A year ago, I wrote this post (it originally appeared on my website) this in the spacious stillness of Thanksgiving weekend. My life had been moving at high speed, but over that holiday break an opening appeared. The phone barely rang, and a sense of deep peace naturally blossomed. My heart was overflowing with spontaneous gratitude (or as Brother David Steindl-Rast so beautifully puts it, “great-full-ness”.)
I was (and am) grateful for many things—family and friends, my spiritual friends and communities, some inspiring creative projects, amazing partners, and my growing, vibrant communities of integral evolutionary spirituality and service. I was (and am) especially grateful for the opportunity to serve humankind, and our current intensifying wild ride through what is certainly a kind of evolutionary whitewater rafting.
In the time since I wrote this post, many projects have been born, and you’re now a part of one of the largest and most important of them. As of this writing the Beyond Awakening community numbers almost 34,000. I feel very similarly to how I did a year ago — simultaneously feeling great sobriety and hope, while taking an increasingly strong stand for a healthy human adaptive response to our current challenges. I want to share this writing with you now, in the spirit of the wide-ranging and deep conversations that are unfolding in the series.
The day I wrote this post, I had breakfast with a dear friend. We had been discussing our world’s multiple simultaneous emergencies (overpopulation, climate change, culture wars, and the new emerging design vulnerabilities of a single globalized human life-support system).
Optimism vs. Pessimism About Humanity’s Prospects
We considered how attitudes tend to polarize. Many extreme postmodernists feel very pessimistic. Their words are haunted by a quality of dread, a sense of impending calamity. They seem depressed, or even possessed by an overwrought sense of guilt, shame, and foreboding.
And we considered how some of our Integral friends, reacting to the self-fulfilling prophetic defeatism of postmodern anxiety and doubt, have attempted to opt radically for optimism. Since history and evolution are always developmentally progressing forward towards greater depth, complexity, and consciousness, they have installed optimism as an article of faith, perhaps even at the cost of going into denial of the likelihood of the global human economy being tested by some “500-year flood” type events—disastrous systemic shocks and large-scale socioeconomic dislocations.
The Core Existential Question
I told my friend that what I think haunts this discussion is a core existential question: Are we inspired or discouraged by an uncertain, treacherous human future? Can we use our fear productively? The prospect of a new dark age, of a “Mad Max” descent into warrior consciousness, or of human extinction is so terrifying as to be mind-altering. We don’t want this for our grandchildren. Can we tolerate that possibility, and even be drawn to heroism by its potential eventuality? Is it worth working for evolution even if there’s a significant likelihood of evolutionary regression?
For me, this all goes back to a stark confrontation I engaged in 2002-2003. For years I’ve pondered the koan of how to respond to this amazingly “interesting time” on planet Earth. During those years, I researched and wrote a book manuscript (one actively being updated and re-edited now) whose working title is The Terrible Truth and the Wonderful Secret: Answering the Call of Our Evolutionary Emergency. I looked closely at all the futuristic projections, whether they were inspiring, alarming, or depressing. I made it a practice to transcend my tendency to go into denial about what upset me. I felt like I was “putting my eyeballs in a vice” and forcing myself to look at all the potentials I found most upsetting.
And at the end of the process, I realized that human knowledge was too incomplete, and my expertise was insufficient. The bottom line was that even though the world is out of balance, we just didn’t know—and couldn’t know—how bad (or good) things really are. We don’t know how severe or sudden climate change will be. We don’t know how much sea levels will rise. We don’t know how disruptive the transition will be from our unsustainable global financial, food, and transportation systems to sustainable ones. We cannot and will not be able to know how much disruption, pain, loss, and degradation are in store for us—or not. Essentially, we don’t know enough to be pessimistic. Even optimism is essentially a choice, not a well-founded conclusion.
An Unconditional Commitment
We don’t have to be caught in the dilemma of having to figure all this out, though. We don’t have to handicap this unknowable high-stakes evolutionary horse-race. We can cut through all the mind chatter by asking a deeper and more essential question:
Can I find in myself a no-matter-what commitment? Under the worst-case scenario, can I nevertheless find inspiration to meet each new day with passion, resourcefulness, and self-transcending integrity? If, in my lifetime, beyond my control, no matter what I do, evolutionary history is doomed to pass some awful point of no return resulting in grim outcomes, will I still have a basis for going on? Can I, no matter what, find the spring in my step and the twinkle in my eye to come alive fully, to do whatever I can? And can I do it nobly, in service of something far greater than myself?
Can I make my evolutionary contribution, even if it seems tiny by comparison with the scale of deep time and a global 6.8 billion? Can I do whatever I can to further the emergence of a new humanity that could have turned the corner? Can I be inspired to do what little I can to bring forward the gestation of that embryonic next, even more sapient, homo sapien?
Can I bring care, compassion, and consciousness into life just for the sake of doing so? Am I willing to invest my heart in evolutionary creativity without a guaranteed return? Can I find it exciting to help the human flower come an iota more fully into bloom even if it might be destined to wilt?
Finding a “Yes”
I struggled with these issues for a couple of years, working to grapple them to the mat. And, pinned, I found my answer. It was, and is—yes.
And that yes makes all the difference.
So that’s what I offer you here. A meditation: can you find your “yes”? Can you choose (again and again, every day, for the rest of your life) to live on the basis of an unconditional inspiration?
If you can, you’ll step over a threshold into a different level of evolutionary responsibility and leadership. There’s a community building out here on the skinny branches. This is a transformational community, a powerful agreement, an amazing fellowship of Evolutionaries. It’s my experience that we seem to be in the process of summoning something miraculous into being.
This “agreement” is certainly a work-in-progress. As those of you have been listening regularly to the Beyond Awakening dialogs are well aware, many of the key components of such an agreement are already widely-held among the many remarkable teachers I’ve spoken with, and yet there’s obviously no full universal consensus yet. But a new set of cultural values and worldviews seem to be coalescing. This new cultural phenomenon emerges out of this clear choice, this existential “yes.” This affirmation is an open invitation. Once accepted, this opportunity changes us. Maybe it changes everything.
Are you called to participate?
I’m not positive the place you are getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend a while finding out more or figuring out more. Thank you for excellent info I was in search of this information for my mission.
“Can I bring care, compassion, and consciousness into life just for the sake of doing so? Am I willing to invest my heart in evolutionary creativity without a guaranteed return? Can I find it exciting to help the human flower come an iota more fully into bloom even if it might be destined to wilt?”
Yes ,yes and Yes. Thank you Terry. You are such an inspiration. . “Unconditional Commitment” is the only place to be at the moment and I love the way you keep coming back to it in all your interviews. I always find your contribution moving- including with Ram Dass this morning. You hold the space superbly.
YES YES YES! I can and will choose again and again, every day, for the rest of your life to live on the basis of an unconditional inspiration! I am totally ready to step over a threshold into a different level of evolutionary responsibility and leadership. This transformational community rocks and is based on not only a powerful agreement but truly an amazing fellowship of Evolutionaries and emerging realities! Yes, we truly are in the process of summoning something miraculous into being–that is if we are deciding to do so consciously. More is thriving on this fabulous planet than not, we just are so trained to focus on the drama rather than the blessings all around us. Let’s water the seeds of what is working with our focused attention and watch them grow ! YES YES YES!
Today I celebrate that solar power is an option for my electrical needs, that Real Goods has the technology for a totally off-grid house that can be purchased from their catalogue for just $100K, wind power turbines can generate unlimited amounts of energy, Honda has a whole town in CA with hydrogen stations and a splitter that is powered by solar that can take water and turn it into fuel right in your own garage, and that there are so many people out there recycling and buying organic that I now have curbside pick up where none existed before and organic sections in every grocery store and more and more farmer’s markets with organic stands locally! so much to celebrate….let’s talk about what is working! Even Disney and Great Adventure theme parks are starting to use hydrogen and solar/electric technologies!
Terry, I just heard your conversation with Jean Houston. Jean referred in passing to the “major backlash” that has occurred or is occurring, but neither you nor she addressed this concretely, nor do you do so in the posting that we’re discussing here. The phenomena of the G.W. Bush administrations and wars, the ongoing racist politics of Bush’s party since Reagan, and the election that took place two weeks ago, are surely challenging to any optimist. I believe that we need to address these phenomena, these people, this “shadow” side of our lives. Your reference to “Mad Max” militarism seems to underestimate the seriousness of these all too familiar phenomena. It’s not just future resource wars, it’s _ongoing_, all-too-familiar resource wars and racist politics. I raise this issue primarily from a spiritual perspective: I don’t believe I can speak a genuine Yes! to the world and life without confronting these facts. We need to deal _now_ with our fear and horror of Sarah Palin and what she represents. (I’m being brief, of course; Palin’s admirers have other issues to deal with.) If we don’t deal with these issues, we’re simply living in denial. And I suggest that the only way to deal with these “shadow” phenomena in a spiritually effective way, is to find our own _inner_ Reagan, Bush and Sarah Palin: our capacity to deal with life in those ways, and the times and ways in which we have in fact done so. When we’ve found these inner shadows, we’ll have the opportunity to love them, and ourselves, and Reagan, Bush and Palin, and the world in general. Until we’ve done that work, we’re living in (unacknowledged or acknowledged) duality, pain, and darkness. Love, Bob
Thank you Terry for this. Without a doubt YES.
