I hope you are well. A couple of weeks ago I held an online dialogue with my friend Serge Beddington-Behrens, entitled ‘How to Stay Sane in an Insane World.’ We discussed the insanity of the modern world and how we can maintain spiritual well-being amidst it. I pointed out that the world has always been insane, or at least for the last few thousand years. Human history is a bleak catalogue of warfare, oppression and cruelty. People like Jesus and the Buddha were so remarkable because they stood up against this madness. Although living in times of brutality, they advocated empathy, compassion, love and peace.

The difference now is that the madness is on a much larger scale because the world's population is so massive and we have so much technology to amplify and express the madness. It's easy to lose hope and believe that the human race's future is as bleak as our past. But as I suggested in my books The Fall and The Leap, there are many optimistic signs - particularly the ever-increasing interest in spirituality and in spiritual practises and paths.

This week I re-read one of my favourite novels, Demian by Hermann Hesse. Hesse describes how the present human world is coming to cataclysmic end (symbolised by the First World War) but as it dies a new future is arising. Hesse describes how a small group of human beings are waking up and coming together to build a better world, which is rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the old. In my view, all of us who are engaged in spirituality, who follow a spiritual path or express spiritual traits in our daily lives, are doing exactly what Hesse describes. We are giving birth to a new world of harmony that will eventually replace the old world of oppression and conflict.

There is no doubt in my mind that the old egoic separate mind cannot survive. All the wars in the world, all the conflict between groups who perceive themselves as different, and all of the psychological suffering that most people experience as their normal state - all of this pathology cannot continue indefinitely. This is the behaviour of a species which is maladapted to the world and has not learned to live harmoniously. The new awakened state which is coming into being is adaptive. It is the state that human beings were meant to live in, a state of harmony with nature, with ourselves, and with other humans. So we're really only cultivating a state which is natural and right.

It is our responsibility as individuals to help create this new world. Any degree of spiritual awakening that we undergo as individuals contributes to the awakening of our whole species. So in a very real sense, the future of the human race and the future of the Earth itself, is in our hands. 
 

The Isle of Man

A week or so ago, I felt a little like the characters in Demian, when I was together with a large group of spiritual seekers and finders on the Isle of Man – which in case you don’t know, is a small island that lies midway between Ireland and the UK. It’s one of my favourite places – a green jewel of an island full of rugged rocky beauty, with endless coves and beaches. I was speaking at the Mindful Mann Well-Being festival. Here I am with some of the other speakers. It was great to connect with fellow author and philosopher Tim Freke, who shares my deep love of the music of Van Morrison. I also loved chatting to another Tim, the musician Tim Wheater.

The Beatles

Another great aspect of the Mindful Mann festival was that the author and organiser of the event, Mike Kewley, is a massive Beatles fan, as also is Tim Wheater. So we had lots of stimulating conversations about The Beatles, and agreed that our favourite song is 'Strawberry Fields Forever.' Some of you may know that at the moment I am writing a book about The Beatles. I have about two chapters to go and it will hopefully be published next year. Really the book is about the nature of genius and how The Beatles expressed spiritual and transcendent qualities through their music. This week it was actually World Beatles Day. To commemorate the day, I shared an article, which is a sneak preview of my book. Read it here

Afternoon Workshop in Edinburgh on Saturday 6^th September

On Saturday the 6th of September, I am holding a one day workshop at the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre in Edinburgh, from 12 till 5 pm. 

The workshop is based on my book The Adventure and entitled ‘The Adventure of Awakening.’ We will cultivate qualities that arise in awakening, such as presence and acceptance, with poems, meditations and other exercises. It would be great to see you there!

Further information at this link

Poems

As always, let me end with a couple of my recent poems. These are both on the theme of finding our life’s purpose and contributing to the healing and awakening of the world. Let me know if they resonate with you or inspire you. 

You Have to Be Bigger

You have to be bigger than slights -

to find a deep essential self

that can’t be damaged by disrespect

so that insults pass by without hurting you.

You have to be bigger than bitterness -

to let go of wrongs that you can’t correct 

and awaken so fully to the present 

that past events no longer disturb you.  

You have to be bigger than rivalry -

to see your peers as colleagues, not competitors 

who share your goals, are part of the same project

that will only succeed through cooperation.

You have to be bigger than selfishness -

to live to contribute, not accumulate 

as if your life is a wide river that nourishes the Earth 

not a road that cuts coldly through the land. 

You have to be bigger than yourself -

to let world’s soul become your own soul

and the world’s purpose become your own purpose 

until your own life merges with life itself. 

The End Times 

How can our lives have meaning 

when we’re living through the end times?

How can we find fulfilment 

with catastrophe hovering over us?

Why should we keep building

as structures collapse all around us?

Why should we keep striving 

when our goals seem to be dissolving, like mirages?

Why should we keep trying to contribute

when nothing may remain to receive our gifts? 

But look inside – can’t you feel your soul aching

with a yearning for change? 

Can’t you feel the impulse to surrender 

to a transcendent new goal, rising like a wave?

The superfluous is being stripped away. 

The urgency of the end times 

is paring us down to our essence. 

Our personal goals are fading

so that a collective cause can take us over

as we turn to face the end times. 

This is the time to transcend fear

to abandon doubt and pessimism

and harness the will of our highest selves 

to alchemize chaos into harmony 

and send out waves of transformation 

so that the darkness of the end times

can give birth to a bright new world. 

All best wishes and blessings, Steve