Currently, just about everyone is aware that we’re in what many consider to be a global crisis. At this particular moment, we’re most aware of the global Covid-19 pandemic, but this is happening in the context of other looming dangers— the threat of an economic crisis, climate change and the destruction of our natural environment, to name just a few. I’ve noticed that what happens when human beings become frightened is a profound contraction in the self. When our way of life and our sense of freedom are being threatened, there is not only an emotional contraction but an intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual contraction as well — a contraction of our capacity to think in big ways.
I think this is especially poignant and significant for people who are interested in a spiritually inspired worldview and perspective. All forms of mystical spirituality are based on direct experience or apprehension of limitlessness—a primordial freedom, infinite expanse, an eternal ground of all being. And when we have that kind of experience, when we become aware of no limitation whatsoever, it affects very dramatically the way we think about what it means to be a human being. A mysterious and miraculous friction occurs when the inherently limited individual Self-sense begins to awaken to that dimension of reality that is absolutely without limitation. It’s the friction between the unlimited and the limited that gives rise to spiritual ecstasy, inspiration and perspectives.
In evolutionary spirituality, that sense of limitlessness is experienced not only in the primordial Ground of Being, beyond time and form, that the mystical traditions speak of, but also in the world of time and form through direct awakening to what I call the evolutionary impulse itself. That impulse is none other than the driving force behind all of creation. When we experience that evolutionary drive, we become conscious of a sense of infinite potential that is reaching out, ever-expanding into the unknown future. It is calling us to itself, imploring us to respond to it and become one with it in an ecstatic embrace of the life process.
Generally speaking, when human beings are threatened at the level of survival—whether by war, disease, global warming or the apocalypse—there tends to be a contraction. When we get concerned with survival, we let go of the spiritually awakened and evolutionarily enlightened perspective and just become concerned with our own welfare. We literally lose touch with the light. And in that, we lose touch not only with the infinite openness and inherent freedom of the Ground of Being but even more importantly, in terms of what I’m interested in, with the awareness of our potential for infinite development, our potential to consciously evolve.
I think it is crucial for us to understand that the instinct to survive comes naturally to us, because we have been surviving all kinds of crises for hundreds of thousands of years! But the instinct to evolve, as it’s just beginning to reveal itself—that spontaneous aspiration to become more conscious—is very new. For most human beings it’s a barely emergent awareness. So this new instinct needs to be protected and nurtured, and we mustn’t let it get buried under all the fear that naturally arises when our survival appears to be threatened.
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