Engaged Spirituality & Mystic Activism

A tale of two cities, and a vision of the choice before us.

Is 'conscious capitalism' possible, or is it an oxymoronic pipe-dream? This is a topic I've written about in previous blog posts, in Big Vision, Small Business, and in other articles here at Ivy Sea Online. There are justifiable reasons for thinking it's possible, and equally justifiable reasons for believing that it's not.

This article has four main sections:

• a look at two perspectives on 'conscious enterprise', based on two definitions of 'conscious' — the 'business-as-usual' type of 'consciousness', and one that is far older and more nuanced;

• a bow to the paradigm bridgers;

• a vision of the two choices before us;

• and some initial thoughts on what a truly conscious enterprise would have to include in order to be authentic, aligned, and more appropriate to the challenges of our times.

You can choose to read the article through — there is a progression from one perspective to another — or simply go directly to the section to which you're most drawn. What follows is the latter half of the article.

A vision of two options...

In a vision received during a meditation several months ago, the choice before us was made clear. I'll share it with you exactly as it was shared with me:

You are on a raft floating down a wide river. About a mile in the distance, the river disappears into a mist. Just before the mist, there is a bridge connecting the land on either sides of the river.

On one side of the bridge, there is a city. Dark, dank, tall and colorless utilitarian buildings, surrounded by hazy brownish smog. Emanating from it, you hear horns honking, harsh music blaring, sirens wailing, its people fearful, fighting to eke out a living or to survive in its streets. The anxiety and fear are palpable; you can feel it. Surrounding the city, the land is barren, punctuated only by one carefully engineered square of well-manicured, synthetic greenery. The sense of it is one of desperation, despair, deterioration, decay, detachment, disconnection, and depression. It's a death-centered culture.

On the other side of the river, there is a city. In contrast to the one that faces it, the air is crystal clear and the sky above it vibrant blue. Its buildings radiate an aesthetic beauty, and are designed to complement the natural surroundings. Greenery and color are woven throughout. It's people are healthy, cooperative, and expansive, rather than constricted by fear. It has none of the harshness of its alter-ego across the river. The surrounding land is healthy and vibrant. The sense of it is hopeful, vibrant, creative, colorful, interconnected, plentiful, balanced, truly prospering, and centered in joy and wellness. It's a life-centered culture.

On the bridge, you notice quite a few people, and you notice that they are reaching down to offer a hand and pull people from other rafts up onto the bridge. Some of the people on the bridge show the newcomers the way to the radiant, healthy, vibrant city.

And now, closer, you notice that just after the bridge, the mist arising is from a waterfall — where the river plummets into a gorge far below. You see that there are other rafts, having passed the bridge, and the people who chose to stay on them are now in a panic. It's too late. But the choice is still before you, and others on rafts who have not yet reached the bridge.

The choice before each of us is which of these "city symbols" we want to support with our thoughts, our intentions, our words, our work, and our actions. And do we want to be one of the people on the bridge, helping to lend a hand to those who may choose to get off the raft heading for sure destruction, and find their way into a healthier way of living on this planet.

Truly conscious enterprise is all about this choice. We do it, or we don't. We commit to one of these visions or the other. We begin experimenting with less literal intellectualizing, and embrace a more holographic, wholistic vision of the possibilities and tools available to us.

And we're headed for the fall unless we make the conscious choice.

One of our real-world Wise Elders, David Korten, writes in The Great Turning, "The Great Turning requires more than adjustments at the margin of Empire."

Another of our Wise Elders, Elisabet Sahtouris, points to the example of Nature for proof that, "From an evolutionary perspective, current global economics violates the fundamental principles by which all mature living systems are organized." In other words, it violates natural law, and is unsustainable. It is akin to a suicide mission on hyperdrive.

Though all is perhaps not yet lost. Sahtouris, Korten, and others, also see much hope in the models and stories of Nature and the larger, more embracing, full-bodied and interconnected wisdom of our ancestors.

This is the choice that we're facing right now, and it requires our conscious awareness, engagement, and 'mystic activism' right now.

As one of our favorite archetypal Wise Elders, the Jedi Master Yoda says, "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." It's really that simple.

[Excerpted from "Is 'Conscious Capitalism' or 'Conscious Business' Possible? (And what would it have to look like to be truly authentic?)" from Ivy Sea Online. Read the full article.]

