The Two Core Factors Needed to Bond and Sustain a Conscious Tribe
ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE OF
THE PATH OF INDIVIDUAL AWARENESS
AND FEEL THE NEXT STEP IS
FOR US TO UNITE
What I am about to say has nothing to with what a tribe does. A conscious tribe (or community / group / club / association) might be involved with permaculture and gardening, or meditation, or local resource sharing, or trekking, or homeschooling, or the arts.... it really doesn´t matter.
The point I want to make is that – whatever a tribe does – if it wants to do it consciously – if it wants to be a conscious tribe – then I believe there are two core factors that are absolutely crucial to its survival and success.
BECOMING CONSCIOUS
What do I mean by “a conscious tribe”? I mean a tribe where everyone´s interested in becoming more conscious.
And what do I mean to by “becoming more conscious”? One way to answer is - that it´s like watching a film for the second, third and then fourth time. You notice things you´d previously missed. You´re not so concerned with what´s going to happen next (because you already know!), and you´re not so gripped by the film´s emotional ups and downs. You can appreciate the film more deeply – the subtleties of its narrative and visuals, its composition as a whole...
Similarly, I understand “becoming conscious” to mean that we become more aware of our surroundings (“the film we´re inside”), we notice our surroundings, we´re more present in them, we feel them more deeply – and therefore, gradually, inevitably, we come to sense their mystery - their sacred indefinability.
And we notice things about ourselves – the habitual ways in which we react, the many ways in which our psyches were shaped when we were young, and how they still tend to control our behaviour as an adult. We see that (like it or not!) we are “the stars of our own life-films” - and how everyone is the star of their own film - and we gradually face our self-judgements, and learn to look upon the role we´re playing with kindness.
So (although “becoming conscious” could be described in many, many ways) – I am talking about it as a personal life-journey that takes us into a deeper appreciation of existence itself, while giving us greater knowledge and acceptance of ourselves – resulting in living in greater presentness and appreciation - and more freedom of choice, both in terms of how we relate to others, and our action in the world.
This article is addressed to groups of people who (in general terms) share this understanding, and who want to live it, together – (as I have said) whatever the external activity their group might be engaged in.
TWO CORE FACTORS
So what are the two core factors that I believe a tribe needs to agree upon, and put into practice, if it want to be a conscious tribe?
The first core factor relates to the individual, the second to how we relate.
The first core factor the tribe needs is a shared approach to our individual, subjective awareness that is both tight enough to sustain unity, and broad enough to allow for each person´s uniqueness. I will be suggesting an approach I call “Radical Honesty”.
The second core factor the tribe needs is a shared approach to relating that maintains this subjectivity (nobody has the truth), and that therefore sustains total equality, and encourages mutual respect. I will be suggesting an approach I call “Conscious Relating”.
And my assertion is that if a tribe assimilates these two core factors - whatever activity or creativity or pastime or path its members might be sharing - it will become a conscious tribe.
CORE FACTOR ONE: RADICAL HONESTY
Radical Honesty means I face my reality with uncompromising honesty. It means I admit I don´t know (in any absolute sense) where I am, when it is, who (or what) I am, why I exist, or why anything exists at all.
Radical Honesty means I recognise the limitations of my knowing (being, as it is, drawn from fallible faculties such as the mind, the senses and intuition). It means humility. And it means embracing the subjectivity of my perceiving, and therefore my aloneness - and my uniqueness. But it is more than an intellectual realisation.
Radical Honesty means that (having committed to facing my reality fully) - I soon come to notice that I am unable to do so! I find I am unable to remain present. I find that ideas of all sorts carry me away. Ideas come between me and the present moment. I notice how hopes, dreams and ambitions cloud my vision. And lusts, shames and fears, like static electricity, create interference between me and my experience. In short: my commitment to facing my reality soon becomes a learning path – in order to be able to do so.
And then – as I gradually learn to give up the crutches of believing, and imposed meanings – and gradually learn to bring kindness to myself – to bring gentle acceptance to my pain – I find it: naked reality, the infinitely sacred, never-ending moment. I fall, gladly, into belonging, into being part of everything - and I know only appreciation, gratitude, mystery - and a more-than-personal love.
