The Future of Awareness: A Weapon For Change

This is a con­tin­u­a­tion of our series on Liv­ing Trans­for­ma­tion, in which we are exam­in­ing a series of prin­ci­ples essen­tial for cre­at­ing a new future for human­ity. Pre­vi­ous posts in this series can be found here, here, and here.

We don’t have to look too far afield to know that we are wit­ness­ing the unrav­el­ing of the old order. It’s sys­tems are crum­bling, even as its so called “lead­ers” des­per­ately attempt to keep it going. It’s like the prover­bial “re-arrang­ing the deck chairs on the Titan­tic”. No mat­ter how the chairs are arranged, the Titan­tic is sinking.

Human­ity is already mov­ing into a new par­a­digm, even as we are stand­ing in the rub­ble of the old one’s demise. In this moment of time, when the chaos and dis­ar­ray are still mount­ing and we can­not yet see the for­ma­tion of what will fol­low, we can wring our hands and fall into fear, which is how the old dom­i­na­tion model has main­tained con­trol through­out human history.

Or we can turn our eyes towards build­ing a future that embod­ies the prin­ci­ples of “we’re all in this together, how can we best serve human­ity and the planet?” instead of “how can I profit and ben­e­fit at all costs?”

Cre­at­ing a future that works for every­one and not just the priv­i­leged few, will require a major shift in con­scious­ness on the part of those who stand to ben­e­fit the most by main­tain­ing the old order. It will require a shift in how we view the world and our place in it, how we view our rela­tion­ship with the earth itself and whether or not we have a respon­si­bil­ity to serve the earth vs. pil­lag­ing its resources, includ­ing our­selves, into oblivion.

Do we really want to per­pet­u­ate the old par­a­digm espoused by some of today’s politi­cians who preach that we are not here to serve the earth, the earth is here to serve us? This is the epit­ome of the old par­a­digm, crafted in a time when the human pop­u­la­tion could be mea­sured in thou­sands instead of bil­lions. That kind of think­ing long ago out­lived its rel­e­vance and clearly will not serve human­ity going forward.

In our awak­en­ing to the work that lies ahead for all of human­ity, it is imper­a­tive that we get what is being required of us now. We can no longer “live by the sword” as of old. Our “sword”, in all of its iter­a­tions, from bombs to pep­per spray, is being blunted and replaced with awareness.

Take note of what hap­pened at the UC Davis cam­pus in the wake of the pep­per spray inci­dents there a few weeks ago. After bru­tal pep­per spray­ing at the hands of cam­pus police, stu­dents lined up in silent protest as the university’s Chan­cel­lor, Ms. Katehi, walked past them from her press con­fer­ence, held to explain and defend her actions. She was forced to hear, in the silence, the true voice of the peo­ple. In meet­ing their eyes, she was forced to see that they were present and wide awake.

The sleep­ing giant is awakening.

Take note of what hap­pened on the steps of the state capi­tol in Vir­ginia this week, when thou­sands, mostly women, came in “silent” protest at the new leg­is­la­tion man­dat­ing sono­grams and vagi­nal probes for women seek­ing abor­tions. They too, stood in silence as their state leg­is­la­tors filed past them on their way to take up dis­cus­sion on HR-1, the bill in ques­tion. As a result of this demon­stra­tion by the peo­ple, state leg­is­la­tors chose to post­pone their dis­cus­sion. They may ulti­mately pass this leg­is­la­tion against the will of the peo­ple, but they can­not pre­tend they don’t know that the sleep­ing giant ulti­mately has a vote.

David and Goliath

These new “weapons” are being used in the con­fronta­tion between David and Goliath wherein David, aka the peo­ple, is putting Goliath on notice that we are awake, we are watch­ing and we are lis­ten­ing. And we are aware. It is the very thing Goliath fears the most. For in our awak­en­ing, we can no longer be manip­u­lated into fear and instead are claim­ing our voice and our respon­si­bil­ity to use it wisely for the ben­e­fit of all.

The sleep­ing giant, aka human­ity, is com­ing out of its col­lec­tive slum­ber and begin­ning the jour­ney through its own birth canal. We are in the labor pains of deliv­er­ing our­selves to an entirely new way of relat­ing to our­selves, each other and the planet. In the process, each of us is being called to awaken our own sleep­ing giant within.

Hav­ing just crossed a major thresh­old in my own life, turn­ing 70 last week, I am aware as never before, of the unlived life still await­ing my dis­cov­ery. I know that I am here to be part of this grand unfold­ing wherein together, we human beings step up and into a higher expres­sion of con­scious­ness. In this new par­a­digm, the awak­ened giant becomes Cupid, using love as the only weapon nec­es­sary for the heal­ing of human­ity and a return to wholeness.

I wel­come this trans­for­ma­tive process along with its birth pains. It is our col­lec­tive labor of love and we are all here to be mid­wives in the process. It’s time to scrub up and begin deliv­ery. Our future is about to arrive.