The hedonistic and materialistic culture of our time is of pandemic proportions. It has seeped into the bones of humanity and contorted us into compulsion-driven creatures rather than shaped into evolved conscious beings. Our religion has become so warped and cannibalized by carnality that we now worship either a God of warring tribalism or a God of sensuality and status, power and material riches. In the first case, religion has been and is being used to legitimize geopolitical and ethnoracial conflicts that some argue have deteriorated to genocidal proportions. In the latter case, we see large swathes of people across nations mesmerized by the notorious “prosperity pseudo-gospel” in its variant strains, regardless of religion but notably in the cultural sphere of fundamentalist charismatic Christianity.
Though I prefer to veer away from God-talk, I shall nonetheless for the purpose of this essay engage my themes along the lines of such talk. From the narrow and shallow perspective of the prosperity pseudo-gospel, a prosperous and successful life is one that is characterized by material riches and worldly success of gargantuan proportions, replete with a plethora of mundane pleasures, possessions, and comforts. This ideology of carnal comfort is camouflaged as the “true gospel of grace” that saves humanity from the “sins” of poverty or lack of money, sickness, discomfort, lack of romantic partner or babies, painful childbirth, lack of career promotion or accolades, and the like. From a historic biblical perspective, such teachings amount to nothing less than destructive heresy and error. Bible scholars, theologians, and teachers alike have vehemently critiqued the prosperity pseudo-gospel ideology but recalcitrant preachers and their unthinking followers remain blindly tethered together in this self-deception and religious con job, knowingly or unknowingly. As these critiques have been published elsewhere, I shall not belabor those salient and critical points here. There are those who may argue that the prosperity pseudo-gospel does some good in lifting alcohol-addicted and abusive men out of their rut. Well, maybe. But is this phenomenon sustainable? Is it statistically significant? More to the point, does and can and should one evil really serve to resolve the problem of another evil?
In this essay, I simply wish to reflect on my own life and come to clarity on how it has unfolded thus far in light of what it means to be truly prosperous and successful. From the historic biblical perspective, to be prosperous and successful is to follow the will of God in one’s life regardless of pleasure or pain, comfort and discomfort, riches or poverty, health or sickness, longevity or a short life, high status or low, married or single. In other words, true prosperity and success has nothing to do with worldly measures of the same, as touted by proponents of the prosperity pseudo-gospel. In fact, isn’t it uncanny that the values preached by prosperity pseudo-gospel proponents mirror exactly the values of global neoliberal capitalism, a form of political economy that has become hyper-exploitative and even predatory in recent times? It is no secret then that prosperity pseudo-gospel is nothing other than a Christian-glossed version of hedonistic capitalist ideology. Hence, to be prosperous and successful in those terms could be actually counter-biblical and counter-gospel, if not anti-Christ particularly if these carnal values supersede the value and worth of God. In fact, there is reason to believe that this has indeed happened in prosperity pseudo-gospel circles where God or Christ has been reduced to little more than a cosmic ATM machine or an infinitely-resourced genie who is at the whim and fancy of self-entitled, self-serving prosperity pseudo-gospel believers. From a historic biblical perspective, the ideological imperatives of the prosperity pseudo-gospel circus are blatantly repulsive and heretical. Hence, the latter’s claim to prosperity and success is in fact unbiblical and ungodly. True biblical prosperity and success are indeed something else altogether.
From this vantage point, as argued above, I look at my life and feel deeply gratified. This is because I have in all honesty lived in full concordance with the deepest calling of my heart within the limits of my human vulnerabilities. And for that, I am thoroughly at peace, gratefully fulfilled, and exuberantly contented. For me, “God” is not the biblical caricature that has come to be adopted as normative by denominational believers of whichever persuasion. Rather, I see “God” outside dogmatic mainline thinking in open, relational, amipotent, inclusive, pluralistic, nominalistic, and cosmotheandric terms. I have detailed my paradigm of God elsewhere and thus shall not detail it here. Since the age of five, I have followed my heart’s calling to meditate on and abide in the presence of the Great Compassionate One, Avalokiteshvara (Guanshiyin; 觀世音). From the young age of fourteen, I have embarked upon the Buddha’s noble eightfold path, adopting this path as my path of self-cultivation and spiritual training with the Buddha as my teacher par excellence. Soon after, I met my first Buddhist teacher and my meditation practice took off. I was exuberantly resolved to walk the path to its very end — enlightenment — and encountered many beautiful and powerful blessings along the way, alongside numerous challenges. I have met highly realized teachers, even those I considered enlightened ones, and benefited greatly from their example and teaching. Four decades on and I remain firmly grounded on the path, having realized many aspects and dimensions of the path for myself and having tasted the liberating fruits of practice — Buddhist, Yogic, and Tantric. My life has never been so rich, profound, meaningful, and free. This core of spiritual and meditative living is the panoramic context for all the happenings and doings in my life. Whatever I have done and am doing now are graciously and solidly grounded in my inner life of mindfulness and discernment, inquiry and awareness, kindness and compassion. And this inner life is tremendously blessed and inspired by the wisdom energy and empowering flow of all my authentic teachers (beloved and respected gurus) ultimately rooted in the cosmotheandric Christ — who is the Adi-Buddha and Dharmakaya ocean of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; the nameless ultimate that is the Great Dao; the supreme field of Paramashiva-Paramabrahma-Paramatman; the infinite cosmic consciousness that is manifested as Adiyogi Shiva; and the highest nuclear witnessing entity (Purusottama) that is personified as Bhagavan Krishna.
