Spiritual Anarchy - Shiv Sengupta

Anarchy and chaos seem to go together like peanut butter and
jelly,  like macaroni and cheese, or Thelma and Louise.  The
two seem inseparable in our minds because we have no idea
what this word "anarchy" really means.  It conjures images of
rioting in the streets, burning cars, broken shop windows, 
rampant looting, bands of armed militia terrorizing innocent
civilians, bodies on the street, starvation... but that's just the
Hollywood version.

Anarchy is first and foremost about self-governance.  Yet, self-
governance is not something most people are capable of.  Most
need to be led, guided, instructed, advised, rewarded and punished
for them to feel as if they are on the right path in their lives.  They
need this structure put in place for them so that they may feel a
sense of value, contribution, progress and meaning.  Without it
they feel lost - cast adrift upon a vast ocean of experience with
no real markers by which to chart their progress.

If you were to take a person like that and suddenly strip them
of the scaffolding that society has built around them, they would
most likely react by either going berserk or falling apart.  Most
people are simply not ready to have the dual training wheels of
meaning and identity taken off their bicycles.

They are better off doing as they are told.  They are better off
maintaining an illusion of freedom and choice.  They are better
off believing that their opinions and beliefs are proof of a uniquely
forged identity.  They are better off believing that the more they
protect and craft that identity the more secure they are going to be.
They are better off believing that the more people they can get
to agree with them, the more proof they will have of the rightness
of their perspectives.

Without others to provide them with a context for their experiences,
such people are totally lost.  Without someone to agree with and
someone to oppose, it is hard for them to know where they stand.

Those who have spent their lives living in castles in the sky will
have no idea what to do when they see that the sky is just a great
blue void that they are endlessly falling through.  They will simply
flail in desperation.  And flailing people certainly look chaotic.
But flailing is not anarchy.  It is just chaos.

When the Buddha spoke of enlightenment, he was speaking about
spiritual anarchy.  When L Krishnamurti talked about a "total 
revolution", he was talking about spiritual anarchy.

Anarchy is a process that begins with the stripping away of all
the narratives we have invented as a civilization - until there is
nothing left of a person but Spirit encased in flesh.  The experience
 of living is whittled down to the very core until we are brought
to the heart of it - the self in its rawest and most unadulterated form.
The book of life is torn apart - one page at a time, chapter by
chapter - history, race, religion, nationality, gender, spirituality,
ethnicity, politics - all the accumulated knowledge of the world
expunged.

We stand face to face with the universe just as we once did on
the day we were born.  We recognize that the essence we call a
"self" and the essence we call a "universe" are one and the same
even if their forms may differ.  Finally, we choose to take
responsibility for this essence in all its forms - including that of
our self.  This is spiritual anarchy.;

It is governance not just of a separate individual self.  It is
governance of the whole as our self.  Such governance doesn't
happen by force.  It is not an assertion of our own will upon the
universe, nor is it the submission or surrender of our will to the
universe.  It is a governance that happens by listening, adapting
and responding to the flow of life itself.  Then at times when this
flow aligns with that of society, we may appear to "conform."  And
when this flow appears to misalign with that of society, one may
appear to "oppose."  Yet, this aligning and opposing has nothing to
do with being "for or against."  The direction in which we move
has not been primarily set within a social context.

When I gaze up at a starry night sky, my eyes can see stars that
exist hundreds of light years away.  And if I close my eyes, I can
still feel the aftershocks of the Big Bang resonating within my body.
This moment encompasses all of space and time.  This whole
universe has been gifted to me as a canvas.  And I going to listen
to someone telling me what to draw on it?

Spiritual anarchy is the process by which the control of the social
self-construct is relinquished and restored to Spirit.  The only law
that applies henceforth is spiritual law.  Yet, this is not something

cast in stone like commandments on a tablet.

It is a truth that reveals and rewrites itself afresh moment after 
moment...

Shiv Sengupta

with thanks to No Mind's Land

~

Photo- Mystic Meandering