Authoritarianism, Dogma, Karma, and Coming Home (to Indigenous Space)
Authority and Dogma
To do what FEELS right and to encourage that in others is extremely empowering dictum or affirmation for any individual (a necessary step to start taking responsibility as a truly mature adult). This is a necessary step in approaching "Real "Freedom". Otherwise we are like the perpetual student who always looks outside of "self", to others, and "believes in" what they are warned against, rather than learning how to check things out through their own experience by their self. Although the former may appear safe, it is based on the childlike assumption that someone knows better and has our best interest at heart. This may be true for an infant, but it will not hold true for a mature adult who is capable of freedom.
Authoritarianism feeds off of fear and disempowerment and its disempowering and dissociating psychological imprinting can scar and maim at an early age. Dictators, totalitarian regimes, power freaks, exploiters, and those obsessed with greed and control feed off of such early wounds and manipulate people's fears and desires. They depend upon tactics of exploitation, confusion, dissuasion, and disempowerment to support them and without this psychological malaise as base to support them, they could not exist. These are the dispossessed -- those who live in alien land and promote their own suffering as well as that for others. For such, life is defined as cruel, as lacking, as strife ridden, competitive, and mean while such is the definition of a self created hell.
Thus Erich Fromm, says in "Escape from Freedom" that for too many humans, the task of thinking for oneself is wrought with an unbearable burden, fear, and pain usually contracted in early childhood and then repeated in this self styled prison (of their own mindset) through out the rest of their life. Too often one's whole life is built around this fear and denial, this escape from freedom. It becomes a familiar point of reference (albeit full of angst) so that one feels a strange comfort in the knowableness and recognition of it. Of course it is reassuring for a youngster, not to worry about their survival or necessities and delegate that over to the parent, the health to a doctor, the schooling to a teacher, the politics to a king, and so forth. That creates a "neat" and orderly world, an external structure that is known, but it is an ersatz world, i.e., it is not authentic.
Erich Fromm thus was absolutely correct in his book, "Escape from Freedom", but he did not go deep enough into the nature of this fear and how it is programmed, or how police states, totalitarian societies, demagogues, and mass hysteria are created out of this broth. However, Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian Jew, psychiatrist, and student of Freud's, in his book, the "Mass Psychology of Fascism", actually went much further in tracing in great detail this misplaced trust in external authority, to family authoritarianism, and patriarchy in general. Thus many people crave externally imposed structure, external discipline, order, and external symbolic meaning over that of direct experience, because they are afraid to feel (-- they contain within themselves an inner pain or trauma which is yet unresolved, which haunts them, and from which they are desperately trying to escape, but they are not willing to let go of the pain (cathart) mainly because they have become accustomed and even identified with it to a point that it may seem threatening to "self" to let go.
Thus the extent of one's embrace and hold onto this ersatz and neurotic external authority and order manifests in direct opposition proportionally to the severity of the split from the true or authentic Self -- what we call in yoga the big Self or connected Self-- proportional to the inner void or absence, feelings of scarcity, emptiness, longing, craving, pain and fear, lack of self worth, lack of meaning, and so forth. Thus the answer in a broad context is simple, i.e., simply restore one's contact with innate indigenous space and the neurotic cravings and fears will disappear. Put in another way, all one needs is to shift ontologies, from the contrived imposition of manmade constructs and boundaries into indigenous and organic beingness i.e., where the delight of beingness and sacred presence are allowed to co-exist, but how to effectively do this may not appear simple at first.
Karma
The process first requires that we recognize and affirm that there is a cause to this state of alienation, corruption,
despair, and bitterness, and somewhere there exists the sweet grass, the path back into indigenous space -- home.
In other words that there is a cause and an effect and these can be changed. This in the East is called the laws
of karma. They are not fixed, but rather by understanding karma, we can alter it (and thus become free from the
past negative effects as well as generate positive effects).
Freedom - The End of Karma and Dogma
In this regard thus it may be helpful to acknowledge that there exist many different kinds of freedom (only one of them is not an escape -- Ultimate Freedom). For example in yoga we are not talking about accepting big brother, parents, a guru, external authority, an old book, or otherwise having some one else do our thinking for us, but rather the opposite. That is not freedom, but rather slavery (it is an escape from freedom). Indeed freedom FROM anything is actually fear based, relative, and/or escapist. Here all we need to do is to affirm where we are going and head toward it. If this is done at once -- in the simultaneous and synchronistic context of the Moment, of indigenous space, then sacred presence can enter into life.
So in yoga (joining) we are not talking about exclusion or the freedom FROM
something, but rather The Great All Inclusiveness. This is inherent in the authentic definition of Yoga (which
is boundless and defies definition by words).
