The Power Of Yin: The New Form Of Eros

October 16, 2008

From Chapter IV:

Jean: Dantes closing words in The Divine Comedy: lamor che muove il sol e laltre stelle. The love that moves the sun and the other stars. And, you know, we ultimately come down to that. What is it about? Its about that apprehension of union, of connection, not just with one, but with the plurality of being - which then primes all further growth.

Barbara: This is the vision that has motivated me: the vision of being part of the body of humankind, and that body struggling to become one and moving towards the sense of universal life. It wasnt Barbara Hubbard connecting with God.

Hazel: Yes, Ive always sensed that in you.

Barbara: And I dont think its Hazel Henderson making just the personal link.

Hazel: Oh no.

Barbara: And you, Jean, wouldnt be working out in the world as you do, and at the New School for Social Research.

Jean: And with all of the little black children and prisoners.

Hazel: Its really the attempt to link the organic human species body.

Barbara: Maybe weve hit upon one of the key elements of feminine consciousness: putting that effort first.

Hazel: Yes!

Barbara: Each one of us could have pursued a life of deep contemplation. We could have become yogis. You probably are one, Jean, but you dont spend all of your time in a lotus position. You are out in the world.

Jean: Yogi means union.

Barbara: Yes, but in the traditional forms, yogis spent a great deal of time isolated from the world. You have a tremendously active life. And so does Hazel, and so do I. You, being a real worker in the spiritual field, are manifesting this sense externally.

Jean: This is the new form of Eros!

Barbara: I have a vision of you as seeing all of the members of the human species, and being attracted to the potential of each one. And the more that you can reach with your power to emancipate them, the more the human species will be able to connect. You have a very powerful motivation to reach a lot of people. How do you see that desire to reach as many as possible?

Jean: Well, it didnt begin that way. From about 1960 until about five years ago I had been working with thousands of individuals on a one-to-one basis. And then I began to realize that these things could happen - it works! And now Ive gotten rid of a lot of the little local self-the galloping hubris and a certain arrogance that comes from having been too successful too early, and a college professor at nineteen. Thats a lot of garbage! If you can get rid of that, the channels become much clearer. When you get rid of the unnecessary ego protections - leaving enough, of course, to keep body and mind and soul together, and to make you get up in the morning - then the flow to others becomes very natural. Its not a question of having to go out and reach more people; its just that one is prepared, and the natural ecology of things demands it. But Im glad I wasnt cut loose on the world fifteen years ago!

Barbara: But youre cut loose on the world now.

Jean: Yes, but in a condition I hope and pray is not ego conditioned. And it has to be cleaned out and revitalized every morning! Not for reasons of ego, but because of the accumulation of garbage - people projecting things on to you: angers; fears; hostilities. You know all about that.

Hazel: Yes, right.

Barbara: How do you clear out in the morning?

Jean: Well, there are many ways of doing it. I lie there, and my mind becomes a marvelous emptiness, and a great expanse. Its the breathing into that and realizing that I am no-thing ... and that when being began nothing mattered. [laughter] But it needs constant observation. Any moment that Im a little suspicious that Im doing something for reasons that might be ambitious or personal - I stop.

Hazel: Isnt that interesting, Jean, the extension to the next level of the observer/observed thing. This is very important to me; I find that Im constantly watching myself. If I find that Im doing things hysterically, or for ego needs, or for any of the old motivations that Im trying to shed, I want to monitor it and get rid of it. Weve recreated the old dichotomy on the next level.

(Reprinted with permission from The Power of Yin).

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