"Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier.
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It is seeing through the façade of pretence.
It is the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true” Adyashanti
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us Universe… He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something
separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to
our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It is seeing through the façade of pretence.
It is the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true” Adyashanti
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us Universe… He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something
separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to
our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein
The Shamanic Elder
The elder realizes our human limits and the limits of adult understanding, control and responsibility. Elders return to full connection with nature and the Great Spirit. Elders finally really know that they really know and control very little. They are aware that we are all the small fruit of millions of years of evolution and product of generations of culture and family, specks on a grain of sand at the end of the universe, that no one is to blame! In the end, our human needs are not so important. Neither are our projects or deaths.
At this stage our consciousness, love and the connection with the earth are more important. This is what changes the world and creates the future. There is a joy in the recognition that we cannot meet all our needs. It is a painful joy, but that's life. Now we can let go of our ego.
Traditionally the elders were freed from responsibilities for the day to day and yearly management of family and community. They are now free to reflect on their lives and current events within the longer and more complex perspective. They have seen revolutions come and go. They have seen decades of abundance and of starvation. They have seen separations, wars and deaths of children and other projects. They can tell the old stories of these events to the children and adolescents.
"I am free to let go and stop struggling.
I see that I can not meet all my needs and even less all my desires.
I accept that I know nothing. I put myself in the hands of the Universe.”
The Elders are the real transpersonal shamans, connected to the deep spirituality of the earth, able to die once and again so as to be able to support others in this alchemical process. They are connected because of their life experience, not because of some techniques or theories they have learned or their academic prowess. They are connected because they have died to themselves many times in natural cycles.
At this stage our consciousness, love and the connection with the earth are more important. This is what changes the world and creates the future. There is a joy in the recognition that we cannot meet all our needs. It is a painful joy, but that's life. Now we can let go of our ego.
Traditionally the elders were freed from responsibilities for the day to day and yearly management of family and community. They are now free to reflect on their lives and current events within the longer and more complex perspective. They have seen revolutions come and go. They have seen decades of abundance and of starvation. They have seen separations, wars and deaths of children and other projects. They can tell the old stories of these events to the children and adolescents.
"I am free to let go and stop struggling.
I see that I can not meet all my needs and even less all my desires.
I accept that I know nothing. I put myself in the hands of the Universe.”
The Elders are the real transpersonal shamans, connected to the deep spirituality of the earth, able to die once and again so as to be able to support others in this alchemical process. They are connected because of their life experience, not because of some techniques or theories they have learned or their academic prowess. They are connected because they have died to themselves many times in natural cycles.
Roles and tasks of the Elders
Supporting the Adults
The Elder can give supportive counselling to the adults who get over-arrogant or immersed in desperation with daily responsibility. With a longer spiritual view of the past they can project a long term view of what is needed for the future of the community. The adult must find support and supervision from the elders. This support brings more and deeper consciousness, letting go into compassion, trust, humility and humour. The healthy elder has already died many times. The elder recognises her hurt inner child and arrogant adolescent with a humble and loving smile. She does not need to compete and demonstrate how much she already knows … but rather begins to be aware of how little she really knows.
The Elder is what would be a therapy supervisor, bringing compassion and wider awareness to your self, to your neurosis, to your hurt inner child and struggling adolescent. This is in itself freeing. The Elder brings a much wider long term vision to the human condition – including the community and the ecology – to help place your struggle in context. This should ideally be a long term relationship where the Elder/supervisor gets to know you and your struggles, your neurotic trances and mechanisms. In this way trust is built so that the Supervision helps you to find your healthy adult so that you take care of yourself with your inner child and adolescent.
Supporting the Children and Adolescents
Whilst the adults have to deal with the maintenance of the family and community: getting the food on the table, educating the young, caring for the sick and elderly, dealing with the conflicts of interests that emerge, ... they have to do this within the agreed prevailing paradigm. The adults have no time to go questioning this paradigm. The children and adolescents, in their different ways, see the hypocrisies and limitations in the established models and question them in their own learning process.
Since the elders have been through the death of selves and paradigms, they have no special attachment to the current prevailing paradigm and can support the children and adolescents in expanding their consciousness into new and greater dimensions. The elders support the children in telling stories that cross time and dimensions, full of magic and possibility, dealing with adversity, finding love and wisdom.
One of the most important roles of the elders is in supporting the adolescents when questioning and rebelling against the limitations of the parents and system. The adolescent anger, on discovering the limitations and traps of the prevailing paradigm, can be very destructive. The Elders must help the adolescents channel their disappointment and fury in a creative manner, in discovery, in social change, in loving transformation.
The Elder can give supportive counselling to the adults who get over-arrogant or immersed in desperation with daily responsibility. With a longer spiritual view of the past they can project a long term view of what is needed for the future of the community. The adult must find support and supervision from the elders. This support brings more and deeper consciousness, letting go into compassion, trust, humility and humour. The healthy elder has already died many times. The elder recognises her hurt inner child and arrogant adolescent with a humble and loving smile. She does not need to compete and demonstrate how much she already knows … but rather begins to be aware of how little she really knows.
The Elder is what would be a therapy supervisor, bringing compassion and wider awareness to your self, to your neurosis, to your hurt inner child and struggling adolescent. This is in itself freeing. The Elder brings a much wider long term vision to the human condition – including the community and the ecology – to help place your struggle in context. This should ideally be a long term relationship where the Elder/supervisor gets to know you and your struggles, your neurotic trances and mechanisms. In this way trust is built so that the Supervision helps you to find your healthy adult so that you take care of yourself with your inner child and adolescent.
Supporting the Children and Adolescents
Whilst the adults have to deal with the maintenance of the family and community: getting the food on the table, educating the young, caring for the sick and elderly, dealing with the conflicts of interests that emerge, ... they have to do this within the agreed prevailing paradigm. The adults have no time to go questioning this paradigm. The children and adolescents, in their different ways, see the hypocrisies and limitations in the established models and question them in their own learning process.
Since the elders have been through the death of selves and paradigms, they have no special attachment to the current prevailing paradigm and can support the children and adolescents in expanding their consciousness into new and greater dimensions. The elders support the children in telling stories that cross time and dimensions, full of magic and possibility, dealing with adversity, finding love and wisdom.
One of the most important roles of the elders is in supporting the adolescents when questioning and rebelling against the limitations of the parents and system. The adolescent anger, on discovering the limitations and traps of the prevailing paradigm, can be very destructive. The Elders must help the adolescents channel their disappointment and fury in a creative manner, in discovery, in social change, in loving transformation.