Long-standing stories about what is valuable and real are under siege by science and technology. “The stories we tell ourselves about who we are and why we are here are changing,” says futurist and author Barbara Marx Hubbard.
She sketches the beginnings of a new story, drawing from Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who imagines evolution as God at work, and people as active participants in the process.
In serious playfulness, Hubbard suggests humans are growing conscious of new possibilities within themselves and, in so doing, evolving from homo sapiens to homo spiritus.
Her bold vision ignites my imagination. I want to participate in shaping the emerging story about why we are here, what is valuable and real. Why not … why not me … why not now? Why am I here?”
Uncertain how to contribute, I look for inspiration in notes taken over years of reading and find the following:
The point of spiritual exercise is to:
- cultivate depth–it is necessary to become deep in order to attain experience and knowledge of profound things.
- establish in ones self a state of consciousness suited to receive revelation.
- awaken deeper levels of consciousness.
I reflect on the spiritual exercises I practice, as well as their fruits: increased discipline and patience, inner ballast, diminished entitlement, and a vitality I call aliveness. In a flash, the following answer to my question, “why am I here?” comes:
The human species stands on the cusp of an evolutionary leap—not of form, but of knowing and being. My efforts as a ‘laborer in the field’ contribute to an emerging consciousness characterized by increased capacity to ‘attain experience and knowledge of profound things’. I strive to cultivate, establish, awaken, build, develop and evolve—consciousness.
I am equipped with a compelling and aspirational story to live by.