Now that we are finally taking heed of such disasters as growing extinction rates and the reality of global warming we are beginning to notice what we have done wrong, as well as what we are doing right. By studying our legacy, one given to us by Mother Earth herself, we may find our roots, ones that will lead to the uncovering of a heart connection, beyond facts and figures, but using the facts and figures. This may be just the “reason” we need to create new habits and ways of thinking that are inclusive of the whole of creation—and just might make us happy to boot!
Happiness, however cannot be sustained without a cultural change towards goodness and an awareness of these principles of creation. Although we don’t favor Descartes’ mechanical view of life anymore, it is still in our habits and in our learning and business environments. We have the habit that bigger is better and that more is not enough. Our education system is build on left brain memorization and testing, and our businesses are profitable if they are increasing, despite the fact that the reality of that increase is based on using up our natural resources and polluting what is left.
Vaclav Havel writes that “democracy depends on citizens feeling responsible for something more than their own little corner of safety . . . It must have citizens who insist on participating in their society” who are inspired and guided by a nation’s ideals. This participatory role is a must if our habits are to be broken. Only then can we experience ourselves in relationship again where mutual progress is based on mutual relationships.
Only then will we develop a felt connection to place that will indeed tell us who we are and dispel this myth of our rootless disconnect or dominion over the rest of the cosmos. Only then will we become humble enough to acknowledge the mystery behind our evolutionary spiral and become able to truly understand our co-creative role in it.
Lewis Mumford in The Transformations of Man, wrote of these changes in our worldview. “In this vision humanity is nature rendered self-conscious, one part of the cosmos capable of reflecting on itself, which has evolved so it stands on the threshold of conscious participation in the unfolding of the whole.”
However, developing, or rather, evolving the tools necessary to access and record this change takes time. Although the change and the need to change our worldview has been noted and discussed since the 50s, reframing a culture so that it will affect our daily lives takes a language change as well as an interweaving of disciplines and practices capable of providing a more holistic viewpoint.
Changing minds and hearts and creating new models, memes, rituals and practices takes time. Those of my generation grew up along side of a variety of grassroots movements, each working in its own little sphere of influence. We all grew up listening and taking to heart these messages of the civil rights, freedom, women and gay rights, peace, environmental and spiritual/consciousness movements.
All these models, whose values we take for granted today, were helping to create the external environment that would hold the new paradigm of what Paul Ray calls the Cultural Creatives. Ray suggests that it wasn’t until the second generation of “New Agers” appeared that our efforts turned from the needs of the individual to “efforts to come up with cultural solutions.”
It seems to me that this is the logical progression. For us to learn a new way of life we must have models that embody this new standard, beginning with our own individual body/spirit unity. Paul Ray emphasizes this when he writes, “There is one more factor that is significant now. It is the development of a new kind of movement where the participants take convergence for granted because they carry that convergence within themselves.”
This oneness of self can be reflected in our lives because of the increased awareness of the oneness of and interconnectivity of life. I believe it is true, that we will only be able to see the next step—that interconnectivity beginning to appear on a cultural level—in the second generation. The process has been modeled by parents, teachers and mentors and can now be assimilated with our children. The natural place for this to happen would be in our own families. This is the evolutionary path that I envision a wisdom culture taking.
As this original nature of ours is uncovered, the vision or original purpose of our lives will take on a clarity for us and we will begin to express it using our own unique gifts. This inspiration becomes our guiding ethic, our wisdom culture, and the path of our heart. It is Thomas Berry’s vision of the sacred depth of the individual as he or she expresses the universe’s awareness of its own being. Modeling that ethic and value to our children will certainly make the future more hopeful, and is, I believe, the next step in the progression of acknowledging the divine in our lives.
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