The Spirituality political problem

[CGayle]

I watched the video.  I felt words on all sides were dancing around the issue.  My projection is she was really lamenting about her deep spiritual hunger, and she has been taking this "ego" as-something-negative-talk in as something wrong with her, b/c she's hungering for a deeper connection within spiritually and is not able to sustain it.

Personally I have a problem with the ego-as-something-negative-talk that is so common in much new age theology or discussions.  God or spirit or holy sparks are everywhere, including in ego and the "small self".  Perhaps that is what the teachers were trying in a way to get to...but it is hard to talk about ego being a culprit without getting into a duality perspective (good/bad), rather than seeing ego as part of the complexity of wholeness. 

Not sure how this relates to political problems except in that deep spiritual hunger, and disconnection from belonging, which is also a spiritual hunger, is a political issue...because these lacks...lack of connection with one's core within, lack of belonging in family and community and society...lead to the corruption of leadership and institutions of all sorts, religious, political, etc.  Moreno's core message.

Cynthia Gayle

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ivo Banaco 
  To: Grouptalk Listserv ; iagp-psychodrama at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 9:29 AM
  Subject: The Spirituality political problem


  According to the press: 

  "A post-mortem examination determined last night that John Travolta's chronically ill son died of a seizure, as controversy erupted over the Scientologist actor's handling of the boy's medical condition. According to the family, Jett, 16, suffered a seizure and hit his head on a bathtub at their holiday home in the Bahamas, where he was found dead on Friday." ...Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, issued a statement saying they were "heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives." The couple said that Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease, a condition that causes inflammation of small and medium-sized arteries. The disease affects the lymph nodes, skin and the mucous membranes in the mouth, nose and throat. Experts said that the disease was rarely fatal and seldom affected children over the age of 8....Critics of Scientology suggested yesterday that Jett may have been suffering from autism, a condition that the church does not recognise because it considers mental illness to be psychosomatic and argues that it should be treated through spiritual healing...." From The Times January 6, 2009

  Well, I will not discuss the way this church or others deal with humans. I think that the problem is deeper than this and deserves an urgent and serious consideration. My question is: What are the political consequences of spirituality? I will not bother you with this historical problem, but with the clear fragmentation between Governments and Institutions related to "faith" and "Spirituality" a big and increasing hole is there for we all to see if we want and have the courage to see it. The consequences can be disastrous if all remains the same. Governments can not pretend that the New Age Movement doesn't exist as a genuine mode of discourse or other types of movements that are pupping up now. With post modernism the respect for all kinds of truth are being mistaken for all truths are equal. And We all know this is simply not truth in our relative world.  Note the paradox. They say "All kinds of truth are equal" forming in that very moment another kind of truth. I will attempt to say that in our relative world there are not only various types of truths but various degrees of truths. I will call this degrees simply Evolution, defined as a truth that emerge, transcend and include the previous truth (but the topic is too complex to expose it here, I think, because it would divert from the real intention of my e-mail)

  Spirituality have to enter in the political discourse again, I believe, simply because spirituality, by whatever name is an intrinsic part of a human being, and the bad use of it makes the world poorer. By political discourse, I mean in the broadest sense of the world, including the explicit consequences of the work and the understanding of science, of arts, of culture, etc that have to result in a better informed political decisions. This, I believe, can only be met by a real transdisciplinary approach. Is Sociatry Era coming at last?

  Ivo Banaco





  PS: I would like, if possible, that this could be an entry to a discussion right here right now with Grouptalk and IAGP together. I admit thay my opinions are a bit closed to enter in dialogue, so to warm-up a bit I'll send you below a youtube video that I saw yesterday. The context is a workshop dealing with some of this issues about spirituality. A Women starts to address some of her questions...Look at the dynamics, look at the way the two leaders (very well known in some spiritual circles) handle the situation... 

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTb2kp9Y4Is





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