“For everything that has been, thank you. For everything that will be, yes.”
Dag Hammarskjold, “Markings”
Thanks for asking the critical question. I’ve listened to several interviews. A few have been on fast speed so I couldn’t listen to them. I try to view the question from a perspective that includes evolution and devolution, enlightenment and endarkenment, etc. which I believe Mr. Wilbur endorses. My “yes” is to a main metaphor of The Lover who dances in place embodying changes that go backward and forward simultaneously. I look forward to learning more from this penetrating communal inquiry.
Yes! ( but there’s more isn’t there?) Looking at the major problems that humanity faces, there is one that seems to stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of scale and long term reprecussions, and just committing to face it courageously and optimistically might seem a bit inadequate on hindsight. Climate change could be related to feelings of entitlement, in which those in power have a vested interest in continuing in their attempts to puff up the economy. We should not look in that direction for a solution.
Perhaps a little soul searching among the 34,000 members of this community as to their practices and possessions that are not in alignment with their goal of leaving a nice planet for the kids would be a good thing. Personally, I’m a solar powered, biofueled “nutter”, but I could still find something EVERY DAY to change that would reduce the problem a bit. And with 34,000 “living examples” showing up…….I wonder what the result would be?
Great series Terry, Thanks
I appreciated your candid description of the struggle you endured to get to yes. I had the struggle thrust upon me by divorce and a problem with alcohol which I kicked. I think it’s necessary to go through this pain to get to the honest “yes that surpasses understanding”-haha. To not confront the reality that it’s essentially hopeless leaves you only part way there. It is only a tentative kind of hope that yes made possible for me, a hope that somehow strengthens over time–I don’t know why except that maybe we look for and find evidence to be hopeful (however personal) and that grounded place of truth acts to give courage to others and they reflect it back to us. Bless you for exploring this pain and truth so I could be reminded and celebrate this with you.
Thank you very much Terry for all you contribute, and for your inspiring invitation to finding and committing to our yes, as part of our creative contribution to life’s evolution. And if you read this, a warm hello to your wonderful wife ☺. (We all met at your workshop in NYC in Fall 2009, at One Spirit.)
I commit to saying yes to life, truth, love, joy, beauty, creative expression, peace; i.e., I commit to remembering God.
Life is an adventure of ever-unfolding consciousness. I had a dream this morning where I am quoting my teacher Lama Surya Das, as he is sitting next to me, to help a writer who is about to write an article. The quote is something like this: “it is awakening as unfolding, not just as arriving, that matters.” This reminds me of “the journey is the destination.” I am not a Buddhist by the way. I am a free Spirit, with deep appreciation for numerous spiritual traditions in the world.
Life, the universe, God-Consciousness, Buddha-consciousness, has pushed me to learn some lessons which I feel I am meant to share here, with the hope that they may benefit all. Given that I have only joined this community conversations series since last Tuesday evening, please bear with me if any of my offerings have already been covered in previous conversations.
Regardless of what may appear to show itself to us in outer life, they are all tests of faith, meant as invitations from an infinitely intelligent universe, for us to choose who we choose to be in the moment, and particularly to remember who we really are, at one and united with the Source of Creation. All challenges are our teachers and rather than fearing them, we are meant to embrace them with acceptance for the lessons and gifts they bring. What matters most, is our response-ability, or ability to respond consciously. Responding consciously has to do with being aware of who we believe we are in the moment, and what we identify with as far as “story”, beliefs about self, life and others.
All roads lead to the Source of Creation (God). And all life is one, as mystics say. And as Swami Beyondananda the cosmic comic put it, we are all mystics, i.e., either pessi-mystics, or opti-mystics ☺.
Let us realize and remember together that time is an illusion with multiple parallel realities, as Einstein uncovered, which implies that in each moment, life unfolds very much in the same way as when we are about to enter into a large movie theatre with many different movie showings in different rooms at the same time, i.e., the parallel realities unfolding simultaneously in the universe: we enter a given movie room within the large movie theatre, based on our inner choices of what we choose to experience. The other movies of the large theatre are still happening at the same time, in “parallel” rooms.
Once we understand that life happens from within, i.e., that “as within, so without” and “as above, so below,” we can realize that the optimal contribution we can make to all of life, is to practice turning within, before going outward. This facilitates aligned, or inspired action. I have found that when I do this, especially just before initiating an important action, it helps me to realize my deeper intention for what I am about to do or say. The quality of our intentions are essential, beyond our actions and words.
Moreover, psycho-analyst Carl G. Jung uncovered that, just like the whole oak tree lives inherently within the acorn, there is a self-realized, Higher Self living within the minds of every individual. Similarly, there is a cosmic blueprint for the universe’s life to unfold, with every living thing in it, according to this cosmic blueprint. This resembles the Innate, Natural Great Perfection, or Dzogchen (View), that Tibetan Buddhism refers to, although this understanding goes beyond the life of forms, to encompass infinite, eternal, and formless life.
In her yoga nidra meditation CD, author Adrienne Jamiel states: “I am unchanging consciousness, noticing perceptions arising, unfolding and dissolving.” (Jamiel, Adrienne. Guided Yoga Nidra iRest Meditation. CD. New York: Dharmic Institute, 2008. http://www.DharmicInstitute.org/)
The quality of our consciousness and particularly ability to tune into the deeper part of our true nature, the one beyond change, that can observe the apparent changes with detachment and trust that there is a reality beyond all phenomena, is what can free us to choose the life-affirming thoughts and beliefs to co-create the very evolution we choose to manifest.
With this understanding, we can also reach a deeper acceptance of whatever may appear to be in the moment, accept responsibility in the present for what is, and also trust our process, including when we have to process the apparently unwanted stuff of life. “What we resist, persists, what we embrace, disappears” as author Neale Donald Walsch states. Constructive attitude and commitment are powerful change agents.
We may still experience fear and other negative emotions when we do, and what matters most, is to keep choosing to remember that in each moment, we have a choice of choosing love over fear, life over destruction, faith over despair, awakening over apathy, cooperation over competition, and compassion over judgment.
In his book, “The Path of Least Resistance”, Robert Fritz demonstrates convincingly how it is more powerful and evolutionary to focus on creating the vision of what we want to manifest, than to focus on resolving what we don’t want. This also means that we have to learn to cultivate focusing on what works and what we want, rather than focusing on what does not work and what we don’t want.
I have found it is much better for my own health, happiness, wellbeing and evolution, to choose to replace judgment with compassion, and to dwell on what’s right in everyone, rather than on what seems less right… . Because we are all mirrors of each other, as one being. This means we are each other’s teachers. To paraphrase author Joel Goldsmith, “a problem is never a person, a place or a thing. It is rather an invisible cloud of energy that stands between the two parties.” So the practice of “Namaste”, or “honoring the light in others as I honor the light in me,” is very powerful in helping not to project our own unconscious Shadows onto others, and instead, to choose to focus on the best in each person, hence allowing the best unfolding to manifest. (More information on this is in other writings of mine, available upon request.)
One more thing: Wholeness has to do with balance, which has to do with turning apparently opposite forces into complementary, harmonious forces (such as the Yin and Yang within the Tao, or way of the middle). So in our Western societies, where the masculine type of consciousness, inherent in both women and men, has been dominating for a while, and led to apparent imbalances, it is time to allow for the Feminine type of consciousness, also inherent in both men and women, to be nurtured and honored within and around us. This has to do with slowing down, valuing beingness and connectedness and not just doingness, as well reconnecting more with Nature, our Great Teacher.
There is only one of us in truth, i.e., in absolute reality, beyond the apparently dual, relative reality. So when we tune within, we can trust that our inner natural impulses for creation and evolution are guided toward allowing the highest and best scenarios, or movies of life, to unfold through us for the highest good of the One and all. May we together choose to remember the highest truth that sets us free.
All of these statements may make more sense when in a state of meditation or relaxation, i.e., when we tap into the slower brainwaves of our consciousness and into our hearts’ intelligence, rather than just trying to grapple with them from the ego consciousness.
