14. Follow Your Heart?

Or follow your head?

The old view was, let your feelings guide your actions. If it feels good, do it. Don’t repress, express.

But times are changing; there is a consciousness revolution afoot. What used to be called new age spirituality is now an overarching theme in, well, everything. Be conscious in what you eat, in the environmental impacts of what you drive, in the meaningfulness of your employment, in the socioeconomic impact of what you wear, and in the lyrics of the songs you listen to. Indeed according to the experts, ‘conscious consumers’ are a 70 million member ‘enlightened’ market force that by and large dominates the decision making elite of North America.

Whether or not they are truly enlightened is another question. For now, suffice it to say that this loud and persistent social force is a movement that enshrines consciousness as its spiritual core and raison d’etre.

In principle what we have is an organic morality, a natural ethic that in some ways is pretty close to the universal ideals of Torah, in terms of sustainability, wellness, equality, freedom, justice. . . and consciousness.

Drilling down into the mindset of the Bourgeois Bohemian[1] of Y2K+ we find the flower power idealist of the ‘60’s, for that’s when all these boomers incubated their personal mission statements.

Aside from the social dimensions, consciousness is a matter of personal growth. Millions are seeking inner peace, harmony and wellness like never before, and the training of the mind to experience higher reality is integral to the journey.

For decades, the children of the west searched in every kind of spirituality tradition for mantras, meditations and masters of consciousness to fill the gaping void left by a materialistic western culture. Ironically, the Jews among them have most passionately embraced every “ism” in the book, except their own – until recently.

Increasingly, the mystical, spiritual, intellectual and passionate dimensions of Torah Judaism have started to trickle into modern culture thanks to a host of outreach organizations, especially Chabad, whose special brand of consciousness comes coupled with a well grounded practicality infusing every mundane moment with cosmic significance.

After looking to gurus near and far, hundreds of thousands of Jews have whole-heartedly returned to their hitherto unexplored heritage of Judaic, and especially Chassidic, wisdom and spirituality. And lo and behold they have discovered in their very own back yard, an incomparable treasure trove of spirituality, replete with kosher mantras, meditations, and masters of higher consciousness from whom to learn.

For example see the story in the next post.

[1] or BOBO, a term coined in David Brooks’ entertaining and informative book, BOBO’s in Paradise.