"The Historic Event of Logos: The Awakening"

 by Dr. Ashok K. Gangadean

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We are in the midst of an amazing global event that is centuries in the making: the awakening of the global mind, the emergence of a higher form of life in human evolution. This event has been accelerating through the ages and has now reached an unprecedented critical moment in which our future survival and sustainability is in the balance. So how we respond to the historic challenge before us will surely determine the fate of human life here on earth.

This awakening has been playing out in the heart of human evolution. And although the evidence of this emergence of the human form surrounds us in all aspects of cultural life, it has been painfully difficult, almost impossible, to see it clearly in its full global form. For if we are able to stand back and get some critical distance from our particular cultural orientation and historical situation, truly enter into other cultural traditions, and authentically encounter–both from the outside and the inside–diverse religious worlds and alternative worldviews, something astounding begins to come into focus. A new and higher dimension of reality and experience becomes available. As our experience expands and deepens in a global context between diverse cultural and religious worlds, between diverse perspectives and worldviews, we begin to see the unmistakable pattern of the evolution of human life in the emergence of a higher dialogical consciousness.

Through this living encounter with alternative worlds and perspectives, new possibilities open and we begin to see deeper patterns in human evolution and in the human condition itself. Clearly, there is and must be a deep common ground generating diverse worlds, holding worlds together, and enabling us to live and move between worlds. This common origin of multiple worlds is, of course, already at the heart of any world, but it comes to the fore more dramatically in its global form when we venture into the space between worlds. Living between worlds opens a higher dialogical dimension of reality that allows us to see that diverse worlds arise out of a common reality and are expressing a common evolutionary drama.

In this global dimension, the most dramatic disclosure is that a fundamental reality or origin is generating diverse worlds and expressing itself in all directions in and through these multiple worlds. Deeper reflection on this common origin of worlds, this generative principle of reality and existence, reveals that human life across cultures and traditions all gravitates to, and arises out of, this common origin and strives to manifest and express its presence. Diverse religions, worldviews, philosophies, and cultural forms have all sought to express this moving principle of reality in one way or another. And the rich diversity of expressions of this reality principle are so wide ranging that it has been virtually impossible to see that they are indeed alternative expressions of one and the same reality. The greatest minds in human evolution across cultures and religious visions have somehow known that there must be a common origin underlying all realities. But the local forces in their worldviews and the state of evolution of their language and discourse and technology of mind worked against the clear global articulation of this truth.

But over the past 3 thousand years through the heroic efforts of the highest creative minds, and through the continuing evolution of the human condition, it is more possible now to rise to a global vision and expression of this common moving principle of all realities. It would be helpful here to introduce a global name for this common origin of worlds. Let's call this fundamental moving force "Logos." Having this global name will facilitate a deepening of the global vision and articulation of the drama of human evolution.

Logos, as a candidate for the primordial global name, is so profound in its presence as the origin of all worlds, as the moving principle of all realities, that it is prior to all the more localized names that have emerged in historical evolution. And yet, it is this Logos that is being named and approximated by the diverse traditions of religions, philosophies, and cultural narratives that have evolved over the ages. Logos is the primal Word, the Living Spirit, the Unifying force of Nature, the field of Infinite Consciousness, the embodiment of material universe, it is Language, Thought, World–all realized in a higher global dimension.

When we approach Global Logos through the diverse cultural traditions that have striven to express Logos, we gain new and deeper access to this origin of all realities and evolutionary narratives. One of the most striking revelations is that all historical evolutions are essentially the expression of Logos and the emergence of Logos in the human condition. Logos is revealed as the generative principle of all realities–the reality principle itself–the moving force of all natural, historical, and cultural evolutions. Indeed, reality is seen to be a dynamic, creative process of the embodiment and emergence of Logos: the evolutionary process itself. And when we approach this moving principle of reality through the rich diversity of narratives of reality that have experimentally evolved through the ages, it becomes apparent that this evolutionary drama of the emergence of Logos in history is the essential factor in all cultural forms of life.

In fact, this idea of Logos is so powerful, deep, and overwhelming that to think it, to come to authentic awareness of its global scope and force, changes everything. The idea of Logos and the awakening of the global mind are essentially connected, and one can't come forth without the other.

As we rise to the global dimension of Logos and enter the awakening mind, a higher reality between worlds comes into view. In this global perspective, we can see clearly for the first time the remarkable evolution that has been proceeding on a global scale through the centuries. In this historical drama, the ultimate insight in cultural evolution across diverse worldviews, across religious traditions and philosophical narratives, is that Logos is a living reality.

In this global perspective, it becomes clear that all the great religious and philosophical teachers across the cultures were in one way or another expressing this truth of Logos. In a remarkable plurality of visions and vocabularies, the historic teachers all express the living truth of Logos and contribute to an evolving and emerging global Language of Logos. And in this global evolution, it begins to come into focus that there must be an ultimate origin and presence that generates all cultures, all worlds, all forms of life.

The great teachings of the ages, when placed in this global emergence of Logos, concur that human reality is a function of how we conduct our mind and discourse. The disclosure of Logos is inherently tied to how we think, to how we conduct our mind. And as we reflect on the evolution of cultural life over the past three thousand years, we may see the unmistakable pattern that the right approach to Logos calls for a profound paradigm shift in how we think and with this, the overcoming of habits of mind that have produced disastrous consequences in the human condition.

The historic teachers of Logos have seen that the egocentric ways of minding have not only eclipsed and repressed open access to Logos, but have positively and actively caused ongoing devastation and suffering in the human condition. So one of the great lessons of the global perspective of cultural evolution is that the egocentric mind and its technology of thinking is an adolescent stage in human development that has been a primary cause of human suffering and existential pathologies. When the diverse cultural, religious, and philosophical traditions are rightly placed in the evolutionary drama of Logos, their higher global significance is released and we begin to see their common diagnosis that egocentric thinking is a human disaster and that a higher technology of thinking that is centered in Logos is the common prescription for well being.

In fact, the truth of this global evolutionary drama could not be seen clearly because of the dominance of the egocentric way of being human and of culture making. But if we can step back from the pernicious influence of this form of life and rise to the global dimension of Logos, we may readily see that all historical or cultural evolution has been the confrontation and interplay between the cultural forces of egocentric life and the counter forces of the historic emergence of Logos with its rise to the awakening of the global mind and global culture. And in this drama, it is impossible to exaggerate how deeply the influence of egocentric culture has repressed and deformed the clear vision of this global emergence of Logos. We shall see in detail how egocentric thinking has worked systemically against the recognition of the greatest insights of the teachers of Logos throughout the ages.

If we do step back from egocentric thinking and enter the ways of the global mind, we may more readily see how and why this supreme idea of Logos is the greatest discovery of human evolution and the direct moving force of historical process.

AWAKEN OR PERISH: THE MISSING EVOLUTIONARY DRAMA

There is one truth so powerful that if we had the courage to encounter it together, it would change our lives forever and lift us to the next stage of human evolution. This truth has been emerging throughout history and has matured to such a point that if we do face this truth, life will get better but if we fail, we shall surely perish. So we are in the midst of an ultimate evolutionary drama in which our survival is at risk–we are all directly involved in one way or another in this historic event and we have a direct say in how it will play out. Each of us has a choice in what comes next, and it all depends on authentically awakening to this truth.

This historic truth is very simple. It is the truth that Logos is real, that Logos is the living foundation of all existence, the unified field of reality itself, the moving power of evolution. Logos is the source of all truths, the common ground of all religions and cultures, and energizes all human experience. Logos is the very process of reality, and all history has been the story of the emergence of Logos in the human condition. It has been said in modern times that if god is dead, anything goes. But it is also true that if Logos lives, everything changes.

