The inevitable is now happening and the green economy, that is, The Ecological Society, is slowly becoming mainstream.
From now on, I feel anything we do has to promote The Ecological Society foremost which may or may not be constituted as :-
ecological rights and responsibilities
local democratic soveriegnty
the global commons
and mutualism
as the basis of an interdependent network of communities striving to achieve ecological harmony, ecological sustainability and enlightened ecologcal change.
See the following for institutional recognition that economic de-growth is an important feature of The Enlightened Society —-
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill
Have you ever read the book, The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra?
I think that you are right about the fact that we must first conceive an enlightened world before we can enter into it.
Esoteric thought speaks of how everything is connected to everything else. This is the concept of oneness, where duality and separateness break down and become irrelevant, and only a perfect unity remains. Our real nature is that we are not separate; we are all one. Our human experience feels lonely and isolated only because we have forgotten our true nature.
Everything we perceive is actively and repeatedly being reconstructed inside our heads in an organized whirl of information. Likewise, a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. A current trend is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals.
In this holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter the fabric of reality!
At a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected, all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.
Knowledge of the Self is the absolute and all-essential basis for knowledge of the Truth
Hi Jim .. I havent read the Tao of Physics but I have read his ‘Web of Life: A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter’ and so I am familiar with his ideas of Oneness.
I think what I want to take up with you is your statement about duality becoming irrelevant since I disagree with this. I do believe that a model of Oneness as opposed to a model of duality (for example the christian ideology of God) when used as a basic blueprint for how reality is conceived is a better model to use in order to frame our experiences but I also feel duality has its own important place, especially within the political sphere of our daily lives. However, and this cannot be stressed enough, duality must be conceived as secondary to the primary role of Unity or Oneness.
I feel/think that duality is important because it is through balancing and the balancing of opposites that we are able to both conceive (imagine) and create the reality of our choice. For example, this means having to take into consideration the likes of what is considered good and bad in a particular society at any point of time and make ongoing decisions on the basis of this collective morality. Similarly, when we choose what lives and what dies in order to promote our individual and collective lifestyle or when we try to promote the broadest levels of ecological sustainability and diversity, we are effectively forced to make a judgement and then a decision about what course of action to take. These examples highlight that to be a human we have to make judgements about what actions are good and what actions are bad in relation to any desired outcome (or creation). My argument is this, that judgements require we create a duality in order that we can make an informed decision despite the ‘metaphysical fact’ that we are making this decision within a field of Oneness or Unity.
Without incorporating duality into our daily lives, the model of Oneness can become a means by which any type of behaviour becomes permissible, especially to those who are yet to truly experience Oneness, since a person can assume that it is does not matter whether a life-form lives or dies since they are simply re-cycled back into the Great Oneness.
This is why it is important that we develop a fully coherent model of Oneness before unleasing it upon the world as a New Religion so to speak.
Another aspect of Oneness that needs to be incorporated into the political sphere is inter-dependency since without this Oneness cannot be incorporated intelligibily into our lives. It might even be possible to be rid of duality as the basis of moral/political behaviour if inter-dependency can somehow take it place. In fact I even sense that this could be the case and a new morality could be formed on the basis of interdependency but oops even then duality would have to play a role in terms of determinig conduct between inter-dependent parties.
So, at present my position still stands that duality does have a role to play, especially when dealing with the more finite and material features of the infinite Oneness that we are.
Self-Realization is the middle path between good and evil. When man has reached full awareness of this state, there is no sliding back to this world of duality and death. One is in the world and yet above it, ever centred in pure consciousness.
All things are seen as independent and inseperable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimare reality.
In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, we divide the world into seperate objects and events. This division is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our everyday envirornment, it is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorizing intellect.
To believe that our abstract concepts of seperate things and events are realities of nature is an illusion.
One who knows oneself sees the One in many and many in One. The One remains, the many change and pass.
The world has no absolute existence. It exists only in relation to the individual’s mind and his five senses.
