Over the past few weeks, there has been quite a buzz around certain intellectuals and their embrace of salvation narratives to align with the infinite. This has caused quite a commotion within the Liminal Web, as people feel conflicted about this pivot.

The statement about SpiritDAO is equally applicable to all spiritual communities and organizations; they are what most active practitioners make them to be. Herein lies the central challenge with the salvation narratives: The most vocal and active followers seek to dominate and diminish others. Today, fundamentalist Christians proactively seek to strip the legal rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ communities.

There is no denying that wisdom traditions of the past contain some value, especially from a theoretical and philosophical viewpoint. At the same time, these sacred texts are not separated from the tribal dominion ethos contained within them. All religions are spiritual-political technologies, and the salvation narratives were created during a human time experience far from our own.

To embrace these narratives is to embrace selective hypocrisy. The challenge is that there is no consensus around this hypocrisy, so an individual who embodies their texts as sacred unwittingly champions the profane. They are not enough to meet the needs of the moment, and often serve to proactively further our descent into the crisis.

While I consider myself a fervent champion of the single truth, it requires no believers. Therefore, we take an ambivalent stance toward an individual’s personal choice of orientation. Our objective is to share an alternative where there has previously been none, allowing others to shape their orientation.

Claiming alignment with inherited spiritual dogmas is the path of least resistance. It can also boost fleeting popularity. Developing spiritual alternatives is a difficult, messy, and arduous task. All the more reason to embrace core values informed by enthusiasm and courage; this is a worthy pursuit.

This is an excerpt from the 3/12/24 SpiritDAO newsletter.

Ron Rivers is the author of Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis and a co-founding member of SpiritDAO. You can learn more about his efforts at ronrivers.com and by connecting with him on X (twitter).

Rejecting the Spiritual Path of Least Resistance was originally published in Age of Awareness on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We might begin with looking to history for possible solutions but unfortunately they fail to meet the needs of the moment. Salvation religions have developed a variety of top-down approaches to actionizing spiritual alignment. Through the submission of personal power to our creations, we have memed a creator into existence and allowed men of power and status to dictate what can and cannot be done in relation to its desires. As evidenced by past and present, pathways to divinity vary in relation to the body and perspective one inhabits. Frameworks of alignment that are inherently exclusive, prioritizing divinity for some through the exclusion of others.

Through our embrace of a relational universe governed by the single truth of change we recognize each as possessing an aspect of embodied infinity. Being both of and within a physical universe of material infinity. To this end the idea of prioritizing submission and obedience in our path to actionization is incompatible with aligning ourselves with the ideal. Our pathways to actionizing alignment is a ground-up approach, tailoring specific approaches individually that simultaneously allow for shared sensemaking and community.

It’s an exploration that could be a book in itself, but we can start simply with the understanding that any direction of focus and energy is an act of mutual becoming. The individual is shaped by the circumstances they inhabit while at the same shaping the external world through their participation. As self-actualizers seeking alignment with the single truth and relational universe, the task becomes bringing our awareness to this phenomenon at will. The greater our capacity to exercise awareness of the immediate present, the greater our powers to direct its flow.

Sounds easy enough on paper, but before we can leverage our embodied infinity we have to be willing to claim the powers we possess. Here we identify conflict with our inheritance of the moment. While aspects of our circumstance are due to the choices and ensuing event chains occurring from them that we create, much of the moment is completely out of our control. It happens to us. The cornerstone of individual actualization is our ability to separate ourselves from these circumstances. To recognize that despite past moments of struggle and strife, they bear no weight on our capacity to reorient the trajectory of our time experience.

Speaking practically, one of the most impactful and immediate positive impacts the individual can make on their lives is the elimination of focus towards self-doubt and deprecation. To start, let us not confuse directing our focus and energy away from feelings of doubt and diminishment with having them. To feel doubt about ourselves and our circumstances is inherently human and, while they can be influenced, are unable to be fully controlled. Dwelling on these feelings and allowing them to shape our thoughts and language within an immediate present however, is something we can actively direct.

Growing up I was part of a scrappy but ultimately mediocre high school wrestling team. We had a running joke, “A W is a W.” Whether we earned a win from our opponent getting a point deducted for stalling, or a dominating victory, in the end the event always records itself to history in the same way. It was a constant reminder to count your wins, because it was certain that the next day would bring new challenges. Far too often we proactively drown ourselves in what is wrong and deny the goodness that is rightfully ours to claim. A practice amplified by our being surrounded by institutions that serve to proactively manipulate our emotions for profit.

