Enlighten

Spiritual Leadership – Part 3 – Beyond Location

“Buy land. They’re not making it any more.”

~ Mark Twain

Press play to hear an audio enhancement as you read.

 

The famous mantra for real estate is “location, location, location.” While that may indeed be the top value priority for real estate, location is increasingly irrelevant in a society woven together by digital technology.

One of the truly disruptive and intriguing innovations in society is the “untethering” phenomenon that technological advances are bringing to an increasingly broad swath of modern life.

This has progressed through telegraph, telephones, radio, television, fax machines, mobile phones, and the internet. Emails and phone calls can originate anywhere in the world; physical locations simply don’t matter. In fact, we have to ask to find out where the person we are conversing is located.



When we consider technological progress like this it’s interesting to ask, “Where did this come from?” A simplistic but consistently accurate answer is, “From inside ourselves.” We invent in the outer world from familiar concepts and structures that already exist inside ourselves.

For instance, we could say that automobiles streaming along freeways are an externalized version of cells flowing through the various circulatory systems within our bodies. The internet is perhaps the best example, revealing a massive connectivity that is pre-dated by the synergistic array of systems inside our individual bodies and also existing in the natural world. Everything is already connected to everything else, as far as biology is concerned. In that sense, technology is catching up, rather than leading the way.

Worldwide

This understanding opens up a unique perspective on the potential for individual impact in a world that seems far too vast for any single individual to exert much significant effect. Regardless of where we are – a small coffee shop in rural Bulgaria or the White House in Washington – we are plugged in (without external wiring) to the whole of the human species plus every other life form that exists… everywhere.

It’s fair to argue that the President of the United States can exert more influence in the world than you or I can. True enough, to a degree. But on another level, he’s one human with one energetic field just like we are. This means that, from a spiritual standpoint, we are all equal, at least in terms of potential. Again, similarly to what we may achieve in the world at large, it’s a matter of actualizing potential. Some people make a mark in the world by activating their innate genius, learning skills, working hard, and creating value. Others watch TV all day and quietly fade away.

We develop ourselves in the material world by expanding our capacities and focusing in the fields where we live and work. We can develop ourselves in the spiritual world by doing exactly the same thing, and that starts with identifying what fields we live and work in on that inner level. This takes us into a consideration of self beyond roles. I am… what? A meditation teacher, a writer, a son, a brother, etc. But I am also a focus of spirit, an essence that is utterly unique. So, what is the nature of my uniqueness?




We can look admiringly at someone like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela and agree they were special beings. Why? Because they actualized their potential. How many others are there who have it within their innate spiritual make up to rise to prominence in terms of social contribution, yet never do because they never get activated?

Untethered

Spiritual seekers are often fixated on achieving enlightenment as a state of being valued for itself. But what about the value enlightened beings bring into the world and, even more significantly, into the milieu of mass consciousness that we all swim in? When we re-frame our spiritual aspirations that way, it becomes obvious that location is entirely irrelevant.

Here’s the moment, here’s the opportunity. It may seem totally insignificant but remember, the greatest destructive power humans have developed occurs through splitting the atom. The most effective homeopathic remedies are those that have been diluted to the point where none of the original physical constituents remain… it’s just energy.

Power resides in the small. So, yes, we are small, rather ordinary individuals. But we do possess the potential to affect significant positive change in the world, one thought, one word, one action at a time, depending on the state we inhabit before, during, and after any of those occur.




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