How can seeing life through Teilhard’s ‘lens’ help to iive a life more open to the forces of evolution and bring us to ‘fuller being?
Today’s Post
Last week we saw how we can train ourselves to be more open to the energy of evolution that Teilhard describes and which runs through our lives.
This week we take a closer look at some specifics.
The Aspects of ‘Fuller Being”
In addition to Paul’s list of the facets of ‘the Fruit of the Spirit’, he provides a longer list, this time of the manifestations of love in our lives (From 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Patience Calmness
Kindness Truthfulness
Self-confidence Trust
Humility Hope
Respect Non-egotistical
Perseverance
This list clearly parallels his list of the eight facets of ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’ that were addressed above but have the same reciprocal relation to our quest for ‘fuller’ life. Both sets of characteristics identify what can be found in authentic human growth, but as commonly reflected in religious thinking, they are less ‘results’ than they are behaviors which must be practiced.
We have seen how Carl Rogers lists the facets of a ‘fuller’ life.
–more integrated hence more effective
– more realistic view of self
– stronger valuation of self
– increasing self-confidence
–more openness to experience, less denial or repression
–more accepting of others, seeing others as more similar
-clearer in communication
-more responsible for actions
-less defensive and anxious
Like Paul’s lists, these characteristics identify a ‘fuller’ life, but like Paul’s characteristics they also reflect the ‘work in progress’ necessary to get there. Paul’s recommendation to ‘Put on Christ’ by adopting the behavior suggested by these lists is simply a method of training our neocortex brains to become more adept at dealing with reality. Like Sacks’ ‘rewiring the brain’ by ‘rerouting the writing’, our success in dealing with life increases when we practice such behavior.
One distinct example can be found in one of the most fundamental human activities: relationships. As we have seen many times, looking through Teilhard’s ‘lens of evolution’, relationships (connections) are essential to the universe’s emergence in the form of increased complexity. Connectivity between granules of ‘the stuff of the universe’ recurs endlessly in evolution to effect the increase in complexity which eventually manifests itself in the human person’s ‘awareness of consciousness’.
The ‘fly in the ointment’ suggested by almost every religion and reflected in Yuval Harari’s ‘Sapiens”, is that, with the human person, the previously infallible force of ‘instinct’, so successful in our pre-human ancestors, is potentially undermined by our two-edged ‘gift’ of ‘choice’. While ‘choice’ might well continue our personal and cultural evolution, the making of it is frequently problematic. Because of this, as we have seen, there is no guarantee that evolution will continue its fourteen billion year rise in the continuation of the human species.
Love and Fuller Being
Teilhard shows how the energy which has so faithfully raised the complexity of the universe thus far can be seen in that which energizes our human relationships: ‘love’. We have explored the many aspects of this energy by which we are woven into the relationships necessary to our collective states. In keeping with Teilhard’s convergent spiral of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’, ‘love’ can be seen as not only as a state of relationship but as the agency by which this state emerges. As Confucius suggests, to get love we must give love, and that’s where ‘choice’ comes in.
Seen through Teilhard’s ‘lens’, love is quite distinct from the emotional or procreational impetus to unity, it is the ontological basis of the continuation of human evolution. To love we must decide. Harari is correct when he intuits that with the human mode of consciousness in which we become aware of our awareness, choice is now necessary for its evolutionary continuation. He is also correct that a dystopian facet of ‘belief’ has wound its way through our history, one which threatens a mode of belief which is more confident, more optimistic, and more conducive to our future. ‘Belief’ and hence ‘love’ must therefore be consciously ‘chosen’. Love is, in the human, ultimately a ‘decision’.
Thus, the ability to make decisions in favor of our continued evolution, both as persons continuing our quest for ‘fullness’ and societies continuing their fabrication of the noosphere, we must become more skillful in using our neocortex brains in modulating the instincts of our lower brains. One way to hone this skill is to adapt the behavior which reflects the presence of the positive manifestations that we have explored thus far. The lists that Paul and Rogers provide consist of basic practices which can move us in this direction.
An example of such practice can be found in nearly every human relationship. In our most intimate relationships, found in the lives of committed partners, we profess to ‘love’ each other. But there are clearly times when the ‘feeling’ of love is absent. The increasing divorce rate in the West is evidence that this state frequently leads to dissolution of the union. The recognition that it is possible to continue the relationship is a ‘choice’, one not easy to make but frequently resulting in a deeper relationship.
It is obvious that conflicts are inevitable as two persons pursue their own growth as they are fashioning their relationship. Faith in one’s unearned capacity to grow and in the ‘grace’ (The flow of energy in human evolution) that comes with this capacity is necessary to cross this bridge while we are building it. The ‘putting on’ of Jesus that Paul recommends is a straightforward step towards the other side.
In a society which values such appearances of maturity as Paul and Rogers list, their translation into the aspects of human welfare documented by Johan Norval is clear. If the trends he identified continue, the emergence of a welcoming future becomes certain. The skills required to continue them, to build a bridge over which we are crossing, are ones in which we must also become proficient.
As we have seen, a welcoming future is not guaranteed. There are tendrils woven into the complex fabric of the human species that are very capable of resulting in , as Harari predicts, an early demise of Homo Sapiens. But as Teilhard sees it, while we might be early in the game of making sense of things, the tools for doing so are nonetheless taking shape. Norberg’s articulation of the shape that they are taking might be an early one, but his articulations are nonetheless examples of what can be seen as we learn to open our eyes to the true immensity of the universe and its path to a future into which we are constantly being welcomed.
The Next Post
This week we took a closer look at how we can posture ourselves to become more open to the energy of evolution as it manifests itself in human life. While such a practice might saturate most religious teachings, Teilhard shows how they also are intuitive attempts to align life with the flow of evolution that rises through it. Once again, we are reminded of his poetic observation that
“Those who spread their sails to the winds of life will always be borne on a current towards the open sea.”
Next week we will take yet another look at this activity to see how Teilhard’s insight can be reflected in individual human life.