Introduction
Global warming, an existential crisis of monumental proportions, is rapidly descending upon us. We don't know where this escalating apocalypse is going and we can't instantly stop or reverse it. Science is working on it. Countless enlightened governmental and grassroots organizations are mobilizing for action. The news cycle is finally admitting the crisis is real. Will this concerted effort be enough? In consideration of this critical question, there is, yet, one more avenue we should pursue: mystical activism. This three-part blog explores the questions: What is mystical activism and how might it help us find our way through this time climate reckoning?
What Is Mystical Activism?
Mystical activism begins with mystical consciousness: an intentionally awakened, thought-free, sacred of awareness that transforms the experience of our self, our work, and the world itself. In its fullness, mystical consciousness reveals the exquisitely beautiful, infinitely precious, and timeless reality known as Creation. Permeated by the divine Presence, everything is perceived as sacred, including us, for the Beloved now manifests as the world itself. This transformation of self and consciousness leads naturally to mystical activism for we instinctively love and protect that which is sacred to us. In the process, weco-create the kind of world we want to live in.
How Does Mystical Consciousness Change the World?
The dualistic mind created by the evolution of the split-brain fools us into believing that there is only one world and one way to fix it. It says we live in a physical reality properly described by thought, that reality is what we think it is, and that logical thought processes are the best ways to improve the world. This is the left-brain approach to problem-solving and western science, technology and industry are extremely good at it. But when we name and explain things with intellectual constructs only, we lose touch with the magic, mystery, and wonder of the divine world and the sacred fabric of existence fades from awareness and memory. In fact, we may not believe it even exists. Jewish mystic Abraham Heschel explained, "As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind." He added that the greatest hindrance to an awareness of the sacred is "…our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental clichés." The answer? "Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is." And Heschel warned, "Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation…"
Mystical consciousness is a powerful antidote to the conceptual mode of problem-solving. In mystical consciousness, we temporarily leave the left-brain's thought world, heighten sensory awareness, experience reality in a consciousness free of thought, expectation, agenda and self, and then open the transformative power of pure consciousness. With practice, we discover that nothing is what we think it is, everything is literally sacred, including us, and that consciousness is not just in me, I am in it and it is the consciousness of divinity. This is mystical consciousness, offering us a revelation of the infinite beauty and perfection of Creation and the untapped power of mystical activism. It's not that we would ignore the left-brain's prodigious skills but we would imbue them with sacred consciousness so our work benefits all of Creation. Left-brain planning with awareness firmly planted in the divine consciousness would make a huge difference in healing the world at both individual and collective levels.
Next up: The Practice of Finding Heaven Here