Imagine

Imagine that we will bring about a renaissance of democracy while celebrating the prospect our shared involvement in the decision-making that affects our lives, and empower one another in the evolution of human politics on Earth.  

This journey is one of many people taking small steps together, and so I invite you to join in as we make this road by walking. 

Even though we have been conditioned not to see the possibility of genuine democracy, imagine that we will explore—and realize—ways of collaborative self-governance that would fulfill such mutual needs as those for participation, belonging, contribution, empowerment, self-worth, understanding and harmony.

Imagining revives the will to connect and create, so I invite you to envision what it might look and feel like, our democracy transformed—but before thinking that change is not possible, simply experience your longing for the world you want.  

Longing is a kind of prayer, like planting a seed that has the innate ability to manifest in the world.  Longing brings us back to life, to the creation of what is missing, beyond a situation of lack to a place of abundance. 

We can feel hesitation, anxiety and fear when we approach our unacknowledged pain for the devastation of the Earth, but our unmet pain for the world is the doorway into our power: whenever we unlock this passage, through awareness and intent, the energy stuck in ignored pain becomes the flowing energy of our liberation.

Imagine a time of deep trust and inspiration, when we flow with the enlivening energy of our gathering and move into our connecting, common desire, and celebrate the power of our intention to bring balance and healing to ourselves and the planet. 

What feelings are alive for you now when you hear me say this?  Because the potential of this rebirth lives within us, through us wanting to be realized, let’s be present with whatever joy or pain arises, seeking freedom.

I am grateful for our creativity and our ability to rise to great challenges, for our resilience, and our capacity to reach in and bring out what is enriching for others, for our potential and deep caring for one another and this Earth.

Love, our awareness in connection with all that is, is the spirit of true democracy, and whenever we open to it our politics becomes spiritual practice: when we understand shared decision-making as a process also of self-discovery, we see how the same spirit moves through us and into the intelligence of our collaboration, and when we value the contributions of those with different perspectives from us, we come to know greater wholeness and mutual security. 

If we can imagine new ways of democracy then we can create them, and when we believe in our capacity to develop effective forms of meaningful self-governance, we will give ourselves the authority to create the world we want.  This will remain a dream until we wake up and make it happen. 

This time calls us to responsibility, and if we are able to respond to our painful disempowerment before the desolation of our world, then we can also take part in our awakening to new ways of sharing power.  How close is this time—when we may hope to truly thrive—depends entirely on us.

May we find the courage and determination to live our truth and become true servants of life on this planet.  Not just our survival, but our mutual happiness and well-being depends on whether we will transform how we make decisions that affect the whole of life on Earth. 

Our Power

Our power arises when we gather, and this simple act is so full of potential because our collective attention is abundant with possibility.

From the heart of our attention, a loving co-intelligence emerges that connects us together with all things, flows through and opens us to life-sustaining possibility. It is through collective attention that we create the world we see.

Let's gather and explore what we want to see happen in our world, because we have the power to create what we want. It's as simple as planting seeds that innately want to come to fruition in the rich soil of possibility.

Power arises through collective attention, but ego has mistaken our power for my power. The time has come to empower one another and become powerful in love.

I have felt this power, and there is no turning away for me now. Our power is alive and awake, and it has always been so.

It is time to gather and celebrate this power, and create the world we want to see.

Love and Democracy

When the mind does not see, deep down the heart knows possibility.

And so, when we listen with the heart, we search our way into greater balance and harmony. What must happen for us to create greater happiness and well-being, and cause less suffering? Love has to flow more freely, clearly, and shared needs must be met.

When we collectively empower ourselves through the hope of transforming the way we engage politically—while meeting the pain of disempowerment that arises from our systemic exclusion from important decision-making—greater love will be freed to flow again.

Meet the pain, discover the love—simple, but not easy. We would not turn away from one another, if we did not turn away from our own heart, first.

What might support mutual understanding, harmony and safety but our collective empowerment within the context of a meaningful democracy, based on universally shared values and needs? Until we reach the stability of collective empowerment, we will continue to be affected by the imbalance, conflict and fear produced through the current system.

Widespread, all-inclusive, meaningful, participatory democracy is our only hope of lasting well-being, security and peace.

