A new operating principle for a sane world

[BanzaiBonnie]

"A new operating principle for a sane world might be this: life is a cooperative journey among powerful individuals who can program themselves to create joy-filled lives.” ~ Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman from Spontaneous Evolution

Will we evolve and step out of the muck we find ourselves in? Lipton sees it's already happening. Bruce Lipton is a biologist and he looks at humans from the perspective of an evolving organism called humanity. Spontaneous Evolution is one of THE best books I've ever read. He looks behind the curtain at both religion and science and shows where both institutions have failed us... and how it will take both to save us.

Are you fed up with the divisiveness of society? Our shared fate hang in the balance. We must come together with a vision for our future.

To take the connection theme a step further, sanity is about integrating opposites rather than taking refuge in one polarity or the other. Imagine living life with only half your wits about you! No wonder our institutions seem so half-witted. Sanity means full-wittedness, and that means bringing forth the holism hidden in the dueling dualities. For example, we may need to return to old-time religion, a path that only makes sense when we evaluate the root meaning of the word religion.

As British political writer David Edwards points out in his book, Burning All Illusions the word the religion derives from the Latin religare, which means "to bind together."The joining character of ligare is expressed in the word ligament, the structure that binds muscle to bone. While traditionally this binding has been linked to obligation - and some would say bondage - Edwards chooses a more sane interpretation. To him, religare means to rejoin the individual with society, the world, and the Cosmos. This fundamental meaning of religion has nothing to do with a personal god, theology, or dogma. It is, above all, a term that implies coherent connection, a connection that doesn't necessarily require a priestly intercessor.

Unfortunately, this deeper meaning of religion got buried under a pile of dogma-doo. Any spiritual or philosophical ligaments that remained to connect humanity to the world and cosmos were severed when scientific materialism superseded monotheism.

Instead of extracting the loving wisdom from both earthly and theistic paths, we threw the Baby Jesus out with the bath water. We invested our faith in the material world and allowed ourselves to believe that power could be a substitute for, and as good as or better than, love.

But now that humankind has recognized that worship of matter is an unmistakable mistake, we are becoming aware that the god of money can neither provide happiness nor end suffering.

From "Spontaneous Evolution" by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman http://www.brucelipton.com/spontaneous-evolution-overview