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[PLEASE BE PATIENT. THIS WEBSITE IS VERY MUCH UNDER CONSTRUCTION. I'LL BE ADDING NEW CONTENT REGULARLY.]
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THE PURPOSE OF THIS WEBSITE IN A NUTSHELL.
Humanity has a collective, largely shared, understanding of the universe. This understanding includes our scientific and spiritual understanding, call it conventional wisdom. Yes, there is some measure of diversity, but what is shared far outweighs what is disputed. This collective understanding constitutes a perspective, one of many possible perspectives. Future generations will view their universe from perspectives profoundly different than ours. We know this empirically by looking back at history and observing that human understanding has continuously evolved. The modern perspective is profoundly different than historical ones. It would be the pinnacle of arrogance to assume that the modern perspective is the final or "correct" perspective, though just that sort of arrogance has been a common thread throughout history. In hindsight we can see that every generation that has claimed any degree of finality has been rather foolish.
Therefore, it is our obligation to ask, what is wrong with our modern perspective.
What is wrong with the modern perspective and
what are the practical consequences?
(1) We believe that we are our minds, that we are the sum content of our thoughts. Consequently we miss our true spiritual identity. The following problems result:
- The primary consequence is that our consciousness is dominated by our own thoughts. Thinking becomes an addictive pattern and we are unable to stop even for a moment. The full spectrum of consciousness is obscured behind the din of never ending mind chatter.
- Our mind-created identity, the ego, is of this world. Because all manifest things are impermanent, and the ego a particularly delicate thing, we live in constant fear of annihilation. Anxiety, insecurity, and discontent are our predominant emotions. Obsessed with defending the indefensible ego, peace is nowhere to be found.
- Thinking is always concerned with either the past or the future and so, always thinking, we miss the only time that is real, the present moment.
- Our minds habitually try to resist the natural flow. We obsess over past events which are impossible to change. We deny the reality of what is. This resistance to things that can't be changed is the root of emotional suffering.
- Because our consciousness is dominated by the mind (manifest) and God is the un-manifest, we fail to experience God. We fail to experience our own divinity. We experience life as hollow and meaningless.
- The inability to stop thinking is at the core of much mental illness. Compulsive, racing thoughts is the complaint that links many mental illnesses including anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, mania, and depression among others.
- In an attempt to escape the noise of our own minds we drink alcohol, we take illicit drugs, we take antidepressants and a host of other mind dulling drugs. We eat too much and indulge in ill-advised sexual behaviors in a futile attempt to return to animal consciousness (instinct).
(2)We fail to acknowledge "humanness", the underlying spirit that governs our existence, and is our common bond. Consequently:
- The major religions, through mind-based misinterpretation, have become largely devoid of spiritual teachings.
- Without the bond of spirituality, we feel separate, separate from each other, separate from nature, separate from God. It is difficult to feel for that which is separate. We can not care for that which we do not feel. The dominance of ego gives rise to the psychology of difference, of us verses them, and all it's ugly manifestations including nationalism, sexism, and racism.
- Without a sense of connectedness to underlying principle (spirit) we have no explanation for the origin of morality. How do we know right and wrong without a living experience of principle? Then, declaring that morality is to be defined by a book, we fall into very immoral conflicts regarding which book is the "right" book and how it is to be interpreted.
- The mind, without moral guidance, knows nothing of right and wrong and serves good and evil with equal efficiency. The ego knows only self preservation and so is subject to never ending conflict with other egos.
- We interact on the level of ego rather than on the level of humanness. Ego interactions are characterized by conflict, maneuvering, deceit, instability, anger, disappointment, jealousy, fear and a multitude of other unhappy complexities.
- If we regard people as things, and disregard their common essence, than we can believe that a person is bad. We become judgmental. We have no basis for resolving conflict. If you're bad and I'm good, what's to resolve?
- Consequently, 100 million war dead in the 20th century is an obvious testament to cruelty, but it represents merely the tip of the ice berg of the total suffering we inflict on ourselves and others.
(3)Likewise, in our experience of the universe, we are conscious of things and almost entirely un-conscious of underlying spirit. Consequently:
- Depending on our persuasion, we mistake either science or religion for absolute truth. This devastating misconception pits religion against science, faith against rational thought, and religion against religion, in unending irresolvable conflict.
- If we abandon rational thought in favor of faith, then all of our thoughts are suspect. We can be made to believe anything. If we pursue science without spiritual guidance then our motivations are suspect. We lose the ability to discern between good and bad.
- The average person cannot answer the question, "why am I here?", or "what is my purpose?" in any satisfying way. The inability to place ourselves in the context of history makes it difficult to find meaning.
- Unaware of the spirit that we share with all things, we are unable to generate sufficient compassion to care for the planet as it needs to be cared for.
- We emphasize quantity and de-emphasize quality thus we rush about, constantly producing and growing but generally degrading the quality of our natural and manmade world.
- Consequently we grow in numbers without regard for the destruction we visit on every other living species on the planet and we make irreversible changes to the environment without regard for the well being of a thousand future generations.
A New Perspective
This website is an attempt to describe an alternative, fundamentally different perspective that alters the experience of consciousness itself. The major points to be elaborated here are:
- Humanity is undertaking a fundamental step in the evolution of consciousness - the end of mind-dominated consciousness. The new consciousness will have access to thought but will be liberated from thought. This new experience of consciousness, enlightenment, is available to everyone. The change has started with a few but will rapidly spread until it becomes the "normal" state of consciousness.
- For some, the change in consciousness will happen spontaneously. But most of us, in this transitional generation, will have to work at it. The mind dominated pattern is a very difficult habit to break. Quieting the mind requires strong motivation and constant attention.
- The enlightened individual lives primarily in the present moment with a sense of joy that is independent of circumstance. He is free of ego and fear. She is liberated from addictive thought. He has a personally derived sense of morality. Her interactions are characterized by compassion.
- You are not your mind any more than you are your leg or your liver. The mind is a thinking machine, an aspect of your physical existence. You are consciousness, the living spirit within, the witness of your mind and body.
- When the mind is quiet, consciousness expands. Only in that quietness can one have a spiritual experience because spirit is beyond the scope of mind.
- There is only one absolute truth. Mythology, science, and religion, are not truth itself but signposts pointing to truth. They are metaphor meant to convey the essence of truth. This perspective obliterates the conflict between science and religion. Rational thought and spirituality become entirely compatible. I call it, "The Grand Unified Perspective" because it has the power to merge, science, religion, psychology, and philosophy, with an overarching spirituality.
- The Christian mythology is, metaphorically, the story of the ascent and then transcendence of mind-dominated consciousness. The second coming of Christ, is the end of the world as we know it, not some doomsday scenario. It is the return of Christ consciousness (enlightenment), not just in an individual but en masse.
- Conscious choice will become the mechanism for the further evolution of our world. In that sense man has attained the status of demigod. That is how important we have become. We are stewards of planet earth and we must mature in order to take on that responsibility.