May all beings benefit; and may all be well and at peace.
Allo Terry, ~ LOVE TO YOU ~
Terry, you speak of “evolutionary regression”– that appears to fly in the face of the ‘Anthropic Principle’?
I have been reading “Let there be light” by Hendryk Skolimowski he says “To see the creativity of the Cosmos as omnipresent enables us to look at the vicissitudes of biological life and of human life with a new understanding, with empathy and with insights unknown before. Creativity is never easy, either in art or in bringing about new biological forms. The Cosmos itself, as well as its helpers –evolution and human beings– so often have to improvise. This method of trial and error, and of continuous improvements, does not nullify the meaning and validity of the creative process. On the contrary, the method affirms it! Creativity is a song of joy; sometimes a song of agony –sung together.” I really like this non-dual duet, and am quite accustomed to its harmony.
Terry: I say yes, as you do, and am grateful for information I can send to others to introduce them to important, valuable ideas
Thank you for your contributions, time and energy, Loraine
The Beyond Awakening series has already changed my outlook in many ways. First of all, the mere fact that I´m able to join in on what to me represents the leading edge of a new consciousness, provides tremendous confidence in the evolutionary process itself. Secondly, even though I´ve only listened to the recordings, the series is like a community to me, a space where I´m reminded of who I am. I could say a lot more, but most importantly I want to thank you, Terry, for creating this space. The answer to your question is YES. Love and blessings from Norway
OOOH, I just love the ripple effect of all of this!
Carry on, everyone
Lama Surya Das speaks like the trees with their fallen leaves. If you stand or are anywhere near them, the truth and wisdom of the words will surely touch and awaken you..! ~Namaste~bill
The confusion between ego and boundaries often come up in spiritual circles. It is of special consideration in the West where there is so much boundary invasion and dysfunction and must be a consideration for Eastern cultures and thinkers when dealing with the “oneness” issues in the West. This is where soul work is an important partner with spiritual work. So that there is a less threat of “collapse” in the process of unity. As we see the environment “collapsing” around us, Nature is reflecting this dilemma. There is always the danger of enmeshment and an unhealthy kind of “oneness” even when we know that we are all connected and clairsentient in our cores.
Hello Terry,
Thank you for your question.
Right now I am inspired by Master Zhi Gang Sha’s equation of identity that, “You are a universal servant. I am a universal servant. And everything in creation is a universal servant.”
The inspiration I draw is in a shift I have made recently about how I relate to this statement. Until recently I was judging my actions and beingness into times when I lived up to this description of my identity and purpose, and times when I didn’t. Now I am trusting my evolutionary impulse, and all of the higher support I experience, and more often, I am able to affirm that I am a universal servant always and no matter what.
I am a universal servant as much when I am feeling helpless, or despairing, or unable to extricate myself from some judgement as when I am grounded, in my heart, and clearly acting in support of goodness. Just as we cannot know the outcome or difficulty of passages through our dire Earth predicament, we also don’t know the outcome or level of pain through through our own evolutionary growth, either in the short or long term.
And often we don’t understand the nature of a passage of darkness or seeming failure when we are in it.
So I don’t know if there is a level of outer devestation and trauma that will cause me to cave into despair and not come out the other side. It’s possible that some situations of intermediate severity might cause me to collapse, while something more devestating could open me and others up so completely to an experience, or beingness, of what we really are.
I can’t say Yes that I would be able to face any situation with an open heart and a sense of service. I can say Yes to having a deeper sense of identity with being a universal servant. I can also say Yes to the faith or trust that my whole life is a working out of the evolutionary impulse, and even if there is apparent failure at a certain point, such as sinking into trauma shock and despair in the face of catastrophe, I am still a universal servant serving evolution of the whole.
I’m not saying that I would still be a universal servant because I would have done my best. It’s more that we can’t even judge that the more healing that occurrs in a given time is better, or that the faster all souls are healed the better. Perhaps it’s that everything needs to be healed, and that takes however long it takes.
I geuss I’m looking at this from the largest perspective where everything is unfolding perfectly as it should, and seeing the truth of that and agreeing with it. And it seems like your wonderful Beyond Awakening discussions are addressing, more the other side, of what we can do within the limits of our free will, (practice) to be more of service to the evolutionary impulse.
I am grappling with spiritual practice right now, and how I can get tied up in super ego emeshment. . . . Navigating between somewhat disciplined spiritual practice and simple stillness and listening at random moments of the day when it occurrs naturally, or I am drawn to it.
So here is a ramble which started out from your great question, and which I’m sure will continue to open things up for me.
Thanks again
Maureen
Dear “evolutionists”:
i have been hopping from one “evolutionary” website to the other for two weeks now, and your many comments leave me with only one question: whatever happened to the process of enlightenment? It seems to have gotten buried by all this talk of “evolution”. Hopping on board the bandwagon of “evolution” is what the seeker does when he is unable to figure out how the spiritual process really works, i.e., unable to solve the puzzle of enlightenment. Its an act of desperation. It gives one a sense of power, identity, and belonging he craves, in the midst of what is really a frustrating failure to lift oneself out of the hypnotic grasp of the sense of separation.. That process of lifting is not the product of an intentional act and joining a group of cheerleaders will not further it. My advice to all of you is stop trying to change the future and start trying to change yourselves. The unity you seek will never be acquired by jumping on board a bandwagon. It is gifted to us by consciousness itself. The best way for all of us to change the future is to realize our oneness with the present. Out of that realization the future will emerge. It will not emerge out of the false sense of unity one acquires by jumping on board a bandwagon of cheerleaders. That unity will only re-create our past. Namaste….
This person was so refreshing. Not bogged down in such heavy philosophy, but straight on, living in the moment, that’s all there is and is good to remember. True spirituality.
Hello Terry,
The unconditional commitment is the key. We don’t know and
can’t know, but for me it has been a relief to openly look directly at what we are facing in our world today. Instead of increased
fear or anxiety, I’m finding relief, energy, and ease along with my concern, because I realize in my core that I will always care and
try with all my might, and together we can make a difference no
matter what.
So YES ! I (and many) are with you.
Have you read The Power of an Open Question?
(released in sept. by Shambala) by Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel
(my daughter).
Hello Patten,
Healing is voltage + nutrition
The body is electric first. Tools are offered to correct any imbalances, and allow the body to heal itself on all levels.
Sincerely
Morris Ishay
Every midwife knows
that not until a mother’s womb
softens from the pain of labor
will a way unfold
and the infant find
that opening to be born.
Oh friend!
There is treasure in your heart,
it is heavy with child.
Listen.
All the awakened ones,
like trusted midwives are saying,
welcome this pain.
It opens the dark passage of Grace.
~ Rumi
Hi Terry,
I am a member of a group of people in Montana that help make sure that Montanans receive the very best mental health care possible. We are overcoming the stigma of mental illness and embracing a path toward ultimate mental health. I shared your Finding Your Yes message with members of the Peer Solutions Drop In Center, which I attend regularly in Livingston, MT. As we carefully started reading your message aloud, a lively discussion ensued and by the time we were finished everyone, except one person who walked out angry, had found their YES. All of us are inspired to be willing, no matter what, to do what we can to make our community, state, nation and planet as healthy as possible. Thank you for providing the material for something that was very meaningful to us.
Warmly,
Tamara
Terry, your post, along with a song I recently heard, has inspired me to write a short piece. I include a link to it here for those who might be interested: http://carlaroyal.com/2010/11/a-holy-evolving/ Thank you for the inspiration and support. Humble bows to you.
I am so delighted that this conversation is happening NOW!
30 years ago some of us stood at the top of a mountain shouting, “Is anyone else out there who wants/sees something different in the world that we are living in and shaping?” I now see the evolutionary process at work! You are all there and ready to help with the change! Life IS Good and however it is that we are evolving, “All will be well!”
Namaste’ Thank you for sharing these wonderful thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams and INTENTIONS!
Yes
Terry,
If there is a YES, there`s also is a No !!
Why can`t we look beyond that duality ?
I AM THAT should be the book used as a guide, if any one has a chance to ponder !
I thank you Terry to have used this global tech. to engage in this new way of doing thing. What has really helped me, is when I`ve realised, I AM what I`m seeking, then the search has stopped, changing the world was no longer my preocupation, yes, I still witness the degradation of the human mind, but, realised, the change has to come through knowing that we`re not what we think we are, neti neti as they say in india, we can only know ourselves by negation.! We are perfect, we only has to drop the I`m this or that.
Yeah that’s great. But THIS is my 7 year-old daughter, and THAT is my responsibility.
