Modern life, in every generation of people, disconnects us from the way things used to be. From hunters and gatherers, we became agricultural creatures tied to the land. We no longer roamed free and were eventually controlled by governments that oversaw the food supply and economic processes. Our religions changed and became institutionalized and dictatorial.
Now we have a society that has become overly computerized at the expense of human values such as sincerity, depth, and being there for each other. Values such as being friendly, saying “hello” to a human in front of you instead of messaging someone on the phone while ignoring the humans around you. Like store clerks who answer the phone while you are standing in front of them ready to give them your money.
So many interact with computers all day long. Some never get off their phones until they go to sleep: Checking the weather, social media, selfies, incoming messages, and being anywhere else but here and now alone with themselves. All along knowing deep down that these machines are going to take over most of the common work tasks that have kept them surviving at this soul-less pace.
In the 20th century there was widespread belief in progress. People were working towards some hopeful goal of human perfectibility and alleviation of human misery through scientific advances such as antibiotics, antisepsis, technology, and anesthesiology. People wanted to develop character, make friends, influence people and do it in the catchiest and most memorable way. The future was bright. They were working towards all the amenities.
The developed world also believed that we were earning our place in heaven by good behavior. The church, synagogue, or mosque told us who and what God was and how to behave towards each other. Fairytale scenarios of heaven and being on the right hand of God allowed people to manage the fearful and painful aspects of life in the flesh. There was going to be heaven if they were good and it was simple. The future was going to bring it.
But now most thinking or sophisticated people don’t put stock in these beliefs. Besides, life is hard enough without supposing that God is watching your every move to see if you are worthy of being let into heaven. So what we are left with is trying to distract ourselves from the fearful and painful aspects of living, including the fear of our own annihilation. Where religions offered such distractions, we now have the colorful and attention getting images that flood our screens and allow us to escape from our misgivings every moment we are awake.
Love and meaning were never high on the list in the history of human life. It’s been big fish eating little fish since the first life form appeared on the planet. But a bigger meaning was assigned by nature itself: The family loves and protects each other to survive. We love and protect others in our group to survive. This altruism is a matter of physical continuity and may be built into the human system—just as it is with other animals, so that we can continue to reproduce.
If you go into a room and everyone is hunched over their devices, absorbed in the endless search for entertainment and distraction you will feel disconnected. Where is the love? The interest in getting to know another person through conversation in which you might learn something or feel good? Of course there is no meaning behind 8.5 billion people all trying to survive and wrecking the planet in the process. And that is the reason behind the superficial and soul-free feel of modern life.
The reality is too hard to bear. We don’t really see a future beyond an endless array of survival tactics until we are too old to manage our physical existence.
The only way out of this predicament is spiritual awakening—which requires being alone with our innermost being—in silence. This allows us to rise above the ego mind and watch its fearful, repetitive thoughts, its self-protective behaviors. Just watching them. Not believing them or that they are who we are. Then we can see the passing show and know that we have never been disconnected, for it is coursing through us.
Spiritual awakening allows us to see the life force itself and how it moves through everything. It is not about running away from the here while living in a zombie-like trance. Without spiritual awakening we are just biologically based robots—controlled by electronic signals on the inside and the outside doing jobs that will soon be replaced by AI.
Now we have a society that has become overly computerized at the expense of human values such as sincerity, depth, and being there for each other. Values such as being friendly, saying “hello” to a human in front of you instead of messaging someone on the phone while ignoring the humans around you. Like store clerks who answer the phone while you are standing in front of them ready to give them your money.
So many interact with computers all day long. Some never get off their phones until they go to sleep: Checking the weather, social media, selfies, incoming messages, and being anywhere else but here and now alone with themselves. All along knowing deep down that these machines are going to take over most of the common work tasks that have kept them surviving at this soul-less pace.
In the 20th century there was widespread belief in progress. People were working towards some hopeful goal of human perfectibility and alleviation of human misery through scientific advances such as antibiotics, antisepsis, technology, and anesthesiology. People wanted to develop character, make friends, influence people and do it in the catchiest and most memorable way. The future was bright. They were working towards all the amenities.
The developed world also believed that we were earning our place in heaven by good behavior. The church, synagogue, or mosque told us who and what God was and how to behave towards each other. Fairytale scenarios of heaven and being on the right hand of God allowed people to manage the fearful and painful aspects of life in the flesh. There was going to be heaven if they were good and it was simple. The future was going to bring it.
But now most thinking or sophisticated people don’t put stock in these beliefs. Besides, life is hard enough without supposing that God is watching your every move to see if you are worthy of being let into heaven. So what we are left with is trying to distract ourselves from the fearful and painful aspects of living, including the fear of our own annihilation. Where religions offered such distractions, we now have the colorful and attention getting images that flood our screens and allow us to escape from our misgivings every moment we are awake.
Love and meaning were never high on the list in the history of human life. It’s been big fish eating little fish since the first life form appeared on the planet. But a bigger meaning was assigned by nature itself: The family loves and protects each other to survive. We love and protect others in our group to survive. This altruism is a matter of physical continuity and may be built into the human system—just as it is with other animals, so that we can continue to reproduce.
If you go into a room and everyone is hunched over their devices, absorbed in the endless search for entertainment and distraction you will feel disconnected. Where is the love? The interest in getting to know another person through conversation in which you might learn something or feel good? Of course there is no meaning behind 8.5 billion people all trying to survive and wrecking the planet in the process. And that is the reason behind the superficial and soul-free feel of modern life.
The reality is too hard to bear. We don’t really see a future beyond an endless array of survival tactics until we are too old to manage our physical existence.
The only way out of this predicament is spiritual awakening—which requires being alone with our innermost being—in silence. This allows us to rise above the ego mind and watch its fearful, repetitive thoughts, its self-protective behaviors. Just watching them. Not believing them or that they are who we are. Then we can see the passing show and know that we have never been disconnected, for it is coursing through us.
Spiritual awakening allows us to see the life force itself and how it moves through everything. It is not about running away from the here while living in a zombie-like trance. Without spiritual awakening we are just biologically based robots—controlled by electronic signals on the inside and the outside doing jobs that will soon be replaced by AI.
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