 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
In our modern age, more and more people are recognizing that, the emphasis of what one consciously chooses to contribute one's individual forces to is an ongoing and paramount task of each of us. It is essential to respect what or to whom, out of one's sovereignty, a person chooses to lend his or her forces to and at the same time encourage the growth of the force of Mutuality, out of freedom. This is the conscious "taking-up of each other" that can arise in an atmosphere of Brother or sisterhood.
As soon as the forming of any permanent or transitory group occurs, certain dynamics will apply. Individual sovereignty, collective freedom and health of atmosphere may thrive or desperately fail in each group. Certain energies or forces may naturally neutralize each other, strengthen one another, or radically amplify one another. All ideally require the same kind of ongoing observation and awareness which personal and spiritual development require. As in the individual, each group has a lower nature, a shadow side, a double to transform. As in an individual this can result in numerous and plentiful self-destructive manifestations or spiritual development. Untransformed energies in the group or individual each have their "day in the sun". (Paul Platt, Qualities of Time ). Of course it may be years or moments "in the sun". When pressures arise from this and one does not know (or is not using) a moral technique][skillful] required for treating or transforming the phenomenon, it can become intolerable. One can be tempted to pass one's load on to another (through various types of projection, Blame, etc. etc.). This is not ideal for our future becoming and of course is why ongoing treatment and individual self-development morally is an absolute requirement for group development. Omitting this is a frequent reason for failure.
Our physical bodies are an amazing work of creation. No one can own a methodology or technique which arises out of these mysteries. Whatever insights I have attained belong to the world. If, in accuracy, they are passed on to others, that is fine with me. Of course, acknowledgement of other's work is always crucial to the retention of integrity. Omitting this, one of the numerous ways one can lose inner or outer integrity, is a large area of study.
Our "likes and dislikes" can be acted upon with or without awareness. They are fundamental to the working of karma (Knowledge of Higher Worlds, Steiner). If one can suspend these sympathies and antipathies, one can create a space in which one can both observe their function as well as also relinquish identification with them. We all have these "loads". My intention is to treat each with a high level of care; knowing that we are not all equal, interchangeable parts to one another. Instinctive favoritism in a group (i.e., sympathies and antipathies) leads to resentment and pain. Recognizing the gifts we each carry is my intention whenever possible. THE SCAPEGOAT has come to be the name that the collective has given to a phenomenon where one being is forced to suffer for the misdeeds of others. In Leviticus {16:8} one goat is sacrificed and the other is released into the wilderness having the mantle of the sins of the people of Israel laid upon it. Allowing one or more persons to take on/act out the collective darkness of a group is common—and easy to do. Most of this is done in consensus unconsciously by a group and like the goats in the bible; the scapegoat of the group has little choice in the matter. He or she is "IT." Other times in a more modern gesture, someone will, in varying degrees of consciousness and deliberateness, choose to take on the suffering of another or a group and possibly without these types of wide-awake sacrificial gestures we may be sunk as a civilization. It is wise to have many "tools" already in one's belt for uplifting and transforming these things prior to taking them on because there is nothing glamorous about it. In these classes we will do exercises as a group and (if chosen) individually to work with our "group and individual darkness" so that we may work to free ourselves from this spiritually obsolete methodology for bringing humanity forward, which creates future group karma itself. There are also professional scapegoats. They are often the group or corporations' first refuge (but they can become institutionalized). Recognizing that whatever the individual karma which may currently be operative, the life of the group independently may present the group karma separately. IT is real. To avoid consciously taking this up leads to the tyranny of the dominant. Taking time for conscious group work on the group double is my intention. It can, of course, when getting out of proportion, obscure the original intentions of the group as well.
My intentions are: