The Luminous Web: Chapter 1 Part 3
Activating the “Authentic Self” – and Metanoia
Welcome to the Symbiotic Age Book!
If you are new, please visit the TABLE OF CONTENTS FIRST and catch up on your reading!
You are now in Chapter 1, Part 3, Activating the “Authentic Self” – and Metanoia.
Here are all the posts from Chapter 1:
Chapter 1, Part 1 — Luminous Encounter and Growing up in a Culture of Separation
Chapter 1, Part 2 — The Luminous Web, Cosmic Love, and the Logos
Chapter 1, Part 3 — Activating the “Authentic Self” – and Metanoia
Chapter 1, Part 4 — Aligning Society to an Ancient Blueprint
Trying to figure out Where This is All Going? Read an overview of the Symbiotic Culture Strategy — embodying the Transcendent through the nodes of intersection within local, grassroots-empowered community networks.
Previously, at the end of Chapter 1, Part 2:
I began to hear a different voice, “The Voice of the Heart of Love,” the voice of what I have come to call the “authentic self.”
Chapter 1: The Luminous Web - Part 3
Activating the “Authentic Self” – and Metanoia
At this point, you may wonder, how does someone who hasn’t had a spontaneous luminous experience as I did make a bridge to this luminous Ground of Being?
Can anyone hear the “voice of the Heart of Love”? The short answer is yes — we all have access to the Transcendent.
I chose the term “authentic self” to distinguish the voice of Cosmic Love from all the other competing voices, both outside of us and inside our heads.
This authentic voice has called me forth on an entirely different trajectory, a path I recognize as more aligned with the Transcendent Ground of Being itself.
When this living power flows through us, we literally become a healing, unifying, and transforming Presence in a broken, fragmented world.
When the term “authentic self” came to me, it didn’t feel like a “thing” but more like a “portal,” describing a two-way gateway to and from that luminous Transcendent Ground of Being.
I was curious how others defined the authentic self, so I Googled the term. I was astounded to find there were 500 million entries!
Turns out the popular “self-help” view of the authentic self is the exact opposite of what I discovered. Society now sees the authentic self as “a way to fulfill one’s dreams,” wishes, and even purpose, often related to an individual’s self-actualization. The bottom line is that it’s like the ego on steroids.
This individual focus should not be surprising, given how immersed we all are in the Culture of Separation — where it’s all about our “individual” desires, even in religious and spiritual circles. It’s also no surprise that the modern world views the authentic self as an independent, separate “thing” not connected to a community.
But to me, the authentic self is a “shared self,” a two-way portal, one side facing the Transcendent and the other side our neighbor -- the “other” in a community.
While many self-help and human potential advocates saw self-actualization as an end, I saw it as only the start of a deeper spiritual life that would turn the normal worldly ego upside down — and possibly invert the pyramid of economic and political power on the planet.
My view of the authentic self seems closer to the Christian concept of “conscience,” the still, small voice that can be conceived as “God’s whisper” in our ear — that guides us to do the right thing.
But, as we will see later, this internal “guidance system” is available to all, regardless of religion or non-religion. Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, a Buddhist, called it “personality awakening” — the foundation of the Sarvodaya Movement in Sri Lanka.
The Authentic Self illuminates our understanding of universal principles and virtues so that we express the deepest, universal love and operate in alignment with the Ground of Being.
As C.S. Lewis described, it’s like a universal architecture, what I would call a universal operating system — even though it’s called by different names across cultures and religions, East, West, and Indigenous.
Recognizing this pre-existing law of life and love, an Ancient Blueprint written in our hearts, is at the core of how we transform the Culture of Separation into a Culture of Connection to activate a new world — by re-weaving the bonds of community in a fundamentally new way.
As I have indicated, back when I started having my luminous experiences, I knew no concepts that could describe or explain them.
One reason might be that, while these experiences are universal and more common than we are led to believe, the Culture of Separation has no “use” for the Transcendent.
Consequently, terms like Logos and the one I am about to introduce, “Metanoia,” may seem archaic, relegated to quaint irrelevance.
They are as real and present as my experience was. I am intentionally referring to these terms, rather than creating new ones, to reinforce the universality of this Transcendent experience.
So, Metanoia …
Originally from Greek, meaning a “change of mind,” Metanoia is also seen in Christian thought as synonymous with spiritual conversion or a fundamental change of mind and heart.
I see Metanoia as a radical turning, a conversion from the normal life of self-serving love in a Culture of Separation to a new life of self-giving love, the foundation of a new Culture of Connection.
It requires authentic inner regeneration, a reorientation towards life, and a new way of deeply loving and living.
Unfortunately, in much of Christian tradition, this term has been narrowly associated by many with doing penance, being punished, and repentance rather than a life-changing transformation like going from being a caterpillar to a butterfly — a new creation.
It’s not just a change of attitude, a point of view, or a new philosophy.
The paradox is that you can’t get “there” through concepts, thinking or feeling your way there, or even trying to get there. It’s a real-world, embodied experience that reflects transformation.
So, what exactly is Metanoia, and how does it relate to my own life-changing experience? Perhaps the most lucid description of Metanoia comes from a 5th-century monk, St. Diadochos of Photiki of Greece.
For those of you who follow other religious traditions or none, I share this to convey a deeply felt experience, even though, obviously, these words come from a religious frame.
St. Diadochos writes:
“Those who consciously love God in their hearts never lose an intense longing for spiritual illumination until they feel it in their bones and no longer know themselves but are completely transformed by the love of God. They are both present in this life and not present.
They live in the body but have departed from it, as through love, they ceaselessly journey in their souls towards God. Their hearts constantly burn with the fire of love, and they cling to God with an irresistible fervor, for they have, once and for all, transcended self-love in their love for God.”
I’ve never encountered a clearer view of what happened to me, the immediate changes it sparked in my perception, my life, and the path it set me on.
The Metanoia experience of being catapulted from ordinary reality to see the extraordinary, ordering structure beneath and beyond everything — activated my conscience and connected me with my authentic self.
Just as our Western civilization has conflated repentance with penance, we’ve been taught to believe that the conscience is only something that constrains or limits our behavior. After all, by definition, repentance refers to rethinking — but paradoxically, this rethinking comes through the heart.
For instance, if we were going to do something bad, our conscience would kick in, so we would feel pre-guilt and not do it. And while that is an essential constraint underlying the order within a healthy society, it’s a very small part of my own experience of conscience. (By the way, the Latin root of conscience is “knowledge within oneself,” “to know, to be conscious.”)
My childhood experience was a deep transmission of knowledge directly from the Luminous Architecture of reality, and it was a JOYFUL and all-expansive experience, not just a constraining one. In other words, instead of only being fraught with “shalt nots,” it felt like one big SHALT!
I now see Metanoia as a Spiritual Revolution of the Heart, a dramatic turning away from conforming to the rulers of this world, who would lock us into materiality and its by-product — buying products and being good consumers within a “machine” like global system.
This inward movement away from the addictions and structures of the conditioned world allowed me to connect with and embrace a more fundamental Transcendent Ground of Being, part of the “conversion” experience.
And … going within doesn’t necessarily mean going without.
It’s not so much about giving up the world and the things of the world but fundamentally changing our relationship with them.
In other words, turning away from the world doesn’t mean retreating to a cave, a monastery, or an ashram but returning to the world, embodying Metanoia as an ongoing life process.
It’s a kind of re-inhabiting, re-occupying the “surface” self, becoming a new creation with a new life direction. It’s not about getting more of what I think I want — it’s about CHANGING WHAT I WANT fundamentally.
Saint Paul said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
I believe that’s what happened to me — and what is happening to many of us, whether we know it or not.
Instead of retreating into some spiritual bubble, I was drawn INTO the world as I sought to understand this paradox — the harmonious and unified order of the luminosity on the one hand and the human fragmentation and suffering on the other.
It explains why my formation (shaping) deviated so sharply from most of my peers and why this higher and deeper perspective left me looking at the Culture of Separation and asking, “What’s wrong with this picture?
I asked myself a question I’ve spent most of my lifetime seeking to answer: while I experience a deep connectedness and illumination that seems to underlie and permeate all of life, why doesn’t human society operate this way?”
I made an absolute commitment, a vow to accept the suffering in myself and the whole world as my personal responsibility — and do what I could to align the world with the Luminous Web I’d experienced, bringing Heaven to Earth.
The following poem may explain what I was going through as a young adult — not running away from suffering but trusting that it is part of the more extensive, necessary unfolding process that is part of reality.
Suffering is Never Alone But Shared
“I feel and see the flow of life and death inside and outside me. Sometimes, I resist in despair, saying — why should this be, all the senseless misery? Tears are unleashed.
Torrents of liquid stream from me, dripping onto the sunlit ground. At first, it was a puddle, then a vast pool of tears — an ocean of sorrow from all the suffering.
Oh, the flesh cries out with confusion. My little ego reels under the awesome sight, ripping and tearing.
Life must be more than the struggle of birth, sickness, pain, old age, and fear of death.
Some drown the pain in distractions: with some, it’s drugs, material possessions, or money; still others, it’s power, fame, sex, or false love, with others, religion, politics, or social movements.
None of these satisfy me now.
Naked, I expose my body and mind. Open, there is no place to hide. Raw, I face the elemental forces of creation. Finally, there is a glorious surrender as I break through the veil of darkness.
The spirit of the Great Mystery works through me with more intensity. I feel connected to all beings.
Suffering is never alone but shared.
It is not aimless. There is purpose and direction. Pushed to let go of our silly games, pretenses, petty lies, and deceits until we contact the Truth and Reality inside and regain memory of our divine nature. To see the beauty that is eternal, continually bringing creation and destruction, life and death, eternally striving for awareness of the Great Mystery.
Suffering and supreme peace fit together like hand and glove.”
I began to realize that it’s not about rejecting the world itself but the patterns of the world that divert us from “what’s written in our hearts,” the beautiful life of the spirit, and the “more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”
I began to see the world from this deeper perspective, and that’s why I felt like an alien, and I still do. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when he said, “… in the world but not of it.”
Again, while the concept of Metanoia might be Christian in origin, it is universally recognized.
Sarvodaya’s Dr. Ari, a Buddhist, called it “personality awakening” – that is, awakening beyond the limits of our egotism and recognizing that awakening happens not only within individuals and families — but at the same time within an awakening physical, local community.
Dr. Ari wrote:
“All our cravings for power, position, status, wealth, etc. originate from this egotism. Living with others with similar egotistic tendencies naturally brings about competition, ill will, hatred, and, finally, violent interpersonal conflicts.
When a person goes through a spiritual awakening process, these egotistic tendencies are reduced, and their interpersonal relationships become healthy.”
In the fifty years since my first luminous experience, my life path has been to reweave the connection within myself and between individuals, organizations, nature, and society — by integrating what I believe is the single most important missing ingredient in current movements for societal change — the Transcendent foundation of reality.
I recognize in retrospect, that not only was I tapping into the Ancient Blueprint, the Logos, a cosmic ordering principle, I was downloading it into my very being. For me, Metanoia was a rite of passage, shifting how I lived — with a grounding in transcendent reality instead of having to conform to the dominant culture.
Whether we know it or not, the “quickening” process of Metanoia is happening one way or another within many of us — and guiding those in seemingly separate movement threads, but now coming together, weaving a beautiful tapestry of a new Beloved Community.
Being “inhabited” by Metanoia allows us to see above and beyond today’s polarized political narratives — a new awareness necessary to deal with our challenges.
In going beyond ideological constructs that may be capturing our identities without us even knowing it— we discover how to be a UNITER instead of a DIVIDER.
Could our entire species now be undergoing a kind of Mass Metanoia where we are actually maturing from adolescence to adulthood that can help turn our upside-down global Culture of Separation right-side up?
Could it be that we live in a time where we are not only “children of God” but becoming full-fledged adults of Good?
For this practical spiritual awakening to be realized, we must first become aware of and then align with the Ancient Blueprint, the “ordering principle” that has been hidden in plain sight.
Richard, thank you for helping us weave the community. Oh that it could be now that the world flips from separation to connection! Keep weaving -- find the strands.
I hear everything you shared here. My heart is singing YES! in resonance. So good to find you here brother.