Uniting to change our world does not mean that we have to agree on everything. So, let's accept and celebrate our differences and use them creatively to realize true love and democracy.

Prayer to the Possibility

I love the radiant awakening rising like awareness over my horizon, and now gathering energy, like a great, glorious echo of creation, calling me to the possibility of our creating this world from what is deepest in the heart.

I honour the magnificent resilience of life bursting through the silence of winter sleep, yearning to realize, longing to catalyze the unfolding of true potential inherent to all beings.

The magic of imagination illuminates the illusions that have held me so hard and, as they gracefully fall away, I see the movement of love emerging, embracing all in circles widening, as we gather to create the world we want to see.

May we find the courage and come together and empower each other.

May we celebrate our complex interconnection in simple presence.

May we love the possibility of achieving true democracy together.

Awakening to the Possibility

There is a magnificently radiant possibility ready to light up our dark, sleeping world, and the moment of awakening happens when we recognize that the possibility exists.

Whether we see a possibility or not depends on awareness. When we are asleep we would never think to consider it, because it exists outside awareness. When we don't know that we don't know, it is as though the possibility doesn't exist. But when conditions change, as awareness and perspectives shift, we may awaken and witness its rise above the horizon of the imagination, and into our lived experience.

Why is it challenging for us to imagine the possibility of many, many millions of people participating in a movement of awakening democratic empowerment that aims to change the way that we collectively make decisions? Is it difficult to imagine because this is an impossibility, or because we are asleep to it?

If we truly wanted collective empowerment, we would find a way to bring it into being. So, either we don't really want it, or we don't see the possibility. Or, perhaps we don't want it because we aren't awake to the possibility. We have, indeed, become so habituated to seeing ourselves and our world from perspectives where the possibility of such a movement doesn't seem to exist, but once we recognize how we've been conditioned to be asleep, we might imagine conditions that will facilitate our collective awakening.

It can seem challenging to want something that we don't believe is possible, and we're so used to wanting (or not wanting) what is put before us. We might choose a meaningful, participatory democracy if it were presented to us, but it's not likely to be offered by those who occupy what we take to be positions of authority. Of course, we will have to author it ourselves, co-creatively. To this end, it might be helpful for us to appreciate how our expectations around what is possible have been driven down low by an accumulation of heavy conditioning.

Much of our culture has developed around the wants and needs of those advantaged few that remain unseen, apart and protected from the rest of us. In fact, so few can maintain such power only because the many are asleep. Over time, individuals who believed that their advantage was threatened by popular freedom and equality have embedded conditions within the society and its structures in order to prevent this transformative possibility from being realized. Fundamental separation and imbalance are at the core of what troubles our world today.

Those who assume power over others—and those others who recognize the authority of that power over themselves—hold beliefs that constitute the inheritance of conditioning we live with today. The main condition that keeps us asleep is our separation from others, and this happens by our holding onto beliefs and feelings that contribute to mental and emotional separation, which in turn results in our physical isolation from others. The overall aim of such conditioning is power for the few and mass disempowerment for all else.

We are presented with views via the corporate mass media that may lead us to believe that we are too flawed or different from one another to co-operate peacefully, and that we are basically incapable of self-governance. Within the context of our unseen collective disempowerment, we are enticed to try to empower ourselves as individuals, and then compete with other individuals. In this separation, we privately endure the emotional burden of disempowerment through feelings of unease, anxiety, frustration, grief, anger, fear, shame, despair and hatred. Perhaps we question our self-worth and wonder whether we deserve to experience empowerment.

We have become passive spectators receiving what others have offered us, disempowered consumers slaving away in a struggle to survive, and we are distracted from wanting too much change because our having high expectations for empowerment likely causes many in situations of advantage to feel uncomfortable, anxious and afraid about losing what they have.

If it is true that we've been conditioned not to know the possibility for genuine democracy, it's perhaps encouraging to consider how this suggests that the possibility does indeed exist, but how it is only obscured by social conditioning and the institutions acting as defenses against it. I feel compassion for those who believe that they actually have power over others, because they are more alienated from the enlivening possibility of sharing power, in community, with others. And because a lot of our energy is tied up in the emotional impact of disempowerment, it's exciting to consider what might happen if we were to empower ourselves and use this energy in creative, life-enriching ways.

