Being Humans Together

We conclude our second set of episodes by considering how we can grow our awareness, our consciousness, and our agency to live more empowered, meaningful, purposeful lives each day.

Surely we can grow our awareness of how things really are, our ability to see and hear and understand what is real, our creativity, and our will to do what is best, highest, and most important.

Too many people treat their philosophy or ideology or religion like a spectator sport. They sit in the benches every once in a while and cheer for their team, but they don’t actively walk the path. They have strong feelings and opinions about how right their team is. But they don’t care enough to work, to develop the core skills, to become good at the game, to truly embody the ideals and principles that their path teaches.

Knowing the path or believing in the path is much less important than walking the path.

Put another way, it doesn’t really matter what you believe about God if you don’t actually know God by following God and living your highest principles.

That is the best any of us can do — Seek the best path we can, then try our best to follow it. 

 

We can increase our meaning by processing the past, by connecting with wisdom traditions, by developing nuanced understandings of our complicated past.

Examine your experiences. Learn from your past, especially your pain.

Examine your relationships. Learn from the examples of your people, your close family and friends. 

Study. Ponder. Pray. The divine can also guide you to meaning.

How do we increasing our purposeful goals?

If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t really matter if you get there.

Aim. And then act. Aim again, and then move forward. Orient yourself and reorient yourself toward higher goals.

When you find ideals and goals that inspire and motivate you to work hard, that fill you to overflowing, that motivate you to connect with and help other people —

Then you are moving the right direction.

When you find that you are stuck, that you are finding darkness, depression, or unhealthiness, it is time to reconsider.

Do you need to work harder or smarter? Do you need to seek support and collaborate with friends and family to pursue your good goals? Or do you need to alter your direction? 

Explore the best communities and principles you can find. Join. Participate. Give back.

 

How do we increase our will, our ability to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions?

Act now. Work.

Choose to reorient ourselves. Aim. Aim again.

 

To all this, let us add the culmination of our view of the origin and nature of consciousness — 

that consciousness is deeply human, 

that it emerged and emerges from networked human minds and souls 

And if this is the origin of consciousness, should we not elevate these things and practice them with all our hearts?