Getting Bigger
…When a person becomes truly big, they can learn to bow to something other than simple self-interest and can serve something beyond themselves. Humanity, if it awakens more fully to the creative ancestral prototype that sleeps within, can act contra naturum and go against blind needs and unconscious, selfish greed. Humanity remains capable of bending to the earth again and learning to assist the little fish of creation to find some refuge and ways to survive the great changes already underway.—Michael Meade
Meade approaches this “biggering” process in a different way than the Buddhists:
He speaks about tapping into mythological realms that are accessible through the deep psyche and are akin to Transpersonal Psychology’s Archtypal realms. He states that there are certain prototypes that live within each one of us, that can inform us how to manage the rising seas of chaos that surround us today. If we can connect with this realm, which can occur through our dreams, depth psychology or hearing a good story around a campfire, we can access the unique gift that we took birth to re-discover and bring out into the world. Meade exhorts us to go right into the heart of the problem, into Soul, into the very heart of matter, to find the answers we are looking for. Whereas Christianity and Buddhism have often placed the answers in the heavens or in the afterlife, Meade’s view is that the Old Stories point to the answers as being right in the very stuff that we grapple with in our day to day lives.
If we follow the impulse to help someone in need, whether it’s giving a homeless person some money, cutting your elderly neighbor’s hedge, or helping out at the local recycling center, we experience God’s action in the world, expressing itself through us. The positive response we get from these generous actions-from within and without-provide fuel for further actions. Bending down to assist “the little fish of creation” in this way helps us go “contra naturum”-against nature, and step outside of our conditioned greed and self-centeredness. Coupled with Mindfulness and the increasing ability to differentiate between the ten thousand thoughts running through our brains and the “still small voice” of the Soul, this selfless service helps us move into a broader consciousness. You have to wake up on the level of the mind, as well as the heart, otherwise you have what Adyashanti calls, “stupid saints”. The process of of Awakening and expanding consciousness is a multi-faceted adventure. The work done in any arena supports development in the other arenas and supports the whole. Slowly, slowly, a deeper understanding of Who and What we are comes into focus.
