Bringing the Eternal into the Now

This week I thought I would frame this dialogue on wholeness by sharing with you Essential Parenting’s Statement of Purpose. Hopefully it will give you a taste of the “big-picture view” that I am working from.

The health of a society is directly related to the overall health of the individuals within it; that is the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual health of each of us.  And though it is true that human beings are infinitely complex, we have learned of many of the patterns that shape the relative health of individuals, especially how child-caregiver relationships affect the health, or wholeness, of children.  For over a hundred years now, psychology has set to the task of describing the human psyche with the hopes of optimizing the mental and emotional health of individuals, and the society at large.  And for thousands of years prior to that, spiritual traditions from all corners of the earth have described what might be called the “True Nature” of human beings.  This can be thought of as the spiritual dimensions of our humanity, or the “Essence” of who we ultimately are.  At the beginning of the 21^st century, we stand in a unique place to integrate these two strands of knowledge, namely the psychological and spiritual dimensions of human beings, for the expressed purpose of enhancing the health, or wholeness, of individuals and our culture at large.  Essential Parenting seeks to be such an integration.

Essential Parenting starts with the belief that as infants we are all deeply in contact with our True Nature, and during the course of our ego development we largely loose contact with this True Nature, or Essence.  As a result of this normal egoic development, we begin to identify with a constructed image of who we are; an image that is largely devoid of the experience of our Essence.  Living as if these mental constructs are more real than our Essence is at the root of much human suffering.  It is my hope that Essential Parenting will help caretakers understand the ontological nature of children in order to generate and optimize support for two very specific, yet ultimately inseparable, processes: 1) the development of a healthy functioning ego and 2) the potential rediscovering of our Essence inherent to the later stages of full human development.  It is my hope that humanity will benefit from child-caregiver relationships that unfold in the context of an integrated psychological and spiritual understanding of human development.

And if I were more poetic, I would put it something like this:

The wise remain aware of the spirituality of life.

Every mother has felt the stillness and stir of Eternal Consciousness in her womb. Remember that.

Bring that mysterious, silent moment into the clamoring present.

Vimala McClure, The Tao of Motherhood

Take home: When we contact our deeper nature — beyond ego, beyond fear — we find a dynamic and loving intelligence that knows “…what is just, loving, and beautiful.” The presence of the Eternal in our consciousness gives rise to actions that both express and promote wholeness. From this place, all is unfolding perfectly as it should and our lives becomes deeply fulfilling.

Try: This week commit to a practice that helps you contact the “Eternal Consciousness” that is living and breathing you. It need only be 5-10 minutes each day if that is all you have. Share your experience with this conscious parenting community.