On deeper reflection it is not difficult to grasp the totality of this concept which is the main aim and end of science and religion. Once the essence of Whole is perceived, our knowledge is complete. It is said that when Plato could fully perceive the Good (the One) his philosophy ended.
The riddle of time is solved when it is realized that man is consciousness with a body and not, as in generally thought in the West, a body with a soul.
I was wondering, are you self-realized or are you quoting the experiences of others?
And most probably the second can’t be answered with any authenicity unless you are self-realized but how would people do politics, morality, law making, resource distribution, ecological sustainability and other significant social processes if everyone was self-realized.
I cetainly have had experiences of oneness, and perhaps would describe it as an organic and seamless movement or flow of interdependent life-forms coherently interacting with one another. But this does not sound quite the same as being centred in pure consciousness and being self-realized and so seeing the one in many and many in one but maybe it is.
This raises another question: if one is not centred in pure consciousness, is one then centred in impure consciousness? If this is the case then surely the journey continues since the middle way is between good (pure) and evil (impure). Somehow this does not seem to make sense to me, since if it is a universal/cosmic fact that we are all One then surely everyone is centred in pure consciousness since how can it be any other way. This implies that there is no journey towards self-realization since self-realization is our very nature, so why try to realize it. It sounds like a dog trying to catch its own tail but I might be missing an important point.
As I understand it, Oneness is simply a metaphysical model – an abstraction – which can revolutionarize human consciousness from the current primary metaphysical model of duality but it is still a model nevertheless. As I understand it it is not a proven fact but a creation of our mind. Current science suggests a oneness – a unified field theory – but cannot prove it. And I have not met a so-called self-realized person either who I can question extensively. I have of course met plenty of people who claim to be self-realized and whilst they are incredibly focused, even to the point that this focus is their primary focus in life (usually to the detriment of everything else including family commitments), it turns out thay are simply focusing on a particular idea which usually has some beneficial/healing potential to others who follow them if they too embrace the idea this person is focusing on. But with time cracks do start to appear and it is possible to distract them from their focus and then it is revealed that they are just simply playing a role – usually a good one so I tend to leave them be. Therefore, I tend to experience that when the notion of self-realization is used it is just a way to to communicate certain ideas rather than a model of Wholeness.
Anyway don’t want to keep on cos I want you to respond to these points.
Enlightenment is a state of pure potential, which is the primordial condition of the mind before the arising of experience. It is perception without prejudice, i.e. beyond dualistic distinctions such as right/wrong, good/bad, black/white, beautiful/ugly. It is a state of mental unity that places the practitioner into alignment with ultimate reality.
Enlightenment is simply a particular way of appreciating, learning from, and working with whatever happens in everyday life. From the Enlightened person’s point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few, other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Enlightened. Life is fun. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times.
Being a man or woman “of Enlightenment” means being attuned to cycles of change; being consciously aware of our place within the web of Life; and acting in the world according to the principles of naturalness, ease and spontaneity.
All the great masters of deep spiritual realization speak alike: only the stumbling followers and professional theologians disagree and differ.
Our time demands a senible and spiritual explanation of these things, not an unscientific and religious-materialistic one.
“For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing but the Self, so how could any suffering or delusion continue for those who know this Oneness.”
Isha Upanishad
Your next question… “This raises another question: if one is not centred in pure consciousness, is one then centred in impure consciousness?”
Yes…
“We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.”
Anais Nin
Reality is a computer generated hologram in which the characters it creates are programmed to believe it is real. It is a game of illusion, delusion, perception and deception. Reality is about the evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time – the evolution of the collective unconsciousness back into light as part of a biogenetic learning experiment/experience. It is an alchemical creation in which the players seek to achieve enlightenment.
From this point of view, life – particularly consciousness – creates the universe, and the universe could not exist without us.
