This is the spiritual concept that most captures my enthusiasm. So what is it?
I have this impulse inside me that drives me to seek more out of life, particularly to find a way to give more. To give something of meaning to the planet, to humanity. To do something for the greater good.
Where does that impulse come from? I know I'm not the only one feeling it. Not everyone is feeling it, but many, many people are feeling it. And often it begins as a dissatisfaction with the way life is turning out. A questioning. Is this really all there is? Is this really as good as it gets?
The universe began from a single, unimaginably tiny, point. Something caused that point to expand, and keep expanding. Something set in motion a process that drove the tiny particles from that initial explosion to form the simplest atoms. They coalesced into suns which produced enough energy to form heavier atoms, more explosions, a new generation of suns, planets, and all the space debris we're now familiar with. And no doubt, plenty we don't yet know.
Something caused our planet to generate life. And that life, over billions of years, increased in complexity until there was an astonishing array of life-forms interwoven together, constantly developing, constantly changing. That "something" can be called the evolutionary impulse, an impulse towards ever greater complexity.
So now we come along. Humanity. Very recently, in history-of-the-universe terms, as we are so often hearing. But my, how quickly we have grown! We became self-conscious. We became thinkers. Problem-solvers. Innovators. Masters of our environment. Conquerors. Amazing, wonderful, inventive. Can we say, the most successful species on the planet? We are, after all, everywhere (as that fantastic TV series
Human Planet beautifully illustrates).
But of course, it's not all good. We're polluting our environment. We're killing, torturing and enslaving our own kind. We're destroying habitats at an unsustainable rate. Something is very off-course. We all know it. But we're not sure that there's anything we can do about it.
Well, yes there is. We can evolve. The big damage has happened, mainly, in the last couple of hundred years. Which is also the time that we've been coming to terms with the concept of evolution, rather than a sudden, complete creation. Many people have come to accept that this evolution has been taking place. They've let go of the classic beliefs, that all is either static or cyclical. Things change, states the new paradigm, endlessly.
Even the pace of change, changes.
Now, we are becoming conscious of the evolutionary process within us, not just across those eons past, but within an individual, in one lifetime, right now. Humanity has not stopped evolving. Even human nature itself is evolving. There is a long way for us to go. In fact, we are only just beginning, and we cannot fathom where we will be in a few more centuries.
We are the universe becoming conscious of itself. We are the consciousness of the evolutionary impulse, embodied. We are its physical form.
Barbara Marx Hubbard believes we are birthing a new species of human, dubbed Homo universalis (sometimes Homo progressivus or Homo noeticus), who will have a very different orientation to Homo sapiens.
The new universal human will be in touch with the evolutionary impulse inside them, tapping into that divine source of love, joy, wisdom and inspiration, at will. They will be motivated by the impulse within to find meaningful "work" which contributes to the greater good, while providing a safe and self-nurturing platform to perform that work from. Relationships will be the coming together of people already fulfilled and happy, who are not seeking fulfilment and love FROM each other, but who are bringing those gifts TO each other.
Understanding that is a major key. To have the best, happiest, liberating, committed relationships, we do not demand love or happiness from each other. We unlock the love and joy that is available to each and every one of us INSIDE, thereby automatically bringing love and happiness to our partners, family and friends. We become love. We are joy.
Reading books is a great way to increase understanding but it is very important to activate your heart and not just your mind when grappling with these ideas. Read with an open mind and an open heart. For a good grounding in the concepts you can't beat:
Conscious Evolution (UK)
Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential
Conscious Evolution (US)
Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential
and for my personal evolution, I'm well into and thoroughly enjoying:
Love for No Reason (UK)
Love For No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love
Love for No Reason (US)
Love For No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love
Listening, I find, is even better, because you can hear so much more in a voice, the nuances convey so many extra clues, and you can feel like you are part of a group of like-minded seekers. Anything where
Barbara Marx Hubbard speaks is well worth listening to. Another favourite is
Jean Houston, she is awesome.
Craig Hamilton is very much into exploring the conscious evolution concept and two others I've enjoyed listening to recently are
James O'Dea and
Terry Patten. And another favourite is
Bruce Lipton (The Biology of Belief).
The whole audio series led by Claire Zammit and Katherine Woodward Thomas, called
Women on the Edge of Evolution, is well worth exploring.
And all these audio series are available to download for free - hundreds of hours of stimulating, heart-expanding, mind-broadening conversations between people who are doing extraordinary good in the world.
So, why not dive in and let your evolutionary impulse guide you to just one, to listen to today? I guarantee there'll be at least one lovely "aha!" moment just for you.
LINKS TO FREE AUDIO SERIES:
The Shift In Action
The Shift Network
The Great Integral Awakening
Women on the Edge of Evolution
.
