A Moral Imperative

A Moral Imperative When you begin to awaken to a perspective beyond postmodern individualism, in which you see your own human experience in the context of an evolving culture and cosmos, it changes everything. When you appreciate that it has taken the universe almost fourteen billion years to make it possible for you to have the experience that you are having right now, the way you see the world around you is affected dramatically. When you discover dimensions of your own self and of life itself that are infinitely deeper and higher than your culturally conditioned individuated self-sense, that "personal" dimension of your experience is now seen as an important but small part of a very big picture. In this shift of perspective, the way you understand and approach the spiritual path changes. For far too many of us modern and postmodern men and women, embarking on a spiritual path has become just another chapter in the ongoing drama of our personal development. From a certain point of view, this could be seen as another expression of our cultural tendency toward narcissism—a spirituality that is focused too much upon our own hopes and fears, triumphs and failures. But it's not our fault that we tend to see it this way. From the moment we came into this world, many of us have been taught to believe that life is all about me. Think about it: Did your parents or teachers ever tell you that you were a very small part of a vast evolutionary continuum? Indeed, did they encourage you to feel responsible for the future of that process, to see your every choice and action in a nothing-less-than-cosmic context? Did you grow up with a sense of moral obligation to make our world a better place, or even more audaciously, to be the one to take the next evolutionary step for us all? If not, then it is entirely understandable that, like so many of us, you have become accustomed to relating to the world primarily through the lens of your own personal needs, desires, hopes, and dreams. It makes sense that even your spiritual aspirations are seen as a fundamentally personal matter. That's simply what we've been taught—that's the world-view our individualistic culture has created within us. When you awaken to the truth that your human experience of consciousness and cognition, your personal presence here on this small planet, is part of an infinitely bigger process than you had ever imagined, you may notice an uncomfortable and perhaps unfamiliar sensation stirring within you—a sense of obligation. In earlier eras in our history, we were accustomed to feeling obligated—to our tribes, to our religious traditions, and in more recent times, to our nations. But in the past few decades, as I have explained, many of us at the leading edge of cultural development have become more identified with being a unique individual than with anything else. Growing up in the secular postmodern world, we have no higher spiritual context that we feel obliged to uphold. As a result, unknowingly, we tend to lack a moral center. In a culture that values individual freedoms above and beyond anything else, it is all too easy to become self-centered and narcissistic. But when we discover that our highly evolved capacity for individuality is not separate from an ever-complexifying deep-time cosmic continuum, this engenders a profound sense of connectedness with the entire evolutionary process. As our awareness expands dramatically in the direct realization of the nonduality of absolute interrelatedness, our small, personal bubble of separate individuality bursts. Slowly but surely, we awaken to a powerfully implicating new moral context for our existence. This new context is based upon the enlightening recognition that who and what we are—from the matter that makes up the structures of our physical bodies to our miraculous capacity for deep interiority, consciousness, and self-reflection—is all part and parcel of an evolving cosmic process. * * * Moral awareness, or higher conscience, is not a static or fixed capacity in the human experience. Like every aspect of who and what we are, it has emerged as part of a deep-time developmental process, and has been evolving for tens of thousands of years, as culture has evolved. The level of our moral development is indicated by how much of the cosmos we are capable of including in our hearts and minds. For example, at the dawn of human civilization, when we lived in tribes, it was difficult to experience a sense of connection or moral bond with any other human beings who did not share our bloodlines. These exclusive "ethnocentric" moral boundaries still exist today in groups and cultures all over the world. A few thousand years ago, with the birth of the world's great wisdom traditions, our moral capacity took a big leap forward, and included all those who shared our mythic beliefs and religious convictions. With the advent of the modern era, and the birth of the nation state, a different expression of moral inclusion emerged, which now embraced all those who were fellow citizens of our own country. The most recent great leap forward in our evolving capacity for moral inclusion is the emergence of what is called "worldcentric" awareness. In this leading-edge capacity for consciousness, many of us are now able to see ourselves first and foremost as citizens of Planet Earth. The sphere of our moral awareness now embraces the entire globe and all of its many inhabitants. But there is one more step in this expansion of our capacity for moral inclusiveness. And this is what is called a "cosmocentric" perspective. This barely emergent big-picture moral sensibility arises when we discover and awaken to the deep-time evolutionary context that we have been exploring throughout these pages. * * * When we awaken to a cosmocentric stage of moral awareness, we can no longer simply look at ourselves and our actions from an individual or personal perspective. Nor can we consider our impact only in relation to our tribe, our nation, or even our planet. Now, we begin to see literally everything we are and everything we do in the context of the evolutionary process itself. What does this mean? Consider this for a moment: if you or I, as highly conscious beings are, as far as we know, at the leading edge of the entire evolutionary unfolding that started with the big bang, then from a certain point of view, what we do is a reflection of the process as a whole. In other words, the way in which you engage with the world around you is a statement that reveals how you see and understand the process that gave life to you. The way you express your own humanity—your greater or lesser degree of inspired virtue, moral sensitivity, and spiritual awareness—is a demonstration of what the leading edge of the process actually looks like. Your life—the life you are living right now—is always an evolutionary event, a public statement that says something significant about life itself. The way you are, as an individual, from one moment to another, is your personal contribution to what cosmic evolution looks like here and now, in human form. If we aspire to live a spiritual life—a life that exemplifies the most deeply positive human virtues—and to some degree we succeed, then we are making a positive statement about how far we have come in our shared evolutionary journey. But if we choose—consciously or unconsciously—to live a life of mediocrity, then we are also making a statement. Because we are not flourishing, what we are saying, whether we intend to or not, is that the evolutionary process is not flourishing. * * * Imagine