But the authentic encounter of this truth is at once the easiest and most difficult thing in the world. For there is not a moment of life wherein this truth of Logos is not present, available, and expressing itself. Since Logos is revealed in every pulse of experience, it should be natural to awaken to a direct and immediate encounter of Logos. Yet in the slow and painful evolution of consciousness and cultures, powerful forces in human thought and cultures have continued to eclipse the truth of Logos. Therefore, the historical drama of Logos rising that is at the core of human evolution and ultimate concern has not been clearly seen. And the failure or incapacity to process this truth has blocked and distorted our essential human nature and has caused abysmal human suffering.

So we face a challenge from the start. The single most important factor for our survival is awakening to this missing story of the emergence of Logos that requires the awakening of the global mind. But the single most important barrier to seeing this deeper evolutionary drama is the predominance of old dysfunctional patterns of thinking that make it virtually impossible to see and process this missing global story. How are we to break this cycle and rise to the global mind that brings the story of Logos into focus? Of course we are already living this drama, already deeply involved in this awakening event. But it takes special effort now to jumpstart this vital process of rising to the missing historical drama. It takes a higher technology of thinking to process this missing truth of Logos. As this higher form of mind awakens, our true human nature blossoms and our lives flourish. We need to find a creative way to bring this story out.

Every important advance in human cultures has been a breakthrough in the emergence of Logos. But at the same time, this drama reveals that a force in human life has worked to conceal, suppress, displace, and deform the presence of Logos. It is the pervasive and potent influence of this counterforce in human evolution that makes it so difficult to realize the truth of Logos and has produced suffering and devastation in the human condition. This counterforce in human thought has brought humanity increasingly to the brink of extinction and self–destruction.

Nevertheless, we are also in a most exciting and promising moment in our evolution. The relentless and irrepressible emergence of Logos has moved us to the brink of an amazing breakthrough in individual and corporate human life: it is the awakening of the global mind through the dialogical revolution in our lives. All evolution has moved humanity to the threshold of an enlightened recognition of Logos, and this comes to fruition with the individual and collective awakening of the global mind. So we need to focus our attention and experiment here on this dialogical awakening that opens the global mind.

As global mind awakens, we begin to see that humans have been evolving through the ages under the powerful influences of two great polar forces–a struggle between the egocentric human nature and the emerging dialogical human being. From a variety of religious perspectives, scientific life, and cultural evolution in general, we see that human evolution has been moving through the ages from an egocentric culture to a dialogical form of life.

This emergence of dialogical culture is accelerating on a global scale, and the collision and confrontation of the two visions and practices of human life are now at a critical turning point. Human life is in the midst of a deep civil strife on all levels between the egocentric forces in human nature and the forces of dialogical awakening. This is the core drama at the heart of the many forms of cultural crisis that are now quite evident. Humans are in the midst of a profound evolutionary transition from egocentric life to dialogical life.

While egocentric culture leads increasingly to separations, divisions, localizations, strife, and polarizations in all aspects of daily life, the emerging dialogical way of life enhances communication, globalization, creative encounter, compassion, and mutual nurturing and care for self, others, and the ecology. How we manage this dialogical turn in global culture and in our own lives is all–important for our survival and sustainability. For as the dialogical turn emerges and intensifies, the egocentric counterforces also peak, bringing ever–deeper fractures, stresses, and fragmentations in all aspects of cultural life. The stakes get higher in our evolutionary drama as the opposing forces in everyday life intensify to a breakpoint.

We now face a deep cultural crisis that has been building for centuries. And unless we can rise to a clear vision of the deeper evolutionary drama–the missing story of Logos–we will not truly understand the nature and magnitude of the existential crisis we face. So our survival and well being depends on our awakening to the truth that Logos is real, and this supreme global truth emerges with our realization that egocentric life is a disaster.

Becoming more fully aware of the missing drama of Logos is now the key to our survival. But we face an impasse: the story of Logos on which our well being depends requires the deeper thinking of the global mind, which has been blocked and discouraged by the predominant forces of egocentric thinking in all aspects of our lives. How do we stand back from these inhibiting forces? Can we really overcome the overwhelming forces of egocentric culture and experimentally enter the thinking of the awakening mind? We need to find a creative way to break the cycle.

One powerful way to intensify the awakening mind is to cultivate a deeper dialogical encounter. Something remarkable happens in our being as we activate the dialogical turn and participate in deeper global vision. Awakening to this dialogical turn in evolution affects every aspect of our lives: our inner well being, our relations with others, our capacity to negotiate fundamental differences in our shared cultural space, and our ability to honor and cultivate the human and natural ecology. Through this dialogical awakening, the global mind ignites and helps us to see and live the deeper truth of Logos. The egocentric forces in cultural evolution have kept humanity in localized languages, partial and fragmented vision, artificially bounded experience, and forms of discourse that block access to the global truth of Logos and hence to the realization of our true human essence.

But in dialogical awakening, we are able to stand back from our particular cultural orientation and localized history and truly enter into other cultural worlds and forms of life and encounter them from within. Something astounding happens in this dialogical awakening as we rise to a higher global perspective between worlds. As our experience expands and deepens in a global context between diverse cultural and religious worlds, between diverse perspectives and worldviews, the rational power of mind expands and we begin to see the unmistakable pattern of global evolution of human life through the emergence of this higher dialogical consciousness.

So the missing evolutionary story of Logos arising through global evolution in the human condition becomes accessible to us as we enter the global mind through deeper dialogical encounter. The awakening global mind realizes a higher power as it rises to the global perspective and overcomes the dysfunctional technology of egocentric mind. The global mind has a deeper and more powerful access to the process of reality. Everything now depends on our capacity to advance to this higher technology of global minding. All the important advances in cultural evolution have been moving us towards this more effective way of processing reality. Recognition of Logos essentially requires a revolutionary advance in mind, a dramatic advance from egocentric mind to dialogic or global mind. And this advance in how we mind is the blossoming of our human nature as dialogical beings.

So the evolutionary drama has brought us to an exciting and dangerous brink. It is exciting because it is now within our power and reach to awaken to the global mind, to realize our true nature as dialogical beings. And this awakening to Logos brings well being and human flourishing. Or we may persist in egocentric ways of being that violate Logos and prevent human flourishing. It all depends on how we now choose to conduct our minds, individually and corporately.

THE MISSING EVOLUTIONARY DRAMA OF LOGOS

So let's experiment together as we now seek to tap the dialogical energy and enter the higher processes of the global mind. Let's see if we get a preliminary sketch of this deeper missing drama of Logos and story of human evolution. All sorts of obvious questions erupt at the same time. What is this "Logos?" Where does it come from? Why should we be concerned about this alleged missing scenario of history? Why should deeper knowledge of Logos be the key to our survival and flourishing? And what is this "global mind?" Why does our survival and well being depend on the "awakening" of mind? Why should how we "mind" be so important in our lives? What is this egocentric mind? What are these alleged two great forces working through human evolution and supposedly bringing us to the current "existential crisis?" Why is the egocentric mind such a "disaster" in human evolution? Aren't we humans essentially egocentric?

Are we really in a deep cultural crisis? Is our survival really threatened? Isn't this a bit overly dramatic? And if there is a deep evolutionary crisis, why should an awakened knowledge of Logos be the key to our survival? How can the awakening of the global mind make any real difference to the practical problems we now face? Is our human nature really in a deep evolution and transformation? What does it mean to say that we are essentially dialogical beings? What is this "dialogical turn?" Why is it so important in our evolution? These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed, and they are so interconnected that we should now try to address them as a whole as we experiment in bringing out the missing story of Logos.

