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(Continued from page
23)
Every phase of evolution
has its growing tip, and, symbolically at least,
every group or class of beings can likewise be
seen as having a particularly enterprising
member, who takes the lead and opens up a way to
new and more fulfilling areas of experience.
Lower evolution and spiritual development are
sections of the same upward movement in life and
consciousness, and if the bodhisattva is the
pioneer of spiritual development (higher
evolution), the bodhisattva spirit can be
regarded as the pioneering principle in all
evolution.
In the axial age, the bodhisattva principle was
embodied in the sages who demonstrated advances
in consciousness and proclaimed the unity of life
or the common potential for self-transcendence of
every human being. Today, the bodhisattva
principle manifests in the heart of each person,
every time one takes a step which overpasses the
limits of one's current state. `What saves a man
is to take a step,' writes the French author,
Antoine de St Exupery, `then another step. It is
always the same step, but you have to take it.'
The Buddhist vision of
existence sees the inadequacies of life, sees
that they can be transformed, and sees the
bodhisattva principle operating to transform them
at all levels and in all that lives. The image of
the bodhisattva clarifies the whole process of
the evolution of consciousness by bringing it
into an all-embracing, even cosmic, context. It
portrays an urge to enlightenment in all spheres
of life, urging individual human beings to help
create a dynamic world characterised by
compassion, beauty, and openness.
THE GOLDEN THREAD
Perhaps
it is most helpful to see the bodhisattva life as
a way of being, a choice that anybody can make by
selecting the kinder and wiser option in every
situation. In this way, one inches forward along
the thread of evolving consciousness. It is a
golden thread like the one Ariadne gave to
Theseus so that he could find his way out of the
Cretan labyrinth. William Blake, in `Jerusalem',
says:
I give you the end of a golden string,
Only wind it into a ball:
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate,
Built in Jerusalem's wall.
One who knows something of the way out, like
William Blake, may place the thread in one's
hands. But that is not really necessary. It is
already there; it is one's own evolving mind.
We are accustomed to using the evolutionary
vision to look backwards. The backward gaze
revealed our inviolable connections with each
other and with the whole natural world,
connections of kinship and ancestrally shared
struggles to evolve. We are less accustomed to
projecting the evolutionary view forwards.
(Continued on
page 25)
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