The New World is here, however, one must become self-realized to enter…
how do you feel about the state of the world with the poverty, the wars, the brutal murders perpetrated by drug cartels, religious fanatics and militants, the rape of innocent children and women and the slow deteriation of the Earth’s rainforests?
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
You live in a world of ignorance and superstition.
Ignorance is the worst form of disease, and that which heals ignorance is therefore the most potent of all medicines. The perfect medicine is for the healing of nations, races, and individuals.
The dictionary defines self-realization as, the complete development or fulfillment of the self’s potential.
Self-realization is extremely relevant to life and if we do not question and ponder our very existence, we are not really living.
But we do not know our selves.
Is there a self? Is there a subjective reality? Is there such a thing as a higher state of consciousness?
Self is the only reality of which we are certain. What then is self? The greatest certainty in knowledge comes only in the sphere of self. We can know the world and its objects only through instruments and our senses; but that which reads those instruments and uses those senses is the self.
Humanity stands to-day at the gate of reality. Humankind is learning to recognize, and desire, the world of pure being (self-realization). We are rapidly apprehending the significance of that deeper being which is hidden behind the mask of the personality. To find that deeper being, to reveal its nature, and to function consciously in the world of truth in which it dwells – this is man’s immediate task and for this, the years of modern distress have prepared us.
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Henry David Thoreau
I was really asking how you felt about these features of human society. Do they give you feelings of anger or sadness or do you feel happy whilst still knowing that other parts of the Self are in acute suffering even if – as you argue – their suffering is as a result of their own ignorance.
Like everyone else, I have been through many a vicissitude of life and had my share of suffering which seemed much more poignant than most by virtue of my being of an over-sensitive nature.
At my age when I can see the end of the road more clearly than most, I find that life is far too short and feel as if time is flying.
There are many ways to react to all this, but nihilism and ennui do not seem to me among the more logical.
My belief that some workable infrastructure for concord will very likely emerge does nothing to drain the drama from the present, for one plausible route to long-run success is near-term catastrophe. However close to inevitable stable world governance may be in the long run, here and now we are playing for the highest stakes that have ever been played for, and winning will depend in no small part on continued moral growth. Which is to say: winning will depend on not wanting other people to lose.
Was just feeling a sense of liberation and ecstasy whilst contemplating and feeling in a state of non-dependancy on others within the context of being in a state of Oneness with everything. This lead to the realisation that a possible model of an enlightened society that is premised on Oneness would be one in which individuals are self-dependant rather than dependant on others. This does not mean to say that we would not form connections with one another but that we would have the social environment to be able to know and be able to seek the satisfaction and fulfillment of our needs with a far greater number of people. I say this because for me an Enlightened Society that is based on Oneness means that I could rely upon many more people to have my needs met rather than being dependant on a few others as is often the case within the Sickened Society in which people are conditioned by Duality to have only a few deep connections with others that are based on trust. It seems that when Duality is used as the basis of a Society, people limit themselves to cliques which are often closed to strangers which in turn means they are reliant on a few others to have their needs met which can mean they are more susceptible to manipulation.
I imagine that a society based on Oneness would provide a greater sense of empathy, trust and perhaps allegiance between us that will allow us to be able to have our needs met by a broader range of people than what cliques can usually provide. This means there is much less likelihood of being able to be manipulated and so less social distress and anxiety and more innner harmony.
In your experience do you agree with this that people are often in a state of dependancy on others due to the limited number of people that they feel they can trust. And do you think this is a result of their belief in Duality as the basis of LIFE. If you do, do you still think that an Enlightened Society is only possible if it is based on Oneness?
That is a great insight Steve, personal liberation and ecstasy is a by-product of Oneness. The human potential is infinitely greater than we have been led to believe.
For me, an Enlightened Society is a self-realized, self-reliant, and Cosmic Conscious Society. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all, – that is genius.
Your image of the Enlightened Society based on Oneness is correct; it would live by the Golden Rule.
