The Living Universe (18 page)

The human family is making a pivotal turn from a long evolutionary phase oriented around a spirituality of separation to another long phase that is oriented around a spirituality of communion. A spirituality of separation is seen most clearly in what has been called the first axial age of religion.
⁶
The phrase
axial age
was used by the philosopher Karl Jaspers to describe the relatively brief period of time—roughly seven hundred years—when the great religions of the world arose: Hinduism and Buddhism in India; Confucianism and Taoism in China; and monotheism in the Middle East.

The period from 900 to 200
B.C.E.
is referred to as an axial age because it set the orientation or direction for spirituality for more than 2,000 years into the future. Around the world, the axial age marked the growth of trading networks, the rise of large cities, and large armies equipped with iron-age weapons. This was also a time of extreme violence and widespread warfare. The response of axial-age religions was a countervailing revolution in spiritual growth that put compassion at the forefront.

The word
religion
comes from the Latin root “religio,” which means to “bind together.” During the long path of increasing separation and differentiation, the role of religion was to bind people, both to one another and to the sacred universe. People were not only leaving nature for urban settings but also, increasingly, disconnecting from the invisible field of aliveness. Here is a powerful summation of the first axial age by D. H. Lawrence: “For two thousand years man has been living in a dead or dying cosmos, hoping for a heaven hereafter. And all the religions have been religions of the dead body and the postponed reward.”
⁷
As people saw themselves less as within the universe and more as separate observers of it, the binding role of religion became more important.

Historically, all of the world's great religions have understood that humanity is moving along a path of differentiation and individuation, and that a core challenge of religion has been to moderate the extreme consequences of our perceived separation. Despite great diversity of culture and geography, there is a common understanding in the world's wisdom traditions that is summarized in the Golden Rule.

As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

—C
HRISTIANITY

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary.

—J
UDAISM

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.

—I
SLAM

Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.

—H
INDUISM

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

—B
UDDHISM

Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.

—C
ONFUCIANISM

Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.

—T
AOISM

In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self.

—J
AIN

The heart of the person before you is a mirror. See there your own form.

—S
HINTO

All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves.

—N
ATIVE
A
MERICAN

As you see yourself, see others as well; only then will you become a partner in heaven.

—S
IKHISM

Like different facets of a single jewel or different branches of a single tree, the human family shares a common experience at the core of life, and from this has emerged fundamental wisdom about how to relate to each other. In the first great phase of differentiation—a prolonged time of growing separation from nature, one another, and the Mother Universe—it was only natural that religion would become a vehicle to bridge or connect people back to the sacred universe. Therefore, a core message of religion in the first
axial age was that of compassion—treating others as we would like to be treated. In a world of growing individualism and separation, religion served as the bridge between the secular and the sacred.

A second major phase with a very different axis is now opening before us.
Religions of separation will become religions of communion as we realize there is no place to go where we can be separate from the ever-generative womb of the Mother Universe.
At every moment, the entire universe is her revelation and celebration. The second epoch begins with the collective recognition that we are already home—that the Mother Universe already exists within us.

As the world moves into spiritual communion and empathic connection with the living universe we will see the role of religion differently: Less often will people look for a bridge
to
the divine. Increasingly, people will seek guidance and community in the journey of awakening
within
the living universe. People will want to know there are others on the journey of soul-making who look in the mirror of consciousness and confront their potentials for awakening and maturation. People will want insights about this journey from others who have been down this path before. They will want to know that there are guideposts along the way to support the awakening of their unique potentials. Less and less will people seek only religions of belief. Carried along in this great cultural project of awakening, we will increasingly seek religions of direct experience—religions of communion with a living universe.

We are moving through a great turn in human history. In making this turn, we are halfway home in our journey of return to a living universe. On the second half of this journey, we understand that we
no longer require a bridge to the first miracle. No longer feeling a sense of separation, what we seek is not a bridge to the great alive-ness but conscious guides within it.

All of the world's wisdom traditions recognize that if we are to experience the subtle aliveness of the universe it is vital that we consciously develop the arts of attention with tools such as meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Recall that we are giants in the cosmic scale of things and that it is easy for us to overlook what is happening at the more refined levels of existence. Happily, a literacy of consciousness is central to who we are as a species—we have a distinct aptitude for seeing ourselves in the mirror of consciousness. Whatever we may name our capacity for reflective knowing, the importance of cultivating this core capacity is recognized by every major wisdom tradition.

