Strangers In A Strange Land

A paradigm shift is not the same as a revolution as we have often defined it in P-B, e. g., a sudden political overthrow or seizure of power brought about from within a given system, although the change is “revolutionary” in the sense that it is a profound change. It is important for us to understand the difference between relative and even radical change and a profound paradigm shift. For example, the Communist Revolution of 1917 was certainly a momentous change for the Russian people. The promise inherent in that change was that suffering, inequality and Czarist oppression would end and be replaced by prosperity, justice and equality.

What went wrong for the people of the former Soviet Union? What is true for the individual, i.e., that the archetypal pattern of spiritual death and rebirth is necessary for inner transformation, cannot be transferred to the outer world of human politics. Stan Grof understood that “no external interventions have a chance to create a better world, unless they are associated with a profound transformation of consciousness.”  In other words, any meaningful progress in solving the world’s problems must be preceded by a shift in consciousness. Now that we know what needs to happen, let’s continue exploring the strange land of Simple Reality.

We all come equipped for the spiritual journey. We have within us that same wisdom that we have heard throughout our history from those who have lived in the Now. Jesus said that “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” We must come to understand that this is literally true but cannot be realized without a shift in consciousness, without internalizing the Great Insight. Bede Griffiths describes what that realization might feel like:

“…it is as though a veil has been lifted and we see for the first time behind the I which the world has built around us. Suddenly we know we belong to another world, that there is another dimension to our existence…We see our life for a moment in its true perspective in relation to eternity. We are freed from the flux of time and see something of the eternal order that underlies it. We are no longer isolated individuals in conflict with our surroundings; we are parts of a whole, elements in a universal harmony.”   Bede Grffiths (1906-1993) was a Benedictine monk and scholar.

We will continue to meet, as we already have in our time together, some of the most extraordinary men and women throughout the human history of thought and experience. Those mystics will have addressed directly or indirectly the answers to the three Great Questions. If we can keep our hearts open, listen and internalize what they have to say to us we will come to have the same type of experience described by Bede Griffiths. We will cease to be strangers in a strange land.

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References and notes are available for this article.
For a much more in-depth discussion on Simple Reality, read Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival, by Roy Charles Henry, published in 2011.