I concur, an Enlightened Society is only possible if it is based on Oneness, however, one needs to be able to name and define Oneness. Humankind must realize that the universe is not a dead machine but a living presence. All history moves toward one great goal, the manifestation of the Good! (the One)
I think I might have an interesting way in which to define Oneness. I think LIFE/ONENESS is simultaneously unity and diversity. In an Enlightened Society, the unity would precede diversity in terms of making moral judgements. This would not mean diversity is ignored or dismissed but that our differences would be conceived from within a sense of unity between all that is. So for example, different talents and abilities would be used for the greater good rather then individual reward. This would also honour the inter-dependancy that exists between all things.
In contrast, in the Sickened Society, diversity precedes unity and so for example talents and abilities are used for personal gain and unity only comes in as an after thought with the likes of campaigns for equality or anti-discrimination laws. In an Enlightened Society equality is taken as a moral a priori and would not be considered an after thought in order to try and equalize the gross disparities of wealth, opportunities and material possessions that comes from a moral system that puts diversity ahead of unity.
I agree, from my point of view, life—particularly consciousness—creates the universe, and the universe could not exist without us. In other words, the universe is created by life and not the other way around.
For, if everything is interconnected and if the view that our ordinary reality is made up of discrete objects is largely a construction of our minds, then we must stop behaving as if we are islands unto ourselves and assume our essential oneness with everything and everyone. Suddenly, traditional ideals such as compassion, generosity, selfless service, forgiveness, and patience loom large.
In this world of duality, if there is a veil of ignorance which makes us fumble in the darkness and is the cause of our sufferings, there is also a door to knowledge which shows us the light of truth and dispels darkness born of ignorance, leading us to a state of sublimity, of permanence and perfection.
The inevitable is now happening and the green economy, that is, The Ecological Society, is slowly becoming mainstream.
From now on, I feel anything we do has to promote The Ecological Society foremost which may or may not be constituted as :-
ecological rights and responsibilities
local democratic soveriegnty
the global commons
and mutualism
as the basis of an interdependent network of communities striving to achieve ecological harmony, ecological sustainability and enlightened ecologcal change.
See the following for institutional recognition that economic de-growth is an important feature of The Enlightened Society —-
http://www.theecologist.org/Interviews/402389/pavan_sukhdev_you_can_have_progress_without_gdpled_growth.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/25/world-economic-growth-climate-change
http://www.neweconomics.org/press-releases/economic-growth-no-longer-possible-for-rich-countries-says-new-research
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8479508.stm
Greetings Steve,
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Napoleon Hill
Have you ever read the book, The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra?
I think that you are right about the fact that we must first conceive an enlightened world before we can enter into it.
Esoteric thought speaks of how everything is connected to everything else. This is the concept of oneness, where duality and separateness break down and become irrelevant, and only a perfect unity remains. Our real nature is that we are not separate; we are all one. Our human experience feels lonely and isolated only because we have forgotten our true nature.
Everything we perceive is actively and repeatedly being reconstructed inside our heads in an organized whirl of information. Likewise, a century of developments in physics has taught us that information is a crucial player in physical systems and processes. A current trend is to regard the physical world as made of information, with energy and matter as incidentals.
In this holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter the fabric of reality!
At a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected, all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.
Knowledge of the Self is the absolute and all-essential basis for knowledge of the Truth
Hi Jim .. I havent read the Tao of Physics but I have read his ‘Web of Life: A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter’ and so I am familiar with his ideas of Oneness.
I think what I want to take up with you is your statement about duality becoming irrelevant since I disagree with this. I do believe that a model of Oneness as opposed to a model of duality (for example the christian ideology of God) when used as a basic blueprint for how reality is conceived is a better model to use in order to frame our experiences but I also feel duality has its own important place, especially within the political sphere of our daily lives. However, and this cannot be stressed enough, duality must be conceived as secondary to the primary role of Unity or Oneness.
