New Age Spiritual Sources - Good/Bad

[Turnip]

There are many new healing energies and practices descending down to Earth at this time it seems. Systems, lineages, sources coming out of the shadows that were on Earth for a long time, and entirely new things being channeled through supposedly divine beings.

 

The reasoning being that we are at a kind of bottleneck emergency situation. Like, we need to deal with our shit, it’s now or never, so we’re getting more help with it. The planetary consciousness is quickening. 
 

At the same time, what could also be happening, is we’ve fucked shit up to such a grotesque degree (specifically regarding the environment, climate change, nuclear weapons, etc) that we’ve created a sort of portal of karmic access for predatory beings to kind of finish us off so to speak. An ecological balancing, natural selection. 
 

Maybe both are probably going on. There could be beings that want us to go extinct and destroy ourselves (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it could be in a weird way for our best interest, considering how much harm we cause ourselves, animals, and the Earth), and other beings that want us to survive and continue to evolve and grow. 
 

Which brings me to the practical question of, what should we think of these new things coming through? Many people would say that straying from the on-ground lineages of human teachers is dangerous, and would recommend against seemingly easier paths or shortcuts that don’t require the long dirty work that those in the past had to put in. Especially when unknown “divine” sources are supposedly involved. It could also be the case that certain practices and paths could be beneficial for the short term wellbeing of the collective, but for the deep long term growth of an individual soul, not so much. On the other hand, it does seem like stuff is really coming to the surface, people want to deal with it, shit is really picking up, and the older practices are just not high octane and intelligent enough to keep up with what is needed to actualize and integrate the emerging explosion of unconscious energies and repressed complexes that are supposedly destined to be the flood and the flooded that defines the Age of Aquarius.

 

Thoughts?

[Lairg]

1 hour ago, Turnip said:

 

Which brings me to the practical question of, what should we think of these new things coming through?

 

All teachers and all practices need to be tested.

 

For example:  visualize a particular teacher then put yourself in front of him/her.  What happens to your heart?

 

 

[Sanity Check]

2 hours ago, Turnip said:

the emerging explosion of unconscious energies and repressed complexes that are supposedly destined to be the flood and the flooded that defines the Age of Aquarius.

 

 

Observing the evolution of microchips. 

 

Old chips processed 8 bits. Later evolving to process 16 bits. 32 bits. Currently CPU's process 64 bits.

 

This evolution allowed AI chess programs to defeat human players.

 

Human evolution parallels this trend.

 

Humans started out with stone and papyrus tablets. Later evolving to books. Then radio and television. Currently processing even larger volumes of data with smartphones, laptops, PCs. 

 

As a result of trends like these, we might expect an explosion of mind.

 

 

[doc benway]

7 hours ago, Sanity Check said:

Human evolution parallels this trend.

 

Humans started out with stone and papyrus tablets. Later evolving to books. Then radio and television. Currently processing even larger volumes of data with smartphones, laptops, PCs. 

 

As a result of trends like these, we might expect an explosion of mind.

 

 

And yet wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could somehow facilitate an explosion of heart?

 

Heart and mind must be balanced in my opinion.

The lack of balance is largely responsible for our misuse of the powers of mind alone.

Spirituality for me is largely about restoring balance through opening the heart and maturing it as a refuge and a tool.

 

When looking at a spiritual source, be it new or old, my questions are, does it make people kinder and more open?

Does it cultivate empathy, honesty, and transparency?

Does it strengthen relationships or isolation?

 

Not always easy to get answers to these questions and often takes time and engagement with the view and practice. 

This is the advantage of the older, established traditions, you can see the effects over time and the kinks have been worked out. 

Newer ideas and methods are more of a risk, and our time is short as human beings on Earth, but at the end of the day, they could be just what is needed for the right person.

 

[Turnip]

11 hours ago, Sanity Check said:

 

 

Observing the evolution of microchips. 

 

Old chips processed 8 bits. Later evolving to process 16 bits. 32 bits. Currently CPU's process 64 bits.

 

This evolution allowed AI chess programs to defeat human players.

 

Human evolution parallels this trend.

 

Humans started out with stone and papyrus tablets. Later evolving to books. Then radio and television. Currently processing even larger volumes of data with smartphones, laptops, PCs. 

 

As a result of trends like these, we might expect an explosion of mind.

 

 

Yeah definitely is moving in this direction fast

[Turnip]

11 hours ago, Lairg said:

 

All teachers and all practices need to be tested.

 

For example:  visualize a particular teacher then put yourself in front of him/her.  What happens to your heart?

 

 

Thank you for this advice 

[Turnip]

3 hours ago, doc benway said:

 

And yet wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could somehow facilitate an explosion of heart?

 

Heart and mind must be balanced in my opinion.

The lack of balance is largely responsible for our misuse of the powers of mind alone.

Spirituality for me is largely about restoring balance through opening the heart and maturing it as a refuge and a tool.

 

When looking at a spiritual source, be it new or old, my questions are, does it make people kinder and more open?

Does it cultivate empathy, honesty, and transparency?

Does it strengthen relationships or isolation?

 

Not always easy to get answers to these questions and often takes time and engagement with the view and practice. 

This is the advantage of the older, established traditions, you can see the effects over time and the kinks have been worked out. 

Newer ideas and methods are more of a risk, and our time is short as human beings on Earth, but at the end of the day, they could be just what is needed for the right person.

