“I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together, a new spirituality. This new concept ought to be elaborated alongside the religions in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it.” – H. H. the Dalai Lama XIV
As the mystics of all times have attested, the One Reality of Consciousness has both an unchanging, ever-perfect, and originally complete aspect, and an ever-unfolding, dynamically expressing Life-force that is always in the process of becoming. 13.7 billion years ago, within the unconditioned brilliance of the One, this Life-force broke forth as the universe from a mysterious singularity. With incredible speed, through the cooling of the rapidly expanding universal space, the first subatomic particles, such as protons, neutrons and electrons, emerged. The former of these combined quickly to form the first atomic nuclei. Then the combination of electrons with them allowed the consequent production of the first elements – hydrogen and helium – which allowed the arising and formation of the first structures of the universe: black holes and the dark halos of early galaxies. Within these there were then major bursts of star formation. And from the cycles of star birth and death, over billions of years there came the sufficient diversification of elements for the formation of planets, such as Earth, where the suitable conditions for the emergence and evolution of biological life, exist.
Humanity stands today as the self-conscious face of this 13.7 billion year process of cosmic evolution. And we do so at a time of great planetary tension. The current paradigm, rooted in the dominant ethnocentric and individualistic worldviews, has led our planet to a crisis point of greater scale than we have ever before faced. Now, as we reconcile ourselves to such imminent possibilities as runaway climate change, a potential global water crisis, and the global energy crisis (the possibility of peak oil, for instance), we together stand before a predicament so large that the current approach, rooted as it is in separation, personal ego and survival fears, does not have the answer.
Never before has our collective fate been so intimately interwoven with each other. We stand today before an initiatory burning ground of such magnitude that it must necessarily call forth from humanity a whole new form of engagement with itself, and the Earth. What is called for now is an entirely new form of culture and society in which we recognise ourselves as the One Reality of Consciousness incarnate; one in which we own the opportunity available to us to heal, righten and bring coherence to our planet through the lessons the crisis is teaching us. Now, we are called to restore the Earth, free the people, and together, begin to unfold our cosmic potential. In order to best support humanity to navigate the current crisis, and to empower the emergence of a universal humanity, we in the Consciousness and Spirituality Faculty of the New Earth Institute recognise that the emergence of a universal spirituality is key. This would be a movement in which every human being has the opportunity to know their true nature as pure Consciousness, and simultaneously as its creative impulse of pure and noble purpose.
Our Collective History
Throughout the ages, the wondrous truth of the true nature of our being, and indeed the whole cosmos, as one Infinite Radiant Consciousness, has been held and guarded safely in the esoteric heart of the wisdom traditions of Earth. And outside of these traditions, it has been kept alive in the hearts of those individuals who, through their unwavering commitment to this ultimate truth above all else, have been graced with the realization of the sublime reality that is our true nature.
These esoteric, mystical lineages emerged to house and incubate the seeds of divine revelation that dropped into the minds of human beings of all cultures over the course of our history. Examples of these range from Vajrayana Buddhism, Vedanta, Zen, Mystical Christianity, Kabala, Sufism, Kashmir Shaivism, and Indigenous Shamanism, among others. For so long though, owing to humanity’s collective level of development not being ready to receive it, the fruit of these seeds of the sacred could not flow out into humanity as a whole so as to be honoured or adapted according to whether they truly reflect reality, and the full dignity of our being. Instead, they remained guarded in the esoteric lineages, movements and traditions, waiting for humanity to be ready to receive it as one family. As this occurred, the outer, exoteric structures of organised religion grew around these seeds of esoteric wisdom, and because of humanity’s stage of evolutionary development not having yet moved into a world-centric honouring of all human beings, began to define those seeds in a way that was specific to a particular culture, tribe, or nation. This enclosure of the sacred in ethnocentric and often pathological expressions of religion around the globe is one of the single greatest contributing factors to conflict, war, and suffering, today.
Increasingly though, things are starting to change. As the grace of technology and the ever increasing world-centric phases of collective growth permit us to see that we have always been a single human family, all the wisdom that has been cultivated in the diverse lineages and pathways of planet Earth is flowing back into humanity as a whole. There, in the heart of every human being whose soul is vibrating at the frequency of the New Earth, the unconditional freedom of Reality and our dynamic connection with the creative evolutionary impulse are being remembered. As one humanity, we are waking up to know that these are the unconditional birthright of all, beyond any and all ethnocentric boundaries or dogmas.
As such, we are starting to recognise that each of the Earth’s wisdom lineages represents a stream of a continuous and universal spiritual process – a universal spirituality. This universal spirituality is the collective inheritance of wisdom from all traditions and pathways throughout the entire arc of human history. And as we shift our focus from the life story of any one particular founder of a spiritual tradition to the majestic dignity of what a human being truly is, this universal approach is increasingly becoming informed by such fields as psychology, cosmogony, healing and wellness, neuroscience, and others, which tell us about what it means to be fully human.
All of the wisdom cultivated by these different communities can now begin to be shared at the communion table of an emergent universal spirituality. All of it, when seen as a single body of wisdom and love, can point to what it means for humanity to stand awake, integrated, and globally engaged. All of it can rest on the recognition that there is really only one humanity, one tradition that is our collective awakening, and one Infinite Radiant Consciousness that is Reality.