I feel/think that duality is important because it is through balancing and the balancing of opposites that we are able to both conceive (imagine) and create the reality of our choice. For example, this means having to take into consideration the likes of what is considered good and bad in a particular society at any point of time and make ongoing decisions on the basis of this collective morality. Similarly, when we choose what lives and what dies in order to promote our individual and collective lifestyle or when we try to promote the broadest levels of ecological sustainability and diversity, we are effectively forced to make a judgement and then a decision about what course of action to take. These examples highlight that to be a human we have to make judgements about what actions are good and what actions are bad in relation to any desired outcome (or creation). My argument is this, that judgements require we create a duality in order that we can make an informed decision despite the ‘metaphysical fact’ that we are making this decision within a field of Oneness or Unity.
Without incorporating duality into our daily lives, the model of Oneness can become a means by which any type of behaviour becomes permissible, especially to those who are yet to truly experience Oneness, since a person can assume that it is does not matter whether a life-form lives or dies since they are simply re-cycled back into the Great Oneness.
This is why it is important that we develop a fully coherent model of Oneness before unleasing it upon the world as a New Religion so to speak.
Another aspect of Oneness that needs to be incorporated into the political sphere is inter-dependency since without this Oneness cannot be incorporated intelligibily into our lives. It might even be possible to be rid of duality as the basis of moral/political behaviour if inter-dependency can somehow take it place. In fact I even sense that this could be the case and a new morality could be formed on the basis of interdependency but oops even then duality would have to play a role in terms of determinig conduct between inter-dependent parties.
So, at present my position still stands that duality does have a role to play, especially when dealing with the more finite and material features of the infinite Oneness that we are.
Hope to hear from you soon 🙂
Hi Steve,
Self-Realization is the middle path between good and evil. When man has reached full awareness of this state, there is no sliding back to this world of duality and death. One is in the world and yet above it, ever centred in pure consciousness.
All things are seen as independent and inseperable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimare reality.
In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, we divide the world into seperate objects and events. This division is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our everyday envirornment, it is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorizing intellect.
To believe that our abstract concepts of seperate things and events are realities of nature is an illusion.
One who knows oneself sees the One in many and many in One. The One remains, the many change and pass.
The world has no absolute existence. It exists only in relation to the individual’s mind and his five senses.
On deeper reflection it is not difficult to grasp the totality of this concept which is the main aim and end of science and religion. Once the essence of Whole is perceived, our knowledge is complete. It is said that when Plato could fully perceive the Good (the One) his philosophy ended.
The riddle of time is solved when it is realized that man is consciousness with a body and not, as in generally thought in the West, a body with a soul.
Hi Jim ..
two questions
I was wondering, are you self-realized or are you quoting the experiences of others?
And most probably the second can’t be answered with any authenicity unless you are self-realized but how would people do politics, morality, law making, resource distribution, ecological sustainability and other significant social processes if everyone was self-realized.
I cetainly have had experiences of oneness, and perhaps would describe it as an organic and seamless movement or flow of interdependent life-forms coherently interacting with one another. But this does not sound quite the same as being centred in pure consciousness and being self-realized and so seeing the one in many and many in one but maybe it is.
This raises another question: if one is not centred in pure consciousness, is one then centred in impure consciousness? If this is the case then surely the journey continues since the middle way is between good (pure) and evil (impure). Somehow this does not seem to make sense to me, since if it is a universal/cosmic fact that we are all One then surely everyone is centred in pure consciousness since how can it be any other way. This implies that there is no journey towards self-realization since self-realization is our very nature, so why try to realize it. It sounds like a dog trying to catch its own tail but I might be missing an important point.
