Spiritual awakening
I was talking to a person whose life has been transformed by a serious commitment to using the 12-step program of narcotics anonymous. As is true for many others, prior to joining others in using the principles and steps of this program, his addictive thoughts and behavior wreaked havoc in his life and left him feeling alone and without hope.
Not everyone finds the framework of the NA program - the principles and the steps - works for them. The are many other frameworks which have proven effective. Some of them do not include having to face the pain of a concept of god which many have experienced as rejecting and punishing. All of them, however, challenge one to accept one’s interconnectedness with all other beings and with all of nature (creation/the universes). All of them require that one make an honest attempt to face and accept oneself as one is. From earliest writers such as Plato, prophets of various religions and later teachers/seekers of truth and meaning, the primary moral imperative is to know thyself. Knowing oneself requires honesty, humility and a sense of humor. I might suggest that a sense of humor may be the most important. It seems axiomatic that no other animal or being takes itself as seriously as do us humans. Some animals do, in fact, take their survival and, thus, their territory very seriously. Even trees and other plant life “naturally” communicate with and affect the life process around them. There is no evidence, however, that trues, plants or any other life forms, except humans, produce volumes of essays or treatises on the meaning of life or the moral imperatives which will allow one to attempt to fulfill that purpose. Us humans often go to great lengths to avoid knowing ourselves.
If one is very lucky, at some point one has what I refer to as a spiritual awakening. This is not a single happening, but a lifelong process of acceptance; acceptance that us humans are a tiny spec for the briefest of moments in the ongoing drama of the universes. Yet, we are each a necessary cast member even when our role seems to require no more than walk on moments. Even those seemingly insignificant roles demand that we be present and awake; that our focus be only on being in that role. In those moments we cannot be concerned with what we did yesterday or might do tomorrow; what another thinks of us; whether we are the most important or best dressed or reside in the largest castle.
A program for spiritual awakening such as the 12 step programs ends with step 12 which is paradoxically the beginning of step 1. Step 12, whether in the words of NA, one of the other 12 step program or the summary of one of Immanuel Kant volumes, states:
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
Both parts are essential. One can substitute all others for the term addicts. It indeed takes a village and the village is the universe(s). Each person, worm, insect, tree, plant, tribe, rock is a necessary part of the whole. We must accept all to the table. This requires that we do something which for many of us humans is an anathema - to suspend judgment of others - throw away that excel spread sheet on which we carefully track the comparative score of the shortcomings of all of us. Secondly, we must, being the humans that we are, continue to remind ourselves that we are powerless/not the center of the universe, connected to the whole, humbly take a moral inventory, admit when we are wrong, share with others and make amends when appropriate. In short, we have to continue to know ourselves, be honest, laugh often at our own insecurities and futile attempts to mask who we are, dance wildly in our outrageous consumes, and accept the humanness of ourselves and others in the role de jour we are assigned.
This is a daily and perhaps for many of us a minute-by-minute practice of getting to know and accepting ourselves - of having that spiritual awakening which delights in being a part of something which includes us but which is more than our sacred, insignificant, paradoxical selves.
Written May 7, 2021
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
I was talking to a person whose life has been transformed by a serious commitment to using the 12-step program of narcotics anonymous. As is true for many others, prior to joining others in using the principles and steps of this program, his addictive thoughts and behavior wreaked havoc in his life and left him feeling alone and without hope.
Not everyone finds the framework of the NA program - the principles and the steps - works for them. The are many other frameworks which have proven effective. Some of them do not include having to face the pain of a concept of god which many have experienced as rejecting and punishing. All of them, however, challenge one to accept one’s interconnectedness with all other beings and with all of nature (creation/the universes). All of them require that one make an honest attempt to face and accept oneself as one is. From earliest writers such as Plato, prophets of various religions and later teachers/seekers of truth and meaning, the primary moral imperative is to know thyself. Knowing oneself requires honesty, humility and a sense of humor. I might suggest that a sense of humor may be the most important. It seems axiomatic that no other animal or being takes itself as seriously as do us humans. Some animals do, in fact, take their survival and, thus, their territory very seriously. Even trees and other plant life “naturally” communicate with and affect the life process around them. There is no evidence, however, that trues, plants or any other life forms, except humans, produce volumes of essays or treatises on the meaning of life or the moral imperatives which will allow one to attempt to fulfill that purpose. Us humans often go to great lengths to avoid knowing ourselves.
If one is very lucky, at some point one has what I refer to as a spiritual awakening. This is not a single happening, but a lifelong process of acceptance; acceptance that us humans are a tiny spec for the briefest of moments in the ongoing drama of the universes. Yet, we are each a necessary cast member even when our role seems to require no more than walk on moments. Even those seemingly insignificant roles demand that we be present and awake; that our focus be only on being in that role. In those moments we cannot be concerned with what we did yesterday or might do tomorrow; what another thinks of us; whether we are the most important or best dressed or reside in the largest castle.
A program for spiritual awakening such as the 12 step programs ends with step 12 which is paradoxically the beginning of step 1. Step 12, whether in the words of NA, one of the other 12 step program or the summary of one of Immanuel Kant volumes, states:
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
Both parts are essential. One can substitute all others for the term addicts. It indeed takes a village and the village is the universe(s). Each person, worm, insect, tree, plant, tribe, rock is a necessary part of the whole. We must accept all to the table. This requires that we do something which for many of us humans is an anathema - to suspend judgment of others - throw away that excel spread sheet on which we carefully track the comparative score of the shortcomings of all of us. Secondly, we must, being the humans that we are, continue to remind ourselves that we are powerless/not the center of the universe, connected to the whole, humbly take a moral inventory, admit when we are wrong, share with others and make amends when appropriate. In short, we have to continue to know ourselves, be honest, laugh often at our own insecurities and futile attempts to mask who we are, dance wildly in our outrageous consumes, and accept the humanness of ourselves and others in the role de jour we are assigned.
This is a daily and perhaps for many of us a minute-by-minute practice of getting to know and accepting ourselves - of having that spiritual awakening which delights in being a part of something which includes us but which is more than our sacred, insignificant, paradoxical selves.
Written May 7, 2021
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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