What Is an Evolutionary Worldview?
If you’re familiar with EnlightenNext magazine, then you probably know how excited we are by an emerging perspective we call “The Evolutionary Worldview” and its untapped potential to help us in meeting the most pressing challenges of our time. In fact, we believe an evolutionary worldview is so crucial to the future we all know is possible, we are dedicating an entire daylong virtual seminar to it on Saturday, May 15th. Led by our editorial team of Andrew Cohen, Elizabeth Debold, Ross Robertson, and myself, this free live event will also feature several special guests, including Ken Wilber, Brian Swimme, Marilyn Schlitz, Deepak Chopra, and more.
–>Click here to register for our free virtual seminar on May 15th.
(If you can’t participate on May 15th, you can still register now to receive access to free MP3s of the day’s sessions.)
So what exactly is an evolutionary worldview? How can it serve as the foundation for a new global culture? These questions have helped guide the inquiry of EnlightenNext for the better part of the last decade. And one thing we’ve discovered is that even though Darwin’s theory of evolution has dramatically changed our understanding of nature and the development of life on earth, we’re just beginning to comprehend what living in an evolving universe really means in the deepest sense.
A truly evolutionary worldview—with its own values, ways of seeing, and sense of identity, purpose, and meaning—is something that doesn’t already exist. It’s still very much in the process of being defined. As one of my favorite evolutionaries, the great French philosopher Henri Bergson, wrote in his 1907 classic Creative Evolution: “A philosophy of this kind will not be made in a day. . . . It will only be built up by the collective and progressive effort of many thinkers, of many observers also, completing, correcting and improving one another.”
In that spirit, we want to know what you think: How does the understanding that we live in an evolving universe change the way you see things and inform your vision of what’s possible in the future? In preparation for May 15th, I warmly encourage you to share your own thoughts and insights here by posting a comment on this post.
To kick off our discussion, I’ve posted an audio clip below (11:38) from a recent talk I gave about the historical significance of the evolutionary worldview. I hope you enjoy it!
[podcast]http://magazine.enlightennext.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/CarterPhippsGIA.mp3[/podcast]
Filed Under: Consciousness • Cultural Evolution • Culture • EnlightenNext Editors’ Blog • EnlightenNext magazine • Evolutionaries • Evolutionary Spirituality
I think that the recognition of living in an evolving universe is to recognize that our ability to solve complex political, ecological, social, medical and scientific problems is not separate from the self-organizing force that propels the process of evolution we see occurring on all scales, from the development of a single celled organism to the creation of a galaxy. By taking on an evolutionary perspective, we begin to see events unfolding along a trajectory from the past into the future. This perspective is what allows us to manage the complex world we find ourselves in, no longer are random events occurring around us, but rather there is one event unfolding in many different forms. This “one event, many forms” approach is what will allow for a common language among the numerous avenues of research and development that the human race is currently engaged in. Creating this common language is what I currently believe to be the promise of “The Evolutionary Worldview”.
“Nothing makes sense in life and culture except in the light of evolution”, as you say it in the audio. And I agree. I am not a cosmologist, biologist or scientist but I am finding that simply trying to make sense of my own life as a postmodern swede 2010 does not work until I strech high and big enough to embrace the evolutionary worldview.
And when I do, I get inspired to find out what this new way of looking at everything implies – in all fields of life, including in myself. The main difference is that instead of looking for the ultimate truth, I look for the next step. Knowing that more steps will follow – and that I impossibly can control what they will be – I simply have to give it all right now. So paradoxically I find that embracing evolution – looking towards the future – makes me more present in the moment, for the sake of the future.
“embracing evolution – looking towards the future – makes me more present in the moment, for the sake of the future.”
so beautifully stated. . .
Amen! Beautifully stated indeed.
I love the quote Carter included by Henri Bergson about how “a philosophy of this kind will not be created in a day…” Before discovering the work of great thinkers like Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, I’d spent my entire adult life trying to reconcile a passion for science and a drive to awaken spiritually. I soon realized that this quest is one humanity has been on for some time, ever since science broke free of superstitious thinking and a true understanding of this glorious life process we are a part of began to emerge. Every cosmic, physical and biological law we uncovered acted like a foothold to propel us forward towards more complete ways of knowing ourselves and the universe. But, spiritual experience, interior awakenings, the insights of great spiritual masters, and meaning and purpose for human existence had no real place in that picture until now. With the dawning of the evolutionary worldview a more complete truth is being discovered, and with it a stronger foothold for the future. I’m really looking forward to May 15th!
What I realized in all these years of training, practice or conscious evolution is that I knew a lot of theory. Not only that, from an experiential point of view, I could reach, be and manifest nirvana at will.
Now that I am working in the field with lower levels of development (lower memes), what I discovered is that I know a lot, I have a lot of concepts, theory, experiences and so on, and that is great, but the question is: How do I apply all this knowledge when a person is not even able to have an ethnocentric perspective? How do I apply it when a person cannot see beyond 48 hours? Or when a person is not able to see life through someone else’s eyes?
As I said, I know the theory, but when you have a human being in front of you that is in survival mode, what can you do to improve his/her life for real, to help that person to go through the next stage?
Thank you so much to enlightennext for this opportunity.
Debora.
I’ve had the discussion with one of my best friends that you seem to be speaking of. Many people are in a state of fear, in survival mode these days. They have lost hope. My response was to say “look at history, study it, you will see evolution in action. You see highs and lows, but ultimately you always see progress. IMHO, our troubles now are pretty trivial compared to many points in history. So taking the BIG perspective is my answer to the fear and survival mode thing that’s so infectious right now. Obviously, a lot of people are not going to get that. But some are, if you are able to step into their shoes and explain it in a way where they might get the “ah hah.” So you really dont have to offer a spiritual take on it, since that can open up a can of worms, but rather pointing out the upward evolutionary curve can be interpreted by almost anyone at any level in my opinion. All that is required is self education, and well, maybe someone like Wilber or Teilhard to put it all into context. ;o)
Asking someone at the tribal or clan level to get this is obviously not going to work, but many people are educated enough that some part of them can see this broader perspective.
