the rebirth of progressive enlightenment

(via www.progressiveenlightenment.com)

If you look at the date of the first post on this blog, you’ll see that it was over a year ago with only a few posts thereafter. My close associate Riley and I really began waking up in the Winter of 2009 after I returned from studying abroad in Spain. Upon my return I found myself in an odd place; somewhere in between the detached reality of my experience in Barcelona and the old routines and patterns of my role as a UCLA student. Coming back was like trying to fit into an old pair of clothes after a growth spurt: the pants hadn’t changed, but they no longer fit comfortably. My new perspective forced me to look at my old role in a new way and reevaluate everything that I was doing before. I soon realized that I was going to have to go shopping because no matter how hard I tried and how much time I spent, those old clothes were no longer fitting.

Riley found himself in a similar place as he began doing more research for his senior thesis focusing on China’s growing role as an economic powerhouse. I remember specifically an article that Riley sent me on February 9th written by Noam Chomsky in 1993. “What Uncle Sam Really Wants” (http://ats_krew.tripod.com/whatunclesamreallywants.pdf) summarizes many of the exploits of America’s aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy over the years. After reading and discussing this article, things really started to click for us. We started to see more and more interconnectedness between things like pop culture, imperialism, consumerism, politics, capitalism, advertising, wars on terrorism, etc. We began to academically label it all as “bullshit.” The more we talked, thought and discovered, the more angry and disconcerted we became with the “machine”. We eventually came to the conclusion that we had to fight this bullshit somehow, and that’s how Progressive Enlightenment was born. Progressive Enlightenment is the name that Riley and I gave to our vow to start within ourselves a positive, informative counter movement to all the bullshit working to keep the masses controlled and asleep. The blog page served a physical representation of our overall efforts of resistance, and was planned as a platform for disseminating pertinent information and ideas. While we did not work on the blog as much as we worked on ourselves, it stayed waiting until the appropriate time for its use.

The inspiration to really get going with the blog came to me about a year after initially creating the page. A lot has changed since that Winter of ‘09 — Riley and I have since emerged from hibernation. Since graduating, Riley has been in China all year teaching English to little kids, perfecting his Mandarin and expanding his perspective daily. I escaped to Rome for two months in the summer and was able to clear my head of the typical “what’s your plan after college” bullshit. I was going to teach English in Spain after summer, but decided to move back to LA to pursue musical endeavors. Meanwhile, I needed to find a job to start paying bills, and after about a month of searching with no leads, I decided to send in a cover letter for a job managing the front desk at a yoga studio that I had seen on UCLA’s career center website. I had never done yoga, nor did I consider myself spiritual in any way, but I figured my experience working at UCLA’s gym along with an open mind was good enough. They really liked the cover letter I wrote about my travels and my resulting expanded perspective on life and I was in for an interview and starting my first day within a week of sending in my resume… I never expected my life to start shifting as dramatically as it did after I started working at the Hub.

I feel like before starting at the Hub, I was cruising along a bumpy dirt road with only a vague idea of where I was headed. But once I started the spiritual practices that are now a part of my daily life, it was like merging onto a paved superhighway of self-discovery. Track 6 from the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album comes to mind as it was as if “something inside, that was always denied, for so many years” was beginning to emerge. It seemed as though after embodying the role of a “student” in the traditional academic system for 16 or 17 years, my REAL education was finally beginning. I’m now almost 7 months into my studies and am inspired to finally begin writing, sharing and expressing about my experiences and everything that I have been going through.

The intention for the blog is the same now as it was back when it started on February 20, 2009, which is coincidentally (and I use that term loosely and ironically) the same exact date that my boss Lauri opened the studio I now call home. The overarching intention is to make progress toward enlightenment. The main difference I see is that before we were angry about all the bullshit and wanted to fight back, and now I feel I have shifted outside of the bullshitters’ batting box. I’ve learned that engaging with bullshit only creates more unconsciousness. Rather than trying to play the “game” and “fix” problems, I embrace a more Gandhi like approach… “be the change you wish to see in the world.” For me the blog is a way to track my own experiences and ideas that I feel add to the overall progress of what Eckhart Tolle calls “the flowering of human consciousness.” Making a concerted effort at documenting my own progress within this bigger picture will force me to be more aware in my daily life, which will help me along my own journey. I am forced to step into Presence whenever I am writing or thinking about what to post. Any practice that allows one to step into Presence is invaluable. My hope is that I will help others to realize their own potential to wake up and contribute to the evolution of human consciousness by following their own Truth. Even just a glimpse of Truth is enough to spark the awakening process, which once initiated can never be undone.

One last note I would like to make surrounds the idea that we are by nature already Enlightened beings. I truly believe this, and I just want to make the point that Progressive Enlightenment is rooted entirely in making progress toward remembering or realizing the Truth that is already within each of us. One way I like to look at this “path” or “journey” toward Enlightenment is by comparing it to taking a hypothetical “journey” or “trip” around the world by walking in one direction (considering you can walk on water of course). You would probably meet some cool people along the way, see some amazing things and discover a lot about who you really are, but ultimately you would come full circle and end up in the exact same place that you began… you would still BE exactly the same as when you left, exactly the same as you’ve always been and exactly the same as you’ll always BE. The only thing that really changes through all this is your perception and consciousness.

I envision this blog as a Lighthouse, shining out into the dark, stormy night, serving only as a temporary guide until the Sun rises again, filling the world with its warm bright Light.

-scott