Spiritual Lessons of Iraq

The urgent talk these days is “what to do about Iraq?” and “what to do about the Middle East: Iran, Israel/Palestine, Islamic terrorists?” And then there is North Korea. Everyone has an opinion. Like maggots on dead meat, plans proliferate as to how this country and the West can shape the rest of the world and bring it into “modernity, freedom, democracy and economic prosperity.” But do we really know what to do? Do we really know what to do– even for ourselves? Or, are we the blind trying to lead the deaf? Or maybe the other way around.

A person who has been through the fire of transformation sees all this as quite futile. Such a person knows there is something else at work in these conflicts and dilemmas. There is an spiritual evolutionary process underway, a process that shapes all sides, not just “them.” It is a process that is intrinsic to life and one guided by Divine Consciousness, a Consciousness acting not from “outside,” but from within us and amongst us, bringing all of us to fulfillment of our potential and our purpose in living in human form. (Physical evolution, the Darwinian kind, is just a limited aspect of this larger evolutionary process.)

It is because we are ignorant of this deeper process of becoming that we feel we must “do” something, to “make things happen.” We can be “born again,” profess submission to Allah, or have any other self-image of piety or expertise, but if we don’t know and trust this deeper work of Consciousness we are deluding our self and merely serving our own ego when we try to “fix” the world. If, on the other hand, we are dedicated secularists, smugly superior to this “religious nonsense,” believing solely in reason and the human capacity to problem solve, we too are impeding alignment with the solution that is already underway. (Human ingenuity has a place, but not as “captain of the ship.”)

Where is the Evolutionary Process taking us? I can’t say in any ultimate sense. I think we cannot even imagine the complete journey. But I do have a sense of the learning we need to accomplish in our time on planet earth and how our present dilemmas relate to that task. One lesson is certainly to recognize and abandon our tendency to act from ego. This shift is probably not going to happen to the world at large, or even our whole society, but it can and will occur with individuals. If there are enough of us, the ethos of the world will change sufficiently so we will collectively pull back from the brink. If not, well…the fire next time.

And this too can be part of the journey. Apocalyptic scenarios occur throughout the mythologies of the world, not just in the Bible. The cosmos is replete with exploding stars, empires rise and fall, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions hit without warning, wars wreck havoc. Violence and cataclysm are woven through the tapestry of the universe. Will you be a victim or a student… or maybe even an adept?

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” as Mary Oliver put it. (in “The Summer Day” from House of Light)

Back to my earlier point. If not ego, then what? That is the point: there is an alternative. But “It” can’t be pinned down, can’t be controlled. “It” can’t even be known in the sense we use that word in school or in science. We can know “It,” but only by stilling the mind, by becoming receptive and waiting for “It” to reveal to us what “It” pleases. Not that “It” is capricious. Rather the issue is: are we ready to listen and live what is shown to us. When we are ready we recognize the truth when it’s put before us. In this way we gain gnosis, knowledge of the Divine and Its ways.

I am speaking about the ultimate level of the Divine, which is sometimes called the Godhead in Christian terminology or Brahman in the Hindu tradition. Buddhists call it Sunyata or the Void, Emptiness. “It” also dwells within us as the Inner Self (atman in Sanskrit,). Lack of awareness of the Inner Self (the atman) within Christianity is a huge gap and the reason for many of the distortions of spiritual truth in exoteric (institutional) Christianity. Suppression of a robust, living mystical Christian tradition is why Christianity has, for the most part, lost its way. I will have much more to say about this.

In writing this blog, as in living my life, my intention is to “listen” for understanding and insight from “beyond,” from what seems to the ordinary, egoic mind to be nothingness, empty space. It is the "emptiness" that is the source of everything. I sometimes forget and act or think from ego, but my intention is to become receptive and listen, to follow Lao Tzu’s urging from the Tao te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation):

"Do you have the patience to wait till the mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?"

Certainly President Bush did not follow that advice in invading Iraq. That’s the problem: our ego gets a hold of an agenda, like a dog with a bone, and won’t let go– and now we find ourselves in this mess.

But Bush is not the only one, nor is Rumsfeld or the neocons. The problem lies with all of us. We all do it: we try to solve what we characterize as problems, according to the dictates of the same part of us (our ego) that created it as “problem.” For our spiritual evolution we need to see not problems but messages that Life is trying to teach us. And spiritual evolution is what this life is about.

In our current situation, we tried to deal with Islamic militancy, Saddam’s tyranny, and middle-eastern “otherness” – without seeing and taking responsibility for our role in the creation of all of these. We try to solve “the problem” by trying to change “the other,” by further intruding into that part of the world, to “fix” it. Until it finds its right relationship to the Self (that of servant or instrument of the Inner Self), ego only knows how to operate in the way ego operates: by meddling, by trying to control– and that in service of its self-interest, whether it dresses that self-interest in terms of freedom, patriotism, doing God’s will, being practical or anything else.

The healing perspective is to look for our own part in the conflict and address that. From that effort we will change. And as we change we respond to others, not react to them. They, in turn, will finally respond to us and we will then have relationship, not intractable conflict.

A friend told me his experience of this transformative process, in his relationship with his older sister. Their dysfunctional relationship had been one of sister rudely pushing younger brother around. When he reacted she insinuated he had a problem. He then typically went into “what’s wrong with me,” a neurotic pattern of self-doubt, and, of course, resented her. This has been a life-pattern between them but he recently experienced a spiritual awakening, has begun meditating and become more aware of what he’s experiencing in the midst of tense situations. When the old pattern came up recently he handled it differently. He didn’t react but rode along in silence (they were in a car). She tried to goad him into the familiar pattern, cast accusing glances at him, implying that he was being difficult (she was trying to “fix” the situation by “fixing” him i.e. pushing him back into the pattern– in which she came out the winner). Still he stayed centered, didn’t react, didn’t try to do anything to fix the tension, just stayed with his experience. Finally, before they parted she revealed what was really bothering her. Actually she discovered what was really bothering her: she wanted to spend more time with him, wanted his attention. When she finally got in touch with and voiced her authentic need, he responded and their relationship changed.

I offer Bush and the Iraq mess only as an example of our tendency to act from ego, our tendency to try to fix difficult situations by trying to change the other– in this instance, by military force. We all engage in this fruitless activity in one way or the other. One lesson in this evolutionary life-journey is to wake up to our own clueless efforts to try to resolve the messes our egos create through further ego-efforts. We compound our problems in doing this. However once we become aware of a pattern like this there is the possibility of learning, of changing our attitude and behavior. In that sense Bush, by playing it large on the world stage, is doing us a favor: revealing us to ourselves– if we will take the hint.

I’ll later go into the evolutionary process in greater detail. A hint: we are in the midst of coming to wholeness, as individuals and hopefully as a society. We could think of it as globalization on the spiritual level. Here is a prediction: we will not be able to disengage from Iraq and the Middle East for a long time because this spiritual process, which is now underway, will not let us go until we , not just them, learn our lessons. Islam, and our conflict with Islamic societies has much to teach us. It's not just that we must “educate” them. Life is a school. Once we are ready to learn it becomes a compelling adventure. Once we do learn life is a constant miracle.