Steve Taylor's February Update - New Poem + Video

Published: Wed, 02/22/17

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Dear ,

I hope you are well. At the moment I’m pretty busy in the lead up to the publication of my new book The Leap, which is coming out in a week or two. It’s interesting to think about the main idea of the book - that the human race is going though a process of collective spiritual development, leading to an evolutionary leap - in view of the turmoil going on in the world at the moment. It seems almost as if the world is going in a different direction, regressing rather than evolving. But on closer inspection, this isn’t as dualistic as it seems. When a new phase begins, the characteristics of the previous one often become more stronger and more entrenched, in response to the threat of their demise. You could compare it to the way that immigrant communities sometimes feel that their cultural values are threatened by the wider culture that surrounds them. In response, they sometimes cling to their values more firmly, and become more tradition-bound and resistant to change. The cultural conflict taking place now is between the old values and traits associated with the human race’s old state of ‘sleep’, and the new values and traits associated with a wakeful state. The old traits are threatened, and so are trying to assert themselves more strongly. It’s almost as if, within our collective psyche, the state of sleep senses that it is being superseded, and is trying to tighten its grip. So that’s why, in spite of all the madness in the world at the moment, I still remain optimistic.
 
New Poem - The Common Core

I recently wrote a poem in response to recent developments in the world. It’s about the absurdity of taking on labels of nationality, ethnicity, and religion and believing that we are different from one another, and that we’re entitled to treat each other with greater or lesser degrees of empathy or respect. For myself, I’ve never had a sense that I am ‘English’ or ‘Caucasian’ or anything else. I don’t feel any allegiance at all to ‘my’ country, and don’t make any distinctions between ‘English’ people and anyone who happens to reside on a different piece of land, or whose parents or culture have convinced them that they are Muslim, Christian, Hindu and so on. All of those are just meaningless abstractions, conceptual delusions, which have no basis in reality, physically or spiritually. Physically we consist of exactly the same elements and atoms; spiritually we consist of exactly the same essence and energy. Everything else is just a mental construct. Anyway - I should let them poem explain itself! Let me know what you think of it.

The Common Core

I don't believe that you’re different from me
even if you believe you are.

I don’t accept that I have my ‘people’ and you have yours
and that the lives of our peoples have a different value.

I don’t believe that babies are born with distinctions
already belonging to a religion or nation.

I don’t believe that human beings die with distinctions 
and belong to different sections of a cemetery.

I acknowledge your need to define yourself 
I understand your need for belonging 
but you can’t separate yourself from me
without making yourself feel more alone. 
You can’t withhold your empathy from me 
without hurting yourself inside.

Your thoughts may convince you of distinctions
but they can’t change you underneath
where there is no solidity or boundary 
and our beings infuse each other, and everyone else’s too.

I accept allegiance only to the human race. 
I recognise only our common core
the essence beneath identity 
the deep shared space where we are one.
 
New Video

In relation to The Leap, here’s a video I’ve just filmed, talking about some of the ideas in the book. One of the things I try to do in the book is to ‘de-mystify’ spiritual awakening, and depict it as a natural and normal state of being. This involves highlighting many of the myths that people have about ‘wakefulness.’ There’s a chapter where I talk about 12 of these myths, and explain why they aren’t true. The ones that take me most time to explain are the myth that wakefulness equates with indifference and inactivity, or to a state of ‘no-one-ness’ or that it means that the world becomes an illusion. In this video I talk about five of these myths.


 
On-Line Course
 
Finally, let me remind you that the Calm Center video course is now available for download here: https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/online-courses/

I’m also hoping to run a new on-line course based on The Leap, in a few weeks. I’ll let you know. There will also be an on-line launch of the book, in three weeks or so.

So good luck - and don’t let present world events plunge into you doom and gloom!

All best wishes and blessings, Steve
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