Gathering with the intention of exploring what we want could be the most empowering, effective and catalyzing action we might do now. When we gather and share what we truly want, when we become actors and co-creators and co-operate to meet common needs, and when we experience empowerment together, we will become increasingly conscious of how these new conditions facilitate our awakening. When we discover and understand what unites us—rather than always seeing what divides us—the perspective that emerges will allow us to effectively align our energies toward achieving what we collectively want.

This exploratory process could meet shared needs for engagement, self-expression, understanding, cooperation, inspiration, bonding, hope and celebration. When we agree on a common goal—on what we want and hope to achieve through our collective efforts—then all that we will really have to do is celebrate our being together. The energy that would naturally flow between us would attract others, and there would be nothing for us to do but enjoy and celebrate the whole, big party. If this were to develop to its natural conclusion, the emerging political movement might also bring us to a place of meeting our deeply unmet needs for empowerment, autonomy, harmony, stability, support, belonging, security and peace.

In engaging in political activism, we often strive to raise the awareness of others—not our own—and, as a result, we avoid activating deeper potentials that are waiting to be realized. Maybe we are so conditioned by the example of individual empowerment that we cannot help but reproduce it, and so we empower ourselves as individuals (taking roles as actors on a stage) rather than collectively activating ourselves into shared empowerment. Or maybe we can see the possibility and imagine how we might collectively empower ourselves, but we feel afraid and hesitate to act because we've been conditioned to fear striving for shared empowerment. Perhaps a perceived threat of personal loss inhibits our willingness to act for the benefit of the whole.

Whatever may be true for us, it appears that we do not want to face the paralyzing effects of disempowerment in our own hearts: the pain of grief, shame, fear, rage, hatred and despair. But if we are to engage our deepest potentials for life-enriching change, we must be willing to embrace ourselves. This is why it is important to create a safe space for what stirs in the heart, so that we can speak and hear with love and compassion, and nurture and support one another. If we do this within the context of empowering ourselves through a process of reaching for what we want, we may embrace the pain of disempowerment while also living the excitement and joy of creating new possibilities for community and freedom.

Whenever we let go of what we think we know, we allow space for the imagination to take us beyond. If we can gather the courage and will to imagine, and then call for, a way of engaging in politics that would serve us best, a way that enables us to effectively express our democratic contribution to important decision-making, then this movement would legitimize a new way of enacting politics while rendering the old way obsolete.

By awakening into a collective empowerment that would enable us to effectively participate in creating the world we want to see, we would alter the course of this civilization. Indeed, we would lay the foundations for a new civilization based on collective well-being, hope and promise. We have been so conditioned to turn away from each other, but when we believe in ourselves, recognize our collective power and appreciate the opportunity before us, then we may awaken to the possibility. We can not expect that others, elsewhere, will do what we will not do, here and now.

Let's dream big, even though it appears dangerous to those who benefit from our unequal and unjust political and economic structures—and perhaps for us, too. By imagining what we want, and then acting our dreams, we will change our world and make it the place of abundance and love that we know it really is. And dreaming big is what we do before we wake up.

An authentic, participatory democracy is not some way-out, impractical idea—it's a longing of the heart. And because all life-sustaining social movements are birthed from the heart, when we gather and share what is stuck and what flows within, we open ourselves to emergent possibilities for life-enriching social and political change. Can we gather what moves in the heart and send it forth into a movement that calls for what we really want? Are we ready to take the next step in our conscious evolution and create a civilization based on universally held values and needs? Are we ready for a global community of genuine democracies?

When we want it, we will create it.

Imagine

What will wake us up?

What would reach all of us, even those of us who are most asleep?

What might support us in meeting our grief for how things are?

What might help us acknowledge our longing for how we want things to be?

What would let us fully access our inner strength, wisdom and passion for life?

What would let the illusions we live with gradually fall away?

What would move us to discover and live our truth?

What might allow us to recognize that true authority exists within us?

What would make it clear where power and powerlessness truly lie?

What would let us address the wounds of disempowerment in a way that empowers and heals?

What would let us release the energy stuck in frustration, anger, fear, despair and hatred, and mobilize it into a greater flow of engaged confidence, enlivened compassion, inspired trust, passionate hope and empowered love?

