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Preamble
All We Need Is Love
ALL-EMBRACING LOVE
A remarkable convergence is under way in the world today: the convergence of
reason and emotion, observation and intuition, science and spirituality. The
newest thing on our horizon is the oldest thing in our history. We are not
discovering greater truths, but re-discovering them. This is one of the happiest
and most positive signs of our times.
The happy news applies also to the subject of loveof all-embracing love.
The oldest, most stable cultures, those that endured for thousands of years, had
many features we would no longer like to have a hierarchical stucture, an
enormous gap between the powerful and the powerless, and lesser regard for
the value of life but they also had something we had lost and would very much
need: solid social cohesion, supported by shared ideas about the nature of
society backed by insights concerning the fundamental nature of reality. They
may not have individually experienced all-embracing love, but they obeyed the
dictates of a spiritual authority that made them behave as if they did.
Traditional cultures had a symbolic, and as we would now say esoteric,
understanding of the world. They perceived a higher or deeper order that
humans are to obey and mirror. Hermes Trismegistus declared, As above, so [it
must be] below. The discoverers of the higher orders were the shamans and the
prophets, and the spiritual leaders whose sight and insight had the seal of divine
inspiration. The highest layers of the temporal orders were the masters who
carried the message and saw to its implementation: the kings and the chieftains,
the pharaohs and the emperors. They enjoyed divine origins, or at least divine
inspiration. Thanks to the link they provided to the order above, the order
below was relatively stable. People were enduringly bonded and despite
periodic revolts and revolutions, could re-bond time and time again.
We cannot live like this in the 21
st
century. We have difficulty accepting even
recognized ecclesiastical authority, not to speak of authority based on spiritual
insight. But we are not called to do so. We can find fresh guidance by looking to
science backed by spiritualityand to spirituality backed by science. Thanks to
the current convergence of these perennial streams of human culture,
remarkably authoritative insights are available to us. Through them we can form
enduring bonds between us and nature, not by obeying the commands of an
outer authority, but by following the dictates of our own mind and spirit.
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All-embracing love is the message we get when we take a deeper look at the
latest findings of the sciences. The gist of the converging insights is that there is
an underlying logic that confers unity and oneness on us, and on all things in the
universe. The world is like a vast hologram, coded by basic patterns that in-
form the entire cosmic matrix known as spacetime. There is nothing entirely
random and meaningless in this world; there are no truly chance events. Life
itself is not a random accident. The latest discoveries show that organic
macromolecules, the basic elements of life, are synthesized already in the
physical and chemical evolution of stars even before they emerge and evolve as
biological organisms on some planets. The evolution of life is not a fortuitous
event in the world, but the expression of a coherent logic carried by universal
laws.
When we peel away the symbols and metaphors that clothe the traditional
insights, we see that the concept of cosmic order is very similar in science and in
spirituality. It is an order of wholeness and connection, of instant nonlocal
interaction and embracing spacetime coherence. In the language of the systems
sciences, the universe is a complex interacting whole not a hierarchy but a
holarchy.
Humans, as all living things, are holonsembedded wholesin this cosmic
order. We are wholes in regard to the atoms, molecules, cells and organs that
make up our body and parts in regard to the larger systems that frame our lives.
We do not know how being a part feels to an atom, a molecule, a cell or even a
simpler organism. But we do know how it feels to us, conscious human beings.
When we look deeply into our own consciousness and ask, how does it really
feel to be in the world? we realize that it feels like being part of a family of a
vast family, with members bonded by all-embracing love.
With the re-cognition of all-embracing love as an intrinsic element in nature,
we can regain the coherence and solidarity we had lost in the modern world. We
can participate in the vast awakening that is now beginning to bond people,
especially young people, to each other and to nature.
Embracing love is the way we can again be part of the world. It is the
foundation of the new thinking we need to create a sustainable and humane
world. It could be, and I believe will be, our salvation.
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THE ALL-EMBRACING LOVE
DECLARATION
We are wholes and we are ascending
Humankind has been ascending toward higher insight, deeper feeling, and
clearer perception throughout its history. This ascent has been interrupted but
not cancelled by the trials and tribulations we experience today. They are
waystations of the transformation that brings us a re-cognition of our wholeness
in the world.
Our wholeness has been known for millennia. Dismissed as fantasy at the dawn
of the modern age, it is resurfacing again. We are rediscovering that all things
are whole, and all are connected. Nothing is entirely evanescent. Everything that
has ever happened is still present, and it in-forms all that is yet to happen.
We are not fragmentary beings. We are made up of myriad atoms and molecules
and myriad cells forming a complex system of organs, and yet we are one: an
integral whole. All living systems, and all networks of living systems, are wholes.
