Towards a bigger us

Ken Wilber has set the challenging vision of ‘No boundary’. We all have boundaries but, by taking thought, we can reset them in a way that allows us to have a wider and deeper sense of belonging.

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For many people ‘I’ is what is inside my skin; I am my body. But inside the body is the mindbrain with its self-conscious (persona) and its unconscious (shadow) bits. When these are in balance there can be a robust ego.

When the ego comes to feel at home in the body there is the feeling of being an organism which is intimately part of a cultural and physical environment. The boundary is set well beyond the skin and this leads to an appreciation that the immediate environment is part of our planetary environment which is part of the solar system and thus the cosmos. Then there is nowhere to draw a boundary line – there is unity consciousness – we are stardust.

The default boundary, at least in modern cultures, is limited to ego – to the individuated I, me and mine. This can quite easily expand to include the ‘we’ and ‘us’ of our in-group. But it tends to be harder to embrace the out-group – ‘them’. And it is even harder to identify with the Oneness which is unity consciousness – with the state of ‘no boundary’. But change is possible.

I --- US --- THEM --- IT

A widespread feeling is that man is a social animal and that most people are hard wired to draw a boundary around ‘us’. This might have been functional in the old days of hunting and gathering but it is arguably ill fitted to survival on the modern, globalised planet.

When the boundary is drawn close in there is a tendency towards narrow mindedness (parochialism) and towards a fear of incomers and foreigners (xenophobia).

When parochiality is rife people are concerned only with narrow local concerns; they pay little attention to the more general or wider issues. They are narrow in outlook or scope. They can be biased, dogmatic, fanatical, hidebound, illiberal, insular, intolerant, jaundiced, limited, literal, narrow, narrow-minded, one-sided, opinionated, and provincial. The media overflows with stories of people whose actions are guided by such narrow views.

When xenophobia is rife there is an intense fear or dislike of foreign things and of the customs and culture of foreign people. Chauvinism and bigotry are commonplace.

Chauvinism involves an excessive or prejudiced loyalty to a particular gender, group, or cause. It is marked by unreasoning, overenthusiastic, or aggressive patriotism.

Bigotry is the state of mind of someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats other people with fear, distrust, hatred, contempt, or intolerance. And this may be on the basis of a person's ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. Bigotry, prejudice and zealous fanaticism are rooted in a stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.

But parochialism and xenophobia are not ‘real’. They are conditioned habits of mind. As such they can be re-conditioned. If an individual or group can muster the will then there will be a way. And the way will involve mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness does not make the small-minded thoughts and feelings disappear but it prevents them from totally taking over consciousness. And it creates some free mental space where you can water the seeds of contentment, kindness and peace and, therefore, expand your limits and grow towards a bigger and unbounded us.

References:

Ken Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness – with diagrams:
http://dodclark.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/ken-wilbers-spectrum-of-consciousness.html

Rick Hanson’s Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom:
http://www.wisebrain.org/