Home
Doors
Essays2007
Essays2008
Essays2009
Essays2010
Wisdom
Gallery
Links
Bios
Contact
|
..:: Materialism ::..
By
Alan Schneider
As I write this, I seem to be surrounded by a dense condition that
more or less defines my capacities to act. I cannot, for example, rise
out of my chair and float about the room – I seem to be dependent on an
extended set of consistent capabilities that I have come to know as “my
body” to achieve surface locomotion from location to location. This body
has, to my knowledge, always been with me – I cannot recall a time when
it has not informed me of its presence through the action of my senses.
And my body, in turn, seems to be spatially located in a much more
extensive condition that I have come to regard as “the world”, or “the
universe”, or “external reality”. It is this additional condition that I
must navigate through, and come to terms with, for the sake of my
ongoing existence – or so I believe, at any rate! If I do not eat, I
become notably uncomfortable; if I do not seek shelter, I suffer through
exposure to the elements (and the derision of my fellow creatures); if I
do not participate in my culture of origin, I am cast out by the others
around me who do – perhaps violently, and even fatally. All of these are
consequences of my involvement with the “dense conditions” that I seem
to be surrounded with, and, most significantly, this involvement seems
to be arbitrary and inflexible in the extreme – it has, for all
appearances, been thrust upon me without the least regard for my
personal concerns or wishes or preferences. It is what I have come to
accept as “life” – my life – the specific personal existence that
belongs to my body and my circumstances. Perhaps the overarching fact of
this condition is that I am effectively isolated in and by my life and
body – others seem to have similar conditions that they are involved
with, but I do not experience their states directly. I only directly
experience my condition through the action of my senses and my
interpretation of what those senses tell me about, first, my world, and
then the extended world beyond my direct control, but not beyond my
perception. A most un-free condition...material, dense form!
I may be
fortunate enough to attain the realization that this frequently
oppressive experience of materialism is only one of a set of perceptions
that compose my total consciousness – the expanded field of all that I
know and am aware of. Although I may find myself compelled to pay homage
to materialism as the price of ongoing existence, I will also have come
to a certain understanding, based on the deep study of that very state
of experience, that there is much more to the total picture of
consciousness than my evident material manifestation. There appear to be
many additional expressions of conscious awareness, in fact entire
hierarchies and worlds of such awareness, attainable to my perception
through the application of the correct techniques, such as meditation,
for example. As an intelligent, aware, and responsible man, I have
established and continued the process of moving my life and lifestyle
into compatible orientation with the most positive aspects of existence
which I have been able to identify. It goes without saying that devotion
to materialism is not one of those aspects. Devotion to God and higher
consciousness are...
Now, this brings me to a most interesting paradox, perhaps the central
paradox, of existence – the growth paradox. Essentially, we can only
experience legitimate spiritual growth by allowing the process to
manifest in our consciousness. The personal, ego-level choices that we
certify in daily life may have little or nothing to do with this deep
growth process, and frequently may even obstruct it! The ego is heavily
influenced by subjective desire, a condition identified as the bain of
consciousness development across the millennia of history by all of the
Great Seers. This is the condition of apparent separation from objects
of gratification, and is essentially fallacious, because it portrays
consciousness as composed of subjects – the perceivers of experience –
and objects – the goals of experience, when the ultimate truth is that
no such distinction exists – we are all simultaneously both subject and
object, and beyond both states, occurring in the Consciousness of God.
In his excellent book on the evolution of consciousness, entitled A
Brief History of Everything, Ken Wilber refers to this level of
perception as “nondual” manifestation, and suggests that it is the
highest possible state of awareness humanly attainable, one
characterized by the merging of subject and object into that same
unified Consciousness. Hinduism refers to this level of being as
“The Dance of Shiva” – a “dance” of manifestation that continuously
creates and destroys all other forms of perception, including the
material form and the physical body. And without my body, what
becomes of all of my myriad desires, of all the objects and conditions
“I” thought were needed to experience “happiness”? Is it not clearly
better to seek God as the Source of lasting fulfillment, than to pursue
the transitory little gratifications of the material condition that
always come and go, and leave us empty in the final analysis?
It can, and does, take a long, long time to learn about the error of
desire, and of acting upon desire as the motivation in living. Why? In a
word, because I cannot desire my way out of the condition of desire,
even if that condition becomes apparent as one of life’s most
aggravating deceptions. This attempt simply becomes another level of
desire! Nor can I use desire to promote authentic growth in either the
physical or spiritual context. All I can do is permit growth in those
areas to occur. No amount of spiritual motivation to achieve anything –
any state of higher consciousness, any level of beatific grace, any
level of ascension – will have the slightest effect on this process – it
simply proceeds at its own pace in Shiva’s Dance of Life regardless of
any other factors. Once inner awareness of the spiritual growth process
is awakened, that awareness will simply continue. Perhaps the only thing
that serves to augment this process is the maintenance of a certain
level of good will toward others in this life. The practice of yoga may
be helpful as well, with the precautionary observation that all postural
yoga works with the body, and what works with the body inevitably tends
to aggrandize the ego in the process, an ego that is, above all things,
the custodian of the body as our material anchor in the material
illusion. Once again, we are left with patient acceptance of our
apparent entrapment in our material condition, accompanied by
simultaneous experimentation with the states of higher realization that
we may be able to attain, as the real measure of legitimate spiritual
attainment. Those who yield to their impatience and attempt to force the
process forward inevitably find themselves retracing their steps back to
the starting point upon being confronted with one of the countless
numbers of moral and philosophical dead ends in God’s endless labyrinth!
I am frequently
amazed by the multitude of zealots that I encounter in the world who
throw themselves into any number of spiritual philosophies with utter
abandon, and without the slightest understanding that we can only
release, not compel, ourselves into authentic spiritual growth. No
matter how lonely, frustrating, or discouraging the quest for higher
consciousness and divine guidance may become, we must remain patient
with the development process manifesting at the natural pace at which it
occurs. To paraphrase the title of Barry Stevens’ inspirational book on
personal growth – Don’t Push the River! This is the single most
important and empowering lesson that we can learn as egos confronted
with materialism, the body, and sensory experience.
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2007, Alan Schneider)
Return to Top
|