 

Thank you, yeah. I completely agree with all of that

[forestofclarity]

People have claimed that we have more awakenings and stronger practices these days than ever before. However, looking at the apparent state of the world, I'm not convinced. I think most of the newer practices and movements tend to lull people into a false sense of spiritual realization. Even so, I would rather people practice some form of spirituality than none at all. 

 

Traditions developed their "modern" practices a few thousand years ago--- in Tantra and Dzogchen, for example, which is one reason you see more of this and less people developing very deep states of concentration and samadhi. 

 

[Jenn]

Another possibility is modern living has made us worse off spiritually, so we are not in fact reaching new, higher states, but rather have added many lower states we must now first pass through to get back to where the baseline used to be.

[Lairg]

4 hours ago, forestofclarity said:

. I think most of the newer practices and movements tend to lull people into a false sense of spiritual realization.

 

How do you test which practices are useful to which people?

 

33 minutes ago, Jenn said:

possibility is modern living has made us worse off spiritually, so we are not in fact reaching new, higher states,

 

There are certainly dark currents in human society that seek to degrade/divert groups of humans but there are also beneficial currents that seek to refine Earth humanity - to achieve its design functionality.   

 

Negative thoughts and emotions are promoted so that humans unconsciously invite darkness. 

 

 

 

 

[Turnip]

27 minutes ago, Jenn said:

Another possibility is modern living has made us worse off spiritually, so we are not in fact reaching new, higher states, but rather have added many lower states we must now first pass through to get back to where the baseline used to be.

I agree. I would say the modern mind is much more complicated and entangled than in the past. Which is the reason I’m wondering if practices and paths of the past would really be effective on the modern mind in the same way. 

[Turnip]

5 hours ago, forestofclarity said:

People have claimed that we have more awakenings and stronger practices these days than ever before. However, looking at the apparent state of the world, I'm not convinced. I think most of the newer practices and movements tend to lull people into a false sense of spiritual realization. Even so, I would rather people practice some form of spirituality than none at all. 

 

Traditions developed their "modern" practices a few thousand years ago--- in Tantra and Dzogchen, for example, which is one reason you see more of this and less people developing very deep states of concentration and samadhi. 

 

The main concern is that most of the traditional spiritual paths and practices are of the East, are collectivistic, negating of the ego, and are patriarchal, and modern psychology is moving more towards an androgynous/feminist, individualistic, and an increasingly intelligent and sophisticated ego that can be used as an expressive extension / tool of the Self, rather than something to be negated to reach Self. I’m wondering if the Divine is adjusting to this and introducing new paths. Or we’re just moving farther and farther into delusion and the traditional paths are still the most grounded in the Truth.

[Cobie]

13 minutes ago, Turnip said:

The main concern is that most of the traditional spiritual paths and practices are of the East, are collectivistic, negating of the ego, and are patriarchal …

Not to forget almost a millennium of mutilating the feet of women. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Cobie

[Lairg]

1 hour ago, Turnip said:

I’m wondering if the Divine is adjusting to this and introducing new paths.

 

Perhaps as we move into the age of Aquarius it is time for new wine in new bottles.

 

If so, we should see the progressive demise of many social structures and institutions.

 

For example many young Chinese are abandoning the current social system: 

 

Tang ping (Chinese: 躺平; lit. 'lying flat') is a Chinese slang neologism that describes a personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishing returns.^[1][2][3][4] Tang ping means choosing to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" by adopting a "low-desire life."

 

 

The release of useful humans from old structures and the birth of a new wave of humanity will facilitate and drive the development of new structures  - including new understandings of the inner nature of Earth humanity and propagation of more relevant spiritual practices

 

Of course many humans prefer the familiar to the new.  Such is life.

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Lairg

[Turnip]

11 minutes ago, Lairg said:

 

Perhaps as we move into the age of Aquarius it is time for new wine in new bottles.

 

If so, we should see the progressive demise of many social structures and institutions.

 

For example many young Chinese are abandoning the current social system: 

 

Tang ping (Chinese: 躺平; lit. 'lying flat') is a Chinese slang neologism that describes a personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishing returns.^[1][2][3][4] Tang ping means choosing to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" by adopting a "low-desire life."

 

 

The release of useful humans from old structures and the birth of a new wave of humanity will facilitate and drive the development of new structures  - including new understandings of the inner nature of Earth humanity and propagation of more relevant spiritual practices

 

Of course many humans prefer the familiar to the new.  Such is life.

 

 

Definitely. We’re moving into a new, more fluid, more creative landscape of thought. Which is why energy healing has gotten so popular. It’s concrete yet doesn’t box you in to any ideology or conceptual structure. If spirituality is about attaining freedom of mind, structured paths and conceptual direction seems to move against that. Yet we still need to evolve somehow. 

[Sanity Check]

11 hours ago, doc benway said:

 

And yet wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could somehow facilitate an explosion of heart?

 

 

 

I think that trend is also occurring.

 

There was a woman in the news called the 100 year old virgin. Who never married and never had sex with a man. She said practically every woman she saw from childhood to adulthood was a victim of domestic abuse. Causing her to avoid men.

 

In less than 100 years, cases of domestic abuse in the USA decreased dramatically.

 

Prior to COVID in 2020 homicide rates in the country were at all time historical lows. 

 

We've witnessed significant shifts in our culture and the way we view the world. As well as how we treat each other.

 

To some degree: people have changed. For the better.

 

Although to be fair, it could also be said some nations and regions of the world are regressing and becoming worse over time.