August 12, 2012
A Different Kind of Transparency
There’s a lot of talk about transparency these days. In the internet age we are letting it all hang out—whatever it is—for better and for worse. And it looks like there’s no going back.
Democrats want to know about Mitt Romney’s bank accounts and tax returns, while many government agencies from all over the world want to see Julian Assange and his ilk put behind bars for eternity. On Facebook, painfully personal and intimate details of people’s private lives are on display for all to see, whether they like it or not. It seems that “transparency” is becoming a new obligation.
As a spiritual teacher, I uphold our individual and collective capacity for transparency as an important human value. But when I think about transparency, it is of a different order altogether than what has been in the news of late – to me it means being willing to be public about our deepest values in a cultural context where our perspectives may not be recognized or understood. It also means actually being the person we appear to be.
When I was twenty-two, I went through a “dark night of the soul.” I was lost, depressed, and felt trapped in the narrow confines of my own psychological world. I was also haunted by a short-lived spiritual experience that had revealed to me a glimpse of a completely different dimension of reality than any I had ever known. In desperation, I totally changed the direction of my life and became a “seeker.” This was a big leap into the unknown for me, as I had grown up in a fiercely secular family. The perennial quest for higher truths, meaning, purpose, and spiritual depth became the guiding principle of my life.
The only problem was that I was living in Manhattan. And in New York, when people ask you what you do, they’re not trying to unearth your deepest values. They want to know how you make a living, and if you make a lot of it. If you’re doing something more “alternative,” like music or art, what they really want to know is whether you are famous or if you’ve made it. When people asked me what I did, after I told them about my day job, I would proceed to tell them about what I was really interested in, and in most cases the atmosphere became instantly uncomfortable. It was as if they didn’t know where to look.
That was why, several years later, when I made my first trip to India, I found myself experiencing an unexpected sense of existential relief the minute I stepped off the plane in New Delhi. It wasn’t because I’d found what I was looking for, it was because in that ancient culture I was permitted to put spiritual values before material ones. And I could be transparent about it. I didn’t have to hide or pretend. I could “come out of the closet,” so to speak, and be who I really was.
A few years later, I did find what I was looking for and my identity went through its final shift. A refugee from a culture of secular materialism, I was now an unabashed and public proponent of higher truths, meaning, purpose, and spiritual depth. But it’s easy for me to be transparent about who I am these days because I stopped experiencing the need to pretend or to live up to others’ expectations a long time ago. Indeed, it’s a big relief to be able to be an open book.
This post was originally published on Andrew Coheh’s BigThink.com blog, The Evolution of Enlightenment
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transparency
Sadly and all too often, we come across this when being transparent about our spiritual side in the west. My “journey” started some time back in the late nineties. I wasn’t sure what i was looking for only that i knew there was something more than this material world, something far bigger than me and anything i could understand. In 2008 i had the opportunity to go to India on a work assignment. For some reason i felt i had come home…i felt free. I spent the best part of the next two years working in India and after being humbled by many sites of those who were impoverished, I started to really begin my spiritual journey. The openness of the Indian people and their smiling faces through adversity and the daily hardships made me realise how lucky I had been in life. I made many new friends and met my future wife. My wife has followed a spiritual path for many years. Through her guidance I have learned to be more transparent and accepting. Whenever i fall from my path, she is there to guide me back onto it. Whenever my ego gets in the way, she guides me again to show me how to release it. Whenever I falter from seeking the quiet within through meditation she is there to guide me. I consider myself blessed. Since opening up my soul I have witnessed many, some would say strange, things. Things I cannot explain but accept them for what they are, signs of something greater than me or this whole world. I still get amazed by people’s reactions when they hear of my spiritual side. Sometimes a few people show genuine interest, but in the main you can tell by the expressions on their faces that they think I’m crazy. Yet deep down i know i am right to continue my journey and that there is something far greater which brings peace to my soul.
Good point!
so to speak and be and ultimately become who you really are in an environment which supports our nurturing and growth and what the mind desires to seek, being fed is what makes the humans complete and live kup to the desired values they seek
I’ve recently been experiencing that coming out of the closet feeling. There is a sense that its perfectly OK to admit that you’re seeking but to admit that you feel deep confidemce and clarity is still uncomfortable for people. As long as we believe that waking up is something we do later we can avoid the radical need to take complete responsibility, scary but so worth it.
>>>>>But it’s easy for me to be transparent about who I am these days because I stopped experiencing the need to pretend or to live up to others’ expectations a long time ago. Indeed, it’s a big relief to be able to be an open book.<<<<<<
So much of the spiritual path, when you get into the nitty gritty details can be so "woo woo" that its not something that a lot of people either can deal with or really want to hear (if they're into old time religion). My personal experience indicates that finally a lot of people are able to hear and listen to mystical experiences now and not judge you as ready for the looney bin, which has made being transparent these daze a lot easier. Transparency can be very personally liberating if you've felt like "letting it all hang out" was going to freak people out before.
I’ve encountered my share of blank stares. “Coming out of the closet” is difficult when, to make a living, I depend on the confidence of others who often don’t have a clue, and sometimes are defensively antagonistic.
The West is “spiritually” a long way behind the East and has been for centuries. Most people in the West see things differently, and therefore their values are different. They value material things like money, and what money can buy for themselves and their families. Expensive Holidays abroad. Cars, Yaughts, Expensive Homes, Lots of money in the Bank. A comfortable life without having to work too hard for a living. Or not needing to work at all. Financial Security etc etc. Let me say firstly that money in it’s self is not the problem, and we can help a lot of people worse off than ourselves with money. like ” charities ” giving to the poor and sick and other good causes. Or people who are homeless and destitute and need the basic things in life like shelter from the elements, food, clothing etc etc. It’s when money becomes the ” be all and end all ” and takes over our life ie : Greed and Power over people. “Scrooge comes to mind” . We cannot worship God and Money. The working class person is trying to make ends meet because they want all the good things in life that the rich person has,[ and who can blame them ] But they have to work much harder and put in longer hours to earn their money, if they have a job that does not pay Mega Bucks.We live in a world of “Have and Have not’s” So there is no profit or time to sit down to meditate for an hour or two a day. We rush around like bee’s or ants working ridiculous long hours, providing all our life for ourselves and our family untill we drop through exhaustion, or can’t go on any more.Then we die unprepared for the next life because we are continually chasing wealth or money. There are a few people who are content with their lot and what they have, and realize the importance of spiritual practice, and being ready for the transition into the next life when the time comes. And that life is not all about “grab and get ” for ourselves,and for the short time that we are on this Earth. And that the “Inner Sun” is more important than the outer.That it is not the “Voice” that we can hear with our physical ears that matters but the “Voice” that we can hear with the ” Inner or psychic ear that is more important ” Most spiritually inclined people who know that they haven’t got
much time left on this Earth realize the importance or urgency of ” Being Ready” when the time comes for the transition from a lower energy to a higher energy or vibrational frequency.They are the one’s who have had a taste of this Source energy, and have grabbed hold off it and will not let it go.
And when seeking life has lead us to create kids, that need to be fed, housed and educated, do we pursue our emergence at their expense?
Really good post! It’s so important to be true to ourselves at all costs. Now if only the popular kind of transparency of today was replaced with the kind of transparency you described in your own life.