A time for mystic activists

I came across the term "mystic activist" first in Andrew Harvey's work, but it connected to a part of me that had long been a mystic activist or "in the world" mystic.

Andrew Harvey is the author of The Son of Man, and The Direct Path, among other things, and his writing is always energizing and inspiring, and very consistent with his in-person demeanor. When you read what he's written, if you have the soul of a mystic, you feel his complete love and passion for the Beloved, and for being that in the world.

Harvey has more recently emphasized the need for "mystical activists" -- those who are mystically inclined but also called into the world to contribute to the Great Work, the shift from one paradigm that no longer works to an era of seeing, being, doing and working that is more sustainable, healthy, and reverent. Many of us feel this call to a more active, more public role that can contradict a naturally introspective nature and perhaps one's preference for quiet, low-key lives.

Harvey is emphatic in his belief that there is no time for indulging in that sort of introversion for most of us; he Earth, life and its many manifestations are in need. Whether we need to look at rampant corporate greed that regularly decorates the news headlines, or reports of hundreds or dolphins and whales washing ashore after being horribly injured by the continued military testing of new sonar, or of more and more people being seduced into a new form of indentured-servitude, we have all of the evidence we need that an engaged spirituality is what the times call for, and call us to.

For more on Andrew Harvey's perspective, see this interview in Alternatives Magazine online:

Wishing us all Grace, courage and skillfulness!

Until next time ...

Engaging in the Great Work

I was first introduced to the concept of "the Great Work" when reading an obituary for Kathleen Raine. The obit was authored by H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales, and published in Resurgence Magazine. Deeply moved by the eloquent words of Prince Charles, I followed my interest in both Raine and "the Great Work," which led me to Thomas Berry, the Ecozoic Council, and others who are committed to some form of Great Work.

The Great Work refers to taking proactive and intentional right action to foster the transformation from the old/current world view into a new one that is more fully honoring of the earth and all beings. There are many aspects that contribute to this Great Work, and to seeding and ushering in the new paradigm.

Here are several links if you want to follow the thread into some inspiring and thought-provoking reading:

• Thomas Berry's "earth spirituality" and "the Great Work", an article by Andrew Angyal

• The Temenos Academy (founded by IKathleen Raine)

• The Ecozoic Council - "A hope-filled alternative for an engaged cosmology"

• Celebrating the Life of Kathleen Raine (from Resurgence Magazine)

There are other perspectives on how the Great Work might be defined, and how one's commitment to it might be shaped or expressed. But always, like all that is rooted in the Universal principles of Love and Wisdom, there are common threads woven through any seeming differences.

Until next time ...

What are 'engaged spirituality' and 'mystic activism'?

The terms and concepts of engaged spirituality and mystic activism resonated with me when I first heard them. They aligned with my own sense that spiritual tenets are meant to be lived, and life is somehow a grand playground or school for living, and living into, our spiritual beliefs. At once a practice and a lesson.

I learned the term 'engaged spirituality' from my Buddhist friends, though recognized it from my days at a Catholic college and my work with several "leader nuns"! I saw it in Sufi teachings, and in the Jesus teachings of my own tradition.

As I look out into the world, with its wonders and troubles, I see so many people feeling a lack of connection, a drought of meaning ... too much fear and feelings of separation. Intentionally "engaging" with spiritual beliefs and tenets seems a prescription for so many unmet desires and ills.

Mystic and author Andrew Harvey brought the term "mystic activist" to my attention, speaking to those who sense the connection and Divinity in all things, and who may have at one time been predisposed to "head for the hills" and live the more contemplative life. Instead, we're "in the world" mystics, being "activists" in our own unique way.

Being the change we wish to see in the world, and holding a light, if we can, to illuminate the way for others, just as we find our own way on the path (outstretched hands feeling the way, one tentative step ... or an occasional leap ... after another).

It's a journey, it's an education, it's a grand experiment, and it really is being "at play in the fields of the Lord." Wild!

It's all-consuming. The Christian mystic Meister Eckhardt said, "Don't think about what we should do; think about what we should be." The vision of BEING, which stems from the Heart and universal knowing, defines the DOING. A hard shift to make, in our very "doing-based" culture!

Until next time ...