that there was a highly evolved intelligent life-form from another dimension, another universe, another planet, looking through a powerful telescope into this dimension, into this universe. And out of all the stars in our galaxy, that intelligent life form decided to focus on our little planet. He, she, or it wanted to know—what was life on Earth all about? And for some reason that telescope ended up pointing at you. Suddenly, you became the representative of all of us. And that extraterrestrial observer closely followed all of your choices and your actions. What would that highly evolved being conclude about the nature of life on our small planet? Would he, she, or it be inspired to come here? It would completely depend on you. It's a funny thought that points to a serious truth. Each and every one of us really is a representative of the entire evolutionary process and how far it has come. When life is lived in a merely personal context, your choices don't seem to matter that much, beyond how you and perhaps those closest to you may feel about them. Whether you succeed or fail, whether you are happy or miserable, it's ultimately your private affair. But in an awakened evolutionary context, your life is no longer private. Once again, your individual life is a statement about life itself, about the nature and meaning of the entire process. And if we look at this through a theological lens, and understand God to be the energy and intelligence driving the process, then we could say that your life is a statement about the nature of God. Think about that for a moment—it's quite profound. Your life is a statement about who and what God is and how far that absolute principle has evolved. In most traditional mythic religious contexts, where God or Spirit is seen as something "up there," separate from the human world, it is possible to believe in an ultimate source of meaning, goodness, and moral virtue that is not necessarily dependent on our choices and actions. But in our newly emerging cosmocentric context, where we are just awakening to the fact that God or Spirit is the evolutionary impulse, and that impulse is animating our very own self, then it becomes up to us alone, as evolving, conscious beings, to be the living expression of what we recognize God or Spirit to be in action. It is this recognition that gives rise to a new and culturally relevant kind of moral sensibility in the human heart and mind. * * * As we begin to awaken to a cosmocentric orientation, it's important to come to terms with a hard truth about the life-process: the evolutionary impulse is not, in and of itself, inherently moral. That impulse, which is the energy and intelligence driving the entire process, is a wild and impersonal force of nature. It is only as that impulse moves through the developing emotional, psychological, cultural and spiritual structures of the human heart and mind that it awakens and gradually gains the power to reflect upon itself and to express itself with the moral sensitivity that is part of the unique human contribution to the evolving cosmic process. This may be a subtle point, but its implications are profound. It's easier to understand this when you think about that same energy and intelligence as it is expressed on a physical level, as sexual energy. The procreative impulse has only one purpose: the propagation of the species. That energy is not an individual, and in and of itself it doesn't really care about individuals. As individuals, we experience the movement of that impersonal force of nature, and how we choose to respond to it and express it depends on our own level of development, including our cultural values, our moral capacity, our spiritual sensitivity, and so on. Consider for a moment the difference between when sexual energy moves through an individual with little or no moral sensitivity or self-control and when it moves through a highly developed, morally evolved human being. The different way these individuals respond to the same untamed nature of the biological imperative reflects how our moral development directly influences the way that energy is expressed and how it enters into the world. It works the same way when that impulse emerges at a higher level, as the spiritually inspired urge to evolve at the level of consciousness. Just as the sexual impulse is only concerned with insuring that the human species doesn't die out, the evolutionary impulse is only interested in creating the future now. We could say that its nature is love, but it is an impersonal, wild, fierce, unyielding love that cares only about the evolution of the process, and not necessarily about the personal circumstances of any particular individual. The emergence of that spiritual impulse in our own consciousness is a very profound event, but without being supported by our own higher development, its expression will inevitably lack a moral grounding. Remember, without higher moral development, without a deeply evolved soul, even spiritual impulses can go awry. The level of development and refinement of that human soul through which that energy enters this world always modifies and affects to a large degree its expression and transmission. So for that impersonal creative energy, that God-force, to express and manifest itself in this world with ever-greater sensitivity, moral inclusiveness, and subtlety of discrimination, our own soul—which I define as our capacity for ever-greater moral being—must be cultivated and developed. * * * As the powerful energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process gradually awakens to itself in the light of our highly evolved, self-reflective awareness—especially in the awareness of those who are at the most advanced stage of their culture's development —evolution begins to happen not only in the individuals but in consciousness itself. The growing complexity of the self-structure at this level of development acts as a dynamic catalyst that compels consciousness to evolve as it moves through the self into this world. That's why, when the evolutionary impulse awakens and surges through you, your level of moral and spiritual development—the state of your soul—is so critical. The degree to which you have cultivated your best human qualities will determine how much the creative process is able to evolve and to refine itself as it moves through you. When you experience a higher state of consciousness, no doubt it profoundly affects you. But have you ever considered how you affect it? That's why our development matters so much! That's why our enlightenment is so essential. That is where our spiritual evolution becomes a moral imperative. In Evolutionary Enlightenment, the individual must come to terms with the profoundly implicating recognition that as we evolve, the process that created us also evolves. In the new evolutionary spirituality, the whole point is that we are all part of one nondual unfolding. When you have seen this for yourself, it becomes a source of tremendous spiritual strength, moral courage, and clarity of purpose. It empowers you at a soul level and spiritualizes the human experience in the deepest way possible. As you awaken to the wild and impersonal nature of the evolutionary impulse, as your Authentic Self, you recognize more and more deeply that it is literally up to you to refine that God-energy through the spiritual development of your own soul. That is the most profound realization: that your own development is the evolution of God in manifest form. In the end, spiritual development is not your development: it is the evolution of God through you.