In a broader sense, all galaxies, and the metagalaxy of all galaxies, are wholes.
They are interconnected, and they co-exist and co-evolve throughout space and
time.
Wholeness is an indication that there is a deeper dimension in the world a
dimension where, as in a hologram, all that is, is present at the same time. This
dimension has been known by many names, perhaps most remarkably by the
ancient rishis, the seers of India, who called it the Akasha. As shown by deep
mystical and spiritual experience, and illustrated by records of actual access to
the Akashic field, the imprint of this dimension in-forms our bodies and in-forms
our consciousness. It is our cosmic heritage; our precious birthright. Its
rediscovery is among the most promising manifestations of our continued ascent
toward a higher stage in our intellectual and spiritual development.
We have purpose
The connections that bond all things in the world are expressed in our body and
our mind. They can also be expressed in our relations with each other and with
the world. We can act in harmony with the deep dimension, the cosmic matrix.
We can become an integral part of the great wave of evolution that unfolds
throughout space and time.
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We are here not just to subsist, to endure suffering or enjoy fleeting satisfactions
and justify our existence in the eyes of others and in our own. We are here to
experience the joy of living, the happiness of loving and being loved. We are here
to celebrate this joy and happiness. We are here so the Akashic spark within us
could inspire the re-cognition of the purpose of our life a purpose centered on
harmony with the universe, attained through our all-embracing love.
Above all, we are here to participate in the great transformation that sets the
stage for our species ascent toward deeper insight and higher wisdom. We are
here to thrive and to evolve, with all-embracing love for each other and for all
things in the cosmos.
We Seek a New Culture
Our lifes purpose calls us to create a culture and a consciousness of all-
embracing love. This is the next step in the long and eventful evolution that
unfolds the potentials of the cosmos in our bodies and our consciousness.
The next step in our evolution is driven on the one hand by increasing crises with
accompanying unrest and turbulence, and on the other by a deepening and ever
more evident unsustainability in the world. The economic, social and political
crises of our time are clear and objective evidence that the kind of thinking
dominating our world is flawed. Its fragmentation into I/you, we/world, man/nature
dualities cannot ensure the survival of the seven billion humans of the global
family. It creates polarization in society and gaps between humanity and nature.
Einstein was right: we cannot solve the significant problems of our time with the
same kind of thinking that gave rise to them. We need new thinking.
Young people, and all people young in spirit, realize that to confront the problems
of our time we need something radically and fundamentally new. We need a new
culture. Culture is not a luxury, the exclusive province of the privileged; it is the
essence of how we see the world, and ourselves in the world. It is the ground of
our values and the warrant of our aspirations.
The new culture we seek must offer an embracing view of the human being, of
society, and of the web of life on the planet. It must suggest a pragmatic ethic for
life in a globally extended, interacting and intercommunicating world. And it must
enable us to transcend the fragmented and ever more dysfunctional culture that
still dominates the contemporary world.
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The Culture of All-Embracing Love
The new culture we need is a culture of all-embracing love. When we evolve and
adopt this culture we no longer think and act the way we did before. In
possession of this culture, we:
pursue our projects and seek our interests in harmony with the interests
and projects of other people around us;
recognize the legitimate aspirations of all the communities that make up
the global family and do not manipulate other peoples and communities
for selfish and shortsighted ends;
respect the right to life and development, to equal status and dignity, of all
the children, women, and men who inhabit the Earth;
promote understanding and respect among people and nations whether
they are like us or different;
not only tolerate, but respect, other peoples and other belief systems,
seeking common ground with them in the pursuit of shared aims and
objectives;
join our intentions and energies so that all people would have the material,
intellectual and spiritual resources they need to master the challenges
that confront them;
demand of our leaders that they beat swords into ploughshares and relate
to other nations and peoples peacefully, and in a spirit of mutual care and
cooperation;
engage in and with businesses that aim not only to maximize profit and
growth for themselves, but respond to the needs of the human community
with products and services that enhance the integrity of people and of the
environment, and promote sustainable growth and development for all;
and having a culture of all-embracing love we behold with awe and wonder
a cosmos that brought forth life on this planet and on myriad other planets
in the vast reaches of space and time, a cosmos that offers conditions for
the continued evolution of the life that emerged on this planet toward ever
higher levels of consciousness, with growing insight, empathy, and love.
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We Seek a New Consciousness
To overcome the problems and crises of our fragmented world we also need a
new consciousness. Culture and consciousness must evolve in step. If we are to
become coherent and one with each other and with the world, all-embracing love
must become a basic feature of our consciousness.
