by Joe Loizzo
“Seekers, the mind is naturally luminous and pure, its afflictions are not intrinsic.”
—Shakyamuni Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya
These days, when the fear-based, othering narratives our cultures have used to control us get more nakedly exposed as lies every day, I’m spending as much of my time as I can trying to leverage the crisis all the lies have fomented into a pivotal opportunity. I’ve been encouraging everyone I can to wake up from the original big lie: that we’re not enough, not good enough, don’t know enough, are not young, rich or powerful enough; that we need leaders and must be followers; that the people we call leaders have to lead us from a place of fear, anger and bias, a place that separates us from our loving selves, from others and from the earth we share.
That awakening sounds easy: we’re more than enough, somewhere inside us is an inner Buddha/guide that is naturally brilliant, naturally good. But what I’ve learned in offering that good news to myself and others is that it’s not so easy for us to find that part of us that can really take it in. So why is that amazing news so hard to believe, to feel? Because it requires a sober confrontation with what Shakyamuni Buddha considered our worst demon: the instinctive social survival drive Freud called infantile narcissism, the wish to be forever the child of an all-knowing, all-powerful higher power/God.
This primal insecurity/longing is the stubborn, insidious demon that, when preyed on by sociopaths, can possess individuals to make other humans their higher power, and can possess whole groups, giving rise to imperialism, fascism, totalitarianism, and supremacies of all kinds. It is the demon that seduces us into the blind faith that we cannot and need not all lead ourselves; the wishful thinking that somehow something outside us—God, Nature, the Supreme Leader, the “invisible hand” of capitalism, the idols of wealth, fame or power, the next technology, AI—can save us from our own demons or grant us true freedom and happiness.
Of course, waking up to the lie is not enough for us to shift out of self-doubt into self-confidence and basic trust. Now is the time to take refuge in the truth of the many countercultures throughout history and around the world that have sought to empower us to lead ourselves, others, and our lives from our creative powers of love, joy and awe. Countercultures like Buddhist psychology, our many mystical and indigenous wisdom traditions, today’s positive neuropsychology and the new science of human flourishing all affirm our natural capacity to live sustained by awe, love and care for all life, starting with our own.
This is where we are now, in the global crisis of our age, hopefully at another great turning point in human history. It’s time for us to break with the dominant narratives and toxic leaders who prey on the fear, bias and anger that separate us from our true selves, one another and the planet. It’s time to keep reminding ourselves that we have what we need, as long as we can remember to mind/let go of the traumatized part of us that reflexively clings to feeling helpless, powerless and small.
It’s time we commit to seeking out, feeling into and embodying the strong forces of love and awe that are our birthright and native genius—forces that for too long have been locked down in the core of our being. And it’s time to admit to ourselves and each other that no other path, pursuit or remedy but deepening our refuge in reality/community and intensifying the seriousness of our analysis and practice can empower us to successfully navigate this pivotal turn.
Only owning and learning to be/live the truth of our native brilliance and goodness can free us to thrive as individuals and together as one human family—to co-create a sustainable, equitable future of earthly belonging and mutual responsibility for all. Once we awaken and own our inner guide—both as individuals and as a countercultural community of care—nothing can stop us but the demon of our own sense of powerlessness.