Let’s Not Be Naïve

SURPRISING STATISTICS PAINT A VIEW SOME MAY NOT WANT TO BELIEVE– BUT HERE ARE THE NUMBERS

“From main street to Occupy Wall Street, this characterization is presented with some hyped metaphor…. Yet the general message has been clear to segments of both the right and the left in the United States since the 2008 fiscal meltdown, as amply reflected in public opinion polls.

While 97% of Americans believe the financial system should be fair and customer friendly, 61% believe the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy and privileged. Further, 55% believe this inequity endangers the future of the United States and the world.

World Public Opinion organization reported in 2011 that 87% of Americans believe their government is corrupted by financial special interests. A 2011 survey by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed even more startling results: 81% of Americans believe the average American now works harder for less. Some 75% say the system exists to enrich Wall Street and break down the viability of the middle class, while 72% think that only the wealthy are benefiting from the fiscal and political direction of the nation.

A 2011 Gallup Survey showed that only 13% of Americans think the financial system of the United States is prudent. According to another Gallup poll, a whopping 87% of Americans believe that 1% of America controls 42% of America’s wealth.”

[Read more in TCIA about the kind of social dangers that may well stall any human progress toward a successful globalization and multicultural world]

“As one African speaker suggested at a world conference on equitable directions, we must all ask who created the assumptions that have allowed tiny percentages of the world’s population to control the financial destiny of everyone else. If we are to renegotiate these assumptions into actual working agreements that not only benefit everyone but ensure an ongoing positive evolution for our planet, we must identify where the fulcrum of power lies.”

SEEING WHAT’S COMING

DESIRE FOR GLOBAL HARMONY, YES—BUT WITH THE RELIGIONS THE CHALLENGES ARE PARTICULARLY COMPLEX

“The current global landscape of religion and spirituality is only one of several spheres of human endeavor—science and technology, politics and governance, economics and finance—in which a unity consciousness conversation is occurring. All these realms are complex, but the religious and spiritual landscape is truly intricate.

Further complicating the matter, few of these domains proactively speak to each other, while others are at cross-purposes. This predicament raises the critical question of what it may take for humanity to problem-solve for the future from multiple perspectives. Is it possible that our species will exhaust its ability to problem-solve, thus far so central to our survival?

Even more troubling, if diverse domains of human endeavor are failing to communicate creatively, their momentum is monolithic precisely at a time when a veritable host of collective external threats and challenges confronts us….”

[Read in TCIA about why, among all the discussions on the globe pointing toward globalization and multiculturalism, the one among the religions is the most thorny and often belies the fundamental ethical values they all pretend to hold; are competing beliefs and creeds really that important? If they involve threats of ultimate salvation or damnation, they can be. How do competing religions get out of this pathology?]

An Ever-Evolving Landscape

CAN THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS EVER SEE THEMSELVES AS PART OF AN EVOLVING TREE OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE — AND CENTER THE VALUES OF THEIR COLLECTIVE RESERVOIR OF WISDOM ON ETHICS AND LOVE?

“We recognize today that we live in a developmental world, the heritage of two centuries of modern science. Has the phenomenon of religions on our planet been a static or dynamic affair? Do we see world religions as a contemporary flatland of competing world traditions that are largely inconsequential in terms of the world’s future, or is there a dynamic content?

When we consider the size and influence of religions worldwide, we will see that we can characterize 22 religions as major, another dozen as sources of world influence, and at least five that operate influentially on a global scale.
It seems to many that the paradigm shift now underway in our species is an inevitable result of evolution itself. If so, the process has been ongoing since the Big Bang some 14.7 billion years ago.”

[Read in TCIA about how seeing the world’s religious as one expanding existential experience, a tree of our collective learning, can shine the light on what we discover and achieve together instead of endlessly bickering about who is right or wrong. Aare world religions fighting with each other much like the children of monarchs did in the past, actually destroying each other and themselves in the process?]

The Ascending Tree of World Religions

THE WORLD RELIGIONS AS A SINGLE, EXPANDING, “TREE” OF LEARNING TOGETHER

“If you were asked to think of our planet’s variety of plants, animals, nations, and cultures, would you think of just the animals and plants, nations and cultures that exist on the planet right now? Or would you think of all the animals and plants, nations and cultures that have come and gone? Polls show that most people (75%) will think of just our current world, not in the context of a longer history.

The first is a horizontal view, a flatland. The second is a vertical view, dynamic, developmental, evolving, including every participant from time immemorial. This is the iconic World Tree, the Tree of Life in all our heritages, and is the motif we will use in delving into the world’s traditions to discover their universal message.