THE QUEST FOR THE PRIMAL WORD: THE GLOBAL ESSENCE OF LANGUAGE

The essence of language begins to emerge only when we enter the primordial field in which mind, word, and world are found to be originally inseparable. At this deeper ever–present dimension, we find that all this world, this ecology is language, the infinite dynamic living process of the Word. All the world is the play of language, a living text, a creative dynamic script unfolding. This primal language is saturated with mind, consciousness, thought, conceptual power, truth–force, meaning. This living text of reality is laden with existence and expresses the world process. So what is originally given is a primal communion, a unified field, of language–mind–world. All natural and cultural evolution has been the creative play of this living field, the script of Logos. And the perennial lesson of the global evolution of cultures is this very disclosure and emergence of Logos.

Logos is the Infinite Word, the source and origin of all languages, of all cultural forms of life, of lifeworlds. And the global evolution of cultures has reached a horizon where this global nature of Logos is more evident. This very infinitude of Logos, when rightly seen, implies the global power of the Word–global in the sense that it has always been universally presiding in natural and cultural evolution, global in the sense that no cultural grammar could exist or evolve apart from the creative unfolding of Logos. So it is the very Infinition of Logos that entails its global jurisdiction and power.

Nevertheless, the localizing forces in the evolution of cultural grammars have contributed to the suppression and eclipse of the global scope and essence of the Word, so much so that we humans still lack a shared universal name for the Infinite Word. In our Judaic roots, the Infinite Word is disclosed as infinitely and absolutely One. It is recognized that this Word is the Living God, the Living Spirit, the original cause of the universe, the ground of all existence.

In our Hindu roots, the Word is disclosed as Aum, the sacred symbol, the infinite sound unheard, the origin of all names and forms, of language, beyond all description and predication, beyond all objectification and duality. Here the original Word can't be thought in ordinary egocentric ways of minding, but must be meditated. And this meditative thinking invokes the primal power of mind that is prior to the objectifying and dualizing ways of egocentric language. So the meditative yogas, capacitate mind to enter a nondual Logos that taps the Aum–ic powers of the Word. In this awakening of Mind, the world is revealed as Brahman, the absolute nondual, unified field of Aum.

Again, in our Buddhist origins, the Infinite Word is revealed as Sunyata, absolute emptiness. Here again, this tradition of Logos finds that how we conduct our mind is all–important in entering into awakened discourse and overcoming the suffering and pathologies that arise in ego–minding. The Buddha's great insight is into the artificiality and destructiveness of ego–identities and the constructs of ego–existence and egocentric language. The Buddha's enlightenment came with the insight that ego–minding generates identities and dualities that fixate experience and breaks the spontaneous flow of life and discourse. His innovative ethics is an ethics of right–minding that overcomes the objectifying ways of ego–discourse.

A new way of life is opened in realizing the emptiness of all ego–constructs, thus awakening to the profoundly dialogical co–arising of all things in the dynamic space of Sunyata. In this way all the names and forms, identities, and constructs of ego–language are deconstructed, and the profoundly nondual interplay of things is revealed in the everyday workings of natural language. It becomes clear in this tradition that the primordial law, the Dharma, the ultimate truth of the co–arising of things, is the principle of language, mind, world, experience. Thus, in this disclosure, Logos is revealed as radically empty of all ego–constructs, and yet is found, in this face of Sunyata, to be the immediate, active source and power of all discourse.

Similar disclosures of Logos are found in the Chinese Tao, the nameless absolute Presence, which shows itself in all names. The Tao plays out into a dynamic unified field of reality that grounds all polarities, oppositions, and pluralities. It is quite apparent here that the objectifying ways of ego–thinking that spawn fragmentations, dualities, and incommensurables, violates the law–like nature of Tao. So the source of life and true power comes with the rectification of discourse, with tapping the hidden meaning in our everyday language.

In our Greek origins too, Logos takes on a distinctive disclosure as the light of reason, as the arche, or first principle that makes all things intelligible. In the deepest insights of Plato, for example, it is found that human intelligence, natural reason, gravitates to the Ultimate Form, which is the generative principle of all names and forms. Here, too, Plato concurs with other traditions of Logos in recognizing that there must be an Absolute Form in whose presence all other forms arise. He calls this Supreme Form Goodness and sees that it must be beyond knowledge, truth, and being, since it is the absolute condition that makes these possible. In this discourse on Logos, all intelligible discourse has inherent reference to Goodness, and this is what releases the intelligible energy or light of reason that brings meaning to language.

The evolution of Christian discourse sheds new light on Logos. Here, we see a revealing confluence between the Judaic Biblical grammar and the Hellenistic Logos. The Christ is seen as the Logos–become–flesh, and Jesus is presented as the living embodiment of the Infinite Word. Something profound happens here in the global evolution of Logos. This discourse of the Christ as the living Logos presents a profound nondual meeting of the Infinite and finite in one being. This breakthrough concurs with other traditions of Logos in recognizing the essential nondual nature of the Infinite Word.

The Christ becomes the living embodiment of the Universal Law, which calls for the overcoming of the dualizing ways of egocentric living. In this context, it becomes clearer that egocentric life is alienated from Logos and is the deep structure of sin. To be lodged and fixated in ego–discourse is to be eclipsed from the vital power of the Living Word, the Language of Logos. And it is through the surrender of the ego by recentering in Christ that a new and higher Self is born, a resurrected Self that through a higher form of minding, a new covenant of discourse, gains access to the true power of the grammar of Logos.

In this brief sketch, this partial and preliminary scan of diverse global traditions of Logos, we find both remarkable diversity of disclosures of Logos and astounding affinities and congruities. However, there continues to be a remarkable absence of consensus of a truly global Word–not that a consensus is needed for Logos to be actually presiding through all histories. There is more than sufficient evidence that the Infinite Word must be universal in scope and jurisdiction.

This is immediately evident from a competent meditation on the very meaning of Infinition. Diverse traditions have recognized in ancient times that everyday thinking and experience inherently leads to Infinition. This primordial insight has been reconfirmed over and over in diverse traditions of Logos through the ages. It has also been confirmed that this Infinition entails a primitive and infinite Unitivity that invariably plays out to the disclosure of Logos in one way or another. And it is to be expected that the Infinite Word would have universal and univocal scope and jurisdiction.

This point is of utmost importance in approaching the grammar of Logos. The key depends on recognizing the profound implications of the Infinition of Logos. For it is apparent that there is a most potent logic inherent in the Infinite Word that inexorably plays out into a universal grammar of all grammars, into a primordial Unified Field that both constitutes and grounds all possible grammars. The abysmal Unitivity of the Infinite Word expresses itself in Alterity, the infinite capacity for generating alternatives, differences, diversity, plurality, multiplicity, contingency. And this has been one of the most misunderstood and distorted features of the Infinite Word.

True diversity, difference, multiplicity is made possible in and through the Power of Unitivity, and do not compete with it. The Unitive power of Logos grounds and generates alternatives, diversity, diversification, differences. Indeed, this is the very signature of Infinite Unity. Still, ego–minding, in imposing its artificial and reductive "unity" on Logos, finds it necessary to violate real differences and diversity and plurality and reduce them to the tyranny of its ill–conceived unity. Of course this has given Unity a bad name, and has led to various forms of misology and the disrepute of Logos.

