A Monastic Order of Consciousness
Our monastery was founded in 2012 as The Monastery of Nothingness. We changed our name to The Little Creek Monastery in late 2017, to more accurately reflect our mission. In a sense we have been developing our monastic concepts for decades, but more or less formally for five years.
The ‘monastery’ is a metaphor, a reminder to carry the values of calmness and stillness into our everyday lives. The monastery is in all of us.
This article is less a potential request for funding and more a hope to begin a conversation, and is based on an article by investor Bo Shao.
The Monastery’s Main Mission
Our primary project has a single-minded objective: to find a way to put into words a practical and universally effective how-to guide for deeper conscious awareness and experiences. Something so universal, and so plainly laid out, that anyone could read it, comprehend it and do it.
And yes, we know. That’s what the Bible, Koran, Tao and so many other books and tomes are doing. Read it, meditate, pray and repeat… that’s the drill. And to that I say, respectfully, then show me the throngs of people who are having the deeper experiences and realizations. Show me a planet that’s improving. Instead we see life-threatening global warming, and an accelerated rise of an uninhibited concentration of wealth and power along with a reckless glorification of greed and selfishness.
Not to disrespect all the hard work, sweat, persistence and realizations which actually are occurring, but we need something more scalable and readily repeatable.
We believe that the way to overcome the tyranny of greed and divisiveness is to help all of us — including ourselves — develop higher perspectives, as we become more deeply aware and conscious of the more fundamental nature of life, and more engaged in the attributes of consideration, compassion and responsibility.
An Order of Consciousness
I am not interested in arguing whether traditional monasteries, teachers or spiritual movements are/aren’t making valuable contributions to humanity’s current state of consciousness. If they are, that’s great. But what we have not sufficiently developed is a way to more effectively and efficiently communicate or transmit deeper conscious awareness and experiences. This is the value of a monastic Order of Consciousness.
Let’s explore that value for a moment. A monastic Order based on consciousness should have some goals, goals that are designed to benefit humanity (in no particular order):
- Preserve or point to work — particularly contemporary work — that contributes to the discussion of consciousness. This work may originate from spiritual traditions, philosophy or even quantum physics.
- Create original work that contributes to said discussions.
- *Focus on universal principles.
- Feature work that highlights the altogether unique teacher/initiate relationship, including basic guidelines depicting the various Paths of Initiates.
- Help focus discussion on where it needs to focus. What are some keywords or key thoughts? What common ideals will truly inspire, unite and motivate? Discussion forums — with respect to consciousness — tend to drift toward the strongest voice, and tend to resist the notion of a rudder. Think of how Occupy Wall Street ultimately disintegrated because there were so many voices airing so many legitimate concerns.
- Provide opportunities for men and women to try on ‘the cloth and robes’ of being a so-called monk or nun (of consciousness and awareness) in everyday life. Highlight the many (unlimited) ways these concepts can be applied. Consider the idea of a Movement, based on higher consciousness principles.
- Help define the bar, and set do-able goals. Some will be easier than others, but certainly at least one of the end goals is to include a healthier respect for our planet and inhabitants. In this sense, a monastery functions as a consciousness think tank, perhaps the world’s first.
- Be inclusive. This does not mean watering things down to the point where our efforts become boring, meaningless dribble. But it does mean that we understand we are all on a path, that there are many paths, and that each of us are trying to climb a mountain. And regardless of which mountain we are climbing, there are both common pitfalls and common trail markers. Mountains are mountains, and consciousness is consciousness.
What we are facing
Is all this something that The Evolve Foundation could support? That’s hard to say. But what’s easy to say is this:
Because of technology and the internet, we have tools at our fingertips to make giant strides with regard to consciousness. The human condition, however, remains stuck, and our world of politics, divisiveness, power and greed clearly depict how truly stuck we are.
Prior to this time in human hustory, the ancient sages would typically have had at best a handful of students. Perhaps when the sage died, a book of sayings or stories might emerge. These writings and traditions have become our guides. But we are today’s sages. And I sense what The Evolve Foundation is saying is that yes, we acknowledge all of that, but we see a world in crisis. We need new approaches. And to that I say, well, even sages can benefit from a monastery. Especially if it’s targeting their needs.
If you enroll in martial arts or esoteric schools, like I did for example, the journey down that path will likely be deeply challenging, rigorous and long. Is there a way to improve on all that? Isn’t that what we are all asking?
With technology and the social pressures of our competitive age, we are becoming desperately intrigued by anything that will give us a lift, a mental or psychological advantage. Or maybe simply a better way to cope.
Is mind mapping, ‘Flow’ or microdosing LSD the next big answer? While these kinds of efforts have potential merit, do they have the substance, the gravitas to deeply impact global consciousness? I don’t think so. That’s because one approach is based on an individual finding better ways to individually cope, while the other approach is far more global and scalable in nature.
While it is vitally true that deeper consciousness changes are on the one hand about individual improvement, on the other hand they are about creating a higher and higher perspective from which to live our lives. In other words, it’s not just the lone pilgrim living on a secluded beach somewhere, but instead we need millions of people who are collectively uniting to raise the bar.
I am suggesting that a rather updated definition of a monastery should perhaps be under consideration. And that, properly designed, a monastic Order of Consciousness could ultimately be highly useful, significantly leveraging the efforts of The Conscious Accelerator.
NOTE: The Little Creek Monastery is our main website. Its related publishing sites are all hosted on Medium.
