With our eyes open, we share the same world; with our eyes shut, each of us enters his own world.
—Heraclitus
Walking in the Point Reyes National Seashore I come upon a small cypress tree growing out of a bare rock outcrop. I marvel at the tenacity of this lifeform, rising directly from such a rugged environment. I consider how this tree has found a sufficiently supportive place, allowing it to live in balance with its surroundings. Seeing this tree’s being in the world reminds me how each of us holds the potential for growth and the possibility to achieve balance with our world. Can we take a lesson from this solitary tree emerging from bare rock? No matter where we are, no matter how seemingly hostile our environment, we can strive to manifest the deep value of life in this world.
Considering these meditations on our changing world, it is now time to weave them together to create a vision for our future. We can think of this as a tapestry that unfolds a story full of phenomenal patterns of change. The purpose of this tapestry, like those of old, is to tell a story we desperately need in these turbulent times, a story rooted in our ability to see the inherent value of the world and directly experience its luminous beauty. It is a story of how we perceive the many worlds in which we dwell as truly One World.
What are these various threads composing our tapestry for the future? Interestingly, each thread mirrors an image of One World.
Perhaps at the most fundamental level our worlds are united in matter itself. Everything we see in the universe emerged from the primal birth pangs of the Big Bang. Physicists tell us that just after the formation of our universe all matter occupied an infinitesimally small space, and at such distances each primal particle became interconnected, entangled with one another. Over the past fourteen billion years the universe unfolded into its present appearance, stretching to unthinkable distances, with recurring particle interactions creating new interconnectedness. The profound implication of this cosmic quantum reality—concerning all things material—is that everything in our universe, including us, is eternally entangled at the smallest of scales. What are the implications of this reality for the larger scales of humans, planets, solar systems, and beyond? This quintessential question may be the hidden element behind our new story. As has been noted by others, we are made of stardust, and at the most basic level of reality we remain connected to those stars. I believe human consciousness, with its phenomenal ability to apprehend the vast depths of the smallest and expanses of the greatest, is now poised to turn its gaze inward. In this process, we see deeply into the interior of all worlds and know that behind these many worlds remains One World.
At the biological level all life shares much of the same genetic material. We are truly united at this most fundamental life level. We carry the code of characteristics that allows us to know one another as a part of the grander panorama called Life. Genes, however, are not the only way we are united. In the realm of the sociological we learn that our species has the unique capability to leap beyond our genes, communicating through language and symbols to construct coherent paradigms of collective behavior. Our beliefs, ideas, and cultural constructs unite us in ways that transcend all borders. These coherent patterns of values, beliefs, and stories may manifest as either conflict or cooperation. We are in a position to choose stories that focus our purpose on creation over destruction. The world is in need of more stories of creation and creativity. Cultural evolution allows us to act in a creatively caring way toward all life on Earth. Imagine seeing the inherent value of the world rather than its monetary worth. Imagine belief systems that elevate and unveil the beauty of life on Earth. If such luminous lenses are used to view all aspects of our world, each action will arise from an inherent sense of connectedness. Our decisions about energy, lifestyle, and consumption will be naturally enfolded into our being as individuals and as societies. Our telos, or purpose, would be to strive for the better of all, not just a single individual or particular group.
But what of the forces at play in the veiled background of our unconscious? What of the psychological threads used to weave our new story of a flourishing future? The natural sciences tell us of the profound empathic interconnectivity established through our common neuronal structure. Jungian psychology presents psyche as a dynamic process uniting us through its ability to express archetypal forms. These perspectives show that at a deep psychological level we gaze at the world through similar windows. The concept of archetypes arose through the commonalities in how we see and experience the world. They act as a psychological bridge, unifying us in our common gaze upon the world. We know we are in the presence of an archetype when we experience a profound, affective, numinous feeling in the moment of perception. The sense of awe in nature, in listening to a great composition, or standing before a great work of art unites us in universal reverie. In this moment we touch a psychological substrate and nod in unison at the thing experienced. In creating our new story we are building on archetypal patterns that bind us together and link us back to the deepest nature of our being in the world.
What of the philosophical threads that compose our tapestry of transformation? We must recognize the connections between our being and the world as integrally coupled. Who I am and how I define myself is infused with the many worlds surrounding me: personal, social, and political. I have considered the concept of our phenomenal world and how we can become more deeply connected to it by consciously shifting our sense of time, spatial relations, and body. These practices put us in touch with our ability to value the world and open us to an emerging ethic that unveils our capacity of creative caring for one another. The philosophic thread in our tapestry is grounded in our being in the world. How connected are we to the places in which we dwell, the bodies that are us, and the connections we have to others? In exploring these questions we begin to understand how the way we live affects the world.
This perspective on who we are and how we exist in the world rests on the observation that we are not separate beings. There is no way to cut the invisible cords tying us to our surroundings, and this becomes most apparent when our surroundings change. In moments of change we may find ourselves happy, sad, friendly, or angry. Outer circumstances truly define our being in many ways, and to view ourselves as separate entities in which we push the world around at will is an illusion. We push the world, and it reacts, but equally the world pushes us, and we react. We are in continual play with our many worlds, not only our physical world “out there” but also our social and economic worlds. We are always in participatory engagement with the world. I believe the most significant key to our transformation of being is remembering to ask ourselves questions; the philosophic thread will bring illumination only through the simple asking of questions about our being in the world.
The interweaving of these various perspectives provides us with a new way to envision our future. The specific forms arising from this tapestry are found in symbols appearing as images and metaphors. The transformative power of these forms cannot be understated; they represent archetypal forces locked within all of us. We create an innovative narrative that touches each of us through these symbols of transformation. This creative and animate story becomes the new Living Myth connecting us to one another and to Earth.
We have arrived at a time for transformation, a time to turn toward a future of unparalleled potential. This turning is an unfolding of an archetypal process of transformation allowing physical, biological, sociological, psychological, and philosophical qualities to manifest our new story of being in the world. Each of these perspectives opens our eyes to seeing the nature of the world as one. Our new story is one of global ecological emergence, providing us with a vision of the world as a single interconnected web in which we are co-creative contributors. Our challenge now is to work together to create this new story. We are not alone in our work of weaving our new Living Myth of connectivity and cooperation.
Each of us has the capacity to transform our lives.