(Sage): One, though definitely not the only motivation for awakening, is suffering. At the depths of suffering there seems to be only two really viable choices for a person. Those choices are to die (literally and often one is faced with the choice of death by suicide) or to awaken. And as I have said before, I do not view awakening as a static event. I view it as an ever evolving process. There is however, I believe, a significant difference between being asleep, being half asleep and being awake, even though I believe there are stages to the awakened state.
People who are members of some of the more intense minority groups on the planet and that have equally intense prejudice, discrimination, hatred and anger directed at them ---gender minorities, sexual minorities, ethnic minorities, people who are persecuted for their religious and spiritual beliefs, people living with disabilities, people who have certain diseases (including obesity and mental illness) and such do have a tendency to suffer more than most. And so yes, this suffering, when it occurs, is an asset as far as the awakening process is concerned. This is because such people have a better than average chance of experiencing suffering to the degree where one gets to that point or believing they have gotten to the point of facing the choice to either die or awaken. This is increased when one's membership in such groups is multiplied, such as someone who is a blind, openly lesbian, Buddhist practitioner living in Iran, for example.
So the opportunity for awakening is greater for such people. That is the blessing, if we can call it that. That however, is where the blessing ends. From there the curse takes over.
The curse is that when one belongs to one or more such nearly universally maligned groups and also experiences personal suffering as a result, there is an extremely strong urge to create some kind of identity out of one's membership in such groups. What I mean by creating some kind of identity is that a certain kind of attachment to one's membership in the group begins to take over and one begins to define themselves more as a member of a particular group or groups than in any other way. One becomes a card carrying member of oppressed group consciousness. Gay Pride, Black Pride, Latin Pride and such can serve as a way to gain self acceptance and dramatically increase self esteem around one's minority status. They can also just as easily be the beginning of a certain type of prison that many people have no idea they have been locked into. It often becomes a life sentence for many. The keys have been thrown away. White Pride, as in white supremacy groups, can also have the downside at least, in terms of creating an identity. I have not met too many members of white supremacy group though--and perhaps surprisingly, I have met several--who seem to also experience an *authentic* expression of the increased self esteem part.
There are probably few things one can experience that is a larger impediment to awakening than creating an identity out of anything, not just membership in a real or imagined maligned group.
So while yes, experiencing suffering as a result of membership in a discriminated group or class of people can lead to awakening, my experience is that it more often, at this point in time, leads to the creation of an identity around those things and then subsequently becomes an extremely strong obstacle to awakening.
2 comments:
You might be interested in the work of social theorist Richard Florida, who is famous for his concept of the Creative Class. In his opinion, GLBTIs, immigrants and bohemians are the counter-cultural forces that inspire people who do creative work, who in turn bring any economy prosperity.
I'm unfamiliar with Florida or his work. I'll check it out. Thanks!
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