It All Falls Down
The Importance of Downward Movement in a Culture Addicted to Exponential Growth
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It’s easy to think that progress is only a linear upward movement. We live in a culture that promotes such. Anything that draws us from hitting our targets is stagnation or, even worse, regression. The addiction to this definition of progress leads us to focus on transcendence, potential, and future outcomes. We assume that these qualities are better than others. While they are meaningful, they are not the only movements of progress.
There is also a downward movement. Rooted in the integration of past failures, missteps, bad judgments, and broken promises. Ascension without downward integration leaves something out. When something is left out we are numb to a part of our experience. So if we override ourselves with a focus on transcendence, we usually leave the parts of ourselves behind that are currently unable to transcend. Hence, we can live spacious and open in some parts of life and contracted or stressed in others.
A symptom of this is trying to get somewhere. Attempting to get away from the current circumstances in order to get to better times. This is a clear sign that something is left out. We try to transcend something before it has been integrated. Then seemingly there is something holding us back from our potential. We fight against these things even though they are simply the downward movement that also should be considered in the definition of progress.
Many of us have fallen into the trap of applying the principles of a hyper-capitalistic society to other areas of our life where they don’t quite fit. For example, spiritual practice and relationships. If we attempt to scale our spirituality exponentially without also tuning into its ever-present downward movement too, we will be humbled. Something will bring us back down from our sky-bound holy thrones because spirituality is both an upward and downward movement (side to side too, but more on that another time).
The same goes for relationships. We may find ourselves seeking out the next perfect match after finding some things we don’t like about our current partner. We may come to face some of the same patterns in our partnerships or friendships, ignoring the call of integration and moving out into the world for something better. Or we might even put unhealthy pressure on our partner to change because we feel uncomfortable with the way they currently express themselves.
Overall, the compulsion of expansion without connection to the roots drives us to change the outside world for our benefit. There’s no space for compassion, empathy, or even rest in such a movement. Then we wonder why our society is continuously burnt out. We see why we have trouble creating a sustainable world outside when we can’t regenerate our own energy internally.
From my perspective, the state of our spirituality as a collective is shifting to include a downward movement. For the past hundred years at least, we have attempted to take the practices and techniques from the ancient world and apply them in a modern context with little adjustments for the new cultural framework.
Of course, the wisdom traditions with practices focused on transcending the human condition were originally taken on by people living a certain lifestyle. Extracting the philosophy and techniques out of the ancient context and simply placing them in the (post) modern world is problematic.
However, the wisdom of these practices is eternal. So it is up to us to investigate what works and update them for the times. Otherwise, we will find that our spirituality is taking us out of life. The fire of reaching some higher potential or enlightenment will cast its shadow on the here and now. We will become less resilient or adaptable to the environment we find ourselves in. Then, need to escape or solely be around certain types of people who “get it.” All symptoms of what has yet to be integrated. The continuation upward isn’t the answer.
The downward movement is inclusive. Challenges are opportunities for something that was once excluded to be incorporated. Therefore, when we don’t see a challenge as an obstacle to the growth we seek but as an essential part of it, we create space for the new to emerge. We give an opportunity to the voices that have been cast aside, either by us or our ancestors. We have to listen first. Only then can we develop beyond what is seemingly stuck.
But this is a difficult thing to do because it requires not thinking we know it better. We are frequently walking around as if we know life. To bow to an area of scarcity requires extraordinary humility and sincerity.
All this is to say that when our spirituality becomes exclusive we are likely not transcending anything new. We can fool ourselves but we are anyhow stuck in a repetition compulsion.
When life fragments, meaning part of it is excluded, the fragmentation itself will pull us to investigate polarities. In other words, it will continue to fragment and we will likely find ourselves dealing with unconscious attractions or aversions. An enlightened life is a life of choice. Not in the sense of free will beyond the will of a higher guiding principle. Moreso, where we make choices in alignment with life – the supreme intelligence – or not and are aware of and willing to take individual responsibility for the consequences of such.
Our desire to focus on progress in terms of growth or transcendence is often due to an earlier fragmentation. And the actual transcendence comes when we onboard the part that is making us want to run to the better place or “get there.” So progress sometimes may look like regress, but that’s just dependent on who is looking.
Often we are looking at our problems through the lens of the same mechanism that wanted us to exclude the thing in the first place. In other words, we are completely identified with the fragmentation and can’t see beyond it. If we can create enough space to look from a different perspective, we might find the beauty, intelligence, and love that initially created what later became a difficulty.
To find this witnessing spaciousness we need both grounding and expansion. The transcendental practices don’t work without the restoration, therefore understanding, of the split from wholeness. It’s essential that we see nothing can be left behind.
Trying to get somewhere beyond where we are is a huge effort. When we give this up, we face reality as it is. That necessitates a collapse of all our ideas, concepts, and wishful thinking. It may feel like we are losing something without the effort but instead, we are taking a step closer to life. And from such an open place, life can fill us with exactly what is needed. We end up being able to enjoy the ordinariness of the moment, which is what we want anyway – to savor life’s beauty, wholly and freely.