Trust your seven year old daughter. I don’t believe we have as much control as we think we do. I have been here a while. I am 63. The cycles return and there are always different levels of consciousness occurring simultaneously. The surge of optimism regarding change (evolution) presented in the Beyond Awakening series is not unlike what happened during the late 60s. This time it feels more “grown up.” It is more intellectual. We could be missing the spirit of play this time around. The world has always been heading for disaster in the eyes of each succeeding generation. We keep changing (evolving) and becoming aware of problems and issues that will certainly cause our demise. I am not making light of them, just noting that we have always had SERIOUS CONCERN and have wondered whether it is ethical to bring children into such a horrible place. We chose this experience. Trust your children. They chose also. That’s the way we evolve. And thank God we are not in total control of it because we would surly mess it up even worse. If you picture the world like an ailing body, your body, do you notice how your attention is drawn where it might otherwise not be drawn? The pain, the struggle draws us and crystallizes something in us. It is not always a conscious process. We are moving through life participating in a wonderful terrifying amazing beautiful journey. I want to be open to all of it. That is my “yes.” The problems are not “out there.” What are your personal problems that seem unsolvable? I want to start there. I want to take good care of myself. Then I can be here all the way in the world with my conscious awareness of caring.
Bringing children into the world is our creative urge on the physical level. If we trust our bodies to be in life all the way we will know how to respond to life. I want to be in it all the way and say yes to my “yes” and yes to my “no.” I don’t want to run from conflict, but take it all the way to the root of the feelings that hold us in separation.
As far as the band wagon of evolution goes, I feel it is another way we want to feel like we have control over our future. We evolve. It’s happening. Let’s take care of ourselves with our love.
Really, the ideas all you good folks are putting across with these presentations are fantastic, innovative and inspiring but I struggle with understanding the world’s political culture and its leaders. At every turn and all around the globe the world’s governments seem to be run by demonic forces powered by fear & loathing and totally bent on self-service & greed…not rational and well informed compassion but misinformed hateful and weak emotionalism. Their strength I fear far out ways the 34,000 listeners to this audio series… Please I’m not being negative but I must keep reminding myself that this has all happened before and perhaps many times over the course of human history. I guess the only real politics is what takes place within personal relationships which are ultimately the ground of being for mass change… My only hope is that someone gets a grip before they destroy us all… (My two cents!)
I think I know how you feel Richard. The system of production and social relationships we have currently evolved for meeting our needs is capitalism. It seems to “be run by demonic forces powered by fear & loathing and totally bent on self-service & greed” but it is actually in my opinion extremely rational in fulfilling it’s prime directive, which is to maximise profit out of people and nature. The problem is that the current money system selects for certain kinds of behaviour and rewards the people who serve it best. And it has now harnessed media manipulation to maintain it’s position. And it has armies.
But really of course, “it” doesn’t exist. It’s just a series of energy exchanges between people, mediated by symbolic numbers. A process can start whereby we the people – all of us who take our various positions in this system of capitalist accumulation – place our own selves truly at the centre again, as equals to all other centres. Then we may decide not to be ruled by an abstract entity called “the market” anymore. If we could back that up with some organisation, we would then be free to do all the adaptive things life needs us to do.
Each evolutionary leap looks similar to me – the total ecology is transformed, but the gains of the previous period are integrated into the next. Something of similar magnitude now needs to happen to global society, but it’s particularly hard because of the stickiness of our attachment to having our primate needs so effectively and comfortably met, as they still are for those of us who have either money…or credit cards.
Realization can be academic where as evolotion is a natural process in the order of evolving which cannot be achieved .
Two posts caught my attention;
“Yeah, be selfish. Its all energy and it all spreads out … every happy or depressed or fearful thought … out into this world and beyond”
And about the integral movement – being & becoming
” Everyone here has seemed to jump onto the bandwagon of evolution, as if that were an all-encompassing and integral view. Of course I don’t mean this as denial of Becoming, but the Integral movement seems to have opted for a denial of Being”.
For me, these two posts – hit the nail on the head.
Thank-you for sharing.
saying Yes can be just as dangerous as saying No it depends on the context the commitment and the spiritual understanding of ‘self.’ it is finding a balance which works for you…
simplifying our own lives is good, giving space for silence daily, even a few minutes keeps us close to our internal spirit.
Listening to others’ point of view without commenting every time , or needing to defend our own views; leaves a space between for a different kind of ‘coming together’ communication.
Not being challenged often creates a medium for the internal voice to challenge far more effectually.
We need to use the synergy of all complementary therapies we
are familiar with to heal ourselves, as described on my website. Raise the voltage of our cells and elevate our being into experiencing ourselves and others with equanimity.
It will then feel natural to live by the 2nd commandment:
“Love thy neighbour as thy-self”
Morris
I think people like you are a very important engine for the implementing of anything on a grand scale. However, I think we may also need “soul engineers” who know where the frayed wiring is in certain types of individuals so that the voltage is regulated in a way that does not cause mass hysteria. There needs to be an assembly line of different specialties to implement it properly is what I mean.
Hi Morris. Complimentary to “Love thy neighbour as thyself” I just read a lovely succinct phrase from someone else: “Consume less and share better”.
Please could you explain what you mean by raising the voltage of our cells and elevating our being.
I believe we must act NOW on a number of levels: 1) mentally we must find things we can CHANGE in how we are living each day and simplify our life so our footprint is minimal; 2) emotionally we must accept there is change and that it is occuring right before our eyes…this we must endure; 3) spiritually finding strength in whatever one finds as their path in life; 4) physically to take care of oneself as to be flexible enough to heed what needs to be taken care of; and 5) psychologically we must find support with others who blieve as one does so as to strive for the goals of being good stewards for the earth and the future of all species and just do the best we can. immensity of our task and we must face it with strengeth and courage for the benefit of our future generations!
Write on Patricia
Oh YES, we are summoning forth all that has ever been mustered in the human spirit.
We have been releasing all that no longer serves this unfolding evolution of the Divine Human experiment of eons of time/space/dimensions to come to the fruition of the Divine Plan as it is called by the Ascended Masters who have enlightened before us, beside us in a community of spirit, and through us.
We will be, and are already, enjoying the fruits of this grand plan of God/dess ever evolving through all experience – thru every life, through every human life through all time, as well as the lives the zillions of other ways of life, being and consciousness throughout the galaxies, universes, and cosmos – eternally. We are now at the cusp, literally, of the flowering forth the fullness of the intertwining of the Divine and the Human with all of the glories of cosmic intelligence and creativity, power, joy and love that this Self-Realization conjures within us.
We have succeeded! And we will be witness to All of this more and more with every passing month, day and moment.
Terry,
Let me start from this quote from this blog from you:
And at the end of the process, I realized that human knowledge was too incomplete, and my expertise was insufficient. The bottom line was that even though the world is out of balance, we just didn’t know—and couldn’t know—how bad (or good) things really are. We don’t know how severe or sudden climate change will be. We don’t know how much sea levels will rise. We don’t know how disruptive the transition will be from our unsustainable global financial, food, and transportation systems to sustainable ones. We cannot and will not be able to know how much disruption, pain, loss, and degradation are in store for us—or not. Essentially, we don’t know enough to be pessimistic. Even optimism is essentially a choice, not a well-founded conclusion.
IT SEEMS TRANSPARENT TO ME THAT YOU ARE BADLY MISTAKEN IN A FEW OF THE THINGS THAT YOU MENTION,
perhaps tragically so.
For example, you say: “we just didn’t know—and couldn’t know—how bad (or good) things really are. We don’t know how severe or sudden climate change will be.” This statement is both misleading and untrue. We DO actually know how bed things really are. We know that we are killing the phytoplankton that are responsible for the oxygen we need to breathe. We know we (will) have killed close to half in the last 35 years and this next five. WE know this will strip the life from our oceans and end most of aerobic life on land, almost certainly humanity. We know we are melting the permafrost underneath which is plenty of methane, 22 times more powerful than CO2, enough to boil most life from land. We know that we are relentlessly pouring more Greenhouse Gasses into the atmosphere despite what you do, despite what science is explaining, despite the clear evidence of near term complete catastrophe. There is more to add but I will stop here.
So, we know we are ending civilization and any plausible type of livable world for those being born now. Our children. So, we know we are leaving behind an unlivable world. Not the precise nature of it, not whether any of humanity will survive, but a world that you and I would not be willing and likely able to live in. So, the extent of the full tragedy is obvious, even if its timing is not.
So, these are the genuine limiting factors for future humanity and the future development of consciousness. There is no viable path to sustainability, despite your mentioning it. If we are to have sustainability, that transformation you wish for must happen before it is possible. And we don’t have much time.
