Tenets for a New Democracy

Elaboration of Principles Supporting a New Democracy - 1-6

 

1) The capacity for blending 

 

Here, the interest of one does not get lost in the interest of a group.  For each member of the group holds the common goal of having the interests of each one become blended into an outcome or goal that serves all.

Within each principle there are factors which can limit its individual expression due to conflict with perceived needs, and there are circumstances that resolve these conflicts at a higher level within the new consciousness of unity.  In the elaboration of each principle, therefore, there is a section relating to these emotional factors, and also a section describing the resolution of conflict within the framework of new experience.

 

In Principle 1), emotional factors that cause people to lose either their individual perspective or the group's perspective, limiting the full expression of 'blending', include:

 

• Lack of self-esteem, including feelings of not fitting in with the group
  
  
• Lack of awareness of one's own perspective
  
  
• Judgment and stereotyping of the views of others
       
• Difficulty empathizing with others
  
  
• Excessive desire for approval rather than joining
  
  
• Need for power or control

 

Social factors that limit the full expression of 'blending' include:

• Group pressure toward homogeneity and agreement
  
  
• Lack of understanding regarding compromise and its importance
  
  
• Need for dominance of one member or clique
  
  
• Rivalry between members
  
  
• Lack of 'realness' of an overview that defines the common purpose
  
  
• Inadequate bonding on a heart level so that only one's own interests are taken into account

 

Resolution within the consciousness of unity:

 

Blending can take place to the extent that each perceives a common sacred purpose that holds all together, a purpose that is based in love. No matter what the focus of a group or how practical its aims, the group's process must be seen as part of its goal - a goal that is essentially spiritual and moral.

 

Within this process and within the consciousness of unity, a desire emerges based on the sense of oneness, that all needs be met and that none be left out.  This gives rise to a willingness to compromise or to make sacrifices when necessary in order to achieve a common goal.  The striving to meet the needs of all is based on a  belief that the inclusion of all needs is possible through alignment with truth, and that this truth can be discovered through prayer and meditation that aligns the self with the higher purposes of light.  Such alignment opens the heart and clears the mind of whatever self-protectiveness may remain.  It creates empathy with the perspectives of others, an understanding that truth has many faces, respect for the views of others, and the direct perception of the essential humanity and soul nature of each member of the group.

 

 

See also "The Basis for Trust" Video

 

 

2) The absence of competition

 

Here, there is a striving to do and to give one's best, not so that we can be better than another, but so that we can more fully express our inner nature and our creativity.

 

The emotional basis for competitive behavior includes:

 

• Compensation for feelings of inadequacy and a need to prove oneself

• Feelings of identity connected with achievement or doing, rather than being,

• Sense of disconnection from the heart

• Strong need to feel valued or admired in the eyes of others

 

Resolution within the perception of sacred humanity:

 

Awareness of the sacredness of each human life creates the understanding that each life has a Divine  purpose - to express the holy flame within in whatever ways are given. The striving for excellence and the desire to create give the outer form to self-expression.  They  replace the need to compete and can take place with others or alone as circumstances require.  The basic premise is the understanding that each has a sacred responsibility to reveal what God has implanted within the human lifestream.

 

3) The intuition of harmony

 

As with Principle 1), the interest of one does not stand out as being 'above' the interests of all.  Harmony develops out of the wish of each person to find the common ground that unites, rather than the separate will that divides.  It also comes out of the belief that harmony is possible, given the fact that all are one, for without this belief there would be nothing to strive for.

 

The perception of harmony comes out of an understanding that all of life is held within a common vibration of love, beauty, and holiness, and that within this unity each individual lifestream makes its own contribution to the whole.  Harmony is achieved when each lifestream is most truly itself, and so the work of achieving it has to do with penetrating whatever layers of falseness or untruth may stand in the way of correct perception.  The layers of falseness are accumulations of the ego that believes the self to be and needs the self to be something that it really is not.  Dismantling the false perception of the self and, subsequently, dismantling the false perception of others, is the most direct path toward the achievement of harmony.  For harmony exists eternally in the joining of the essential nature of all beings.  It only needs to be rediscovered.

 

Emotional factors limiting the expression of harmony include:

 

• Protection of self-interest; need for power and dominance; need to be in control; absence of trust in others; absence of trust in life.
  
  
• Unhealed aspects of rage toward others causing a feeling of being unjustly treated by the world, by others, or by life.
  
  
• Rejection of love and of harmony due to fear of opening the heart more.  The possibility for experiencing more love or more oneness with others gives rise to the fear of wounding or rejection due to past experiences of this kind.

