Being Woke

For several years, we have read and heard about the radical woke policies and how destructive they have been to the welfare of the American psyche and culture. The attack on ‘wokeism’ has intensified over the past several weeks. The message is clear-there’s some destruction being done by those who propagate and advance the cause of ‘wokeism.’ A direct victim of this attack on woke has been Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - DEI initiatives.

I have no doubt that there abounds within our numerous spaces a definition or interpretation of woke or being woke - one which I am not qualified enough to define. But my approach to being woke is one of awakening consciousness. It doesn’t mean that people are entirely ignorant, unconscious or indifferent, it simply means being awakened to an idea which was heretofore dormant, or even lifeless, within you. Being woke is akin to coming alive or being aware of yourself, being aware of the other, being aware of the community you share with others, being aware of the space you share with others and being aware of our shared values and history. More importantly, it is about being aware of your own ego.

This is how Eckhart Tolle, in his book A New Earth, writes about an awakened consciousness: “The greatest achievement of humanity is not its works of art, science, or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness. In the distant past, this recognition already came to a few individuals. A man called Gautama Siddhartha, who lived 2600 years ago in India, was perhaps the first who saw it with absolute clarity. Later, the title Buddha was conferred upon him. Buddha, means “the awakened one.” At about the same time, another of humanity’s early awakened teachers emerged in China. His name was Lao Tzu. He left a record of his teaching on the form on one of the most profound spiritual books ever written, the Tao Te Ching.

To recognize our own insanity is, of course, the arising of sanity, the beginning of healing and transcendence. A new dimension of consciousness has begun to emerge on the planet, a first tentative flowering. Those rare individuals then spoke to their contemporaries. They spoke of sin, of suffering, of delusion. They said, "Look how we live. See what you are doing, see the suffering you create. They then pointed to the possibility of awakening from the collective nightmare of “normal” human existence. They showed the way.”

Eckhart’s point is that those who became aware of human dysfunction and madness pointed the way out of it. They knew that we don’t have to trivialize human dysfunction. To do so was to sanction corruption and an ego-centric society. They knew that we didn’t have to normalize the madness that plagued human existence - that, itself, was a woke moment. People like Gautama Siddhartha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus Christ were awakened to see what was, and then through that same process of awakening, they saw what could be.

As I indicated earlier, one of the casualties of recent happenings against being woke is the attack against Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, or DEI. This is a program that seeks to address some of the injustices of the past by creating a work force that reflects our country as a diverse melting pot. This program is about awareness - that we all are aware of what happened in the past, how some communities of people were disregarded and disenfranchised in their own home country, and the expressed desire to make things right. This program seeks to open all of us up to cheer on the diversity that brims with life within this country.

I don’t think the goal of DEI is to make all of us the same, in spite of our glaring differences. The goal, in my mind, is to create spaces where people can thrive, spaces where we are not consumed by dysfunction and madness, hatred and spite, but spaces of giftedness, places where we celebrate the richness of diversity. And like Paul, casting our eyes toward what we could be.

DEI is about being awakened, being woke to the presence of the other. There are two pivotal woke moments in scripture that I’d like to bring to your attention. One of the woke moments is about the epiphany of Paul. The apostle who writes of himself as working more than his colleagues was the champion of a reign of terror against Christians. Fueled by hatred and fanaticism, he set his mission to persecute and eliminate every trace of Christianity.

One day, he set off to Damascus in pursuit of Christians. “Suddenly, while he was traveling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all around him. He fell to the ground, and then heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ he asked, and the voice answered, ‘I am Jesus.’”

Scripture captures that moment with these words, it was as if scales fell off his eyes. Paul could see again. Not that he had been blind before, he had not. But because the scales fell off his eyes, he could now see how the world could be. Paul was awakened to a different kind of consciousness that upended all that he had come to know about his Jewish faith.

In response to this awakening, Paul could look at Christianity, and in fact his Christian faith, in a totally different way. Yes, Paul was awakened to see what was, but he was awakened to see what could be. To an extent, Paul’s advocacy and his zealot passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ was driven by what could be.

It was an awakening that aroused a new way of looking at the world not as is, but how it could be.

Was his passion fueled by being woke? You bet it was. Because when you are woke, you become aware, and when you are aware, the ego has no place in your lived experience.

Paul would later write to the Corinthians: “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” In the same letter, he shared these words “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Here was a man who whiles he boasted about his weakness, would affirm the power and grace of God as being more than sufficient for him. Here was a man who had no ounce of hubris in him.

The ego doesn’t know anything about weakness, compassion nor the sufficiency of grace. The ego doesn’t look on these as necessary for human existence. That is why the ego can be very destructive. For what we are witnessing is nothing but a callous and careless destruction of what Americans have built over years with great care and humility.

The ego, it is said, loses its relevance when there arises a new sense of awareness. Being woke is about being aware. And being aware is about what we can all be. 

Manny+

(This is the first of two or three writings on this topic.)