Before we explore the question of (sacred) purpose, I want to spend a little more time exploring presence as a whole being experience. Because I am certain that our quest for purpose is essentially indistinguishable from our capacity for presence. The more deeply we are here, the more deeply we are available to clarify and humanifest our reasons for being. And the more deeply we can embody our purpose, the more access we have to the moment itself.
One of the primary ways that many of us have been led away from the moment is through our adherence to new (c)age beliefs. I define the New Cage Movement as follows:
“A term to describe the more ungrounded, dangerous, and simplistic elements of the New Age movement, including but not limited to: wishful thinking mantras, spiritual bypassing, pre-mature forgiveness practices, superficial healing techniques, the perpetual denial of common-sense realities, and the insistence on inflated fantastical perspectives—i.e. “Everything is an illusion,” “It’s all perfect,” “There are no victims,” “Everything that happens is meant-to-be,” “All judgments are bad,” “Suffering doesn’t exist,” “You are responsible for everything that happens to you,” “Just ask the universe for what you want and you will get it...,” “Everything you see and feel is a reflection of you,” “Change your thinking, change your life,” etc.”
Of course, these perspectives do have their place in certain circumstances, and they have served genuinely uplifting purposes. They do provide us with tools that foster our awakening. But taken too far—as they have been through the years—they actually become a prison, a ‘cage’ of their own making, locking humanity in with its unprocessed pain and patterns, substituting the real work for addictive flights of fancy. Individuals who go too far into this way of thinking may alleviate their issues for a brief period of time, but invariably come crashing back to earth, even less prepared to deal with reality than they were before. If we don’t recognize the ways in which we have been seduced by these ways of being, we will unknowingly limit our capacity for presence and awakening. Because we cannot be here for all of this if we are locked inside of limiting perspectives on reality.
This week, I encourage you to engage in the following two exercises: (1) THE GROUNDED MANIFESTATION EXERCISE; (2) THE ‘HOW ARE YOU NEW CAGING AROUND?’ EXERCISE. And I will provide a free download link to my quotes book, ‘Spiritual Graffiti’ as well. Please read the Preface in particular, to get a sense of the relationship between ungrounded spiritualities and our limited capacity for presence...