• An overinvestment in the 'will aspect' of life rather than the 'heart' aspect.  This relates to Principle 1) but describes it more on a spiritual level.  Here, power is sought for one's own purposes rather than God's purposes, with an unwillingness to surrender to God's purposes for oneself.

 

Resolution within the experience of love:

 

The development of a capacity for harmony, especially when there are factors present that cause inner resistance, can only take place through the increased experience of love.  This experience comes not through personal relationship but through spiritual awakening that causes a fuller knowing of God's love.  Harmony is based on the unfoldment of spiritual truth to the awakening consciousness.  It is enhanced through all spiritual practices that help one awaken.

 

The experience of harmony is a corollary of the experience of love and unity which seeks to give to others what each needs and what each rejoices in.  It  comes into being when there is no longer a need to defend one's own self-interest, but rather when the interests of all are seen as intimately connected with the interests of the self.  The absence of the need to defend comes from the revelation of the truer, deeper identity of each self as a Divine creation of God.  From this place of identification, defensiveness is no longer needed.

 

 

See also "The Patriotism of Diversity" Video

 

 

4) The sharing of resources

 

Because of the experience of unity with others, the idea of holding onto what is 'mine' no longer makes sense.  There is a self-identity but it is part of a greater whole and this whole is also part of one's self-identity.  For this reason, having more than others does not contribute to a sense of well-being in the way that it did in the past, for the 'others' are oneself as well.  This experience gives rise to a new economic life with a new foundation - one which ends division among the wealthy who 'have' and the poor who 'have not'.

Emotional factors limiting willingness to participate in the sharing of resources include:

 

• Separation from the reality of God

This is the primary source of an unwillingness to participate in the sharing of resources.  Such separation creates fear and the belief that the only one looking after oneself is oneself, that, therefore, the self must hold onto what it has as a shield against future uncertainty and also as a form of protection in a world that is not entirely safe. This motivation for accumulation applies to individuals, groups, cultures, and nations.

 

• Separation from the heart 

This causes a narrowness of vision in which others who are suffering or who have to do without are perceived as less real than oneself.

 

• Lack of trust in the future, that needs will be met.  Lack of trust in life.

• Wealth as the basis for identity and a substitute for self-esteem.

• Greed 

Greed is a motivational pattern fueled by a variety of emotions.  It is an expression of spiritual darkness in which the true value of things is covered over by false goals and false values which take their place.  This relates to Principle 1), the perceived separation from the reality of God.

 

 

Resolution within the experience of trust:

A deepening experience of God's reality which comes to the awakening soul, permits the understanding that one is never alone but always held within the embrace of love and spiritual purpose.  Therefore, though things can happen in life that are upsetting and difficult, there is the continuing sense that these things are purposeful, and that in some unknown way there is goodness, mercy, and love behind or around them.  Realizing that mercy exists and being aware of God's continual benevolent presence, allows us to relax our grip on control.  For being in control of life in the first place is not real, and in the second place is not needed.  The experience of God's love as a direct, embodied experience conveys a sense of peace and wellbeing that lets the self know that everything is alright and that things do not have to be held onto with a fierceness that comes from fear.

 

 

5) The acceptance of reality

 

Here, denial and manipulation are replaced by a willingness to see 'what is' because there is trust in 'what is'.  The fear of death, for example, no longer infuses political conflict and life in general, because life and death are seen to be part of a sacred process of continual renewal, and extreme measures do not have to be taken to avoid death or the consciousness of death.  This shift affects many of the personal elements of life that give rise to political debate - issues concerning health and ageing in particular.  Industries that are based on the collective fear of ageing no longer have a place, for their consciousness becomes part of an obsolete need to prevent or deny the ageing process.  This no longer has merit or validity.

The denial of death and of ageing, so pervasive in modern culture, is but one half of a tendency toward denial that relates to life as well.  For in the separation from God's reality, there is also a separation from a more natural way of living in which what is, is perceived as good.  Ageing has the possibility of being viewed in this way as does death.  This is not the view commonly held today but is a view held by those who perceive life as sacred and view it as held within the natural order of light.  If a culture needs to deny the importance and sacredness of death, it will also need to deny the importance and sacredness of life.  If it has the capacity for honoring or celebrating death as part of a cycle of renewal, it will also have the capacity for honoring and celebrating the seasons of life, including the time of getting older.  If one leaves the circle of life, selecting only certain parts to honor and other parts to reject, then those rejected parts, will, by virtue of the fact that life is a circle, interrupt the continuity of the circle and limit the capacity for an experience of beauty and sacredness within the whole.

