Letter #32: Put Spirituality into Politics
Spiritual wisdom from Chiang Dao in northern Thailand
Dear Friend
This week I want to broach the topic of politics, and the role that the political dimension of human life plays in all our lives.
My father often reminds me that his parents brought him up to avoid two topics of discussion: politics and religion. Since both topics can quickly degenerate into nastiness when people are unable to handle disagreements, this on the face of it can seem like wise advice.
However, since I was about 16 when I joined the Current Affairs Society in my school, I’ve been talking about politics and geopolitics all my life, but never with my nan! And when I began to understand what spirituality and spiritual living was, I began talking more and more about religion too.
Sorry Dad!!
But here’s the thing.
You can avoid talking about politics, you can try to ignore the whole thing, but politics will NEVER avoid you and will NEVER leave you alone. So, either you claim your vested interest, or your interests will be sorted out for you by others, which is most unlikely to end up well (2020 anyone?). But, of course, you will blame those others!
And in these turbulent times we are in, with massive censorship and increasing tyranny impacting the previously free Western world, I feel these are very much times when we all must stake our claim to create the world we all want. Your life and wellbeing is your responsibility. Your world and its wellbeing is your responsibility.
Indeed, to me that was the message the universe was bringing to us with the whole mad events of 2020. If we leave things to the politicians and ‘experts’, then we are abdicating our own responsibilities.
My relationship with politics
Here are three insights into my relationship with the world of politics. I should note, however, that I’ve never been involved in partisan politics; for me it’s insidious to defend or promote a party who do so much damage to health and life at all levels of being. I’m much more interested in the geopolitical nature of politics and how our culturally disparate human world functions together, and how we can live in a world of no war, and one that runs itself on love and creativity and togetherness.
Firstly, I voted in the UK General Election of 1983 when I was 19. It was a novel experience to do so, and I was clear who I wanted to be in the Government at my young age.. However, since then I’ve never voted once in my entire life. To be fair, I left the UK in 1991 (emigrating by accident), so aside from 1987, voting was either not possible, or difficult to sort out.
But it’s also true I had no motivation to vote… why should I vote for people who will look out for themselves at the expense of the country and her people? Who do nothing but destroy life and health and wellbeing? And that’s putting it mildly.
Whether you agree with him or not, the brilliant comedian George Carlin often said that voting for corrupt people and parties made us part of the problem.
(I always talked about the need for a box at the bottom of the list of all candidates which enabled us to vote for ‘None of the above’. Then I would move mountains to lodge my vote)
Instead I’ve spent my whole life calling out the crimes of those in political power (left or right it matters not, Party X or Party Y it matters not), and their enablers in the mainstream media. Between them they promote corporate interests at the expense of the people’s and planet’s wellbeing. Greed, unintelligence and self-interest are the driving forces in today’s politics, with a total lack of real leadership.
Of course, late in the 1990s we then got the internet, which changed the whole media landscape, expanding and democratising it dramatically. And, I believe, this has led to the crazy times we live in, a feature of early 21st century life. I feel that lots of hitherto hidden and dark aspects of human behaviour are now coming out into the open, namely on the internet and in social media.. Even though we are suffering collectively for this, it’s my view this is a necessary hurdle of pain to overcome if we are to finally escape the shackles of our conditioned ignorance about who we are… both as individual human beings and as the whole of humankind.
We are, literally, in the middle of the process of figuring out who we are.
(My solution, as you probably are aware by now, is A Spiritual Revolution, and this is what I see going on all over the world with so many individuals.)
I also feel that we are in these especially turbulent times of transition for two other major reasons:
we are moving out of The Industrial Age and into The Information Age; this is epoch-changing
we are moving from one millennia to the next millennia.
It is as if we—the whole of humankind—are in a ship going around the bottom of Africa where two different oceans meet up and clash, throwing up a huge storm of tempestuous waves for our ship to somehow navigate until we are clearly out of the Indian Ocean and fully in the Atlantic Ocean, and sailing in calm waters.
It’s also like we have one leg in the second millennium and one leg in the third millennium, so with all this in mind, it’s no wonder our times are as troubling as they are.
