Many of us today are engaging in a tremendous amount of spiritual work on ourselves. We’re meditating, praying, attending workshops, seminars, and retreats.

And this is good news. Because if the world is going to evolve, it’s going to take a lot of conscious people to lead the way.

Yet the vast majority of us who are engaging in spiritual practice are making the same mistake. We tend to put far too much emphasis on the need to work out our personal psychological issues as part of our spiritual path.

The way this plays out practically is as follows: let’s say that you take up a spiritual practice in earnest, and you notice in the course of that practice that you’re deeply defended against life and intimacy. You won’t let other people see you. You always wear a social mask which hides a deep-rooted insecurity.

Well, upon discovering this, as psychologically informed people, our tendency is going to be to withdraw inward, to go back to our past, to start plumbing the depths of our psyche to try to find and uproot the causes of this fear and insecurity, and this tendency to hide ourselves from life.

The trouble is that although this “archaeological dig” into the depths of your psyche might lead to greater self-understanding, it won’t necessarily make it any easier for you to be vulnerable, authentic and present. Indeed, it might even take you further away from intimacy by making you more self-absorbed than before.

It’s important to recognize that this tendency toward self-preoccupation isn’t our fault. This habit grew out of our over-psychologized culture which basically told us that we were all damaged by our childhood and that we have “inner wounds” that need to be healed in order to become happy and fulfilled as adults.

And, as the world’s great wisdom traditions have been imported to the West, this pathology-focused worldview has gradually become superimposed onto the spiritual path.

But when we let go of this compulsion to work out our problems and instead begin to directly engage in a path of authentic evolutionary spiritual transformation, we soon begin to discover that we have access to a part of our self that is already free from our ego’s limitations and issues.

This is what I call “the awakening of the Evolutionary Self.” It’s the discovery of a part of our self that was never wounded or traumatized, and that doesn’t need to be healed, because it is already whole and complete.

This part of the self has access to boundless energy, creativity, and positivity, and is completely ready to participate in life fully, boldly, passionately, holding nothing back.

When we step into this Evolutionary Self, we feel instantly connected to the heart of Life and energized by the impulse of evolution itself.

Miraculously, what we find in doing this work is that when people awaken to and begin to act from this deeper, truer part of the self, then all of the psychological issues, blocks, wounds, complexes, and neuroses that previously seemed so intractable suddenly seem to dissolve.

Now, the truth is that they haven’t dissolved. They can still be reactivated if we step back into the narrow perspective of the ego. But in light of this newfound, higher potential, and the profound sense of purpose and meaning that comes with it, we discover a powerful motivation to no longer fall back into our “issues.”

Indeed, as our awareness of this Evolutionary Self grows, our old habits and issues become less and less interesting to us, and in that, they gradually lose their power over our psyche.

And that makes all the difference in the world. In this alignment with the Evolutionary Self, we begin to discover the real meaning of freedom from the ego. And we learn that this freedom is not something we have to wait for. It can happen now if we’re willing to give our heart and soul to it.

If you want to get a taste of the simplicity I’m describing, try this experiment. For one full day, go on a “fast” from any form of self-concern.

Throughout the day, any time you notice yourself mulling over one of your “issues” or trying to overcome an emotional or psychological difficulty within yourself, simply put it down. Let it go. Turn your attention to something else.

Indeed, if you want to really get a taste of something different, try turning your attention away from your inner turmoil and placing it on the part of you that is already aligned with the big YES at the heart of the cosmos. And notice how your perspective on your problems changes.

This may initially seem difficult to do, but with a little practice, you might find that you begin to have access to a depth of presence and awakened clarity that you never could have imagined. Try it for just one day. You might be surprised at what you discover.

And if you’d like to get a firsthand experience of this Evolutionary Self, and learn some additional tools to help you awaken to it, I wanted to let you know that this Saturday, April 21st, I’ll be hosting a special interactive LIVECAST event called: “Awakening the Evolutionary Self.”

During this free 2-hour “virtual workshop,” I’ll be leading a series of evolutionary exercises and guided meditations to help you activate and align with this Evolutionary Self in your own experience. I will also be taking live questions and doing some live one-on-one work with a few volunteers, plus a few of my course graduates will be speaking about their experiences and sharing with us their learnings from the work.

This free Livecast event will be held this Saturday, April 21st at 10:00am Pacific Time (US). You don’t need to do anything to register for this free event. We’ll send you all the access details on Friday.

I hope to meet you on Saturday!

Warm regards,

Craig Hamilton
Founder
Integral Enlightenment 

Rival members of the notorious Crips and Bloods in Watts in southern California, whose gang wars have claimed five times as many lives as the conflict in Northern Ireland, put down their guns and learn to work together through a new communication skill teaching them to move past ‘us vs them.’

Yoko, a 58-year-old Japanese widow, collects 10 per cent interest rates on her savings — far more than at any bank — by enlisting her neighbors as her savings and loan.

Marie ends the culture of greed at her software company and sets off of a contagion of good will among her co-workers through a tiny but revolutionary daily act of generosity: leaving change in the office Coke machine.

A small group of local activists in London create a center for burgeoning businesses, fund state-of-the-art public housing, revitalize a slum and create a close-knit community —all without a dime of government money — through a new type of civic action enlisting the entire neighborhood.

All these and many more are examples of the power of ‘The Bond’ to fix ‘our falling-down world.’ People around the world are prospering in these troubled times by discovering new ways to communicate, live together, work and resolve differences, and every one of these success stories shares one thing in common: an ability to harness the fundamental human need to connect and to move past ‘every man for himself’ to ‘we’re all in this together.’

If you are one of them or know of one, please write me at: makingthebond@wddty.co.uk

012 March 30