Defining the New Paradigm
by Jane Ilene Cohen, copyright © May 27, 2001
Our Separation from Our Here-and-Now Experience
Humanity has made huge advances in abstract thought and concepts. We can imagine and project into the future what could be, and what would be if we follow a particular process. Through these skills and advances we have accomplished a great deal. And we have saved ourselves the time, money, energy and hardship of going through the physical, hands-on experience of working things out in present time.
But it seems this mental advance has come at a price. As well as the good it does, it also serves as a very effective defense system to avoid our here-and-now experience. We have, to a large degree, lost the distinction between what "ought to" happen, what some one tells us is happening (or will happen) because it appears to make sense that it would and what is actually happening, our actual here-and-now experience. In other words we have developed a major dissociation between concepts and actual experience.
Since we live so much in a disconnected mental state, we can convince each other of perceptions that reinforce the current expedient concept of reality.
I'm not at all against our advances in abstract thought and concepts. I'm simply observing that, at this time in evolution, humanity is using them as a very effective defense system.
What are we defending ourselves from? Our here-and-now experience. Why? A belief that if we allow ourselves to be where we are and to experience what is, it won't work, that we can't come together with each other, that we'll find we really don't love each other and are irreconcilably different from each other. In other words we're afraid we'll find out life doesn't inherently work, and so we need to control it, avoid it, manipulate it, conquer it, weave fantasies and live in a made-up world where we can avoid the truth of what actually exists.
What I see is most of the approaches to solutions humanity comes up with for the dilemmas we have put ourselves in, come from this dysfunctional framework of separating ourselves from our actual here-and-now experience.
We are focused on trying to change things outside of ourselves without connecting to the source of the dysfunction. We think in terms of projects and goals, with the assumption we already know fundamentally what reality is. We do this disconnected from, and not in relationship with, our in-the-present-instant experience.
We may discuss projects or ideas in dialogue from an increasingly evolved value system. But that is not bringing us into the consciousness of the here-and-now experience. It is still coming from a place of concepts and separation from the present moment. This is an avoidance of where the actual solutions, treasures and resources are. Many of us are familiar with the concept of "be here now," and that "all there really is is now." But somehow we're not really taking that seriously enough. If we were, we'd be allowing our whole concept of reality to radically shift.
We would realize how all-important this is if we realized that the whole way we are experiencing (or rather avoiding experiencing) our experience is what is causing the dysfunction we are perceiving. We are holding in place a highly dysfunctional and unevolved concept of that which is. We cannot find a solution to the dilemmas we have created from within the frame-of-reference in which they were created.
I appreciate the people who are doing good projects all over the globe. I'm glad they are doing it. It is probably important as a stop-gap, and also contributes loving and positive energy and intentions, which I assume is beneficial to the uplifting of the consciousness of humanity.
But I don't think that is how the fundamental shifts will occur which are needed to change the dysfunctional foundation we are standing on, the dysfunctional experience we are creating for ourselves, which causes the miseries, inequalities and tragedies we perceive here on earth.
It is not the government that is causing our problems, or our school systems, or our spouses, our children, the Republicans, the Democrats, the media, the Iraqis, or the Palestinian terrorists. It's our separation from that which is, from our present, in-the-moment, live connection with our real experience with ourselves and each other (which is intrinsically connected with the Divine Source), that is causing our dysfunctional experience.
The Position of Admitting We Don't Know
The question is: "How do we begin the process of connecting more and more with that which is?"
We cannot assume we really know anything that is actually happening. As A Course in Miracles says we have to be in the on-going process of asking, of exploring what is happening from a place of admitting we don't already know. If we don't, we won't be open to something new coming into our
experience. We'll just be trying to confirm what we think we already know and we'll be reinforcing the old dysfunctional dilemmas we are already in. We can't know what to do if we don't really know what is happening.
Allowing ourselves to be in this position of admitting we don't know is a pre-requisite for being in the present moment. The gateway to bringing in new information lies in the present moment, in our here-and-now experience. This requires person-to-person, in-the moment relating to each other and the experience we are in with each other. This is where the miracles, the shifts in experience, the releasing of the resources, and the channel to the Divine occur. This can't be done in the abstract. It can't be formularized or mass produced. I'm not sure it can even be done through writing, or through taped or filmed media. We can't do this for other people. It is personal, in-the-moment relating and relationship, in which all the participants are personally involved and invested for their own personal benefit. If we are not personally involved and invested for our own benefit there is no integrity, genuineness or authenticity.
The Old Paradigm
Distinguishing What We Really Want from What We Don't Want
One of our biggest challenges is distinguishing what it is we really want from what we don't want. We think we want the burden of possessions that give us nothing, symbols instead of the real thing, winning instead of connecting, the theory rather than the actual experience, what society says rather than what we desire and how we actually experience things. We don't realize we have a choice other than pain, sacrifice and disempowerment. We don't even realize we are choosing pain, sacrifice and disempowerment.
If we don't know what benefits ourselves on a personal level, how can we hope to benefit humanity?
The Misconception of Victim Versus Victimizer
Many people think the way forward is a shift in who we think is the enemy, and having the courage to stand up to them. But there is no enemy and it is the belief/decision that there is that causes pain, disempowerment and lack-consciousness experiences.