Moreover, neither optimism nor pessimism is relevant. In other words, either we find a way that enables us to turn away from our present path of stealing the future from the next generation, or humanity as we know it will cease. Most likely consciousness as we know it. The data related to this is my expertise, so do not think that I say this without a profound understanding and mountains of information to back up the details and specifics of what I say here.
So, if anything of what I write here has any relevance, even with only a one-third chance of being probable, and the data is overwhelming, the (seemingly) only relevant question facing humanity is “now what.”
Facts, even if they are ignored, are nonetheless facts. Even if we chose, (in your sense) not to look at them.
Let me suggest that there are important tools that can “turn around the aircraft carrier.” An understanding of epigenetics is one important tool. An understanding of why humans cannot look honestly at the situation that we are in, (perhaps you can, but I will question you anyway). And if we know why it is that this information cannot be accepted, and yet how to make the visceral knowledge the mechanism for transformation, to the degree needed, then we have another valuable tool. Third, the clear understanding of how this transformation can be ignited, spread across a hundred people and then viralized, in quite short order, (remember we don’t have much time), then we have a third tool needed. Now we are getting to scale with these three.
There are other tools necessary. For example, a clear picture of a future worth having and how to get there would be helpful. Then the energy reservoir to tap, and how to tap it, (two more tools and separate ones at that), begin to be enough to catalyze a plausible future.
Then, there would need to be agents, actors, visionaries that had experienced actual in-vitro transformation, at scale, in the real world, as part of the action. Of course, there would need to be masters, (at least one) at creating organisms of transformation, larger than the group listening to you and those who know of you, as part of the action movement.
These eight things I know and taste and have experienced and understand. I can stand in the space of knowing. Gnosis. Gnosis garnered by examples proven in the real world and still thriving. At least to a scale that provides a strong hint that the more massive and complex scale needed to be addressed could actually be addressed.
Now, it is probable that you will not get this or may not read it, that is how these things go. Nonetheless what I have written has a truth that
…………………….. if you let yourself listen, listen internally, and if you release to the possibility that we may well be able transform our actual worldly existence in enough time to matter, then you will be able to stand under what I write here. Because you probably can understand the peril we are in, from my hearing you in this series, you probably have some notion of the crisis we are within, and do give it some voice.
The change must be without and within, as you know, and quickly achieved. These caterpillars must become butterflyies, and the timing is crucial. And you know the same DNA is in the caterpillar as in the butterfly. They literally are the same thing, but different morphology because of the triggering mechanisms that alter the proteins in their cells to make something entirely different and trans-formative. A miracle, but life does it each nascent moment.
Knowing how to do this for the human is the Philosopher’s Stone. And despite its seeming hidden nature, it exists and is present. I know.
Michael Mielke
Michael – Thanks for truly “putting our eyeballs in a vice” and reminding us to think this through uncompromisingly to the best of our current knowledge. My sense at the moment is that I need to keep actively contemplating the impossible contradictions of our time in the faith that it is precisely out of this tension between irreconciliable truths that the miraculous process of evolution creates new transcendent solutions. Where no real answer is apparent we do not need to pretend we have one, just keep working at it and thinking and including more minds in the process.
I also need to be open to new information or areas of expertise that are not mine. The process of cultural and social transformation may be catalysed in places and ways that I have not personally considered or which I have even actively discounted because of my own cultural prejudices. Superstition and unsubstantiated beliefs are only a time-wasting distraction.
When I talk about thinking, I don’t mean just becoming an intellectual spectator at the biosphere’s funeral. Think while acting – do the best you know, and where that’s not enough, the failures will lead to new insights. Either way, I am alive and life is good. Life is eternal optimism, just because that’s the only stance that can keep it going. The optimism of a million sperm heading for the egg, regardless of the eventual outcome. The universe endures. This phase of organic existence on this particular planet may or may not. As the embodiment of star-stuff, the co-creator of the universe, I can only give it my best shot.
Thank you for your post. I think you and Terry are BOTH right; the ‘way’, as I see it, is to act as we hold these two truths, or ‘ways’ equally. The two approaches fuel each other– actually, they need each other, to effect the transformation we are striving for.
Speaking from personal experience, it is so easy to to fall into one groove versus the other. I have experienced perhaps a naïve notion that all will be okay if I believe it will be, while I sit on my zafu. I have also experienced hopelessness and inertia while I confront the magnitude of the challenges we currently face. If I don’t watch out, I can find myself slipping into apathy. Taking Terry’s ‘Yes’ approach can help to counter the downward spiral of pessimism (sometimes cloaked in ‘realism’) that leads to depression and subsequently, inaction.
The stance of ‘not really knowing how bad things are’ can be re-phrased: we don’t really know the magnitude of divine Grace–not to mention the effects of the ever-increasing critical mass of transformed human beings, whose prayers and steadfast vision for a peaceful and sustainable world–will, I believe, carry us across the threshold.
yes
Paris
So, enjoyed Brother David engaging with you.
His sharpness, your sweetness= ……………………
Happy Thanks-Giving.
HK
Thank you for this post, for the series, for providing a platform for a supportive community! My YES is sometimes shouted, more often whispered. I appreciate the support in getting beyond denial and staying with it. I am currently putting together a class to help people explore ways to get to that place of clarity, flexibility and creativity where evolution can be supported.
“God bless us, every one.”
Hi Lynne,
I am interested in the fact that you are putting together a class to help people explore ways to get to a place of clarity, flexibility and creativity where evolution can be supported.
I myself have been working on a workshop that I call ‘Art Alchemy’
where I will lead people into creativity through collage/mixed media art experiences, using poetry, and writing,and visualization techniques, all with the hope of inspiring self exploration leading to personal transformation.
I was wondering if you might briefly share some of your ideas to lead people into transformative experiences.
peace and love,
Laurisssa
Dear Terry,
YES, I LOVE IT!. For years I’ve been part of a work called the Root Link(registered trademark of Adena de Joya). We went back to before we were born and noticed our reaction to coming into the incarnation. Most people said, “No, or Yuck, or Do I have to? or OK but I’m not going to be in the body”. I was the latter response. Having examined that, I got firmly grounded and gave a resounding YES to life. Everything that happens is a learning and I have the opportunity to go forward through it or go backwards. I choose to go forward.
I am an optimist regarding the future. Barbara Marx Hubbard’s vision of the Chrysalis turning into the butterfly, not only in our beings but in the future of the earth’s culture, is what I hold. By holding that with many others in “the field” we help to make it a reality.
So YES! No place to go but forward, onward, and upward. I find this an exciting time to be alive at 76, and eager for the changes that will emerge out of the 30 hours of darkness, when the earth tilts on her axis. We’ll move into the 5th dimension of Love, telepathy and so much more. Hang in there; it’s well worth waiting for.
Thanks so much for your article.
Peace and Love,
Sophia Tiers a.k.a. Sarah Tiers (my voting name)
Sophia – I am a member of the “do I have to be here” group! Amazing how many people are feeling this very same way.
And yet, to all we are creating I, too, say YES! What a wonderful time to be present! What miracles we are making!
Peace & Joy to All!
Thank you Terry. This is a profound question and inquiry. In reading this, I was reminded of my consideration 26 years ago, when I wanted to have children. I asked myself “Is it responsible to bring children into such a dark world, a world which may get darker still? How will I feel knowing I could have prevented their struggle and suffering by NOT bringing them into this world?”
In the end, the impulse to create new life, and trust the desire of my heart won, and I said “Yes”, three times.
What comes up for me now, in facing this ‘reality’ again, is locating where my apathy lives, and asking what it would take to revitalize the sleeping impulse to act as an intention agent for a healing, for a miracle, for making a difference in a positive direction to whatever degree that may be. Finding out, what it would take to say “Yes” to the life impulse again, wholeheartedly.
I will be with this question actively. Thank you for your inspiration.
YES!
Hi Terry,
My basic response: whatever happened to the Integral vision that embraces both Becoming and Being? All I see here is the focus on Becoming, evolution, and trying to find peace and yes within that. Yes, you do an admirable job in that regard, but to me that regard is itself too limited. Where is the “great-fullness”? The “spacious stillness” you speak of during Thanksgiving is not really the result of a temporary breather with lack of phones ringing and the like, but the true spaciousness and stillness of Being, or the Now. And you know all this already, nothing new. So what happened so that Being, Now, Presence somehow fell off the radar screen of consciousness? Everyone here has seemed to jump onto the bandwagon of evolution, as if that were an all-encompassing and integral view. Of course I don’t mean this as denial of Becoming, but the Integral movement seems to have opted for a denial of Being.
Thanks for taking the time to consider this.
