The Birth of 'The New Age'
By Michael Erlewine
1973 in my understanding is, spiritually speaking, a pivotal year in the history of American spiritual practice and its commercialization. My personal spiritual history was changed on January 4, 1973 at 03:49 AM in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when I had what is called a spontaneous kryia, and created the symbol for0r facility the “Heart Center.” My first child was born later that month on the 19th of January, 1973.
I should also point out that two now-classic books were published in 1973, “Spiritual Cannibalism” by Swami Rudrananda, in January 1973 and “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” by Chögyam Trungpa, September 1973.
Not sure whether you folks took notice of these books early on as I did or perhaps not at all. To me this is when the spiritual renaissance of the 1970s, what is called “The New Age,” the result of the 1960s, took root, as mentioned, 1973 in particular.
To me that book by Swami Rudrananda was, IMO, rooted in the word ‘rudra’ (which means in Sanskrit to cry or howl) is very self-directed. It did not take me very long to get the idea and after that, the same thing was being said and repeated over and over again.
And there are the ‘rudraksha’ beads, which we were always warned not to use except for very special wrathful practices. In India, often used for Shiva practices, the god of destruction.
As for Trungpa’s book “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,” that was easier for me to get into, if only because it pegged the Ego right from the start.
Yet, for me, all heavy-hitting books are but a window or portal for me that opens and closes from time to time. Not author other than Trungpa is more difficult for me to follow. It’s as if he never says anything.
I have to say, reading and conceptualization in general, by book, text, teaching, poem, or lyrics can only take us so far, and the reason for this is that all of the above are conceptual and above all dualistic. They exactly are like the old adage ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’.
The dualistic, whatever the format, can at best only make us more comfortable and perhaps more aware within Samsara. They alone cannot take us out of Samsara. At best, these written and conceptual aids can improve our situation within Samsara, make us more comfortable, thus the Titanic’s deck chairs. They cannot help us escape Samsara.
That ability alone rests on the dharma, its recognition, and eventual realization. Once that limitation of Samsara is grasped, that Samsara itself is not a route to freedom, but rather a prison, our mind is free to turn to something other than Samsara, which can only be the dharma itself.
[Symbol and logo for the Heart Center crated by me in 1973.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.