As I understand it, Oneness is simply a metaphysical model – an abstraction – which can revolutionarize human consciousness from the current primary metaphysical model of duality but it is still a model nevertheless. As I understand it it is not a proven fact but a creation of our mind. Current science suggests a oneness – a unified field theory – but cannot prove it. And I have not met a so-called self-realized person either who I can question extensively. I have of course met plenty of people who claim to be self-realized and whilst they are incredibly focused, even to the point that this focus is their primary focus in life (usually to the detriment of everything else including family commitments), it turns out thay are simply focusing on a particular idea which usually has some beneficial/healing potential to others who follow them if they too embrace the idea this person is focusing on. But with time cracks do start to appear and it is possible to distract them from their focus and then it is revealed that they are just simply playing a role – usually a good one so I tend to leave them be. Therefore, I tend to experience that when the notion of self-realization is used it is just a way to to communicate certain ideas rather than a model of Wholeness.
Anyway don’t want to keep on cos I want you to respond to these points.
Thanks 🙂
The answer to your first question is …yes…
Enlightenment is a state of pure potential, which is the primordial condition of the mind before the arising of experience. It is perception without prejudice, i.e. beyond dualistic distinctions such as right/wrong, good/bad, black/white, beautiful/ugly. It is a state of mental unity that places the practitioner into alignment with ultimate reality.
Enlightenment is simply a particular way of appreciating, learning from, and working with whatever happens in everyday life. From the Enlightened person’s point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few, other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Enlightened. Life is fun. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times.
Being a man or woman “of Enlightenment” means being attuned to cycles of change; being consciously aware of our place within the web of Life; and acting in the world according to the principles of naturalness, ease and spontaneity.
All the great masters of deep spiritual realization speak alike: only the stumbling followers and professional theologians disagree and differ.
Our time demands a senible and spiritual explanation of these things, not an unscientific and religious-materialistic one.
“For the enlightened, all that exists is nothing but the Self, so how could any suffering or delusion continue for those who know this Oneness.”
Isha Upanishad
Your next question… “This raises another question: if one is not centred in pure consciousness, is one then centred in impure consciousness?”
Yes…
“We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.”
Anais Nin
Reality is a computer generated hologram in which the characters it creates are programmed to believe it is real. It is a game of illusion, delusion, perception and deception. Reality is about the evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time – the evolution of the collective unconsciousness back into light as part of a biogenetic learning experiment/experience. It is an alchemical creation in which the players seek to achieve enlightenment.
From this point of view, life – particularly consciousness – creates the universe, and the universe could not exist without us.
The New World is here, however, one must become self-realized to enter…
Hi Jim .. Thanks for that.
Now I am wondering ..
how do you feel about the state of the world with the poverty, the wars, the brutal murders perpetrated by drug cartels, religious fanatics and militants, the rape of innocent children and women and the slow deteriation of the Earth’s rainforests?
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
You live in a world of ignorance and superstition.
Ignorance is the worst form of disease, and that which heals ignorance is therefore the most potent of all medicines. The perfect medicine is for the healing of nations, races, and individuals.
The dictionary defines self-realization as, the complete development or fulfillment of the self’s potential.
Self-realization is extremely relevant to life and if we do not question and ponder our very existence, we are not really living.
But we do not know our selves.
Is there a self? Is there a subjective reality? Is there such a thing as a higher state of consciousness?
Self is the only reality of which we are certain. What then is self? The greatest certainty in knowledge comes only in the sphere of self. We can know the world and its objects only through instruments and our senses; but that which reads those instruments and uses those senses is the self.
Humanity stands to-day at the gate of reality. Humankind is learning to recognize, and desire, the world of pure being (self-realization). We are rapidly apprehending the significance of that deeper being which is hidden behind the mask of the personality. To find that deeper being, to reveal its nature, and to function consciously in the world of truth in which it dwells – this is man’s immediate task and for this, the years of modern distress have prepared us.
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Henry David Thoreau
I was really asking how you felt about these features of human society. Do they give you feelings of anger or sadness or do you feel happy whilst still knowing that other parts of the Self are in acute suffering even if – as you argue – their suffering is as a result of their own ignorance.
Like everyone else, I have been through many a vicissitude of life and had my share of suffering which seemed much more poignant than most by virtue of my being of an over-sensitive nature.
At my age when I can see the end of the road more clearly than most, I find that life is far too short and feel as if time is flying.