A tree of world religions traces our species’ subjective experience—its inner raw feel. It’s what we see when we view the world’s religions in the vertical perspective of time.”

[Read in TCIA about the revolutionary perspective that the experiences of the world’s religions has been ONE existential experience on behalf of our entire species, a “grand learning together”. In this light can the religions see that in a sense “they are ALL right” and, in that sense, all a little right a little wrong?]

World Religions by Popularity

HISTORICALLY, WE COULD VIEW THE STORIES OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS AS COMPETING NARRATIVES. SOME HAVE DONE BETTER THAN OTHERS; SOME HAVE SIMPLY COME AND GONE

“…without reference to what may be true or not, but taking into account that most faiths are based on some kind of sacred text, we can also trace the operational success of various traditions according to whether their religious narratives were at some time or other a “bestseller.”

[Read in TCIA about the “operational view”— the view of “what happened”, not who was right or wrong. In this context we can see the high tide of many religions coming and going over time; in the past people fought and died for religious beliefs that today we would consider laughable. This is an important perspective]

Religions by What They Do

ARE RELIGIONS DIFFERENT IN HOW THEY DO WHAT THEY DO?

“There are two basic ways in which religion has traditionally been done. These form major parts of our tree of the world’s religions: those that have lived out beliefs in cosmic narratives of origins and destinies with their cast of characters, and others that seem to have simply explored consciousness, seeking what it is and how it works.

The religions with magic-mythic scenarios— casts of celestial characters, prophets, messiahs, and end-time scenarios—are known as “revealed religions.” Those that tend to explore consciousness we will simply call “consciousness religions.””

[Read more in TCIA about what defines “Revealed Religions” and why their tendency to proclaim absolute truth sometimes leads them into conflicts contradicting their own basic values. Read about what defines “Consciousness Religions” that tend to not have binding views of reality but are more about the exploration of consciousness. Study the relationship of these to terrorism in the name of religion]

Exploring the Branches

EXPLORE THE BRANCHES MAKING UP OUR CURRENT WORLD TREE OF RELIGIONS — AN EVER-EXPANDING SPIRITUAL UNFOLDING

“If we combine our perspective on the world’s religious and spiritual traditions as an ever-growing tree with the fact that the stories and narratives of the tree’s diverse branches have been variously popular with assorted people at different times, we get a sense of the grand panorama of our species’ collective religious experience.”

[Read more at TCIA about the tree of world religions and seeing them all as one complementary existential exploration and experience of our species as it tries to grow on to maturity. Let’s use this unfolding for maturing together, not for competition about exclusives claims. This new kind of spirituality for the 3rd Millennium can build a new world; it’s the heart of the message of all the great traditions in the first place]

The Biggest Boughs

THE RELIGIONS HAVE A RESPONSBILITY TO HELP THE WORLD MOVE TOWARD ETHICAL MATURITY. THIS IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN CLAIMS ABOUT ABSOLUTE TRUTH

“To whom much is given, much will be required,” Jesus tells us in Luke 12:48. The core of our tree of world religions has several major appendages, nearly all of which originated in the Axial Age. From these Axial religions, which form the axes of entire world cultures today, diversified the core religions of our planet. If we looked at size and current geographic influence of these alone, we might choose ten or twelve with major current or historical influence, further identifying five that are unquestionably large and influential, each transcontinental in scope.”

[Read the details of the demographics of the world’s religions in TCIA and especially about the responsibility of the major religions that operate on a trans-continental basis]

HOW RELIGIONS OPERATE TODAY

CAN WE TALK ABOUT A SHARED DIRECTION FOR ALL THE RELIGIONS TODAY?

“Each of the world’s axial religions arose within the behavior patterns of the ancient totalitarian epoch, representing the movement of human consciousness and heart within the still oppressive contexts of those nearly 40 centuries of tyranny. Their magic-mythic lens then evolved into the subsequent Rational Age, and it’s this mix of the magic-mythic and the rational that’s poised to attempt integration in the current integrative and holistic age.

The question is whether they can outgrow the behavior typifying their origin and move into an integrative and holistic relationship that’s supportive of the planet. To do so, world religions will have to avoid the fate predicted by the Cognitive Science of Religion—that because of the human “monkey mind,” religious exclusivity will ultimately hijack deeper spiritual understanding.

Despite this prediction, expanding consciousness could instead embrace the simple truth proposed by physicist Sir Roger Penrose—that just as the human mind can comprehend the seemingly contradictory truths of the quantum reality, it could grow to simultaneously grasp the seeming contradiction of religious pluralism.

