Libertarianism and Spirituality
Monday, January 12, 2009 at 03:42PM From Merriam-Webster online -- Spirit
1: an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms
People become a little uncomfortable with talk about spirituality, because of the close association with religion, but our better selves understand spirituality in deeper consciousness, usually in solitude upon reflection, or during an intimate moment with a loved one, or upon viewing a work of art -- perhaps it's an experience in nature, or a song, a great speech that sends chill-bumps up the spine, a certain passage from a well-written book where prose and poetry fuse and ordinary language is transcended.
That deeper awareness is far greater than the platitudes of religion or ceremony that passes poorly for soulful experience -- it reaches the mystery of life, the x-factor that animates us -- the vital principle. This part of ourselves is dulled by cynicism, by the daily grind of mendacity, game-playing, political spinning, base language, mundane existence that loses contact with that which is vital -- it happens, life is tough sometimes, mean and crude at times.
So when we consider spirituality there's no wonder we react with a bit of revulsion, because we've been set up before and disappointed by the worst of humanity, by the reality of lies and dishonor and vulgarity and senseless violence and despair. Hell, this is a tough game, man, it's not a dance down a flowery path! But we know, we know, in those moments, we know.
So, with all the appropriate reservations, conditions, howevers and buts, I say liberty is a spiritual quest. I've never become so cynical, so post-modern and deconstructionist, so reductionist, that I don't feel the spirit when imagining the beginning of America, and other movements toward freedom around the world, when freedom was proclaimed as a new way of life. Even with all the human defects, the flaws regarding women and slavery and the statist motives of some such as Hamilton, the underlying spirit to live free still inspires my thought and leads my "spirit" to continue that great, unrealized idea -- the idea of liberty.
It seems like a naive quest at times, like a utopian dream that grownups must shed to accept the cold reality of central control and sophisticated governance -- but I know, I know, in those moments, I know.
And, I won't forget.
central control, libertarianism, liberty, spirituality 
Reader Comments (5)
Hi,
I came across this site in my research of the combination of libertarism and spirituality. I wrote this article:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vrijspreker.nl%2Fwp%2F2009%2F08%2Flibertarisme-spiritueel-bekeken%2F&lp=nl_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
I did not have time to properly translate the text into English but I believe this second best translation works out.
Sen Huwa
I did not like the inevitable translation flaws so I tried to translate this manually. English is not my mother tongue so I apologize for the remaining errors.
Libertarisme appeals to me. I fundamentally and morally object to a government that exercises unnecessary power on individual citizens. Libertarism helps to remember the value of sovereignty as well as the capacity of people to freely find solutions for social, economic and moral questions.
Spirituality appeals to me as well. Spirituality is about understanding and applying cosmic laws. Some of these laws are commonly known like the law of cause and effect (What goes around comes around), and for example the law of conservation of energy which it taught at highschool. Commonly known cosmic laws are often studied in physics. Less well-known laws can be found in psychology, philosophy and metaphysics. Think for example of the science of the soul, the mutual solidarity of everything and questions such as: what is being? Spirituality also involves purpose. Why do we have certain experiences? What is the purpose of life?
Libertarism seems to embed many fundamental principles that appeal to spiritually oriented people. In this Article I will give my spiritual vision on the Libertarism.
The right to experience, discover and grow
Where Libertarism speaks of sovereignty, I think of the cosmic law of free will. This law concerns the space and opportunity each person inherits to choose personal life experiences and the right to take good and bad decisions. Good or bad decisions are decisions which are respectively in agreement or in conflict with the cosmic laws. That is very paradoxical: one of the laws ratifies the right not to observe the laws at all. Someone who does not observe the cosmic laws will however one way or another be faced with the consequences induced by the other cosmic laws. From a spiritual view, there is no punishment, only systematic effects. The free will enables the soul to experience and understand the nature of the universe. This freedom is essential to reach higher levels of understanding.
If the creator of the cosmic laws would prevent people to test, to break and by one's own free will to reconcile with the laws, people would learn little. They would be like unconscious sheep which must remain between the fences without understanding why. This in contrast to sheep which have experienced the dangers and harshness of living outside the fence and for this reason choose, out of free will and for their own comfort, to live inside the fences.
The law of the free will is a concept that is difficulty accepted by followers of the state and the church. For this reason the frightened citizen demands more government measures and do religious people wonder why god does not intervene at all misery in the world, whereas spiritually oriented people wonder what caused the negativity and how this can be transformed. For this reason the state imposes so many laws and prohibitions, whereas a libertarian claims freedom to find his own solutions for his own problems and thus gaining more insight.
