Chapter 20

 

Quantum Activism: An Introduction

Quantum activism begins when we change our worldview from a matter-based one to one based on quantum physics and the primacy of consciousness. We have begun right thinking and we ask: now that we know how to think properly about our world, what should we do about it? We have taken the first step toward becoming quantum activists.

Quantum physics, when interpreted through the philosophy of monistic idealism, is transformative. Right thinking—giving up myopic materialist ideas and embracing God, downward causation, and the importance of the subtle bodies in our lives—is the first step of a transformative journey. There is more.

Spiritual traditions regard the journey of transformation as spiritual—a journey toward the spirit, the unmanifested reality, leaving the manifest world behind. The transformative journey of a quantum activist is different.

Our science within consciousness is telling us that the manifest material world is designed to represent the possibilities of the unmanifest better and better as time proceeds through evolution.

Transformation is important primarily to serve the evolutionary play of consciousness and only secondarily for personal salvation in spirit.

So, as quantum activists, we do not leave the world; instead we live in the world with the right attitude. We combine right thinking with right living.

RIGHT LIVING

How can we live so as to serve the evolution of consciousness in manifestation? It turns out that this is a balancing act.

Materialists see life as biased toward the material end, hardly leaving any space for meaning, let alone the supramental. The conventional people of spirit live life weighted heavily toward the spiritual. The path of the quantum activist is the middle path: the subtle and the spirit are valued, but so is matter that makes representations.

To the materialist, life is the playing out of genetically, evolutionarily, and environmentally conditioned programs. Only the ego exists. Spending life in the service of the ego is the goal. One becomes equivocal about meaning and values. To the spiritual seeker, the object is to become embodied spirit—the quantum self. The goal is to perpetually live in the quantum self of (inner) creativity. One becomes confused about the manifest world.

The quantum activist lives in growing balance between the two extremes. The activist knows that it is as important to manifest the content (the insight) of a quantum-self experience as to manifest the context. And the manifestation of the content requires sophisticated structures of the mind, many repertoires of representing meaning. For the quantum activist, living in the ego and living in the quantum self have to be balanced in a life focused on personal growth.

It is now customary to classify mental health into three categories: pathological, normal, and positive. Psychotherapists mostly work with patients who need to be lifted from pathological to normal. Normal mental health here is defined as a state in which a person is capable of normal ego-sustaining activities and of maintaining relationships, and is fairly balanced emotionally. Positive mental health is enjoyed by those who are happy much of the time, who are creative, who are more or less independent of their environments, and who have some capacity for unconditional love, a sense of humor, and some other, less important qualities (see Maslow, 1971). Everybody has the potential to move from normal mental health to positive, which is the essence of personal growth. For quantum activists, it is a prerogative.

We become interested in personal growth when we begin to deal with the great meaning questions that lie dormant in the ego-identity of ordinary mental health. “What is the meaning of my life? What am I doing here?” These kinds of questions. We are no longer satisfied with the status quo of the ego-homeostasis. The inquiry about the meaning of life launches us into self-inquiry, and even further, into an inquiry about the nature of consciousness itself. And when we discover the evolutionary nature of the movement of consciousness in manifestation, we align ourselves with that movement.

BALANCING THE GROSS AND THE SUBTLE

Materialists avowedly live at the gross level, although I suspect that surreptitiously many of them do partake of the subtle—feelings, meanings, intuition, values. Likewise, the spiritual seeker avowedly ignores the gross, but secretly may appreciate the color of money quite a bit—survival instinct, you know. For the quantum activist, there is no conflict of worldview there. Both gross and subtle are necessary for making manifestation possible; both are important. The quantum activist directs his or her attention to both.

The quantum activist considers the nuances of the material dimensions of life, such as making a living, but does not get lost, does not identify with his or her professional persona as such. The quantum activist openly enjoys and explores the subtle—feelings, meanings, and values—soul food.

