It IS For The Likes Of Us!
When a child, my beautiful grandmother, born of a working-class family in the industrial heartlands of Britain and now peacefully passed for many years, visited Buckingham Palace in London with my family. As we drove past, she gazed at the building and commented out loud, "It's not for the likes of us". I will never forget it. Remembering this now, the thought occurs how different the world would be if everyone experienced themselves as socially equal to everybody else whilst deeply respecting everyone's individuality.
A further thought occurs that this experience would naturally arise if there were a common understanding that all individuals are born of the same source of consciousness, which is viewed as the primary source of all life. Conversely, inequality seems to be the inevitable outcome of believing in the primacy of matter. In this latter mindset, there is no underlying common principle; the emphasis can only be on intellectual and physical differences and unifying around these as best as possible. Inevitably groups form very much centred on similarity rather than diversity. Even when, for those that seek, there is a realisation of being a Universal and not a personal being, such cultural conditioning runs deep.
There is an ongoing need to de-program this conditioning as it arises. This, along with all other conditioning, that occurs on behalf of a self that is defined materialistically. This de-programming is empowered by the initial realisation that we are already essentially free. This may be why, in ages gone by, the teaching of so-called non-duality, or spiritual awakening, was seen as a social threat. Jesus comes to mind, among many. It seems the understanding of the primacy of consciousness is the ultimate equality. An equality that does not suppress but celebrates individuality, not in an egoic way to make people feel better about themselves, but as a natural expression of the inner happiness they have found.
For this reason, the teachings of the primacy of Universal consciousness and each individual's capacity to directly realise this is what they are, without intermediaries, will always be profoundly radical psychologically and sociologically. Those who follow this path willingly undergo the adventure of de-programming their conditioned minds from a position of courage, honesty, self-compassion, forgiveness and love. This is the inner revolution of which so many spiritual movements talk about. When the conditioning of material personhood arises in all its forms, they will courageously face it, welcome its shadowing form and patiently dissolve it in their love, releasing yet more positive energy into the moment. This is why the understanding and experience of Universal consciousness is the ultimate social philosophy, and one cannot help musing what a different world could exist. The energy to express individuality would, the thought occurs, be oppositive of the 'opium of the masses' teaching passivity in the face of social oppression. It would be the antidote to such social passivity as individuals everywhere could naturally flourish to the best of their ability, free of the fear of inadequacy and existential dread.
Love
Freyja