There are many ways to react to all this, but nihilism and ennui do not seem to me among the more logical.
My belief that some workable infrastructure for concord will very likely emerge does nothing to drain the drama from the present, for one plausible route to long-run success is near-term catastrophe. However close to inevitable stable world governance may be in the long run, here and now we are playing for the highest stakes that have ever been played for, and winning will depend in no small part on continued moral growth. Which is to say: winning will depend on not wanting other people to lose.
Hi Jim
Was just feeling a sense of liberation and ecstasy whilst contemplating and feeling in a state of non-dependancy on others within the context of being in a state of Oneness with everything. This lead to the realisation that a possible model of an enlightened society that is premised on Oneness would be one in which individuals are self-dependant rather than dependant on others. This does not mean to say that we would not form connections with one another but that we would have the social environment to be able to know and be able to seek the satisfaction and fulfillment of our needs with a far greater number of people. I say this because for me an Enlightened Society that is based on Oneness means that I could rely upon many more people to have my needs met rather than being dependant on a few others as is often the case within the Sickened Society in which people are conditioned by Duality to have only a few deep connections with others that are based on trust. It seems that when Duality is used as the basis of a Society, people limit themselves to cliques which are often closed to strangers which in turn means they are reliant on a few others to have their needs met which can mean they are more susceptible to manipulation.
I imagine that a society based on Oneness would provide a greater sense of empathy, trust and perhaps allegiance between us that will allow us to be able to have our needs met by a broader range of people than what cliques can usually provide. This means there is much less likelihood of being able to be manipulated and so less social distress and anxiety and more innner harmony.
In your experience do you agree with this that people are often in a state of dependancy on others due to the limited number of people that they feel they can trust. And do you think this is a result of their belief in Duality as the basis of LIFE. If you do, do you still think that an Enlightened Society is only possible if it is based on Oneness?
That is a great insight Steve, personal liberation and ecstasy is a by-product of Oneness. The human potential is infinitely greater than we have been led to believe.
For me, an Enlightened Society is a self-realized, self-reliant, and Cosmic Conscious Society. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all, – that is genius.
Your image of the Enlightened Society based on Oneness is correct; it would live by the Golden Rule.
I concur, an Enlightened Society is only possible if it is based on Oneness, however, one needs to be able to name and define Oneness. Humankind must realize that the universe is not a dead machine but a living presence. All history moves toward one great goal, the manifestation of the Good! (the One)
I think I might have an interesting way in which to define Oneness. I think LIFE/ONENESS is simultaneously unity and diversity. In an Enlightened Society, the unity would precede diversity in terms of making moral judgements. This would not mean diversity is ignored or dismissed but that our differences would be conceived from within a sense of unity between all that is. So for example, different talents and abilities would be used for the greater good rather then individual reward. This would also honour the inter-dependancy that exists between all things.
In contrast, in the Sickened Society, diversity precedes unity and so for example talents and abilities are used for personal gain and unity only comes in as an after thought with the likes of campaigns for equality or anti-discrimination laws. In an Enlightened Society equality is taken as a moral a priori and would not be considered an after thought in order to try and equalize the gross disparities of wealth, opportunities and material possessions that comes from a moral system that puts diversity ahead of unity.
What do you think Jim?
I agree, from my point of view, life—particularly consciousness—creates the universe, and the universe could not exist without us. In other words, the universe is created by life and not the other way around.
For, if everything is interconnected and if the view that our ordinary reality is made up of discrete objects is largely a construction of our minds, then we must stop behaving as if we are islands unto ourselves and assume our essential oneness with everything and everyone. Suddenly, traditional ideals such as compassion, generosity, selfless service, forgiveness, and patience loom large.
In this world of duality, if there is a veil of ignorance which makes us fumble in the darkness and is the cause of our sufferings, there is also a door to knowledge which shows us the light of truth and dispels darkness born of ignorance, leading us to a state of sublimity, of permanence and perfection.