Thursday, September 8, 2011

Armageddon or a New Age? A New View of History

I would like to invite you to a revolutionary revelation that has come out in a newly published book called THE YUGAS, by two friends of mine, Joseph Selbie and David Steinmetz. This weekend the East West Bookshop hosts a talk and workshop by Joseph Selbie: Saturday night, 7 p.m., and Sunday, 1 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.eastwestbookshop.com

You don't want to miss this, and the book which these two great souls have written. Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences), I have just, this week, begun a course at Ananda Meditation Temple on the book, The Holy Science, by Swami Sri Yukteswar. It is upon the revelation given in the introduction to this book that Joseph and David have built upon, now over 100 years since the Holy Science was first published.

Western science posits that not many thousands of years ago humankind were just a scotch above apes, living in caves, foraging, hunting and gathering. But the accumulation of anomalous facts and discoveries is pushing this view of progressive history off the cliff of human knowledge.

Instead, every great civilization of the B.C.E. attested to the existence of a higher age in the dim, pre-history of time. Evidence continues to mount in favor of this point of view. As a simple example, we are pleased to imagine that literacy is evidence of growing intelligence. Is it possible that literacy is just the opposite? Just as we, today, need to write things down because of being plagued by faulty memory, perhaps it is so that literacy arose in response to the need to "write things down" which, prior, were conveyed in a verbal tradition and memory?

Yes, this revelation will turn our view of history upside down. And, just in time, for the question of Armageddon vs a New Age is no armchair philosopher's topic. Science seems to be giving us unceasing insights into knowledge of the natural world while human behavior seems to be plaguing us with selfish and destructive patterns of exploitation, abuse and prejudice. Or, is it?

Up through the Renaissance of western Europe we believed in the past higher knowledge and wisdom of a long forgotten classic age. Only with the dawn of the age of exploration, reason, and industry have we switched to look ahead for ever expanding vistas of awakening.

But by what mechanics can such cycles of consciousness ascend and descend upon mankind? Learn the secrets of the stars known to the ancients whose descendents, in desparation, erected the great megaliths in an effort to track the celestial motions that influence the history mankind!

How can we understand past, present, and future history and trends that we might live a more aware and conscious life? Come this weekend to learn more. It is fascinating, inspiring, and utterly up-setting of a world view with which we, in the west, have been raised. You will not be disappointed.

Blessings,

Nayaswami Hriman