I see this deepest calling of my heart as the attraction of Christ, the magnetizing power of Buddha-nature, and the call of the Great that is primordial consciousness of Shiva towards my highest evolutionary purpose — my true and ultimate Home. My entire life unfolded as a progressive and deepening journey of homecoming, as I return from the adventure of experience to the innermost source and ground of being beyond all experiential content. From that dimensionless point, this life continued unfolding and emerging as the dynamic effulgent display of who I really am in and as Christ, blissfully and luminously emerging in my myriad doings and happenings as a relative person in historical space-time. As long as I was not fully enlightened, there would be oscillations between this primordial blissful sport immersed in nuclear stillpoint and shades of egoic involvement in everyday events and actions. But over time and with increasing shining of primordial consciousness conjoined with primordial energy, as self-abidance becomes more fully integrated with manifold activity, these shades of egoic involvement become lesser and thinner, and would become finally erased for good.
As I reflect on various monumental shifts in my way of being in the world throughout my life, I can see clearly discernible patterns of fulfilment and joy. One could see how this stream of consciousness imputed with my name(s) was able to excel in academic pursuits in line with its deepest intellectual passions, publishing essays and books with definite impact on the world of scholarship and clinical practice. One could see a divinely-appointed karmically-concatenated marital union of blissful fulfilment and enlightening wholeness over several decades, with a highly capable soulmate and spiritual kin of commensurate intellect, wisdom, love, integrity, and profundity. One could see a career of therapeutic depth and coaching wisdom that has helped many people transition through ill-health or existential crises in their personal lives. It was gratifyingly a life phase of creative scholarship and transformative clinical practice. One could also see an academic career of teaching efficacy and supervisory excellence, transmitting knowledge, values, practices, and wisdoms of ancient Asian paradigms to keen undergraduates and supporting postgraduate scholars striving in their respective doctoral and masters degree programs. One could see a profoundly fulfilling and inspiring life phase of spiritual teaching, retreat leading, and meditation instruction that integrated various lineages of the Buddha Dharma, bringing illumination and energy to a circle of committed students on the path of enlightenment. One could later see a life phase of authentic and faithful pastoral ministry that was part of a deeper exploration and discernment of one’s vocational calling, resulting in a wise and unequivocal departure from mainstream church involvement, with valuable but hard lessons learnt. One could see an entire life of filial love, sacrifice, and caring for one's blood family with huge financial and emotional investments motivated by love and compassion. This is a meditative life that began in early to middle childhood continuing to the present day, albeit with much more wisdom and letting-be now than there was in the past. One could see a life of sustained and dedicated meditation teaching, spiritual coaching, philosophical writing and publication, and transmission of timeless wisdom and empowering energy in the radically innovative and non-conformist context of an online meditation space — Awarezen. At the core of this meditation space is the Order of Awarezen Mitras (OAM) that forms the heart and crucible of the new and pioneering Awarezen Lineage.
Here, the integral wisdoms of all of one’s interspiritual and contemplative realizations are crystallized in the unique and unprecedented Path of Total Awakening known as the Great Christic Consummation (Mahayeshua-Atiyoga). This Awarezen Lineage of profound transformation and liberation is unapologetically inclusive and integral, interspiritual and intercontemplative, open and relational, transcending rigid boundaries yet faithful to the deepest truths of the cosmos and beyond. And when one thinks of this, one can justifiably feel a deep sense of joyful, blissful, and ecstatic fulfilment that comes from a self-evident sense of having walked the path with heartfulness and authenticity. This is not mere gratification of some psychological desire but an existential revolution that overfills to and overflows from the luminous space-like core. It comes naturally from a life well-lived that is in perfect synergy with the divine will of the cosmotheandric Christ, the enlightened intent of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the three times and ten directions.
When measured in terms of worldly prosperity and success touted by predatory neoliberal capitalism and its religious counterparts in prosperity pseudo-gospel adherents, my life may not count as “prosperous” or “successful” in monetary or prestige terms. Nor would it count as the same in terms of the phantasmagoria of carnal comforts and possessions delusively attributed to success. But as I have written earlier, these carnal indices are false measures of prosperity and success. In historic biblical terms, I see myself as having followed without compromise the will of God, living my felt calling through the many twists and turns of life despite persecutions, sufferings, and sacrifices which run long and deep. More than that, I have not steered away from calling a spade a spade or calling out hypocrisy and duplicity whenever I encountered them. This is especially true in the context of my professional and academic career, where I never shrunk from critiquing a faulty status quo or from speaking truth to power in love, always at great personal cost. In the domain of intellectual debate and particularly when it concerns universal wellbeing of sentient beings (including humanity), I have strongly critiqued what I see as false ideologies that harm and divide life and people, especially false religious teachings of the prosperity pseudo-gospel that are premised upon a virulent harmful concept of false grace.
Yes, I am indeed satisfied that I have lived a prosperous and successful life, even as I am living this life now in blissfulness and liberation. Social norms, cultural taboos, religious dogmas, and unquestioned beliefs and assumptions of the institutionalized status quo have no hold on me. I have no time for tribalism, nativism, nationalism, hedonism, neoliberalism, and materialism. I listen to a radically different drummer and follow dance steps that lead away from falsity to truth, from darkness to light, and from death to deathlessness. This I have done since decades past and this I shall continue to do. And in so being and doing, a direct and immediate knowing has emerged as my default mode, even as an infinite unspeakable presence of empty bright transparency suffuses this personified being and doing with nameless peace and blessed assurance.
For me, THAT is authentic prosperity and success.
