My Axial Age
I've read a little bit about the Axial Age of humanity and how we are beginning to experience another one in the near future. The Axial Age, from what I can recall, is a time (600 to 200 BCE) where there was a revolution of philosophical and religious thought across different cultures that laid a new spiritual foundation for humanity. Platonism is an example. "Axial shifts" included the rise of Platonism, which would later become a major influence on the Western world through both Christian and secular thought throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Some believe that we are experiencing another pivotal age and the changes can be seen across all cultures. It's a "flowering" of human consciousness (I hesitate to use that word for obvious connotations, but if I must...) that has become a topic of discussion in academic circles. See Wikipedia for a brief intro intro.
I'm reading a book about how humanity is now experiencing this shift in its consciousness. We as people will need to think differently if we're going to survive and not destroy each other. It seems we are coming into an age (I hope) where our survival instincts will force us to see each other differently, more cooperatively. One great change I see coming is the shift in our thinking about the environment. I look forward to the day when we see the earth and nature as something to live with rather than something to conquer. The need to conquer is the ego's warped sense of identity with it's environment. It sees everything it as an enemy. In my past I have seen how my ego, my unconscious thought patterns, has made adversaries of my surroundings and people. By seeing everything as different from who I am I was inclined to feel isolated, an individual surviving against everything outside of me. My ego, the "Thinker", set itself up against every pretense to protect me from the "outside". For a period of time religion became a saturated part of my ego. I was right, you were "almost right" but needed to see the truth that I knew. Haha. I laugh now at the childish unconscious thinking that I perpetuated. But now...I need to take care of my ecosystem.
It's good for my family, my conscience and good for my neighbor. No longer do I see him/her as a "person that needs the truth" to help them out. No longer do I look at nature as subservient. But now I can see a part of me in them. I can love more deeply, because I see myself in them. Perhaps I am experiencing my own Axial Age. My own shift in consciousness. My own evolution.
I'm reading a book about how humanity is now experiencing this shift in its consciousness. We as people will need to think differently if we're going to survive and not destroy each other. It seems we are coming into an age (I hope) where our survival instincts will force us to see each other differently, more cooperatively. One great change I see coming is the shift in our thinking about the environment. I look forward to the day when we see the earth and nature as something to live with rather than something to conquer. The need to conquer is the ego's warped sense of identity with it's environment. It sees everything it as an enemy. In my past I have seen how my ego, my unconscious thought patterns, has made adversaries of my surroundings and people. By seeing everything as different from who I am I was inclined to feel isolated, an individual surviving against everything outside of me. My ego, the "Thinker", set itself up against every pretense to protect me from the "outside". For a period of time religion became a saturated part of my ego. I was right, you were "almost right" but needed to see the truth that I knew. Haha. I laugh now at the childish unconscious thinking that I perpetuated. But now...I need to take care of my ecosystem.
It's good for my family, my conscience and good for my neighbor. No longer do I see him/her as a "person that needs the truth" to help them out. No longer do I look at nature as subservient. But now I can see a part of me in them. I can love more deeply, because I see myself in them. Perhaps I am experiencing my own Axial Age. My own shift in consciousness. My own evolution.
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