What might bring us together in the hope of creating the world we want to see?

What might align us so that we might use our energy most effectively?

What would allow us to more readily access the greater intelligence that arises when we get together and bring our collective attention to what challenges us?

What would allow us to resist what we don't want and encourage us to rise together through what we do want?

What would allow us to combine our efforts in a common cause?

What would dramatically change how we relate with one another and our world?

What might let us create community unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetime?

What would let us circulate more easily the ideas and innovations that would make this world a place of obvious well-being and abundance?

What might allow us to experience our interconnectedness and encourage us to act as though we are one?

What would inspire and unite us, and lead us towards a greater awareness of our wholeness?

What would shift our perspective from not seeing much possibility to seeing and experiencing and living out great possibility?

What would allow us to express our greatest potential?

What would move us together in collective action and attract others to want to be a part of it?

What would open us to thoroughly celebrate who we are?

What would wake us up?

Imagine.

Towards a Collective Spiritual Awakening

We wait and want for the human spirit to soar towards creating our world as a reflection of who we are.

So let's imagine this world as a place where we could all be involved in processes of political decision-making, working towards solutions that meet common needs; a world where we would truly celebrate our love for the life that brings us together; and a world where we could more easily realize our deepest individual and collective potentials. We have to find ways to come together, assert our power, and open up the political process to direct, popular participation, because our collective happiness and well-being depends on it.

We all have the power to create the world we want, and the deep yearning we feel to make the world a better place can take us to the radical development of the form of democracy we practice now. All that is required is our awakened attention and willingness to see this through.

Creation begins with a gathering of attention, close followed by a focusing of intention. Like sunlight, attention is a natural force that brings to fruition all it shines on, and the act of giving attention to what we want calls it into being out from of the field of possibility. Our attention may be our most precious resource.

In awakening spiritually, we recognize that we are essentially one, and that the same sacred force of life flows equally through all. When I understand that we are basically the same, experience the same feelings and needs, cherish the same values, and that we are all in process of growing in mutually enriching ways, then I want all of us to have the opportunity to be directly involved in the decisions that affect our lives.

Politics is really about deciding together how to act in ways that are mutually beneficial and enriching for all. As it is, many shared needs are now unmet by a political system that functions mostly through our collective distraction, disengagement and ignorance. We need to matter and be heard, and we have needs for participation, equality, cooperation, self-expression, contribution, harmony, effectiveness, freedom and hope—to name but a few. We would all benefit through our collective involvement in a political process that respected our essential oneness and that actually encouraged, supported and honoured us as we worked together with and through our perceived differences.

Coming together to create a life-enriching, participatory democracy will be as much about our collective spiritual awakening as it will be about transforming the way we do politics. Indeed, the one will influence and support the other, and catalyze processes of collective empowerment and healing long waiting fulfillment. Political transformation and collective awakening are now poised to become a critical advance in our social and spiritual evolution.

And yet, there is still great imbalance across the planet. Fewer of us have power and security, and more and more live with increasing stress and conflict. Many are acknowledging that we must change our ways on this Earth, or we'll perish. Some experience anticipatory grief for the losses we could undergo, and many experience anger, unease, frustration, restlessness, despair, fear, depression and rage—even if we are barely conscious of these feelings, and their cause. We have become stuck in the unacknowledged shame of our disempowerment, and important healing must occur if we are to become free and live together in harmony, gratitude and joy.

If we really wanted a citizen's democracy then we would find a way to create it. As it is, perhaps we're not yet willing to declare that a transformed politics is truly what we want, and I guess that we feel some reluctance, nervousness and fear around this. Our dilemma appears to be whether we risk an attempt to change how we do politics, or whether we continue to numb ourselves with comforts and distractions and go along with the system as it now.

In our society, it seems to be safer to live in ignorance and disconnection rather than to look closely at what is happening. For instance, if we were to stand out and call for fundamental democratic change, we might then have to deal with feelings of anxiety, anger and fear arising around our unmet needs for acceptance, order and stability. But when we complacently accept the political system as it has been passed down to us—along with the roles of periodically voting for others who (supposedly) represent us in government—unwelcome feelings around such unmet needs have no opportunity to arise.

