We all function in a culture of our own, formed by fate, timing, luck, accident, and environment. But we land here, after navigating/muddling through our developmental experiences. For the rest of our lives, we are in a Cult of One—the personality. In this cult, we cling to dogma, judgement, rules, expectations, rituals, and beliefs.
I was sharing these thoughts with a friend, and he agreed. But before we knew it, we were arguing the age-old debate to which we often return. His view of “spirituality,” a word disdained by him for lacking precision, is science-based. He presents a succinct argument about an ancient explosion of matter and the resulting shared basic building blocks of all things on earth, be it a person, flower, fish, etc. I’m probably not presenting this accurately, being ignorant of explosions of matter and all. He says it as a matter of fact: We are the same. All One. I agree that it’s fact but argue that's only part of the story. Then we go round and round, until we're both utterly bored.
I’ve been chewing on this conversation, preparing my thesis for our next visit. Here it is.
Fine, we all have the same basic building blocks of life. So what? If we’re existing in a one-person cult, in which our personalities confuse, misinform, separate, and even enslave us, what good is it if we're the same as a flower or fish?
Oneness can be experienced through quiet, and many other spiritual (excuse the word) practices. In the absence of the noise, drama, and excitement of the personality, there is much more. And much less.
Words are inadequate to describe what lies in the personality-free zone. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali described yoga as the uniting of the known and the Knower, the seen and the Seer.
Lao Tzu distinguished “the named and the nameless” in the Tao Te Ching. The personality and all our self-identification are the named, while the nameless is…nameless. It's the absence of personality and everything else.
In verse 11, Lao Tzu explained “Wu,” or emptiness, nothingness. He described how a cup may be molded to a shape, but it’s useless without the space within it. A house is useless without the space of a door to enter it. To continue to the point, if we think about music, it’s the quiet between the notes that brings it to life. And the use of space in visual art determines the quality and essence of the work.
Genius requires space, and the void feels like Wisdom. It has accompanied us through every moment of our lives. It witnessed every bit. It knows us better than we know ourselves, without the burden and distortion of that pesky personality. It knows what is best for us and the world, while never, ever judging us or the world. It allows us to fully master ourselves with courage and confidence, because it’s fearless.
By operating without connection to the nameless, the Seer, the Knower, we are at a disadvantage. Each of us is the Supreme Leader of the cult, whether we know it or not, and whether we assume the responsibility or defer it to someone else or no one, or random life circumstances.
Enthralled by the cult and consumed with the personality, we miss out on our full potential. We are impotent when stuck in reaction mode, without the power to control even ourselves. We are inauthentic as we support a partial person and a partial life experience. We are anxious in our vague sense of incompleteness. We are ignorant and exhausted as we work constantly to promote a mask, a charade. We are disconnected from ourselves and others, and from flowers and fishes. We are enslaved by layers of false stories of who and what we are.
“Be really whole and all things will come to you, Lao Tzu wrote.
To be really whole and receive all things, we must unite the vessel and the void.
Wonder if my friend will go for this. Probably not. But it's really for me.
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