Preservation or Transcendence?

We are continuing our series of Robert Brumet's book entitled Birthing a Greater Realty: A Guide for Conscious Evolution.

We began this exploration last Sunday by considering the call of Conscious Evolution as the call to wake up from the dream that we are separate individual personas in order to realize the depth of our Oneness with and, as Spirit.

From there we could  see that evolution doesn’t just happen to us, but through us.
We are being called to wake up to the fullness that we are in Spirit in order to consciously participate in this pivotal stage of evolution. Doing this also expands (evolves) our consciousness. Ultimately, this is an opportunity to expand our awareness beyond its current limitations. 

Brumet’s explanation of what keeps us asleep reveals a viable path to waking up, and a helpful understanding as to why this process feels so challenging.

The answer lies in the limited nature of the mind itself, and our mistaken identity with it as who we are. As we begin to see this limitation for what it is, our sense of identity is shaken and we feel threatened. This threat results in a rush of fear and anxiety that triggers an immediate defense response. We have a plethora of these defense mechanisms to help shield us from the presence of this fear.If the threat is too severe or traumatic, we may even regress; acting in ways that we have worked hard to transform.

Good news! This is an instinctual defense response, not a character flaw or an inability to transform and transcend. More news! The fear and anxiety remain but we continue to shield ourselves from them.

“The inclination to cling to an old strategy is a universal tendency. When animals including humans are frightened or traumatized, they typically will regress to an earlier form of behavior. When afraid we cling to that which gives us a sense of security. We typically revert to an old way of being in an attempt to feel safe rather than face the raw terror of the unknown” (Brumet, p. 19).

Can you relate?

I certainly can.I have acted this out in various and sundry ways over my lifetime.

Now that I am more aware of how this happens, I can begin to cultivate another way of repsonding. Ultimately, we need to actually address the fear itself rather than clinging to security.

This also sheds light on how this is playing out in our collective experience as a result of the ongoing stress that we have all experienced.

“This propensity exists within groups of people as well. When threatened, families, organizations and nations will hold on to what seems to be tried and true and will have little inclination to experiment with new ways of being. In times of crisis, patriotism, nationalism and the old time values typically stage a comeback.

That which we call dysfunctional behavior is the result of unconsciously clinging to an outmoded way of behaving and relating to others. To live without these internal maps to guide us, to interpret our reality and to make sense of our life experiences can be terrifying” 

(Brumet, p. 20).

Part of waking up requires us to see the limited functionality of our mind, and stop expecting it to take us somewhere it literally cannot go. Harnessing the full power of our awareness also requires us to be willing to look at our unawareness. This also triggers resistance and fear. 

We have come to be the dominant species by way of the power of our mind to manipulate and navigate our environment with great success. Questioning that mechanism and seeing its inherent limits seems like a threat to our very survival.

And yet, it seems that our very survival depends on it.

“This tension is part of a crisis that is evoking us to birth a greater reality. By deepening our understanding of both these forces; the drive to maintain our present identity and the drive to evolve beyond it we will be in a better position to facilitate this birth” (Brumet, p. 22).

Join us Sunday at 10am to continue this exploration!

Brumet, R. (2010). Birthing a Greater Reality. Unity Village: Unity Books.