The Universe banged into existence 13.8 billion years ago, an expression of Divine Longing to emerge from the Known Unknown into Life of Eventual Human Perception.
Divine Exuberance formed Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Simple cells took life comparatively quickly, just under a billion years after the earth formed, but not until 500 million years ago did fish swim in the sea. Amphibians crawled onto the earth about 360 million years ago, and reptiles roamed some 60 million years after that; then about 200 million years ago mammals moved across the surface of this planet. Birds flew across the skies at about 150 millions years ago, and flowers bloomed some 20 million years thereafter. But not until 60 million years ago did the earth know primates, and the Great Apes did not make their terrestrial entrance until another 40 million years had transpired.
Not until 2.5 million years ago--- tens of millions of years after the appearance of those Great Apes--- did creatures of the genus homo appear, and life ensued another million years before representatives of that genus walked upright. More immediate progenitors, of the genus homo and the species sapiens, trod the expanses of East Africa for the first time only about 200 thousand years counting backward from this year of 2024.
Thus is humanity very young, an infant in the time, a creature evolving spiritually in Time.
Searching for meaning and impelled to communicate with that Force, those Forces that seemed to determine Fate, humans first expressing religio-spirituality honored and supplicated Nature in all forms taken by Nature. Religio-spiritual animism, pantheism, and polytheism dominated the Quest for Divinity for the first 200 millennia of Humankind’s Earthly Sojourn until at a juncture very close to our own, in approximately the 18th century Before the Common Era (BCE), the Hebrews of West Asia asserted the supremacy of their God of both Love and Stern Justice over others in the area, and then just three millennia later the Aryans arrived on the Indian subcontinent and along with spiritual seers whom they found in Pakistan and India developed some of the most powerful concepts of spiritual insight: illusion, detachment, emptiness, concentrated awareness (mindfulness), high-focus meditation.
Then at the midpoint in the sixth century Before the Common Era (BCE) the sage Confucius and the elusive Laozi imparted Great Wisdom in China and Siddhartha Gautama revealed the results of his Quest.
Five centuries later came Jesus of Nazareth with a message asserting the spiritual supremacy of Divine Love and offering salvation to Hebrews in fulfillment of the spiritual essence of the Law; Jesus became Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah who would resolve the dilemma of human imperfection.
Then in another half-millennia came Muhammad in Arabia, disturbed by immorality and dispersed divinity, impelled by dramatic epiphany, articulated a rigorous monotheism that directed the attention of flawed humanity toward a one, unerring, supreme God of nonpareil Truth.
Thus did the major great figures of spirituality and moral philosophy impart to humanity the wisdom that would guide many other innovators such as Guru Nanak and Joseph Smith and the theologians who would develop the ideas of the spiritual founders as humanity moved toward the second millennium and into the third millennium of the Common Era (CE).
In the meantime, the rationalists of the 17th and 18th centuries CE Enlightenment asserted human capacity to utilize what can be proven scientifically and discoveries made through the powers of human reason in the service of humanity, toward the development of humane and justly governed society. In this way, humanity came to envision justice variously via liberalism, socialism, and communism; to understand the functioning of Newtonian terrestrial and Einsteinian cosmic physics; and principles of human behavior most insightfully asserted and empirically demonstrated by Freud and Skinner.
Thus from the many centuries of spiritual revelation and two centuries of rationalist thought do we have powerful concepts upon which to work our own innovation.
My own theo-spiritual innovation is expressed as follows >>>>>
Of the spiritual seers of history, Siddhartha, the shadowy Laozi, and Jesus have given me the most powerful ideas, variously, of Divinity, Meaning, and Ethics.
Siddhartha, the first embodiment of Buddha, gave us the most insightful formulation of the reality of Existence, in which the reality of human suffering is embraced and acknowledged with intense acceptance, disciplined detachment, universal compassion, highly focused meditation, and ultimate spiritual release.
Jesus took on the suffering of which Siddhartha spoke as His own responsibility, called all seekers to Him, and provided the supreme example of Life as an expression of Unremitting Love for All Human Beings and, by extension, for all Creation.
Laozi asserted that none of the insights of seers such as Siddhartha and Jesus, or the prescriptions of ethicists such as Confucius, are to be claimed as Ultimate Truth, for the Way of existence and nonexistence is ineffable and human beings are humble seekers, not knowers of the Way; Existence, by inference and metaphorical allusion, unfolds in a mystical process of identity and interaction of forces that only seem to be opposites.
Upon this Daoist insight into human humility in witness to the great forces of Creation do we stand in awe of the Cosmos. We focus on what we can know scientifically and rationally while allowing ourselves to feel the power of spiritual expression from the many traditions. We live with the calm, focused, disciplined Awareness of Siddhartha; we move forward with the Love of Jesus active in the world; we allow the only-seeming opposites of Divinity and Rationality to Coexist to guide us through this one earthly sojourn.
We each use our Divine gifts to make this one Earthly Sojourn as materially beneficial and spiritually satisfying as we can for our fellow human beings. We Love abundantly, with and without differentiation, specific to those most precious to us and general for all humankind. We live each moment in gratitude for each blessing and all Blessings; we feel deep appreciation for each Joy; and we embrace the reality of suffering, sickness, and physical death. We live with compassion for all, including ourselves, as we experience the perceived opposites of Joy and Suffering.
Then, near the end of our Earthly Sojourn, we appreciate all that we have experienced as Truth and Divinity, all that we have learned from objective investigation and reflection, all opportunities to use our talents to the benefit of as many people whose lives we can make better by the power of Love in action.
We lie on beds giving rest to our physically dying selves, a smile of love and gratitude on our faces, knowing that we lived every moment in the spirit of Love, Happy that we did the best within our capability.
Then we calmly appreciate our individual opportunity in Eternity.