Fortunately, the Unitive Power of Logos is greater than all the divisiveness of egocentric cultures, and continues its perennial presiding presence in all discourse. In the light of the Alterity power of Logos, it is easier to imagine that the diverse narratives of Logos that have emerged in the global evolution of cultures, in all their rich diversity, are alter–expressions of one and the same Logos. It doesn't matter that humans have not yet agreed or reached "consensus" on a shared name for Logos, for it is apparent that the Infinite Word is ever present and always presiding in all the happenings of natural and cultural evolution.

Indeed, I have suggested that in the Light of Logos, the most revealing narrative of evolution is this very story of the continuous creative emergence of Logos in all historical proceedings. Once we begin to tap the awesome Logic of Logos, the rational power of the Word, it becomes evident that the lead story in evolution must be this creative play of Logos. At the core of all histories, of all narratives, of all events, the emergence of Logos is the presiding theme.

It is here that we find the universal foundation of truth and objectivity across and between diverse lifeworlds. Thus, Alterity, as the differential power of infinite Unity, reveals that Otherness is an absolute feature of Logos, and it is here that we see the ultimate dialogical nature of all language. Alterity is the original force of Logos wherein all diversity arises in Unity and Unity expresses itself in diversity.

This is why there is no "contradiction" or "incoherence" in realizing that Logos is expressed in Yahweh, Aum, Tao, Sunyata, Brahman, Christ. Nor is there any incompatibility between the grammatical evolution of the discourse of science and religion. In the light of Alterity, it becomes possible to see that the Universal Word inherently expresses itself in a creative and open–ended play of universal grammars. The essential dialogical power of Logos can accommodate multiple alternative grammatical expressions.

And the realization of this truth is of the utmost importance for the evolution and survival of human existence. Our present and future well being depends on seeing that in the midst of all our cultural, ethnic, religious, and ideological diversity, we are nevertheless in the core of our being in a common dialogical origin. But this realization calls for performing the dialogical turn in the heart of our discourse.

The truth of Logos is that there is ultimate diversity and difference in the midst of the common ground of dialogical communion. This is why the ultimate Law for human life is the global ethic of dialogical love. And this is why the authentic minding of Logos calls for the deepest transformation in how we conduct our lives–the dialogical turn in the conduct of our natural reason. To mind Logos authentically, to follow the Law, to enter into the vital power of Language, requires the overcoming of the divisive and violent ways of egocentric discourse. This dialogical turn is the essence of being human and the path to realizing the essence of Language.

THE OPENING STORY

Let's see if we can find creative ways to enter more deeply into the processes of the awakening global mind. These processes surround us and are always already at work in our daily lives. And it would help tremendously as we now attempt to get a rough preliminary sense of the missing story of Logos if we are ever–mindful that our past and present habits of thinking are very much at issue here. We need to try to become more aware of how we are deeply involved in egocentric habits of thinking, and as we become more mindful of this, try to stand back as best we can from ego–minding and experiment in the dialogical awakening of global mind.

The more critical distance we get from egocentric habits of mind, the greater our participation becomes in dialogical awakening or global minding. And perhaps the best way to break the closed cycle is to jump in and participate experimentally in a preliminary version of the missing story of Logos, for once this story is heard, everything changes.

There are many ways to intensify the dialogical awakening of mind. And one natural and powerful way comes as we cultivate and deepen experience between worlds. Of course, humans are always living in some degree of dialogical encounter and awakening; we are always surrounded by otherness, difference, and plurality of perspectives. This is a commonplace fact of life and everyday experience. Some of us are better at it than others. But it is rare to truly make the dialogical turn and open to the living reality of other worlds in mutual encounter. What usually happens is that we process other views, other perspectives, other worlds from our own point of view. Or else if we do inhabit multiple worlds, we keep them artificially segregated and strictly separated, worlds apart. So there is always a certain degree of violence to the Other in our daily habits of mind.

The problem is that other worlds organize and process reality in ways profoundly different from our own. For example, if I am raised in a certain tradition of Christian faith, my experience and worldview is centered in this orientation and it's very difficult to truly encounter other worlds, such as the Hindu worlds, the Buddhist worlds, the worlds of Islam, and so on. What is a truth or a fact in one world is often not even conceivable or thinkable in another. Worlds are patterns and habits of making sense of things, and our deepest habits of mind, our unconscious habits of interpretation and world–processing are shaped by these organizing patterns. One of the great lessons from the missing story of Logos that we are about to explore is that the reality we humans inhabit is a function of how we think. Mind and world mutually shape one another, and this is embodied in our worldviews.

It is precisely because our deepest habits of world, language, and experience–processing are situated in the particular pattern of our own worldview that makes it so difficult to truly cross over and encounter from within the worldviews and perspectives of other worlds. We have great difficulty truly communicating with people who inhabit different worlds. Most often communication breaks down, we talk past one another, and it's common for violence to break out where different worlds "meet," often colliding and confronting each other. One of the great problems we face is the challenge of communication and co–existence between worlds.

It takes special sensitivity, skill, training, and expertise to perform effectively the dialogical turn between worlds. It takes great effort, and even courage, to step back from our deepest habits of mind to encounter, enter, and inhabit experientially the worlds of others. This is the special challenge of the dialogical turn. Different worlds are different ways of being, and to truly encounter and access other worlds, we must be willing to transform our being to experience that world in its own terms. How is this possible?

This means that somehow, we would have to stand back and get some self–critical distance from our own ways of world–making and experience–processing and project ourselves into the patterns of thought and of other forms of processing reality and experiencing the world. To question ourselves and world at this depth takes courage; we make ourselves vulnerable and take risks. After all, we are questioning our very identity, our grip on reality. And this is especially hard since it appears to be almost impossible to really step back from one's deepest settled patterns of being in the world. It is like going through a death, a loss of one's very "self," one's very "world."

It's natural to face a certain existential anxiety here about losing one's identity and sense of self, losing one's orientation and anchors in the world. But we will see as we enter this process that far from losing one's true identity, our own world opens up in a deep and miraculous way. Dialogical awakening means that in opening up to the Other, we open up more deeply to our Selves. Far from denying or giving up one's own tradition, one's own religion, culture, worldview, we shall see that dialogical awakening, truly opening to other worlds, is a twofold opening that means a deeper opening to one's Self, one's roots, one's tradition, one's true home.

Nevertheless, it appears in our better moments that we can and do have significant breakthroughs in communicating between worlds. Through the power of empathy, sympathy, creative imagination, and a deep sense of shared humanity and compassion, we are able to perform the dialogical turn and encounter other people, other worlds, other religions, other cultures, other languages, other orientations, other perspectives and ideologies. This too is a fact of life. We are able to open our selves, our minds, our hearts, to other worlds, and this kind of self–opening is at the core of the dialogical awakening. And when we intensify and cultivate this opening of mind in ever–deeper experience between worlds, a profound change comes in our experience and mode of being in the world. This is one key to the awakening mind.

As dialogical awakening deepens, mind, experience, language and world co–expand. This is a dialogical law that will become more evident as we enter the missing drama of Logos. We rise to a higher order of rational experience, feeling, and living. The power of mind functions at a deeper and higher level and we encounter reality in a more profound way. As we gain experience and expertise in inhabiting diverse worlds, our rational capacity deepens and we are able to experience patterns, truths, dynamics of reality that were not as evident before. We come home to our Selves.

In this way, dialogical awakening between worlds opens the mind in new dimensions and cultivates a global perspective and awakens global minding. In this awakening process, our true human essence as dialogical beings begins to flourish. In this opening of mind, the missing drama of Logos begins to show itself.

