Existence has become unmanageable for the human species. At every level, from individual emotional stability to couple and family relationships to global politics, life is in deadlock. There is no solution to our problems—or even the possibility to will a solution—so long as human consciousness remains at its current level of incomplete development... Our addiction to the drives and pleasures of the ego—to its nasty attributes like narcissism, greed, hatred, prejudice, aggression, deception, venality, and denial—is destroying our collective existence.
If we are going to survive, we must evolve rapidly to higher levels of consciousness. This has been the deepest yearning of humanity since the dawn of recorded time, the raison d’etre of every religion, the message of every great prophet and sage in history. But now our time has run out. We cannot wait for some messiah or avatar or revolutionary movement or benign extraterrestrials .. to accomplish the redemption for us. We must do the work of inner transformation ourselves—and do it immediately.
The transformation of consciousness has become THE existential imperative. We either transform now or succumb to extinction. Whether we succeed or fail as an evolutionary experiment will be determined by us, the set of presently existing human beings. And the transformation required can only be achieved one human being at a time. It cannot be mass-produced, although we can accelerate the process by creating a planetary culture that supports this achievement. But someone must go first. We ourselves, each of us who become aware of the imperative, must become role models of the attainment of that supreme ideal.
Each of us must take responsibility for our own inner development—for achieving ego death, followed by sacred rebirth as manifestations of the one Cosmic Self. Out of the illusion that we are many, we must realize we are one—this is the real meaning of the credo on the U.S. dollar bill: E Pluribus Unum. What is necessary is not an egoic parody of unity, in the form of submission to empire, or empty new-age nostrums that mask the persistence of infantile ego-systems, but the authentic oneness of the Divine Presence, made possible through rigorous disciplines of self-transformation, meditation, and radical paradigm shift.
It is an ethical imperative that we make the project of self-transformation the top item on our life’s agenda. Without the attainment of sacred rebirth into our highest and most genuine potential Selfhood, all else is in vain. We owe such a metamorphosis to our loved ones, to our ancestors and our descendants—but most of all, we owe it to our Self, to the Source of our existence, to the supreme power and intelligence that has created us all.
It is not only a moral but a psychological imperative that we transform now. Unless we do, the dark shadow forces in our psyche will wreak havoc with our emotional stability, if they are not doing so already. As the collective psychic energies on the planet become more chaotic and pathological, the waves of anxiety, paranoia, and despair threaten to overwhelm us. The unshakeable peace and serenity of our inmost Being is our only refuge in such a time. To reach the sheltering energies of the One—our immanent/transcendent God-Self—the ego must first be transfigured, made transparent to the supernal Light that shines from our inner depths...
The egoic multitudes that populate today’s empires can never attain unity or harmony so long as they remain in the trance of false consciousness. Aggression, deceit, and projection are inherent to the ego. As frustration increases, the paranoid collective ego is prone to psychotic lashing-out as well as suicidal collapse. This is why ever more authoritarian regimes are being imposed, and human rights gradually eliminated. No empire can maintain hegemony for long over the sectarian hordes that are overrunning one failed state after another.
But it should not be overlooked that the ego is inherently schismogenetic. Schisms will eventually break apart every movement, every group, and every governing coalition. Not even spiritual groups are immune to this tendency of egocentric behavior. Only transcendence of the ego can make durable unity possible. There can be no long-term cohesion even within the most rigid sects unless such a revolutionary psycho-spiritual development takes place. Eventually, as Hobbes predicted, egos will be in a state of total war of all against all...
The current perilous biopolitical situation of human beings is a blessing in disguise. It forces us to do what we would otherwise leave to future generations. But there will be no future human lifetimes on this planet if we do not act now to change the course of our destiny from our present suicidal trajectory toward one that is realigned with the power of love and truth. The current situation also makes clear that real power is not in the hands of the political elites any longer. As the world’s political systems devolve, their breakdown is leaving a vacuum. The legitimacy of the old order, the established alignments, including extended families and religious organizations, are dissolving in dysfunction, in scandal and hypocrisy, in empty ritual and irrelevance.
Many people, unable to contemplate the dizzying possibilities of this period of kaleidoscopic change, remain stunted and stifled in their futile enmeshments with obsolete signifiers of identity and status. The majority has chosen denial as a way of avoiding the anxiety of radical uncertainty. Others have entered a period of spiritual nomadism. They are wandering through a desert of meaningless social activity, or else have embarked upon a determined search for higher understanding, seeking a Star to lead them to a new Bethlehem—some to a manger where they themselves can be reborn as avatars. Some seek new fountains of truth and genuine love. They seek to align themselves with those who display the signs of true worthiness: egoless wisdom, incorruptibility, dispassion, universal love, purity of mind and life, unshakeable inner peace and serenity.
The problem is: life has a long learning curve. Everyone on a spiritual path is growing, aspiring toward the absolute of human perfection, but few have reached it. We stumble on the way, and sometimes we fall. And those we look up to will also fall, from time to time. This recognition of frailty in ourselves and even in our teachers and guides must always keep us humble in our attitude toward others, not judgmental or vengeful, but always forgiving.