Brother Teasdale was sure it could, which is the quintessence of his “interspirituality,” along with his awareness that such awakening characterizes the contemplative core of every religious tradition on earth.
This convergence is possible not only because of inevitable globalization, but also because all five major religions—and indeed the wider 22 core religions—share the Archimedean points that could unite them.”

[Read more in TCIA about how religion has to face the “double-speak dilemma” about “religious pluralism” in the same way science has faced it in quantum physics. The human mind itself can comprehend two (even more!) apparently contradictory phenomena at the same time. We have to be OK with the diversity of religious experience in the same manner physics is OK with the diversity of phenomena—even ones that don’t seem to agree]

The Top World Religions by Wealth

WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS?

“Nearly all world religions at the global level operate through multiple national and fiscal jurisdictions. For such global institutions, the number of jurisdictions could exceed 100, and the number of religious-based financial corporations could well exceed 1,000. Many of these jurisdictions are subject to laws that separate church and state. So, how are categories defined to measure the financial influence of religions worldwide?”

[Read TCIA’s survey of the available literature about the wealth of the various world religions. You’ll find some surprising information, that’s for sure—some you suspected; some you did not]

Today’s Challenge: the Tangled Web at the Top of the Tree

WHAT IS THE SPECIAL SITUATION– AND RESPONSIBILITY– AT THE TOP OF OUR TREE OF WORLD RELIGIONS?

“It was said by the Mohawk Chief Thayendanegea, “In the government you call civilized, the happiness of the people is constantly sacrificed to the splendor of the empire. Hence the origin of your codes of criminal and civil laws, your dungeons and prisons.  We have no prisons; no pompous parade of courts. We have among us no exalted villains above the control of laws. Daring wickedness is never allowed to triumph over helpless innocence. The estates of widows and orphans are never devoured by enterprising swindlers. We have no robbery under the pretext of law.”

These two accounts [reader note: the one above is subsequent to an equally evocative speech by Lakota Chief Crazy Horse] portray the stark difference in values among the theatres of influence that are vying for control of our planet as we have entered this new millennium.

At the top of our Tree of the World Religions is a tangled web of beliefs, creeds, and end-time scenarios. As we ascended near the treetop, we also see the two great boughs—one mostly West, one mostly East. They represent the two still primal kinds of religions—those that explore consciousness and those they believe they have a reality-binding revealed narrative.

This was the divide that fascinated historian Arnold Toynbee when he called Brother Teasdale to join others already pioneering the uniting of East and West.”

[Read more in TCIA about the many efforts, visions and entreaties worldwide trying to call the world into a realistic, and people-friendly, globalization and multiculturalism—a realistic unity consciousness]

EMBRACING THE TREE AS ONE

HOW CAN WE ENVISION THE TREE OF WORLD RELIGIONS AS ONE?

“Interspirituality is already happening. Across the top of our tree, the phenomenon of unity consciousness has happened and continues to happen, in every spiritual and religious tradition—yes, even subjective modes of inquiry that might not identify themselves as religious or spiritual. The sense of profound interconnectedness, of the lack of real separation in any aspect of reality, and of all “others” as inextricably a part of ourselves, is universal. It’s the implications of this that have to be emphasized as we push into the current holistic age.

In the now popular trans-traditional experience, individuals recognize, value, utilize, and even cherish practices, insights, and teachings from not just a single tradition, but two, three, and often more.”

[Read more in TCIA about all the ways worldwide that this vision is already manifesting, within traditions, across traditions, and in no tradition at all—just the common sense of loving people everywhere]

Awakening: the Shared Heritage of Unity Consciousness

UNITY CONSCIOUNESS ACROSS THE TOP OF OUR TREE OF WORLD RELIGIONS

“If we brush across the top of our tree of the world’s religions, a major feature of every tradition is the common mystical experience of unity consciousness. At its core, this is a life-changing understanding of interconnectedness that results in a person truly seeing all “others” as aspects of oneself.

Recognizing that there isn’t an individual identity—what is conventionally called the “ego”—to protect is an unparalleled experience of freedom that creates unusually energetic and dynamic personalities.
This state of consciousness is spoken about in almost every living spiritual tradition, as well as in many of those no longer active, and also recognized by philosophy and psychology as the “nondual experience.”

Most simply, it’s the circumstance in which discrete identities become blurred or even experienced as united. In ordinary everyday reality, identifies are distinct—you and the person sitting across from you are easily distinguished. But in the underlying quantum reality, if you could shrink that small and experience reality at the subatomic level, the boundary between such identities wouldn’t be clear at all. In the quantum realm, identities become indistinct, as happens in certain mystical experiences. The new sense of reality encountered is often sustained.

In the Great Wisdom Traditions, the term “enlightenment” is often used. Its scientific meaning, complete understanding of a situation, parallels its meaning in spirituality—that of profound comprehension of the way things are. This primal understanding, coupled with the sense of interconnectedness and lack of separation that accompanies it, connects the experience inextricably with unconditional love.”

[Read more about “Unity Consciousness”, and all the other words for it, in TCIA]

Historical Ironies and Paradoxes of a World Awakening

CAN WE BE REALISTIC ABOUT UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS?

“If one interprets the description above through a magic-mythic lens, one will expect something that’s unrealistic—the perfect person, the perfect teacher.

For many years mystical communities imagined that awakening matured the entire personality by some instantaneous, miraculous means. This was an unfortunate misunderstanding, involving the old magic-mythic lens. Although awakened states could be seen by all as real, they were often only temporary states that went away, leaving behind a normally flawed individual. Worse yet, some communities fell victim to the charisma of initial awakened states, only to venerate a member or leader and later discover that this same person created great harm socially, financially, or sexually. In the oddest of cases, some adepts would even display spiritual or paranormal powers and still not be such a loving, kind person.

It was a great contribution of the Integral understanding of psychology and spirituality that all have strong and weak traits, which experiences of awakening don’t automatically transform. The occasional “cataclysmic awakening” might create a suddenly quite mature and stable individual, but this is rare. Accordingly, if something in you insists that there should be some consistency between the high-minded words or even charisma of a spiritual teacher and their actual behavior, you have the right idea. The truly awakened individual will show a combination of clarity of consciousness, insight and discernment, and perhaps even some paranormal gift. But if it’s “the real deal,” the person will also embody authentic love and kindness.”

[Read more in TCIA about “Unity Consciousness” (or “Awakening”) and some of the common understandings, and misunderstandings about it]

The Ultimate Meaning of the Tree

HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND THE RELIGIONS AS “ONE”?

“Teasdale recognized the transformational awakening potential within all spirituality as the revolutionary quality that identifies the emerging Interspiritual Age. Ken Wilber called it the “conveyor belt” for humanity to its next potential level. The modern Sufi mystic and leader Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee asserts that a transformational role for religion and spirituality still exists if, as a species, we decide to take up the challenge.

How can humanity break the historical pattern of religion hijacking spirituality into exclusivity and aggressive, even violent, behavior? What’s the formula for linking humankind’s interior and exterior senses and skills? Can the magic-mythic lens and the rational lens join in a progressive, transformative, integrated lens? Globally, what new awareness must arise, and what are the attendant skillsets that must accompany it, if humankind is to survive and thrive?”

[Read more about the crucial relationship between awareness and skill sets (what in brain/mind studies is called “the consensus integration”) which has always defined the cutting edge of human development. Read in TCIA about how this relates to the manifesting of a new consciousness and new, transformative, skill sets for our species having a promising future]

THE MEANING OF 2012

The Source of the 2012 Scenarios

The Magic-Mythic Lens Is Still Compelling for Our Species

“Nothing frames the present cacophony better than the buzz concerning 2012. The debate about whether the year has some special significance has not only been a big attention getter but also a big money maker.

The fact that a number of ancient traditions appear to have pointed to this date as having some kind of cosmic significance has given both well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning individuals cause to create lots of hype: books, television shows, and even movies. The number of predictions and agendas is astounding. You have likely heard of some of them, but probably not all.”

[Read in TCIA the details of virtually every prediction and explanation that has been made regarding 2012, and discern for yourself what you think may be going on]

Why All the Fuss? Non-apocalyptic Holistic Views of 2012

Have a Party on December 21, 2012

WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON DECEMBER 21, 2012?

“Though there’s always a chance that some kind of disaster will strike the world on December 21, 2012, it’s statistically unlikely. However, there’s a more authentic way in which rich mythologies can inform our species. Ancient texts contain collective subjective truths about human nature, the human experience, and our hopes and dreams as a species.

When one looks deeper at all the source material concerning 2012, a compelling thread suggests an interpretation compatible with the modern mind.”

[Read in TCIA what understanding of 2012 seems both correct and compatible with the modern human mind]

MOVING TOWARD THE WORLD-CENTRIC

THE INEVITABLE JOURNEY TO GLOBAL WORLD-CENTRIC VIEW

“Were a benevolent extraterrestrial to visit and assess our planet, it would find our global society both confusing and scary. When the alien “phones home” to report, we would likely hear something like, “Can you believe these people? They continue to fight over different mythological views of their origins and destinies, over their national identities, flags and anthems, skin colors and ethnic identities, even differences about sexuality. Meanwhile they foul their planet with every kind of pollution, not to mention dividing their social structures into the very rich and the very poor. There seems little hope this stupidity won’t end up in a cataclysm.

How then will religion, which is exclusive by its nature, respond to this challenge of globalization and be able to see things more holistically and act accordingly?”

[Read in TCIA about all the tricky nuances involved in bringing our complex global demographics into a future planetary consciousness and identity]

What Kind of Globalization?

HOW DO MOST PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT GLOBALIZATION?

“…we have found in our national and international discussions that when the overarching vision and values of interspirituality are aired within every mainstream religion, its aspirations and values are widely embraced. The only question that arises is how interspirituality would affect the current structures of organized religion. When acquainted with history, most people recognize that the exclusivity of religion reflects the behavior of an older planetary era. In place of this, they long for behavior that values cooperation, synergy, and mutuality. Some 78% support the vision of unifying principles, and up to 90% believe in the importance of a benevolent multiculturalism.

The desire that multiculturalism might be reflected in healthy development has made the buzzwords “transnational,” “trans-traditional,” “transcultural,” and “world-centric” prominent in the global discussion. The entire coterie of the evolutionary consciousness movement, futures scholars, integralists, and transformational activists stand in this unfolding tradition.

Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth advanced this discussion and sold millions of copies worldwide, as did Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest.”

[Read more in TCIA about the hopes and fears that accompany the question of globalization across very different cultures; what is the spirit of a global “win-win” and how do we get there?]

The Mystical Pursuit and Social Transformation

WILL UNITY CONSCIOUNESS BECOME MORE AND MORE COMMON, AND ASSIST A SKILLFUL GLOBALIZATION PROCESS?

“Teasdale believed that, ultimately, the unity consciousness experience would become universal.

However, because he also knew the process would be slowed by politically closed societies and entrenched financial powers, he advised that the world’s religions should turn not only to emphasizing their shared experiential mystical roots but also their shared universal ethical values. He saw the emerging interspiritual movement as a vanguard of this message to religions, with an emphasis on deed over creed.”

[Read in TCIA about how fast, or slow, the unity consciousness process may be on a worldwide basis; given that, what other transformations will be extremely important?]

The Collective World of “We”

MOVING INTO THE EPOCH OF “WE” WHEN THE INSTITUTIONAL WORLD NOW SO EASILY CONTROLS US

“The spiritual, consciousness, and integral discussions are all clear that history is moving into the epoch of “We.” This is a crucial developmental stage because the selfish needs of “I” aren’t able to create a sustainable world. Further, the runaway excesses of the impersonal institutional “It”-space must be met by a resurgence of a dynamic sense of “We.”

The world is characterized today by a disconnect between what should be a seamless relationship of personal life and the institutional world.

The Cognitive Science of Religion notes that a dangerous tendency of our species’ monkey mind is its habit of liking simplistic sound bites that are easy to remember. For many, this describes what has happened to the word “freedom,” which has been manipulated to argue for no government oversight of the private sector. Where this has permitted the business and financial sectors to perpetrate all kinds of abuses, the result is that large numbers of Americans now unknowingly vote against their own best interests. Motivation by buzzwords, accompanied by little to no critical thinking, has become a fixture of First World politics…”

[Explore in TCIA the tricky dynamic of how the structure of the world’s current institutional world — the “It” space– currently manipulates and exploits us, while, at the same time, we are motivated toward creating a more intimate and user-friendly expression of “We” across the world]

“We” and the Advancing Consciousness

WHAT ARE THE MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF “WE”?

“Much of the modern discussion about reality now centers on the implications of the simple two-letter word “We.” Arthur Koestler’s revolutionary insight about our inherent nature as “holons”—that everything is both a part and a whole—has gained global traction.

Once only known from the world of toys—the ornamental and bejeweled “eggs within eggs” or “dolls within dolls” of Europe’s 19th century wealthy royals, and later the “schmoos inside of schmoos” popularized across the post-war world by Lil’ Abner cartoonist Al Capp—the seamless relationship of what’s a whole and what’s a part is today a standard aspect of our everyday understanding of life and exercising of common sense. This is “We” on a grand sliding scale—and it’s full of challenges.”

[Read more in TCIA about how inevitable it is that the world will move toward a more user-friend global society of “We”; it will either be this or global dictatorship; the choice is very stark]

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