Recently I had an e-mail exchange with a friend in which I revealed some of the shadow issues that have been coming up recently. This person is also a client who is transitioning more into the role of also being a friend. When she responded with a bit of concern and alarm about some of the stuff I was mentioning it made me aware of the deeper issue that I needed to address in a blog post.
One of the real dicey things about being in the role of mentor, teacher or way shower is the cul-de-sac of being put on a pedestal and being treated like the “awakened one” who is in a place that they are not. After this exchange I realized that I had fallen into this trap. As I reflected on how this occurred I came up with a number of different possibilities.
The first of these is that the state of consciousness that I am in when I work with people is the true Self mostly clear and revealed. But this is not the totality of my experience or any one's experience even the highest beings. The second is very subtle and is really the result of a larger phenomena. There is a meme in the collective unconscious that holds the idea that when we are awakened(whatever that means exactly), as a result of the awakening we also immediately have no more shadow stuff to deal with. What drives this collective illusion is the desperate hope that this might be true. It’s what we would all hope for. Instant enlightenment and them no more painful and messy psycho-emotional stuff to deal with ever again. Endless nirvana and the perfection of Christ or the Buddha.
One of the real dicey things about being in the role of mentor, teacher or way shower is the cul-de-sac of being put on a pedestal and being treated like the “awakened one” who is in a place that they are not. After this exchange I realized that I had fallen into this trap. As I reflected on how this occurred I came up with a number of different possibilities.
The first of these is that the state of consciousness that I am in when I work with people is the true Self mostly clear and revealed. But this is not the totality of my experience or any one's experience even the highest beings. The second is very subtle and is really the result of a larger phenomena. There is a meme in the collective unconscious that holds the idea that when we are awakened(whatever that means exactly), as a result of the awakening we also immediately have no more shadow stuff to deal with. What drives this collective illusion is the desperate hope that this might be true. It’s what we would all hope for. Instant enlightenment and them no more painful and messy psycho-emotional stuff to deal with ever again. Endless nirvana and the perfection of Christ or the Buddha.
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