Healing The Polarization Of Our World

Never before have we seen such incredible polarization.  In our current global crisis, we have each found ourselves on one side of the coin or another.  There are growing tribal or groupthink sects leaping up all over the world.  

The pandemic is not the point, but it seems to be the current currency through which we proclaim what we know to be 'true.'  On the one side, we have people shouting to 'wear the damn mask!' and tow the line and exercise extreme caution given that we're dealing with a novel virus that we still don't know much about.  

On this side of the argument, we are not questioning the authority figures at the helm.  The dogmatic tag line is assumed to be right and true and anyone who questions this is deemed to be a conspiracy theorist or, my personal favourite, a 'Covidiot.'

Historically, we have seen this unquestioning position with authority with the political right.  Right-wing politics holds the viewpoint that hierarchies and social order are what hold society together.  

In contrast, the political left has historically been held together by the views that we negate social hierarchy and instead support social equality and egalitarianism; in other words, that our worth and and moral status are fundamentally the same in all human beings.

What is overwhelmingly fascinating is that we've seen an almost total exchange of how these political ideologies are actually playing out in the current global crisis (which may not be a crisis at all...stay with me here).

We've watched liberalism, or the political left, demand an unquestioning and abiding adherence to the responsive narrative coming out of *most* of our regulators.  This is the side that we see shouting, "Wear the damn mask!!!"

And in a strange paradigm flip, we're watching the political right take on an alternate or more freedom-fighting stance.  We're seeing countries like the U.S. and the Netherlands and Sweden take a very different stance to the prevailing narrative.  But even more interesting is that all over the world, we're seeing a push-back to the mandated regulations and the ever-changing science on our response to this pandemic.

These are the people that we're seeing protesting the mandated wearing of masks, the potential for forced Covid vaccination and for the lockdown itself.  They're saying, "You're trampling our fundamental human rights!"

Political square-dancing aside, we're all watching the deep, deep divide between ideologies and we're watching civilization walk willingly into a state of great unrest.

But even the most scientific of assertions are still ideological.  How?

Science is a living, moving, evolving phenomenon, just like everything else in the manifest world.  What we once thought of as healthy to smoke cigarettes, later become debunked.  What was once researched, developed, tested and approved as a safe and effective painkiller, Vioxx, killed upwards of 500,000 people before it was yanked from the market.

On the spiritual path, it is inevitable that we will, at some point, question the current and prevailing narratives of any given social structure.  We just will.  This is a byproduct of deeper and out-of-the box thinking and the slow unraveling of orthodoxy and its assumed rightness.  

As we travel this path to awakening, we begin to realize that the 'Truth,' as we've watched it morph and fail and rebirth itself over and over again is entirely subjective in the manifest world.  It seems that what once held true in our steadfast attempt to nail down reality, will inevitably blow the glass ceiling out at some point along the way.

And so those of us who are unraveling and awakening will question the dogma.

But in doing so, we'll often unconsciously adopt another dogma.  We'll flip the narrative on its head and proclaim that we've now got the answers.  But truth be told, we'll simply be attempting to manage and control our and others' worldview through a different lens.

I should know.  I've been all over this like a dirty shirt.

But something happened very recently.  My glass ceiling, once again, shattered.

I realized, despite my freedom-fighting leaning, that I wasn't happy in this fight.  My well-intended activism was only causing deep-seated angst and loneliness within an arena of already made-up minds.

And therein lies the rub.

We can't change our minds before it's time.  And they're not going to be changed by coercion or force.  It's going to be an organic process that bubbles up from within.  Even if something that someone else says sparks an interest, I would dare say, those roots were already present and growing.

So I had to ask myself where I went from here.  Because 'here' was no longer working.

From this space of polarization, I realized that there was only one place to go.

The only rational space to venture into was that of the Unknown.

Every prevailing spiritual teaching points to this very state of being; the state of Not Knowing.  Because let's face it, our best-held assumptions about Life and the Soul's Journey will get upended every single time.  

Just when we thought we'd nailed it, the proverbial rug will get ripped out from underneath our feet and we'll find ourselves, once again, in a state of no-mind.

This no-mind state can be best described as the Non Dualistic spiritual approach.  

Non-dualism is the relinquishment of the 'other.'  It is considered the highest evolution of the Spiritual Path whereby we cease to be divided. There ceases to be a 'you' and a 'me.'  There is only One, playing out in the Many. 

Spiritual teacher Jeff Foster describes Non-dualism as, "...a word that points us back Home. And despite the compelling appearance of separation and diversity there is only one universal essence, one reality. Oneness is all there is – and we are included."

But inherent in the non-dualist approach to Life is a deep acceptance of not knowing; of being okay with not knowing.  This includes the profound and sometimes shocking realization that the manifest world does not, in fact, contain any absolute truths; only concepts, ideas and beliefs.

When we see this on a deep level, it is not at all scary.  It is totally liberating. It frees us from having to be right, take sides, or try to figure out or shift the matrix.  

In this incredible realization (which has been there all along) we simply become ONE with all that is.  In other words, we accept that it's all just happening.

This liberates us to be here without conceptualizing our lives and the world around us into right or wrong.  It liberates us from shame or shaming the other (hell, there is no 'other!').  We go from fighting and gripping and forcing and manipulating to accepting, allowing, enjoying and loving.  

If I can step into this seemingly nebulous space, so can you.  We come from this space and we will return to this space on the other side of this thing we call Life.  

In the words of Ram Dass, Be Here Now.  Drop the fight.  It is an endless cyclone that never runs out of steam.  Step out.  Step in.  Be free.



In love, joy & radiance,

Ann Jarvis
Channeler, Holistic Nutritionist & Metaphysical Teacher