Open Enlightenment

Building a New Tradition: Part 4

This conversation brought to my attention the vast number of questions that need to be addressed and considered when it comes to developing a community or tradition (or whatever it is), and in the video you can see the very beginnings of my articulation of how I envision this tradition taking shape (a big thank you to Vinay for facilitating this). I hope to flesh out the details (and the language) over the coming months before presenting this ‘new model’ for feedback.

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Building a New Tradition: Part 3

Relevant links:

Governance

Cohousing (also see the UK Cohousing Network)

Holacracy

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Building a New Tradition: Part 2

Relevant links:

Commune movement

The Farm

Stephen Gaskin

Guru

G.I. Gurdjieff

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Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta

A week ago I was fortunate enough to be joined in my flat by Vinay Gupta, inventor of the Hexayurt, founder of the Bucky Ghandi Design Institution, editor of The Future We Deserve, and state-failure guru, where we explored the various aspects of organisation and infrastructure necessary to develop my ideas for a new enlightenment tradition.

I video’d the conversation using my Flip HD, which has a narrow focus so you’ll have to excuse my head being partially in shot, and after ruthlessly editing down the talk I can now present the best bits in a 20 minute video.

I know what you’re thinking: without some violence, tits or CGI to hold your attention, you’re going to find it difficult to concentrate for that long. And that’s why I’ve also cut the film up into small bite size chunks, the first of which you will find below the full length film. I intend to post a new segment (of which there are 3 more) over the coming days (it might also make for a more structured conversation around the points made in each segment).

So if you’re feeling brave (or you’re particularly interested in this topic) here’s the full thing:

Building a New Tradition: A Conversation with Vinay Gupta from Alan Chapman on Vimeo.

Alternatively, here’s Part 1:

Relevant links (for part 1):

Lahiri Mahasaya

Earth ships (one example of off grid sustainable living)

Right livelihood

Note: In the video, we touch upon stepping away from a ‘corrupt economic system’. It should be emphasised that this is not a knee jerk and all too common reaction within the ‘spiritual scene’ to money in and of itself; rather, the current economic model or system is what is being called in to question and rejected wholesale. I’m all in favour of investigating initiatives such as the Totnes Pound or even a Resource Based Economy, but exploring alternatives such as these are a natural conclusion if we take a mindful approach to money, our behaviour and the consequences of our spending seriously. Check out Hokai Sobol talking about this topic over at Buddhist Geeks.

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The End of Open Enlightenment?

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Lost in Translation

I’m only five satsangs in to my teaching career, but I think it’s time for a course correction.

In the past I‘ve always considered the irreverence for authority prevalent in the West to be a good thing. Authority is prone to abuse, and is often faked; respect should only be forthcoming when genuine authority is demonstrated.

In the past I’ve found the offense Eastern teachers take from the Westerner’s failure to acknowledge position and status a quant example of culture shock. I’ve also considered Westerner teachers who bemoan our irreverence to be suffering from their own power trips.

But then I had never tried to teach before; I had never encountered how easily people’s issues can co-opt a session (to their complete ignorance); how the failure to honour a teaching hierarchy (especially on my part) can allow others to sabotage the time with their own lack of integrity by holding forth with their opinions; how a student first needs to recognise the teacher’s function and their own reason for being there before any real teaching can commence.

I’ve experienced all of these things (and more) in my very short time as a teacher. And all of this is due to my own naivety!

My plan was simple: I would adapt a traditional Eastern method of teaching by holding a weekly satsang, where those wishing to explore enlightenment could come and ask me questions as a means of facilitating their own enlightenment. It would be relaxed, open and informal. As I was just starting out, I thought adopting a donation model would work best: the room was cheap, and maybe if everyone gave a couple of pounds, I could cover the room hire and perhaps save a bit of cash that could eventually go towards hiring a bigger and better venue, or perhaps allow me to buy a few cushions for our sits, or even organise a weekend retreat.

But the sad fact is very few people are interested in enlightenment, many cannot and do not recognise the function of a teacher, and some couldn’t care less if the cost of the room is covered if they don’t really have to pay.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we Westerner’s only really respect one thing: what we have paid for.

About turn

I like to think of myself as a quick study rather than a failure, but the truth is I have come realise that I am doing my students or the attendees to my teaching sessions an incredible disservice by not honouring the fact they are Western, thereby failing to offer them:

a). a structured, easy to digest teaching (perhaps in modules or stages).

b). a structured, formal teaching environment.

c). the facility to pay a set price for a given service. Let’s face it: you’re only going to pay for something you actually want, and if you’ve paid for it, you’ll definitely try and get all you can out of it!

