Mother and Child Reunion
We may remember the Paul Simon song “Mother and Child Reunion,” but many may not know this concept comes from “The Bardol Thodol,’’ commonly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which details our experiences in the afterlife. But there, it is known as the Mother and Child Luminosity, and the goal of a Mother and Child reunion is crucial to our survival on this planet. Let me explain.
Reestablishing Connection
In Tibetan Buddhism, the Mother Luminosity is the ground of being. The Great Mother gives birth to everything and takes it all back when it perishes. It is the beginning and ending of everything, while it, itself, has no beginning or ending.
The Child Luminosity is the glimpse we mortals get when we experience the Mother Luminosity directly. Some call it a mystical or unitive experience. It uplifts us from our temporary selves (egos), allowing us to experience something vaster than our everyday consciousness. It connects us to everything.
The Mother Luminosity is like the blue sky that always exists, even when hidden behind clouds. The Child Luminosity is the glimpse we get of the blue sky when the clouds part.
Today, we are a long way from this experience. Our ego clouds have blinded us for so long that many no longer believe a blue sky exists.
Why We Lost Our Way
Our materialist culture has brainwashed us into thinking this physical world is it, so you better make it here, or you won’t make it at all. The upshot is we have lost touch with the sacred, the Mother Luminosity, and as such, we flounder like dying fish thrown on shore.
We no longer listen to the adult in us because we don’t even know there is an adult in us. By adult, I mean someone mature, aware, and awake.
Carl Jung Weighs In
In his book Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, Peter Kingsley quoted Jung, saying he held out little hope that humanity would survive the modern age because we had lost touch with the sacred.
I know there are many so-called religious and spiritual people around today, but you can’t be an authentic spiritual person unless you have a connection to the sacred, for that informs who we are and what we should be doing.
Most people, especially those in power, don’t know who they are or what they should do. If they did, we would live in a very different world. Wise leaders would have dealt with climate change a long time ago when the first inklings of this disaster were occurring.
The Need for Wise Leaders and Citizens
Wise leaders would not allow wars, poverty, violence, or income inequality to exist, and wise citizens would have held them accountable if they hadn’t acted on these issues.
There is unease in the world today. Some believe something has gone wrong with the human experiment. Humans, being the first creatures with free will, can break the bounds of nature and live apart from the natural order of things.
In some ways, that can be good. Humans do need to develop a sense of themselves and their individuality. But this individuality has gone too far. It has become a prison, cutting us off from nature’s wisdom, the universe and the cosmos. We have become detached from the Mother Luminosity and lack any experience of the Child Luminosity, our connection to the ultimate.
Maslow’s Peak Experiences
If people have such an experience, they don’t know what it is and quickly dismiss it. The developmental psychologist Abraham Maslow developed this notion of the “Peak Experience,” an experience of connection to others and the universe.
Initially, his students reported having had few or no peak experiences. However, as he talked about these experiences over the semester, his students began to have more and more of them and even remembered overlooked past ones.
Imagine a more spiritually oriented society where these higher states of consciousness were not denigrated but accentuated. As people become further aware, they would have more heightened experiences, allowing them a broader and deeper view of things. It is a chance to see how we fit into the whole shebang.
Wisdom Needed Now More Than Ever
A society that fostered such states would not be in today’s mess. We wouldn’t be trapped in Us vs Them struggles where we always point to others as the source of our problems.
So, the Mother and Child Luminosity is critical today. Unless we begin to see ourselves as part of something bigger than our little selves, we will be forever locked in these ego struggles. Until we know that we are more than this bundle of complaints, we won’t understand how to pull ourselves out of this path to destruction.