With this in mind, let's intensify this dialogical awakening between worlds and actually experiment in moving between worlds. In a sense, we are always living in some degree of encounter between worlds, for our cultures have evolved through the ages in the midst of powerful forces of interaction between diverse worlds. Our cultures are inherently multicultural, intercultural in their historical evolution, and involve a cluster of diverse worlds in complex dynamic interaction at any given time.

For example, the evolution of the Christian world over the past two millennia has been a complex, dynamic, ongoing, transformative interaction with other worlds: with its Judaic roots, with the Hellenistic world, with the Roman world, with the emergence of the worlds of sciences, and so on. And in the Buddhist tradition, we see analogous interactions of diverse worlds. There was a deep schism in the tradition as it self–divided between the Hinayana and Mahayana traditions. And there is a complex interaction of worlds as Buddhist worlds differentiated themselves from the Hindu context out of which it initially arose.

Furthermore, in contemporary American culture, diverse worlds impinge on one another in a complex, dynamic, and often turbulent, chaotic, and even mysterious way. The evolving American culture is a complex of diverse worlds juxtaposed in all sorts of ways–a pluralism of worlds in a multicultural context. A person may be raised in a certain sect of the Christian world–complex, and she may also be a practicing physicist working on problems of the origin of the cosmos. As a devout Christian, she is committed to the Biblical genesis in which God is the creator of the universe. In this cosmology, God is the living infinite cause of all creation.

But as a practicing observant physicist, she is also committed to the "Big Bang" cosmology that presents a very different account of origins, one that appears to be at odds with the Biblical world. How does she cope with her simultaneous commitment to these very different worlds? Does she have to choose between them? Must one cosmology be the true one and the other false? Could both be true together? But how is that possible?

Take another example of living between worlds. Consider the case of a practicing Jew who is committed to the Biblical account of creation. This person is also a practicing biologist who follows the Darwinian account of evolution. How can he subscribe to both worlds at the same time? Must he not choose between Biblical creation or Darwinian evolution? Aren't these fundamentally incompatible, contradicting each other? How does he cope with his commitment to the truth of both worlds? Does he practice some sort of inner apartheid, keeping them in strict separation, switching between worlds on different occasions? What strategies do we have for coping in a healthy way with life in multiple worlds? Is it acceptable to simply segregate the diverse worlds we inhabit and switch on and off as the occasion warrants?

Examples like these abound in all aspects of our everyday life. Clearly, we exist and live in the midst of the encounter of diverse worlds. As we now enter the drama of Logos, we shall see that the interworld, intercultural dynamic is at the core of all human life. But it is also clear that we live under great cultural stress. There is gross confusion, ignorance, and lack of understanding in the ways of world–making and multiple world encounters. Everyday people live in the midst of powerful competing forces between worlds, and communication usually breaks down and violence erupts where diverse worlds meet and collide. We desperately need to develop rational competence here in conducting our personal and interpersonal lives.

When egocentric forces dominate a culture, people develop various strategies for coping with differences between worlds. Often, people who live in different worlds live in a kind of cultural apartheid and remain worlds apart. Communication fails. Fear, alienation, suspicion, and distrust flourish. Chronic violence erupts. Ego–minding people "translate" the worlds or worldviews of others into their own terms, into their own lifeworlds. They project their own worldview onto the world of the Other. They do not truly encounter and enter the language–worlds of the other.

Obviously, this approach to "coping" with life in different worlds is unsatisfactory and has pernicious consequences. Such egocentric people live a kind of "schizoid" life, producing internal fragmentation and incoherence, which leads to all sorts of existential and psychic pathologies. How can our souls be healthy if real dialogue is not flourishing in our psychic life? How can we be healthy, integrated persons with personal integrity if our inner life is fragmented and alienated between different worlds, existing in multiple personal identities that are not truly in touch with each other? The dialogical awakening in our souls is as vital for our health as it is for the health of the communities we inhabit. So the same kind of inner fragmentation and divisiveness in our psyches is reflected in the external fragmentation and alienation between communities.

Alternatively, another coping strategy of egocentric individuals is to perform some sort of ego–synthesis, picking and choosing what strikes their fancy now from this worldview now from that, a little here and a little there, and they form a composite mixture of diverse worlds to suit their taste. This strategy is also dangerous and unacceptable. It promotes the illusion of achieving a genuine encounter and synthesis of diverse worlds when, in fact, a composite is highly subjective and fails to recognize the systemic integrity and wholeness of the diverse worlds being "synthesized," another form of doing violence to other worlds as well as one's own.

Our cultures have not yet provided the tools, the cultural technology, to recognize diverse worlds as "worlds." If different worlds are speaking out of different constructions or readings of reality, this places the spotlight on the dynamics of world–making and on the nature of the construction of reality itself. When people inhabit different worlds that appear to be fundamentally incompatible, they often don't recognize the depth of difference in their "languages" of reality. They often act as if they are in the same "language" and disagree over the "facts." Our cultures have not yet matured to the point where we have developed basic rational and dialogical competence in negotiating life across and between worlds. And this has now become a most urgent global priority if human civilization is to survive and flourish.

If people were more aware that they are speaking from very different languages of reality, different language–worlds, this would place their attempts at communication in a different light. The first order of business would be to develop skills in truly listening to people who inhabit other worlds, learning the special dialogical skills in transforming our understanding and experience into the lifeworld of others. Our cultures still very much need more advanced rational methods for understanding how to process life between worlds creatively, effectively, and humanely. This is the depth of the dialogical awakening and the cultivation of global minding that has been painfully emerging over centuries.

Let's now experiment further with the dialogical turn in encountering diverse worlds as we enter the missing drama of Logos. In a sense, we can begin our experiment anew now that we are more mindful that egocentric habits block the dialogical turn. Ego–minding creates a barrier to a deeper encounter between worlds, and we must now experiment in breaking through and crossing the ego–barrier. So let's jump in.

Our challenge now is not only to experience the truth of multiple worlds, that there are multiple worlds, but also that multiple worlds share a common truth. We need to move now beyond seeing multiple worlds apart, to experiencing multiple worlds together–arising out of a common ground. This will help us to move to the dialogical or global mind.

Let's select a variety of global examples of alternative worlds and encounter them together. Let's try to enter them sympathetically from within and experience the internal power of their language of reality. We now realize that different worlds are different ways of being, different ways of experiencing, so let's attempt to self–transform existentially and truly experience the power of alternative worlds. And let's attempt to hold these alternative forms of life together in one experience.

These summary sketches are intended simply to open up diverse options so that it will be easier to jumpstart the story of Logos. At this early stage in our journey, we need to lay out selected diverse models or paradigms of alternative worlds to begin to see deeper common patterns. As we proceed, we will elaborate more and more deeply in stages as we encounter the diverse world–paradigms in greater detail. So if these highly compressed first encounters are difficult to digest, that's all right, that's to be expected. Just keep moving through this preview and try to take notice of patterns across and between worlds.

First, let us center in our Judaic Biblical roots. Remember that one great disclosure is the revelation that God is One. And we are commanded to love this one true God with all our mind and all our strength. In a way, the summary force of the Biblical narrative is focused right here in this primordial command to love God with all our being. This implies that we must place this Infinite Living Spirit first and foremost. God is first and comes first in all things. We are commanded to center our lives in God, in Yahweh, the God of Abraham, the God of Israel.