So I’ve cancelled my forthcoming satsangs, and I hope in a short while to return with a series of talks/workshops that will cover my teaching in a structured, easy to understand manner, and with a set ticket price.  I hope this will naturally follow on to weekend and week long retreats.

I have gained a few formal students in this period (and I will continue to accept prospective students) with whom I maintain frequent, personal contact on a 1-2-1 basis (which is a bonus as no money is involved). If you were intending to come to one of the cancelled satsangs, and you are genuinely interested in enlightenment, feel free to e-mail me: alan at (replace with @) openenlightenment.org (no spaces) and we’ll see where we go from there.

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The 4th Turning

The Buddha turned the Wheel of the Dharma three times:

In the 3rd Century BCE, the Buddha turned the Wheel for the first time and created Theravada, a renunciatory and monastic approach, with an emphasis on the Four Noble Truths and the Three Characteristics.

In the 1st Century CE, the Buddha turned the Wheel for the second time and created Mahayana, the Way of the Bodhisattva, with an emphasis on Emptiness and Compassion.

In the 7th Century CE, the Buddha turned the Wheel for the third time and created Vajrayana, the tantric route to enlightenment, with an emphasis on the essential Buddha-nature of all things.

Over the many centuries since the last turning, the Dharma has spread to the West and the world has undergone globalization. We live in a very different society and culture to the one the Buddha was familiar with almost 2 and half millennia ago, and many of the old ways of living the Dharma are no longer relevant to a human living in the 21st Century.

As a community of spiritual practitioners it is up to us to recognise that we are participating in the turning of the Wheel of the Dharma for a 4th time, as we explore and investigate what it means to live the Dharma in the 21st Century, and seek to answer such questions as:

What is the best way of approaching enlightenment and how do we make the Dharma accessible and relevant?

Is monasticism no longer appropriate or even necessary to seriously engaging with the Dharma?

What role does sexuality and romance play in spiritual development?

How is social media transforming spiritual culture and community?

What would Buddha look like as a millennial, awakened human being?

As part of the 4^th Turning, I’m endeavouring to establish a monthly meeting of like-minded souls in order to discuss all of these questions and much more.

The first group meeting happened on Sunday, 29^th Novemember 2009, at the wonderful Royal Academy of Arts in London. Out of the 15 or so members of the google group, 5 showed up, and what a pleasure it was to meet them!

Rohan of 21awake introduced us to his Hear and Now project, a contemporary and accessible guided meditation scheme for practitioners on the go. An innovative and promising endeavour!

Interest was shown in a weekly satsang/sitting group that I will organise to take place in a fortnight.

Stay tuned for the date/time of the next 4^th Turning meeting, and come and join the revolution! (Alternatively, set up a group in your area!)

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New Developments

Things have certainly moved on in the last few weeks. In my last post I mentioned the desire to set up a bone fide Western tradition of enlightenment, and coupled with recently learning how to use the internet properly, I now have a more fleshed out business model for Open Enlightenment and my other projects.

Site #1: Open Enlightenment

This site has always been about discussing enlightenment in an honest and sane manner, with a view to presenting enlightenment to the public as a very real and natural human development. This project is very much a product of the times we live in, and in some sense is also reactionary, and so it is not the ideal basis upon which to build a tradition.

I have therefore separated out the teaching side of the equation (see below), leaving OE to its original aims. This also means that the conversation facilitated by OE can be opened up to many different viewpoints and traditions, without any ideological inconsistencies getting in the way.

I’m currently excited by how the internet and the growing New Marketing is effecting spirituality and what this means for the future of teaching enlightenment, and my work for OE will be dealing with this topic in the near future.

I see OE growing into a digital magazine with many contributors, a repository of resources (written, audio and video), and an events facilitator for many great cutting edge spirituality teachers. And yes, that centre is still a dream.

I would like to fund all of the above on a micro-patron basis. I have it on good authority that approximately 2% of an audience can be expected to take part, but I have every confidence that the audience for OE will grow dramatically over the coming years.

Teachings have been removed from this site, revised and will be presented on a new site shortly.

