"There cannot be global coherence without First Principles. We cannot heal the global intimacy disorder without First Principles. We cannot avoid existential risk or what we began to describe 10 years ago as the second shock of existence without First Principles. Without First Principles, we have got no chance. With First Principles, we can take this all the way home and create a utopia on Earth unlike that you can ever imagine.
In the first shock of existence, dawn man confronts death. Death then presses the human being into deeper realization. The great story of civilization begins. We go through all the levels of consciousness, all the developmental levels of the human being. We go through all of the technological levels. Technology and consciousness are meant to evolve together.
The big momentous leap forward in this evolutionary story, that is moving the world from the Renaissance till today, is essentially the separate self of the Western enlightenment. Meaning I am not defined by my tribe, my race, or my nation, but there is a notion of individuation, meaning every individual has irreducible value and dignity. This is the awareness of the dignity of separate self.
In the emergence of separate self of Western enlightenment, the premodern traditions and their realization of True Self get lost. The dualism of the 17th century, a split between spirit and matter where matter is dead and inert and spirit is alive, gave way to materialism in the 19th century.
At the turn of the 20th century, there is a revivification of the entire deep mystical tradition, East and West, which is the True Self tradition. True Self mysticism begins to dominate the field. The First Principle of enlightenment begins to dominate. There is an explosion of True Self all over the democratic world.
We now have two phenomena that are called enlightenment: mystical Eastern enlightenment - as it appears East and West - and the Western enlightenment that emerged from the Renaissance, and they both completely oppose each other. Eastern enlightenment says: 'Separate self is the source of suffering and must be transcended.' Western enlightenment says: 'the separate self is the source of human dignity that moves us beyond suffering.' There is a huge contradiction between Western and Eastern enlightenment and between True Self and separate self.
We have to distinguish between separateness and uniqueness. I can actually realize I am part of the field of True Self, I am one with the field, I am one with the field of consciousness, and that field of consciousness, that seamless coat of the universe is seamless, but it is not featureless. I am its unique feature. I am a unique expression of the entire field. Or to put it in evolutionary terms, I am a unique emergent of the entire field. In Unique Self, the split between separate self and True Self, between Western and Eastern enlightenment, is overcome in the joy of a higher individuation beyond ego - Unique Self - in which the human being can be whole and creative again.
We integrate premodern validated insights of all the wisdom streams, together with the modern validated insights of all the wisdom streams, together with the postmodern validated insights of all the wisdom streams, into a new whole greater than the sum of the parts. The new whole is a new story greater than the sum of the parts.
After the first three Big Bangs, matter, life, and self-reflective mind, there is what we want to call the fourth Big Bang. The fourth Big Bang is Unique Self and Evolutionary Unique Self and Unique Self Symphony.
Matter triumphs in life and life triumphs in the self-reflective human and the triumph of the self-reflective human is Homo amor.
We are part of the field of consciousness, but that field of consciousness is not just consciousness, it is Eros, it is Outrageous Love, it is Desire. I am part of the field of Eros, Outrageous Love, and Desire, but I am a unique expression of that field. That realization is core to the fourth Big Bang.
Unique Self is the expression of this new emergent moment of consciousness. I am a Unique Self in an evolutionary context. I am the unique expression of True Self in an evolutionary context, which means I am Evolutionary Unique Self, and as Evolutionary Unique Self who am I?
I am Homo amor. Homo amor is the realization that I am a unique expression of the LoveIntelligence and LoveBeauty. Unique Self, Evolutionary Unique Self, Homo amor becomes the fulfillment of the whole story.
With "Evolutionary Unique Self, the fourth Big Bang, it is a uni-verse again, but this time a universe that is conscious of itself in us. It is one Eros. It is diversity and plurality together with unity at the same time. It is individuation within union. The only mature individuation is in the context of larger union.
This blogpost is a direct quotation from Dr. Marc Gafni from our weekly Live Global Communion Service on Sunday at 10 am PT.
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