The choice to become more conscious is one that is with us now.  It is a choice to live a sacred life, one that respects existence as a gift and does not take it for granted. Such a choice also recognizes the great power for shaping life that comes to those who choose wisely, with knowledge of their motives and with deliberate attention to the meaning of their choices.

Choices can be made with varying degrees of clarity, and whether deep or shallow, they have great power to shape our futures. Choices can be impulsive, thoughtless, childish, rational, illogical, sober, deliberate, meditative, or inspired. The choices that most shape our lives are the ones that emerge from the deepest strata of our being - from the depths of our soul and from the place of joining of our soul with God.

Our planet at the present time, on the collective level as well as the personal, knows little regarding how to choose with God and not separate from God. It knows little regarding the concept of universal Intention or divine Will which is the wisdom of the Universe. That there is such Intention and such wisdom to attune to could bring change and new hope to our everyday lives. Yet, it is still far away from us on the practical level, and requires the spiritual unfoldment of the next stage of our development to bring this realization into full awareness. Through this realization, we will discover that we are souls created with a singular and unique purpose in the overall scheme of things. When we discover this, we will be eager to pursue the exploration of our unique purpose in order to participate in a more active way in the shaping of our destiny.

Our life-choices now are far from this. For the most part they are based on the ego - on the need for security, power, approval, safety. Such choices correspond to the level of consciousness we presently live at. Believing ourselves to be separate from the life of the Universe which is God's life, and separate from each other, we make choices that correspond to the small territory we have carved out for ourselves on the earth. We make choices to protect, enlarge, or fortify this territory without concern for the larger picture of which we are a part.

Fundamental to the future shift in our way of choosing and making decisions is the understanding that the larger reality to which we belong is truly real. Just as the Copernican revolution brought to the consciousness of the planet the knowledge that we were not the center of the physical universe but rather part of a much vaster whole, so, too, does there need to be a new parallel revolution in our understanding of the spiritual universe. This universe is one we live and move in, all the while thinking we are alone. We are affected by it at all times, even while we feel that we are running our own lives. We also affect it at all times, even while we do not know that it exists.

The universe to which our spiritual selves belong is as vast as the physical universe which forms the body or container of the spiritual, and yet we are unconscious regarding this greater reality, thinking that what is real is only what we can see and touch and measure. As mankind moves to the next level of its development, however, such thinking will give way to the certainty that life is much vaster and more interconnected than we ever thought possible. We will also perceive that our individual lives are more important and more interconnected than we ever thought possible.

This kind of thinking, to whatever degree it takes place, can give rise to a new level of responsibility in each of us for choosing consciously - for making choices that take into account the sacred reality of which we are a part. It can give rise to a thought process that takes into account the link between the individual and the greater life of God to which we belong. Attunement to this greater life brings into play the wisdom and intelligence of the Universe to guide us as we move through our lives. Choices made in the presence of such attunement seek to serve the highest good of all, knowing that the good of the individual and the good of the whole are inextricably linked. Believing this, we will seek to go deeper into the truth of our decision-making, trying to find the point of attunement, the harmony of interests that is the link between our self and God's life around and within us.

Right now, this thinking seems foreign to most of us. It seems dream-like, impractical, perhaps impossible to achieve. This is because we live on a three-dimensional plane in a multi-dimensional universe, believing ourselves to have command of all of reality. In order to change our thinking, we must have the direct experience of the vaster reality that we belong to. We must know it is there, we must perceive it, before we can really know how to bring our consciousness into fuller accord with it.

Even now, however, as we await this larger shift, our choices can become broader in their motivational base so that we move beyond the practical and more superficial reasons for making decisions, to the level of meaning in all that we do. This is the intermediate step between where we are and where we are going as a civilization. We have the opportunity in the present to take more seriously the meaning of everything we undertake, to make decision-making a more profound and sacred event just as life is a profound and sacred event. This is something we can do right now. We can let go of the right to be indifferent and unconscious, to be asleep in the midst of our lives, and decide to value our lives more - to value the meaning of our lives more.

By giving meaning to our decision-making, by weighing it in terms of whether it corresponds to the deeper truths of who we are, we move in the direction of deepening our consciousness and of learning to lead a sacred life. Such a life has rewards which accrue to those who choose responsibility over self-abandonment. The rewards of depth, of creativity, of commitment, of sense of purpose, of joy in self-expression, of gratitude for being able to contribute to the welfare of others. All of these rewards can be summarized in one word - 'love'. It is love that brings joy to our souls as a result of knowing that our life has made a difference to others in the largest sense that we are capable of. Our choosing consciousness is a choice for love and a choice for sacredness. It is one that we can make now, at this moment of standing at the brink of a new era and a new way of being in life.

Related Writings:

The Time Has Come - The Power of Our Thoughts

A Sense of Purpose: Co-Creating Our Life

Who Are You?

Article Section -  A New Consciousness