In this month’s Evolutionary Enlightenment Essentials Call we discussed what it means to ‘bear witness” to the truth that is revealed to us in our spiritual experiences in a world that does not support or acknowledge the reality of that truth. Those of us who are exploring the evolutionary edge of spirituality cannot be conformists – not because we might not want to – but because there is nothing to conform to. There is no church, there is no bible, there is no wider culture of accepted beliefs, attitudes and understandings that we can fit in with. It is we that must create the evolutionary culture that we sometimes wish was already here.
Certainly we have the beginnings of this new culture in our relationships with each other, but it is the barest beginnings. The path of an emerging spiritual understanding is not for faint of heart. It takes courageous individuals who are ready, willing and able to take the risk to believe in their most profound revelations – even when those revelations are not supported by the larger society around them.
We might wish that it was easier. We might want there to be more support for us – more people who would encourage our pioneering spirit and reward us for the sacrifices that we make in the name of evolution. Why can’t someone in the grocery store walk up to us and say, “Aren’t you the one who dedicates so much of their time, energy and money to forging a new path of awakening for us all. Thank you so much.” When is someone going to give us the funds to live for a year pursuing nothing but the evolution of consciousness and culture? Why doesn’t the government grant scholarships for evolutionary endeavors into higher realms of spirit?
Sorry, we appear to be too early for that. We are going to have to create this future culture ourselves by bearing witness to the evolutionary perspective that we have awakened to and by living lives that are aligned with that perspective. We must prove that there is a better way to be human through our own lives and our relationships with each other. Maybe this is our calling. Perhaps we are the initial explorers in this brave new world and there is nothing and no one out there to follow.
What if the responsibility for the future of humanity is ours…are we ready to act like it is?
Thank you Jeff, for adressing the topic of “bearing witness to the truth” during this month’s Essentials course. I am finding this to be very helpful! The material we covered during this session gives me deeper insight into the nature of spiritual experience, the greater importance of the truth that it reveals, and the nature of spiritual self-confidence. I think that it’s worth reviewing some of the main points as I understood them during the call.
For many, a spiritual experience has a specific duration of time, and the memory of that experience does not provide one with the entire picture. As the experience fades, one can easily fall into the trap of over-identifying with the experience itself. This materialistic identification with experience can often lead to longing or grasping for more spiritual experience. This deters the attention away and detracts from the acknowledgement and identification with the truth/reality/perspective that the experience reveals. Also, one may become intimidated by the truth that has been revealed to them. As you point out however, the most important thing is to live life according to the truth one has seen, no matter how one may feel. Having confidence in and bearing witness to the reality that the experience reveals builds spiritual self-confidence. This helps us to bring our truth into the world, whether we feel supported by culture or not.
Jeff: “Perhaps we are the initial explorers in this brave new world and there is nothing and no one out there to follow.”
This may very well be true, that we may indeed be the ones creating a new awakened culture.
Thank you again Jeff, for providing these insights, and thank you to everyone who participated, and are still participating!
“The future is here, we are it, we are on our own”–Bob Weir
Dear Jeff and EnlightenNext Community,
I am so grateful for all the calls we have and the topics we cover. I remember in the beginning of my spiritual journey thinking that if I “fell out” of the direct experience there was something wrong with me and yes I wanted to “get” that experience back. I thought that if I wasn’t in direct experience all the time I wasn’t enlightened. I had a difficult time navagating the relative world and knowing what was actually real. After some time and with more experience I have come to realize that the phenomenon of the experince leaves but the awareness gained changes consciousness forever. This is the challenage we all face. To live up to what we have seen and felt at our deepest level. Once I realized this, I no longer felt I had to keep grasping for another experince. They will come on their own either with practice or in the presence of our enlightened Master. What has given me such confidence is the community we have established around the world. Knowing that we are all engaged in this work together, practicing the five tenets, living the teachings to the best of our ability, having phone calls together and engaging in our holons is so supportive. Each time we meet either in person or through teleconferences we are creating the new culture we long for. When I sit down to meditate I know there are hundreds of my brothers and sisters meditating right along with me in consciousness. I no longer feel so alone in this endeavor. We are the new culture emerging together as ONE! Thank you for all your efforts to make this new culture a reality on this planet!!!
Hey Jeff,
I have a question about conforming. From the standpoint of the culture at large our movement is anything but conforming, but within Evolutionary Enlightenment it seems there is a level of conforming which supports striving to be on the edge. In other words, we are conforming to make it “ok” to strive to live on our own edges individually and collectively.
In a sense we are choosing to conform as we believe this path to represent the highest expression we have witnessed. Can you speak to how you would communicate the difference between the conformity of surrendering to the evolutionary impulse and the ground of being versus the conformity of some of the larger traditional movements?
Thanks!
Ryan Diener
At this point, within the culture of EnlightenNext there is beginging – just begining – to be a cultural structure that can be conformed to. It is very new and largely unformed though, so yes there are the beginings of something to conform to, and we should conform to what exists and has proven valuable, at the same time the big job is creating the further structures that are as yet unrealized.
…to continue Jeff’s line of questioning: How do I explain to others the amount of time I spend in meditation, contemplation, in virtual workshops and on peer holon calls? What a wonderful way to dispel the ego’s need for recognition and importance!
Victoria
“There is no church, there is no bible, there is no wider culture of accepted beliefs, attitudes and understandings that we can fit in with. ”
This has not been my experience….there is a wider culture of those who are surrendered to that which is higher. I just have to look for them, and I have found this culture in AA and in church and at Enlighten Next (albeit a small subset of those larger institutions–they are there!)