In this recentering of our being in God, we cannot place our ego–self first. If we are to follow the foremost command of God, the Divine Law, then God must be the primary focus of our attention and the organizing principle of our lives. We are called to enter a direct relation with this Infinite Spirit, and this implies a dialogical opening of the self to God. All other commandments, moral laws, depend on our capacity and success in recentering our lives, our being, in this first cause of all creation.

As we shift focus to the revolutionary event of Jesus, a new and unprecedented occurrence takes place in history. In our Christian roots, Jesus is the living embodiment of the Infinite Word, the Logos made flesh, the Infinite incarnated in finite human form. Jesus, as the Christ, the Messiah, as the Divine Living Principle entering human history and existence, is a new and unprecedented kind of being, the union of Infinite and finite in the flesh.

This miraculous and mysterious being, the communion of the Infinite and the finite, becomes a bridge and crossing that links the finite fallen world, the place of existential sin, with the Infinite Spirit, making it possible for the first time in history for fallen humans who are lodged in finitude, in sin, in separation from God, to become reconciled with God.

Jesus is taken to be the prototype of the new Human. When this story is placed in the missing drama of Logos and processed in the global mind, it is striking that all the key elements of the awakening of the global mind are clearly performed. Jesus as the Christ is the embodiment of the Universal Law, the communion of the Infinite and the finite, the communion of Spirit and flesh, the living dialogical principle. The essential need for faith is precisely the letting go of the egocentric mind and rising to the higher form of Mind that centers in Logos. This supreme act of faith brings us to a new and higher form of life and a higher form of minding that fulfills the awakening of the global mind. But if the Truth of Jesus is an eternal and universal truth for all humanity, how are we to understand and maintain its global truth across cultures and religious worlds?

If we are more oriented to the Biblical cosmology, the transition into the classical Hindu worldview may tax and even strain the power of our rational and conceptual imagination. Please be patient. It will take some time and repeated exposure for these strange patterns of thought to register and sink in, for in entering this conceptual space, the structure of existence appears radically transformed. Space and time take a different shape, and there is a cyclical structure to existence in time. In this cosmology, the dominant intuition is the supreme truth of the Primal Word–Aum.

This Infinite Sacred Sound, Infinite Word, is the overwhelming presiding reality. It is the origin of all names and forms, of all that exists. But the human condition is situated in the midst of two great forces, two powerful fields. Everyday human life finds itself lodged in a beginningless and endless cycle of existence called "Samsara," and humans who find themselves existing in ego–consciousness are caught in this space–time historical cycle of endless births and rebirths.

While in the Biblical world the fallen self, living in sin and alienated from God, is condemned to death, by contrast in the Hindu world, Samsara, the egocentric self, alienated from true Reality and its true Self, is condemned to perpetual survival in the endless cycle of ego–existence and ego–identity in the curved space–time of historical process. The existing ego–self is trapped in identity and a way of thinking that keeps it entrapped in this burdensome cycle of existential suffering. And the classical Vedic scriptures–the Upanishads–reveal that there is a way for this bounded self to awaken and find release from its existential despair and bondage.

These Scriptures teach a high technology of minding, a Science of Yoga, which requires utmost discipline in the conduct of the mind, which leads to a dissolution and release from ego–minding. The technologies of meditative thinking reveal precise, lawlike paths of the awakening of mind that break the bounds of Samsara, break the ego–barriers, and liberate the higher Self to true Being and Freedom, to Nirvana. This higher Self, Atman, breaks all the boundaries and constructions of the egocentric self and realizes its essential Aum–ic nature. In this cosmology, the Aum–ic field is an infinite, Unified (Non–dual) Field of Being, the Field of Brahman. In this worldview, the forms of language and thought that hold for ego–existence cannot be applied to the realm of Aum, Brahman, Atman.

The ego–mind is found to be the source of deep splits and dualities in all areas of its Samsaric existence. The ego–self comes into being in and through a deep split between the field of the ego–subject and everything else that appears as the object. It is revealed that the truth of Aum, which is beyond all the categories and divisions of ego–language and thought, is a profound Unified Field of Reality. The Primal, Sacred, Infinite Word is a mysterious field in which Word, Mind, Consciousness, Knowledge, and Reality are in inseparable communion. The dualistic and fragmented language of ego–mind cannot apply to the Unified Field of Aum.

It takes the higher methods of meditative thinking to access the Unified Field. One term used for this Aum–ic Field is Brahman: Absolute, Infinite Being, beyond the reach of ego–thinking and ego–existence. All that exists, all that appears in Samsara, is of course situated in the Infinite Field of Aum or Brahman, and the awakened, liberated Self, the Atman, is in dialogical communion with Brahman. So in this cosmology, there are two great fields or forces, the field of ego–existence which is inherently lodged in objectification, identity, dualities, divisions, and suffering, on the one hand, and the Field of true Reality, the Infinite nondual Field of Nirvana, Atman, Aum, Brahman, which is pure bliss, pure knowledge, freedom. When this cosmology is situated in the drama of Logos, we shall see that it follows the classic patterns of the awakening of the global mind.

Of course, it's hard to relate to this high–sounding metaphysics. Let us pause and catch our breath. Almost every new term in this cosmogram will need elaboration and explanation to "translate" it into more everyday language that we can digest. And in due course, we will do just that. This Vedic or Vedantic cosmology becomes much more immediately accessible through the scriptural drama of the Bhagavad Gita. In this classical script, we find a human existential situation that we can more readily enter and feel. In this epic drama, we find a great warrior, Arjuna, on a battlefield in the midst of a fratricidal war, a family divided against itself in a decisive showdown for the right to rule the kingdom. Arjuna with his brothers represents the forces of goodness and on the other side are the forces of evil. It so happens that Lord Krishna, the incarnation of the Divine Infinite Field of Aum, is the guide who will lead and counsel Arjuna through his crisis.

The drama intensifies as Arjuna, seeing his relatives and kin on the other side, is pierced by his conscience and moved by compassion, and he drops his weapon and refuses to fight. He has reached a breakpoint in his life as a warrior, an existential crisis in which he finds himself split in a living contradiction. His lifelong warrior ethic and worldview entails that as a warrior, he must keep his honor and fight to win. But at this moment on the battlefield, he is moved by compassion and by the call of a higher ethic, a higher voice of conscience that tells him that he should not fight. The moral crisis has ripened. He is crushed, paralyzed on the battlefield, drops his weapon, and turns to Krishna for help.

The amazing dialogue that ensues between Krishna and Arjuna follows the classic path of the awakening of higher consciousness. Krishna takes Arjuna step by step through various yoga technologies, through various disciplines of meditative awakening, into a deeper understanding of his egocentric existence and source of his existential despair. Arjuna embodies the human being who has been successful in his egocentric life but who has matured to the point where he is ready to awaken and face the emptiness and despair of the ego–condition.

Arjuna's existential breakdown on the battlefield comes precisely because he is ready to listen to his higher consciousness, to his higher Self within. So in a real sense, Arjuna is a divided "self" who at once embodies the egocentric self and the higher awakened Self that he is now ready to more fully realize. This already gives the sense that the human psyche has a dialogical structure. At this stage of his awakening, Krishna is Arjuna's higher voice who teaches, guides, and dialogues with the entrapped egocentric psyche. The therapeutic and transformative dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna is an analogue for the inner dialogical structure of the awakening self. And later when we place this dialogical drama in the context of the global story of Logos, it will be quite evident that here, too, we find classic steps in the awakening of the global mind.

