Meet the New Boss Same as the Old Boss
People that preach old values say that we shall not eat pork, display skin, or be sexually liberal. According to their traditional dogma it’s unthinkable to go through life without the guidance of a Priest, Rabbi, or Imam. They preach that our human nature is sinful and they sell us “salvation” as the remedy for our sinful selves.
People that preach new values say that we shall not eat carbs, display fat, or be sexually repressed. According to their modern dogma it’s unthinkable to not rely on the direction of a spiritual teacher, Guru, Coach, or Therapist. The New Bosses of political correctness and enlightenment sell “self-improvement” as the remedy for flaws in the political incorrectness of our view and lack of spiritual enlightenment.
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
–
The Who. (1971). Won’t Get Fooled Again. On Who’s Next
If you go beyond the apparent difference in their positions, you will find that they have the same agenda: they both want to boss us around and tell us what to do. In the words of The Who: “Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss.” (1971).
Both Bosses believe that they own the truth. They both promote commandments that are impossible to satisfy—because they are in opposition to human nature. They both see our failure to meet their irrational and inhuman demands as proof that we are deficient and we need them to fix us. They both believe—or want us to believe—that they know how to improve on the process of creation and evolution of which we are the product.
The majority of us have bought the message of one, or both, of these Bosses at some point. We have felt guilty, inadequate, and lacking as a result and have looked to them to save us from our perceived flaws so that we could be ok. When we did so we were scammed. Describing the spiritual scam of all merchants of salvation and spiritual enlightenment, the great thinker and writer Allan Watts wrote “…anybody who tells you that he has some way of leading you to spiritual enlightenment is like somebody who picks your pockets and sells you your own watch” (c.1955). This is a great description of the Bosses and their business practices.
When we awake enough to see through the self-degrading message of the marketers of salvation and enlightenment, we clearly see the obvious and powerful truth that all that is wrong with us is arising out of our mistaken beliefs about who we are—not from our Original Nature.
Our Original Nature was created by God/Tao/Nature/Evolution, or whatever other name you choose to call it. If we have been living hurting others and ourselves, and shortchanging our potential, it’s not because our humanity is sinful or lacking. We bring on suffering when we disown our true Nature, and even come to hate it, because we come to believe that it is sinful or morally defective.
When we buy into the idea that our Nature is sinful and in need of redemption, and we reject it, we reject the true source of our personal and spiritual power. When we alienate ourselves from ourselves we become helpless. When we become helpless we become vulnerable to be scammed by both Bosses.
Here is the real deal—our humanity doesn’t need to be fixed. Our humanity needs to be re-discovered, re-owned, accepted, embraced, and celebrated. A true path to living joyfully is a path that leads to the discovery, acceptance, and celebration of our true Nature—not a path of denigrating and hating it. When we fully accept our humanity we realize that we are a manifestation of the eternal. When we realize our Nature we clearly feel that we are not a mistake.
The awesome and indescribable source of all creation that made us does not make mistakes. We were born with a body, a mind, and a spirit designed to live connected with the force that created the entire Universe. When we become conscious of the fact that we are connected with the whole of creation, wake up to the truth of what we really are, and embrace our true worth, we will stop seeking people who stole our watches and ask to buy it back from them. We will stop being bossed around by any Boss.