Bringing Heaven to Earth

As long as you are unaware of Being, you will seek meaning only within the dimension of doing and...future. Any meaning we find on that level is true only relatively and temporarily. - Eckhart Tolle

For those of us who have lived a score or two beyond the idealistic phase of youth have seen that time can take its toll on aspirations and imagined futures. Back then, some of us thought life would be different for us than it is now. Many of us grew up under the spell of the American dream with its promise of happiness through the pursuit and acquisition of material prosperity and success. We thought we'd be fat and happy by now. For some the fantasy was home life that looked like Ozzie and Harriet or the Cleavers who portrayed models of functional and harmonious relationships. We thought we'd find and stay with one person who'd make us happy, at last, and forever. We believed that a career would bring us esteem, empowerment and sense of purpose, while fully employing our talents.

Perhaps you have been blessed by achieving outer success in one or more of these aspects of life. Some may have material success, others success in relationships, others in empowering and satisfying careers. Yet, the real question that we all face is, what meaning remains, when these outer forms change over time. Many of us have become glaringly aware that wholesale changes in our finances, family or career can, and do, happen, and the meaning we have ascribed to these institutions will constitute the personal upending and pain of their passing. Further, if we are not awake to this trap of the ego, we will lick our wounds and resume our pursuit of meaning in a new form, another person, another job another material acquisition. But we have another choice. We don't have to continue to believe what is not true, and suffer the consequences.

A New Earth invites us to uncover inner meaning that arises from our Being, rather than outer meaning that come from our doing. To the extent that we identify with our jobs, our relationships with others and our possessions, we build a house of cards that can crumble and leave us hurting and empty. Our true purpose cannot be found at the outer level just as your true self cannot be fully revealed by your body. Meaning comes from who you are, which is spiritual, pure consciousness, not what you do.

True success in life comes when we align our true purpose (awareness of Self) with what we do. In this way, we bring an awakened vitality; an aliveness to every moment of doing. Even the most mundane task, when infused with present moment awareness can bring satisfaction to us, and excellent results to the world.

In this finale of our seven-week study of A New Earth, we bring its central overriding message to a focal point. We must partner with Spirit if we are to build a new reality, a new earth that works for us; that works for all of us. Perhaps the Psalmist said it as cogently as any: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. As we continue to pursue our worldly goals, we are best served by maintaining a spiritual sense of self about us. In this way, we ride the evolutionary wave that would move us to success as a species, an impulse that reveals our interconnectedness with all of life, helps us loosen our grip on the impermanent things, ensures we are guided and graced by the Eternal. This is how we bring Heaven to earth.