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Hi Alan, yes it is certainly possible that the collective and individual may interact to speed things up, actually there may even be something new born out of that. It may be that not many have this new quality of consciousness, but it may be that it isn't so much about scope in the end. After all, when we consider all the things there are to be aware of, that's a lot for the individual consciousness. But there may be a quality of openness and responsiveness so that interconnectedness can flow through this kind of individual. I realize this is rather vague but it does actually address the point about cognitive understanding as well. Even with spiritual insight, the tendency is to equate it with a conceptual description of the insight, whereas it can be an opportunity for the consciousness of the individual to open more rather than going through the process of interpretation and saying "this is what that is." In my experience the mind is simply too slow to keep up, to be quite honest!
Hmm...I wonder, whether it really is, as you say, "too time consuming to consider an individuals expansion of identity in the sense where it includes maturation". Certainly time is of the essence, and we don't have the luxury of lifetimes for gradual individual evolution of consciousness, at least at the pace of the past.
However, what is remarkable to me, and very hopeful, is that, perhaps through a combination of internal (bubblings up from the collective unconscious? urgings on from the individual deep Self?) and external (deteriorating global conditions), the pace and scope of individual change seems to be dramatically increasing, I'd surmise as a direct response to the crises we're facing.
I'd certainly agree that a good start is the simple recognition that we're already part of this greater oneness, but that simple recognition can itself be arguably attributed to the gathering wave of change that is taking place. And, its still hopeful to me that this recognition of interconnectedness may start as a cognitive understanding, or as a deep spiritual insight, but either one leads ultimately to the other, so both doorways work!
What do you think?
It seems this process is normally (although granted not common these days) a natural developmental process, which can be seen in indigenous peoples sense of belonging in an extended family, but we see even this is missing today. It may be too time consuming to consider an individuals expansion of identity in the sense where it includes maturation, but perhaps a simple recognition that we are already included in this greater oneness as an existing reality can be a good start.
I think this is certainly one of the key challenges we face as a species. Indeed, I believe we're on the evolutionary cusp of a profound change of identity. The indigenous people's have long known intuitively that we're one interconnected web of relations, and yet this knowledge was marginalized by Western civilization and the growing primacy of the individual.
Now, we're being pushed by scientific discoveries and pulled by our deteriorating environment and forces of globalization to come to this same awareness, from the other direction. How great that different ways of knowing, old and new, inner and outer, are now coming together.
How do hasten this expansion of our identities? Knowledge born from experience undoubtedly plays a role. We cannot go a day without seeing the interconnections between things nowadays. However, the most exciting part of this shift to me is the one that is happening internally - individually and collectively - as more and more people are clearly becoming aware that doing unto others is doing to oneself, and vice versa. It's more than an intellectual knowing...this awareness has a spiritual quality to it. Growing numbers of people know down deep inside that profound changes are occurring in who we think we are. And it can't happen too soon!
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