The Birth of a Universal Spirituality
The central question at the heart of a universal spirituality is: what does it look like for humanity to stand awake, integrated, and cosmically participating on Earth today? Powerful and extraordinary contributions to answering this question are in abundance on Earth, coming from the mystical core of the spiritual traditions, from the fields of psychology and psychotherapy, from the sciences, cosmogony, evolutionary studies, and multiple other domains. In order to be able to understand how they all fit together, we need to take an integrative approach, and when we do so, one of the first things we can see is that human growth unfolds along two primary lines.
The first of these lines we could call radical awakening. Radical awakening is awakening to Source – the Infinite Radiant Consciousness that is Reality. This is our True Self, and as the mystics of all time have attested, is always already the SourceMatrix of Reality. It is pure, pristine, Total Presence, all penetrating, all enfolding, and all creative. This is the awakening that has been cultivated in Vajrayana Buddhism, Vedanta, Zen, Sufism, Mystical Christianity, Kabala, and Kashmir Shaivism, for instance. Like a mirror reflecting an infinite number of things whilst remaining unchanged, Consciousness is arising in unconditional perfection as the entire cosmos, as every nebula and star formation, ever supernova and galaxy, every expression of joy and pain, laughter and heartbreak, whilst remaining totally unchanged. It is a radiant, indivisible Awareness that is characterised by undivided freedom, love and pure tenderness. Within the New Earth, we recognise this as the basis of every being’s true nature, of what it means to awaken to true sovereignty, and as every human being’s birthright.
The second of these lines we could call evolutionary awakening. Evolutionary awakening is awakening to and as the evolutionary Life-force of the cosmos on deeper and deeper levels. In this connection, the Life expresses as the evolutionary pulse that comes to know itself through our relative, multidimensional selves, from physical body to emotions to mind to soul to indestructible essence. Pathways and disciplines that have cultivated wisdom on evolutionary awakening include Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, Theosophy, Western psychology, and some New Age and shamanic paths, for instance (though each of these in different ways). In evolutionary awakening, the different levels of our being are brought into deeper and fuller integration as conscious expressions of Reality’s cosmic evolutionary Life-force and its dynamic expression of pure creative purpose.
The importance of radical awakening is the recognition of the ultimate nature of our being and to know Reality as it truly is. Traditionally, those who have awakened to Reality have recognised the infinite freedom and unconditional perfection that is always already the case. Then, from the love that naturally arises from this realisation, have then looked to share it with others. The importance of evolutionary awakening is to awaken as the vibrant, living, creative Life-force of the cosmos, and for us to cocreate the new expressions of culture and civilisation from there. An example of this is the New Earth.
As our unfoldment along these two lines of growth proceeds, we are able to grow into our fullest expressions of light on Earth, and eventually, to provide the Infinite Radiant Consciousness with the most mature, clean, unconditionally loving and clear vehicles for its intelligence to express. This path of growth is essential if we are truly serious about serving the revelation and evolution of Light, Love, and Life on Earth. A spiritual path that doesn’t include radical awakening will never be fully in touch with the infinite freedom and perfection of Reality that can serve as the foundation for our way of being in the world. And in the same way, a spiritual path that does not include evolutionary awakening will never be able to provide Reality with clean and clear vehicles through which its Awake Radiance can shine more and more powerfully.
Bringing the Pieces of the Puzzle Together
If we truly feel called to support the full blossoming of our human nature into radical awakening and the evolutionary unfolding of our multidimensional potential, it is crucial that we come to understand how the findings of all of the domains of human wisdom (the spiritual traditions, western psychology, science, etc.) can be integrated so that each of their findings are included in their right place. When we come to understand this integration, we can see that each has been looking at just one piece of the puzzle of what awakened, mature, loving, and authentic human functioning means. We can then see that rather than being oppositional to each other, their findings are actually complementary. Indeed, those findings not only illuminate a vision of human destiny and fullness that not only none of them could see on their own, but that actually has never been seen before.
Crucial to recognise here is that each of these different lineages, traditions or disciplines has something deeply important to offer to what it means to be an awake, integrated, and cosmically participating human being. But normally, each will only focus on either radical awakening or evolutionary awakening, will have a particular preference for one of the three perspectives, and as far as the stages of development are concerned, some paths go further than others.
In the New Earth we recognise that it is crucial for human beings to engage the most holistic approach to their awakening and growth as possible, and so we encourage each pathway to provide the most holistic vehicle as possible.
Traditionally, those who have radically awakened to Source have recognised the infinite freedom that is always already their true nature. And those who have evolutionarily awakened, from body to emotion to mind to soul to indestructible essence as they express through self, relationship, and nature, have come to know themselves as the conscious face of the cosmic evolutionary life-force. In different ways, both have become energised and active in the world, sincere, courageous and empowered by the righteousness of a noble heart.
Now, at this crucial point in history, what is needed is the holistic synthesis of these paths in the growing community of awakening humanity, to support the emergence of the New Earth. Only then can we begin to stabilise those new stages of growth that can bring the necessary degrees of care, love, and compassionate transformation into the world that are required.
To support this unfolding of what it means for human beings to increasingly stand awake, integrated, and as participants in cosmic evolution, the Consciousness and Spirituality Faculty of the New Earth shares its vision of a universal spirituality. We hope that in this ever-present field of natural freedom and empowered fullness, you will find your place, and stand with us as we watch the twilight of a passing night turn into a new planetary dawn.