I am in the stage of making my YES visible with a live action event planned for August in Seattle called CONNECTED. This will be a staged fashion/arts/science interdisciplinary show. It is also an experiment in creating economic justice for sustainability. I am finding that the American Dream mythos is a great barrier. (Keep in mind the USA GDP rise/wage tanking scenario as well as CEO pay up 400% since the 1970s. This is a set up for suicide of the commons as $ and power is so obviously tied to the AD mythos, the definition of progress and success and the systems underlying it all)
When reaching out to promising supporters/designers/artists etc I am asking them about the barriers and benefits of group action for economic change that will best create wiser control of resources and governance including social justice, fair trade, fair profits and wages, ecosystem balance and creative diversity.
This is off the talk and into the walk stage …please responds if you have ideas about this experiment in real time. I think people can do good and change the dynamics more efficiently in a for profit ethical business climate than non-profits who depend on $ from the for profit sector and its cancerous attributes as it grows out of whack
Its a big YES to Life n living with 100% possitivity n courage !
Hi Terry! We can think ourselves into oblivion and forget we are first of all creators. Winding ourselves into tight bundles of worry moves us nowhere but in circles of recreating what we see and don’t want. Victim mentality, concentrating on our own victimhood or the Earth’s moves us nowhere new. What feels good at the core? What feels bad? Move to what feels good. Yeah, be selfish. Its all energy and it all spreads out … every happy or depressed or fearful thought … out into this world and beyond. I recently channeled a book about a new way of living on Earth. “2065” is out a ebook through my website, and soon to be printed. I can hardly wait!!
Terry,
this doesn’t speak TO my heart, this is MY HEART SPEAKING. You offer a wager here that has to surface from such depths that most people would wonder whether it actually exists. YOU proved it does. The expansive daring of your vision will break open the vice grip of the paradox and I am convinced the secret will yield itself to our terror, amazement and wonder.
With this series you are infecting the world, spreading a contagion whereby the sensitized ones will emerge in a convulsion of sorts with hearts and minds and eyes and resources wide open in full sacrifice to this cause.
May you be blessed many times over. charles d.
p.s. In one of the apycryphic (gnostic) texts, Jesus supposedly said this: “I came to set the world on fire, and what more can I ask for when I’ve been given the spark?!”
Thank you for admitting that you can’t know what might happen. So many talking heads spend so much energy commenting, speculating and acting as if they DO know. It’s a relief to say “I don’t know”. Then any possiblity can emerge.
“Can I find in myself a “no matter what” commitment?” was your question. Underlying that in me is the burning fundamental “can I find my Self?” I can’t promise to have a spring in my step until I am recognizing Truth in each of those steps.
Thanks for your service to all of us and the process.
YES!
Thank you and bless all:)
Thank you for this great article. I am the President of the School of Metaphysics and have been teaching people HOW to evolve their consciousness (as well as doing it myself) since 1979.
I appreciate commitment because that YES! frees up all of our energy to create, to serve, and to fullfill whatever we are saying “yes” to. It’s the doubt, fear, and hesitation that wastes energy and makes things hard. When I commit to giving completely to serve others, all of my creative inspiration moves toward HOW to fulfill my dreams and hopes.
If any of your readers are interested in learning more about how to live the dreams of a future in which people live a spiritual, intuitive existence in everyday life, feel free to visit http://www.som.org or come to one of our spiritual focus weekends! We welcome anyone who wants to live in truth, life, and commitment to humanity’s evolution!
Trust
When you say, “Yes!” you smile. When you say, “Yes!” you send positive energy out into the community.
What a wonderfully beneficial effect this positing, and all the responses, must be having at this moment in time – the only moment we have.
Thank you . . . and definitely ‘YES!’
Mary
Just like putting together a puzzle, I like to build the framework before putting in the pieces to find the picture. I like to investigate all or many angles before jumping on a bandwagon. It takes great courage and piercing eyesight like that of an owl to dig through the darker pieces of shadow as the unconscious and collective unconscious are so much larger than the tip of the iceberg of consciousness. This reclaiming the world soul evolution is really a collective shamanic journey into the heart of humanity. A marriage of Soul and Spirit.
I would like to hear the perspectives from a few teachers you have not yet investigated if you are able to contact them and add them to your wonderful series.
Anodea Judith of Sacred Centers:
http://www.sacredcenters.com/
don Miguel Ruiz & Sons:
http://www.miguelruiz.com/
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Clarissa-Pinkola-Estes/29996683634
Thank you for your enlightening series and I look forward to more.
Great work keep it coming
After spending over a decade and a half on the biography of a much loved– and reviled– political activist, I finally discovered, for myself, the limits of saying “no” as an affirmation. How to say “yes,” I realized, would be my next project. And my life’s work.
Thank you for the depth and range of what you offer in Beyond Awakening. The 9 hour time difference between the West Coast and Amsterdam, where I currently live, means I rarely participate live, but I very much enjoy listening to your broadcasts while I create the fiber art that allows me to access a less cerebral, more intuitive, life affirming energy than I formerly know as an intellectual/ political activist.
“Yes” is far more enjoyable than NO. And from my own expereince – saying NO is far easier.
I have a young daughter – She gives me such hope and inspiration. I want her to grow up and enjoy her life to the fullest, in a safe and just world (and with a bit of luck – maybe even get to be a grandmother ).
So I hope you all say YES!….that deep down – YES….it is not that difficult to do, even with all the noise around us. Sometimes – just looking at a beautiful tree or flower will do it.
xo
Yes! Yes! and Yes! Thank you for affirming the Yes that is being born in each of us day by day, bit by bit, yes by yes. Thank you for your work and your words and for providing one of the many synchronicitous avenues that are happening around us to strengthen our community of spirit in optimism and choice of vision and manifestation. As that great visionary, Dr. Suess said through the Whos down in Whoville, “We are here!” Thank you!
Healing is voltage + nutrition
Healing is ego centric .Heal thy-self before you naturally experience
equanimity and are able to heal others.
Tools for self-healing on my website
Morris
down under
I am most inspired and interested in paying attention to all that is said here……yes comes from the heart that is the body’s Sun……
namaste
If many individual human beings would embrace their [interconnected] part of the whole, and focus on becoming the best, most joyful self possible; beyond their wildest imaginings, then there will be no-thing to worry about. The Reality Matrix that we work within will reflect the change of the few. Evolution will continue and what that will look like is not our concern. Living in full I AM consciousness is all we need do!
I have been captured by spirituality for the last thirty years. It has been the most amazing journery. Many times thinking I’m awake I done! Only to find I had taken only a tiny step. Years ago I arugued with a philosopher who declared the mind does not know. I was indignant of course we could know. Today I would humbly submit we don’t know how this will unfold.
But we can say yes, we can submit our will to a higher order who can and does show us glimpses of synchronicity that are truly miraculus. In this submitting we move beyond fear, and we start to live out our life from the center. Perception now has no hiding place as ACIM suggest. And we wake up to a new earth, a new transpersonal Self. Dedicated to Service.
My contribution to Beyond Awakening was my booklet
CUANDO MORIR SEA UNA FIESTA
I sent two copies to you from Spain
My feeling is that soon things are going to change quickly and in such unexpected and dramatic ways that my “YES” is to first and always try to live in that present stillness that is outside of fear. That consciousness and all my actions that come from it is my “Yes”. Ruth Kreibich
Although born into an atheistic family, from an early age I experienced very directly a tremendous sense of being real, loveable, and complete. This came to me in certain moments of epiphany, which I describe in my recent book A Spiral Life, on sale on Amazon.
My subsequent life has been highly eventful in personal terms, beginning with my mother’s suicide when I was five and later my father’s desperate PTSD after WWII. But no matter what happened to me – or is happening in the world as I speak – I can still tap into that knowledge of who I am and find it possible to rise above the anxiety that is all around us, and also to continue to make efforts to improve the situation.
I have found that by relying on that inner self-sense so many great teachers, so many supporters, so many friends have come into my life and helped me move forward with my work. And I have been aware of constantly evolving, as the title of my book implies.
I can say from my own experience that finding your deepest inner reality and steadily holding on to it , no matter what is happening, will get you through, not all bedraggled and whimpering, but cheerful and effective, at least in your own domain. I feel that is what is most needed at this moment.
I love the way people are respnding. yesterdays gone and tomorrow is not here. so all we have is the present moment to say yes again and again. There are some beautiful lines in A COURSE OF MIRACLES. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT ANYTHING INCLUDING THIS MEANS.ANDso I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO RESPOND TO IT.AND I WILLNOT USE MYOWN PAST LEARNING AS THE LIGHT TO GUIDE ME NOW.
By this refusal to attempt to teach yuorself what you do not know, the guide whom god has given you will speak to you. He will take his rightful place in your awarenessthe instant you abandon it, and offer it to him.
