Arianna's recent comments about Jeremy Rifkin's The Empathic Civilization, and in particular his reference to global communication, "Seven billion individual connections, absent any overall unifying purpose, seem a colossal waste of human energy," prompts me to write about my own experience of the unifying purpose and potential of the Internet, of this increasing connectivity.
I remember when I first accessed the Internet in the early Nineties. I think that my children were using AOL and I went online to see what these "chat rooms" were. But although there was not much content in those days, I was struck by its potential and possibility. At that time I was having mystical experiences of the oneness that is present in all of life. In these moments I was made aware of the interconnectedness of all of creation, and how everything is a living expression of divine oneness. This first time that I went online I saw in that moment how the Internet could give the whole of humanity direct access to this interconnectedness and global oneness. All that is required is a computer and a connection.
Almost twenty years later the Internet is one of the central tools of our global connectivity. In the last few years it has radically changed our culture, how we communicate and access information. From laptops and cybercafes all around the world, even in unexpectedly remote locations, we are forming an interconnected whole, a network of human consciousness. And yet, although we are more and more immersed in this new form of communication, we do not appear to realize its deeper significance. There is the danger, that, as in the words of T.S. Eliot, we "have the experience but miss the meaning."
I believe that the Internet is a gift we have been given. It provides an image of how the energy of life can flow freely in a way that defies the barriers of nationality and geography. Yet sadly because we are so immersed in the surface activity of this technology, in its tools of commerce and communication, we do not realize its deeper, symbolic dimension. A symbol is a connection to the sacred ground of our being which alone gives real meaning to our daily life. The Internet, as a living symbol of global oneness, offers us a direct connection to an awareness of divine oneness. But because we have lost touch with the symbolic dimension of life, we do not fully recognize this potential of the Internet: as a dynamic expression of a new consciousness of oneness that has within it access to energies and means that can unify our divisive world. If we were awaken to its real potential, we would be truly in awe--and we would laugh, with wonder, at life's capacity to recreate itself while we are not even looking.
The Internet is a powerful image of life's interconnected oneness, and how the individual can interact with the whole. It is present everywhere at the same time. The Internet is not a hierarchical structure, and despite the attempts of some companies or governments to control it, it's nature is globally democratic. As it becomes more and more present in our collective consciousness, it is more and more able to channel life's underlying energies in new ways. It is a power and life force of its own, able to evolve and adapt like a fast-changing organism, and, like other emerging images of our time, it is reconfiguring our consciousness, rearranging our lives. For example, social networking is just one way this living web interacts with us, bringing us together in unexpected ways.
In the Internet we have been given a blueprint for the future whose full potential we have not yet grasped because we see it with the eyes of the past. The Internet is a direct expression of the emerging energy structure of the planet in which the need of the individual can be met within the organic evolution of the whole, and the evolution of the whole served through the free participation of each individual.
How much more we would benefit if each time we access the web we are consciously aware that we are connecting to a field of global consciousness. That was my first experience of the Internet, and each time I open my computer I feel this potential, this new quality of consciousness that is waiting to be lived.
We need to be awake to the real potential and purpose of the Internet: what it really means for humanity as a whole to be given this degree of interconnectivity. At the present time it is primarily used (and at times misused) for accessing information and communication. But it has the potential to create patterns of interrelationship that will form the network for a global consciousness and unity. The real potential of the Internet belongs to this new flow of consciousness throughout the planet. The expanding web of individual connections is like a cellular structure that is continually making new connections. Through this worldwide web the world and humanity can organically come alive in a new way. And we can midwife this new awareness and its possibilities: the dynamic oneness that belongs to life. Or we can just watch the images and text on our screens, not knowing the opportunity that we have missed, unaware of the "overall unifying purpose " of why we are so connected.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D. http://www.workingwithoneness.org
For more material on the Internet: http://www.workingwithoneness.org/internet.html
Shinichi Takemura: Designing a Multiperson Planetary Consciousness
Karen Berg: Amid Disaster, the Light That Binds
Jeremy Rifkin: 'Empathic Civilization': Why Have We Become So Uncivil?
our relationship with the web and the consciousness it is connected to. Then
we will begin to open the door of sacred technology and how it can be of
benefit. It will require of us a global awareness and focus that could
generate an entire new era.
Jyoti
Spiritual Director
Center for Sacred Studies
Vaughan Lee beautifully explains that "the Internet takes us beyond the centralized structures of the past, indeed beyond the hierarchical power structures that have dominated the patriarchal era, into an organic, free flowing dynamic. It is this organic nature of the internet, which mirrors the organic nature of life, that makes it a blueprint for the future. As in any organic structure, it is the instantaneous communication of individual cells that allows it to change, adapt and evolve in ways not accessible to a centralized, hierarchical structure."
I found this article also daring. Why? Because it is making a connection between the internet , consciousness and the divine
Thank you HP for posting it.
Most people use it to concoct shemes and most of our filmakers use it to create horror and hatred.
Why is it that our imaginations take us into such discord? Why is it that we so freely go there?
Why is it, if one sits with oneself, our minds wander down alley ways of dischord - often reflected in our dreams.
So why can't we struggle now? Why do we have to be complacent and accept living in the imaginationary,dualistic worlds that others have created maybe thousands of years ago? Why are we so afraid? Why can't we struggle to find the the ways to harmony? And who are we not to?
Thank you to Huffington Post for opening this dialogue as a public forum, and than you for Dr. Vaughan-Lee for your last three articles inviting and challenging us to accept the potential of other modes of living.
This is such an interesting topic, one wishes to respond over and over. And it always seems to come down to our "imaginations." I've read some comments, and what we Americans love most is to argue and debate. At a public lecture in the '80s, Kurt Vonnegut said, "Freedom is still in a motel in Philadelphia." A comment worth considering. It occurred to me that none of us were alive when the Declaration of Independence was written, nor the Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights and most of us don't have access to a Senator in Washington, nor the President of the United States. So we do not participate in decision-making at its most crucial moments. Yet, our founding fathers' decision-making have fed our imaginations ever since, in the way we view society, and we know the results of that.
Dr. Vaughan-Lee is pointing to a way that we can "all" participate in creating the future. Let's not let the potential of this country be decided behind closed doors. Let's all particpate. Let's step outside of our personal comfort zone and be alive to life, to the different dimensions of life, as Dr. Vaughan-Lee suggests in his many articles. How can there be another way?
We are continually presented with possibilities, contrasts from which to make preferential choices. The internet clearly broadens our choices for realizing, expanding connections, albeit the “conflict” gene seems at work there also. I am excited by Dr. Vaughan-Lee’s article and view of positive possibilities that this expression of our evolving global system holds out to us. I could use pointers on how not to let the conflict within the system (since it may be innate to everything within our sphere) or less highly motivated uses of this internet manifestation pull me into brooding about mankind.
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Indra's Net, that great Mahayana metaphor for existence, is an infinite cosmic web hung with jewels at each intersect-point of the web. The jewels are all present as reflections in each other, such that the whole is present in the part: "There hang the jewels, glittering like stars... If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels..." (Francis Harold Cook, qtd in Wikipedia)
I remember a phrase that Joanna Macy brought back from her time spent with the 'engaged Buddhism' movement in Sri Lanka: "sarvodaya shramadana," which roughly means "everyone wakes up by sharing energy and working together." Perhaps this is what the Internet symbolizes: an interrelated energy web whereby humans lift each other up by sharing stories, knowledge, wisdom.
In his beautifully written article, Dr. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee gives us hope about the potential of the Internet for interconnectivity. Thanks HP for posting this article.