I suspect a more urgent question for you, Debora, is not how can you put your “evolutionary” theory and knowledge into practice with people operating at lower levels of development (“lower memes”), but how you even do this with people operating at any level of development, including presumeably higher memes like yourself and the other contributors to this blog? How would lower memes KNOW you so-called evolutionaries are higher memes, functioning at a superior level? What would they see you people do that is different?
no one answered…how interesting….
As an evolving Christian an evolutionary world view has helped me move beyond a static theism focusing on a male sky god to a dynamic evolving relationship with the God of Creation who lives beyond religion. This Energy of Life calls me into awareness and action as I answer the evolutionary impulse to work with others to create a sustainable life for all.
Yo. Evolution was going on before Darwin chilled in beautiful Ecuador. Our understandings now, on the causal level, are not bound to time so they are precisely the same as the “old” (True) understandings… the same dynamic that is evolving in my writing this now. processing freely associating and theorizing how beneficial to the strugglers my pie in the sky thinking is. Nirvanas cool and all, but money still pays the bills and to get it, the lower memes cry out for service. Plus what Doug said:)
peace
my fellow evolution air ease
Having been raised in a very fundamentalist Christina denomination, it was not until I discovered the Baha’i Faith that I began to see how the physical and spiritual aspects of the universe(s) could be integrated. For me, Albert Bandura’s statement that there is beginning to be widespread acceptance regarding the “emerging primacy of human agency in biosocial coevolution” struck a chord that has reverberated through all aspects of my life. Knowing that there is continued guidance from the Creator and that we do not have to guide or tweak this self-organizational process all by ourselves leads to an optimistic view that the use of human agency will be positive and beneficial.
I see the Universe as working along electromagnetic lines of force towards greater integration; everything is aligning such that things are coming closer and closer. It’s a question of fit, like enzymes fit their substrates. Look how close our biological body fits together! Well, the entire Universe is coming together in this way. That’s why mathematics works–because every step towards greater fit is algebraic; expressions are worked through, brackets and parenthesis broken down, to arrive at the non-divisible. In other words, energy wants to flow unhindered and will break down barriers in order to do so.
Because it wants to connect. I believe it is this simple fact that builds the Universe; subatomic particles connect to form atoms, atoms connect to form molecules. The greater potential for connection, the greater life exhibited. Look at how carbon atoms connect to each other–what great potential there! So you’ve got creation through connection on one hand and the break down of outworn forms on the other. The shape that’s taking place is the continuous building up of form, step by step–each form being scaffolding for the next.
It’s also a thermodynamic process because every step towards greater fit works towards the conservation of energy. When forms outlive their function as carriers of energy, they’re broken down, releasing that energy to form more highly ordered, thermodynamically conserved forms. These forms have ever increasing internal feedback loops, where instead of energy flying out the window, lost for useful purposes, it is captured and put to further work.
This is the Evolutionary Universe as I see it; it’s connecting together into one great organism. Call it the great attractor. All things are moving toward that center.
I’m a member of the Western Buddhist Order, and as such I believe evolution is a given of human existence. I resonate strongly with Caroline’s statement that we seek connection instinctively. humans were ‘designed’ to be part of a network. in isolation humans become subject to paranoia and eventual psychosis. It is written deeply in our DNA that we are part of something ‘greater’: whether that be the family, tribe, nation, race, galaxy or cosmos. Nothing thrives in isolation. From the moment of birth we are reaching out for connecting to others in our group, and groups are reaching out for connection to other groups, and so on up the scale of complexity. I believe there is no limit to this: it is an open-ended experiment. In Buddhism we have the idea of universal bodhi-citta: universal will-to-awakening. Awakening is the goal, but connecting is the means. As conscious beings we are just at the very beginning of this amazing experiment to bring self-knowledge to the cosmos. No one – not even God if he exists – knows the outcome. As Caroline says, all we can know is the next step.
Gautam Buddha has said very clearly in his Dhammapada Teachings – Love yourself and watch:
Love yourself and watch -
Today, tomorrow, always.
First establish yourself in the way,
Then teach,
And so defeat sorrow.
To straighten the crooked
You must first do a harder thing -
Straighten yourself.
You are your only master.
Who else?
Subdue yourself,
And discover your master.
Wilfully you have fed
Your own mischief.
Soon it will crush you
As the diamond crushes stone.
By your own folly
You will be brought as low
As you worst enemy wishes.
So the creeper chokes the tree.
How hard it is to serve yourself,
How easy to lose yourself
In mischief and folly.
The kashta reed dies when it bears fruit.
So the fool,
Scorning the teachings of the awakened,
Spurning those who follow the dharma,
Perishes when his folly flowers.
Mischief is yours.
Sorrow is yours.
But virtue is also yours,
And purity.
You are the source
Of all purity and impurity.
No one purifies another.
Never neglect your work
For another’s,
However great his need.
Your work is to discover your work
And then with all your heart
To give yourself to it..
Freedom for Gautama the Buddha is the very law of life. Life itself is rooted in freedom. We are not machines, we are not preprogramed. We are utter freedom — now it is up to us what to make of it. All the alternatives are open, we can choose any alternative, that is our choice. We can become anybody, that is our choice.
You are just a tabula rasa. You can write beautiful poems on it, beautiful calligraphy, you can do beautiful paintings on it; or you can leave it as it is. Or you can simply throw colors on it, meaninglessly, in an insane way, like a small child. You can destroy the whole thing. And there is nobody else who is responsible except you; the total responsibility is yours.
Gautam Buddha used the freedom. He really became responsible for himself. He created his own being and he became the most beautiful person who has ever lived on the earth. He followed the law of freedom and achieved the ultimate joy, the ultimate truth.
You can do the same too. That is his message. He says, “Whatsoever has happened to me can happen to you. If it is not happening, nobody else is responsible except you.” So take the total responsibility in your own hands, feel and be responsible, and use the law of freedom because it is available. Life has been given to you with no preprogram; now it is up to you what you want to make out of it.
Freedom is the foundation of life and freedom is the ultimate goal too. Freedom is the source and freedom is the goal.
Use freedom to be free from all bondage.
Use freedom to become ultimately free.
Use freedom to become freedom itself.
This is great!!
