Life on Earth is troubled. However we may think things should be, we can all agree that our collective experience is inordinately fraught with difficulty, discord, and disparity. To be sure, there’s also tremendous goodness and beauty. We have the potential for both aspects of being and that which we express, individually and collectively, tends to reflect the orientation of our consciousness.
For centuries, if not millennia, our collective consciousness has been oriented in ways that have fostered our struggles and been detrimental to the world at large. Our perspectives aren’t inherently harmful so much as they’re incomplete and illusory. They’re also so deeply ingrained as to seem intrinsic and inevitable. There are, however, alternate ways of being. Ways that are grounded, not only in a different kind of consciousness, but in one that’s eminently natural and universal. If we’re to ever change our course and begin to resolve our needless struggling, it’s imperative that we find this fundamental consciousness within ourselves and, from it, transform how we operate in the world.
So much of what determines the orientation, or alignment, of our consciousness is our present-moment awareness and attention. When we’re deeply immersed in the moment, whatever we may be doing, we tend to feel more whole and at ease. Our experience may also be richer and more vivid. From here, the greater peace and openness that we feel naturally inspires us to be more sensitive, kind, and giving; perhaps, even enabling us to perceive some sense of the great unity and interconnectedness of all existence.
Conversely, when our awareness drifts from the immediate moment, as it’s wont to do, we can feel fragmented, unsettled, and disconnected from ourselves and our surroundings. Our attention inevitably finds its way into our minds, dissecting the past, arranging the future, or otherwise getting lost in any number of ruminations. In fact, we devote so much attention to the world within our heads that, in many ways, it becomes our most meaningful reality. Collectively, over the course of countless generations, this overidentification with our intellect has become endemic to the human condition and dictates the vast majority of our activity.
This is, of course, an oversimplification of the mechanisms of consciousness and being, but it does serve to establish the premise on which we’ll base much of our discussion. We have glorified the human mind and constructed so much of our world and way of being according to what it has conceived. Even a casual observation clearly shows us that, for all we’ve accomplished, this disposition has had serious drawbacks and consequences for ourselves and the rest of life on Earth. To put it simply, the way that we’ve been living isn’t working. Changing course will require a very different approach.
Our intellect does have a place in our experience, but there are other, deeper sources of perception and wisdom. The purpose of Another Way is to explore these other sources, discover how we can connect with and embody them in our daily life and, ultimately, to reconsider the foundations of our collective enterprise and propose other ways of being which honor the unity, sanctity, and beauty that is our truest nature.
The structure of Another Way follows those primary themes. Our Nature discusses what we are at our most fundamental level, our reason and purpose for being, and our relationship to the rest of existence. Revealing Our Nature suggests how we can access our deepest self and cultivate a daily consciousness that enables it to flow more readily and naturally into our everyday experience. Manifesting Our Nature brings everything together into a vision for transforming our collective way of being in the world. It considers our most basic needs and suggests ways to meet them which are the innate realization of the highest within us all.
While there is something of a natural progression through the aforementioned subjects — as there is with the unfoldment of our developing consciousness — it isn’t necessary to read them sequentially. Each essay has its own particular insights and suggestions for practical application. Like the various aspects of our consciousness, they relate to and support each other, but none of them predominate. Furthermore, Another Way is a work-in-progress and we will add essays to each section as we go along. We do recommend reading the Introduction before proceeding with the main sections, as it establishes some important foundational concepts and clarifies our use of certain key terms.
We believe that humanity can still redeem itself. In spite of how far we’ve deviated from our proper place in the order of things, our essence and potential remain unchanged. It’s vital, however, that we begin to awaken to our responsibility and do all that we can to restore peace and well-being to the planet. Above all, Another Way seeks to help bring this about.
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We welcome and encourage your input, which you may send to: contribute@anotherwaybeing.org.
PREFACE
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