Awakening in the Age of the Meta-Sangha

Jeff Carreira New Paradigm Thinking 25 Comments

In the late 1980’s when I started seeking in earnest you could work with a number of different spiritual teachers. The Indian sage J Krishnamurti and the Tibetan master Trungpa Rinpoche had already died, but had left bodies of work behind them. Da Free John, U.G. Krishnamurti and Swami Muktananda, were all actively teaching. I spent time with Gurumayi, Thich Nhat Hanh and Ram Dass before meeting Andrew Cohen who would be my teacher for many years.

Each of these teachers had their own communities, their own philosophies and their own practices. And generally speaking each saw their way of teaching as superior to the others.

There was no Internet and therefore no online courses. If you wanted to work with a teacher you had to either wait for them to come to you, or go to them. This meant that most people who wanted more than to read spiritual books only worked extensively with one teacher, some intrepid souls with time and/or money would set out to meet all the great teachers, but it was much more of a challenge then. In my circles, once we chose a path and embarked upon it we generally saw it as better than all others. To be honest, most of us had only limited knowledge of other paths.

During the years that I lived in an experimental spiritual community with Andrew Cohen I looked down on the idea of moving from teacher to teacher. I had come to believe that you could not gain real spiritual depth if one moved around. I am no longer sure about that. Life is too complex for one-size fits all solutions to the challenge of awakening. I no longer believe that a single teaching or a single teacher can satisfy all aspects of our development.

We are all different people, on unique paths, and our needs along the path change and shift with each next step. We need teachers who can share their wisdom with us and we also need each other, our fellow dharma sisters and brothers who do much for us to further our own awakening. We need to work together as we navigate the waters of awakening. We need to inspire, support and challenge each other, and we need to provide solace for one another during those inevitable times when darkness descends on the path and the wind of change runs cold.

The gathering I believe that we have the opportunity to form now is a community of inclusivity. Instead of communities that differentiate (or exclude); we need communities that bring us—and hold us—together – as loosely or as closely as we need so that our paths can open in all kinds of unexpected ways. We can differentiate and be supported. Of course, we still need to have the opportunity to focus together on specific modalities and particular ways of awakening when we are drawn to, but I believe that given the circumstances of our times, and perhapys how authentic awakening may always have been for the deep mystics, the boundary between communities of spiritual focus need to be porous, open and free. I believe that the solution to the spiritual needs of this moment involves drawing a bigger circle around all of the communities of focus and creating a community of communities – a meta-sangha.

Fortunately the meta-sangha has arrived just in time. In my recent retreats I have started to set aside time to ask people which other teachers they have worked with. The list of luminaries represented is impressive. There are always a number of people who have worked with my friends and colleagues Craig Hamilton, Claire Zammit, and Katherine Woodward Thomas. And, of course, many who have worked with me during the time that I was teaching with Patricia Albere. In addition there are those who have worked with Thomas Huebl, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Eckhart Tolle and a host of others.

Without any of us having planned it, a meta-sangha has formed, not just because there are many teachers offering different work and different communities – that was always the case – but because it is now easier than ever to work with different teachers and sometimes more than one at once. As participants, we see each other in one course or program and then in another, and as teachers we have the opportunity to work with other teachers. We all move in and out, uniting and reunited with our meta-sangha brothers and sisters over and over again. We are a community of communities, in some ways we haven’t realized it yet.

About ten years ago the Integralist Clint Fuhs and I did a series of workshops focused on what we were then talking about as the second-generation phenomena and trans-lineage spirituality. Essentially we recognized that as our teacher’s students and spiritual friends we had the opportunity to explore our own paths in the context of each other’s. We were the second-generation, committed to the strengths of the journey that brought us here and open to learning from the wisdom of the other’s path at the same time. This was not just a mixing of paths; it was a new path, a trans-lineage path.

It now seems that the trans-lineage efforts of so many of us has given birth to a meta-sangha of individuals who move between focus communities generating awakening along the way and cross-pollinating all of the communities they touch. Like bees flying from flower to flower we leave a little bit of our own awakening each time we take the next course, workshop or retreat. And we take a little insight from our current experience that becomes part of what we have to pass along.

In retrospect, this feels like the inevitable outcome of the growth of alternative spirituality and the technological capacities that connect us. As I already said, when I first met Andrew Cohen there was no Internet, no online courses, no Facebook groups. We didn’t even have the benefit of free conference call services. If you wanted to be involved with a path you either had to be satisfied with reading books and discussing them with friends, see a single lecture by a visiting teacher, or move to live in a community or visit a far off ashram. I decided to leave everything behind and spend twenty years living in an intentional community. Although I grew tremendously from that experience, I don’t see it as the answer to the world’s problems.

Everything is different today. You can be deeply involved with a community for years without ever having met other members in person. You can work with any number of teachers virtually on any given day. Yes there is always the danger that all of this choice will tend toward superficial engagement – but that doesn’t have to be what happens, and more importantly a new opportunity has appeared.

We have the chance to go deeply into the opening of trans-lineage work as part of a meta-sangha of practitioners.

What are the awakening potentials that arise with this heightened level of spiritual cross-pollination?