 

Factors that foster the operation of denial and rejection of 'what is', include:

 

• Fear of dying -  caused by loss of the conviction that life is ongoing and that God is real.

• Vanity 

Vanity may be defined as 'the glorification of glamor and external representations of beauty which are based on beliefs and motives that have departed from the sacred'.  It is found in the conditioned values of a society that obscure what is truly valuable, while amplifying false values that have popular appeal.  Such false values are often in the position of creating economic benefit for a few.  They also have the power to amplify whatever exists within the self of shame and ugliness and to detract from the perception of inner beauty and depth.  The motive of vanity operates to the extent that there is a disconnect from the experience of a deeper self.  Then, it is primarily the surface self which appears to others that seems to have the greatest value.

 

• A sense of inner fragility. 

Here, too, disconnection from awareness of the deeper self causes the feeling that one cannot handle 'the truth' - that emotionally, there are certain things that are too difficult to bear.  The perception of life or emotions as 'unbearable' exists to the degree that we hold things alone.  With God and through an experience of God's love, things that seem unbearable can be borne.

 

• Unhealed portions of the self that are rejected and repressed. 

Here, the ego operates protectively and causes conscious awareness to 'forget' or to not notice certain things because the inner experience of what is rejected is too painful.  As in Principle 3), truth may be hidden behind a layer of falseness due to an inner rejection of pain, and so what is real and true goes into hiding.

 

 

Resolution within the experience of truth:

 

When the self experiences life as of Divine origin and as infused in all aspects by God, then what is false or self-created due to motives arising out of fear and rejection will no longer be tolerated or given great value.  That which is of Divine origin has a value surpassing all others, and the revelation of truth brings into consciousness the ultimate, irreducible value of life so that the desire to alter it into another pattern seems unnecessary and without merit. 

 

 

6) The elimination of violence

 

Based on an understanding that 'my' life is not separate from 'yours', the basis for war and killing is undermined.  There can be no killing if 'you are not separate from me' and if 'I am you'.  The basis for all violence is undermined as a result of the perception of unity.

 

Emotional factors influencing the capacity for violence and aggression:

 

• Helplessness

The perception of helplessness and the need to counteract it through direct action which creates a feeling of empowerment, is the primary basis for all forms of aggression.  An inability to tolerate helplessness is the cause, in its many forms, for despair that becomes rage, for desperation that becomes a lashing out at others, and for the pleasure in cruelty that masks the truer and deeper sense of having lost an essential part of oneself - one's heart and one's capacity to love.  Helplessness is the single most important feeling and perception that contributes to the willingness to act out toward others and, in particular, the willingness to take the life of another.

 

• Lack of trust in Divine justice

In addition to helplessness,  lack of trust in Divine justice creates a desire to usurp power and to 'take measures into one's own hands'.  The perception that Divine justice is real and that the Law of Cause and Effect operates on all levels, all of the time, takes the burden of responsibility off human shoulders to mete out an exact measure of response to an act of harm or injustice, and leaves it, instead, to the Divine court of law to address issues in which harm has been caused to others.  This is not to say that the level of human law is without importance.  Only that the impetus and motivation to take things into one's own hands in order to seek revenge, to release long-standing energies of rage at the way one has been treated, or to seek power that will be admired by others - or any of the other many motives of a similar nature that can operate - such motivations are reduced or eliminated if Divine justice is perceived as certain and direct, and if the Law of Cause and Effect is firmly established within each heart.

 

• Separation from others

Violence in all forms is also based on separation from others and a sense that others are less real than oneself.  This perception is contributed to by the increasing distortion and blurring of the boundary between reality and fantasy that is promoted by media-images that are everywhere today, worldwide.  It is also contributed to by the willingness of people to not remember their own true sense of morality, in favor of what is popular or what is held to be commonly acceptable.  What is a true perception of the suffering of others can only arise when those others are perceived as deeply real, and not as cartoon characters, or figures in a news broadcast, or as 'other' from oneself.

 

 

Resolution through the capacity to feel pain and to hold the suffering of all:

 

The capacity to feel pain and to hold the suffering of all comes from the possibility of holding these within the consciousness of God's love toward all beings - toward oneself, and toward others who suffer greatly. 

 

The direct perception of God's heart surrounding situations that are the source of great suffering, allows pain, both within and outside the self, to be held with a sense of peace rather than with a sense of protest.  Without the perception of God's love tenderly holding all suffering with the individual who is feeling it, there is the need to either turn away from pain or to feel that something has to 'be done' about it.  With the perception of God's love, pain, helplessness, and the causes of suffering that turn into violence can be held within the self without having to be converted into external action of any kind.

 

                                                                                   

                                                                                   

 

 

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