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By Root 934 0

experience at the core of life, and from this has emerged fundamental wisdom about how to relate to each other. In the first great phase of differentiation—a prolonged time of growing separation from nature, one another, and the Mother Universe—it was only natural that religion would become a vehicle to bridge or connect people back to the sacred universe. Therefore, a core message of religion in the first axial age was that of compassion—treating others as we would like to be treated. In a world of growing individualism and separation, religion served as the bridge between the secular and the sacred.

A second major phase with a very different axis is now opening before us. Religions of separation will become religions of communion as we realize there is no place to go where we can be separate from the ever-generative womb of the Mother Universe. At every moment, the entire universe is her revelation and celebration. The second epoch begins with the collective recognition that we are already home—that the Mother Universe already exists within us.

As the world moves into spiritual communion and empathic connection with the living universe we will see the role of religion differently: Less often will people look for a bridge to the divine. Increasingly, people will seek guidance and community in the journey of awakening within the living universe. People will want to know there are others on the journey of soul-making who look in the mirror of consciousness and confront their potentials for awakening and maturation. People will want insights about this journey from others who have been down this path before. They will want to know that there are guideposts along the way to support the awakening of their unique potentials. Less and less will people seek only religions of belief. Carried along in this great cultural project of awakening, we will increasingly seek religions of direct experience—religions of communion with a living universe.

Awakening into the Living Universe

We are moving through a great turn in human history. In making this turn, we are halfway home in our journey of return to a living universe. On the second half of this journey, we understand that we no longer require a bridge to the first miracle. No longer feeling a sense of separation, what we seek is not a bridge to the great alive-ness but conscious guides within it.

All of the world’s wisdom traditions recognize that if we are to experience the subtle aliveness of the universe it is vital that we consciously develop the arts of attention with tools such as meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Recall that we are giants in the cosmic scale of things and that it is easy for us to overlook what is happening at the more refined levels of existence. Happily, a literacy of consciousness is central to who we are as a species—we have a distinct aptitude for seeing ourselves in the mirror of consciousness. Whatever we may name our capacity for reflective knowing, the importance of cultivating this core capacity is recognized by every major wisdom tradition.

Throughout this book, the world’s wisdom traditions have described enlightening or awakening experiences that emerge as we come into a more conscious and intimate relationship with the living universe. When our aliveness consciously connects with the aliveness of the universe, a current of aliveness flows through us and an “enlightening” experience occurs. At that moment, when life meets life, a direct connection between the universe and ourselves is realized and we have an awakening experience. We no longer see ourselves in the universe, we experience that we are the universe. Because the deep fabric of the universe is infused with its orchestration of qualities (light, love, music, knowing), we do not need to create or imagine awakening experiences. Instead, we only need to experience directly what is already true about the fundamental nature of the universe. Ultimately, when the conscious knowing of ourselves becomes transparent to the reality of our participation in an ever-flowing universe,