Our loyalty to God grows as we learn, and gradually we renounce our temptations as we find the balm of acceptance and healing in God’s grace. Because we cannot wait for perfect individuals to appear, we must take the risk to sculpt our own perfection, and to go as far as possible using conscience as our compass, serenity as our barometer, and the wisdom of great sages as our inspiration.
When we meet someone who can take us further on our journey, who can open our eyes to deeper truths and more universal love, we ought not refuse the opportunity to grow. We must gain genuine autonomy, discernment, and inner union with the One Light.
Working through the egoic distortions of our thought processes, fomented by unconscious anxieties, is an extremely difficult undertaking. It is the Great Work, as the alchemists have said, but it must be approached with reverence and trepidation. It is like walking a razor’s edge. To have any chance of succeeding, we must learn the art of meekness, yet boldly wield the dagger of Truth.
As Christ has taught us, the meek shall inherit the earth. Communities of those dedicated to the ideal of meekness (a word that derives from Sanskrit via Latin, mansuetudo, meaning one whose true Self, swa, has conquered his egoic mind, manas) are now forming, guided by those with sufficient integrity and equanimity to have transcended at least most of the lower egoic identifications, and who support one another in achieving ever higher development of goodness and spiritual power. They are learning to work together to overcome psychic barriers to developing fearless, truth-seeking, compassionate, holocentric, narcissism-free relationships. Such communities, learning to live in harmony once again with Nature, developing sustainable ecological modes of production and consumption—if they can also maintain ethical and ego-transcendent modes of conscious interbeing—are destined to prosper and provide models for the next age of humanity.
It is imperative that we ourselves become such beings of simplicity and wise living, of pure faith and divine power, not simply worshippers of one or another being who achieved that goal in the past. It is the only way to survive and benefit from this time of troubles, and to be a blessing to others.
We must become Buddhas, not merely Buddhists. We must be avatars of Vishnu and Shiva, not merely Hindus who worship them. We must be Christed, not be content with remaining mere believing Christians. We must become prophets of Allah, not mere proselytizers. We must alchemically transform, not just be scholars of alchemy.
We must metabolize the highest human psycho-spiritual potentials that lie dormant within us, not simply preach or philosophize about that possibility. Our surrender to God must be complete, not mere lip service. Let us use all the tools and insights of every religion, every philosophy, every science, every school of psychoanalysis and therapy to attain this goal. It is necessary to overcome our limited identification with any single religion or ideology and open to receive the wisdom of our entire human heritage of intellectual and spiritual development. We need all the help we can get.
Today, as never before, the physical sciences also converge on the emergent unifying spiritual paradigm to offer support and crucial insights into the processes of transformation and transcendence. Science in past centuries led human consciousness away from the chains of religion. But that was religion that had fallen into degraded and dogmatic misunderstanding of its own mythologically-coded information streams.
Today, every field of science has been revolutionized by the recognition of the necessity to factor in the reality of consciousness. In physics, the most recent mindbending theoretical breakthroughs—mindbending from the Newtonian perspective, but commonplace to realized yogis—in quantum physics and cosmology, yielding such concepts as higher dimensions and parallel universes, relativity, wormholes and time travel, and most importantly, of the fundamental place of consciousness in the constitution of reality—have served to re-legitimize the metaphysics of the Yogis of ancient India.
The same metaphysical insights are at the core of every esoteric tradition, continually reaffirmed by prophets, mystics, and sages of all religions.. The dead-end of materialism is being overcome in minds that had been ideologically hammered into submission for centuries. A renaissance of scientific spirituality is taking place, one that no longer needs to hide in the corners or apologize for its failure to accept the death of God.
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To achieve the ultimate transfiguration, the ego must first be purified. Three overarching vows prove useful: commitment to a simple lifestyle that supports transformation; continual analysis of one’s ego dynamics; and daily engagement in benevolent actions that inspire others to bring out the best that is in them.
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Let us quickly do our own inner work and then help as many others as possible. Self-realization is not a luxury for the upper classes. It is the only means of liberation for all beings everywhere. It is also the ultimate adventure. Here is a cause that can be the vehicle of endless creativity, insight, and delight.
To open the heart to the awesome energies of divine love is the sweetest bliss. To live in virtue and nobility of spirit is the most profound satisfaction. To dwell in ceaseless mindful union with the Absolute is an incomparable rapture. Transformation is imperative. It is also our destiny.. there is a profound urge within us all to realize our oneness with the Creator, the Dreamer of this strange and wondrous dream that is the universe. This urge will manifest spontaneously at some moment. But we can accelerate that occurrence by our efforts to achieve Self-realization. Let us, therefore, enter courageously into the unknown Presence that is the Self, assent to the ascent, the advent of the great adventure: our conscious transformation into the full manifestation of who and what we already are eternally—we have nothing to lose but our suffering.
In his essay The Transformational Imperative, Shunyamurti urges us to transform ourselves into the full manifestation of our higher selves: