Transformation from Inner Oppression to Aligned Spirit: Macro and Micro
- Connie DeMillo
- Aug 15, 2023
- 3 min read
Macro
Humanity is the pinnacle of creation. We are, at our core, spiritual beings, and we can use our mental capacity to create a relationship with a Manifestation of God. Through this relationship, the Manifestation reveals our individual and unique path to spiritual transformation. This transformation empowers us to recreate our world, if we follow His method.
The Manifestation communicates with us by revealing spiritual truths, using metaphors that can be understood bit by bit, like peeling back the layers of an onion. As we peel the layers back, we gain the capacity to reflect the spiritual qualities of our Creator, like generosity, compassion, and justice.
We wash the stones and dust that have collected in our heart so we can reflect Divine light. When we choose to follow a faith, we pursue personal excellence and collective progress. Detaching from our lower, animal, material nature can help us unearth our divine nature, as we deepen our understanding of the God’s Revelation.
Turning towards God increases our capacity to reflect the Divine light of the Revelation. When our soul is becoming pure, we are ready to advance along our spiritual path. Prayer isn't enough; it needs to be followed up with action in order to be worthy.
The Bab was the gateway between the end of the Adamic cycle of religions; we are transitioning as humans from collective adolescence to the era of spiritual maturity, capitalizing on unity and justice to foray into the New Era.
Micro
Prerequisites for human spiritual transformation:
Voluntary submission to God’s will: “prefer not your will to Mine”
Possession of a pure soul that is attracted to the teachings of the Manifestations and advancing spiritually from following that attraction
Endeavor to hear the Divine call and endeavor to rise above our animal nature
Obstacles to transformation
Self centeredness, the subtle servant of the mind, the rust of egotism, powers of understanding towards animal nature, corrupt inclinations, is lost.
A selfish man is inclined to consider himself `a little better than, a little superior to, the rest'; `Abdu'l-Bahá says that such a man `is in a dangerous position'.[51]
Estrangement: separates souls; cooperation is the center of civilization.
Malice: deprives us from recognizing the great being, makes us want to cause harm, indulge in vices and grows a capacity of self gratification and isolation.
Envy: regret and resentment at the happiness of others negates love.
Backbiting: unity is impossible when backbiting is present.
Excessive words: deeds are what counts, words without deeds are laced with boastfulness and hypocrisy.
Socially responsive psychology
As humans, our relationship to meaning is broken. Systemic oppression like racism, and unconscious beliefs twist our soul’s aspiration towards truth into longing for material wealth, and pseudo-truths like lifestyle and immediate gratification.
What’s missing?
The understanding of the word holarchy (part of the whole contains the blueprint of the whole) is essential to our understanding of human reality. We live in a time of remarkable opportunity: we can choose to adopt an intentional approach to building human society. We can become intentional in the life we create for ourselves and the society we live in.
Until now, we have been objects of history. At this moment, however, we can understand and freely choose our own evolutionary process. Participation in creating our own future history is the height of human development.
Science and religion will unite to solve the problems of humanity. Scientific and rational religious minds converge to restructure the mind, both the problem and the answer are systematic. It is not just scientists and institutions, but all of humanity that are included in this transformation.
Global incoherence is causing worldwide social breakdown. Stress, anxiety, and depression are symptoms of incoherence. Disintegration of socio-moral life and alienation of large segments of society all contribute.
What constitutes global health?
Economic stability
Education
Family and community
Health care
Neighborhood environment
The greatest predictor for psychological wellbeing (beyond basic human needs being met) is social equality in terms of wealth distribution and stratification. Almost every measure of wellbeing is affected less by how wealthy a society is and more by how unequal it is.
Social restructuring of humanity for maximizing global health
Socially responsibility involves acting from an awareness of the moral impact of every choice we make in an interconnected and globalizing world. We can choose to examine and integrate the unconscious, look more thoughtfully into the contexts of our lives.
As humans, we share a tap root of spiritual connection between our core selves and our unknowable Creator, and to the beautiful planet that sustains us, and to the generations before us. We awaken to our inner center through meditation, prayer, mind body practices. Circles of relatedness, like the ever-widening circles of a stone thrown into a lake, make for horizontal connectedness, connectivity, and social belonging. Expanding circles of belonging include more and more humanity.
Through prayer and service in the healing of humanity, we can transform inner oppression to awakened and aligned spirit into the unity consciousness that we are all interconnected on every level.
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