Hierarchy

Last Updated on December 11, 2011

Every where I look I see the illusion of hierarchy playing out. I see it playing out within my own psyche. I see it playing out within organisations, religions, spiritual paths, institutions, families, and within society as a whole.

I see it in myself and when I feel into it the number one feeling I get is one of separation. Deep seated separation.

Oneness can only ever be a nice intellectual concept so long as that separation is there.

I remember two teachers I had. Part of the medicine they gave me was to uncover and heal that place in me that wanted to adhere to hierarchy and spiritual superiority. In my experience these two teachers were hooked into this type of mentality and soul disposition and I aligned with that to the degree that I was willing to accommodate that kind of mentality within myself. Part of completing with them was completing with this sort of mentality within myself. Important medicine.

If hierarchy is an illusionary trap then what is real in this regard?
What is real, in my experience, is that we are all equal. Creation and everything in creation was created equally. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you or I can’t learn from someone else. Not at all. Just as the cells in a body are in constant communication with each other, and are teaching each other about incoming pathogens (through the communication mechanism of antibodies) etc. everything in the macrocosm is also communicating in this way. If one group of cells in a body attempted to be more important and superior to another group of cells then havoc would break out. Cancer is much like a group of cells deciding that they aren’t going to listen to the rest of the body any more. They will feed off what the body provides you arrogantly consider themselves devoid of the necessity to cooperate with the rest of the body, and may eventually destroy the body as a whole. Some people might say that the brain is at the top of a perceived body hierarchy because we think that the brain is controlling everything else. Yet this is simply not true. Cell throughout the body have the capacity to produce chemicals that equate to thinking and emotions. The body is in unity. When it comes out of unity it goes into disease.

The only other point I feel to make right now is to emphasise the importance of exploring the those dark places inside where you feel higher than / better than / superior to other people—where you feel above the rest of the world. Physically above, mentally above, and most insidiously spiritually above others. I don’t wish to imply that you can’t recognise your strengths and the gifts God has imbued you with. No, not at all. Rather I wish to suggest that in recognising these attributes you come to a place of gratitude (great-attitude) and humbly (with a deep inner smile) recognise that these gifts are not unique to you, nor are they personal to you—but how you use them and what you do with them is over to you. That’s the responsibility that comes with each gift.

With love,

Jonathan