There’s another transition and deep-seated change going on too. We are moving from a corrupt, self-serving, greedy, politically-dominant way of life into a new era which will be marked by the spiritual approach to life, based on competence, true scientific endeavour (unhindered by corporate and ego-driven interests and intrusions), and living with a fully activated human essence which puts love, peace, compassion, fun and freedom into our lives.
That brings me to my next insight into the world of politics.
Secondly, spiritual living is holistic living: it is the parts dancing as a whole in harmony together, and being aware they/we are doing this. Spirituality IS the whole, so if we ignore politics or seek to avoid it, then we are avoiding the nature of life itself, leading to perpetual stress inside us, even if we can’t see it.
Politics is a reflection of the state of being of our minds and hearts.
The reason why avoiding politics is a terrible choice to make is that the politics is inside you, inside your mind! You are avoiding an integral inherent part of who you are. Therefore, you don’t even know the full version of who you are. You don’t know the real true you!
Politics represents and reflects the subconscious aspect of human life. The ego, if you like. Spirituality is a way of life that, with a fully activated soul and human essence, keeps the ego in check, stopping it from committing all the damage and destruction that it has been doing for so long, for so many centuries.
If we avoid politics, we are in effect avoiding our subconscious mind, and how it’s been programmed, shaped, moulded, conditioned to act in the way it acts, and speak in the way it speaks.
Since it is this programmed subconscious mind that is causing all the harm and hurt, division and conflict in our human world, ignoring it is consigning ourselves to no end to this harm and hurt. Avoiding politics is not the answer to anything, it’s THE PROBLEM.
The true spiritual warrior, the true spiritual-oriented human being does not avoid politics, he or she seeks to make it support our collective wellbeing by first making sure we ourselves support and harmonise our own wellbeing. Spiritual living is grassroots action, and is like a bottom-up revolution, and that indeed is the basis to A Spiritual Revolution - change comes from within, and when we change ourselves we change our world.
When we learn about the ways of our subconscious mind, and start using our conscious mind to guide and navigate us through our life instead of letting our programmed subconscious mind dictate to us,, we begin living spiritually, and now all the magic and miracles of human life begin to show up.
Love flows, fear goes. Peace reigns, conflict wanes. Health thrives, disease nosedives.
The third insight: the politics we see in our world today does not divide us, it does not cause us to harm each other, it does not cause us to engage in conflicts and terrorism and wars, politics does not create greed, incompetence and corruption; no, politics is the consequence of divided minds, of already divided people, of a people who are disconnected from each other and the whole web of life in our world.
It is divided minds and disconnected people that creates divisive politics.
A corrupted politics is the consequence of corrupted minds and locked-up hearts. A disagreeable politics is the consequence of a lack of spiritual living, of a repressed human essence. We are living in stress, not in harmony, within our own skin. Trying to change the politics without changing ourselves is not only bound to end in failure, but in all probability creates a far worse situation, which can explain our current times.
Tyranny is not the preserve of the government or politicians, it’s the effect of a humankind that knows not its own mind, nor its relationship with the world that birthed it.
Who is to blame?
Here is a piece of writing I just did elsewhere, and I want to share it here as it fits our discussion nicely.
Why is there so much hatred, distrust, division, conflict, intolerance and nastiness between people, communities, nations?
My answer is this: because human beings are starved of love, starved of connection, starved of joy, starved of fun... and perpetually stressed.
Peace and freedom, the biggest desire of all human beings, even if the desire lies deep in their psyches and out of their conscious sight, are increasingly elusive. For some there is none... no peace, no freedom, no let-up, constantly on the go, as if their body was an infinity machine that never ran out of energy.
We, the human beings alive today, have fallen into a diet, mindset and lifestyle that continuously poisons and stresses our mind and body, leaving our soul unable to breathe and do its good for us.
It's one huge big total mess.
