I'm noticing parallels between what happened to the spiritual community that I recently left after many years of contributing to its 'mission', and what has happened to my home-country community of the United States since its founding. The same sort of spirit has infected both: the spirit of losing the plot. Losing contact with its roots.
In my spiritual community, the roots were in selfless service to the vision of a New Age; to ground that spirit in everyday life, how you approach each other and your work and the decisions you make; to bring spirit into matter, invest it with Light and with Love. (A founding principle, which actually has continued fairly well, I admit, is the concept that Work is Love in Action.) But over time, what is known as the Findhorn Foundation has morphed - in my opinion, that is to say, and acknowledge - from being a spiritual community with members to a personal-development workshop center with employees. Doing good work; but not with the same spirit as its founding.
And here, in America, the roots were in enhancing the role of the individual, being in his (predominately the male, at the historical time) own right, not as a servant to anything or anybody except his God. 'God-fearing', and industrious; living by the dual principle of individual liberty and personal responsibility, as the founding principles have been neatly summarized in their essence.
And oh, how the mighty have fallen...
If I were ever asked back to my old 'alma mater' to share some words of wisdom with the student disciples, I would say something like the following:
"Beware of getting too complacent; or worse. If you sit on a Staff position,* camp on it, defend it from being taken away from you because you want to stay here and not have to go back out into the world, taking the Light of this center of Light back out with you, you are not here for the right reason. You would not be here primarily to serve others. You would be here primarily to serve yourself. Would be seduced into being here primarily to serve yourself. And, though Service to Self is a spiritual path, it is not the highest path. Which is Service to Others. And which is the path that this community was founded on, and dedicated to.
"And so you would be out of sync with the founding energy of this place, by engaging in a mental and emotional act of hanging on here.
"Don't worry about the challenges of going back out into the world. That whole system is about to collapse, anyway. As the New Age moves into actual be-ing. And it is your job to help land it. You, who have been drawn to this place. To be of service to it. And through that act of Service, to be of service to your Self."
As for what I would say to my home country, of America:
I have already said it, in the pages of this electronic journal.
May we all awaken to our highest calling.
The Day has come.
--
P.S. I may be a bit too harsh on my 'old alma mater' here. It was time for me to leave, anyway. And so I helped on some level to co-create the circumstances of my moving on.
Life is funny, that way.
P.P.S. Oh, and just to clarify: I was there for many years because I had 'done my dash' in the commercial world, earning a living and testing myself against those life challenges; I was ready to devote my life/whole attention to just Service. I went as an adult (in my early 40s). Some people have started coming there in their youth; and expect the community to take care of them.
Precisely the mentality that has infected my home-country community, I notice.
Something must be going around...
And you know what they say about that sort of thing......
('What goes around, comes around'?? To say as well: What you put out comes back to you. The good. And the bad.)
And to clarify further: In point of fact, I left the community for some years in the '90s. But I just wasn't ready for retired life. Let alone a relationship, for the rest of my life. Except with myself. To say: my Self.
But that's all another story. In any event, that's how I missed out on the bulk of the brainwashing period when the staff asked for more and more in the way of the allowance, to approach the level of 'a living wage' (with their room & board thrown in). And the Management team acquiesced in the move; and even, to some extent, initiated it, for their own self-serving purposes.
And here in this country the Republicans, who are supposed to be the financially responsible party, went along with the increase in federal spending; apparently figuring that if the Democrats were going to press for more and more spending for welfare-state purposes, they may as well dip into the goody bag and get some middle-class and upper-class welfare while the getting was good, too.
It's called human nature.
In part.
In any event: the gravy train doesn't stop here anymore. And that mentality needs to give way to a higher level of consciousness about such things.
Because it's that time.
---
footnote:
* These are positions that a person is eligible to apply for after serving a community apprenticeship period. 'Students' pay for a certain amount of education, and as well get for it room and board. At an appropriate time, they can apply for one of these staff positions, which comes with an allowance. For many years, the allowance was merely pocket money, until it was time for them to go back out into the wider community of the world, and take the spirit of the Foundation with them. But over the years, the average age and average length of stay of staff members crept up and up - and the world's economic climate deteriorated - until many Staff started looking to make of the Foundation a career. Hence the psychological move from 'member' to 'employee' - and as an employee, wanting more of an 'income'.
Just so did the snake enter our little Eden...
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