The old paradigm is victim versus victimizer. The new paradigm is there is no victim or victimizer; there is no enemy. There is no one to fight against. All of humanity is of equal power. A victim is a person who is not taking (or has not yet learned to take) responsibility for how they are using their power.
We have to come to terms with our investment in seeing ourselves as victims, which the vast majority of us do to varying degrees. In fact, the whole society, probably global society, sees things in adversarial terms in which we are the victims of some enemy. The whole society is set up on this basis. It is held in place on many levels through our language, schools, political systems, family structures, religious organizations, economic system, media (TV, movies, advertising, news sources)... Anyone who is not in their full empowerment is probably in this framework to some degree. Many friendships are based on being against other people. Many organizations are oriented around being against or fighting against some perceived injustice as the sole purpose of their being.
We can't let go of the disempowerment and suffering that is held in place by a victim perspective if we don't let go of perceiving others as enemies.
When we let go of our investment in being a suffering victim, we let go of living in a world populated by enemies and victimizers, and we let go of an inner world of hate, recriminations, hopelessness and despair, accusations, blaming, and disempowerment. Then we can open ourselves up to a world of love, empowerment and abundance, free to hold open the space for that which is to reveal itself, in the inner knowledge that that which is can only be good, positive, loving, and for everyone's benefit.
The Challenge of Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is a reliance on, and investment in, a fixed outside source of authority defining reality, rather than our own fluid experience. It is a state of abdicating our power and our responsibility for ourselves and our experience. This kind of thinking makes us very vulnerable to being manipulated, and feeds on and perpetrates a very fear-based experience of life. Whenever we separate ourselves from our here-and-now experience (which is where our own power and authority comes from), this is probably the state we are in.
I'd say there are very few of us who are not functioning from the framework of fundamentalism to some degree, in some area of our lives. Some of us manifest this to a large degree, and humanity has come to realize its dangers.
The New Paradigm
The new paradigm is a radical shift in our perception of what reality is.
In the old paradigm we orient our lives around another person, our jobs or projects. In the new paradigm we orient our lives around the larger perspective of the Universe, Life, Divine Consciousness.
An essential component of the new paradigm is a very deep recognition of the spiritual basis of reality.
The spiritual is inclusive and connected to the eternal and infinite source of love, empowerment and abundance. This is a larger perspective than that of the physical, which is a perspective of survival, lack, sacrifice and suffering, because the physical (by definition) is finite, with only so much to go around. This is not to negate the physical. It's a question of which leads, which is seen as the source of reality the physical or the spiritual. If the physical is seen as the source, our experience is limited and disempowering. If the spiritual is seen as the source, our experience is expanding and empowering. The physical is too small to include the spiritual. The spiritual is big enough to include all that is.
The Crucial Importance of Enlightened Self-Interest
Part of holding the old victim/victimizer paradigm in place is our belief system that self-interest is wrong, and that sacrifice and self-deprivation is virtuous.
We must start with enlightened self-interest as our basic frame-of-reference. Enlightened self-interest is what the healthy, most enlightened parts of us truly desire. The awareness of what this is is an on-going process of discovery. We must begin with our own life, happiness, our own greatest desires. From there we can extend out to a relationship with others, opening up to how we can relate to them from that place of divine self-interest.
It is a major paradigm shift to realize we can only really benefit others if we are doing what we truly desire. There is no solution to our global challenges if we don't do this. We need to be coming from our own desires to be in congruency and integrity with ourselves. This enables us to be in a place of truth.
Relating from a place of truth is how we connect with reality. We can't contribute to any solutions if we are not connected to reality. Without enlightened self-interest we have no truth and no connection with reality.
The real gift we have to offer people is to relate to them from the genuine place of enlightened self-interest, as opposed to "doing something for them." We need to be in a process of relating to each other from this uncompromising place of truth.
A process of deeper and deeper levels of connecting with ourselves and each other in relation to what we really desire opens up deeper and deeper levels of divine consciousness, unconditional love, and an increasingly more enlightened foundation for our experience of life.
The Definition of Truth
Speaking the truth does not mean sharing insights, theories, or concepts. What I'm referring to is the truth of where we are and what we are experiencing. This begins with what we desire in this moment. What we desire defines us. What we desire is formed by the nature of who and what we are. It places us on the map so we can be seen. An antelope wants something different than an elephant on the most physical levels, but it also wants the very same thing on a higher level of existence.
If we don't admit where we are on all of our levels of experience (or existence), from the most physical survival levels to our highest experiences of consciousness, we are leaving a part of ourselves out. We can't get to our higher levels of truth if we are denying the less evolve parts of ourselves. And the less evolved parts of ourselves can't evolve if we don't acknowledge them. If we are avoiding the truth at any level, we are living in fear and separation. We then have no solid foundation to stand on, and no foundation from which to relate to ourselves and each other.
A Different Concept of Action
The action that needs to be taken has to do with how we relate to each other and the rest of humanity, not the action of doing projects. Real service is holding in place a new paradigm through a different way of relating. Relating to people, not doing something for them, is a crucial and major shift in frame-of-reference.
This relating originates from what we most want, our own enlightened self-interest in relation to each other.
This kind of relating comes from a place where we don't experience other human beings as in need, or as victims, or as perpetrators. It comes from holding open a consciousness of what really exists underneath the disempowering concepts of ourselves and each other we so tenaciously have been holding in place.
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(760) 753-0733 - JC@janecohen.net - Encinitas, CA
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