Site #2: The Baptist’s Head

I originally considered closing down this site after the original aim of the project was fulfilled: the completion of the Great Work by two contemporary magicians. Duncan has painstakingly edited, polished and indexed the best material from the BH into three books (one for each stage of the magical process), with the first two available soon (self-published – and not ‘on demand’ – too!).

But ending this project would be ending a conversation when there are a growing number of people who have only just joined in. The BH is a movement (even if it is small), not a just a website, and so the plan is to scale down the site to a blog, so that the conversation around Advanced Magick for Beginners and the three BH books can continue, as well as having a portal for new articles, videos (Scrying an enochian aethyr is coming soon!) and new titles.

Funding wise, the BH will continue as it always has, as a labour of love.

Site #3: Original Nature

This is the name of my teaching and tradition. I’ll be giving away all of the teachings and practices for free on the website, but I’ll be charging for group sessions, workshops and retreats. I’m currently looking in to setting up an online instruction course that offers a degree of one-on-one tuition, without incurring the usual costs of conference calls, or venue hire in meat space. I’ll also be doing a lot of work in the real world too, as well as having a book in the pipeline.

The pledge bank group mentioned to your right is the beginnings of an Original Nature meditation group in London.

The teaching includes everything I’ve learnt from every practice and tradition I’ve used personally, but presented in an easily understood and contemporary fashion. It will include work with daydreams, dreams, understanding how the mind is always meditating and how best to approach using it, working with Providence and synchronicity, and all within the context of a coherent psychology and philosophy.

But what really excites me is the ethical practice involved, and I would very much like to begin introducing the benefits of enlightenment into the real world, perhaps as a form of activism, working with the poor, prisoners or the sick and dying. I’m currently inspired by the ID project.

Moneywise, Original Nature will work on a membership basis, although on and offline events can be paid for individually. And of course, donations will always be welcome.

Site #4: My personal site

I thought it would be a good idea to have all of this stuff – plus everything I’ve ever done and will do – in one place. I’ll probably blog about anything that interests me that isn’t relevant to any of the above conversations here. No funding necessary.

New Marketing

I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that the internet is not just an online extension or presence for real-world services or products; it’s a completely new way of doing things. I’ll be exploring this a lot in the future on OE, but the general gist is that the internet is about genuine interest and honesty, and communication between everyone. The internet is about conversations, not advertising or products.

This realisation is responsible for everything I’ve outlined here, as well as the revelation that building whizz-bang sites with their own forums and stuff is a symptom of approaching the net as if it were just another advertising channel. All the sites are (or will be) in wordpress, which is free, and I intend on using the already available social media instead of trying to re-invent the wheel (you may have noticed a new social bookmarking function at the bottom of each thread to aid in the conversation).

Design for each site is coming, and thankfully I won’t be doing any of it! Woohoo!

Updates will be coming as soon as each site becomes available.

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‘For-Benefit’ Enlightenment

Shortly after describing enlightenment as knowledge of, say, the Absolute Truth or the Non-dual to people who are unfamiliar with the subject, I am invariably asked, ‘What’s the point?’

Indeed, what is the point? Why would anyone in their right mind want to get ‘all non-dual’? Sounds confusing. Why would anyone want to sit every day for years in order to discover emptiness? Sounds nihilistic and quite boring. And what’s with this Absolute Truth? Postmodernism has proved that everything is relative…

Of course, given 20 minutes or so I can elaborate on a particular model in order to demonstrate the benefits of knowing the Absolute, or that we’re really non-dual, or that Emptiness is actually Form, but of course by then I’ve lost them. I’m usually left feeling a little bit self-important and quite irrelevant.

I’ve been considering the language of enlightenment for some time, and it seems that the labels we use have the tendency of leaving the world ‘over here’ and enlightenment ‘over there’. We cannot seem to escape a fundamental division in our thinking. Some examples:

• Relative vs. Absolute
• Form vs. Emptiness
• Profane vs. Divine
• Duality vs. Non-dual
• Ego vs. Impersonal
• Ignorance vs. Truth

Whenever defining enlightenment to someone who has never experienced it, or someone with only a cursory interest, we automatically put them – and everything they hold dear – on the ‘wrong side’ of reality: the relative, profane, dualistic, egotistical, ignorant; and, crucially, for them enlightenment is left in the realm of the purely speculative or conceptual. Irrelevant indeed.