When ever i am confused or disturbed i say this prayer and let go of any concerns i might have . and i always get an answer some times fast some times it takes a while , but i am always led to some thing or some one says some thing and theres an aha moment. Finding you terry has been one of those moments. Guides come in all shapes and sizes. thank you again and again and a great big YES!!! Joyce.
Dear all,
The biggest problem the current generation is facing is discontentment on each step they take, on each effort they make, the difficulty to accept the defeat, the ego clashes, the status clashes.. etc etc.
When I say “YES” with wide open arms, I tend to surrender myself (my self), in front of Supreme Being. Suddenly I feel so small in front of His creations – Mighty Mountains, sea, forests, and beautiful rivers. I start forgetting my spiritual hurdles & bottlenecks, perhaps created by ego, negative emotions etc. I feel better purified & accepted to me, the way I am.
Perhaps this all starts with Positivity – think positive & get positive.
& saying “YES” itself is becoming Positive.
Om Shanti !!!
YES! The Divine gave us free will and a choice as to which destiny line we will all finally choose on this planet. Since we
create our own realities with our thoughtforms it is indeed possible to walk in our own radiant light each and every day.
I believe that this choice is the very message that the ancients from all around the world worked so hard to deliver to us. The daily struggle is do we let the heavy energies pull us into the quicksand and sink us or do we pull them out safely to shore?…
Bliss awareness is so contagious! I salute and love you all!
Gretchen, I had a look at your art work and love it. Beautiful, inspiring work. I am especially drawn to your piece entitled “My Spirit Guide”. Thank you for shining your gifts into the world.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do that Carla! We had
our yearly open studios art crawl this weekend. I have noticed for the past few years that the public is becoming more awakened here and some are looking to artists for meaning.
I have studied Jean Houston, (who is going to be on this series Nov. 21st), and I also try and practice some of what she teaches
in the form of social artistry and by creating a teaching/learning
community. We can only speak our personal truth as we know
it to those who will listen…but more and more are open to
being open! much love to you
Yes, I awake to the mantra I will summon someting miraculous into being today.
Hi most precious Terry, “beauty shall save the world” from Russian poet, novelist, Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky 1821-1881 ~ poets speak through time …
~ a thought ~ I am the I am. The beauty and the suffering human in the jail of myself ~ to accept my duality ~ to respond to beauty ~ It does take time to see as in the film Avatar “I see you”.
An increasingly resonating “YES !” from this corner.
The answer to ” what does it take?” is to have reference points in a context, so to find oneself on a map of the territory, and one huge reference point is gratitude.
What a phenomenally on-purpose message.
The way in which you articulate it completely resonant with my own spiritual experiences this year. By becoming a sun, I stand in my divine power ~ allowing all that is to simply be. In turn, all that is becomes accessible by the act of allowing.
What would it be like to be as a sun and re-envision the earth? What would the new earth look and feel like?
There’s a reason your work has connected into the world of my heart…. thank you is all I can express for now…
Namaste,
Catherine
I was abused as a child, and I didn’t deal with it until I was 45. I did a lot of self-work, and then when I was 50 I had a spiritual breakthrough. It was life-changing, giving me a deep sense of certainty that the universe was based on love and goodness, and that we really are all One. That certainty is unshakable and sustains me in every circumstance. I am blessed.
I feel that you are correct in asking if we can have a daily practice of “Yes” of showing up no matter what it looks like in our external perceptions of the world. To stay grounded in knowing that we don’t know how events and situations will unfold, we cannot see from our limited perspective what “good” there is in current events. To stay connected to our inner guidance to do what we are called to do in this moment.
This takes the guess work out of how can I make an impact on my world, how can I be of service. By showing up every day and only in this day with an open-heart and staying brave to keep the heart open. “Yes” is a nice simple reminder we can all practice as we awaken each morning and begin again.
Yes, we can do it. We have to involve our heart in to it and cultivate unconditional love for the whole then I am sure we will be able to turn the evolution around.
To awaken each day with a prayer or a poem or song for the new day; to hug my loved ones and friends; to raise my voice in song with others (think Compassionate Eyes); to walk in nature with others and to act to keep our interface with it present for all: to draw or paint or gaze or contemplate with the softness that opens ones heart to oneness; to slow down ones imperatives and open ones heart and mind to the closeness of children to the wonder . . . and to do what needs to be done to keep this richness of learning experience there for them (think play, early childhood education, presence in parenthood); to keep the clarity of knowing of a nursing mother, a grandmother, a tender father; to grow something, anything and feel it’s beauty . . .
. . . these things bring me always to an unrushed, unanxious, and unconditional yes that has everything to do with hope and little to do with denial.
There is much wisdom and courage in that which is written here by you, Terry, and by those who have contributed. Thank you.
To be engaged as our spirits lead us, paying attention to all that is within and without, is to be fully human. To create a world of beauty, love, peace and joy, even if only within, is to be fully divine. Fully human, fully divine. This is enlightenment.
When we practice this daily, and then come together to consciously share our intention for beauty, love, peace and joy for All That Is, miracles occur, noticeable or not.
The process of dismantling core beliefs, core institutions, even the core sense of self, can open the heart beyond imagining. With open hearts, there is no limit to what miracles can do.
Blessings, and Namaste.
I at least partly agree Terry. I think the perspective of pessimism and optimism must be transcended as a inspirational source and, as you suggest Terry, there should be an unconditional commitment. So this source I believe instead comes from two facts. 1. That if you have awakened to a certain extend you realize that it will only be worse for yourself if you turn your back to reality and the work there. 2. That in the same awakened state its ethically unbearable to have to become a part of the problem by refusing to work for betterment.
This is my own inner experience over many years and the reason I find it worth mentioning here is, that it seems to me to be the strongest possible perspective of a spiritual warrior. The perspective of reality pure and simple, seen from the deepest core of the spirit. In this way there are no way around this Yes commitment, even though my experience also tells me that many times the darkness around oneself can be such that the word Yes can not be expressed as such, but the work can be done nevertheless in a heroic and relentless spirit.
I Personally sum up this approach as a matter of having spiritual integrity, and I believe that without this there is actually no true spirituality and therefore no hope for humanity, so this issue is obviously very important.
Terry, this issue of “yes” has been with us for a long time and (for me) even more so just this week. Having just been alerted to the possibility of a major economic melt down (imminent) I must choose between viewing this as a very probable event and how to deal with it and looking at the larger, cosmic picture for its true meaning and outcome, if it does come to pass. To me, both views are a “yes” but I find myself far more comfortable with the 2nd yes, being able to keep my focus on the larger picture and visualizing an ultimately positive outcome for whatever happens. I don’t know how much discomfort and inconvenience I’m capable of handling but I do know that I have been on my spiritual path for so many years that I feel driven to see it through to its positive ending with the birth of a higher, planetary consciousness, (almost) no matter what. The “almost” deals with any suffering that my children and grandchildren may experience, from which I have difficulty detaching. To that end, do I share my understanding about what is (possibly) about to happen or do I protect myself from their rolled eyes and mocking derision? (i.e. there she goes again, believing, like Henny Penny, that the sky is falling!) So, for now, both yeses are active in me and I’m actually following both simultaneously. And that feels okay except I’m definitely happier and more comfortable with the the 2nd yes. Perhaps that has to do with some element of denial about the massive chaos that would inevitably follow a financial meltdown. But I know that if a new system is to emerge, the old must go totally and not just be modified. And that for this new system to emerge, the destruction of the old will inevitably be followed by chaos in the interim. Hope this makes some sense and would love to hear from others on this subject.
Terri,
greetings from Vilcabamba, Ecuador. Here I find myself saying YES! everyday. Eating from the Earth. Waking up to the incredible natural surroundings. Breathing clean air. Living among crowing roosters and flying condors. Putting my feet in icy cold river water. Sleeping under a canopy of stars…and of course looking at the other side as well. The balancing act.
I can say that embracing the moment, taking it in fully, is what will get humanity from point A where we are now, to point B where we will be in the ‘future’…in the Andean cosmovision, the future and the past are here, right now.
Terry — I like your posting very much, but I do want to avoid any sort of breathless “gee whiz” attitudes that this is a fresh discovery by anyone in our own day, including the Integral Community.
What you are describing sounds to me much like what Christian Theology meant when the Church taught and preached about having the courage to step forward in “faith” –that whatever was encountered could be faced, because God would give the guidance and strength necessary to deal with whatever circumstances proved to be.
I think an independent observer would find that there is massive historical evidence to indicate that this in fact happened, including the massive European settlement of this part of the globe. But it must also be observed that this had dreadful repercussions for the aboriginal people who had inhabited the Americas for perhaps a hundred thousand years or more.
Which should perhaps make us a little more cautious about manifesting this same quality of daring in our own time and beyond.
