at the collective level, as well as creating the conditions for deep fulfillment.
It seems to me that a twenty first century spirituality of everyday life involves expanding our consciousness around six themes. I call these the six themes of consciousness:
What is the true nature of the self and reality generally; How do we define our needs; How do we satisfy those needs; How do we define a successful life and what motivates us in that life; What is the span of our care and concern for others, for the Earth and for other living forms; How do we define our social and civic commitments?
One of the most important aspects of a spirituality of everyday life involves moving from a sense of self as a separate isolated individual defined in terms of I, me and mine to a realization that each of us, in the words of Eckhart Tolle, does not have a life, but that we are life. In this sense life has us we are life’s instrument or servant. I call this the universal self. Developing a universal self is a pre-eminent spiritual quest. A limited sense of self cuts us off from the universe and we tend to experience our self in this limited way, as all that we are and all that we have. We resist every experience that threatens this sense of self and seek nice experiences and avoid unpleasant ones.
The field of development psychology teaches us that the six themes of consciousness can be defined by people at ever increasing levels of complexity and they can undergo development and growth throughout the whole of life. For many, the themes of consciousness plateau and remain fixed at that level throughout life. For others, their lives are an ever increasing spiral of growth and development. This is a natural process and everyone has