Awakening is Alive and Well

By Jan Crawford

Awakening is another word for becoming aware of deeper realities. It is a synonym for increasing openness to what is learned, be that painful or pleasurable. Jean Kline, the late French Advaita non-dualism teacher, encourages us to be open to openness itself. He even goes so far in Invitation to Silence to propose “Openness is your real nature. It is all you are.”

And most of us would say we want to be open—to be awake to the present moment of our experience. We want to be receptive to new ideas and to the truths of others in all their richness and complexity. In today’s parlance that also means being called “woke.”

“Woke,” a term originated by Black people to mean being aware of racial prejudice and injustice, grew into a word used across the culture. Now it has been weaponized, a slur derisively hurled at those who supposedly try too hard to be attuned to and aligned with others. And as we examine what “woke” might mean to us, perhaps we can first consider how awake we are or might be.

Every day I learn new ways my heart and conditioned mind are still contorted into selfishness, apathy or simply caught in automatic defenses. As an elderly Caucasian woman, I continue to be surprised when I see yet another way reflexive judgements are still stealthily embedded in my “very progressive” psyche.

It is likely that some of my colonizing early ancestors were among those who took part in the murder and land theft of the 95 percent of Original Peoples in our country. But when I first began to open to that reality, I felt I was somehow ungratefully betraying my ancestors’ beliefs and actions. Finally, however, I began to understand they would be relieved that someone could now acknowledge both their challenges and these truths.

As we begin to see what justice could look like, many of us are examining these unconscious blind loyalties. But why are so many of our present rulers so rabidly “anti-woke?” What terrifies them so much about reality that they are vigorously attempting to criminalize being conscious and being conscientious? Are they afraid they will no longer be able to take, by any means, advantage of those they obviously consider inferior, undeserving or just plain expendable and replaceable? Are they frightened they could never be loved just for themselves? What, for example, do they fear would happen if they lost control over women’s bodies? And how has the Golden Rule–-the basis of wokeness–become “Do unto others whatever will make you feel more powerful and perhaps even get you a more impressive golden toilet?”

But what are the costs of this new or renewed level of denial? For me personally, denial keeps me encased in the iron cocoon of both the subtle fantasy of exceptionalism and, as a woman, the fantasy of fragility our culture has required me to occupy. It also impedes opportunities to learn from and enjoy each other’s cultures. And it interferes with my efforts to repair, where I can, the damage of my family’s and my racism. Just as importantly, it obstructs my own joy in the relief of sweet freedom to give and receive love in a much wider world. And for us as a country, denial is epically dangerous. We see daily the heartbreaking amount of damage those are doing who now use the word “strong” to describe actions that are actually pure ruthlessness.

However, the next time you hear someone gleefully proclaiming “Woke is dead” remember the unprecedented recent national protests against injustice or some particularly stunning act of courage and resistance. Those acts confirm what is ultimately undeniable: the sacred knowledge that the lifeforce itself moves us toward being more fully human.

Acknowledging difficult truths can be like slowly coming out of a long culturally imposed coma. Until our eyes acclimate, the light of some truths may seem just too painfully bright. However, as sight gradually returns, we begin to see the world as it is: complex, tragic, and filled with exquisite beauty and unlimited opportunities to contribute whatever each of us uniquely can.

Movements like those for racial justice or women’s rights are, at their core, challenges to the pretenses Rosemerry Trommer speaks of in her poem, The Awakening. Our open, awakened, woke actions show us clearer and kinder paths forward. So, if anyone critically implies or even “jokingly” accuses you of being woke, as non-defensively as possible, just respond, “Thank you.”