I previously said “the first core factor the tribe needs is a shared approach to our individual, subjective awareness that is both tight enough to sustain unity, and broad enough to allow for each person´s uniqueness”. Does Radical Honesty accomplish this?
Yes! How? Because it both confines the individual to the humility of their own fallible subjectivity (we are all therefore “on the same page”), while honouring the diversity of everyone´s unique life-path (one person can be a Taoist, another an Atheist, another a Christian, and so on).
We are united in our agreement that every belief is a bet (a faith), in that nobody knows everything and therefore possesses the objective truth – and we are united on a shared journey of coming face-to-face with our unique, individual realities with ever-deeper honesty.
CORE FACTOR TWO: CONSCIOUS RELATING
Conscious Relating is about relating to each other from Radical Honesty. (More broadly, it is about relating to everything from Radical Honesty – but in this article I´m only going to talk about relating to each other.)
I am committed to living in Radical Honesty. You are committed to living in Radical Honesty. I don´t pretend to know the absolute truth about existence – in fact, I don´t pretend to know who or what is absolutely right or wrong about anything. And I certainly don´t pretend to know what you need to do, or what would be best for you. Nor do you make any such pretences. We both speak what we see and what we feel – aware that our perspectives are subjective, limited and fallible – and shaped by our own histories and conditionings.
Our conversations are no longer a fight – each ego attempting to dominate the other – each identity seeking to prevail over the other. Instead (because of our dedication to Radical Honesty, to fully facing our realities), we have become able to be-present-to our thoughts and emotions, and so we “self reveal” - we reveal our ideas and hopes and fears to each other – valuing each other´s thoughts and emotions as much as we value our own!
By both following the path of Radical Honesty we have both become an observers of ourselves. Call this “observer” consciousness or spirit or essence or life-force or whatever we like – these two “observers” meet in Conscious Relating. They observe their own personalities, and they observe each other´s personalities – and in that sense, they are both present-to their personalities.
From there, they meet. There, they see each other. The two observers, or essences, meet. They recognise that they are in the same existential situation: both present within a cosmic mystery they do not control, of which they are inextricable parts - conscious, living creatures – obliged to act through the physical bodies and personalities in which they find themselves.
Conscious Relating, when fully expressed, is a simultaneous experience of sameness and difference, of oneness and uniqueness. It is a shared mental and emotional nakedness – a seeing and a being-seen, a courage and a vulnerability...
I previously said “the second core factor the tribe needs is a shared approach to relating that maintains this subjectivity (nobody has the truth), and that therefore sustains total equality, and encourages mutual respect”. Does Conscious Relating accomplish this?
I think it is clear that it does all of that – and much more! It is a relating that is based on honesty and humility – and brings us together in a more-than-personal love. And I use the term “more than personal” to indicate that I am not talking about a romantic love – but a love we can all experience with everyone.
LIVE THEM
Is what I am saying true? We have all heard about idealistic communities / groups / clubs / associations / tribes that have fallen apart due to interpersonal issues.
And we have all heard about communities and groups that have endured because they were held together by rigid hierarchies and dogmas.
But can we form tribes of free-thinking equals that remain deeply, deeply united while honouring each other´s uniqueness? I believe these are the kind of tribes we now need to form.
And I am saying that the two core factors I have outlined in this article are what are needed to bond them, and carry them through the challenges they will inevitably encounter – into the full flowering of whatever they have set out to achieve.
This is not an intellectual argument. There is only one way to find out if Radical Honesty and Conscious Relating are the two core factors that will transform your tribe into a conscious tribe - and that, of course, is to live them.
*
Mark Josephs
“Mark The Mystic Activist”
Winter 2024/25
Aragon, Spain.
Mark facilitates The Conscious Tribes Project. His articles, stories and poems attempt to capture something of the mood of "intimacy with existence" at the heart of every Conscious Tribe – and invite people to explore the Conscious Tribes proposal more closely.
CONSCIOUS TRIBES
Seeds of New Local Communities
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