I am basically an individualist, because only the individual has a soul, only the individual is a living phenomenon. All the groups are dead arrangements, they do not have a soul on their own.
Maybe presently there are individual souls who have work to do, that’s what I think, but if the timeless revelation is that there is only one, then as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus talked about also, maybe there is also ultimatley only one universal soul….???
Whatever there is, you are within it and it is within you. It is not there that you are going to find it, it is Here and Now.
Yes, great, and I agree.
I think most people would agree that the state of the world today is both confusing and even depressing at times. If you only read the news, or watch the talking heads on TV, it can put you into a funk, or you could even lose hope. I know people who are personally at this stage. What an evolutionary perspective did for me was to put all of human history into a vast spectrum of development, with both highs and lows, but still a very clear upward trend of greater consciousness and complexity that makes the difficult times we are in appear as a blip. In other words, there is no reason to lose hope, evolution will ultimately take care of everything. Sure, we could nuke ourselves into oblivion, or reek environmental havoc in many ways, but since the entire universe is part of this grand evolutionary trend, again, there is hope. And this larger perspective helped me get through the block that this planet is a meat grinder which chews up and spits out the vast majority of the people who inhabit it. In the US and in any highly developed society we are truly blessed to be able to have the education to reach these insights which in the past have only been available to a VERY limited number of mystics, sages and philosophers.
That in itself is proof of evolution in action.
Many people have access to the wisdom of all the great mystics and sages. These historical figures were often light years ahead of the general population, now lots of people, average people, are just as conscious and aware as some of the greatest thinkers in history. I think that’s an amazing thing. Evolution and complexity in action!
Some of these replies are beautiful articulations of a new way to weave science and religion together. Others get into some serious mumbo jumbo. I think Kurt hits on a critical point here: how do we connect all this to the practical problems we face as a world? Until this happens, until this worldview begins to solve our worst problems – created by our evolutionarily backwards views of both science and religion – we’re not truly evolving forwards. May the Gods guide us….
The comments so far remind me of the image of the wonderful potential of growth of the innocent healthy child.
It was and remains our birthright to be in love with life itself. With the luxury we experience of our modern wealth of recorded knowledge and education comes an inescapable responsiblity to learn from it. When we embrace an evolutionary worldview I believe we are “in the process” of acknowledging our personal free will in each moment. When we accept the responsibility of this birthright we are unencumbered by our former learned concepts or programs and share that part of our expansive nature with all levels of life. This seemingly new opportunity is but ancient wisdom. Could an evolutionary worldview be linked to the final freedom of being allowed to live our true nature? Celebrating and sharing as an infant fearlessly exploring his potent lifeforce?
With the recognition that we are one, and this one is without a second, with that comes the gift and responsibility to line up in every possible way. We are everything including the cosmos, so that means when the cosmos lines up too, planetarily, then the extraordinary becomes possible, right now in this life, right here in this world. That’s the evolutionary worldview as I see it now.
The rational side of our brains see the distinctions, while we trivialize the emotional side of or brains that make the connections.
Time is not a linear narrative from the past into the future, but a sea of non-linear activity turning the future into the past. The earth doesn’t travel the fourth dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth rotates. Time is an effect of motion, not the basis for it. That is why only the present is real.
Polytheistic deities were what we would call memes today. All the various group think ideas by which people relate to one another. As the connections between all these ideas became ever more apparent, a pantheistic unity began to emerge, but was quickly institutionalized into the monotheistic unit. the inherent flaw in monotheism is that the universal state, the absolute, the source, is basis, not apex. It is the essence from which we rise, not an ideal from which we fell.
Good and bad are not a metaphysical duel between the forces of light and darkness, but the primordial biological binary code of attraction to the beneficial and repulsion of the detrimental. What is good for the fox, is bad for the chicken, yet there is no line where the chicken ends and the fox begins, as life bootstraps itself upward. Between black and white are not just shades of grey, but all the colors of the spectrum.
To the extent we are all branches of the same tree, we all point in different directions.
I suspect that in a metabiological sense, human civilization is life on this planet trying to grow a central nervous system, though we seem to be at a somewhat juvenile and self centered stage.
Natural Order is the natural choice of equality to define the credibility of freedom to the meaning of choice.
Choice is a limited potential under the current systems definition of ethical authenticity and yet, equality is the common nature in all things equal.
My definition of development is based upon the existing and proposed potential/exponential meaning achievable from the quality in equality of all things equal.
The Planet is a life system, a life cycle and a life span, meaning its quality in equality of being is a consistent truth and common surface from which to define significant intentions to the credibility of right as a common meaning to the ethical vitality of natural association.
We should lead from the front, not, the rear, the equality of time is the equality of sense to the common value of reason and so establishing the authentic credentials of a trust worthy respected coalition of nations based upon the natural intelligence of all equal beings should promote intelligence as the hierarchy of significance to the credibility of all being. Between the known and unknown ramifications to the credibility of a free world, the intelligence sector liberated to a principle position of global accountability to define the credentials of an authentic global government responsible within the synthesis of a natural order to all orders of association to the principle of ethical sustainability relating to Justice.
Justice is the application of a quality of life system, which replaces the inequality of life system; it separates the natural wealth of the planet, from the natural wealth of minds and applies solutions that work in the microcosm and macrocosm of development to attain the resourceful nature of inclusion to an accessible ethical model of payment and membershi
Having an Evolutionary worldview is such a gift!..it enables me/us to see all of our relevent and not so relevent problems as just a Relative perspective that is changing all the time…no need to get too immersed in it. And that what is most important then is the Evolutionary impulse..which is always moving straight ahead, raring to go and always Absolute. As long as I/We keep our attention there, the skies the limit!
A big part of the current crisis is the impending demise of the debt based currency system. Three hundred years ago it was a fairly good idea, since debt provided a useful accounting of value that grew in tandem with economic productivity.
