Written by Mathew Naismith
As I most often do, before I start writing
about a particular subject, I try to research in material that is on a subject
that I am about to write about. I also rely on actual experiences either it being
my own and/or someone else's.
The following material I came across in my
research is as follow. The external material I have presented here is worth
reading through, even if you come to sections you don't agree with.
Extract: What is wrong with modern man – and woman? Particularly in
the West, we are constantly dissatisfied, striving, looking for more, whether
it is consumer goods, fame, fortune, power, a longer lifespan or spiritual
kicks. As Anne Wilson Schaef (1987) has pointed out, we are living in an
addictive society. Morris Berman is a cultural historian who has attempted to
make sense of our malaise in a remarkable trilogy about the evolution of
Western consciousness.
The person accepts the world as it
presents itself, including the split between Self and World. Spirit is not
separate, but is immanent within the world: it is ‘the smell of the forest
after rain, the warm blood of the deer’ (ibid:11). In this way of being, the
secular is the sacred.
And yet, I don’t share Berman’s disquiet
about out-of-body experiences or altered states of consciousness. Can we not
work against some of the unacceptable faces of the ascent model of consciousness
while retaining transcendent religion? If I was graced with the experience of
ecstatic fusion with God, I certainly wouldn’t say no. At the same time, I have
got the message from Berman that it is time to stop searching above, behind and
beyond and value what is here.
Actual Experience: After watching most of the
James Bond (007) movies, as I have found
in just about all media, sensationalism is becoming more and more extreme. The
violence and brutality within the James Bond movies escalated, nothing was left
to the imagination. This reminds me of the Roman arenas, where violence and
brutality escalated over many years to the point of outright butchery. The
senses of the people needed to be entertained to a greater extent each time,
are we any different today?
Yes,
we deceive ourselves more, people are not being brutalised in the movies
therefore the media today is nothing like the Roman arenas!! This is after
knowing that just about all the brutality that is depicted in the media today
has and is occurring, most often to a greater degree than what is depicted in
the media. Think of it like this, if you hear that people are being tortured in
a certain way or children are being used a sex slaves, it's like a fungus, what
you see growing above ground is nothing like what is bellow the ground.
Has,
what I call the feel good industry, escalated to this point that we need to be
entertained and/or made to feel good in some way on other people's suffering?
If it doesn't tantalise our senses or makes us feel good it's negative!!
It
is obvious to people like me that we don't want to sacrifice our security in
feeling good. Any truth that threatens this is often simply judged as a
negative, therefore subsequently ignored, or accepted as being an everyday part
of life and ignored.
So
what do we do to secure our feel good tantalisations? Create more media
sensualism and/or create ideologies that ignore the negatives, like child abuse
and torture, to feel good on a more regular basis. Being excessively positive
takes ignoring the negatives, of course like the media and the Roman arenas, we
need our senses tantalised more and more. It gets to the point that anything
that doesn't tantalise our senses is judged as a negative.
So
what are we manifesting? Materialism is manifesting what ideologies like love
and light are manifesting, more suffering, not less. Think of it like this, what occurs when your child's disrespectful and
rude behaviour is ignored? The act of ignoring this kind of behaviour just to
feel good manifests worse behaviour, are we any different on a collective
scale? There are a number of Western ideologies that are quite obvious in
how unaware they are in what they are actually manifesting within their own
actions and inactions.
As
the inserted article implies, we are separating one from the other to simply
tantalise our senses more and more. Separating the negatives, like what doesn't
tantalise our senses, and judging them negative to just feel good is the
deliberate act of splitting consciousness into what does and doesn't tantalise
our senses. We then deceptively talk about being of oneness and unconditional
love in the West!!
However,
what seems to be occurring is that a number of people are awakening to what we
are doing on a collective scale by observing what is presently occurring, of
course this does take a lot of self-honesty and honest self-observation. It is wise to look at the collective
consciousness as the self, no matter how many parts this consciousness desires
to split itself into just to feel good.
What
would occur in my own relationship with my wife if I demanded that my wife
makes me feel good on a regular basis? Probably the same with what occurs in a
number of failed and/or discordant relationships!! If you have to use external
sources to feel good, what does this say about the way you are leading your
life? Look at the collective consciousness in the same way as personal
relationship is my advice. The relationship isn't there to just make you feel
good is it? Neither is the collective consciousness or existence as a whole, of
course there are some people who demand that their relationships fulfil their
desires to feel good on a regular basis, as they do media, the modern day Roman
arena. It's simply a gift when a relationship makes you feel good, abusing this
relationship in demanding more and more from this relationship is only going to
end up creating more suffering, not less, as is being observed at present.
It
is wise in life not to expect your immediate environment to be just there to
fulfil your pleasurable desires on a constant basis. Think of it like love,
love is not present to make you feel good, feeling good from love is a special
gift that love can often create at times.......
