The Universe Project

The Universe Project When you say YES to the impulse to evolve, you find yourself overwhelmed by profound positivity. Your whole being aligns with the inherent goodness of life, of consciousness, of knowing who you are, and the miraculous nature of the process you are part of. When you've awakened to this evolutionary impulse, you have no doubt that it is good, that life is good, that God is good, that the whole process is good. It is inherently good, and you know what? It wants to be better. Of course it wants to be better—that's why you experience the evolutionary impulse! That's what the urge to evolve is all about, especially when that impulse becomes aware of itself through the awakening human being. Then you directly experience how much the process itself wants to evolve, wants to develop. The energy and intelligence that initiated the big bang is compelling you, as its own creation, to evolve. Why? Because to whatever degree you evolve, that very energy and intelligence evolves also. If that impulse is what God is, in the manifest realm, then God evolves through you —through each and every one of us, as we evolve. When you really get this, there's only one thing left to do: you have to get on with it. You have to evolve, you have to develop, you have to become. This is when God's purpose becomes your purpose. What is God's purpose? To create the universe, in his or her own image. And what is that image? Consciousness. To create a material universe in the image of God, as outrageous as it sounds, means nothing less than the awakening or enlightenment of all matter. This seemingly impossible task is what I call the Universe Project. From this perspective, we've obviously barely begun. It's been fourteen billion long years, which to the human mind is an inconceivably vast expanse of time, but in the mind of God is probably just a few moments, considering what an infinite project this process appears to be. So the creative principle, the God-impulse, has an overwhelming amount of work to do. Throughout history, when we've been in need, we've prayed to God for help. But now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, God needs our help. The fact that highly evolved beings can now awaken directly to the evolutionary impulse means that God, as the creative principle, is able to see, hear, taste, touch, and feel like never before his or her own creation, through us. And even more importantly, that cosmic intelligence and creative energy can begin to consciously act through the awakened human being. If that principle is who and what we really are, if we have recognized that I Am That—the acting representative of the creative principle in the world—then what we are doing, and why we are doing it, becomes all important. God is dependent upon us. Indeed, the evolution of consciousness, which is the evolution of the interior of the cosmos, is entirely dependent upon the conscious evolution of human beings at the leading edge. There is no other way for God, that primordial energy and intelligence, to evolve in and through matter. * * * What does it mean to embrace God's purpose as your own? Where can you find the energy, the commitment, the courage to embrace something that vast? It already exists within you. Remember, the evolutionary impulse is your own desire to develop. And that part of you is the energy and intelligence behind the evolving universe. It never rests. It's a ceaseless, endless reservoir of energy, passion, and awakened care. Care for what? For the future. For that dynamic impulse, there is only the unmanifest promise of the next moment. The evolutionary impulse is never concerned with the present moment, however significant it may appear to be. Why? Because the present moment has already happened, so there is not much that we can do about it. We've already arrived there. But the future, which always exists in the next moment, and the next, is something we can impact. So the eternal passion of the evolutionary impulse is change. It is always only interested in the future, always one step ahead, ever reaching for what's on the edge of the possible. Much of mysticism, both ancient and contemporary, is focused on the present. "Be here now," we are told. "Be in the moment." And while that may bring some release and relief in the short term, in an evolutionary context you discover that the present isn't where the action is. The action is in the future, because the future is something that you can get involved in creating. The future is something that you can take responsibility for in the most exciting way possible. When you begin to care about evolution, you awaken to a passion for the future that is all-consuming. When you experience the evolutionary impulse moving within you, you will feel an unbelievable excitement and thrill about life, because of what you can create. That's what you thrive on, it's what excites you, it's what lights up your heart and mind: the creative potential for building the future that exists in the present moment. And that inexhaustible thrill is not separate from the impulse that initiated this entire creative process out of nothing fourteen billion years ago. * * * Awakening to the evolutionary impulse is inherently liberating, because its nature is ecstatic, limitless freedom and boundless energy. But there is a price to be paid. In that freedom there is no rest, nor is there any peace. The evolutionary impulse does not need to rest and has no interest in peace. Its passionate longing will never experience satisfaction. It's simply not capable of it. It is a function of consciousness, an impulse that is compelled to create the future, perpetually. Its nature is relentless creativity, and it is only interested in pulling the future into the present, ceaselessly striving to usher into existence that which has not yet emerged. And when that potential does begin to enter into actuality, that part of yourself experiences no relief whatsoever, because its attention is already on the next possibility, the next moment and the next, because that is its function, forever. The evolutionary impulse exists in a state of constant creative tension that is never released, always suspended between what is and what could be. This is the paradox of the evolutionary impulse. Its very nature is a utopian idealism, an urge toward perfection, yet that perfection can never be realized in the manifest world. You are never going to reach perfection; I'm never going to reach perfection. Perfection isn't possible in the realm of time and form and becoming. Before something burst out of nothing, before anything happened, we could say perfection existed. It exists in the realm of the unborn, unmanifest, unbecome, which is the ground of Being in every moment. But the minute you, as that original evolutionary impulse, decided to