A movement of momentous proportions is emerging at the margins of societies all over the world. There is a new story about our natural place within the vast intelligence of nature and the Kosmos. A new story that tells us that we are not imperfect and flawed, but that we are gradually evolving towards a wider and more complex worldview with expanded care and concern. Generative dialogues and global conversations are taking place across the planet in response to the newly emerging global civilization that is being born through us. We are sifting through centuries of habitual responses to articulate what really matters as we tap our deepest knowing, and move from mere descriptions about material values to authentic engagement in the quality of life and concern for humanity as a whole.
We ask anew: Where are we headed? How shall we live our lives? What kind of a new civilization are we creating? Our expanded vision covers the vastness of galactic space and the infinitely small as well. We invite the whole world into our homes through television and the Internet. We follow the trajectory of the evolutionary impulse through time, which brings us face-to-face with present-day exploitation, and domination of nature and of others as we teeter on the edge of survival as a species. Our hope lies in the new sciences, a groundswell of spirituality based on inner experience, elevated interpretations of our traditions, and new discoveries intersecting with the compelling realities of world events. We are walking and talking to a different drummer.
We are searching for the vast intelligence of nature and the Kosmos as guides to our individual lives and to our collective future. We are transcending emotional fears that interfere with perception, mental dissonance and confusion, and a sense of inner barrenness. We are searching for what is emerging as the next step in evolution—to become who we naturally are and to design planetary institutions that reflect our new awareness and values.
Make no mistake. This is asking a lot of us. And there are lots of obstacles, too. As individuals and as collectives we are at different stages of maturation. Billions on our planet are still merely surviving; others still need to intimidate through domination and fear; while many are caught in inflexible ideologies that rule their unexamined lives.
A serious limitation in many spiritual communities is the lack of knowledge about the realities of the world and how it actually works. Power is often not understood until we find ourselves at war with those we consider our friends, or we are threatened by economic decisions that compromise our values. In the corridors of power we find the role of beliefs and values to be grossly underestimated. Secular humanism, which considers only rational solutions and rational arguments as significant, is politically correct among the business and political elite, dismissing human feeling and intuition as irrelevant. Will the passion and momentum of this new movement be strong enough to overcome the obstacles?
There are certain memorable moments in our lives that give us the courage to move on. One of those moments for me was the launching of the Creating the New Civilization initiative in Tokyo with fourteen partners. Kosmos was founded for this purpose. I felt a palpable confirmation within as the realization of five years of effort was coming into being. We traveled from all over the world to find each other and to join together in common cause—all of us on stage and the 50 ambassadors and 4000 guests in attendance. We raised our arms in unison and in celebration of our partnership. The World Wisdom Council was there, dedicated to the advancement of wisdom-in-action, a think-tank for advocacy and inspiration that recognizes the essential task of networking and forging alliances in the 21st century. I was honored to be invited to be the first Media Ambassador for this respected group.
What stirs me most about the Council is the promise it holds to encourage each one of us to act from a place of higher wisdom. We can choose to stop, reflect and then follow the most elevated voice within—for we are full of multiple voices that would deflect us from our mission and diminish our courage to change the world. If we choose to listen to the voice of wisdom, we may discover the pathway to the creative expression of our moral beauty.
Kosmos is honored to present for your consideration articles by some of the wisest leaders on the planet today—all participants in the groundbreaking Forum in Tokyo in November 2005.
A little reminder as you unfold these pages. Let us not wait until we are perfect. Let us not wait until we have found the answers to our quest. Let us choose to follow our highest wisdom now. Let us ignite the conversation that is emerging into a living flame with the moral beauty for which we all strive. Let the beauty of new scientific truths, the beauty of a living spirituality, and the realization of our own exquisite inner beauty and power bring forth a new civilization of infinite wisdom and compassion.
