In light of all of the discussions about
depression that are occurring this week since Robin Williams' tragic
suicide, I want to add an element that I feel is missing from the
discussion. In our society, whenever any of us struggles with some
kind of attachment, addiction or persistent emotional issue, we almost
invariably believe the problem is completely OURS. We think that it is
OUR depression or anger or lust or fear, or whatever. But what if we
were to realize instead that the thing we call our "self" with its
problems is actually a set of relationships within a wider web, a
relationship with Life itself? What if our problem is actually a
mirroring of LIFE's problem, and what if we are called gently to help
Life with ITS anger, lust, confusion or depression? Sufi teacher
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee puts it this way:
"Just as the individual can forget her true nature and real purpose, as many of us have painfully experienced, so can life itself forget. Life is an interdependent living organism that reflects the collective consciousness of humanity. As humanity has become obsessed with materialism and forgotten the sacred nature of life, so has life forgotten its own sacred nature, its primal purpose of divine revelation. We need to redeem this desecration, give back to the world an awareness of its divine nature. This is the work of the mystic. The mystic, the spiritual seeker, belongs to the core of life, to the mystery of life's revelation. We carry within our spiritual centers the secrets of life, and we know the deep joy in recognizing life's need for what is real, what has been hidden within the heart. Part of our purpose is to give these secrets back to life: to help life become aware of its true nature." Indeed, "The first step on the spiritual path is to recognize that it is not about 'me' . . . The WORLD needs our help in order to evolve. We are midwives to a new awakening of the earth that is taking place NOW."
I firmly believe that the depression and confusion we feel so persistently in our time is actually the depression and confusion that Life Itself - or what Renaissance thinkers called "The World Soul" - is experiencing because Its ability to become self-conscious within the human mind and heart has been severely deformed through humanity's reciprocal self-forgetfulness. If we began to realize that this World Soul desperately NEEDS us to throw off Its forgetfulness and to remember who It is, would a large measure of our depression - formed through a sense of seeming isolation and alienation - begin to be healed? It is certainly an insight well worth exploring.
Photo: Sunrise on Crater Lake, with a Limber Pine in the foreground; Crater Lake National Park, OR; July 28, 2014
"Just as the individual can forget her true nature and real purpose, as many of us have painfully experienced, so can life itself forget. Life is an interdependent living organism that reflects the collective consciousness of humanity. As humanity has become obsessed with materialism and forgotten the sacred nature of life, so has life forgotten its own sacred nature, its primal purpose of divine revelation. We need to redeem this desecration, give back to the world an awareness of its divine nature. This is the work of the mystic. The mystic, the spiritual seeker, belongs to the core of life, to the mystery of life's revelation. We carry within our spiritual centers the secrets of life, and we know the deep joy in recognizing life's need for what is real, what has been hidden within the heart. Part of our purpose is to give these secrets back to life: to help life become aware of its true nature." Indeed, "The first step on the spiritual path is to recognize that it is not about 'me' . . . The WORLD needs our help in order to evolve. We are midwives to a new awakening of the earth that is taking place NOW."
I firmly believe that the depression and confusion we feel so persistently in our time is actually the depression and confusion that Life Itself - or what Renaissance thinkers called "The World Soul" - is experiencing because Its ability to become self-conscious within the human mind and heart has been severely deformed through humanity's reciprocal self-forgetfulness. If we began to realize that this World Soul desperately NEEDS us to throw off Its forgetfulness and to remember who It is, would a large measure of our depression - formed through a sense of seeming isolation and alienation - begin to be healed? It is certainly an insight well worth exploring.
Photo: Sunrise on Crater Lake, with a Limber Pine in the foreground; Crater Lake National Park, OR; July 28, 2014
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