How Tribalism Is Standing In the Way of Awakening

In today’s Western society Tribalism has run rampant.  You may be hearing this term more and more these days.  I for one truly feel that it is one of the biggest hurdles we need to overcome in our collective awakening.  I think Michael Pollan said it best for me.

“What is Tribalism but a collective version of ego.  It’s defensive, it builds walls, it refuses connection”

Please know that I feel that Tribalism is not the same as “finding your tribe”.  Another term we hear a lot today.  The true heart of a Tribe is to bring us together, in support and love.  Tribalism, tears us a part. 

In order to awaken, individually and eventually collectively, we must first come to the realization or “remembrance” that we are all one.  Truly we have all come from the same consciousness.  Whether you want to call this Christ consciousness, Gaia, Spirit, the Universe, whatever resonates with you, it is all the same thing.  We are all souls having a human experience, here, incarnated on this plane at this time, to learn the lessons our souls need in order to return to the collective.  We are having individual experiences, but we are all connected, and in the end, will return to oneness with each other.  It seems so strange and difficult to grasp, as our entire existence is one of individuation.  How can we be so different, but indeed be a part of the same whole?  This is part of the lesson some of us are learning, and the more of us who learn this, the closer we come to collective awakening.

If we read the definition of Tribalism, it is the “objectifying of the other.”  Whether that “other” is nature, or other people, people of different faiths, different races, different political views.  So much of the messaging out there today is that we are different, that we should acknowledge these differences, embrace these differences, focus on our differences.  Why aren’t we being encouraged to instead focus on how we are one?  How we are all a part of this Earth tribe together?  How we are all on similar journeys, different pieces of the same whole?  I really think it is because if we shift our focus in this way, more of us will awaken, and contribute to the collective awakening.  There is power to be lost if all of us wake up together, and we realize that we are one.  Those of us that cling heartily to Tribalism do so to avoid losing this assumed power over others.  If everyone is so busy holding on to their differences, they won’t be able to see the freedom they can gain from remembering that we are one. 

What would happen in your life if you gave up the labels you have put on your existence?  White, black, brown, gay, straight, trans, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Rich, Poor, the 1%, American, European, African.  What if all of these labels were just your ego asserting itself?  What if you could let go of your ego, overcome it, and begin to do the work that you were truly here to do?  What would happen in your life then?

I won’t say that there aren’t things in my life that I have been conditioned to identify with.  I’m definitely working on releasing my ego, along with the rest of you!!!  It’s important though to get to the point where we can ask ourselves “is this ego?  Is this serving me? Is this helping me to serve others”? Tribalism is the opposite of awakening, the opposite of releasing that ego.  Another saying I think goes along with this argument is that anything that takes you away from the whole is not God.  If it serves to separate you from nature and your fellow souls, then it is not serving your awakening.

I am committing to not seeing our differences.  I think one thing that helps is a belief in reincarnation.  If you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you had lived past lives as a man, as a person of color, as someone of a different religion, etc., and that you would likely live again after this life in a whole different set of circumstances, how would that shape your relation to the other souls that are walking the planet with you?  For me, I realize that the outward shell and circumstances have been put in place to enable me to learn whatever lessons I needed to learn this go around.  I am committed to seeing your shell and circumstances in the same light.  I think this is the essence of Namaste, the light in me, sees the light in you.

This is how we combat Tribalism and move our awakening forward.  To commit to seeing each other’s light.  To reject anything that wreaks of collective ego, anything that builds walls, anything that refuses connection.