In the past, and to some extent even now, spiritual pursuits have been identified with practices like meditation, prayer, the reading of good books, and even celibacy. If love is included as a spiritual practice, it is in the form of agape or compassion—objective love. This aspect of spirituality is important for the quantum activist also, but it is not everything. The quantum activist engages in spirituality in everyday living as well. Not only does the quantum activist explore love as charity and service to others, but also in intimate relationships, even carnal relationships. In this way, the spirituality of quantum activism is close to the tradition of tantra.

It behooves a quantum activist to be aware of the difference between pleasure and happiness. Pleasure eventually separates. There is nothing wrong with temporary separation from wholeness, of course, provided we practice moderation. Happiness, however, is always the result of wholeness. You cannot go astray with happiness.

BALANCING THE VARIOUS SUBTLE DOMAINS

Of utmost importance to the quantum activist is the balancing of the various subtle domains of the self—feeling, thinking, and intuition.

To the materialist, thinking is everything; rationality is supreme. Even the fact that the progress of scientific research itself depends on quantum leaps of intuition does not influence the strict rationalism of the materialist.

Mystics are one step ahead of the materialists; they embrace both the rational and the intuitive planes. But they do not put them on an equal footing. Invariably, spiritual traditions tend to denigrate creativity involved with processing meaning in outer manifestation—creativity in the arts, humanities, and sciences. This will not suffice for quantum activists, who must balance both outer and inner creativity in their lives. Both are important for our evolution.

Mystics also, by and large, tend to avoid base feelings and negative emotions, never bothering to transform them. This has led to much misconception about the behavioral usefulness of the so-called mystical “enlightenment.” What good is enlightenment if it does not enable a person to behave with equanimity even when faced with provocations that call for anger, greed, or lust?

The inner creativity of using the mind has been the traditional popular tool of spiritual seekers with the objective of attaining insight or samadhi (enlightenment, satori, gnosis, or whatever else you call it). Love, which additionally requires working with and transforming (vital) energies of emotions, is left out in this male-oriented tradition, so much so that in the 1980s the spiritual women of America rose in protest to coin phrases like “feminine spirituality” and “the feminine face of God.” We quantum activists have to integrate this dichotomy and practice creativity with love.

The greatest challenge I envision for a quantum activist is the transformation of negative emotions into positive ones, that is, achieving emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1994; Krishnamurthy, 2008). Look around you. In all our social organizations, negative emotions are rampant. If we quantum activists don't know how to transform them, how can we effectively ask others to show restraint and emotional maturity?

The transformation of negative emotions involves, in addition to mental creativity, creativity in the domain of the vital. The challenge is to engage the creative process simultaneously in the domains of the mind and of the vital energies. The practice of unconditional love discussed in chapter 18 falls in this category. Quantum healing at the vital level (see Goswami, 2004) gives us opportunities to invoke vital creativity.

BALANCING THE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Materialists emphasize only the waking state of consciousness, for obvious reasons. A staunch materialist would rather stay awake and make money all the time or pursue other material ventures if he or she could. This may account for the popularity of stimulants in our culture, in spite of the habit-forming destruction they bring.

Spiritual seekers in general seek states of samadhi. As such, they don't pay much attention to their dreams. And they endure the ordinary waking state and deep sleep only because they have no choice.

But this won't suffice for the quantum activist. Remember: he or she is interested not only in samadhi, but also in the insight gained in creative experiences, including samadhi, to change the quality of waking and dream life. To the quantum activist, creative insight and samadhi—visiting the supramental intuitive plane—are important, but so are the waking and the dreaming states. To pay attention to the dream state, you must engage in dream analysis; it has much to contribute to your spirituality.

Not only waking awareness, but also dreams can be used for personal growth and for spiritual transformation. In this connection, you should pay great attention to archetypal dreams. These dreams are about the laws of movement for all the bodies contained in the supramental body. Of these, the laws of the material body are quantitative. But the laws become progressively less quantitative and more thematic as they move to the vital, to the mental, and on to the supramental. For example, mental meaning revolves around certain contexts such as love, beauty, truth, and justice—all qualities. These are the great Platonic archetypes.

The origin of Jungian archetypes in dreams can now be understood. Because of necessities of manifestation, limitations of expression occur and certain themes are suppressed from our normal waking awareness. The confluence of these suppressed themes is what makes up the collective unconscious, whose suppressed themes are universal; this is in contrast to the Freudian personal unconscious, whose suppressed themes are personal. In dreams, once again, our normal guard against suppressed themes is weak, thus raising the possibility of their surfacing. Indeed, they surface as the now well-known symbols of Jungian archetypes: the great mother, the hero, the shadow, the trickster, the anima and the animus, and so forth. Working with these archetypal dreams makes the unconscious conscious once again, as we come to terms with the learning agenda of our supramental body, what the psychologist James Hillman (1992) calls the soul's intent. (See also chapter 15.) We become open to creativity and the other characteristics of positive mental health.

An example is in order. Consider the archetypes of the anima and the animus. The anima is the archetypal woman in man—the possibility waves in male minds that correspond to the female, but are suppressed because the male's genetic and environmental conditioning may find their expression inappropriate. The animus similarly is the suppressed male possibilities in women. Why should we change these conditioned tendencies for suppression? Because the anima in men also represents the quality of receptivity, an essential quality for creativity, so men need to integrate the anima. Similarly, women need to integrate their animus because it enhances willpower, which is necessary for the three P's of the creative process—preparation, perseverance, and production.

In the mid-1980s, I was struggling with spirituality and rekindling my creativity for some time, but to no avail. The conventional spiritual practices were not doing me much good.

One night I dreamed I was looking for water in a stream, but the stream seemed to be dry. Then I heard a voice: “There is no water there. Look behind you.” I did, and it was raining. So I soon found myself walking in the rain along the meadows, and a very pretty young lady joined me. The walk became quite joyous among all that water, and I also had a joyous conversation with my companion.

When the meadows came to an end, there was a house, and it seemed that my young companion was about to enter the house.

“When will I see you again?” I asked.

“I am going to London. When I get back, I will be waiting for your call,” she said, and disappeared. I returned to walking joyfully through the meadows.

This dream, which is clearly a classic anima dream, was crucial to my development. It encouraged me subsequently to focus my energy on anima integration, which was the key I was missing.

Let me mention one more thing. Dream analysis can be much easier with the help of another person or persons. In other words, when we are working on our personal growth through dreams, who is to take the place of the psychotherapist? One answer is to find a spiritual teacher who works with dreams. (Many do.) During the period 1987-1989, I worked extensively on my dreams with the spiritual teacher Joel Morwood. An easier and more appropriate avenue is to join a dream group or to create one. As mentioned before, I did that too.

REINCARNATION: FIND AND FOLLOW YOUR BLISS

Materialists don't believe in reincarnation; there is no room for reincarnation in materialist science. Conventional spirituality allows for reincarnation, but the emphasis is always to go beyond the birth-death-rebirth cycle. For the quantum activist, things are quite different.

I discussed the East Indian concept of dharma in chapter 15. This concerns the archetypal learning agenda that we bring with us into each life; we choose our karmic propensities accordingly. When we fulfill our dharma in this life, we experience bliss.

Quantum activists are in no hurry for liberation from the birth-death-rebirth cycle. Accordingly, we must each pay attention to our inherent karmic propensities and use them to fulfill the learning agenda, dharma, of this life. Following our bliss in this way frees us to serve the evolutionary movements of consciousness.

EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS

I introduced the subject of ethics in two previous chapters in connection with the soul and reincarnation. There is still another way to look at ethics—evolution.

There is one remaining problem with all three ethical philosophies discussed in the previous chapters: why do some people follow ethics and others don't? At least in times past, maybe fear of hell or desire of heaven was an incentive. But few take heaven and hell seriously enough anymore to sacrifice selfishness. I submit that the reason so many of us, even today, try to be “good” in our daily living, with so much unethical behavior in our societies, is evolution. There is an evolutionary pressure that we experience as a calling, and we respond.

It follows that ethics need not be looked upon as religious or spiritual, nor is there any need to compromise and adopt the scientific (materialist) ethics of “the greatest good for the greatest number” or subscribe to a bioethics driven by the genes. We can solidly base ethics on the very scientific notion of evolution.

Let's define an evolutionary ethics. As I have discussed elsewhere (Goswami, 1993), a good ethical principle that seems inescapable for us in the idealist sense is this: ethical actions must maximize the creativity of people, including ours. Evolutionary ethics goes one step further: ethical actions must maximize the evolutionary potential of every human being.

As an example, let's consider a serious ethical problem. You and a group of scientist colleagues have discovered the technology for developing a new weapon of mass destruction. The ethical question is whether to develop the weapon or not. In a previous age, the excuse that others would sooner or later develop the same weapon to use against you would have made you prone to violate ethics and develop the weapon, even though there was no immediate threat. Patriotism creates an ambiguity. This is exactly what happened with the atomic bomb. But evolutionary ethics is not like the religious ethics of the previous age. It advocates the same ethics for all of humanity, an objective ethics needed for the evolutionary future of humankind. So you don't need to be equivocal, and you would be able to reject outright the thought of developing the new weapon.

RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

Hopi Indians are known for their emphasis on “right relationship,” not only with people and animals, but also with their environment at large, extending even to the whole planet.

In the inward journey of conventional spirituality, right relationship with the environment is often ignored. No doubt this has led to the modern movement of deep ecology. Once we become established in an evolutionarily ethical relationship with all human beings, it is time to ponder our ethical responsibility to all creatures, great and small, including our nonliving environment. In short, let's ask, What is our responsibility to the planet earth, to Gaia?

Deep ecology (Devall and Sessions, 1985) not only requires abiding by a few rules for preserving our ecosystem and passing a few laws to reduce or prevent environmental pollution, but also means taking actions in ambiguous situations that demand a creative quantum leap.

When you take such a quantum leap, you realize one astounding fact: I choose, therefore I am, and my world is. The world is not separate from you. When we do this en masse, we will leap into a truly Gaia consciousness, which has arisen in human vision from a different context (Lovelock, 1982).

RIGHT ACTION

So finally, what is the plan of action of the quantum activist? Using the oft-quoted phrase of the Hindus, what is the karma yoga of the quantum activist? For Hindus, karma yoga is applying spiritual practice in the middle of real life by doing selfless service. This is an important practice of many spiritual traditions, especially of Christianity and Sotto Zen. For a quantum activist, karma yoga is extended toward selflessly serving society and the world with evolution in mind.

In our current materialist culture, accomplishment is the standard-bearer. When one acts with an accomplishment orientation, any action, even one that is seemingly selfless, always tends to strengthen the ego—the accomplisher. To undermine the accomplisher within us, we must not take ourselves too seriously. In other words, we dance, but always lightly, not caring how anyone thinks of us, not even how we think of ourselves.

RIGHT LIVELIHOOD: BRINGING MEANING BACK INTO OUR SOCIETY

Three of our recent great social accomplishments—capitalism, democracy, and liberal education—all originated from the idea of making meaning available for everyone to process. But now, under the aegis of materialism, the pursuit of meaning has degenerated into a pursuit of power. This is a major deterrent to our future evolution.

One central purpose of quantum activism is to bring meaning back into our social institutions, on which we depend for our livelihood. So whatever your real-life situation in our society, it will provide you with ample opportunities to practice karma yoga for your quantum activism, with the goal of shifting from the pursuit of power back to the pursuit of meaning. For example, if you are a businessperson, clearly business is your arena for quantum activism, where you can follow your bliss and where you can restore meaning in your life.