From the beginning of human civilization, spiritual schools have addressed a fundamental human need. The addressing of the existential angst at the core of the psyche. Each path may talk in a different language and have different values/ideals but the core purpose remains the same. To provide understanding and a framework that allows society to understand themselves and the angst that drives them to escapist behaviour. Escapism into some idyllic future, overwork, entertainment, drugs/alcohol/gambling, romance, sex, knowledge, possession and so on and so forth. And to reverse this tendency to run away from ourselves and instead look at this angst and the purpose it serves!
Core angst can manifest in many different ways as psychological or physical health issues when suppressed. And this is why so many experience great relief and release when they are guided back onto their True Self, the place deeper than the angst…. that disturbance at the center of what we call the psyche or the mind. When from this place of Soul Consciousness, the angst is *seen* to be an object within me and not who I am, there is an immediate release that happens, an awakening from the dread of psyche!
However, for most this seeing will not result in abiding awakening, abiding release from the core angst of the psyche. There will need to be repeated and systematic effort to stay with this Seeing. This process can be turbulent or smooth, short or long depending on each individual’s neurological and psychological makeup. And this is the service any true spiritual school provides.
This service may take different directions (such as into social service and humanitarian causes) or stay focussed on resolving the primary issue, the realisation of the True Self for freedom from the core angst. This does not matter. The direction the school takes is a function of the personality of the teacher and the need of his sangha!
But ultimately, what I and my team, or any other genuine school large or small is trying to do, is provide a much needed service that allows those who seek our help to develop a toolkit that allows them to systematically work on understanding who they truly are, gain distance and healing from the core angst and ultimately design a relationship with the material world that is nourishing and enables them to live a purposeful life!
While the primary aim of any spiritual teacher is to bring enlightenment to the public, the developing of healing frameworks is a necessary adjunct to this aim! Especially since not many find the need to dedicate the resources necessary to arrive at enlightenment. And all most seek is a relief from the angst.
But in the process of serving this societal need, the spiritual school should not lose sight of its purpose and become another expression of that core angst. It NEEDS to be an expression of the Pure Self and not turn into a product of the anxieties and insecurities of the common man.
How many schools have lost sight of the core purpose they serve? How many teachers have fallen prey to the allure of societal recognition, power and wealth? How many genuine schools have gotten corrupted after the death of a genuine teacher? How many wars have we fought in the name of “my way”?
For the spiritual schools of this century, a century of abundance and material fulfilment, a core task becomes the development of monitoring systems that ensure that it is protecting it core purpose and its programs are not pandering to the core angst. And that material concerns for its own survival and that of its sangha/community/believers don’t override the actual purpose it serves. And for this there needs to be an active disassembling of group think and cultish behaviour within its own ranks. To follow the path of self-work, without identifying the ego with it.
As a spiritual community, we have really fucked up! Totally ballsed it all up. By losing track of what it is we set out to do in the first place and instead making ourselves into something Woke and exclusive. By developing alien lifestyles and languages and alternate views of reality that don’t address the core angst. But instead perpetuate it in a different form.
Alienating those who don’t believe in what we do or have a different approach to the resolution of this core angst.
We need to realign with why we got onto this path in the first place. To heal that angst at the core of our being. Not to become something special or to make our chosen path into something unique, an exclusive club with its own membership rules! Our need to be special, unique, exclusive is just a manifestation of an unresolved angst.
Let us see this clearly.
I am tired… but I can start over! Letting go of anything that makes me special. And instead honestly and directly looking at myself, the core angst and its manifestation within me and within others… with universal compassion!
Lets all start over… join me, will you!