The fact is that money is drawing rights on community productivity, so the real basis of money is productivity, not the debt owed. This distinction has created a rift between stagnating economic growth and ballooning debt to maintain an illusion of wealth. Money serves as a store of value and a medium of exchange. As a store of value, it is private property, but as a medium of exchange, it is a public utility. As property, there is the desire to accumulate as much as possible, but as a medium of exchange, more money than productivity eventually destroys the system. Money should only be treated as a public utility. In that way, it would be similar to a road system. You own your car, house, business, etc. but not the roads connecting them and no one cries socialism over that. The banks and government like us to think of money as property is because it encourages us to use it, but treating money as a form of public commons would make people very careful what value they would take from social relations and environmental resources to convert into currency in the first place. This would be healthy for society, the environment and the monetary system. It would create a slower, but more sustainable economy. We all like having roads, but there is little inclination to pave more than we need. If we applied the same principle to money, life would be in better shape. A smaller money supply would go a long way to limiting the size of government and banking.
You are on the right track but you have way oversimplified. Study Social Credit if you want to understand how the monetary system could be fixed. There is not much chance of it ever happening, but it is a great concept.
God created the world in his own image and man too.
Every thing is perfectly perfect. Every evolutionary impulse is evolutionary and so natural. When one feels perfect the life is perfect. Full can never be partial.
Even when full is taken out of the full the remaining is again full. Too much hype has been created in the name of Enlightenment. Sitting silently, doing nothing, spring comes and grass grows by itself. God is unnecessary when every thing is natural and Godly. Suchness or Thusness is the only reality. Rest all seeking and probing is verbalization of mind is only a myth. Being is beautiful.
Is not this enlightenment.
Jeo.
Yes, but be enlightened also to the fact that thousands of hamsters are being set on fire, smashed against tables, walked on top of with women in high heels and otherwise tortured as you speak. But by all means, continue to gaze into your navel and ignore the world that you could have helped had you had any guts.
But you’re not doing nothing you’re reading this. Or is that a myth?
I understand how the fascinating idea of being committed to an evolutionary worldview and development attracts many of the people here.
- First of all such an idea makes you feeling big, one with the infinite cosmos, and also feeling self important, a co – creator of the universe. Polishing your ego has been a very successful device used by many of the vested interests down the ages. By making you feeling self significant and participator in great developments those same vested interests would then exploit you, your energy and creativity for their own purposes.
- Second – by being part of a collective development evolving to some imaginary direction and towards some imaginary boosting the ego ideas set up in front of you by others, you have the cozy feeling of being one of the many and thanks God not the only one responsible in case things however go wrong. It gives you the consolation of being big and important without taking the risk of being authentically responsible as well and of making your own choices, following your own way of being.
Here I would love to ask you, all the evolutionaries, a simple question – who will be the ones who will evolve the world? Will not it be same old you caught in the web of the mind past conditioning, programmed by your past history knowledge and prejudices? Will not it be the same human mind which has corrupted the past that will have to decide for the future and evolve it? From where this evolutionary impulse will be spread into the world if you remain identified with this same non evolutionary past oriented mind of yours, opinionated and prejudiced?
Mind is cunning and tricky, it can set in front of you beautiful illusions, it can project for you attractive self fulfilling dreams, but you will still remain fast asleep and dreaming. Because talking about evolutionary impulse and evolutionary worldview is only possible in your dream state. When one is dreaming, one can imagine oneself far away, everywhere in the world and even in the vast cosmos. Only when one has awakened can one realize that in fact he has not gone anywhere else. He has always been here, in bed. So in dreaming you can travel, evolve or evolutionize as much as you want. When you awake, you suddenly will understand that these were all dream works, and you have always been here, you have always been home, you have always been This.
But to awake to your true being, to your inner reality, you need to get yourself free from all concepts, ideals, theories and philosophies, from all your mind products. You need to transcend them by a very simple act – understanding the way mind works, its being an instrument but not the real you, and to drop your identification with your mind. Only then can the true master, your inner being come. This is your real metamorphosis, inner transformation, which will also affect all the society around you.
No evolutionary worldview is possible unless each human being on this earth takes over his own shoulders the responsibility for his own individual growth. People can share their experiencing, but no one have the right to set ideas and goals to be reached by all the others, no one is superior to the others as no one is inferior either. Each one of us is unique, a master piece of God and should bear his authentic responsibility for his being free and flowering individuality.
A society which is not consisted of free and authentic individuals can not be called evolutionary, but simply self deceptive.
Bravo! And thank you.
Aliya, I have to disagree with what you said about:
‘People can share their experiencing, but no one have the right to set ideas and goals to be reached by all the others, no one is superior to the others as no one is inferior either. Each one of us is unique, a master piece of God and should bear his authentic responsibility for his being free and flowering individuality.’
So I would say = is Hitler superior or Ghandi, or Jesus or Buddha. I think the answer is obvious, there’s absolutely no doubt that there are more highly evolved beings in this world and absolute monsters. I certainly don’t think each one of us is a masterpiece of God, some are a masterpiece of the ego and we can see the results of them ‘flowering individuality’ by the trail of destruction they create. Do we (some of us, many of us)not need guidence out of confusion and darkness, it seems most people do, by someone who we clearly see has a clearer view? That’s just humility to admit that, and receive the help once the trust has been established if we want it.
Dear Joanna,
The flowering of the individuality has nothing to do with the ego. The individuality flowers from the depth of the inner being while the ego is a product of the superficial mind, thus false and non existential.
One thing is absolutely sure for people like Hitler, Stalin – they are people with an enormous, inflated ego, people of the mind junk. They certainly are people with no heart; they have silenced their heart and sacrificed it for their mind projections, desires, and lust for power. Moreover, people of the mind/ego like Hitler and Stalin and many others of their species are product of their societies, not of God. Societies are as much responsible for their appearance as they themselves are.
Our being is from God and people like Jesus and Buddha have connected to their inner most core being. They have flowered into the ultimate individuality possible for us human beings, because they are the really free human beings – free from the ego and the inhibitions of the mind conditioning.
Dear Aliya, that’s an interesting point you made about individuals such as Hitler and Stalin being products of their societies, so it is in fact a form of cultural conditioning, an overt expression of the most hideous aspects of the collective culture(in any society mind you)manifesting through a powerful individual/s. It seems there must now be a way for this kind of thing never to happen again, so perhaps??? we longer have the luxury of so much freedom, a new world view not allowing this to manifest again. This of course could mean order that is not necessarily what we are used to, not the kind of freedom that is politically correct, but actually what is morally (informed from a higher order or way of seeing) best for the whole. Now that could be something else again, something completely new to the way things have been and tolerated previously…..
Dear Joanna,
It is correct what you say that monsters like Hitler and Stalin are products as well of their “cultural conditioning” (however, not only). And therefore it is very important for us to understand what cultural conditioning is, what is this mechanism within us which can be so easily conditioned, programmed, culturally, politically, religiously, and whatsoverly. And here we come to the most important insight about our being not free from conditioning as long as we identify ourselves with our mind. Because the mind is the mechanism, the instrument of ours which is subject of conditioning and programming by its very nature of a bio – computer capable of memorizing the past and its inhibitions.
In this aspect what you suggest as a solution – “a new world view not allowing this to manifest again” is again a mind projection. All views, howsoever worldly and local they may be, howsoever attractive for our ego fulfillment they may be, are all mind games. No views are going to bring transformation to the world as it is, but the real authentic experiencing of the metamorphosis of each and every human being on earth will do. The already transformed rare human beings like Jesus, Buddha, Osho, Ramakrishna and the many others known and unknown enlightened beings are serving as catalysts for this transformation of humanity to happen. They are not setting before us a set of world views or imposing upon us as you say it “a higher order or way of seeing best for the whole”, because it would have meant they were not respecting the rest of human beings and did not consider them worth their own individual enlightenment. These precious enlightened beings impose nothing, claim no following, no. They are living examples of the divine reality within and without, they are our fellow travelers.
In fact, people like Hitler and Stalin were the world pretenders for “a higher order best for the whole”; they were the claiming leaders of the sheeply crowds, deprived from their self respect and love for their authenticity.
For me, the so called leaders and the following crowds are equally responsible for causing disasters to humanity.
What this new ‘worldview’ is to me, is not just another ideology, but being informed by the enlightened ‘mind’, which is perfect. So that there are many more people awake to this and the blind following that occurs by people behaving like sheep is less likely to happen, more responsibility to pay attention and committment to create the future, is ours.
Dear Joanna,
There is no such a thing as “an enlightened mind” which “informs” people. “Enlightened mind” is a contradiction of terms, because enlightenment is a state of No- Mind, of Beyond – Mind. Moreover, enlightenment is always Your state, not the state of somebody else. Only Your Enlightenment is of importance for you, other people’s enlightenment is none of your concerns.
In addition, I would like to remind you that “awaken people” are never “committed to the future”, because there is no future for them. The present moment here and now is all they have and enjoy.
Aliya, I disagree on this – my experience is that there is the enlightened mind that informs once one has done the individual spirtitual work, then one has access to that to greater or lesser degrees and it does provide intimations and insights about the future because that is all there is. The present moment has already happened, nothing to do about that now, those who care (and recognize we are One, and then ultimately One enlightened mind) deeply about the direction of the future are interested very much about being responsible for that and where it’s going. We don’t want the same mistakes of the past either, made out of ignorance or ego, or by simply not being responsible or caring about the future.
Dear Joanna,
Please do not mix your “experience” of the mind with the experiencing of your being. Mind is tricky and cunning and can convince you in whatever “experience” of it, including mind can project before you a supernatural “enlightened” mind. And still, it will be nothing but your own mind game.
And if, as you say: “The present moment has already happened, nothing to do about that now”, then I wonder why you are still alive, if you have not got a present moment? Are you already past, Joanna? Your definition of the present moment as “already past” shows for sure that you miss it, the real moment of the present One. You have been so busy to project yourself in dreams for the future, that you miss It, you miss the One.Because the One is not in your mind projections and imaginations for the future, the One is the only reality and cannot be found in any kind of projections, world views and theories. The One is Now and Here. Just look at It, Now!
I would say that it an improved world view is having a broader perspective that sees, not only other views and there merits, and looks at the demerits later, but has a grasp of more subjects and disciplines. We buy one ‘ism, as if we would only buy one side of a car or appliance. We have to look at as many sides as we can, to get the best insight.
No denomination has everything we need. How could a few men and their traditions encompass everything or even understand, for us, all of the sacred texts they pretend to understand. We have that responsibility.
Every situation has to be looked at with the facts involved in that situation and we have to decide what principles apply and how they apply. The letteral kills, the varied applicationing brings life.
We do have something in common though. We are all human and the mind has been putting it all together, non verbally, since before we were verbal. Sometimes, by not talking, but rather observing, we see something more which we can’t seem to see while in a verbal world. Words try to understand reality. Our minds have a non verbal map that seems much better. If we put words to that map, it tells us where we have gone wrong in our thinking. Emotions point to the errors, among other things, because emotions have thoughts behind them. Sometimes wrong thoughts we have forgotten about, are still causing us trouble unnoticed.
We can do all that naturally, with empirical intuitions. Our mind will tell us both about ourselves and reality. We don’t have to be Einsteins. He said the he only used his intuition, but an informed one from an informed mind. One size doesn’t fit all either. Each individual has to adapt to each situation. After all, what we don’t know is infinite.
I have to add that, although what we don’t know is infinite, the non verbal mind has a general view and connections with nature that have it all under control, if we will but access it.
Burma could be freed from its brutal situation under the last global dictator, affecting 56 million lives, if all conscious people acted together this year. And that is just the start.
How can we network consciously to make it happen, while everyone just seems to be ‘working on themselves’, or shopping?
i want to hear what the panelists have to say about the evolution of justice (the forgotten/invisible fourth element among truth, beauty, and goodness) in human society, and how that pertains to the present predicament of social inequality in america and around the world today.
This is a good question, my intuition ‘sees’ that the solutions to the problems of the world that you’re talking about, such as social injustice, would be so much more ‘intuitively’ informed from a higher order thinking (the evolutionary worldview). Like what Einstein was saying about ‘problems cannot be solved from the same level of consciousness as they originated’. I can intuit the positivity of wanting to reach higher, because of a fantastic sense of what is possible by doing that, that’s inspiring.
It’s useful to highlight the Evolutionary Worldview and it recognizes that Evolution is ongoing, dynamic not static. I hope many may e familiar with the Four Quadrants of Holistic Conciousness that’s been drawn up by Ken Wilber that appears inside the covers of his “Sex, Soirituality and Ecology”. There the four areas of consciousness are delineated that really clarified for me the areas of concern for those who pretend to cultivate higher consciousness. I’ve expanded my consciousness from being clued by Ken.
Check out the diagram and see if you agree with it or not.
Aloha,
Spell check: Wilber’s book’s title: “Sex, Spirituality and Ecology”
A follower asked Rumi how to make the changes we need.
Rumi said, we need new “organs” to do that. Rumi was then asked, How do we develop the new “organs?” Rumi said, “increase your need.”
I find this hugely to the point and very helpful to me.
An Evolutionary once said, and I absolutely love this quote, “….and if you put yourself out there at the edge of the creative process, as the process, then you are riding the end of a light beam constantly stepping out into the unknown…creating as you go…” ..this is my understanding of the process itself. So in effect we are creating history as we go. Now, common sense would dictate that we create good history as we go, however common sense isn’t that common anymore and therefore we also have 9/11 and several other such incidents throughout the world. Is this worldview more process based than goal based? And cumulatively, what is this worldview striving to achieve?
Hi Prerena, re: “Now, common sense would dictate that we create good history as we go, however common sense isn’t that common anymore…”
I think that many in their yearning to make a difference with their existence come twisted with their ambitions and lust for recognition and fame. This will sometimes lead to dumb decisions and actions in the attempt to shine and make an impact on history. I understand many of those who joined the protests in Tien An Men Square were inspired to feel they would become illustrious makers of history and maybe less so for the political and economic reforms. We more often than we’d like see young people who commit heinous antisocial acts so twisted in their minds that they turn to hurting others in their attempts at becoming famous. Their energy and imaginations become toxic not able to find more productive outlets. Our culture is also replete with negative role models for confused people to emulate. Alas!
~Evolution is LIFE itself responding to a need that is expressed…
~We would benefit from a reorganization of our concept
of ‘death’ ~IMO
Try “Life after Death: The Burden of Proof” by Deepak Chopra MD for a “reorganization of our concept of death.”
IMO the audio CD is the best way to access his thoughts.
Jonathan
It is time now for the Feminine to rise to the surface. Say good-bye to the territorial and dominating principal of control and hello to connectivity and nurturance. The sovereign male role has outlived its useful purpose in a world that needs to unite. The Feminine will unite the World. In the current world of breakdown and chaos, it’s the Feminine values that we need. We don’t need “family values”, or other religious values that arise from a masculine mentality of control; we need caring, softness, beauty and kindness. To be sure we need strength, but be forewarned–the strength of the true feminine has yet to be seen in this world of abject cowardice!
without the seer where is the seen ?
It is time now for the Feminine to rise to the surface. Say good-bye to the territorial and dominating principal of control and hello to connectivity and nurturance. The sovereign male role has outlived its useful purpose in a world that needs to unite. The Feminine will unite the World. In the current world of breakdown and chaos, it’s the Feminine values that we need. We don’t need “family values”, or other religious values that arise from a masculine mentality of control; we need caring, softness, beauty and kindness. To be sure we need strength, but be forewarned–the strength of the true feminine has yet to be seen in this world of abject cowardice!
While this ‘evolutionary’ business sounds so wonderfully cutting edge…and I agree that we should be aware of it…it seems to be yet another mind-trap, another dead-end that we will ultimately, some day, realize is yet another illusion. While gloriously intelligent, this evolutionary business is still a product of the mind. Is this not the irony of being human…that which we yearn for most deeply is unattainable by means of the mind we employ to attain it? To speak of altering evolution has to be the most glorious and sophisticated act of egoism I’ve ever heard.
Thank you, too.
So some examples of people and issues that have altered evolution – the civil rights movement changed the world forever as did the splitting of the atom, are these not acts of creation, positive or negative, an attempt to change the future – or evolve to something new or higher or better? Things change, there’s no disputing that, and WE actually have the power to change things in extraordinary and good ways (as with the example above)so why wouldn’t we want to do that and why is it an act of ego? We take the future in our hands or let it slide unmanaged into further enviromental degradation, overpopulation, armed conflict of devastating potential. So we actually have a responsibility for the future and being involved in creating it (evolution) or sit back and do nothing and argue wether it’s ego or not.
the dream can continue , we can wake up whenever we want, there is no hurry
Yes, Joanna, each one of us has “the power to change things”, and this change is happening always Now and Here. No change can happen in the future, only your mind projections “happen” in the Future. What is Future for you, Joanna? Anyhow, it is something you imagine to be (or may not be?), you project your mind conditioning upon it. You simply try to predict the future by some past accumulated knowledge. You seem to try to be a fortune teller, do not you?
You cannot change the future, Joanna, howsoever hard you try to do it. Because how can you change something unreal, illusory. You cannot change the past either, because past is dead, no need to cry over a spilt milk. The only thing you have the power to change is your present moment, the only reality you have got – because this is what you are authentically responsible for. A real change can only happen in your now and here, otherwise it will be another talking of yours, another views imposing on reality.
And you see, down the ages much talking has been done about “taking the future in our hands” and still talking cannot change anything, projecting beautiful no doubt well intended ideals can change nothing – the world is degrading and polluting. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about the way world changes. This misunderstanding is bound to be, because one fundamental thing people miss to understand – you can change nothing unless you change the changer, so to say it, unless you yourself change. As long as you are the old sheeply mind conditioned man, civil rights movement will not bring you authentic freedom, environmental talking will not save your nature and you will be threatening all the being on earth. We are all part of an Organic Unity, whereas everything is interconnected and interdependent with everything else as well. So only by changing ourselves, now and here, in this very moment, can we go further.
Let first things be first, start changing yourself.
No dispute here, change the changer, the changer is the world or One, change the world – or sit back and rest in the present moment forever and do nothing. If people like the Buddha did nothing, did not leave the palace to follow a pull to something higher or share the truth of the discovery of enlightenment, then nothing changes and the world a vastly poorer place.
No, Joanna, the changer is YOU. The world is what YOU want to change. You cannot change anything unless you do change yourself. Only after changing yourself, you will see things are changing as well on their own accord.
Things are always changing and happening on their own accord. You can cooperate with it and then you will be blissful and happy or you may fight against it and then you will be suffering and miserable.
But mind wants to control everything, even God. That is why we have discovered science – to try to control nature. We all can see the devastating results of our attempts to control nature. Science is good and bringing progress to humanity only when science cooperates with the already happening, with nature. If science wants to dominate, it will create more misery and suffering to humanity instead of helping it.
And Buddha is this rare luminous being who made humanity to understand for the first time that everything natural is good and godly, and everything unnatural is evil and bringing misery. That is what he called enlightenment.
Yes Aliya, – you don’t realize – we are in agreement, the changer is ME, and also WE and YOU too, but in this case it is ME. Natural is good, unatural is evil, the only thing I would add is that there are ‘natural’ laws (this is God also) in the universe that allow us to progress and move higher and closer to God, that is evolution. Using and accessing these laws through meditation and cooperation with others allows us to also solve the problems of the world that need to be addressed. We do not want to just rest in bliss (although it’s tempting), there are things to do, and also the pull towards something higher as I experience it directly myself, is God. The thrill of wanting to keep reaching towards that, nothing compares to that in my own experience. So we change the changer (ourselves, me, we, you) and also work in the world to improve things (evolution) at the same time. Inner, outer revolution, become One!
Dear Joanna,
You please leave the world and others to their own responsibility and start changing YOURSELF. That is what is your authentic responsibility – to transform yourself and to florish into a godly individuality.
Do not you see the trickery of your mind? Every time I push you back to yourself to become more aware about the necessity of your inner growth, you escape by shifting the discussion over the others, we, the world, the evolution, the future, and so on and so forth. If you intentionally avoid your inner being, then I wonder who will be the one who will “meditate and cooperate with others” and how will you be able to “solve the problems of the world” if you have not solved your only problem – you have not yet found your inner reality.
You say, Joanna: “We do not want to just rest in bliss”. But are you blissful, Joanna? Do you know by your own experiencng what is this all God bliss about? No, you do not know and you do not want to experience it because you have “things to do”, so much so that you prefer talking about “the pull towards something higher” instead of totally giving yourself to this pull, the longing of your heart and start changing and transforming yourself.
The ego is a great Doer. Actually the only way for ego to exist is by doing. Otherwise ego knows it has no substantiality, it is false coin. That is why ego pushes you running here and there, keeps you busy and doing, saving the others, the world. That is the way for the ego to prove its existence.
Otherwise life is perfectly beautiful and as it should be. The only unharmonious and disbalancing entity in existence is man, because he is never at ease with what is, with nature and existence. His ego wants to change existence, to control it, to possess it.
Hi Aliya,
I don’t think you can know what my experience is, as you seem so sure of it, and I don’t know fully where you are coming from either. My teacher Andrew Cohen says, ‘We all have to do both’ meaning do the individual work, ie the meditation and spiritual practice, come together with others and also respond to the real world. This makes sense to me. It doesn’t seem enough to just go and be a hermit in a cave and meditate anymore and experience bliss (I have been lucky enough to have that), nor is just acting in the world and responding to the problems without a solid stable spiritual base going to be sustainable either. You’re right, I am engaging here with you and others, I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I am interested. Lots of room for MORE development for sure, ongoingly.
Dear Joanna,
You say you have got “that bliss” and your own words talk by themselves about the authenticity of your experience. There is no need for me to know what your experience has been. Your own words have revealed it as another game of your mind. And mind is a great pretender, it can make you believing having things which can not be had at all. Because “that bliss” is not something you can have, no, vice versa, “that bliss” has you and then you are no more, the old Joanna disappears and a new blissful individuality appears. It is not that you have that bliss, you become that bliss, only that bliss remains, and it is also love and truth. Then you are possessed by the eternity, by the whole, by the One, you become His passage, and the winds of eternity blow through you. That is the meaning of being in meditation and to be in meditation you can everywhere, in the marketplace, among others, or alone. The surrounding is not a precondition for your meditation, because to be in meditation is to be utterly alert and watchful, in the present moment (whereever it may be), now and here. That is where I am from, Joanna, Aliya from the NowHere.
You are also from the land of eternity, the Now Here. But still you prefer sleeping a little longer, playing the dream games of the mind a little longer.
Hi Joanna, re: “So we actually have a responsibility for the future and being involved in creating it (evolution) or sit back and do nothing and argue wether it’s ego or not.”
Yes, we humans individually and collectively have that opoportunity to shape how we would prefer the future to be but there’s no guarantee that our efforts will be effective or even if it will have positive or maybe unintended consequences. We can and should deliberate after consierable deliberation and info-gathering but all we can do is try or let things take their course and rejoice or regret.
Yes agreed, but better to be aware, informed and act if need be from the best possible position, than do nothing. I recall that famous quote after the second world war – something like – ‘evil can only flourish when good men (or women) stand back and do nothing’.
Hi PJ, re: your statement that trying to alter evolution is egoistim.
Just to discuss since I’m not disputing your point but want to submit that personally and as a part of the net of connectivity to humanity, I acknowledge a commitment to attempt “to be the change spiritual people want to see”, not so much for mere personal satisfaction but for humanity and for a more peaceable world. Would you consider that to be egotism? Can you concede that there’s ego (small e) and then Ego, where spiritually conscious people commit themselves to alter human consiousness in their own being and hopefully influence others, actively “teaching” or by example, to promote spiritual consciousness in the world?
Dear Frank,
Your own words are the proof “that trying to alter evolution is egotism”. You say you want “to be that change spiritual people want to see”.
First of all, really spiritual people do not want to impose anything, any ideals or whatever on others, because spiritual people respect others as much as they respect themselves. Spiritual people will never take people’s dignity away by imposing some “want to see” on other human beings. No one is superior than the other and no one is inferior either as to say “I am so unworthy to be as I am so that I want to change “not for my personal satisfaction”, but for what other more spiritual people “want to see, humanity, peaceful world”, and so on and so forth … because I am so unimportant, so unworthy, the way I am. God should have been mistaken by creating me; I am for sure an existence failure.”
