How to read this blog

This blog has been structured to allow me to develop my ideas on an ad-hoc basis, allowing each post to be assigned to a ‘chapter’, so that a broader vision emerges over time of what I believe could be a new spirituality for the 21st Century.

Each blog post is linked to at least one category, each of which appears in the second menu bar above, either as a parent menu (‘a chapter’) or sub-menu (section within a ‘chapter’).

The menu item ‘chapters’ are intended provide the following narrative:

SURVIVING THE 21ST CENTURY

The posts under this category discuss challenges and threats that are likely to confront human kind and life on Earth as we have known it, as the 21st Century progresses. Many of the most eminent commentators, some optimists as well as pessimists, have warned that sooner or later a global population rising to 9 – 10.5 billion by 2050 will face a series of potential catastrophes that could claim the lives of billion of our fellow human beings as well as devastating many of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Optimists tend to believe that global humanity will develop the technologies required to overcome even the direst threats. Pessimists doubt that global humanity will have the wisdom to unite and act in time, some believing that technology could pose as many threats as it solves.

I believe its essential to be a guarded optimist. The conclusion that will be drawn is that only a spiritual renaissance within the emerging global civilisation can provide the inspiration necessary for the human family, acting as a global community, to save itself and the World from potential disaster and allow humanity to further fulfil its potential on an Earth still thriving with abundant life.

OUTLINE OF A GLOBAL AGE SPIRITUALITY

A spiritual renaissance that inspires the emergence of a global civilisation would, necessarily itself emerge from a synthesis of the humanistic dimension of some of the old spiritual traditional traditions and a new vision of the place of humanity in an evolving cosmos that modern science allows us to glimpse.

The posts in the other ‘chapters’ attempt to enlarge upon the outline of new the spirituality presented in this ‘chapter’.

THE EVOLVING COSMOS

The posts in this ‘chapter’ attempts to provide a panorama of cosmic evolution that, starting with the big bang around 13.7 billion years ago, has not only produced the physical universe in all its vastness and complexity, but has also the miracle of biological evolution, at least on our Earth, and the miracle of human cultural evolution, from which a global civilisation is currently emerging.

This vision of creation allows us to see, without contradicting science, that, love, creativity, beauty, intelligence, compassion and joy are all creations of the ongoing drama of cosmic evolution. Like many others, I believe this new vision of creation is an essential part of the new humanistic spirituality and so it is an essential aspect of the Mahadharma that I am trying to elucidate here.

THE HUMAN WORLD

Throughout this blog I use the World to mean the physical, ecological, biological and cultural realm from which humanity as a race and, as distinct individuals, have emerged, and within which we have our being.

Like fish in water, we often seem unaware of the central importance of the World to our being as well as our scared responsibility to play our part in its unfolding. The posts in this ‘chapter’ attempt to enlarge upon what I mean by ‘the World’.

THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA

I believe that what we in the west call Buddhism is the greatest and most valuable non-theistic spiritual tradition we have. However, it is my belief that the ancient Indian worldview from which it emerged 2,500 years ago, is seriously detrimental to a World-centred spirituality. It is therefore a central notion of this blog that the Buddha’s Dharma is hugely important, but insufficient part of the spiritual renaissance that humanity so desperately needs.

The posts in this chapter fall into two categories: those that attempt to describe the glories of the Buddha’s Dharma and those that highlight try to show why it is insufficient.

MAHADHARMA – THE GREAT DHARMA

The posts in this ‘chapter’ attempt build a vision of the Great Dharma that would be at the heart of the spiritual renaissance I believe is necessary to ensure that humanity thrives as well as survives in the 21st Century.

The Mahadharma is a synthesis between the Buddha’s Dharma, the vision of creation as part of the drama of cosmic evolution and the idea that the best way to ensure a meaning life for ourselves and a hopeful future for humanity and the living Earth, is to live our lives as a gift to the World.

IMAGINING A DANASATTVA

My vision of the Mahadharma comprises a spiritual ideal, the Danasattva Ideal, that anyone who has made a commitment to live his/her lives as a gift to the World. It is an obvious equivalent of the Bodhisattva Ideal of Mahayanan Buddhism.

In Buddhism, dana – generosity – is one of the greatest of all virtues. ‘Sattva’ is the Sanskrit word for a being (a bodhisattva is a being who exemplifies bodhi – spiritual awakening). A danasattva would be a person who exemplifies generosity to the highest degree, in that they live their lives as a gift to others and to the World.

My hope is that, once I have outlined my vision of the Mahadharma, the great majority of my posts to this blog will come under this category, as part of personal spiritual quest to glimpse what it would be like to live as an aspiring danasattva.

OTHER REFLECTIONS

This ‘chapter’ will contain posts of on topics that are of great personal interest to myself that are tangential, but still relevant to the development my vision of the Mahadharma. For instance, for me, the music of some of the great composers of the western canon, especially that of Ludwig van Beethoven, is of central importance to my own vision of a humanistic spirituality.

REFERENCES

This category will contain posts containing notes, bibliographical entries or links to other websites, where further information on key topics or people can be found.