How do we do trans-lineage work well? What is the form of community and connection that will promote both spiritual communion and personal empowerment?

There is no reason to assume that trans-lineage work is superlative to any other path. There is and will likely always be the need for focus communities that give themselves exclusively and whole-heartedly to a single form of practice towards awakening. Any one of us, at any time, may need this kind of focus to facilitate the next step of our path. Some of us may even need twenty years of focus in a very particular area. The awakening that we are all a part of operates according to a design that none of us knows entirely. At the same time, my experience tells me that if we listen carefully we can always hear the very next step – and that is all we ever really need.

As a teacher myself, the emergence of the meta-sangha elicits a sigh of relief. I don’t have to be everything to everyone – thank goodness. I have the opportunity to think honestly about what I truly have to offer and to focus on exclusively that. I also have the opportunity to work with other teachers who have gifts to offer that I want and need. Currently I am in many relationships in which my students in one context are my teachers in another.

It will take effort for us to grow into the full potentials of this new model. I am sure than to many the vision of a cross-pollinating spiritual growth community is thrilling, and there are forces that we will need to resist in order to make it so. As alternative spiritual pursuit has become more popular the demands of commerce have inevitably exerted their influence. Many of us who teach feel pressure to offer one-stop spiritual answers. If we are not careful we will find ourselves offering what we think will appeal to people rather than what we truly know we most clearly have to offer. We will be tempted to hold on too tightly to the people we work with to retain students and clients.

The birth of the trans-lineage meta-sangha is an opportunity to change that and to find ways to work together that more effectively allows our gifts to be shared. If we can resist the temptations of the forces at play in the current economy maybe we can create a new one. Can we create a way of exchanging value that rewards openness, authenticity, and freedom?

The trans-lineage path and the meta- sangha that is forming around it are opening up possibilities for awakening and living together. Let’s embrace them whole-heartedly. I am continuing to think about the significance of the meta-sangha and in the weeks ahead I intend to share some further thoughts on this exciting emergence.

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Jane
Jane
7 years ago

“If we listen carefully we can always hear the very next step – and that is all we ever really need”
Thank you, Jeff.

Patty Redenbaugh
7 years ago

Dear Jeff,

What beautiful ideas and thoughtfulness to be the first reading I encounter in 2016! I consider this a blessing. Thank you for naming this context of learning and letting go, and evolving and being open to ever new and abundant influences. And to see this in the context of a meta-sangha allows me to see an ever-widening connection, rather than some kind of separation. Thank you Dear Jeff. Your big heart opens and swirls and encircles all of our hearts and minds and you invite us all to do the same. I accept! With all love, Patty

Barbara Hubbard
7 years ago

Dear Jeff, I’d like to talk with you about an evolutionary shared purpose now emerging as an expression of the meta community of teachers

When would you be free to talk Love to you , Barbara

dick rauscher
7 years ago

Nice article Jeff. I have been writing and publishing spiritual teachings on the importance of awakening the human consciousness for many years. I’ve learned from many of the teachers you mentioned above….and each of them gave me new ways to think about the importance of growth/evolution of human consciousness and the illusion of separateness that is causing such pain and suffering in the world today. I like the concept you talk about in the article. We learn from many teachers. Like spirituality, there are many paths to wisdom and awakening. Thanks for sharing the article. It gives me the incentive… Read more »

marcia perryman
marcia perryman
7 years ago

thankyou for this peace which celebrates diversity in the midst of unity… yes the danger of the previous model was the ego attachment to the guru and the seduction of that process. now there is the choice of how we learn and what feeds our soul with an acceptance of our unique gifts and ierences.

Johanne Vincent
Johanne Vincent
7 years ago

Thank you Jeff.
The Journey is truly about connecting to one’s Inner Guide.
This precious Voice has led me to you and others along the way.
We all need help and it comes in so many forms.
Yes , there are pitfalls. Too much Spiritual shopping muddies the Path but that might be part of the learning too.
Thank you for all your offerings.
Johanne

jesse greene
7 years ago

i love reading this. i love your transparency. being a teacher myself and living in committed spiritual community for a long time…., i love hearing the ever opening in your words. i also teach the we space in australia for over 25 years now. yet our external style is so different than you and patricia, yet the space the same. .

Denise Kander
Denise Kander
7 years ago

Yes! I so appreciate the naming with clarity and insight the evolvement from teacher- student to this new way of being with others in a non hierarchical way. I feel the importance and necessity of this model in communities for individual and collective empowerment, connection, learning and awakening. I have felt drawn more to communities where this model is present – it feels like offering perspective from a more transparent, humble and compassionate place. The teachers I have learned the most from and model my own teaching after are those that met me at this level- (and I will add,… Read more »

Kathryn
Kathryn
7 years ago

Once again Jeff, you come through with an such a relevant inquiry and observation. I was discussing my relationship with you as a student on New Years day, and I noticed I was a bit lost to fully explain, which usually requires using terms that are not really appropriate?! I ended up concluding the conversation by saying, “Well, this is the 21st century!” No, I am not exclusive to you as a student, but yet there is a ‘very unique’ connection and reciprocal feedback loop that I will cherish for as long as it exits, as among many other aspects,… Read more »

Greg Skyles
Greg Skyles
7 years ago

I haven’t heard anyone else address this as you have, and I think you are spot-on! The “lay of the land” as it were of spiritual growth has definitely shifted, with all of the positive effects you list. I love this sentence “Can we create a way of exchanging value that rewards openness, authenticity, and freedom?” A worthy inquiry, indeed!

