Why does Unique Self matter so much? At the most basic level, Unique Self matters because without it, life for the individual becomes virtually irrelevant. A few years ago, I was giving a TEDx talk in Las Vegas and met a man who has since become a close friend, Eben Pagan. I met him and his delightful partner, and it was a Unique Self encounter. There was a flash of recognition. At some point, Wyatt Woodsmall—one of the great inventors... Read more
Relating back to our last post, “What does it mean to answer the call?” To answer the call is to live a values-driven life, a purpose-driven life. It’s to incarnate the values of your life in the unique and gorgeous way that you are able to, that only you are able to do. To do so is to fulfill your Unique Obligation. When we hear the word “obligation” in our post-postmodern context, we cringe. It makes us contract. We feel... Read more
What does it mean to answer the call? To answer the call is to respond to the call that lives in you, as you, and through you, of your Unique Self. The unique individualized expression of essence that is you calls you, invites you to find your vocation—the claiming of your unique voice in the world. To find a voice that is yours, not imitative, you have to inhabit your Unique Perspective. Your Unique Perspective is your particularized way of... Read more
Now we’re going to explore the core teachings of Unique Self Enlightenment in a 12-part series made in 2012. Each video (see bottom of the page) has a partial transcript which I’m including with each post. Let’s talk about the core teaching of Unique Self. Unique Self is the understanding that you are at the level of essence – not merely at the level of social, psychological, and cultural conditioning – you are ultimately unique, you are an infinitely unique... Read more
Continued from Part 1… The second part of the “how” is then to do the practices, to actually make some form of wisdom practice or spiritual practice or consciousness practice an essential part of my life. It could be a form of meditation, a form of sacred dance, a form of introspection or contemplation, the study of sacred text, the engagement in significant nature mysticism, or prayer to engage the personal face of essence (what we might call the second... Read more
How do we accomplish the democratization of enlightenment? The answer to the “how” question is twofold. One is intention, the other is practice. Intention means I intend towards my enlightenment. My intention is not merely to obey the rules. My intention is not merely to satisfy my egoic need to be part of the whole. My intention is not merely to be in alignment with the law. My intention is to realize the true nature of my identity and to... Read more
…Continued from Part 1 Enlightenment in its original core is a premodern idea that exists in all the great traditions. Uniqueness is a modern and postmodern idea – a modern idea in terms of the affirmation of the infinite dignity of the individual; a postmodern idea in terms of a realization that every human being has a unique perspective. More than that – democracy is a realization of enlightenment, of Western enlightenment. It’s the realization of a higher structure of... Read more
Let’s begin to understand what we mean by the Democratization of Enlightenment. In other words, once we bring Eastern and Western enlightenment into a higher integral embrace by disambiguating the confusion between separateness and uniqueness — and therefore integrating the best intuition, insight and spiritual breakthrough understanding of both Eastern and Western enlightenment — we can begin to have a genuine conversation about the democratization of enlightenment. This is because every human being is a Unique Self: every human being... Read more
…Continued from Part 1 So the East was right: you need to move beyond your Separate Self. But the East conflated separateness and uniqueness. I have one colleague, a teacher who always taught that there’s no such thing as a “unique spiritual experience.” Or, consider the Course in Miracles: if you think you’re special or unique, you will never find peace. That’s the general enlightenment teaching of Theravada Buddhism, at Spirit Rock in the San Francisco Bay Area, and countless... Read more
To take the next step, we need to move towards a higher integral embrace in which we can actually bring the Western and Eastern enlightenment in conversation with each other. When I say Eastern enlightenment, I mean Eastern enlightenment in general, but also certain forms of mystical enlightenment that also appear in the West. But just for shorthand I’m going to talk about Western and Eastern enlightenment as these two basic prototypes. The way to evolve consciousness, the way to... Read more
Spiritually Incorrect
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