Note: This text is heavily influenced and in parts copied from David J. Temples book “First priciples and first values” which can be bought here.
Consider this an excerpt of the book that was edited by me. 🙂
This is not to say that I do not stand behind what will follow, because I do. I state this here to acknowledge the original text and it’s creators. Enjoy the read!
„I am going to die!“ The first shock of existence is the realization – at the dawn of human awareness – that the skull grins in at the banquet. Life, before it continues, is confronted by death.
On some level we are always aware of lifes everchanging nature and that nothing will last forever, but most of the time we are running away from this unavoidable truth.
When we stop, it is like stepping under a giant waterfall. It rocks us at the bottom of our being, crushing everything we think we are and setting us free at the same time. Yet this also happens on another, even deeper level.
What some call the second shock of existence is the realization of the potential death of humanity, or in a second form, the death of our humanity.
The experience of the second shock is rooted in the realization of the brokenness of the world we live in. We are going to fall, because our global „society“ is broken on the inside and outside, „functioning“ only as a zero-sum game based on rivalrous conflicts governed by win/lose metrics. This ever-separating story is only made possible through endless, exponential growth and causes interior polarization on every level.
Our exterior technology has far exceeded our interior capabilities so we end up trying to cut open and separate everything we can, hoping to solve the situation by „creating even more value“, while everything is calling us to turn to our inside, connecting with who we really are and creating some meaning instead.
But we do not listen at all, what we are actually doing is burning the very house we live in, using the resources that could provide a way out in a way that brings „the end“ closer at light speed.
We are eating ourselves up by our own tail, one could even argue that we are already much further than that. Our planet does not have endless exponentially growing resources to feed our exponential technologies and extraction models through which we can in seconds deplete the earth of resources that it took billions of years to create. Infinite growth does not work with finite resources.
We are a global civilization, but are not globally addressing the world-wide meta-crisis, which is going to lead to a civilizational collapse – which in a global context means either the death of humanity or the death of our humanity.
Our self-centered consciousness lays the groundwork for a self centered worldview leading to a self centered way of life which produces evermore separation, alienation and loneliness. Control breeds its own necessity, but the one thing we cannot do is controlling the world.
We are chasing ourselves in a downward spiral not realizing that trying to get ahead of ourselves moves us even deeper into it. We are what stands in our way. Deep at our core we are disconnected from who we really are, suffering altogether.
While we are continuously disconnecting, our hearts want to open, expand and merge. They can (and will) lead the way to the more beautiful world they know is possible. We only need to stop resisting. If you want to go east, just don‘t go west. It‘s time to stop doing and start being. It‘s time to do some inner work, on every level. It‘s time to turn inwards and surrender to our calling, individually and collectively. We are here to address the complex challenges presented to us, not to externalize them as if it wouldn’t affect us.
Complexity requires clarity and clarity means moving closer to the center of our being. There we find consciousness and consciousness essentially is about choice. With existential risk now permeating our very existence, the choice is clear: love or die. It is that simple.
