"They" want to control "us". The corrupt governments of the world. The private-public partnerships, so called, between governments and industrialists, the military and the media. The ruling elite. The so-called-royal families and aristocracies of the world. The Davos Set. The Bilderberg Group. The Illuminati. Whatever way you look at it - it´s "them". And it is. And also, it is not. It is me.
It is me, and it is you.
Yes, elites own the world - and feed their own stomachs and bank accounts and hunger for power. And yes they disregard your interests and mine - contemptuously. No - not even contemptuously - we are not individually important enough, in their opinion, to be worthy of their contempt. Yes, elites dance over and above the law and the public-facing surface of society - and start wars as they please, and famines, and blow up buildings, and assassinate presidents, and big mouths, and annoying interferers, and invent plagues and pandemics, and geoengineer and genetically modify with no regard even for their own descendants.
A charming bunch, indeed. Unlike you and me - who are basically good - right? You and me, who wouldn´t claim to be perfect; but who try to be fair, to be kind, to be reasonable, to give others the benefit of the doubt; who endeavour to be charitable and benevolent, in other words, who are not bad like "them", but good - right?
But let´s go deeper, let´s go deeper... after all, answers to questions such as these determine how we relate to society, to politics, to the whole human world - don´t they?
Let us ask: what motivates "them"? What call do they follow? What whispers to their souls? What tempts them? What do they seek to prove? And might it be that if we enquire deeply enough we find: that what moves them moves me, and you? That it´s just a difference of volume, and of scale? That the bad seed that they have watered abundantly, lies in-waiting in the soil of our souls too? And that this is why it is said that "all power corrupts"?
II
I will need you to be honest here, if we are to go deeper. I will need you to drop from your head to your breath, and to be ready to truly feel - not what you´d like to feel, but what you do. I will need you to slow the moment down - all the way down to now - before I ask you...
Do you like it when you´re ignored? When you´re left out? Do you like it when people agree with you? When people not only agree with you, but back you up, and stand behind YOUR way of putting it? Do you like to be right, and to be seen to be right? Do you like to be successful or do you prefer to fail? Do you prefer poverty or wealth? Do you like to look nice, or prefer to be seen as ugly?
I admit it openly. If I was Krishnamurti or the Buddha, perhaps, it wouldn´t matter to me if I was ignored, or disliked, or viciously critiqued. "Each person lives within their own perception" I would say, generously. "Each person has the right to their own perspective" I would say, magnanimously. And I would remain peaceful and centred in my own, unique perception and rightful perspective. But actually, I like it more when people say that the things I say are great. And I like it less when people say that what I say is shit. So there it is: the seed. Call it the seed of ego. Call it the seed of the need for power. Call it the seed, ultimately, potentially, of megalomania. Call it what we want - but there it is - inside me - and inside you too, I suspect (is it not?)
And don´t you like to control? Don´t you consult the clock, and name the days, and believe in the names of places, and things? Don´t you clean and tidy, and have faith in the date, and make plans? Don´t you assert your lawful right to what´s yours, and guard it? Or like Jesus, are you bird-like - neither sowing nor reaping, trusting your heavenly father will feed you?
Now the very ego, the very seed itself, will step in and object "yes but there are other factors". And of course there are. "The seed of megalomania might lie dormant in my soul. Perhaps it lies dormant in every soul" it argues, "but there are other seeds too. The seed of a healthy sense of self. The seed of gratitude. The seed of awareness. The seed of enlightenment itself. And I am watering those!"
Of course, of course. But if you slow right down. If you don´t object too quickly. If you pause and recognise the seed of self-importance and control, inside you. If you slow right down, and reflect honestly - on how you HAVE watered it, at least from time to time, over the years. If you admit that you DO, at least sometimes, act out of ego, and want to be seen in your specialness. If you remember how you DID choose the freshest apples and pears, even this morning, at the supermarket, for yourself - and leave the others for someone else... then the dividing line between "them" and "us", between "them" and you, and me, begins to dissolve.
If you can look your own fear of reality in the face, and recognise your own need to hold on, in this world of shifting perceptions... If you can admit just how neurotic your need for fixity is, in this world, this cosmos, this universe - about which explanations and meanings slip and slide through the generations... then you will meet "them" inside yourself - you will see him/her/it inside you too: the technocrat, the tyrant - the one who wants total control.
None of us is all beauty, and none of us is all ugliness. "They" too have made kind choices. "They" too have watered other seeds within themselves. They too see magnificence in the world, sometimes, and marvel, sometimes. They are not rotten through and through, just as you and I are not all abundance and ripeness and light!
And then there are the situations we inherit - the circumstances of our births and upbringings... And had you been born to such entitlement, who knows... And had you gone through such-and-such an experience, who knows...
III
So what do we conclude? That we are all as bad as each other, and that, therefore, human cultures will always be corrupt, unjust and at war? That is not what I conclude. I conclude that We Are One. And that the construct of "us" and "them" is itself a product of the competing, egoic, self-asserting seed. A self-righteous construct - as arbitrary and arrogant as the power-mongering it opposes. And that letting go of "us" and "them" my heart opens to us all - and that that openness is the way.
This doesn´t mean being naïve. This doesn´t mean we don´t see people in positions of power disassociated from their humanity, intoxicated with importance, crawling with cowardice, devoid of dignity, up to no good, smiling while lying through their teeth - deviously fabricating crises, justifying mass murder - turning whatever they touch into tragedy and heartbreak. To recognise our Oneness, and stay open doesn´t mean becoming stupid.
It means we admit that we too, to whatever extent, are the technocrats who fear life, and the tyrants who would control it - and that we step down from our moral high-ground. It means that we step down into equality - and continue to be honest with ourselves. Because how else but in such a mood, or way of being, or consciousness, can we truly, authentically educate ourselves and our children in equality and honesty? And how else but in such an atmosphere, or field, or consciousness, will we be able to co-create equal and honest new cultures? Mark the Mystic Activist Autumn/Fall 2022, Cataluña. t.me/conscioustribes