The Universal Rachel
I was marveling at how little things used to disrupt my day – at how bigger things would disrupt my life. And now I marvel at how far I have come in centering myself in the now and how I’ve come to be able to see the power in myself against external forces with a thread that connects me to all my experiences.
I read this in my morning passage from The Power of Now:
THE INSANITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TIME
You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective manifestations. They occur, for example, in the form of ideologies such as communism, national socialism or any nationalism, or rigid religious belief systems, which operate under the implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form happiness, fulfillment, equality, liberation, and so on will be attained. Not infrequently, the means of getting there are the enslavement, torture, and murder of people in the present.
For example, it is estimated that as many as 50 million people were murdered to further the cause of communism, to bring about a “better world” in Russia, China, and other countries. This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness?
How does this mind pattern operate in your life? Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your doing just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures, such as sex, food, drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining, or alternatively chasing some new thrill or pleasure? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled, good enough, or psychologically complete? Are you waiting for a man or woman to give meaning to your life?
In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and infinite creative potential that lie concealed in the Now are completely obscured by psychological time. Your life then loses its vibrancy, its freshness, its sense of wonder. The old patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, reaction, and desire are acted out in endless repeat performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but distorts or covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.
And just the other day in a meeting, a friend concurred with my realizations about fear – fear is what you know, not what you don’t know. She quoted J. Krishnamurti:
Can you watch fear without any conclusion?
Can you watch fear without any conclusion, without any interference of the knowledge you have accumulated about it? If you cannot, then what you are watching is the past, not fear; if you can, then you are watching fear for the first time without the interference of the past.
In that same meeting, another friend said he believes there is a new humanity presenting itself, a new consciousness. I wholeheartedly agree. Barbara Marx Hubbard describes it as the Universal Human being created:
In this awakening it has become clear to many that it is self-conscious humans feeling separate from each other and from nature, who are threatening our world. At the same time, if we look closely, there is also arising, for the first time, a more universal humanity.
Our crisis is inducing the birth of a more universal human.
We are the crossover generation moving from one phase of evolution to the next! Although barely perceptible, as were the earliest humans in the pre-human world, a young Homo universalis is emerging everywhere, in every culture, faith, and background. The signs of our emergence as universal humans include an unconditional love for the whole of life; a powerful, irresistible passion to unite with Spirit within; and a deep heart-felt impulse to connect with others and cocreate a world equal to our love and our capacities.
I entered this day believing in the bigger picture – even while I toil at the work of a mere mortal, I do believe I am transitioning.
