There is such a thing as an enlightened asshole. Enlightenment does not suddenly make you not an asshole, not a narcissist, not subject to darkness. In fact, it can make you more so subject to and devoured by ‘the light’.
There is such a thing as violent positivity. Violent transcendence. Violent non-duality. Morality and enlightenment don’t go hand in hand. That’s a common misconception, a belief. One of the hardest to shake off and see through. Because enlightenment is so mesmerizing, it instigates a fawn response in almost everyone. Without discernment, self-trust, self-awareness and hard-earned experience, it’s easy to fall victim to the fawning, to the equating ‘the light’ with so many things that later don’t add up.
It’s easy to extradite your power to the outside world. To all the mesmerizing light beings living enlightenment in this world. A world that’s become a spiritual marketplace. It used to be that these things were rare, hard to find, not easy to come by. There used to be a central authority. But all that is falling apart, has fallen apart and the culture, economics and politics of the spiritual and mystical world is very much a thing. It’s a business, usually a “non-profit”. It’s a community with mostly people from this race or that. It’s a place that claims inclusion, oneness, unity. But it is too often separated from the ‘real world’.
The ‘real world’ is how spiritual people refer to the world and its complications and complexities. It’s like at a distance. A faux pas to speak of the inequalities and complexities of what it means to be in the ‘real world’. Only to a certain extent, depending on the teacher’s patience and blind spots. We can mention racism lightly, a la distance. We can speak of disparities sparingly; careful not to make the white majority uncomfortable and dysregulated in their oppressed and unexamined internal racism.
The ‘real world’ is an insinuation in quotes that Reality has nothing to do with what we call the ‘real world’. And there comes the split that a lot of spiritual teachers and communities create. And the subtle shaming. The problem with spirituality is that it is so easily hijacked. It’s so easily manipulated. It’s so easily used in a way that excuses a lot of bullshit. It can be bended, made to justify horrors, made to ignore horrors and the ‘real world’.
Having money troubles? That’s an abundance issue. Concerned about a genocide? That’s an acceptance issue. Calling out racism? That’s just hate. Calling out the teacher on something? That’s your projection.
Spirituality is political. It makes a difference where you find yourself on this earth as someone experiencing awakening or going through any sort of spiritual de-construction. That context matters. People from the so called “first world” often speak so openly, create a platform, make a community as easily and simply as they would create an instagram account, verify you’re human – ha ha! They change their names, become this whole other character – not knowing that all of these are privileges of being from and in the First World.
The first world gives them the impression that awakening is simple. It creates an arrogance that separates them from the rest of humanity even though they claim they’re not. It’s a real mind fuck. And if you’re someone who questions themselves and is sincere, you’ll find yourself questioning why what you’re seeing and what you’re hearing are not adding up.
You’ll find yourself muting your inner knowing, your own discernment to make it all make sense. Distrusting yourself, your cues as ‘ego’, my unhealed shit, my darkness that’s dimming everybody’s light. My teacher must be right. These people can’t be racist. This is just third world hate coming up. Let me go deal with that on my own and come back cleaned up and first world ready. Clean and racism free. So I can be one of the white light ones. I mean of the light.