Spiritual Life is Based on Everyday Experience and Eological Consciousness!

In a previous article I dealt with the relationship between modernist consciousness and the now collapsed economic model that emerged following the depression of the 1930’s and the second world war. This economic model and modernist consciousness sustained each other and the collapse of the economy has led to a crisis of meaning. I also drew attention to the ecological meltdown and argued that any new economic model that develops will need to obey the ecological laws of the Earth. If it doesn’t then our civilization mightn’t survive this century.

One of the major challenges of the twenty first century is to create an economy that will repair the damaged ecology and continue to provide the positive benefits of our civilization. We will also need to address the social divisions that polarize our societies and the wider global community as well as heal the widespread psychological alienation. These are formidable challenges.

In this article I want to talk about the consciousness that will be needed to deal with these challenges. The dominant modernist consciousness that I outlined in my previous article will not be adequate to deal with these challenges. To deal with the challenges will involve leading a spiritual life that engages with our everyday life. I call this the spiritualization of everyday life.

This means leading a spiritual life engaged with the mundane ordinary things that we do in the course of our day to day lives. It means bringing a special sense of awe and wonder, and is associated with feelings of care and concern for others, for the Earth and all living forms. It also means having a sense of gratitude, being thankful and having a feeling of being blessed by an energy or power greater than ourselves.

It has to be acknowledged that only a fortunate few experience their lives in this way, and it does depend upon leading a special type of spiritual life. I believe, however that there is a real thirst by many people to be able to experience their lives in this way, if they knew how to. The traditional religions do not seem to be able to speak to modern people in ways that they can or want to respond to.

Experiencing life in this way depends in its turn upon a sound foundation of what I call the six themes of consciousness and the seven paths of spiritual life. In this article I’ll discuss the six themes of consciousness very briefly. I’ll then outline the consciousness that will be needed to sustain a twenty first century spiritual life. This consciousness will also be needed to create a new economy that obeys the ecological boundaries of the Earth, protects the positive features of our civilization, addresses the social divisions that exist and heals widespread psychological alienation. In the next article I’ll discuss how this consciousness might be developed and what it would mean to live a modern twenty first century spiritual life drawing upon the seven paths of spiritual life.

The six themes of consciousness are:

• What is the true nature of the self and reality generally;
• How do we define our needs;
• How do we satisfy those needs;
• How do we define a successful life and what motivates us in that life;
• What is the span of our care and concern for others, for the Earth and for other living forms;
• How do we define our social and civic commitments?

At different times in our lives we resolve these six themes in different ways. The dominant modernist consciousness that I outlined in my previous article is one way that the six themes are resolved.

The consciousness that will be needed to meet the challenges I have outlined will involve the six themes being resolved in a particular way that I call ecological consciousness. I’ll now outline what I mean by ecological consciousness.
The starting point is that an ecological consciousness goes beyond I, me and mine that we experience as a separate individual.

The separated individual of modernism and other stages of consciousness craves achievement and the acquisition of things as a means of gratification as the central defining qualities of identity. Transforming this level of consciousness leads to a realization that each of us is life, life has us, we are the dance and life is the dancer. Life is a universal conscious energy that has its expression in a multitude of life forms including you and me. This understanding of our place in the scheme of reality can emerge out of meditation and contemplation as part of a spiritual life, as well as intellectual understanding. Each of these has its place, but they need to be blended in the right way.

From this realization flow a series of values. We are able to recognize the oneness of everything. Everything is connected and this seems to equate with the latest ideas among physicists. This helps us to identify with the Earth and the ecosystem services – the recognition that the harm that has been done to these services is in a profound way harm we cause ourselves in a very deep and real sense. We are also able to recognize our connection with future generations and our obligation to them to clean up the mess that has been created.

If we are all part of and participate in the one universal conscious energy then treating each other with dignity, respect and love can become the norm in the way in which we order our lives.

Ecological consciousness resolves the six themes in the following ways:

• Ecological consciousness perceives our reality as human beings participating in universal life which is a conscious intelligent energy field, life has us we don’t have a life, we are the dance, life is the dancer.
• Ecological consciousness recognizes that we have needs in order to serve universal life. In the modern world needs extend to education, health care, safe communities, opportunities to develop our competencies and consciousness and so on. Ecological consciousness sees these things as needs that it requires in order to serve universal life but does not covet them, identify with them or become attached to them.
• Ecological consciousness embraces a relationship between ourselves as human beings and the way we make a living in a way that promotes living in harmony with and valuing the Earth and all living forms, and that is an expression of the purpose we fulfill on behalf of life, where service is the prime concern.

• Ecological consciousness adopts a life style that makes as few demands on the Earth’s resources as possible and weighs up how all activities impact upon the Earth, other people and other living forms. Above all ecological consciousness abandons the pursuit of wealth and status except as a means of supplying our needs in accordance with the Earth’s ecology. This is a revolutionary and radical idea.

• Ecological consciousness adopts an attitude of abiding in all and everyone abiding in it as a basis for its relationships with others.

• Ecological consciousness engages in political, social and economic events. It does so aware that people are at different stages of consciousness so as to manage the spiral of development for the benefit of all, and in a way that facilitates the growth and development of all. It tries where possible to promote amplified ecologically conscious people into positions of leadership. Ecological consciousness looks to the possibility of converting itself into a world wide movement pledged to influence the course of events.

There are clearly huge gaps between modernist consciousness and ecological consciousness that I have just discussed. Is the gap so great that it’s unbridgeable?

The answer to this profoundly important question needs to be considered in relation to the severity of the challenges we face, the likely outcome if we don’t face them and the fact that as human beings we are programmed to evolve and develop. It’s important for as many people as possible to face up to the nature of the challenges and to accept that modernist consciousness will hinder our chances of preserving our civilization. Recognizing that we must face this challenge and lead a spiritual life based in everyday experience is a cornerstone of the outcome is one of the critical challenges that we face.

We know enough about consciousness, about how it develops and how people can make real and lasting change. There are also enough people whose consciousness is bordering on ecological consciousness, even though the present numbers who have reached this stage is relatively small.

This suggests that it will be possible for enough people to take on board the evolutionary challenge of developing ecological consciousness to lead the way to a new economy that obeys the laws of the Earth’s ecology, that is able to respond to the grievous social division and to healing psychological alienation to be hopeful that we just might have a chance.

In the next article I’ll deal with how the practice of a spiritual life based in everyday life might be the catalyst for change and how each and everyone of us can live a spiritual life, achieve lasting happiness and contribute to the birth of a new world order.

Spiritual life
Live a spiritual life through the spirituality of everyday life