"Turning and turning on the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…
Surely some revelation is at hand."
(William Yeats)
We live in a time of unprecedented and nearly cataclysmal change. As spring changes everything in a garden, so this period of human history seeds radical new growth. Every day we wake up in a new world.
Our conventional institutions—law, banking, government, science, medicine, religion, family, and education—barely handle the colliding forces now changing the world, nor can historical problem-solving paradigms reliably anticipate or deal with the toxic onslaught of international economic instability, terrorism and radical regimes, poverty and failed countries, drug trafficking and abuse, the still-unfolding drama of climate change, and years of reckless chemical pollution now threatening the very the web of life.
Meanwhile, the internet and global social networking technology build a geometrically-expanding web of communications fast approaching a crescendo, as billions of people directly contribute to humanity’s cultural and political evolution on a daily, even hourly, basis.
Yet history understands such anarchy as a recurring cycle. Whenever humanity’s worldview embraces false values and grows rigid, corrupt, exclusive, profane, and uninspiring, the collective order cannot hold. This plunges the world into chaos and darkness, yet eventually releases humankind’s innate hunger for mystical knowing as the ultimate source of purpose and values. The great teachers of the Axial Age—Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad—stepped forth during periods of enormous cultural chaos.
Because this present time of change is so radical, the specific characteristics of our emerging future defy prediction. Being an Elder at the dawn of the twenty-first century poses incredible challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities.
A New Way of Being in the World
While all beings are born with mystical senses, the cultural pendulum has swung too far toward reductive materialism and now fails to encourage this God-given transformative capacity. The Mystic's Way, too, is an essential element of the new world, one that Enlightened Elders, who are relatively free of self and confident in their divine seeing, will contribute.
How does the Elder embody the Mystic’s Way? Is it just for saints, prophets and gurus? Examining the elements of a mystical life, one readily sees that all of us can become mystics, especially the Elder who has done the inner work of aging.
The Mystic's Way describes new kind of path, virtually a new evolutionary process, grounded in the following experiential qualities:
• Mystical spirituality—the experience of the Sacred in and as the world (and your life) rather than beliefs about the Sacred.
• Sensing and living in the Presence —God’s imminent Consciousness pervading all existence—and trusting it as a source of authentic spirituality and personal evolution.
• Experiencing the body as the divine ground of being, for we are made of God.
• Seeing life as a revelation, not a problem to be solved.
• Deep ecumenism—embracing the highest teachings from all the great religions and wisdom traditions as our common heritage and birthright.
• Progressive transformation, as described by the great mystics in every tradition whose words still illuminate the way.
• Recognizing the inner self as being not only a gift from God, but as the very presence of God.
• Discovering that in God’s Presence the ordinary world is transfigured into Heaven on Earth.
• Spontaneous and unconditional love for the world, inspiring confrontation of all forms of duality, dishonesty, and desecration.
• Service, in which all are called to be mystics, prophets, teachers, saints, artists, and bodhisattvas.
• Our collective evolution, as we find and share the divine milieu with one another.
• Spiritual fulfillment, as we realize that everything we ever wanted—and so much more—is already here.
Moving Forward
Can you see the amazing possibilities of this new time? Yes, there will be suffering and hardship, but the resources we bring to this transitional time are amazing and hopeful. As new forms cannot grow if old ones dominate, so this time of letting go holds the promise of a new kind of social order, more akin to a single living organism in which each element is unique yet also one with the whole.
This new ethic of cooperation and sustainability points us to the following key goals:
Let Go of Individual Security for Community. We need to learn to live in a fluid, constantly changing world where everything is new, unfamiliar, untested; where the old rules no longer work and the new must be reinvented; and where we live without rigid beliefs, expectations, or inflexible long-term plans. With the world changing by the moment, we will drown if we cling to the old. Ultimately, humans find real security in each other—in family, friendship, and loving human relations. Moving beyond the failing security of money and control, we can create a consciousness where trust and love will see us through. Real security, to extent that it exists, dwells in genuine community.
Support the Young, Marginalized, and Alienated. The future depends on all of us. Recognizing the infinite value and capacity of each and every individual in creating a new world, we need to welcome all who wish to help. Everyone has something to offer, and with all the work that needs to be done, there should be no unemployment in Heaven on Earth. Whomever you are, you are invited to participate in giving birth each day to this new Creation and to tend it like the Garden it is.
Commit to Full Inclusion. This return to Earth must also include all her creatures and life forms. In the sensing mode, we quickly discover that all sentient beings constantly communicate with us, we need only learn their language in the place of imposing our own. As we learn to listen, they will teach us so much more about Earth’s systems, processes, and cycles. Like indigenous peoples, we will recover a life in harmony with our brothers and sisters, the creatures and plants of this sacred Garden.
Evolve Decentralized, Local, Participatory Leadership Structures and Processes. The time of the patriarchy, with its rigid, hierarchical, centralized, top-down leadership, must end. It served a historical purpose of organizing large and complex human systems, but it cannot solve the problems of today's world. The new human organization will likely consist of countless overlapping local and national circles, each fulfilling a designated function and all relating to one another through other circles. If we can curb our warrior attitude, solving problems at the local level will render state and federal direction obsolete, though over-arching circles may help coordinate and communicate their work.
No longer will we place some people far above others in power and authority, limiting problem-solving to a few and losing the talent and wisdom of the many. Each person holds a piece of the puzzle. We’ll put it all together when we recognize what we each have to give.
The Great Work
The visionaries of our time, including Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme, describe this collective human enterprise as the “Great Work.” Fox explains, “…there is only one work going on in the universe, the “Great Work” of creation itself —the work of creation unfolding, the work of evolution…in the universe” (1) At the individual level, this work arises from the depths of your own being where you are one with and used by the universe, by Divinity, in its profound unfolding.
To join this divine enterprise, the Elder must really do only two things: pursue the inner work of aging to awaken the Divine Self, and then experience the Divinity of the world to find and build Heaven on Earth.
The Three Secrets of Aging (see here, here, and here) provide the Enlightened Elder with guideposts on this new path of the Mystics Way:
Secret 1, Aging as an Initiation into a New Stage of Life, asks you to willingly, graciously, and even gratefully, release the past, who you were and all you have, and step across the threshold into anew life.
Will you do this?
Secret 2, Aging as a Transformation of Consciousness, asks you to transcend your normal, thought-driven way of life, realize Mystical Consciousness, experience your own deep wisdom, and discover action born of flow rather than belief, logic, or ego.
Will you do this?
Secret 3, the Revelation of Heaven on Earth, asks you to see and help build the new world. In this new kind of seeing, we witness Divinity giving birth to Creation moment-by-moment, unfolding the Great Work right before our eyes.
Will you do this?
What is the Final Blueprint for the Enlightened Elder?
It’s you!
It’s wherever you are!
It’s whatever these secrets show you!
You have been sensing your place in the world all through this book, opening your mind and doing the exercises. Now see the world with new eyes, see who and where you really are, and begin to do what you would most love to do.
Will you join the Mystic's Way?
That’s your place.
That’s your blueprint.
You are the Enlightened Elder.
As the kids say, just do it!
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NOTES
1. Fox, Matthew. (1994). The Reinvention of Work . San Francisco: Harper; p. 64.
2. See the following previously published articles:
www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/rev-john-c-robinson-phd-dmin/aging-spiritual-awakening
www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/rev-john-c-robinson-phd-dmin/aging-a-transformation-consciousness
www.chaplaincyinstitute.org/rev-john-c-robinson-phd-dmin/consciousness-a-revelation-heaven-earth
