Sacred America, Sacred World

Installment #10

 
Chapter 3: The Next American Dream
(continued & concluded)

Our American Dream is a guiding light that motivates us, moves us forward, and shapes our daily activities. When we have a dream that is unworthy of us, we forget who we are. A truly sacred America needs a new dream for our citizens, a dream that calls upon our full, creative potential to make a contribution to the world. Instead of “having it all,” our dream might evolve to living a life that is a “blessing for all” or “in service to all.”

By living in alignment with a new and higher dream, we free up more of our life energy for the cultivation of greater virtue and skill in accomplishing that dream. Instead of spending our time buying and repairing things, we can spend our life force on becoming a new Renaissance man or woman — creative, conscious, successful, generous, adventurous, balanced, and loving. We can do more and have less — with more freedom!

The way I see it, an upgraded American Dream will need to unify two of our oldest dreams into a higher-level hybrid — the dream of worldly success and the dream of spiritual realization. Traditionally, to achieve spiritual realization meant renouncing worldly life for the desert, monastery, or ashram to allow a life of uninterrupted contemplation or prayer. The price tag for a life of spiritual riches was a life of material poverty. And vice versa, the demands of a life of family, career, and worldly responsibilities often left little time for meditation, prayer, or devotion to spiritual life. What this effectively did was to create lopsided people. Those in worldly power had an atrophied inner life and often lacked real wisdom, joy, and fulfillment. Those in spiritual or religious enclaves were joyful and awake but had an atrophied outer life. Each side became adept at its half of the developmental equation but did not truly understand the other.

The emergence of a new American Dream comes from the merger of these two currents into one beautiful river — the river of living as what author Andrew Harvey calls a “divine human.” A divine human is a literal expression of the soul. A divine human lives in radiant alignment with the highest level of consciousness, but fully and passionately engaged in the world. It is different than Eastern models of enlightenment in the past, which often focused on transcending worldly life; instead, a divine human lives as a unique expression of his or her essence within the world. It is a model of spiritual realization that fundamentally embraces service and expresses a new kind of unity. It is enlightenment in action.

It also goes beyond solely focusing on our own liberation to recognize our deep interconnection with others and the need to act out of concern for that larger whole. Becoming a divine human means shifting from a focus on “me” to “we.” The African word ubuntu is an expression of this shift and means “I am because you are.” It points us in the direction of spiritual practice as a community, as the best of our churches, synagogues, and mosques encourage, which leads to a natural flow of generosity and support to others.

This informs our exploration of a new American Dream, which integrates two streams — the spiritual realization of the mystic with the life mastery of the person of the world. The heroes and heroines of our next American era are those who have achieved real impact in society through wise and strategic action, but married with inner depth. They take the time to open to their most authentic selves and then express that in worldly leadership of companies, nonprofits, and governments. They live lives that are inwardly and outwardly fulfilled, rich in creativity while also having family, friends, and organizations that support their gifts. They go beyond having a career to having a meaningful calling. As they align their lives with that calling and simultaneously take the time for healing, spiritual practice, and vibrant health, their personal lives support the expression of that calling. They live a life of authenticity and purpose, radiant with the knowledge that they are vessels for grace and an expression of a larger mission.

In this next American Dream, the boundaries will dissolve between the meditator on the mountaintop and the entrepreneur in the marketplace. We need both their skills and talents to create a truly divine human life. On a material level, the next American Dream will no longer celebrate material excess to the same degree. Mansions filled with trinkets and toys will be seen as sad expressions of an atrophied inner life. A lovely home that is sustainably designed, comfortable, and beautiful, without excess, will be sufficient for the heroes and heroines of the new American Dream. Our garages will be spacious, with plenty of room for plug-in electric vehicles, powered by solar panels on the roofs. Our yards will be filled with vegetables that we grow ourselves, keeping us in deeper connection with the earth. We will satisfy the essentials of our current American Dream with less money and less time, freeing up more of our life force for living a truly creative life. And by this embrace of more simplicity, we will not only become happier but free up resources for those who have yet to achieve the most basic levels of the American Dream.

A life that is balanced between inner growth and outer success is ultimately more fulfilling and more meaningful than one in which we are gorging ourselves materially while befouling the planet. When we are no longer so desperate in our need for possessions, accolades, or awards, we can connect with each other in more authentic ways. We can create space and time for the enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures.

The next American Dream is one in which our sacredness finds expression in every aspect of our lives. It is the way I truly believe we were born to live, expressing our creative powers in reverence for this beautiful world, leaving behind our unique flourishes on the evolving canvas of human culture, and a legacy of happy, healthy community for generations to come.

That is an American Dream that is worthy of our true nature.
 

To be continued in the next issue of Catalyst...

Click on the following to read:    Installment #1    Installment #2    Installment #3    Installment #4   Installment #5  Installment #6  Installment #7  Installment #8  Installment #9