The Living Universe

THE
Living Universe

Other books by Duane Elgin:

Voluntary Simplicity

Promise Ahead

Awakening Earth

Changing Images of Man
(with Joseph Campbell and others)

Living Legacies
(with Coleen LeDrew Elgin)

Duane Elgin

WHERE ARE WE? WHO ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

FOREWORD BY
DEEPAK CHOPRA

The Living Universe

Copyright © 2009 by Duane Elgin
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-969-1
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-988-2
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60509-904-0

2010-2

Book design and composition: Detta Penna
Copyeditor: Judith Johnstone
Illustrator: Camilla Coates
Proofreader: Katherine Lee
Indexer: Joan Dickey
Cover design: PemaStudio
Cover photo: Byron Aughenbaugh / Getty Images

Dedicated to the wisdom keepers
across cultures and through history
who guide our exploration
of the living universe
.

Foreword by Deepak Chopra

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Great Awakening

A Personal Perspective
•
Living in a Dead
Universe
•
Cosmophilia: Love of the Universe
•
Does Aliveness
Make a Difference?

Part One: Where Are We?

Chapter 1: The First Miracle

We Are Giants
•
The Nearly Invisible Universe
•
Just Getting
Underway
•
Our Intuitive Connection with the Cosmos
•
Imagine Building a Universe

Chapter 2: The Science of a Living Universe

A Unified Universe
•
An Ocean of Background Energy
•
A Continuously Regenerated Universe
•
Sentience at Every
Level
•
Freedom at the Foundations
•
Able to Reproduce
Itself
•
An Integrative View from Science

Part Two: Who Are We?

Chapter 3: Spirituality as Intimacy with a Living Universe

Judeo-Christian Views
•
Islamic Views
•
Hindu Views
•
Buddhist Views
•
Taoist and Confucian Views
•
Indigenous Views
•
Western Views
•
Harvesting the Wisdom of Human
Experience

Chapter 4: The Mother Universe

The Meta-Universe in Science
•
The Mother Universe in
Wisdom Traditions
•
An Integrative View
•
Growing in the
Mother Universe

Chapter 5: The Soul's Body and Our Cosmic Identity

The Size of Our Soul
•
Qualities of the Soul's Body
•
A Body
of Light
•
A Body of Music
•
A Body of Love
•
A Body of
Knowing
•
Recognizing Ourselves Before We Die

Part Three: Where Are We Going?

Chapter 6: Where Is the Universe Going? 117

Life Within Life Within Life
•
Growing Self-Organizing Systems
•
Humanity's Central Project
•
A Garden for Growing Life

Chapter 7: Humanity Is Halfway Home

Humanity's Heroic Journey
•
Humanity's Journey of Separation
•
Our Supreme Test and Time of Initiation
•
Humanity's
Journey of Return
•
The Second Axial Age
•
Awakening into the
Living Universe
•
Stage I: Reflective Consciousness
•
Stage II:
Oceanic Consciousness
•
Stage III: Flow Consciousness

Part Four: Actions for the Journey Ahead

Chapter 8: Six Vital Tasks for the Journey Home

Co-Creating Our Story of Awakening
•
Cultivating Reflection
and Reconciliation
•
Living Simply and Sustainably
•
Creating
New Kinds of Community
•
Becoming Media-Conscious
Citizens of the Earth
•
Bringing Our True Gifts into the
World
•
The Promise of the Journey Ahead

Chapter 9: Living in a Living Universe

Meditations
•
Conversations

Notes

Index

About the Author 227

by Deepak Chopra

As a physician, I am concerned with healing. In my view, the more we are in touch with the universe we come from, the more we will be able to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet. We are an integral part of a living and intelligent universe. Not only is the universe alive, it is imbued with consciousness. The universe wants to live and breathe through you. To find out the truth of this, you need to relate to the universe as if it were alive. Otherwise, how will you ever know that it is? Today, begin to adopt the following habits:

Talk to the universe.

Listen for its reply.

Be on intimate terms with Nature.

See the life in everything.

Carry yourself like a child of the universe.

Duane Elgin writes about our living universe as an evolutionary pioneer. He has been an explorer of scientific knowledge and spiritual understanding for more than four decades. He has worked on a Presidential Commission looking into the deep future; helped pioneer sustainable ways of living with his book
Voluntary Simplicity;
developed a stunning view of the big picture of the human journey in
Awakening Earth;
co-founded three non-profit organizations working for media accountability and citizen empowerment, and more. The uniqueness and span of this book reflect Duane's wide-ranging life journey.

The Living Universe
is written with elegant simplicity and yet it addresses our most important existential dilemmas.
Where are we? Who are we? What journey are we on? Step-by-step he offers us new insights about ourselves and our human journey. At the foundation is the understanding that we are each an expression of a living universe. The universe is conscious, self-regulating, self-creating, ever-renewing, and always evolving to increasing levels of complexity and creativity.

Through us (the human nervous system), the universe is becoming increasingly aware of itself. We are beings of light, love, music, and happiness. We are evolving toward unity consciousness where we experience ourselves as cosmic beings participating in the evolution of the universe. If we consciously participate in this evolutionary process, we can heal the rift in our collective soul and bring creative solutions to poverty, social injustice, war, terrorism, and ecological devastation. If we ignore the call to our collective awakening, we put at risk the future of human civilization on our precious planet. The choice is ours.

It is my hope that the human family rapidly awakens itself to the reality that we live in a living universe. The human body is part of the cosmic body. The human mind is part of the cosmic mind. Awakening to this cosmic dimension of ourselves is profoundly restorative. With that experience and understanding, we bring healing to our wounded planet and a new sense of adventure to the human journey.

Duane has written an important book because, at this pivotal time when we are separated by so many differences, it is vital that we discover our common ground as a species. A widely shared understanding that we all live in the same living universe provides the foundation for positive visions of the future that offer beacons of hope to pierce the darkness of the world's gathering storms.

As I complete this book in early 2009, a number of crises are putting the world system under enormous pressure to make fundamental changes: economic breakdowns, growing climate disruption, the end of cheap oil, desperate poverty, violent conflicts over resources and religion, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and more. We are fulfilling the “Warning to Humanity” given by more than 1,600 of the world's senior scientists, including a majority of the Nobel laureates in the sciences.
¹
In 1992 they warned: “A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” If a “great change” in our stewardship of life is essential, what does that change look like? Given the enormous differences and divisions within the human community, where can we find a commonly shared understanding for building a new pathway into the future?

To align our efforts and fulfill our potentials, it is vital for the human family to find a compelling sense of direction for living and growing together. But what vision of humanity's journey has the breadth, depth, and reach to enable us to look beyond our many differences and galvanize our efforts in building a promising future? This integrative vision, or “great story,” of humanity's journey can be summarized as follows:
The universe is deeply alive as an evolving and learning system and we humans are on a journey of discovery within it. We are learning to live within a living universe
. If we lose sight of
where we are
(living in a living universe) we profoundly diminish our understanding of
who we are
(beings of both biological and cosmic dimension) and
where we are going
(growing into an ever more intimate relationship with the living universe).