Aiming for Centre (Part 2)

What should be undeniable is that when all of our more superficial identity characterisations are stripped back, there is a core to our human existence that endows each person with a natural worth, dignity and right to flourishing of their unique personhood. While the precise source of this sovereign value might be grounded differently depending on the observer’s ontological positioning, it is no doubt present to be an orienting consideration for how human beings should perceive and relate to one another. Elevating this recognition to the status of knowing, what fails to reach this moral standard of ‘capital T’ Truth are the limited and limiting beliefs that we hold about other individuals and groups of people, which can’t help but be generalised, reductionistic, and serving of our egocentric prejudices. While it may have escaped your attention, my use of the word ‘hold’ in the preceding sentence, presents an accurate description of how these beliefs are not of their nature primary or emergent from the deepest recesses of our being, but are instead received from external sources to construct and perpetuate a culture that is integrative of those beliefs.

Currently existing in a culture that is preoccupied with power structures and the want to dismantle them, we see the binary oppressor/oppressed narrative being simplistically applied to this conflict by those whose ideological biases have them identify with one set of victims at the expense of others and their suffering. Days after the initial attack and since Israel has launched its counter-offensive, I have been shocked to see so much of the blatantly opportunistic and self-serving support of Palestine by those who yearn to publicly appear virtuous by siding with the ‘oppressed’ in the conflict, despite Hamas having clearly provoked the attack, and the historical evidence (see the Holocaust) of the Jewish people being one of the most persecuted minorities to ever walk the planet. Such a schism in perceiving these events leads to both absurdities in rationalising actions and a callous disregard for the innocent civilians who have been directly affected by the fighting.

One of the first casualties of being too ideologically consumed is being able to demonstrate empathy for members of an ‘out-group’. For those who believe they must choose a side in a conflict such as this, they will be unwilling to feel for the other, lest it serves to detract from the sense of righteousness that validates their support for the actions that have wrought the other harm. One of the positives that come from being a centrist is the ability to keep the space open from which this empathy can be felt. Even in making the observations from the previous paragraph, I can find a level of appreciation for what might lead people to protest so vehemently in the streets for one side over the other, even if I don’t support their position. At the root of a lot of this re-activism is trauma of some kind, or the feeling of belonging to a group where ostracism or victimisation have been experienced. I think this explains some of the solidarity demonstrated by segments of the LGBTIQA+ community towards the Palestinian cause, despite the clearly negative view that Islamic doctrine has towards those who identify as members of that community, and how they would be treated if they lived in Gaza themselves.

There is no doubt also that many members of the current generation of Palestinians have been directly impacted by previous iterations of the conflict which has produced deep-seated resentments and even a blinding hate for the Jewish state and its people. Feeding the kinds of extremism that have led to a group like Hamas coming to power, that viciously negative sentiment seems to be never far from consciousness as each new version of the conflict rips open old wounds that have never been healed. Neither would Hamas ever allow those grievances to be forgotten or forgiven, for were they to do so, the very basis of their authority and legitimacy would be undermined in the eyes of the Palestinian people. With such distorting influences and incentives at play, the barriers to finding a way back to centre, and the peace it enables, are made all the more difficult to deconstruct. The progress that the human heart seeks to affect will always be opposed by a polarised ideology that isn’t served by a reorientation of its adherents towards reconciliation and the furtherance of the common good. Just as common sense is not all that common when we are ideologically compromised, so is the common good not all that desired when we occupy that ego-based positioning.  

Swept Out of a Rut (Part 2)

In his book, On Writing, renowned novelist Stephen King echoes this sentiment when he writes that he is convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. When we are consumed with fear in a creative context, we become timid and untrusting of what is moving through us, and the lack of receptiveness that this produces means that when inspiration comes knocking at the door of our being, we won’t be there to answer it. Whether we are just not present to listen to its call to permeate us, or have become an inhospitable host, the effect in creative terms will be the same, and our original voice will be muted.

For me, so much of my experience of writing is relational, and what I am always trying to ensure (even if I don’t always consciously articulate it as I am here) is that my relationship with my spirit and the work I am called to do is solid before I attempt to give words their form. This I have realised is why I meditate and pray every evening, along with dedicating time daily to reading and writing. Being committed acts of love for the source of my inspiration, it is what I give of myself to it that allows it to bear fruit in the enactment of my calling to write. Like the human relationships that we are involved in, if we don’t intentionally create the right conditions within ourselves that positively impact our ability to contribute to that union, then what we impart to it will be ineffectual at best and toxic at worst.

What we put in will inevitably shape what emerges from our creative efforts, and the consciousness from which we work will play a large role in this. If you are like me, and seek to actualise your spiritual gifts in service of the world, then that is not going to be accomplished if you can’t admonish the ego to the sidelines of your consciousness. This I recognised in my early twenties when I first started out on the path to self-improvement and learned about meditation and mindfulness techniques. After practicing these disciplines for some time, what I came to see in my own life was that what I was creating in form mirrored the state of consciousness that I was living from at the moment I moved to create them. Being admittedly very egocentric at that time of my life, what I was seeking to build was a life of accumulating material accruements and symbols that strengthened the false sense of self that was informed by my past learning and experiences. Not surprisingly, what I conceived at that time was not particularly novel or meaningful, and the resemblance that it bore was to the status quo markers that effectively made me a clone of who others told me I should be. From this, I would come to learn firsthand why expectations are so stifling if we choose to unconsciously subscribe to them.

The turning point on this journey was the breaking through to presence that meditation and mindfulness facilitated. In that gap of awareness which the stilling of my mind created, what emerged was a potential for thought that was qualitatively different to what I had experienced before. Where my thoughts prior were essentially composed of stories that I had told myself about the past playing on repeat, which were reinforcing my distorted perceptions of myself and the world, the new thoughts that started to come forth were not bound in this way. Having an emergent quality to them that allowed me to know and create myself anew through the power of intentionality, this was made possible by the opening of my mind to the reality of life as it was unfolding in the moment I was experiencing it. Through this process, I came to connect with a deeper form of truth that the mind can know but does not of itself create. But one example of this wisdom is the realization that in each moment we encounter a world that takes a form which has never before existed in our past history, and try as we might to return to how things were, this will never be possible because life is continually evolving to take on a different rhythm and quality.   

Since speaking to many other people of this experience, and hearing of their similar stories of coming to co-create their lives with spirit, I am convinced that each of us can take conscious steps to become more original in how we relate to the world by returning to our spiritual origin. However it is that we choose to conceive of God or the universal life force, I don’t think that the creative capacity of this source can be questioned. Without it, there is no capacity for being, in the form of you, I and the environment, and no opportunity for us, the created, to express this inherited quality in innovative ways.