The most accessible indicator of the happening of profound
consciousness is the style of life that is effective. A vision
(profound consciousness) first appears to the preconsciousness
or to the intuition; it then embodies itself in the personal and
social style of a people, and finally discloses itself to the
reflective selfconsciousness.
Its appearance on the first level occasions the Dark Night
of the Soul to societies and to men. At that level, profound consciousness
is an alien image. When the vision occurs, it comes not as a welcome
solution to old problems, but as a total redefinition of
what constitutes both problem and solution. Society undergoes
disruption and ferment as unrecognized and unfamiliar forces come
into play. Old formulas no longer work. Old structures fall apart.
Old values cease to motivate, and established roles fall into
disuse. It is a time of humiliation, resentment, weakness
and suffering on a sociological level that later and also becomes
the interior experience of persons. But mostly, it is a time of
the new consciousness purging society of its presuppositions thereby
making it ready for reconstruction.
The second phase of the happening of profound consciousness
is manifest as the Long March of Care. It is a time of action,
serious pioneering social demonstration that has as its aim nothing
less than the total reconstructing of human community in accordance
with the new vision. But the moral imperative of liberalism are
gone. The new vision may be but dimly perceived, but that is clear
enough to insure that its active embodiment is indicative. Mostly
visibly, the STYLE of life undergoes a subtle alteration. Care
and corporateness become presuppositions for every action. Mankind
senses itself launched on a common journey whose goal is unclear,
whose directions are manifold and whose forms are strange. The
heroic paradigm is no longer the elder preserving the ancient
heritage or the adventurer risking exploration of the unknown.
The hero is the manager who effectively organizes a force and
orchestrates the implementation of complicated tasks. The recruitment
of the force and the definition of the task are not issues but
presuppositions. The new consciousness, while still undefined,
has provided a common context, an unrecognized paradigm of reality
that releases passion for active engagement in society. Phenomenologically,
it is a time of rootlessness, ineffectivity, weariness and unfulfillment.
But mostly, it is a time of the new consciousness taking social
form in a long process whose first visible imprint is in the style
with which passion is enacted. It is a style responding to an
altered reality. But the style may not be noticed for it is not
the radical departure from family norms like fads which only entrench
old forms by their exaggerated rejection or intensification of
them. The new style that emerges is a translucent window into
the new consciousness. It is style of care, power and peace all
with a heretofore unknown inclusiveness.
Only in the third phase is the consciousness itself disclosed.
It comes as the appearance of hope - not hope for anything for
every THING has been exposed in its radical contingency. Despite
this exposure, there is a drive, an enervation and a courage that
is not simply a response to impending catastrophe. This is a time
of intensified being, of presence, joy and vocation. Society knows
its forms and functions in their profundity and practicality.
The drive for their actualization sustains one in confusion, expenditure
and frustration. And most significantly the CONTENT of the vision
begins to take shape. Artists, musicians, poets and authors point
to it. Social forms reflect it. And sooner or later, it discloses
itself to a discerning spirit who gives it expression and who
more often than not is flabbergasted at the reception given to
"his" insight. Of course it has not belonged to him.
Ever. The vision, as if on a journey of its own, has moved softly
through the human consciousness leaving only unobtrusive imprints
here and there. But when it is expressed, it is recognized as
the operative paradigm of reality at last become visible.
Still, WHAT is disclosed is not quite content and certainly
not information. It is fundamentally SIGNIFICATION. The profundity
of life appears as attached to heretofore insignificant segments
of reality. And that signification has no imperatives whatsoever;
furthermore, it is neither caused by nor does it cause anything.
It just is, a presence closer that the air simply sitting there
to be noticed or ignored. And the appearance of this consciousness,
while doing and causing absolutely nothing, is yet the basis for
every social transformation that has ever occurred.
(untitled prayer)
Oh Happening of Profound Consciousness,
Consciousness of the One Reality
Indwelling in human bodies and selfhood:
Have mercy upon me.
Sustain me in spite of my estrangement from Thee.
Heal me of my estrangement toward Thee.
Commission me to authentic living before Thee.
The Lord's Prayer
Oh Mystery beyond all experience,
AWE unending is the expression of Thy Presence'
May faith, Hope and Love be manifest
through the building of a New Earth,
Even as these states of being reveal themselves now
in the fresh dawning of profound consciousness in our lives.
Grant us this day our enabling resources
And assure us of our eternal significance
in spite of all our estrangement from it.
Even as we assure others of their eternal significance
in the very midst of their estrangement from us.
And lead us not into strain so great that Illusion conquers
us.
