We don’t know where we are going.
We as a humanity are standing on a precipice. We sense that things are falling apart, we question more and more of what was readily accepted in the past, we lose faith in the institutions that brought us to this point. We are present in a moment where we have no idea what the future will look like. Because of our level interconnectedness, technologically and otherwise, no previous generation of humans have faced the level of uncertainty that we now face. Many of us wonder if we will even survive as a species.
The old is falling away and we cannot know what will be, our only option is to shift instead to what Tyson Yunkaporta calls “serving the conditions of emergence”.
The word emergent means “coming into view or existence”. In emergence, whatever the future will be is dependent upon each one of us and paradoxically totally independent of us. In the greater flow, of which we are only a part, the future is already unfolding.
Here in Alaska where TLC is based, we have very long, dark winters. When springtime comes the snow is usually gone long before we see any signs of new green leaves on the trees. But at some point, just before the trees begin to leaf out, if you look at a forest, you can see the faintest hint of green surrounding the branches, like a cloud or an aura of fresh green. As that green-ness lands on our eyes and enters our hearts, our spirits lift and we KNOW that the fullness of summer will come. There are those alive in the world right now who can see that aura of fresh green. They have the eyes to see that the new is coming, even though it appears as though we are still in a long deep winter.
It is our tendency to look ahead and see doom. And yes, there is much to be very somber about. But we can also see the new and the green if we have eyes to see and hearts to feel. We in the Transformational Listening Community assert that there is a new level of being human that is coming into existence. We are entering our next level of evolution as humanity. We are not referring to new institutions or new gurus or saviors. But new ways of being with one another, new ways of belonging to one another.
As Charles Eisenstein shares in his book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, “the age of the guru is over–not because we don’t need help from the outside in order to inhabit a new story, but because the transition is happening to so many people, in so many ways, no one person can, on their own, serve the traditional function of a guru. The guru, unable now to incarnate in something as small as a single person, takes the form of a group. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, the next Buddha will be a sangha and the second coming of Christ will be the advent of Christ consciousness in everyone.”
Love, and the ways of Love, are not new. But we, human beings, are always new. We are a species that is developing toward higher levels of being human; more justice, more equality, less separation, more love and unity.
Beneath our fear and conditioned behaviors, there is a very real part of us that possesses an elemental drive to belong to one another. We are actually always reaching out to become more, to become Whole with each other once more, to become a We rather than an alone and frightened Me.
In the Transformational Listening Community, we don’t know where we are going. For some people who are considering joining us, that won’t be very reassuring. For others, it will feel like an exciting adventure.
We are an emergent community of practice. In emergence we feel our way together. We go in a direction with one another. We trust Love as our guide. We hold the 6 Principles as way markers toward transformation. We show up for one another and trust each person’s way of being and their particular timing of transformation. We look, listen, and wait for what will emerge. What new ways to “be” together will arise? What will things look like? We don’t know, but we keep the eyes of our hearts and minds peeled toward that fresh green aura of what is new, what is emerging.
In the Transformational Listening Community, we are embracing the “not knowing” and choosing find our way…together.
