Sunday, February 28, 2010

2012: Living with Uncertainty

At a recent meeting, many people had definitive and passionately held opinions about what will happen in 2012. While it is easier in some ways to hold on to a pre-established belief, I believe that when it comes to matters 2012, we are well-advised to keep an open mind and a “high threshold for ambiguity”. Since intention and co-creation are very definitely in the mix, this is new and unprecedented territory. My opinion is that no one really knows what will happen on 12.21.12 (if that is indeed the date). And as Annette and I have pointed out in our talks and articles, the more important emphasis is that the Shift is happening now. The sage spiritual advice about living your life one day at a time seems to be more important than ever.

In terms of the challenge of living with uncertainty, I really like what Daniel Pinchbeck blogged on his Evolver site: “Recently, I have taken as my personal mantra the not very transcendent phrase, "I don't know." The list of things I feel unsure about seems to be steadily increasing… Something seems to be happening that is beyond my capacity to understand or articulate. I can only assume other people are feeling this way as well. We are witnessing the collapse of the old, rigidified structures, while the new hasn't come into realization yet -- that is, if there is going to be a new anything. A change seems to be happening at the level of logic, which is becoming less dualistic, less "either-or," and more binary, "both-and."

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Multi-tasking and Meditation

"How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?" This was a goofy line from a very excellent Firesign Theater album back in the day. Yet it reminds me of a conundrum I’ve been trying to solve for some time. In my book Digital Mythologies I wrote about what might be called the spiritual implications of multi-tasking.

When I look at distracted multitaskers, not fully giving their attention to either one thing or the other, rightly or wrongly it always reminds me of the precise opposite of Zen mindfulness. In the book I talked about a Sprint commercial that urged us to “Be There Now” through the use of the Internet. The great irony of course is that phrase was ripped off and negatively transmuted from a well known Ram Dass book called “Be Here Now”.

I don’t claim to have the ultimate answer here just a lot of questions. For example, John Selby talks about how if you try and follow your breath during meditation, you get a certain result. But he also says (and I’ve tried this and concur) that if you focus on another element (it could be anything in the process), you effectively short circuit the mind and generating thoughts are close to impossible. How does this “two for one” activity compare to multitasking? Is multitasking somehow a function of a newer kind of consciousness or does it represent a step away from the mindfulness that’s necessary in these difficult times?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A Big Tent: 2012 and The Shift

One of the guiding principles of 2012 discernment is the notion of inclusiveness. With reference to other spiritual traditions, the Shift can serve as a unifying principle and a big tent that embrace the commonalities in what might be perceived as disparate spiritual practices rather than emphasizing the differences. In addition, we're seeing interesting trends developing where practitioners of traditional religions are combining them with other spiritual ideas and practices.

This trend has been around for a long time and is commonly known as "cafeteria style spirituality". But what's interesting, as reported in USA Today, is that the trend is accelerating. For example, "Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year...35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations."

This is called syncretism, defined as the "the combination of different forms of belief or practice". Syncretism is very consistent with the 2012/Shift mindset since it becomes important to respect the rich variety of spiritual sources that point to this unique time in history. There's a long list but they include Hopi and other indigenous prophecies, Mayan, Taoist, Tibetan Buddhist , Vedic, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

It's really a beautiful idea to think that so many spiritual paths are converging on the transformation of the Shift as common ground but there's still a lot of work to do to start seeing different spiritual practices as "many roads" instead of many walls. One of the changes that needs to take place, as Mayan interpreter Carl Johan Calleman points out, is to move beyond dualistic thinking. This means breaking down the artificial barriers between spiritual traditions that create disharmonies and in its most extreme expression hatred and intolerance. Our challenge now is to come to some consensus on the underlying basic truths and principles that run through many spiritual practices to get closer to the goal of acting in unity and as one voice for this truth to be manifest creatively in our inner and outer worlds.