From Ego-Consciousness to Eco-Consciousness:10 Meditations
We live in a world in which egocentric views,short-sighted decisions, disrespect for our natural environment, wars over ideologies, etc (the list goes on a couple of paragraphs) are still prevalent and recurrent themes even now at the dawn of the 21st century.
Idealists like myself like to believe in an emerging culture of creative thinkers & leaders that will slowly guide us to break free from the old beliefs & power structures until we reach a tipping point after which global change starts accelerating very fast on its own accord.
Some people choose to refer to this as the global paradigm shift in the way we see the world, some others refer to it as the evolution of human consciousness. Others talk about the transcendence of individual & collective consciousness from the grips of the ego.
The latter is a nice metaphor which I opt to use for its ability to fit in diverse fields of human knowledge such as Spirituality, Jungian Psychology, Metaphysics, Consciousness studies, Systems thinking and others.
I see the world as still being dominated by ego-consciousness simply because the majority of individuals on this planet are still held by the grips of their ego. The rite of passage from ego-based consciousness to a more transendent eco-consciousness is an individual one as much as it is a collective one. Spiritual teachers like Andrew Cohen in fact believe that this shift in human consciousness operates collectively and synergistically within a group or network of like minded individuals with the same intentions & obectives.
This notion struck me as very plausible. In fact I very much believe that just like our language, thought,behaviour & belief systems do not operate in isolation but are influenced and partially determined by our social environment, so is our spiritual development. We have to start seeing things from an ecological point of view and not a mechanistic one because life & consciousness, like all other things, are networked and highly interconnected. It is no coincidence that many disciplines are now giving a lot of importance to understanding phenomena in terms of network dynamics and complex systems.
The shift from ego-based consciousness to an eco-based consciousness is also a naturally painful one. Parallels can be drawn. In our lifetime, growing up, accepting changes,taking responsibility, breaking away from the mold and leaving our comfy cocoon is never a smooth transition. But it’s part of life if we are to mature and wisen up.
I would like to suggest a few points to contemplate and meditate upon in order to open up one’s mind to the possibilty of eco-consciousness. One of my intentions is to integrate these perspectives in my general world view and habits. Here they go:
Can I Trust my Instincts?
This is a question that I often hear when people are in doubt, confused or lacking enough confidence in external information to arrive at a sound judgment.
I am however not at all pleased to use the term ‘instincts’ in the title, or anywhere else for that matter. The word ‘instinct’ generally means having a preset behavioral pattern which is genetically encoded and inherited. In other words it is a behavioral template that organisms follow unconsciously and automatically. It very much alludes to a general lack of free-will and creativity.
I believe that the real ‘instincts’ that guide us through indecisive or difficult moments in life run in opposite direction to unconscious and automatically responsive behavior.
In fact it involves our ability to momentarily ‘awake’ from those unconscious cycles of behavior and see through the veil of socially and individually constructed realities. It is a temporary transcendence beyond the compulsive patterns of thought and emotional habits that are ultimately not authentic but socially induced.
Trusting your ‘instincts’, or as I prefer calling it ‘listening to your heart’,is like connecting to a ‘web of consciousness’ in which energy and ideas flow naturally and freely. I have written something about this in the past here.
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You Only Live Many Times – Part 1
I might be breaking away from the crowd and from the common chatter of all things wordly but today I don’t care.
I feel like writing about one of my long-held spiritual beliefs. If you are a loyal reader of this blog but not in the vein of a deep and non-mundane subject then I humbly apologize! 
Put plainly and simply I believe in the reincarnation of souls or to use a Buddhist term – the trans-migration of souls.
This view diverges from the strong ultra-catholic setting of the country I was born in. Still, it is not that uncommon to meet people holding alternative beliefs to the simplistic view of eternal life and heaven and hell in this part of the world, let alone in the more secular parts of the west. More people are believing in reincarnation, or suspect that there is a good ounce of truth in it, even if this is not totally in line with their religous background.
For me it wasn’t a choice of fancy or randomness. I didn’t wake up one morning and said to myself that I would like to believe in reincarnation. It was basically an understanding that ‘clicked’ and maked sense.
To begin with, the notion that we have just one life followed by an eternal life, presumably a spiritual one (although the Christian doctrine never had a clear picture of this and a lot of lines are left blank) never made much sense to me. I was always more convinced of a dynamic and evolutionary stance on life and reincarnation answers that call.
Save the World: Live in Balance & Inner Harmony
Life is in perfect balance & harmony. It is in dynamic balance or equilibrium, meaning that although it is in constant flux, with things coming and going out of existence, the net effect is total balance.
It is also in harmony because its different forms fit in and blend together. Observing nature you can see a lot of example of co-evolution and interdependence between life forms.
One life form depends on an opportunity or set of circumstances put forward by another at the right time and in the right amount.
Even violent burst of nature such as natural disasters are in harmony with the cause and effects of life seen through a larger timescale.