At this point as we now move to the revolutionary teachings of Buddha, let's refocus on some of the most relevant patterns in the Hindu cosmology. First and foremost is the revelation of a supreme primal Word, a First Principle, an Infinite Presence that is the ground of all that exists. Second, we see the pattern that everyday human life is lodged in an egocentric way of minding that arises out of a deep duality or split, and this way of minding itself produces all sorts of dualities that eclipse it from the true Reality and actively produces existential suffering.

There is a striking contrast between the pervasive dualities of ego–existence, on the one hand, and a higher field of Being that is harmonious, integral, and nondual–a profound Unified Field of Life. The basic challenge of life is for the egocentric self to overcome this pathological condition through an awakening process and cross out of the ego–condition into the liberation of the Self, which is called Atman. I am suggesting that this passage from pathological ego–mind to liberated Awakened Mind follows the classic global pattern in the Logos drama of the awakening global mind.

Keeping this summary focus before us, we are now in a good position to make the transition to the innovations of the Buddha. This transition from the Hindu cosmology to the world of the Buddha, the Awakened One, will also test our rational capacity. The story of the Buddha's great awakening is legendary. In his youth, the Hindu prince Gautama was deeply troubled by the pervasive suffering he observed in the human condition. He left his life of luxury and security to go off into the world to search for answers. After years of searching, going through incredible hardships and life–threatening ordeals, experimenting in the various teachings that then existed, he was still not satisfied. Finally, he retreated into prolonged deep meditations, which culminated in a great awakening that has moved the world and transformed the course of global history. What did the Buddha discover?

In his great awakening, he saw more deeply than ever into the cause of human existential suffering. He simplified his revelation into four Noble Truths that are the core of the Buddha's teachings. In his awakening, he saw that human existence is suffering: to exist is to suffer. Second, he saw the depth cause of this suffering. The basic cause of human existential suffering is ego–desire, ego–minding. And he saw the way out of this suffering. It all turned on letting go of the ego, letting go of the attachment to self, which comes with the right conduct of mind. One of the great lessons is that we are as we mind, that our existence and existential condition is a direct causal result of how we mind. If we conduct our mind in the way of ego–thinking, we suffer. And if we conduct our thinking in the way of the Awakened Mind, we are liberated.

Perhaps one of the most revolutionary insights of Buddha that seems to make a world of difference and open a new cosmology is his revelation that all things are empty. It appears that Buddha saw more deeply than ever into the origins of ego–mind, into the causal origin of existence itself. We have already seen in the Hindu worldview, which is the broader context for the Buddha's innovations, that ego–minding arises in a primordial split between subject and object. This is the foundation of ego–living and of the existence of the ego itself. The ego takes itself to be a self–existing entity, an autonomous entity existing independently. This core generates and constructs existing things which appear as objects to the ego–subject. The Buddha's great insight was seeing that all of ego–existence, the ego–subject and all objects, is artificially constructed and in this sense, ultimately empty. Buddha pressed beyond the Hindu cosmology in rejecting the language of Atma and in insisting that there is no self: an–atma. This is the basis of Buddha's great formula that existence is suffering. The reason is that existence is constructed and generated by ego–activity.

But this is just part of the picture. If there is no self, if all existence is empty, if all views are vacuous, what then? This formula of the emptiness of all things and of the ego is a therapeutic first step in a remarkable life–transforming awakening to a higher Life. And Buddha's supreme insight into the true nature of life comes with the recognition that all things are co–arising. This is the great principle of true reality–that all things arise in a boundless network of causal interactions in an infinitely deep process of reality. Once we truly drop ego–minding and constructing artificial entities and realize that no entity can have identity unto itself, this realization opens a new horizon to a boundless Unified Field of holistically interactive processes.

This unified field of existence and experience where all things are holistically interrelated is the truth of nonduality. The egocentric constructions of artificial entities generate dualities and separations on all levels. The insight of nonduality is that all things are inter–relational or dialogical in their being. The old substance cosmologies that act as if things had independent self–existence are displaced, and now true reality shows itself as a vast interactive, co–arising, dynamic, ever–changing process.

When we place this awakening story in the context of the drama of Logos, we see how remarkably these innovations of the Buddha follow the classic pattern of the awakening of the global mind. For Buddha's great Principle of Reality–that all things co–arise–which is called the Principle of Relativity in Buddhist discourse, is also the great Moral Law, the Dharma. This Universal Principle of Relativity, that all things arise out of each other in dynamic interactive process, are co–relative, is the dialogical principle itself.

The true essence of any given thing is to be found in its dialogical co–relations, dynamic, interactive, co–arising with others in the ecological field.

The Reality Principle is also the Moral Principle, the Dharma, because the dialogical principle is the principle of compassion. The deepest level of love or compassion comes when we realize that the Other is already at the heart of one's Self. The Self and the Other inherently co–arise. The Self has no existence apart from the Other, apart from the ecology. This is why the universal principle of ethics involves care and love for Others and for Self. The Self arises in Others, and Others in the Self. This dialogical principle has global significance.

Once the ego–barrier is broken, the Awakened Mind rises to a higher order of functioning and moves in unison with the dynamic, interactive, Unified Field. The great principle of co–arising, the Principle of Relativity, implies a nondual, Unified Field of dynamic interrelationality. This is the secret of the dialogical nature of reality itself. It is in the new language of this Unified Field that the Buddha's great insights flow. And here it is natural to see the depth meaning of one of the great formulas of Buddha's teaching–that the Buddha is the Dharma is the Sangha or Moral Community.

All things are filled with Buddha–nature. The Buddha and the Principle of Reality (Dharma) are one. The Buddha and the Community of beings are one. Now we begin to tap the mysterious secret of the nondual Unified Field that is implied in Hindu cosmology as well. The Principle of Relativity is the holistic principle of nonduality, for nothing can exist in dual separation. This is why it is said in Buddhist discourse that true reality is Sunyata (Emptiness). These innovations of Buddha will prove to be vital when we enter the drama of Logos.

This is a good point to pause and catch our breath. There is so much here to absorb and digest. But it is timely before we move on to other global paradigms of alternative cosmologies or worldviews to observe some breathtaking analogies between the being of Jesus and the being of Buddha. Remember that our present experiment in cultivating intensive experience between worlds is designed to help us celebrate deep differences between worlds but also to welcome striking analogies and congruities as we prepare to enter the global drama of Logos.

Obviously, fundamental differences exist between the cosmologies of Christianity and Buddhism. But when both are situated in the common ground of Logos, powerful results begin to become evident. We have seen, for example, that the being of Jesus involved a mysterious communion between the transcendent Infinite and the immanent finite realms. And we have seen that the Buddha is one with the Dharma, the universal moral law that is the principle of reality itself. The global truth of Buddha breaks the egocentric barriers, breaks through all egocentric views and forms of discourse as Buddha becomes the Holistic embodiment of the Universal Law of Logos– the Universal Dharma. This follows the path of global awakening.

At the same time, it is evident that the being of Jesus breaks the dualistic barriers and embodies a more profound, nondual communion. The global truth of Jesus requires the letting go of egocentric life. Jesus becomes the holistic living embodiment of the Universal Law of Logos. This holistic or dialogic turn in being opens the new global covenant, the prototype, for all humans. This is why Jesus is the mediating being that existentially joins the separated realms of Infinite and finite, and is seen as the Logos become Flesh. In this way, Jesus expands and fulfills Biblical Script to its global signification, breaking old ethnic boundaries and identities that arise from egocentric life.

