INTEGRAL CONTEXT - THE ROLE OF IDEALISM
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Friday, November 7, 2008, 8:48 AM
Subject: Integral Context - The Role of Idealism
ID: 265707

Good morning --

Just a couple small thoughts on this theme, that might help make it clearer....

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We could say -- that "Oneness" is known, or knowable, by an individual human being, through a process of self-realization. We follow a spiritual path, we "reap a harvest of grace" in some way, and this Oneness becomes known to us. We experience it -- as a private and personal thing.

And this same energy and knowing -- becomes available or accessible to more than one person -- in a shared way, that creates a kind of "resonant field" -- when two or more people can feel or share this kind of experience. Put simply -- this is what "namaste" is about. Something like "The Oneness in me is One with the Oneness in you."

"Your Oneness and my Oneness are the same Oneness..."

"One Oneness in two bodies...."

Something like that.

So, at one level, we are one, and, put very mystically, I AM you, and you are me....

But -- there is this planet we share. Although we are one in this sense -- we are also different. Suppose it turns out that we disagree on a political issue. You are a rancher, and feel strongly that more water in our local river must be allocated to the farmers and ranchers. I am a city-dweller, and feel that more water must come into the city for drinking and bathing and lawns. "We are One" -- but we disagree on this issue. Are we going to let this issue divide us, and break this Oneness? Or are we going to find a way to resolve the issue within the context of Oneness?

Being completely practical -- we could simply say that people have always fought over these issues, and they always will. So "get real" -- these idealistic dreams are never going to come true.

Or -- if something in our souls is spiritual to the core, and we feel that the destiny of human civilization will and ultimately must be deeply spiritual -- maybe we can continue to believe that within an unbroken context of Namaste -- human civilization can and eventually will work out its differences...

For me -- it feels as through the calling on this planet -- my own little sense of "mission" -- is to continue to defend the absolute ideal -- even if I know that it is very unlikely to be realized in its fullest sense.

I want to see an awakening -- to this sense of "Integral Context" -- or, if a better word can be suggested -- simply to this sense of unity and oneness and wholeness -- that really is the context of the human experience on this planet.

For me, as I see it -- there IS a universal spirituality that can and will and should inform the collective decisions we human beings make, as we shape our collective destiny by our political actions and choices.

Maybe it is true -- that we should concentrate on more practical things. "You will never successfully bridge spirit and politics" some will say. "It's just too idealistic, too impractical. It will never work."

But this dream lives on in me. I see in my mind's eye -- a world that is informed by "resonance" -- that "the vibration of OM can and should move through every human process" -- through everything done by individuals in their private and "separate" lives -- and in everything human beings do together, as they interact with one another connected through this "namaste" vibration and Oneness.

I envision this resonant pulse of OM -- moving through everything -- as some would say it already is -- and wisely informing and guiding everything that happens, every choice that human beings make to regulate the destiny we share together...

For me -- Obama is the beginning of the call to this unity and integrity. He represents this force, and calls us all to it. The way I see it -- we do not have to fully realize this unity in every regard in order to see this process as successful and beautiful. As this vision grows around the world, and becomes more natural and more instinctive, as millions of people realize this Oneness within themselves, and connect to others through it -- our collective destiny can be guided by this Oneness...

So, sure, I realize this is a a utopian idealism. But I think there is a role in the world for this kind of standard. It's a goal, a standard of perfection, towards which many of us are instinctively attracted. Maybe something like this is "the law of heaven" -- and really can never be fully realized "down here below". But there is that dream -- the restoration of Eden, of "bringing heaven to earth". In my own little way, I want to see that dream realized. Even a few steps in that direction, as taken by millions of people, could and would have an amazing and beautiful effect on everything that goes on around us.

As was said, some see what is in the world, and say why? Other see what never was, and say why not...