create the universe and took the leap from formlessness to form, perfection was left behind. And the whole creative process can be understood as the eternal striving for a perfection that can never be reached. The entire cosmos is endlessly reaching toward perfection but destined never to get there. The evolutionary impulse is a force and function of nature that does not cater to our personal emotional and psychological needs—and yet it depends upon us to be vehicles for it to express itself in this world. For the finite, mortal human self, the raw, overwhelming, ceaseless, and perpetual nature of that urge always feels like too much to bear. But that's simply how it is—the evolutionary impulse is a higher dimension of an infinite process that includes our humanity but also transcends it. So as individuals, you and I need to cultivate incredible strength of character in order to bear that part of the self that transcends our human frailty. The evolutionary impulse in each and every one of us will always be too much and will never be satisfied. To give ourselves wholeheartedly to the evolutionary impulse is the great sacrifice, the ultimate expression of surrender, because there is no end in sight. Whatever happens, as glorious as it may be, will never be enough. All we will ever know is that so much more needs to happen. Do you or I have the humility and awakened love in our hearts to give ourselves to that? For most of us, it's too much. An extraordinary degree of renunciation and courage is required to be a bearer of this powerful creative function as a human being. But as I understand it, this is what it truly means to live the spiritual life. * * * The dynamic, future-oriented, ecstatically inspired state of the evolutionary impulse is the new enlightenment that I am speaking about. The inner eye has become compelled by the ever-unfulfilled promise of creating the future at a higher level than what exists in the present moment. When the awakening to this powerful spiritual urgency becomes one's irrevocable attainment and permanent state, one has surely landed on the yonder shore, where the evolutionary impulse has become the driving force or fundamental principle guiding the vehicle called the body, mind, and soul. This awakened passion for evolutionary transformation is not reasonable. It demands change, right now, and it will not wait, because God is always desperate to grow. God is infinite in the unmanifest realm. But in the manifest realm God is not infinite—God can only know him- or herself to the extent to which conscious beings are actually able to awaken to their own absolute nature. So the creative principle's desire to grow won't be satisfied until the whole universe has awakened to itself and to its absolute nature. When a human being awakens to the evolutionary impulse and experiences the urgency of that compulsion to evolve, that's what he or she is feeling—God's desperation. That's why it is not reasonable, and it never will be. God is only as powerful in this world as those of us who have the courage and audacity to awaken in this way—to become one with our own impulse to evolve. That's the awesome significance of being a human being who is awake. When you realize this for yourself, you discover what an extraordinary blessing it is to be who you are, in this world, right now. In fact, the whole point of the creative process is to be here—to participate fully, radically, consciously in the Universe Project. In this evolutionary context, the point of enlightenment is not merely to transcend the world so that you can be free of it but to embrace the world completely, to embrace the entire process as your self, knowing that you are the creative principle incarnate, and you have a lot of work to do. As an individual, you are instantaneously liberated, simply through taking that step, but your personal liberation is a mere by-product of finally embracing the awe-inspiring burden of the Universe Project, which in truth has been yours all along. * * * You are the only one who can do this. That's the ultimately challenging and profoundly liberating truth you discover in Evolutionary Enlightenment. Any individual who is committed to this path has to know, at the deepest level, that he or she is the only one who could possibly do this. And that is because there is no other. You have discovered that fact, directly, for yourself. From the absolute or nondual perspective that emerges in spiritual revelation, there is only ONE. There literally is no other; there is only One without a second. To truly understand conscious evolution, you must grapple with the profound implications of that fact. I believe we can only consciously evolve to the degree that we have realized at the deepest level of our being that we are that One without a second. In an evolutionary context, facing into the truth of nonduality—that the many is the One and that the One is ultimately who we always are—forces a confrontation with any relationship to the life process that is less than whole, complete, and fully committed. To consciously evolve is to surrender unconditionally to the truth that there is no other and at the same time to accept responsibility for what that means in an evolving universe—a cosmos that is slowly but surely becoming aware of itself through you and me. That One without a second is simultaneously awakening to itself as it develops, as it evolves, and it is that One, as you and me, alone, that can now begin to take responsibility for endeavoring to consciously create its own future. Of course, in this manifest dimension, where the One is expressed through the many, those of us who have awakened to our responsibility for the process then begin to engage in this heroic endeavor together. But each individual has to be willing to be the One. This is the spiritual physics of Evolutionary Enlightenment. It works only if each one of us knows without a doubt that I am solely responsible. And nothing puts greater pressure on the separate self-sense than that. The greatest challenge for a mortal human being is to realize and take responsibility for the fact that who you are right now, in all your imperfection, is that One without a second, and that One is endeavoring to develop and become more conscious as you. God has fallen out of the sky, but now he, she, or it is emerging as the spiritual impulse and longing to consciously evolve in, through, and as you. So you must ask yourself: Do I have the guts, the audacity of intention, the boldness of spirit? Do I have enough love in my heart to be willing to be the One? The answer to that question is really the answer to every important question. Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a purpose to all this? All of these questions are answered in the deepest possible way when you point the finger at yourself and say "Yes"