I don’t believe that the only option for engaging with enlightenment is to spend years studying New Age guff, wasting time with dead ends and enjoying one disillusionment after another, all the while not really knowing what you are looking for, until you eventually sift the small amount of good information from the bad. I’ve recently become interested in evolution, genetics and astronomy because I’ve been exposed to each subject in a meaningful and accessible way. I’m pretty sure I would have been similarly interested many years ago if my initial contact with each of these topics had been relevant and interesting; but they weren’t. It follows that if we can demonstrate that enlightenment is relevant and interesting – which it most certainly is – then more people, who would already like to engage with it if they just knew what it was, will have the opportunity to.

So what am I advocating? That we ‘sell’ enlightenment?

Things have moved on since the Buddha. We don’t need to sit on a mud floor and listen to someone read a sutra; we’ve got powerpoint and auditoriums. We don’t have to rely on the Four Noble Truths, esoteric symbolism, and cultural indoctrination; we’ve got copywriting, design, and New Media.

That’s right: we can use the best methods of communication available today to teach enlightenment, and in a language that everyone understands. I know quite a lot about female beauty products despite the fact I’ve never been interested in them nor will I ever use them. This is due to effective copywriting: a tool so powerful it can educate everyone about the latest mascara, not just the intended audience. Why can’t it be put into the service of educating the public about enlightenment? I’m not talking about scamming the public or treating enlightenment as a commodity; I’m talking about presenting the truth about enlightenment in a way that makes sense to humans living in the 21^st century. We can find a few solutions to the problems of introducing enlightenment to a larger audience in the advertisers’ tool kit, such as the first rule of copywriting:

Sell the benefits, not the features.

Sectors

So what are the benefits of enlightenment? Why should anyone take an interest?

There are some teachers – such as Bill Hamilton, Shinzen Young and Daniel Ingram – who are unsure that there ARE any benefits to enlightenment. This view is a bit like a not-for-profit organisation: enlightenment is about working towards an end that promises no personal gain, although everyone is pretty sure it’s for the common good.

Then there are some teachers – particularly the ‘Direct Path’ Advaitists – who are convinced that enlightenment is all happiness, joy, freedom and bliss, and the sooner everyone gets there, the better. This view is a bit like the private sector: the event of enlightenment is all that matters – an end in itself – and the faster it happens, the happier everyone will be. And damn anything that might get in the way: give all your possessions to your guru, sleep with the boss, and abandon any unsympathetic family or friends.

And the public sector? That might be mainstream Buddhism: a huge, lumbering ‘official’ organisation that looks like it’s doing something, but isn’t actually getting the job done.

All of the above generally present enlightenment in terms of features, not benefits (such as – respectively – techniques and maps, Non-duality, Buddhist dogma).

I would like Open Enlightenment to resemble the emerging For-Benefit fourth sector in this analogy (see what I’ve done there?). That means OE will promote enlightenment just like the private sector, but without lying or selling a fantasy, without comprising on ethics, without treating enlightenment as an end in itself, and by focusing on the benefits, not the features, we will refrain from indulging the gung-ho goal mentality, and demonstrate the relevance of enlightenment to not only our personal lives, but to the community (just like the not-for-profits), straight off the bat.

Everybody’s building

Out of all the labels for describing enlightenment, there is only one that is immediately recognisable as a benefit, and it is the label I used when enlightenment occurred for me. I’m talking about Wholeness.

If someone were to ask, ‘What is enlightenment?’, and I were to say, ‘Enlightenment is the sudden and irrevocable knowledge of your Whole Nature’, it is immediately obvious that a). enlightenment is a growth in self knowledge and b). it offers some form of completion. Note however that the beginner and his or her current life are not left on the ‘wrong side’ of reality, and enlightenment is seen as an addition, not a substitute. The beginner is left wondering, ‘Do I want to grow and build on my life?’ instead of feeling that they now need to defend their current position.

With this definition the beginner is already considering the possible benefits, before they’ve had a chance to ask, ‘What is the point?’. Of which there are many (I really am confused by those teachers who can’t see the benefits. Perhaps that’s down to creeping normalcy.). Enlightenment offers the opportunity to:

• understand yourself and the world at a fundamental level.
• discover your direction and purpose in life.
• heal old emotional and psychological wounds.
• develop the ability to face anything that life can throw at you (including death).
• exercise ethics based on your true nature.
• fall in love with the world.
• realise the joy and beauty of simply existing.

