Liberation as a practice, not a destination 2
part two of our introduciton
Welcome to part two!
In part one we illuminated,
how liberation is a practice,
how we use oppression as a life-strategy and don’t even know it,
the three devastating consequences of fear of Aliveness.
Read part one:
Today we discuss, what Aliveness is and why colonized people fear Aliveness.
What is Aliveness?
Aliveness is the universal, animating force expressing through all of life, including you. Aliveness is raw power.
In human beings, Aliveness expresses itself in four domains: mental, physical, emotional, and energetic.
You experience and express Aliveness in all four domains. Without trying you think thoughts, feel emotions, birth and recycle cells, and connect to things that are bigger than you; family/community, values/commitments, gods/deities.
The function of Aliveness is to express what exists. Therefore, Aliveness prefers honesty to safety. But, Aliveness is not neutral. Aliveness cares about our well-being in all four domains. It is inclusive in that way. It will not sacrifice our well-being in one domain to support another. At times, our Aliveness will choose to express itself despite the repercussions. Our fear may council us to dominate, control, or suppress the Aliveness in ourselves or others to feel safe. But Aliveness exists to be expressed. That is its singular purpose. It will never bow down to our fear’s desire to play it safe. Aliveness wants so much more for us than safety; Aliveness wants our freedom, totally and completely. Aliveness wants to be free of all oppression, inside and out. Your Aliveness will settle for nothing less than your total liberation.
Fear of Alivevess
In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power [Aliveness] within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. -Audre Lorde
The power of our human Aliveness is awe-inspiring. The word awe encapsulates the dual experience of reverence and terror that humans have for other humans. We have free will and limitless capacity. We can dream up endless new inventions, build endless new tools, and think up endless new ways to express our Aliveness. When powerful humans exercise their free will with an awareness of interdependence and a belief in the sacredness of life, we can do wondrous things. When we act without regard for others, we wield ourselves as weapons of mass destruction. It is wise to be in awe.
At some point, humans decided to use their power over other humans, motivated by fear of the Aliveness of those “others.” With that decision, those fearful humans weaponized themselves. Seeing this terrifying expression of Aliveness, the “others” weaponized themselves in response. In all indigenous cultures on all continents, there were community-wide, culturally supported, sanctioned, and welcomed practices to heal the trauma of pain and loss. When Europeans began colonizing each other, I believe the back-to-back trauma of repeated colonization: war, death, murder, rape, and homeland loss, combined with lost access to ceremonial rituals of communal grieving and healing led to emotional numbness or “hypo-arousal.” This deadening of Aliveness combined with the need to “survive” the harsh realities created by colonization required the creation of force as a life strategy. The unending grief, degradation, and terror created a fear of things bigger and stronger than us, including Life (Aliveness). Over time, numbness as a permanent state, force as a life strategy, and fear of Aliveness expressed as a frantic need to dominate life to feel safe blossomed into the systemic oppression we experience today.
We became colonized people when our connection to ourselves, each other, nature, source/creator - all of life - was broken through the unhealed trauma of colonization.
Liberation for the win
Cycles of domination continue because the nature of conflict is that it escalates. You can try to get the upper hand, but so can the other party in your conflict. You yell. They yell. You grab a knife. They grab a knife. You grab a gun. They grab a gun. You grab a bomb. They grab a bomb. The escalation continues until we invent bombs that destroy the planet or de-escalate the conflict. Therefore, the only way out of a conflict is to de-escalate it and the only way out of oppression is to divest from oppression as a strategy, and forge a path to the safety of Liberation.
Fortunately, the safety we seek can be found in Liberation, the state of being in movement, partnership, and co-creation with the Aliveness of life. When we flow with the constant movement of life - impermanence - we are never stuck with circumstances we dislike. We let them change. When we co-create with life, we give life more of our Aliveness influencing its movement. When we partner with life, we accept that while we may not get everything we want all of the time, we can work with life for the highest good of ALL life. Which includes us! Over time we begin to see life’s wisdom and we develop reverence for the wisdom of the Universal Aliveness we are all connected to.
The Safety of Aliveness
It can feel scary to put down the armor and weapons of domination, control, and suppression. We can feel defenseless in a world where others continue to wield them. However, we do not have to be defenseless. We can armor ourselves with Liberatory Practices. Liberatory Practices protect us without infringing upon the Aliveness of others, except as a last resort. Liberatory Practices are non-oppressive protection.
It is important to remember that the physical world is not a safe place. Humans invented oppression as armor against a dangerous world. But we are not safer when we practice oppression. We believe we are, but in reality, we are making life less safe for ourselves and others.
When we accept that life is unsafe and we will not make it out alive, we can armor ourselves responsibly, while knowing that painful and life-ending circumstances will occur in our lives. There is no armor against pain or death. A healthy balance of protection and acceptance is to use The 18 Liberatory Practices of Liberated Being to protect ourselves and to use them to feel and express our emotions about the impermanence and pain of life.
Aliveness for Greater Success
Oppression limits our success to the amount of force we can exert and the amount of exertion we can maintain over time. Liberation aligns us with the growth potential of an endlessly expanding universe. We can tap into endless expansion and therefore, endless abundance and success. So how do we practice Liberation?
Practicing Liberation
The key to all change is to build familiarity with what we want. At first, what we want seems distant, unfamiliar, and unrecognizable as part of us. Over time we come to see that what we want is already part of us. It is the same with Liberation. We can build familiarity with Liberation through the use of Liberatory Practices (which are already part of who you are).
Anything that unleashes your Aliveness could be called a liberatory practice, so there could be infinite liberatory practices. I suggest you make your own list of practices that put you in movement, partnership, and co-creation with Aliveness.
Over the last 10 years, I have tried out hundreds of practices and programs for personal growth, personal and intergenerational healing, and professional development. After all my years of research and practice, I distilled what I learned into the most basic, simple, and concentrated essence of wisdom and power; the 18 Liberatory Practices of Liberated Being™.
Of the infinite list of liberatory practices, I’ve found these 18 to be the most essential. The18 Liberatory Practices of Liberated Being plus the definitions of Oppression, Internalized Oppression, and Liberation make up the practice of Liberated Being.™
I’ve written a post about each practice. Subscribe to receive them as emails or check back as I update this list (red =clickable).
The 18 Liberatory Practices of Liberated Being™
CHOICE
BOUNDARIES
CONSENT
TRANSPARENCY
EQUITY
EQUALITY
DIVERSITY
INCLUSION
PLEASURE
PLAY
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