Fall | Winter 2012

What if we could create an unprecedented flourishing of humanity and nature? What type of leaders and change agents would we need to become in order to cultivate a world far beyond mere sustainability? In this article I report on findings that offer initial insights into the future of leadership. It’s an approach in which we learn to express powerful, latent capacities that may be crucial togetting us out of the trouble we’re in and creating a better world.

In a forthcoming book, The Coming Interspiritual Age,1 we offer a responsible survey of the global factors that might influence and contribute to the possible emergence of world change based on a significant input from the reservoir of collective human wisdom available in the world’s perennial Great Wisdom Traditions.

Embodied spirituality regards the body as subject, as the home of the complete human being, as a source of spiritual insight, as a microcosm of the universe and the Mystery, and as pivotal for enduring spiritual transformation.

Our first article (Kosmos, Spring / Summer 2012) gave an overview of the new human capacity we are starting to articulate—that we call Collective Presencing, the purpose of which is to allow us to systematically achieve collective wisdom. We described the two distinct phases that we see unfolding as a collection of individuals learns to become a collective capable of employing this capacity on behalf of the whole: firstly, becoming a circle of presence, then becoming a circle of creation.

Is a more beautiful world possible? Many of us dream it is, and Charles Eisenstein’s latest book, Sacred Economics, shows that it’s possible and even probable.

There are 70 of us assembled here at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana for the opening of the first ever Great Lakes Commons Gathering. In the opening circle we introduce ourselves and pour water brought from our homes around the Lakes into a large clear bowl. This confluence of the waters reflects the real and symbolic center of our meeting.

“We cannot wait until we are enlightened,” says Marisa, in her compelling Kosmos article Alms Bowl Upside Down. “I have participated in countless demonstrations, sung and spoken over numerous loudspeakers, and handed out scores of flyers. But this time was different. Typically those who aren’t with us avoid us: passers-by chatter determinedly into their cell phones as they advance, shake their heads vociferously at flyers, veer around us. But this time it was as if our silence was contagious. Conversations died on lips…”