But have mercy upon us that we may
maintain the vision of profound consciousness
and creatively perform it
in the midst of all adversity.
So be it.
The "Creation" is a mythological expression for
the essential. It is the way life truly is for every human consciousness
beneath all the sham, illusion, and lies that consciousness has
invented to escape from the essence of finite conscious existing.
God's favor is upon the
creation. The Mystery always addresses the creation
with "Thou art my creation with whom I am well pleased."
The very essence of life is mundanity in which the Mystery is
"pleased" to "dwell" and "speak",
God's favor is this presence is AWE in the midst of mundanity.
God's favor is not necessarily what man wants. Creation, including
the Awe, is seldom what man wants. The creation is struggle, pain,
death, change, concern, responsibility, obligation, and thousands
of other such realities. All these realities, plus butterflies
and babies, are filled with Awe; or they are fallen out of Awe
into mundanity without mystery, which is o world of unreality
in which lying consciousness dwells. Mystery favors the reel with
its own presence as Awe. The Awe-filled mundanity is authenticity.
But God's wrath is upon
the fallen world. Awe-filled mundanity can be said
to be dependent upon the mystery for its very existence, both
its mundanity and its Awe-filledness. The fallen world is also
dependent upon the mystery, but its fallenness is precisely the
loss of consciousness of that enduring fact. Therefore it experiences
any approach of the mystery as wrath. Wrath is the very objective
action of the mystery upon fallen existence.
The creation is often experienced by mankind is rare end unusual
(even unreal and mystical) because each man lives most of his
life in the "fallen world". The fallen world is the
creation without Awe, without on immediate relation to the mystery.
The fallen world is the creation without the creator. The fallen
world is an illusion. It is unreal because the real is in relation
to Mystery: the real Is Awe-full. In truth, the real world has
not fallen; only consciousness has fallen. But consciousness is
part of creation, the only part of creation that can fall so when
the fell has happened, the creation has fallen. Man in his fullness
is identified with the whole creation. Men is creation -- creation
is men. He is creation's consciousness of itself and of its relation
to the mystery, the creator of creation. So when man falls from
the Awe-filled mundanity of real essential existing into mundanity
without owe end mystery, the creation as a whole has fallen.
Mystery and world are bound together. This is the essence.
This is the creation. The same awe that comes as favor to the
creation, comes as wrath to the fallen world. The creation experiences
no wrath. The fallen world experiences no favor. The fallen world
might be said to experience the mercy of being sustained in order
to experience the wrath. But fallen consciousness experiences
only wrath until the day that it sees the fact that it is fallen
and that it has been under wrath only because of its fell. That
happening might be celled Judgment. Judgment is a favor of God.
Judgment is the mercy of action upon fallen consciousness that
restores it to the Awe~filled creation. Judgment is that activity
of God we also call grace. Grace is more adequately described
as a three part happening including judgment.
Grace is also the dawning
of the possibility to live in the Awe-filled creation which Judgment
revealed. And thirdly, grace is the appearance of freedom in men
to reach out and receive
the possibility of authentic living - the living upon which God's
favor rests.
The Whole Myth.
God, his favor and wrath, his mercy as sustenance, judgment, and
grace, is the main Actor in this great cosmic myth. The fallen
world also has an active part in the myth. The fallen world does
not take this defeat by Cod easily. In fact, even when beaten
in the lives of these particular men (or in this sort of one man's
life), the fallen world sneaks UD to Awe-filled consciousness
and tempts it to fall back again into some new appealing lie.
The creation experiences itself under trial at many points of
severe temptation. The favor of God grows dim. The wrath of God
on the fallen world is forgotten. The picture of a world without
this particular mundanity or that particular Awe grows strong
in power. And then it is as if the Awe-filled creation is gone
and m altogether more pleasant world has finally arrived. But
it is a lie. And Mystery walks through the locale where Lie reigns
and calls out "where are you?". The fallen world provides
whatever excuses it can, but finally it experiences again its
absolute humiliation. The creation cheers and rejoices in its
confidence that abiding favor is bestowed upon the creation from
Him who always wins.
The Work of the Church.
All God's activity is love for consciousness - creating it, sustaining
it, restoring it. The work of the Church is to work with God.
The myth of God's great war on fallen consciousness is a practical
guide to those who deem themselves God's servants. God's servants
do what God is doing. They follow his lead and lend him their
minds, bodies, and spirits. They become warriors in the great
war on fallen consciousness. They fight the war where war is in
fact already going on in their hour of living. They judge fallen
consciousness, they rejoice in the rebirth of awe, they beckon
all men to live in authenticity.
John Epps