So in yoga we talk about mukti which means ultimate freedom and true happiness (ananda). It includes freedom from
the bonds of karma (karma is what limits us and holds us back in the conditioned present moment (versus the True
Present) due to past associations and actions. . First one must believe and recognize that there is a cause to
every effect or at least entertain that possibility. This means that our present unenlightened state of suffering
is due to specific causes of negative conditioning, habitual false identifications, illusions, confusions, or simply
put ignorance
(avidya). This is what is called karma (the unerring law of cause and effect). Yoga practices are thus designed
not to escape karma nor to accept karma, but rather to remedy/remove its bonds.
Again it is necessary to first recognize this cause and effect (karma) which drives the relative world in order
to do something about it effectively (called sadhana), then we find freedom. We see it, notice it, face it, honor
it, but no longer run from it.
Again it is valuable to reiterate that in the authentic yoga sense, to investigate
karma does NOT mean to accept fate, but rather the opposite; to be able to know what causes our own state of dis-connection
and suffering on one hand, and then to make effective changes (upaya) in order to functionally throw off the negative
conditioning, suffering, falsities, obscurations, and veil and thus move into what is called truth, reality, or
liberation (sat chit ananda). At least this is the basic general principle which authentic yoga is based upon and
seems to have held up over time to the present. Now what these EFFECTIVE practices may be for each individual --
now that may vary depending on one's conditioning, experience, constitution, and genetics (karma) -- their society,
time, and circumstances. This is where inner wisdom and feelings of the heart become requisite -- they must be
re-membered.
So although we repeat ourselves (it is often necessary) karma does not mean acceptance of fate or destiny unless
one advocates one accept one's karma passively. The yogi however does the opposite, i.e., first he/she investigates
the nature of his/her own existence, and recognizes that karma exists, and then through sadhana (practice) attempts
to remedy it. When a non-yogi says, "that is your karma" they are saying the opposite i.e., they are
saying there is nothing you can do -- that this is your fate and destiny. A yogi never says that because their
task is liberation from all bondage -- total liberation (called moksha).
The more disempowered, self alienated and spiritually estranged we become from our core energy and inner wisdom (gnosis) the more we feel that we need others (read gurus, surrogate parents, dictators, aristocrats, state bureaucrats, police, priests, and the like) to tell us what to do, what, not to do, what is safe, right, or good, on one hand and what is not-- what is dangerous, taboo, or evil. This neurotic state of programmed self estrangement makes one vulnerable to ersatz salesmanship, consumerism, further exploitation, manipulation, demagoguery, bigotry, and in the end increased bondage, negative karma, and suffering. Yoga offers a way where this chain of events can be broken asunder.
Indigenous Space
The assumption of authentic yoga is that we are not able to work on this freedom without a body, without creation, without a relationship with form. Indeed we are not even able to know creator without it as her form reveals his, just as he reveals her. The challenge is not in death, or in a walking death -- in escape or numbness --ways which any weak or cowardly adult may choose, but rather the authentic way is to accept our birth and continue the exploration of the great mother here, learning her nature and ours at once -- learning what it means to co-evolve with her for millions of years in sacred presence and then as a human form honor our true mother/father. We must wake up and throw off the burden that was placed upon us and no longer bear it for the oppressor. We must honor life, and the earth, creation, and creator in our own life and breath and act in accordance with our Hearts. This is teh authentic way of the Ongwhehonwhe - the Real People
This is why coming into our own intuition (inner wisdom), instinct, and core energy is a way of coming home, of reclaiming indigenous life positive and earth positive space- the way we honor creator, by honoring his/her creation as a further extension of our own innate but often dormant evolutionary potential (latent and inhibited creative powers). This is called by many names, but in yoga it is called awakening the kundalini. By revealing, honoring, acknowledging, and respecting this self instructing sacred presence and teaching in our daily lives, further affirms it and magnifies it to both ourselves and to others. It becomes an increasing part of our reality -- who we are- and as our reality we make a small ripple on the ocean of human consciousness which can have positive repercussions in all areas of human activity, social, cultural, agricultural/food management, ecological, educational, political, energy, shelter, and health care systems in which we engage.
If these vital systems are working for us in daily life to enrich us, to create abundance, and free our ties to necessity, then it is up to us to take control of our situation and make them work or else we will suffer the consequences thereof. All together now.
Thus the above is all about coming home into indigenous space -- with all our relations. This is coming home into a wholistic "inter-connected" FEELING of fullness, not about numbing out our pain with alcohol, drugs, food, or escapism. Here we re-enter the sacred space of Nature and Living Spirit and taste its cool waters. This is our natural home that completes us. It is only Here (in Scared presence). This is the authentic way that feels real good -- that brings blessings -- The authentic way of the Ongwhehonwhe -- the Real People.
Emaho -- It is sacred!
Turkey Day Following 911 -- The Second Assault on America -- the Assault on Freedom from Within
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