The Predicament of Modern Man
It is partly due to our nature and partly due to the hectic and chaotic environment we have created that we often fall out of balance and lose harmony within ourselves and with nature. This is the predicament of modern man. (more…)
A simple visualization technique to keep calm under pressure
This is a Guest Post by Jon Rhodes
The way people react in a moment of crisis is generally a good measure of their character. It is easy to be calm and efficient when there is no pressure on, but not so easy when the cauldron is bubbling. The really useful and successful people in life are those that can rise to the occasion and get the best out of themselves in those moments of pressure.
If you want to achieve great things in your life then you have to able to cope with pressure. Many people fail to get the best out of themselves simply because they run away when the going gets tough, rather than facing up to the demands and battling through them.
I can show you a simple visualization technique that you can use in stressful moments, which combines hypnotic and meditation techniques for a really powerful result. It is an enjoyable visualization technique that sets you up with a trigger word so that you can quickly relax in any given situation, by simply saying to yourself your word. Before you begin, make sure you won’t be disturbed for about half an hour, and get yourself comfortable. (more…)
Overcome writer’s block: Understanding the Yin and Yang nature of the creative process
I have never done writing for a living yet. My writing has always been mostly for study or passion.
Yet even though I haven’t been under the pressure of having my monthly income depending on the flow and quality of my writing as any paid writer would, my own experiences still brought to my conscious awareness two important and closely linked notions: Inspiration and its dreaded enemy writer’s block.
Writer’s Block
This concept notoriously gained an iconic status having been so widely referred to in the media and arts. We all have collective unconscious images from the movie classics of some writer at a desk in front of an old-style typewriter, an ashtray full of half-snuffed cigarette butts and a paper bin overflowing with balled up papers of unfinished sentences.
Conventionally, writer’s block is understood as that part in a writer’s career where her creative process comes to a halt and her inspiration runs dry due to some psychological blockage or emotional distress. Less dramatically, it is when we are doing a writing job and words and ideas stop coming to our heads. We stop for hours trying to get the thing started again sometimes with no success.
There are two main views on writer’s block. Both views see it as some block in the overall creative process but while one view sees creativity as predominantly or even exclusively a generative process the other sees it as a receptive process. (more…)
Experiments in Faith and leaps of Science
Photo by Noel A.Tanner
One of the biggest ongoing debates in the last two centuries is definitely the one between the conflicting views of faith and science.
For too long now it seems that these views are not only irreconcilable but mutually exclusive. In simplistic terms, faith is commonly associated with the belief in a divine power which is not grounded in the senses, experience or reason. Science, on the other hand, is associated with the objective inquiry into the nature of the universe through experimentation, critical assessment, logic and reason.
Mixed messages of faith:
I was brought up in an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic country with a very fine line of divide between church and state. As a young inquisitive mind growing up in that cultural background I had learned to despise all those authoritative arguments about faith, dogma, and the narrow worldview of catholic doctrine they used to teach us at school.
I remember arguing with the priest that use to teach us religion class (which was compulsory of course) about the irrationality and blindness of dogma and he’d always answer with the same old answer – “It’s a matter of faith”. I used to hate that answer. I thought it was such an excuse for an answer when you don’t have enough reasons to back your arguments.
This is what mostly creates the conflict between reason and faith. It’s the reluctance of some people to have faith understood and assessed with a more evaluative undertone. They say that’s impossible because reason and faith are incompatible. Faith is faith and that’s the end of it.
Faith has another side though – a much more positive one which I have come to understand under a different light. (more…)
After enlightenment, the laundry
photo by elaine faith
As I was reading the article “A gentle honesty” on the blog ‘Beyond Karma’ the other day, the Zen saying “After Enlightenment, the Laundry” came to mind.
In the article, Kaushik, the author of the blog and the post in question, was asking how it is that sometimes after some experience of deep inner awareness that awakens us from our limited patterns of thinking, we return back to our same old selves?
To quote Kaushik’s own opening lines:
“A strange thing about awakening is frequently we feel we are very conscious, but then life throws something at us and we react in the same conditioned way we always did. It’s a humbling experience, and that’s the point of it.”
How is it that after some brief moment of enlightenment we relapse back to the same old habits and limited views?
This naturally leads to other questions such as “is enlightenment or spiritual awakening ephemeral”? Is it some short excursion beyond our boundaries just to give us a taste of what it’s like to be in a higher state of consciousness?
Expanding consciousness through compassion & loving kindness
photo by Mara ~earth light~
The notion of practicing compassion for other fellow humans has been with us since the beginning of time. After all, Man is a social creature in need of meaningful social connections in order to grow on all levels of his being.
The concept of compassion however has in recent times been appraised in value. Its importance is starting to be understood under the new light of a drastically changing world where people are getting more connected, economies collapse and new global crisis emerge. Compassion is becoming increasingly tied to the future of humanity. In order for Humanity to keep the balance against the impounding waves of change we need to grow collectively in mind, awareness and in consciousness. One essential ingredient for this growth is cultivating compassion and loving kindness
Compassion compels action and social change
“You know, there’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the steelworker who’s been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this — when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers — it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” Barack Obama