Throughout this book, the world's wisdom traditions have described enlightening or awakening experiences that emerge as we come into a more conscious and intimate relationship with the living universe. When our aliveness consciously connects with the aliveness of the universe, a current of aliveness flows through us and an “enlightening” experience occurs. At that moment, when life meets life, a direct connection between the universe and ourselves is realized and we have an awakening experience. We no longer see ourselves
in
the universe, we experience that we
are
the universe. Because the deep fabric of the universe is infused with its orchestration of qualities (light, love, music, knowing), we do not need to create or imagine awakening experiences. Instead, we only need to experience directly what is already true about the fundamental nature of the universe. Ultimately, when the conscious knowing of ourselves becomes transparent to the reality of our participation in an ever-flowing universe, we become beings of cosmic dimension
and participation. Importantly, this means
awakening is not a process that is confined within the physical body and brain; instead, it is a process that involves opening to an ever more conscious and intimate relationship with the living universe.

Awakening to the living universe seldom happens all at once; instead, it involves a demanding process of learning and discovery, often over a period of many years. There are three major steps in this awakening process that are recognized in different ways by all of the world's spiritual traditions.
⁸
Stated simply, our conscious relationship with the universe moves from
reflection,
to
communion,
to
flow
. The accompanying figure presents patterns of words to help describe the nature of these three stages of consciousness.

Let's consider these three stages of awakening more closely.

Whether an individual or an entire species, the first step in awakening is to stabilize our capacity to pay attention by cultivating a reflective or witnessing consciousness. The word
consciousness
refers to our “knowing faculty”; therefore, to bring a reflective consciousness into our lives means to live in the mirror of our own knowing. When we are standing and talking with someone, we see ourselves/
know ourselves while standing and talking. When we are sitting and eating, we see ourselves/know ourselves while sitting and eating. This is a completely simple and straightforward process. We all have the capacity to consciously reflect upon and observe ourselves as we move through life. Despite the simplicity and directness of paying attention to ourselves, this is a very demanding and difficult task. We can easily get lost in the flow of our thoughts and the busyness of our lives. A brief moment of self-remembering is often followed by distraction and forgetfulness. Yet, with practice—with meditation—we gradually learn the skills of being present in our everyday lives. This is not a mechanical process, but organically observing and consciously tasting our experience as we move through life.

Three Major Stages in Awakening to the Living Universe

In cultivating our capacity to live more consciously, it is important to develop two qualities of conscious attention that balance one another—concentration and mindfulness.
Concentration
is the ability to focus on the precise center of our unfolding experience.
Mindfulness
is the ability to be aware of the panoramic totality of life. Concentration without the balancing influence of mindfulness results in the mind sinking into an activity, getting lost in the details, and losing perspective. Mindfulness without the balancing influence of concentration results in the mind becoming so diffuse and expansive that we feel “spaced out” and unable to be present within the precise center of the flow experience. With a dynamic balance, each acts as a corrective against the excesses of the other. Nothing is left out of our experience, as both the details and the spacious context of our lives are embraced in our consciousness.

Cultivating a reflective consciousness is a basic skill recognized in all of the world's spiritual traditions as well as in psychotherapy. All understand that the first step in awakening and healing is to simply see “what is.” In other words, we begin by becoming an
objective witness or impartial observer of our lives and telling ourselves the truth about our situation. Honest reflection and non-judgmental witnessing are fundamental to both individual and collective awakening. In paying attention to our lives in the mirror of consciousness, we gradually make friends with our soulful nature and come to greater self-possession. The capacity for honest self-reflection provides a way to cut through the surface chatter of our lives and discover the deeper voice of our soul.

A reflective consciousness will bring a new tenor and feel into the world. Where the industrial era mindset with its “thinking consciousness” brought an aggressive, materialistic, and self-promoting orientation, a “reflective consciousness” brings a more receptive, trans-material, and relationship-building orientation; it represents a shift from masculine to feminine qualities. Embracing the feminine archetype (which tends to be more open, allowing, forgiving, bodily aware, and integrating) will enable humanity to move beyond the aggressive and competitive mind set of the industrial era and to promote the caring and cooperation that are the vital foundation for a sustainable future. By expanding the feminine archetype to cosmic scale, the universe is seen as a single living organism. Instead of an impersonal machine that is devoid of consciousness and purpose, the cosmos is seen as a living entity infused with, and animated by, a subtle life energy. Within this re-spiritualized framework, it is natural to view the Earth as a sacred, self-regulating organism.

The next step in conscious awakening occurs as the duality of watcher and watched merges into the unity of an integrated experience of conscious knowing. With stability of attention, the distance
between knower and known gradually diminishes until the two become one in experience. We no longer stand apart from reality, observing it; rather, we come into a direct and unbounded relationship with existence. When we are fully present in the precise center of our moment-to-moment experience, we automatically come into a living relationship with the infusing field of aliveness—an experience that is intrinsically nurturing and satisfying. At the center, we find the simple joy and contentment of being alive. Our experience of intimate connection with all of creation naturally awakens feelings of compassion.