The Fourth Cornerstone: Stories, Beliefs and Spirituality
We humans live by stories, beliefs, and spirituality. Many of the stories we inherited from earlier times teach that domination is the only option. Fortunately, there are stories today that offer a partnership alternative of relations built on mutual benefit, mutual respect, and mutual accountability.
Human Stories
We humans live by stories. Unfortunately many of the stories we inherited from earlier times teach that dominating or being dominated are the only alternatives. That there are today stories offering a partnership alternative of relations built on mutual benefit, mutual respect, and mutual accountability is a hopeful sign. It shows that a revolution in consciousness is underway.
For this revolution in consciousness to be successful, we need more than the emergence in bits and pieces of new stories. We need a concerted effort through the arts, music, and literature, as well as through science, to show that a partnership way of structuring human society is a viable possibility. We need to show that the struggle for our future is not between religion and secularism, right and left, East and West, or capitalism and socialism, but between traditions of domination and a partnership way of life.
Implication for Spirituality
This has enormous implications for both spirituality and morality. Spirituality becomes not so much an escape from the suffering inherent in a dominator world to otherworldly realms, but an active engagement in creating a better world right here on Earth. And rather than being used to coerce and dominate, morality is imbued with caring and love.
As more and more of us come to realize that partnership is a viable possibility for human society, our understanding of spirituality may change radically: not merely an escape to otherworldly realms, spirituality offers us the opportunity for active engagement in creating a better world right here on Earth.
Spread a New Consciousness
But to spread this consciousness will require what I have called spiritual courage: the courage of political, religious, educational, and business leaders to actively oppose injustice and cruelty in all spheres of life. We must summon great bravery to end domination and violence not only in international relations but also in intimate relations, not only in the so-called public sphere of politics and business but in the so-called private sphere of parent-child, gender, and sexual relations. Domination and violence have been with many of us a long time – they may even be part of our most deeply ingrained traditions– and challenging this heritage will be unpopular at best, dangerous at worst.
But it must be done.
