small things

Who must do the hard things?
Those who can.
And who must do the impossible things?
Those who care.

The world is nothing more than Beauty’s chance to show Itself. And what are we? Nothing more than Beauty’s chance to see Itself. For if Beauty were not seeking Itself we would not exist.

As the powerful energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process gradually awakens to itself in the light of humanity’s highly evolved, self-reflective awareness—especially in those who are at the most advanced stage of our own culture’s development—something very important begins to happen. As the self becomes more highly individuated, simultaneously its powers of autonomy, volition, free agency, consciousness, and cognition increase exponentially. And the growing complexity of the self-structure is the prism through which the light of that evolutionary impulse shines into this world. This prism is alive and conscious, and it possesses the powers of both self-reflectivity and choice. That is why, when the evolutionary impulse awakens and surges through a highly evolved vehicle, it is the development of that individual that enables the very essence of the evolutionary impulse itself to actually evolve and to refine itself as it moves through them. It is none other than our uniquely human capacities for autonomy, volition, free agency, consciousness, and cognition that enable this impulse—which is the manifest God—to effect change in the world and in the universe.

The ego is not a thing but a subtle effort, and you cannot use effort to get rid of effort—you end up with two efforts instead of one. The ego itself is a perfect manifestation of the Divine, and it is best handled by resting in Freedom, not by trying to get rid of ego, which simply increases the effort of ego itself.

Many people have the misconception that spiritual life or religious life is somewhere up there in the sky—an ethereal or mystical reality—and that our everyday life is too mundane and not so nice. Often people think that to be a spiritual person, we must ignore or neglect our everyday life and go into another, special realm. To me, being a spiritual person means becoming a real human being.

In this world, all qualities spring from preferring the wellbeing of others to our own, whereas frustrations, confusion, and pain result from selfish attitudes. By adopting an altruistic outlook and by treating others in the way they deserve, our own happiness is assured as a byproduct. We should realize that self-centeredness is the source of all suffering, and that thinking of others is the source of all happiness.

In Evolutionary Enlightenment, the perennial revelation that there is only One is interpreted as the recognition that we are all part of One Process—a singular cosmic unfolding that began fourteen billion years ago and is still evolving, in this very moment, as you and as me. Every aspect of your experience in every moment, from the gross to the subtle, has been produced and is being produced by a cosmic process. Your physical form has been produced by a process that is the evolution of the exterior of the cosmos. Your psychological and emotional experience has been produced by a process that is the evolution of the interior of the cosmos. When you awaken to this perspective, you literally can no longer see yourself as separate. You can’t see your experience, at any level, as occurring in isolation from everything else that exists. The separate world of “me” that the ego creates is seen for what it is: an illusion. And you realize that even your capacity to experience that illusory world of “me” has been produced by this vast process. You cannot stand outside of it. You are the process.

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

Little by little, we change the world we live in. Even the grand, earth-shaking events of history have their origins in individual thought.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.