Reader’s Essay: Transition Within
By Gary Thomson
I was fortunate to recently attend an event with two pioneers of the emerging story of humanity, often referred to as The New Story or The Shift. I’ve been following their work for some time and was surprised to leave feeling disappointed. It was not that their words did not resonate with me or that I could no longer see the value of their work, but rather I met with a sense of a more fundamental platform from which to approach the challenges facing humanity. Reflecting on the unique opportunity of hearing these messages first-hand, I felt within me that the key to nourishing The New Story lies not in activism or gatherings or campaigns, although these energies are important, but rather lies in giving attention to our spirit – the place where we are all connected already.
How do we connect the numerous threads of The New Story and ensure that the potential in pioneering work is not overlooked? I do not believe that we can. The myriad movements that are taking place around the world cannot reach the fundamental level which resonates within all of us. Trying to coordinate our efforts would inhibit our potential. Even with such a beautiful goal in mind, human activity cannot be coordinated on that scale.
We are spiritual beings and therefore work rooted at a grosser level cannot permeate through all of humanity effectively enough to maximize our potential and bring The Shift into maturity.
This is where spirituality has to come forth. We should recognize that this challenge is too great for even our most intellectually crafted efforts. This is a challenge that ultimately requires a spiritual solution manifested through individual inner transformation.
To achieve inner transformation, to emerge as new creations fulfilling our greatest potential, we must attend to the essential non-physical aspect of ourselves. When we awaken to the true nature of reality, which does not accept dominion of individuality and disconnection, we become more attuned to the nuance of our interbeingness. We become certain of that which we may have already felt to be true – that we are neither separate from each other nor from nature and that everything is in a perpetual state of dynamic interdependent flux. The societal and material structures around us exist on a grosser level than this.
In awakening to the global crises we are brought face to face with the certainty of our oneness. In realizing our oneness we are motivated to seek out greater connection. Awakening is an inner transformation and inner transformation requires attention to our non-ego-based selves. As a fundamental framework for connection we must acknowledge our spiritual natures. In experiencing ourselves through spirit we connect with a higher organizing power.
This is the force that animates all of life – all of the countless interactions that endlessly take place to drive our lives, from the awesome processing power of the human brain, to the life-giving photons reaching out to us from the sun, and the interactions of countless species forming the basis of our ecosystems. We start each day with so much to be grateful for. Our body is already breathing life into us,our brain has been busy in the night processing information and memories, and our physiological functions are rested and poised for the new day. We do not consciously attend to any of this but it is so. In the same way, we can allow the outcome of how we synchronise our efforts of shifting human consciousness to a new paradigm. We must lay the groundwork in whatever field we are working in but we do not have to micro-manage the details. The numerous initiatives taking place around the world are that groundwork and the fuel that will ignite their coming to prominence is attention to our common spiritual natures. From a place beyond our conscious reasoning we make choices that promote connection – perhaps something we overheard in conversation, or a fragment of a memory of something we were once introduced to spills over into our work and joins us with other complementary agendas; a relationship may be formed that advances The New Story.
Whether great or small the orchestration of each new thread lies outside of ourselves. Ultimately they are evolving us as a species and bringing us to the next step on our evolutionary journey – to a place of expanded consciousness and yet greater potential. What is that potential and what indeed is the essential force that motivates life and the many activists, entrepreneurs and campaigners? It is Love. The New Story, The Shift, the emergence of a new way of being all refer to the same thing – that we have a great and often unmet desire to love each other and to love the world around us. Indeed, this is the very energy that is driving the universe in organizing our efforts and bringing forth the connections that are necessary for The Shift to emerge.
The New Story is Love.
Learn more about Kosmos Reader, Gary Thomson at garythomson36.wordpress.com/
Beautiful. Certainly agree. Thank you!