique of constant meditation?
My apology
I apologize.
That came off as a bit of a rant, sometimes those desperate feelings and thoughts are just bluntly overwhelming and it pours out ugly. Again, I'm sorry.
I understand what you are meaning by living wholeheartedly by and through meditations. It is just that I find those levels of comfortable beingness elusive.
I admire those that have studied to live from a minimalist perspective. More so through the eyes of the elders of my family recalling the dust bowl and the Great Depression. Or as survivors through other means. Many times forced to extreme minimalism-- yes -- but further, accepting and happy anyway. It is it's own form of meditation. As you've seen, it appears as luxury to me for some to be able to afford to travel to those other-world countries, be immersed in their cultures, learning those things...In fairness to you, I know nothing of your path and should have considered that before I posed those questions...
Thank you for evoking so many thoughts and perspectives from others, as well.
Finally, if it is to be in our near future that we are forced to abort the use of our computers, it is my greatest hope that it will be because our minds and hearts will have indeed finally become connected and we can visit one another by mere thought alone and you would grant me a visit...
A further hope would be those horrible questions will also have ceased to exist and we can talk about wonderful things...
Pamela
This piece makes me wanna