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About the Enlightening Times

Tashi

I started the Enlightening Times in 1994 while living on the East Coast, which put my Gemini planets in the 10th house..

In it, our mission statement appeared as follows:

The purpose of The Enlightening Times is to document the emergence of 'Western Spirituality, Alternative Perspectives, Whole Being and New Ways of Living in our Western Culture', all under the umbrella of what the ET refers to as Postmodernism.

The ET's mission statement also stated:: "The radical times of the sixties provided many new openings in lifestyles and consciousness. Along with `Woodstock' and the `Summer of Love' were `tuning in, turning on and dropping out.' The end of the innocence arrived as we took up arms against Cambodia and Vietnam.

Our belief in our own culture hit its lowest ebb during this time and so we continued to explore alternatives. The mass exodus of Westerners seeking escape or spiritual answers in the far cultures of such places as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and India opened the eyes of the West to the living spirituality of of the ancient religious cultures of the East.

Mystic Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism were just two `metanarratives' that oferered a much sought after alternative to the constrictive, and for the most part, rejected Judeo-Christian Religious Culture.

Soldiers returned from the Far East with Buddhist wives and Buddhist children. Life was changing. Social, political, and spiritual awareness were brewing nicely.

Our own bankrupt spiritual state was now self-evident, especially by comparison with the profound living spirituality of the East, or our heretofore ignored Native American Tradition, and we could no longer tolerate such a state of soul malaise.

Many of us felt compelled to create something new. So, the `me' generation set about building its ideologies and structures in which to house a 'new spirituality', a Western-based mythos, which has come to be known as "The New Age."
We opened bookstores, built health food stores, vegetarian restaurants and imported exotic religious symbols, fabrics and handicrafts from the lands which had given us our model of a living spirituality.

Perhaps we needed to surround ourselves with the sacred objects of the other cultures simply as a reminder that we could live with intention as we create a model of living spirituality for ourselves, in our own Western culture.

 

It was a wonderful period of my life, inspirations flowed and epiphanies were the order of the day.  A meditative, peaceful happy life in the Blue Hills of Virginia gave birth to this ongoing creation. 

I hope you enjoy the ET's  messages 12 years later, (12 = a Jupiter cycle), as much as I do.

Most of these ideas are no longer fringe, but are increasingly a part of mainstream society.

Peruse our web pages and discover what is going on. Enlightening perspectives on the fundamentalist virus in the New Age will appear. The ET has matured from a New Age rag, which once helped promote New Age ideologies into a journal of inquiry. I, the owner and editor of this web site find the New Age to be riddled with a patina of would-be or wanna-be "enlightened ones" .

This naiveté, so rampant in the New Age is herein documented. The emergence of a Western based spirituality has still to grow through the fundamentalism in the New Age.

So, let's take what is best from this ongoing maturation and share it with an increasing population. And, let us be responsible and try to eradicate the Virus.

Fundamentalism is not attractive whether it be in Yoga, Buddhism, Meditation or Love.

Tashi Grady Powers,
Editor of The Enlightening Times

FROM THE EDITOR...

I once heard someone describe Steven Seagal as a 90’s icon.

His unique position as an contemporary martial arts master, his overt Buddhist practice, and his stature as a major movie star makes him a great example of the complexity of postmodern times.

Psychologist’s like Kenneth Gergen, who focus on the postmodern experience, might describe Steven as a representative of the birth pangs of a new kind of human being.

These postmodern psychologist’s say that the postmodern individual is a member of many communities and networks, a participant in many discourses, many of which have conflicting values. I think you will enjoy Steven’s profound and very intelligent voice, as he share his stance as a spiritual warrior.

In this issue the ET looks into a concept found in Postmodernity that The Enlightenment Project itself is over. According to contemporary thought, The Enlightenment Project lasted from the 18th century well into the 20th century, then began to crash and burn in the infamous 60’s.

According to Walter Truett Anderson, in his book, The Truth about the Truth (I highly recommend you read this book!) who eulogizes Enlightenment, its demise is often the marker of the start of the postmodern era.

He claims that this is a brief time in our history, wherein there are those people (Modernists) for whom the Enlightenment Era is just beginning, as others gleefully jump out their respective windows of science, philosophy, theology, metaphysics, math, etc., into Postmodernity.

Postmodernity is essentially an attempt to map out a much larger landscape of reality, without defining it by known, even knowable standards.

The universe, seen through the eyes of a Postmodernist, as well as all of our eternal truths, are inseparable from the cultures, languages, (the metanarratives) that created them.

Human awareness is capable of pluralistic functioning, and so while we may have a concept of our universality, based on our hope and fears that someone will figure out how to explain, or better still control reality, we are also (as Postmodernist’s) beginning to realize that we have to get used to multiple realities, no answers, and basically the ancient Zen stance.

Therefore, I answer those who ask me how I am these days in the most truthful way I can, I am as you see me!

It would be good to have a sense of humor and a handle on irony. Richard Rorty, a professor at UVA is one of America's most eminent philosophers. His views on metaphysics and irony can be found in his essay in the book, “The Truth About The Truth.”

These ideas could prove helpful now. In short, he describes an ironist as distinctive from a metaphysician in as much as she has ....continuing doubts about all belief.

In The Truth About The Truth, America’s most eminent philosopher, UVA professor Richard Rorty describes postmodern irony in his piece entitled 'Ironisits and Metaphysicians’ with this statement:

Truth is made rather than found.

A message that can be found dating back centuries.

Shakti and Shiva played it out in the Vedic metanarrative 5,000 years ago. Buddha recited it under the Bodhi tree in 500 BC, around the same time the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus ruminated in the West.

Lao Tzu and Rumi and many other great mystics have teased their earnest disciples with similar assaults to the ego for centuries.

We are a civilization in need of an identity as we encounter the 11 dimensions of reality revealed by our new quantum physics and we confront the uncertainty that any human truth is an objective representation of reality.

We must reevaluate our self-concepts, begin moral and ethical discourses on the ever-shifting ground of our self-constructed worldviews. As well, we must address ourselves as a global civilization.

Postmodern pioneers have their hands full.

Author Ken Eagle Feather (see interviews) peeks in on the New Age fundamentalists who espouse their metanarratives, offering his vision of freedom as an alternative to blindly accepting anyone’s doctrines, no matter how cleverly disguised or packaged.

Which reminds me of a joke. Did you hear the one about the two mirrors who were talking. So do you think they do it with people?

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© 2005, Tashi Powers