Patterns of Spirituality

Is Humanity Asleep?

I find that the metaphor of people being asleep is used sometimes by those whose developing spirituality is frustrated by society in various ways. It seems to me that these critics have little understanding of the psychological aspects of their spiritual journey through life, a journey which I see as an odyssey of personal evolution. 

Is it relevant or irrelevant to discover why we are here on Earth, or what our purpose is for being here?  It depends on what view you take of human evolution. Perhaps most religious people want to return to the golden age of their tradition or to a golden age symbolised by the myth of Eden (the paradise that humanity sprang from). Within this view, what we learn on Earth is irrelevant - it is just something that we have eventually to cast off in order to return to our original pure state. Quite often, adherents to this view assume that most people are asleep, because the people seem to be doing nothing meaningful towards pursuing any religious ideals. However, in my view, the original state is only a state of possibility, rather like an embryo.

I take the opposing view: the purpose of humanity is to evolve, and so what we learn is very important. We have to go forward, not backward. What we learn will shape our eventual destiny. So when eventually we do unite with ultimate reality or god, we will be in a state of fulfilment, rather like a flower, instead of an embryo. In Eden we were just a seed; in the future we will flower into perfection. In this view, nobody is asleep. Everybody is travelling their own journey to the light. However, most people have only progressed a little in their spiritual journey ; so their present potential for manifesting spirituality in practice is very limited. Hence they cannot be expected to understand and follow the higher teachings of mysticism, theosophy and similar idealistic abstractions.

Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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