Mind ego invests in your feeling unworthy, miserable, because that is the opportunity for the ego to prove its existence. Otherwise ego is just a false coin, an illusion of your being separate from existence, from the organic unity. Ego wants to make you believing you are separate, special, distinguished from existence; even your misery and unworthiness are so special, not even ordinary.
For me Ego is your biggest enemy and bondage.
Our minds evolve and consequently our perspectives change, but, in my opinion, nothing can be said about the incomprehensible Divine reality.
In itself it is changeless and changing; formed and unformed; a mystery, a paradox that cannot be encompassed or by the limits of our minds. For thousands of years, according to my reading and thinking, this reality does not fall within the bounds of evolution as we generally understand it.
We evolve; the Universe evolves; the Cosmos reveals new secrets, but but the ineffable Divine Reality is what it is (both fixed and dynamic at the same time) and ever will be.
All the mystics of all time have reached approximations of this insight and the mystic of 1,000 years ago is no different to the mystic of 2010.
Peace be with you.
I would be most interested to hear your answer to this question: is the unchangeable divine reality outside our universe, or identical with it?
“nothing exists except the unchangeable, if anything changes, its unreal like a mirage”
I would love to answer it – the divine reality is neither “outside our universe”, nor “identical with it”.
It defies our categorizations, because how can the part categorize its whole?
The divine reality is within us and we are within it, but still – we are too narrow minds equipped to see its wholeness, its glory. For the divine reality other type of eyes are needed, the inner eyes, other kind of knowledge is needed – the true knowing through experiencing it, not through accumulating borrowed knowledge.
Thank you Aliya – I think that’s the only possible answer.
We often speak of how there’s an underlying common denominator to religious beliefs but we know that doesn’t address the profound differences as well. I believe that common denominator could be Perennial Wisdom + the Golden Rule but humans being human, we see religious fundamentalists find ways to differentiate severely enough to cause a great deal of hatred when they see others asserting their rights. An Enlightened Worldview would be something fervently to be attained in its evolution and their manifesto would simply be the Perennial Wisdom, IMO.
Hi Joanna,
From what I’ve gathered reading Aliya’s comments for awhile, she seems to be of the traditional way of considering enlightenment and consciousness, an old-school way of considering it. As this blog is titled, Enlightenment Next, and you, Joanna have pointed out, I also believe as those who see enlightenment as having a less tradtional stance, seeing involvement in the mundane world is tied up with our personal enlightenment as well. For those who continue in the traditonal mode, eschewing involvement with worldly matters and concentrating on their personal enlightenment, that’s OK for them. Is this difference of points of view like the old Hinayana/Mahayana difference of views? Seems to me there’s a value in being pursuing enlightenment in the personal way but for more activist folks, the challenges we face today seem to call for those more ready to involve themselves in trying to find solutions. This way also calls for personal consciousness raising, trying to act with spiritual responsibility.
Dear Frank,
With all my respect to you it seems to me you gathered nothing “reading Aliya’s comments for a while”. The only purpose for you reading my comments was obviously to try to categorize them, to put them somewhere in your own mind made shelves of categorization. Mind likes categorizing, pasteurizing, homogenizing things, alive beings and ideas. This way mind wants the control over existence.
However, you vainly hope that by labeling my sharing you can get rid of it and make it less meaningful to your inner being. And you are right to get worried about my sharing in here, because once your being has been made to awaken, the tyranny of your mind and its projected over existence activism will be over.
Then you will know that any kind of activism is from the mind illusion of separateness from the One, from the Whole, from your real you.
When everything is perfectly in balance, in divine harmony and oneness, what is the purpose of all the activism thing? And who is that activist militant? The same old mind which has never managed to transcend itself. The same old mind which only purpose is rationalization. And here is something from Osho especially for the tendency to cling to mind rationalization:
“Question : Please explain the difference between Rationalisation and ‘Bullshit’.
Osho : ‘Bullshit’ is a far better word than ‘rationalisation’, but they mean the same. ‘Rationalisation’ is a clinical word — a word to be used by the professor, ‘bullshit’ is more alive. ‘Rationalisation’ is bloodless, ‘bullshit’ is very young, alive and kicking. But the meaning is the same, they are not different things.”
Enlightenment can never be reached through rationalizations, but only through your own experiencing of the Divinity. Otherwise it is not an enlightenment.
Hi Frank,
Definitely from a certain perspective I can see what Aliya is saying – too much mind – and not enough real authentic being writing about the experience of enlightenment, I want to be busy – doing – and coming from ideas and the mind. On the other hand there is a recognition of an impulse that wants to go from just being (a moral imperative or passionate care and interest) towards something better and higher, becoming. It seems these two things become One process that has telos, then there’s no conflict between the tendency to be or do, it becomes one thing…
No, dear Joanna, as far as my comments are concerned, there is definitely no “recognition of an impulse that wants to go from just being … towards something better and higher, becoming”.
Because BEING is the best and the highest. Nothing more to become. Being you are already as you “should” be (actually there are no shoulds and shouldn’ts in being).
You have only to awaken and realize the sublimity and divinity of being.
Hi again Aliya,
Your last post continues a tone I find troublesome in that they generally contain a rather negative tone and you seem intent on putting others down by negating their views and presenting yourself as knowing all and others only can make errors in your judgement. Your posts tend to be going on the offense to defend what others are trying to call your attn to, that you seem to be putting yourself up as an authority on truth and a cop who shoots others down. I plan not to reply to your posts further as it seems a dialogue with you doesn’t seem to be productive, IMO.
Dear Frank,
You are perfectly right to stop commenting as long as you are identified with your opinionated judgmental mind. The identification with one’s mind is the problem of problems, the idntification with one’s views, ideas, past conditionning.
And I am a simple mirror of your identification with the mind junk. Apparently you do not like mirrors because they reflect you. You, as you are now, projected in your mind / ego. I also mirror your inner being, but it seems you are not delighted to see it without the mind veil.
P.S. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword!” Jesus
As of lately I have been hearing the phrase “We have to do this together” a lot. And it seems to be easily interpreted as the doing of something as important. I have been seeing that it may not necessarily be “what” it is we do together, but “how” we do it as more important. Could you speak to what would be the differing interpretations between the postmodern world-view and an evolutionary world-view of this phrase?