We are by design social creatures, yet we have devised a lifestyle that is anti-social in so many respects. We saw the pathetic state we've fallen into during 2020, when we locked ourselves up and, when we were out and about, we had 'social distancing' designed to literally and physically keep people two metres apart - as if the 'virus' could only reach two metres outwards from you, despite instantly travelling 1000s of kilometres all over the world during Chinese New Year in 2020. It was not social distancing at all, it was anti-social distancing.
We are spiritually lost, empty.
We are psychologically disconnected, unhappy and lonely.
We are physically ill and diseased.
Many think this is the way it is, and nothing can be done, just have to accept this extremely low state of being.
Many pretend to others and to themselves that life is okay, even though millions around the world continue to be maimed and killed by pills, jabs, bullets, bombs, chemicals and bioweapons made by human beings.
Still others know it's a shit show, and they numb themselves with booze, drugs, junk foods, gambling, porn etc etc, in a desperate attempt to get some kind of pleasure out of life.
And then others go into politics and business to chase down power and money, thinking this will bring the desired freedom and happiness.
And since they go into these jobs with a screwed-up mind and locked-up heart, it's no surprise that they create so much death and destruction to human life, animal life, and planet life while busily chasing ever more power and money.
We can blame the politicians, the elites, the bloodline families, the media, the corporate CEOs, the Deep State, 'them', but in reality the problem is inside US.
But, because the problem is inside you, so is the solution.
But you can access the solution only if you first accept you are the problem**, and that you want a better life for yourself AND all other human beings.
All the while that you blame others for your woes, you remain powerless by your own decisions. When you stop blaming others, and look in your own mind and heart, and see all that darkness there, only then can the solution begin, kickstarted by the light of your perception.
"I can't control what you do, but I can control my reactions."
However, those who wilfully refuse to control their own reactions are the ones who do all the killing and other forms of destructive violence to try and bend, coerce and manipulate the world into the world they want.
What they don’t realise is that they lose out even more than we do.
Politics is shaped by people.
You—and every single one of us—have to find the courage to speak your mind, to express yourself and your thoughts, and to articulate your understandings. But this carries an obligation with it: to listen to others who do the same, and to listen attentively and with compassion. Such ways in communication will transform our lives and our relationship with each other, and with our planet.
And it’s either learn to communicate, and defend your inalienable right to free speech, or watch censorship turn us into another Soviet Union or Mao-run China back in the 20th century.
**Did you read An Education Charter and Framework for the Healing of Humankind, my mini-ebook yet?! If not, you will find a full discussion on this in the ebook, and in case you can’t find it or have lost your link, here’s the link to the book again, just click here.
Freedom of speech is THE fundamental freedom
Last word goes to the courageous CEO of Gab social media platform, Andrew Torba. He makes Gab a platform where he refuses to be cowed by Governments constantly requesting he censor this or that. He is writing a couple of days after the CEO of Telegram social media channel was arrested in France for not censoring stuff at the behest of the French Government, presumably complying with the government of a certain other country.
“The defense of free speech online must be our paramount concern in the digital age. As we witness the increasing encroachment of government control and corporate censorship on our virtual spaces, it becomes clear that the very essence of discourse is at stake. Free speech is not just a luxury or a noble ideal; it is the bedrock upon which all other freedoms are built.
Without the ability to express ourselves freely online, we risk sliding into a world where ideas are stifled, dissent is silenced, and the powerful can shape narratives unchallenged. The internet has given voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless – we cannot allow this revolutionary tool for human expression to be muzzled by those who fear its potential.
To defend free speech online at all costs means standing firm in the face of pressure from both governments and corporations. It means supporting platforms and technologies that prioritize user privacy and resist censorship. It means educating ourselves and others about the importance of digital rights and the dangers of unchecked authority in cyberspace.
We must be willing to face uncomfortable truths, to hear opinions we disagree with, and to engage in robust debate rather than seeking to silence opposition. The cost of defending free speech may be high – it may involve legal battles, loss of profit, or even personal risk – but the cost of losing it is immeasurably higher. Our digital freedom is not just about what we can say online; it’s about preserving the open exchange of ideas that drives human progress and safeguards our liberty in all spheres of life.”
Full article to be found here.
All the best
Philip
