| Who is Barack Obama
Who is Barack Obama (Spiritually Speaking)?
Nancy Seifer and Martin Vieweg
Exactly two weeks after being sworn-in as president, Barack Obama lived through a day that would have devastated most politicians. That morning, two of his cabinet appointees withdrew their nominations under mounting scrutiny for a failure to pay taxes. One of them, Obama’s premier candidate to fix the nation’s broken health care system, was also a close political ally and friend.
Later that day, interviews with five network TV anchors had been scheduled for the president to rally the nation’s support behind his economic stimulus bill, itself coming under growing scrutiny. But the sinking economy was trampled by the morning’s news. As the interviews unfolded, Obama’s sense of urgency about stemming the mounting toll of human suffering gave way to the “the raw meat” of Washington politics. His questioners targeted the ethical lapses of his appointees, the implications for his promise to bring change to Washington, and whether he himself was at fault for having set the bar for ethical standards too high.
Without missing a beat or showing any sign of strain, Obama turned his first presidential trial-by-fire into a “teachable moment,” to quote political commentator Arianna Huffington. He used the occasion to expound upon his inaugural call for a new era of responsibility. “The era of responsibility is not about never making mistakes,” he explained, “it’s about owning up to them and making sure you don’t repeat them.” By way of example, he promptly assumed responsibility for the failed nominations. “I screwed up,” he said, and “I’ll have to take my lumps.”
Reviewing the happenings that evening was David Gergen, White House aide to four presidents and the ultimate Washington insider. CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who conducted one of the day’s interviews, asked Gergen if he had ever known a president who so willingly accepted blame, or one who was so calm. Momentarily at a loss for words, Gergen shook his head at the novelty of Obama’s holding himself accountable, affirming that it was indeed new behavior in Washington. As for the president’s unshakable calm, Gergen described it as “preternatural”—a word whose literal meaning is beyond nature, or supernatural.
It seems there are many things about the 44th president that are beyond the nature of Washington politics: from assuming ownership of the mega-crises left to him by the last president, to pouring considerable energy into healing the partisan divide. As he goes about conducting official business, many reporters appear to be watching with a sense of wonderment. One veteran political journalist admitted that with Obama in office, he was finding it difficult to remain cynical.
There are also facts about Obama’s life that fall outside the natural order of politics: patterns noted by historians and biographers. In a recent Washington Post article, journalist and biographer David Maraniss underscored the “uncommon amount of luck” that contributed to his rapid political rise—the mysterious removal of obstacles in his path. Then there are the uncanny historical coincidences surrounding his victory: the fact that he became the Democratic Party’s nominee for president 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech; that his inauguration fell on the 80th anniversary of King's birth, less than a month before the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. “It’s almost as if the stars are lining up,” remarked historian Michael Beschloss during the inaugural events.
There is still more about Obama that could well be called preternatural—beyond his character and his gifts, beyond the “accidents of fate” that smoothed his way to the White House. As he campaigned for two long years, the light of his soul kindled the inner spark of souls around the world in a way that changed lives. Inner city American youths who were headed for lives of crime turned into model students, believing they could accomplish anything. English students in Japan began studying and reciting Obama’s campaign speeches, inspired by their ideas and the beauty of their language. Young Brazilians entered politics to improve the lives of their people, some at the risk of assassination. The people dubbed these courageous souls “our Obamas.”
For countless individuals around the globe, people awake to the new wave of spirituality permeating our planet, Obama has reignited hope that a new era is truly dawning. He has been called “Mahatma Obama” by some who see in him the spiritual greatness of Gandhi. Others recognize him as a highly evolved soul with a rare capacity to elevate the human spirit and melt away external barriers—a figure destined for global leadership at this critical point in human evolution. “We’re here to evolve to a higher plane,” said Oprah Winfrey in her endorsement of Obama’s candidacy, [and] “he is an evolved leader…”
A spiritually penetrating assessment of candidate Obama was offered last June by Mark Medford, a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle with an acerbic wit. After making the declaration that “Barack Obama isn’t really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway,” Medford went on to say:
Many spiritually advanced people I know … identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason, or emotion, but to the soul.
Thoughtful observers have likely wondered: Who is Barack Obama? And why does it appear that he “isn’t really one of us”? They might also be moved to ask: What accounts for the qualities that set him apart from most human beings? How did he arrive at this advanced state of being? What does his election say about the potential of the human race? And if he is here to help us evolve, toward what are we evolving?
While numerous enlightened beings have left us teachings about the path of spiritual evolution over the centuries, perhaps the most comprehensive set of answers to such questions can be found in a body of modern esoteric knowledge known as the Ageless Wisdom—teachings given to humanity for this time of transition between an age of materialism and a new era of spirituality. Many volumes are devoted to the human soul, its journey of evolution, and the stages of the path through which someone like Barack Obama has clearly passed.
They explain how it is possible for an individual to develop the spiritual potency to dispel cynicism and reawaken hope, to dissolve barriers and create unity, to expose the ignorance of selfishness and inspire a willingness to sacrifice. They reveal the subtle processes by which great souls are forged, enabling them to shoulder the burden of human suffering while remaining joyful, to expose wrong-doing with a loving heart, to face world-shattering crises with unshakable calm.
Through the lens of the wisdom teachings, Obama becomes a textbook example of a “very old soul.” Based on the qualities he displays, it can be said with certainty that he long ago completed the vast cycles of evolution during which the human soul (masked by the outer persona) learns and grows through painful experience in the material world. It was surely many lifetimes ago when the soul who is Barack Obama first set foot on the Path of Return to the divine Source—mounting the difficult path that gradually transforms a human being into a spiritual being.
The path that he has travelled —the universal spiritual path that we all eventually travel—begins with the soul’s awakening to its spiritual essence. Transformation occurs over time as the soul grows in consciousness and learns, through purifying tests and trials, to transmute selfishness into selflessness. What emerges after lifetimes of experience is a being who appears to be like the rest of us, but one who is cleansed of selfish motives. The mind of such a being controls the emotions and is itself illumed by the soul, whose nature is love. The life of such a being is marked by self-sacrifice and service to the greater good.
The election of a soul like Barack Obama to the most powerful office in the world tells us a lot about where humanity stands on the path of evolution and gives us a vision of a possible future. According to the Ageless Wisdom, we are living through the Great Turning of the Ages—the long-prophesied time when humanity is destined to move beyond the separative sense of ourselves as isolated, material beings to become aware of our true identity as spiritual beings. This shift in consciousness, vastly accelerated in recent times, is occurring in synchrony with the “shrinking” of our planet and the emergence of an interrelated global community of human beings.
As a physical embodiment of “the one humanity,” Barack Obama’s appearance on the world stage has reignited the freedom struggles of oppressed people everywhere. Spiritually, for those who have eyes to see, he is a role model and a teacher. For the millions of people around the globe whose souls are awakening, his words and his actions shine a light on the next stage of our evolutionary journey.
[2.8.09]
Nancy Seifer and Martin Vieweg are the coauthors of When the Soul Awakens.
<Obama and the New Era of Responsibility>
<Home>
<Latest Postings>
|