Susan Curry
Susan Curry
7 years ago

I resonate fully with this sentence: As participants, we see each other in one course or program and then in another, and as teachers we have the opportunity to work with other teachers. We all move in and out, uniting and reunited with our meta-sangha brothers and sisters over and over again. I find I develop a deeper heart-based bond with fellow students who show up in cross-referencing workshops. For me to see two teachers inter-relating lends higher curiosity for and validation of each of their teachings. I can see a physical meta-sangha – at a huge world-wide venue; a… Read more »

Jamie McReynolds
Jamie McReynolds
7 years ago

Thanks for this essay and for introducing me to two new terms – meta-sangha and trans-lineage. I was drawn to Unitarian Universalism for its open view towards many spiritual traditions, so this resonates. Can you comment on where this fits in the Spiral Dynamics model?

Renny
7 years ago

This is a most refreshing view of our current movement toward Oneness. This experience lends to many new challenges. I appreciate your clarity on the economic pressures and how to navigate through this. There has been, and will continue to be those pressures, I imagine. I sense where challenges will present is how to be conscious of invisible boundaries. Since we are blending more in thought with the support of the virtual community, how do we honor boundaries that we once thought were nonessential. This particular time in our connectedness, calls us to be clear in thought, pure in thought.… Read more »

Felicia Mareels
Member
7 years ago

Thank you Jeff, This article is a breath of fresh air to me and I am certain to many others. It is more than possible that I was waiting for this time to share as a spiritual teacher because the alchemy of being a student of so many teachers allowed me to perceive the unifying thread and speak from there. Or more accurately I would say as an authentic HUman This is no small thing that you have written. To have experienced the separation yet again and again within spiritual communities /groups of study and practice has an exhaustion factor… Read more »

Margaret
Margaret
7 years ago

Thank you for stating so clearly what has changed within only a few years, Jeff. The meta-sangha has a form that is all its’ own and it remains to be seen whether, collectively, it will exhibit the kind of strong spiritual grounding which enables an individual to withstand/ transcend challenges along the path. It’s certainly exciting to contemplate the possibilities!

Frances Harris
Frances Harris
7 years ago

Dear Jeff, A breath of fresh air. One could call it “Radical Inclusivity”!!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your concerns. And thank you for putting it all into historical context with a blessing to awaken to the meta-sangha of which we are all a part.

Lauralee
Lauralee
7 years ago

Dear Jeff,

This article really resonates with and names what is emerging for so many of us. Thank you for articulating that so fully and beautifully. May we always be listening for the next step.
With love,
Lauralee

Sousan Ehteshami
Sousan Ehteshami
7 years ago

I love to participate in this dialogue. I have a lot to share, that is my deepest believe and it proved to me over and over again. I have a great example to share, for making one specific pill to restore health a lot of different knowledge has to come through, biology, medical, chemistry, trial to test, and on and on and on. Can the person stick to one knowledge, yes she can but I don’t think it goes too far.
Love to read your thoughts and feeling,
With lots of love and support,
Sousan

Annie
Annie
7 years ago

Meta-Sangha…beautiful! Thank you so much for having such a gift of expressing your heart and putting things into words that have an energetic coherence that comes along with them. There is something about articulating and sharing that makes something that already exists more real and alive . Its my pleasure to be surfing this wave with you … all! happy new year ?

Elizabeth Kennedy
Elizabeth Kennedy
7 years ago

Helpful, Jeff. Great article. Thank you.
:-)

Felicia Mareels
Member
7 years ago

Gosh this is a sudden request Jeff, however, I am drawn to ask you for a conversation. Have something to share and discuss with you in the direction my book has suddenly shown me.
Have time?

Gobs of energy woke up.
Smiles
Felicia

George Pór
Member
7 years ago

Dear Jeff, I am delighted to see you blazing the trail of trans-lineage meta-sangha! I see the need for that work grounded in the very nature of the epic socio-economic transformation that our world is going through. It’s complexity is such that the ethical and spiritual guidance needed for its success may not come from only one teacher and the community growing around him or her. Having realized that, and studying with various spiritual teachers and thought leaders for the last 25 years, I tried at several occasions to introduce them to each other and catalyzing a collaborative inquiry between… Read more »

Rebecca
Rebecca
6 years ago

Hi Jeff Your articulation of the trains lineage sangha is an insightful and useful naming of what is happening in spiritual practice and conversation, I live in Philly and want to know if there is any community here involved with this? I do love the cognitive spaces of the Internet but still seek ” real” live embodied humans with whom to interact. My lineage journey is Christian childhood, conversion to Judaism marriage, 20+ years in Zen Buddhism and student of Ken Wilber,. REcently I have found the work of Bentinho Massaro to be excellent and I now hang out with… Read more »