Re. optimism and pessimism — I favour the attitude of—-as I see it, the Peaceful Warrior who works to cultivate and embody a consciousness which attempts to perceive clearly, the true nature of a given situation or challenge, and then works and moves with as much intelligence and compassion as is humanly possible.
And such a Warrior also keeps part of his/her perception on past history, which is littered with the bloody examples of those who took their own cause, be it Godly or secular, as the one and only touchstone of truth and action.
Al
I strongly agree with your comments re transcending the optimism vs pessimism debate. Also that the implication that “our community” is discovering the commitment to evolving life for the better, while exciting, is not objectively measurable and is historically familiar, often very painfully. I hope this community can nurture the ability to constructively and creatively traverse the “empty” space between the structures, whether those structures are our billions of little selves, our millions of self interested organizations or our hundreds of national interests, and to constantly acknowledge in that space the Yes of our shared existence!
I am called to passionately participate in my life expressing my values and goals but I am not attached to the results–that’s in “god’s” hands. Was it Bucky Fuller who said after the H-bomb, “Either war or humanity is obsolete”. It seems that the jury is still out on the verdict.
Thanks, Terry, for providing a forum to discuss this all important topic.
Bevan
Thomas Hubl’s “the space between the structures” (paraphrase?)
has stuck in my mind ever since his interview. Reading the
news, it’s easy to think this is the primary reality.
But there is so much more beyond the “structures”. We
call it life, consciousness, evolution, radiance, …
It’s that “something” that supports this all.
The “structures” are only a tiny bit of it’s manifestation.
It’s the source of potential, creativity, “black swans”,
innovations or radical shifts that can totally change the picture.
Either way, we live in interesting times.
Things die. Things grow.
I might just live long enough to see the verdict.
YES…to body sensing keys, under fingers, writing words to evoke the wordless, formless, dimension, that exists in timelessness: Waking up means relinquishing of thought as it arises; stepping out of solid identification with thought/self;…Good News! That IS is! And meditation and beyondawakening is simply getting to know your mind, then, allowing the flowing real nature of Self to express through that knowing…that relinquishment, that saying YES! moment, by still flowing moment! If that makes sense, you’ve got it! You ARE IT, and there is no future to worry about or past to regret, for both are mind’s constucts; not it! Play, flow, enjoy the joy, NOW,in great-full-ness-emptiness-Nirvana of oneness…PEACE!
Thank you Bud!
Namaste
Yes Terry.
We experience more of self and others as we raise our level of
consciouness as is happening all the time on a cellular level.
There is an intercellular space where we pick up nutrients and
shed toxicity, as we strive to heal damaged areas of our lives.
More under “healing is voltage +nutrition”
with transformation tools viewed at: http://www.ntpages.com.au/therapist/3355
Morris
from down under.
Love this whole thing about YES and your questions and the becoming a Sun. I have another class tonight at the same time as this one. Thanks for leaving info on getting download after because I will do that. I’ll keep your questions for mediation and answering as soon as I can! How wonderful this is. Can’t wait to listen tomorrow. So sorry I won’t be on the call live!
Dear Terry,
I think you have hit on something here. I relate with it in the following way. My inspiration to be a part of something that is hopeful and evolutionary came from an inner vision I had 21 years ago, and probably much longer ago than that; that is the moment in time I became thoroughly aware of it in a way that would drive my decision-making. Upon reading your blog, I am reflecting on where in my life I can up the ante of the “Yes.” In the constant surges and dips of the wild white water ride I have found my “yes” interspersed with a “hold on, now” sort of survival mechanism: the all-so-familiar contraction of fear and doubt in the midst of the ever expanding forward motion. In these every little moments of time, which may incorporate those fearful dark possibilities, I can still attune myself with the original inspiration and surf or dive that dip with all of my will and intent. It is a subtle and potent point of illumination, like a laser beam, that fuels the empowerment of the “Yes.”
On a related note, it is absolutely our innate and adaptive response to fear and stress that has enabled our survival as a species to this point. So there is an honoring that we can integrate in relation to our fear, when it presents itself. The irony is that the stress response is biologically hard-wired for short-term use and we are, as a collective, hanging out in the stress state for prolonged periods of time. This excessive dependence on the strength of the emergency response team (headed up by the small but mighty adrenal glands) is the leading contributor of the epidemics we see today and is now threatening the survival of the species; the state, as we know, is not sustainable. All of our meditations and prayers and collective harmonizing, our shared teachings and community-building and relating, our gratitude and our optimism, are salves for the stressed-out stress systems that are working so hard on our behalf. May our “yes” be always a source of nourishment on the journey.
Keep on, brother. You are not alone.
Yes Maxime my one and same sentiment.
Sages over millenia have described the first bare humming, primal thrumming, the subtle foundational sounding that endlessly initiates all that is — om — as original affirmation, as yes — yes at the heart of the universe, at the heart of being.
Here in the forests and woodlands, jungles and plains, we humanids swing and sway like monkeys on a vine between that core-of-our-beings affirmation and the here-and-now panic of fight-or-flight, of fear, of uncertainty, of no.
As an “evolutionary” gesture, or conscious willingness to participate in the opening of the lotus, can our yes include compassionate appreciation of the no. Both have powerful pulls — willingness surrender in love to all possibility on one hand, and magnificent resistance screaming no on the other.
What a dance. Thanks for this forum. Yes.
Extraordinary post, Terry.
According to Brian Swimme, the sun gives a piece of itself every eight minutes to energize life on earth. Simply gives its energy away to keep life going.
It does this no matter what is happening on Earth. No matter how much destruction, how little chance of this cosmic experiment in and experience of aliveness continuing. The sun just gives itself to life, no matter what, over and over again every eight minutes.
Imagine a “no matter what” practice of acting like the sun, giving a piece of one’s self to keep life going no matter what. A meditation and breath practice of eight minutes; eight hours/wk devoted to the earth; every eight weeks, nations and states and cities devote a whole day to the earth.
Eight months of one’s life.
Eight years of one’s life.
Run with it. Act like the sun: no matter what the fate of the earth’s future, the sun gives…and gives…and
YES I CAN!
I suspect the answere is YES by most, if not all, postmodern’s, post-post modern’s, post-post-post modern’s…and beyond….
We ALL agree….we all say YES..
Now what? A new culture emerges ?
“There’s a community building out here on the skinny branches. This is a transformational community, a powerful agreement, an amazing fellowship of Evolutionaries. It’s my experience that we seem to be in the process of summoning something miraculous into being.”
Who is this “we” – you point to?
What are they doing? Do they have a plan? Creating a solid plan might help – clear the murky waters.
Y,
Though I believe we would all wish for a yes, not all of us have arrived or stepped into that full bodied full blooded full throated resounding yes. I know that I have not and I am not certain what it will take to do so.
It requires opening my eyes to this beautiful earth I have an opportunity to live on and in right now. To be greatful for every moment I have to share whatever is meaningful to me. To not be carried away by future projections of the mind or media and being aware in the moment to be able to respond to what is.
You just said exactly what I would… same questions ,same hesitation.. There seem to be several places( on virtual World), like TED, Foundation for Better Life etc.plus some very daring but few academic centers. Can we do it as a separate, individuals and efforts, or do we need coordinating centers?. A plan? like Y is suggesting. ?
I think you are right, Terry. We are ending an era of the lower mind where we were really good at manipulating things and people and we are entering an age of intuition where people will need a higher connection to survive without a job, without food, without friendly governments, without friendly social systems, and without friendly climates in many cases.
I think this will birth a race of spiritual masters who will find a way to live and die with remarkable spirit.
Whitley Strieber wrote one of the best books of all time in my view called ‘The Key’. Despite having some history as being a bit of a snotty Republican, this book is written in a different voice from Whitley. The master of the key confronted him one night and one of the things he said was that the purpose of this age was to open the elemental body to ecstasy. A second thing he said was that every life experience is potentially an ecstatic one–even dying in the gas chamber. That is certainly something to contemplate and i have.
The master of key did list a number of ‘disciplines of ecstasy’ that have been utilized to that end…sacred song and dance, service, love of nature, objectivity towards your own experience, meditation, and probably a few that I am forgetting.
John
Terry, Yes I am called to participate. I thank you for you passion and clarity. I, too, looked the devil in his eyes and was brought to my knees as I stared unflinchingly at the world situation for several years. After going into despair and becoming a doomer, I found that I simply could not live from that place no matter how dire our situation. I, too, have chosen to say Yes! to Life no matter what may come down the pike. It is a challenging and exciting choice and I feel the need for support as I open more fully to all the implications of such a choice. Thank you for this work you are doing. I love this series and find it a great source of support for me on this amazing journey.