Amidst all the recent events surrounding the death of George Floyd and the activism pushing for social reform, I wish to offer a spiritual perspective on white consciousness and what I call the white egoic ideal. The white egoic ideal is an ideal or mental image that attempts to represents a global and universal value for The Good, The Truth, The morally pure, the Love and the Safe. It is a moral ideal as well as the intellectual ideal, which, in contrast to that which is considered other than it, is put as the height or higher, or better than.
In white societies this egoic ideal has been conditioned culturally to be the image of the color white, which was also associated with the skin and ethnicity. White historically in white cultures represented the good and black represented evil, white the light and black the dark. The White Knights fighting the dark evils of medieval lore. To be in the white light was to be both in a moral good light as well as in a rational or logical light of truth value. This image of white as an egoic ideal is a heritage of white people, although with the proliferation of white culture all over the world through colonialism has been psychically downloaded by nearly all cultures. Racism was taught by white German and European cultures to the rest of the non-white world via the white egoic ideal.
Why is it appealing to believe in the white egoic ideal? Because if you do then you supposedly align with what it tries to represent: moral and intellectual superiority. So what is the ultimate remedy for the White egoic ideal? To realize that it is merely an ideal and not the true Good, Truth, moral and intellectual purity. It is an image of it, which is what makes it egoic. Where the true expressions of these are Transcendent, and ultimately have no basis in thought whatsoever but are based in the heart. They are based in the real and not the ideal.
“I love you” is not merely theoretical, it is the real True, Good, Morally Pure, and the highest meaning and motivation of all intelligence, no matter what ethnicity expresses it. This is the insight that Transcends the white egoic ideal. It is the only distinction necessary to recognize the preciousness of all people beyond any image you might hold on to. May you open your heart to all of your brothers and sisters on this planet, and may you come to transcend the white egoic ideal.
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