In the midst of deep differences between Jesus and Buddha, it may well be that they both exemplify in uniquely creative ways the same Universal Law of Logos. Both perform a profound revolutionary expansion of their respective traditions, a globalizing awakening as the Truth of Logos becomes holistically embodied in the life of the people. The universal dialogical principle of love or compassion may well have alternative formulations or historical embodiments. It may well turn out in the light of Logos that both cosmologies may express global truth and follow similar globalizing patterns as the drama of Logos unfolds.

It may well turn out to be possible in the drama of Logos that global truth may have diverse alternative historical expressions. For we have already suggested that the truth of Jesus purports global significance for all people. And it has just been suggested that the truth of Buddha purports global significance or universal validity for all beings. Perhaps we are now on the verge of seeing that both may be universally or globally true without contradiction or diminishing one another. Indeed, we shall see as we gain momentum in entering the sphere of Logos that in dialogical interaction, the life and truth of Jesus can help to augment and deepen the teaching of Buddha, and the life and truth of Buddha can help to support and deepen the teaching of Jesus. In the Presence of Logos, each may dialogically expand and bring each other to an even higher power of Truth. We may even begin to imagine the possibility of the Buddha–Christ. We will, of course, explore this in greater depth as the drama unfolds.

Meanwhile, let's continue our preliminary experimental excursion into alternative world–paradigms as we build our repertoire of complementary global samplings. In Confucian thought or in the teachings of Lao Tzu, we find rich resources for the story of Logos. Here, too, we find a typical quest for some primal Principle or Origin that is prototypical of the emergence of Logos. For example, in Confucian cosmology, we find the excavation of a universal Moral Law which is the Mandate of Heaven. In Lao Tzu, we find deep meditations on the Supreme Tao, the Infinite Nameless Name that is the foundation and primal cause of all names, of all existence.

As in the Indian and other traditions, everyday conventional Chines life is lodged in ignorance and malpractice, and it takes higher powers of thought to transform life in the light of Tao. When situated in the emergence of Logos, we find classic global patterns in the technology of Tao, the movement to higher dialogical consciousness, and the awakening of global mind. Clearly, there is a Logos to Tao and a Tao to Logos. We find in allied developments global resources such as the Principle of Yin and Yang–polar opposite or complementary forces that embody the dialogical principle in all existence; and in the recognition of a profound and universal Life Force, Chi, that pervades all Nature, we find another prototypical principle that is grounded in Logos.

Our experiment could easily take still other fruitful paths. We could focus our attention on the emergence of Islam as it arises out of the Biblical roots and proceeds in a unique cultural evolution that sheds dialogical light on the unfolding of the Judaic and Christian lines of development. The development of Islam across cultures and worlds is a global event of major significance in the awakening of global mind. This is another rich reservoir of creative developments in the drama of Logos.

Or we could follow the path of the spread of Buddha's teachings as it goes through powerful intercultural transformations and evolves through Nepal and Tibet, moves through China, and emerges–transformed centuries later in the Japanese Zen traditions. When we observe these global patterns of evolution across cultures and over centuries in the context of the emergence of Logos, we begin to see characteristic movement in the awakening of global mind.

Concluding Themes

In concluding, let us reflect in summary form on some of the main themes in these meditations. First, we have seen that our global Awakening story is a direct result of expanding to this broader perspective that is able to hold together in a sustained creative synthesis the widely diverse perspectives that have emerged through human evolution. The story reveals how and why there is a deep striving inscribed in all human life to reach, touch, realize, and express the original source and primal cause that generates and moves every form of life. This story makes clear in a way that was not possible before that the rich multiplicity of expressions of this primal quest are all striving to reach one and the same primal origin that is disclosed and named in a way not possible before in its globalized form as Logos.

This story of Logos is an ultimate mystery story that culminates in the realization that we could not break through to encounter Logos in its global or generic essence unless and until we solved the mystery of how to approach this ultimate source of all life with a more potent technology or way of thinking. The story line shows that the boundlessly diverse earlier attempts to express this Logos remained rather localized in their language, voice, and narratives mainly because the way of minding or thinking didn't evolve sufficiently to the higher global way that is able to break the barriers of artificially localized forms of language and thought. So we can see clearly for the first time through the Logos narrative how the technology of thinking and language is the key to solving the deepest strivings of human life.

In fact, the mystery story of Logos reveals that this advance to a higher global way of thinking and a globalized form of language and experience is and has been the driving force in human and cultural evolution. The story reveals that despite the most ingenious breakthroughs and advances in human evolution, certain deep and chronic egocentric patterns of thought, language, and culture–making persisted in localizing, fragmenting, and deforming the global and universal disclosure of Logos.

Furthermore, this narrative strives to make clearer how and why the personal and corporate breakthrough to the global or awakened form of thought is the very essence of human flourishing and well–being. Everything depends on how we humans are conducting our minds, our thoughts, our language, our experience, our culture–making, our worldview. We now see that the driving force in human life, in our evolution, has been to evolve to a higher form of life and mind that is in touch with Logos and that adequately processes our primal life source.

This is the "awakening of the global mind." The heart of the Awakening story is that once we make the revolutionary shift to Logos–minding to the global way of minding, the deeper missing global perspective becomes clear. Once we center in Logos, in the Logosphere, we find a more potent vision of natural and cultural evolution in the light of Logos: it comes into focus that the field of reality–the Logosphere–is a dynamic dialogical process wherein all things are in an interactive and interconnected unfolding process. And the driving force of this reality process that presides over nature, culture, and human evolution is the emergence of Logos in all things.

We have seen that this driving force of all life and existence becomes self–evident when we move beyond the egocentric mind to the dialogical way of minding. And this moving force of evolution calls for a dramatic revisioning of what has been happening in human evolution and what is happening now. Because Logos is the infinite force, it must be the primal source of all unity and multiplicity in the universe. This vital finding has not been clearly expressed before.The Awakening story goes into this evolutionary development in some detail. We inventory a vast range of great teachings across cultures and traditions across the global spectrum and through the ages. The global mind way of seeing–the global Logos perspective–allows us to see these patterns and dynamics in a way that thinking dominated by egocentric habits could not see. In fact, we are able to demonstrate the common consensus across religious narratives and philosophical visions despite their profound differences and forms of narrative and localized languages.

Here we see that across cultures and worlds, the chronic egocentric ways of minding have so fragmented experience, have generated splits and dualities and incoherences in all life and experience, that it's impossible to reach true integrity and well–being and individuality in this technology of mind. The great insight here is that not just the content of experience is what matters, but the manner and ways in which we mind–our habits of mind. Whether one is a Christian, Hindu, Moslem or a "secular scientist" matters little if these diverse worldviews are all practicing egocentric minding. To the extent that diverse worldviews are lodged in common egocentric minding, they will experience the same basic pathologies of life.

The Awakening narrative goes more deeply into pathologies of life and shows in a way that could not be seen before just how and why egocentric minding directly produces the vast range of human pathologies–the many forms of violence, the pathologies of meaning such as nihilism, despair, and meaninglessness–and demonstrates (diagnoses) as was not possible before cultural pathologies. We see in a new way how our deepest inner personal lives and our outer corporate interpersonal and intercultural and interreligious lives suffer from cultural pathologies.

Finally, we see the deep splits between our religious lives and scientific or secular civic life. We see in our educational systems how our educational practices are steeped in fragmentation and failure to find the deeper rational, holistic connections between fields. We see how the splits between our mind and body produces disastrous consequences in the quality of our lives and health. We see how our failure to mature to holistic dialogical beings produces inner fragmentation and splits in our inner and outer lives. This Awakening story seeks to disclose that humanity has arrived at a new and exciting turning point, and to open higher global space through a global grammar, a global mythos that comes with the awakening of the global mind.

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