I could go on. Of course, the degree to which these benefits are reaped depend upon the quality of the teaching and the methods and models used to mediate the experience, but the good news is we already have these. By focusing on the benefits instead of the features, the practitioner can begin to enjoy all of the above from the very beginning of the journey, instead of getting hung up on the feature of enlightenment that will occur somewhere in the future. And for the person whom enlightenment has already occurred, the growth of these benefits never ends.

We can still be honest about enlightenment; but we should at least do it with some wisdom. Who would have guessed that advertising could be used for good as well as evil?

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A Business Case for Enlightenment?

I’ve always felt very strongly that enlightenment should not be treated as a commodity; being nothing less than the full realisation of what it means to be human, and as the birthright of every man, woman and child on this planet, where are we to find the moral justification for a teacher who determines access to their teachings on financial grounds?

Osho is one example of such a guru, where the entrance fee to his ashram in Pune, India, and the requirement of the purchase of not one but two robes before you can even begin to meditate, ensures the exclusion of the impoverished Indian people from his organisation. And what are we to make of Genpo Roshi, who charges several thousand dollars for the privilege of a five day retreat in his presence? Does his marketing right hand man, Bill Harris, really need a personal jet in order to spread the dharma?

From Socrates to Crowley, the idea of charging for enlightenment has been deemed ethically inviable, and the most popular means of a full time spiritual teacher putting bread on the table has been the concept of dana or donation. Indeed, this appears to be the preferred business model for many fine websites that produce ‘enlightened’ content on the web today, and myself and Duncan adopted this approach with our occult website The Baptist’s Head. Over a couple of years we managed to produce thousands of pages of material and a number of free books, and the feedback we regularly receive suggests this material is highly valued amongst our readers. The Baptist’s Head has been a labour of love, and the truth is we would have produced the content regardless of any idea of financial return; but we did expect that with the odd donation we would at least cover our minuscule server costs.

Despite the praise and the high hit rate, I can count the number of donations we received over two years on one hand; we didn’t cover our costs. This hasn’t been a problem because both myself and Duncan have worked full time as well as maintaining the site. But if I’m honest, I have personally found this lack of financial aid disappointing. However, even more disappointing is the sad fact that even a highly polished and quality service such as Buddhist Geeks – a website that produces a podcast every single week with leaders in the field of Buddhism – has to be run on a spare-time basis too. In my opinion, the content of both The Baptist’s Head and Buddhist Geeks far surpasses the 99.9% of vapid, pointless bullshit produced by professional sites and publishing houses in the field of spirituality that the public are more than willing to keep in business. My faith in the public’s propensity to financially reward those services that only suggest a donation is almost non-existent.

I’m now onto a new project with Open Enlightenment and I fully intend to teach full time, employ a number of staff and build an organisation – complete with a centre in London – that can provide public access to quality material and teachers. The motivation for this project has its basis in the very same ethical stance that informs the refusal to make enlightenment a commodity: enlightenment should be available to everyone!

But how best to fulfill this ambition without charging for enlightenment, or without providing an amateur service? Let us not be naive: without some serious money, Open Enlightenment will never be anything more than just another part time internet project, and I refuse to dream so small. All the good will in the world does not change the fact I will have to charge for talks, workshops and retreats in order to cover venue costs, because I don’t have free access to a venue or retreat centre. And If I want to build a centre myself, where is the money going to come from if not from profit?

If I seriously wish to open a centre in London, should I run OE as a business and charge for every talk, podcast, article and retreat? Or should I register OE as a charity, and hope for some big donations? Should I attach a fixed price to material, or suggest an amount for donation? What about a membership scheme?

I imagine it is going to take some time to flesh out all the details, but of one thing I am sure: I would like to try and get OE up and running with as little money involved as I can. To do this, I would like to proceed on a gift economy basis. This means I am willing to trade my time as a teacher – perhaps in the form of talks, workshops, retreats or one-on-one sessions – for help in creating Open Enlightenment. This means that OE is not just my project, but (should you be willing to help) your project too.

We’ve already found a web developer to help build a site, and hopefully a designer to create the brand. We also know a builder who would like to build the OE centre should we find the capital. But we need a lot more, such as marketing materials, media equipment, and venue access.

If you are interested in participating in the Open Enlightenment project, please e-mail me with the skills or resources you have to offer, and we can see if we can realise the OE dream together, as a community. I’m hoping this approach will be a great success, because it will certainly determine how we proceed with OE in the future.

Any suggestions or comments are most welcome!

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