The Consciousness of All-Embracing Love
Sixteen hallmarks of the new consciousness
1. I am part of the world. The world is not outside of me, and I am not
outside of the world. The world is in me, and I am in the world.
2. I am part of nature, and nature is part of me. I am what I am in my
communication and communion with all living things. I am an irreducible
and coherent whole with the web of life on the planet.
3. I am part of society, and society is part of me. I am what I am in my
communication and communion with my fellow humans. I am an
irreducible and coherent whole with the community of humans on the
planet.
4. I am more than a skin-and-bone material organism: my body, and its
cells and organs are manifestations of what is truly me: a self-sustaining,
self-evolving dynamic system arising, persisting and developing in
interaction with everything around me.
5. I am one of the highest, most evolved manifestations of the drive toward
coherence and wholeness in the universe. All systems drive toward
coherence and wholeness in interaction with all other systems, and my
essence is this cosmic drive. It is the same essence, the same spirit that
is inherent in all the things that arise and evolve in nature, whether on
this planet or elsewhere in the infinite reaches of space and time.
6. There are no absolute boundaries and divisions in this world, only
transition points where one set of relations yields prevalence to another.
In me, in this self-maintaining and self-evolving coherence- and
wholeness-oriented system, the relations that integrate the cells and
organs of my body are prevalent. Beyond my body other relations gain
prevalence: those that drive toward coherence and wholeness in society
and in nature.
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7. The separate identity I attach to other humans and other things is but a
convenient convention that facilitates my interaction with them. My family
and my community are just as much me as the organs of my body. My
body and mind, my family and my community are interacting and
interpenetrating variously prevalent elements in the network of relations
that encompasses all things in nature and the human world.
8. The whole gamut of concepts and ideas that separates my identity, or
the identity of any person or community from the identity of other persons
and communities are manifestations of this convenient but arbitrary
convention. There are only gradients distinguishing individuals from each
other and from their environment and no real divisions and boundaries.
There are no others in the world: we are all living systems and we are
all part of each other.
9. Attempting to maintain the system I know as me through ruthless
competition with the system I know as you is a grave mistake: it could
damage the integrity of the embracing whole that frames both your life
and mine. I cannot preserve my own life and wholeness by damaging
that whole, even if damaging a part of it seems to bring me short-term
advantage. When I harm you, or anyone else around me, I harm myself.
10. Collaboration, not competition, is the royal road to the wholeness that
hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for empathy
and solidarity, and ultimately for love. I do not and cannot love myself if I
do not love you and others around me: we are part of the same whole
and so are part of each other.
11. The idea of self-defense or even of national defense, needs to be
rethought. Patriotism, if it aims to eliminate adversaries by force, and
heroism even in the well-meaning execution of that aim, are mistaken
aspirations. A patriot and a hero who brandishes a sword or a gun is an
enemy also to himself. Every weapon intended to hurt or kill is a danger
to all. Comprehension, conciliation and forgiveness are not signs of
weakness; they are signs of courage.
12. The good for me and for every person in the world is not the
possession and accumulation of personal wealth. Wealth, in money or in
any material resource, is but a means for maintaining myself in my
environment. As exclusively mine, it commandeers part of the resources
that all things need to share if they are to live and to thrive. Exclusive
wealth is a threat to all people in the human community. And because I
am a part of this community, in the final count it is a threat also to me,
and to all who hold it.
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13. Beyond the sacred whole we recognize as the world in its totality, only
life and its development have what philosophers call intrinsic value; all
other things have merely instrumental value: value insofar as they add to
or enhance intrinsic value. Material things in the world, and the energies
and substances they harbor or generate, have value only if and insofar
that they contribute to life and wellbeing in the web of life on this Earth.
14. Every healthy person has pleasure in giving: it is a higher pleasure than
having. I am healthy and whole when I value giving over having. The true
measure of my accomplishment and excellence is my readiness to give.
Not the amount of what I give is the measure of my accomplishment and
excellence, but the relation between what I give, and what my family and
I need to live and to thrive.
15. A community that values giving over having is a community of healthy
people, oriented toward thriving through empathy, solidarity and love
among its members. Sharing enhances the community of life, while
possessing and accumulating creates demarcation, invites competition
and fuels envy. The share-society is the norm for all the communities of
life on the planet; the have-society is typical only of modern-day
humanity, and it is an aberration.
16. I acknowledge my role and responsibility in evolving a consciousness of
all-embracing love in me, and by example in others around me. I have
been part of the aberration of human consciousness in the modern age,
and now wish to become part of the evolution that overcomes the
aberration and heals the wounds inflicted by it. This is my right as well as
my duty, as a conscious member of a conscious species on a precious
and now critically endangered planet.
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