Let’s get one thing clear: Just because I consider myself a spiritual being doesn’t mean I can’t also be fiercely political.
After all, what’re politics? They’re negotiations of who gets to have, keep, and use power in society. As a human being currently walking about on planet earth, living with the consequences of how those divisions of power are doled out, that’s something that most definitely concerns me.
What’s power? Common vernacular likens it to control, authority, or possession, ideas which are, indeed, oppositional to true spirituality, which asks us to let go of our attachment to such egoic, fear-based needs. But there’s another way to look at power, and it’s innately spiritual.
We Might Be Thinking About Power All Wrong
Power is energy. Specifically, it’s energy that produces a particular effect, one that’s vibrant and dynamic and sparks something into existence, like lightning turning sand into glass.
And what’s spirituality? Because it’s such a profoundly subjective experience, there’s no real consensus on an answer. I personally love one of Merriam Webster’s definitions, which states that spirit is “the immaterial intelligent or sentient part of a person.”1
To be sentient is to be imminently aware, to be able to genuinely perceive and deeply feel Truth. Sentiency is equivalent to what I call our Authenticity.
To be spiritual, then, is to tap into this Authenticity as we move away from fear-based, unconscious ego thoughts and behaviors toward this awareness of our highest selves.
Some of my friends traveling these higher-consciousness paths have said that politics are so banal, so lower-consciousness and ego-driven, that they can’t get involved: To delve into politics is to demean their spiritual progress and besmirch their higher selves.
Us spiritual warriors, us Truth-tellers and light-bearers, are the most deeply political people on the planet.
@Writerdawnh
Sorry-not-sorry, but I call bullshit. To be spiritual means we are inherently political. Here’s why.
Spiritual Warriors
If we’re truly committed to walking a spiritual path, what we’re claiming and demonstrating is a gradual dissolution to the attachments of our ego minds: We’re moving from judgment to discernment; we’re taking actions rooted in Love and unity rather than fear and division; and we’re making choices in every moment to take ownership over our lives and responsibility for harms we’ve caused.
Thus, if we consider power to be life-giving energy, then guess what? Us spiritual warriors, us Truth-tellers and light-bearers, are the most deeply political people on the planet.
A genuinely spiritual person is armed to the teeth with the wisdom and capacity to claim power because we know in our bones that it’s best utilized as a shared commodity. Conversely, power when clasped tightly to one’s chest in fear becomes a weapon of mass destruction by way of control.
So who better to ease this rigid grip upon power than those of us walking a genuinely spiritual path?
And if not us, then who?
The Spiritual Is the Political
True spirituality consists of living our lives bravely, honestly, and introspectively, but also by acting for the collective, higher-conscious good.
We don’t get there by burying our heads in the sands of spiritual apathy. We get there by taking up space in low-energy political spheres and loudly proclaiming our purpose in being there. We use the tools in our spiritual arsenal to lovingly challenge the stubborn fear residing in the minds of most political leaders.
True spirituality is active, not passive. It’s a powerful light shining into the darkest corners of human consciousness, excavating the artifacts of fear that have remained mired in muck for centuries.
So let’s don our spiritual armor and take up arms against the darkness, shall we? Let’s overturn the banker’s tables2, march on Washington3, and choose the ballot over the bullet4.
The spiritual is political. The political can also be spiritual. We can radically transform society, but only if we work to reconcile these two seemingly disparate ideas.
How will you show up for political spirituality today?
1 “Definition of Spirit” (n.d.) Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spirit.
2 Greenfield, C. (2016). “Yes. Jesus was subversive. Here are 10 overlooked examples.” Craiggreenfield.com. https://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/2016/4/18/yes-jesus-was-subversive
3 “March on Washington for jobs and freedom.” (n.d.). Stanford University. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom
4 X, M. (1964). “The ballot or the bullet.” American Public Media. https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/mx.html