Awake in This Life

Fundamentalism arises when any religious organization, or any person, attaches so intensely to some version of truth that it must be defended. In this space, the ego continually seeks security by playing out its drama of “attack and defend.” This drama offers all sorts of teachers and practitioners an opportunity to commit to various forms of separation where an attitude of “we’re right and they’re wrong” not only rules, but begets more attachment. This space can sow seeds of terrible violence all in the name of the collective egoic version of what it deems sacred.

Fundamentalism, in any of us, destroys that which it seeks to protect. It’s as if a hand, enticed by the elegant simplicity of a flower and wanting to possess its beauty, grasps its bloom and crushes what it wants most. Living from a place of true intimacy, where flowers could be experienced rather than possessed, would mean that ego would have to allow itself out of its own cage of security. Yet to do this the ego must surrender to that which it cannot control.

This Awakened surrender is rare since the ego is always busy seeking control. Even when this opening happens for any of us, Spirit often gets interpreted and then boxed in by ego. This interpretation always forces the boundlessness of Spirit into a newly created exclusivity, and this is exactly what Spirit is not. Rather than surrender to the total and complete inclusive nature of Spirit, ego labels its packaged version of Spirit as “the only thing worth believing.” Here is where an opportunity for kindness and compassion for the All gets cast aside as weakness by a deeply threatened ego, and this is the psychological space where destructive attachments perpetually emerge.

In order to break free of the bindings that fear and fundamentalism offer, we need to study our own fundamentalist tendencies. When we continually look within to see where we “get fundamental” ourselves, we are employing the consciousness that will free us from it. But we need courage to ask ourselves difficult questions. Does hatred arise within us? That’s fundamentalism. Is the world black and white to us? That’s fundamentalism. Does a feeling of defensiveness arise about certain topics? That’s fundamentalism. Is there any blaming of others for anything? That’s fundamentalism. This doesn’t mean that any of us should give in to things our common sense sees as wrong. Rather, it means that our responses to every situation should be sourced from openness rather than spiritual closure. This openness will do all of us some good since it is exactly what will keep us from throwing gasoline on any fundamentalist flames, especially our own.