The dominant culture is neither supportive nor nurturing of our collective awakening and healing. There is no obvious way for us to address the collective pain of our disempowerment, and a lot of our energy is tied up in underlying anxiety, unease, fear, stress, frustration, anger, grief and despair. Many experience anguish in meeting unwanted feelings, and we mistakenly think that someone else is the cause of our suffering. And if we can no longer hold painful feelings in our awareness, we hurt others, as a matter of habit. As a result, we often feel uneasy, on edge and unsafe in this society.

But if we want to live in deepest connection with ourselves and others, we have to reconnect attention to our life energy—the flow of feeling within. And if this political change is going to come about, then embracing and resolving feelings around our unmet needs is perhaps the greatest part of our work. When we're stuck emotionally, it's easy for us to believe that social and political structures are not likely to change, but when we feel the flow of change within us, then change in the world becomes possible as well.

One of the functions of a social movement is to collectively help us deal with shared and unaddressed pain, to heal us into the bonding of our collective strength, and to liberate stuck energy into the flow of excitement, hope, compassion, love, celebration and peace.

When we face the challenge of creating a social movement capable of catalyzing large-scale political transformation, we will evolve spiritually: we will experience a gradual heart opening that will lay the groundwork for this rejuvenating movement to happen; we will come to embody that which we seek; we will embrace and release old pain, work with ego, and move closer to our essential being; we will surrender to the sacred spark of life inside that dances in connection with all else; we will come to act in ways congruent with our deepest values and goals; and we will come to live the mystery of who we are and why we are here.

But when will we wake up? Are we more interested in surviving with what we have, in relative comfort and ease, or are we willing to risk some potential personal loss in the attempt to collectively enrich all our lives? Can we honestly live with ourselves in integrity if we could act, but choose rather to do nothing? How much are we willing to give, and what will be the cost of our holding onto what we have?

It's not necessary that we all wake up at the same time, because those who are now more awake may find the courage and responsibility to step up and help lead. Life-enriching social movements start with a few hearts on fire with the spirit of love, hope and possibility.

There are many ways through which we might practice direct democracy, but what a transformed politics might actually look like and how it works I will leave, at this time, for your imagination. When the heart is awake to the possibility, then the mind will work in service of the heart, and through our collective intelligence we will create the simplest and most effective form of politics to serve the whole.

If you're thinking that this is an enormous, daunting project, then I would agree that this does appear to be the case—especially if we are unwilling to carry it out! And if we're also unwilling to be in touch with how we actually feel about it, then there is perhaps much there waiting for attention to resolve, heal and let flow.

As a sort of defense against experiencing unwanted feelings, we've been conditioned to make judgments, and you may be judging me in some way now. If you're thinking that I'm idealistic (or naive, or presumptuous and egotistical, or not in touch with reality, or foolish, etc.), then I'm curious to know what you are actually feeling, and what you think you might be needing. You may also be simply wondering about what there is for us to do, and you may be feeling uncertain, perplexed and frustrated.

I invite you to give attention to how you feel about political transformation, and to what you think are the obstacles to our accomplishing this. You might invite the attention of others and start conversations. If you wish, you could begin an exploration with me so that we might both understand more deeply where attention has to go to move us forward, individually and collectively, along this evolutionary path.

This work will certainly take all of our collective intelligence and presence. Consider the vision I've presented here, but also let your own vision become focused and powerful. And, if you think that talking about this is not really doing anything, then consider that most of what actually needs to be done is awakening our attention to see, and focusing our intention to act.

Finally, let your attention go where it will, and trust that everything that arises to attention does so in order to be integrated, resolved and healed. Through surrender, we often discover grace and strength.

What we believe to be possible depends on our perspective, and perspective shifts according to what we feel. With awareness grounded in the heart, we are capable of opening into the powerful influence of love, where resistances fall away and obstacles dissolve, and where that which we desire becomes abundantly possible. Democracy arises amongst those who are willing to support and sustain it and, as a guardian of the spirit of democracy, you have the power to let it fully awaken and manifest in your world.

Until the sleeping possibility of creating our world as a reflection of our deepest values and needs awakens into realization, the power of this dream will exist—latent—inside each and every one of us. Awakening this possibility depends on you.