Real wisdom and insight are not transmissible and can only be obtained by personal experience. You can show someone the path of insight, but he should walk the path himself. The libertarian who claims sovereignty, rises for his cosmic right to create life experiences which help him to gain wisdom and insight. Governmental over-regulation is a violation of the citizens cosmic free will to explore their personal possibilities of experiencing, understanding and growth.
Levels of Consciousness and their limitations
The Mayans used pyramids with nine layers. These layers represent the nine layers of consciousness which are passed through evolutionary. Consciousness indicates and quantifies the level of motivation - the why - of one's actions. The Mayans teach us that the different layers of consciousness are stacked on each other. Only after reaching comprehension of one layer, one continues with the next one while incorporating the principles of the lower layer as a fundament in higher layers.
The nine layers are:
1. Cellular (action = response), motivation: (bio) chemical and physiological laws.
2. Mammal (stimulus - respons), motivation: instinct.
3. Family (stimulus - individual respons), motivation: personal instinct.
4. Tribe (similarities and differences), motivation: experiences.
5. Culture (reason), motivation: thinking.
6. National (laws), motivation: it is written in the law.
7. Planetary (standards and values): motivation: collective unwritten laws.
8. Galactic (ethics): motivation: the will of within.
9. Universal (co-creation), motivation: I create what I want.
The journey to enlightenment starts off with a basic class in (bio) chemistry and physics. From that, the student starts to work on his perception of individuality and groups. He starts to think and becomes aware of social structures and agreements and finally obtains the freedom to do whatever he likes as long as his actions implicitly respect all that is learned and understood.
It looks like car driving lessons. First you learn about the engine and the pedals, then you learn about traffic rules and how to interact with other drivers and then you are free to drive wherever you want.
Higher consciousness understands lower consciousness but not vice versa. It's easy to determine on what level of consciousness most politicians operate: the national level. This level represents motivation by law and regulation. How do we achieve social behavior? By making another law! Dutch prime minister Balkenende often speaks of values instead of laws and thus suggests he achieved a superior consciousness to his cabinet. This cheat is exposed by the simple fact that this man only creates laws tot achieve his goals.
Put the case a citizen reaches consciousness at the level of ethics? This particular person is primarily motivated by his inner will, not by rules, laws and standards. Such a person does not require explicit laws and standards because he has incorporated them integrally in his being. Many young children and young adults (star children) enter this world with an ethical consciousness. They are not primarily driven and motivated by the values of their parents and the laws of the government. The government says: you must work. The youngster possibly says: first I want to know what I want myself. A Dutch politician responsible for youth unemployment is unable to comprehend this and openly suggests all these youngster should be imprisoned in camps. Just see how lower consciousness has no clue of the higher.
Libertarism reflects (without libertarians noticing that) spiritual consciousness at a planetary and especially galactic (ethical) level. Libertarians wish to base their actions on inner motivation. Politicians as well as critics are seldomly able to comprehend this as they wonder how a society of free thinkers can sustain without their laws and regulations. It would supposedly turn into chaos andlarge anarchistic disorder. Only when they raise their own consciousness to an ethic level, they will understand that there will we no disorder since ethics are founded on an integrated notion of social structures and social order.
Spiritual libertarism
For many libertarians spirituality seems a different and irrelevant field of thinking they do not wish to identify themselves with. That is a pity because they administer more spiritual laws than they realize. In concept they hold a higher level of consciousness but they fail to relate that to the powers and ignorance of culturally and nationally acting governments. They try to explain higher principles of social behavior to those who cannot grasp the fundamentals of ethic consciousness for lower cannot understand higher. This has nothing to do with arrogance. From a spiritual viewpoint every level of consciousness deserves respect.
In my opinion political leaders can only act consciously and righteously (right-use-ly) when they represent the highest level of consciousness needed for a particular society determined by the most aware citizens. A government that acts at ethical level, enforces no laws on people who do not need them for they have incorporated the concepts of the laws in their own consciousness . Where consciousness elevates, the government retreats. Only a government with sufficient consciousness abides this cosmic law. Today however, we have to deal with a government that lacks this level of consciousness and can therefor only react and try to restrict what is does not understand.
Libertarism brings this - unconsciously - to our attention.
Thank you -- I thought the first was interesting in a poetic way. Thanks for the better translation.
Thank you Mike!
The funny translations must indeed sound poetic. In some cases however the translations were more erratic than poetic. There is no poetry is misunderstanding.
Thank you for posting this.
Yes, the first translation was an example Babelfish's weakness in translation -- but, still, it made for an interesting read in a strange way -- Harold Bloom said the common aspect of all great literature is "strangeness" -- I appreciate your contributions, though -- very good article.