This is especially relevant when we find ourselves overcoming challenging event chains. It’s easy to contextualize struggles as eternal and embodied. To frame them as part of us, instead of past moments we once inhabited. Individually actualizing is developing our capacity to separate ourselves from these moments, recognizing the latent divinity of choosing a direction within the immediate present. Below are three immediate actions you can begin applying today to bring more ideal futures into the present.

1. When you wake up in the morning, prioritize taking 5–10 minutes before you start your day to map out 1–3 directions that will occupy your focus and energy for the day. Leverage them as a north star for action throughout the day and proactively reorient yourself if you find you’ve veered off track.
2. When connecting with others, focus on sharing your wins. What’s going well, what you’ve accomplished, and what you’re creating. Avoid focusing on what’s wrong and what hasn’t been going well. We’re not denying our struggles, rather wrapping ourselves in a language that aligns us with our visions of creation instead of distancing us from them.
3. Celebrate your wins. It’s easy to lose sight of small victories, especially in the context of an expansive and distant vision of the good. In reality, success is only ever the compounding of minor wins over moments. Allow yourself to embrace and enjoy your progress, it will serve to recharge you and reinforce your efforts.

The above represent a small but meaningful effort in mastering the direction of your time experience within the immediate present. Remember that “self” is most accurately described as the relationship between an individual and their circumstances within a given moment. To that end, the elimination of self-defeating and self-diminishing language and thoughts represent an ideal for aligning the observable infinities. We recognize from the onset that we’re not seeking to escape or deny these feelings, rather to recognize our power to separate them from the choices we make within the immediate present.

Originally published at SpiritDAO Newsletter on July 25, 2023.

The research raises questions about the previously perceived evolutionary constraints. A minimal cell’s capacity to adapt would be limited if every gene in its genome is essential. Yet, this study shows that even a minimal cell can evolve freely. Its exceptionally high mutation rate acts as the motor of adaptation. Thus, even in the face of streamlined genomes, room for evolution remains, challenging our conventional understanding of the process. The only thing that matters is progress in response to survival needs.

These findings illuminate our understanding of the relationship between complexity, adaptability, and spirituality. If life evolves in relation to circumstance, then the evolutionary process for a specific organism is indistinguishable from the moments it finds itself within. Further replicating this process in alternative directions would allow us to glimpse an evolutionary process that only ever exists alongside a specific environment. A single happening further solidifies our inhabiting of a relational universe. As we witness the evolutionary flexibility of minimal cells, we see an alignment of our observed reality with the infinite possibility in the dual realms of quanta and imagination.

Consider also how the progression of complexity as a realm of the possible reflects the material infinity we inhabit. As Smolin and Unger argue in The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time, scientific efforts in cosmology and physics continue to coalesce around the theory of sequential universes, one occurring after another, but no more than one at a time. Sequential universes provide us with an observable infinity, the material nature of reality. While it’s likely that humanity will never possess the capacity to measure other universes, it does not negate our responsibility to choose a direction.

We, therefore, recognize an existence that only ever exists within perpetual states of change. Conceptualizing change can only occur within the present and only claims a direction once the moment commits itself to history. As individuals, we recognize ourselves as both within and of this materially infinite reality. Within it because we each find ourselves within a unique set of conscious coordinates that none other may occupy because we embody an aspect of that infinity within our imaginations. That progressive evolution would occur within a minimally viable genome is not as surprising as we might initially think, considering the broader context that is nature.

The unbound possibility that is our evolutionary process may also provide insights into how we navigate our experiences with the unknown. Evolution is a part of us and has equipped humanity with the tools to process the infinite complexity of the universe in particular ways. That evolution itself is unbound to direction furthers the latent possibility inherent within each moment. Potentiality that we only ever express through choice within the immediate present. This deep interconnectivity with the universe provides us with a foundation for what spirituality must become to meet the needs of the moment. An alignment with nature that prioritizes our capacity to create in directions unbound and unbeholden the systems surrounding us.

This exploration of minimal genome evolution offers us a profound realization: at its most fundamental, life is bound to the single truth of change. Evolution and progress occur independently of constraints. By embracing our place within this material infinity, we can view ourselves as passive observers and active participants in an evolutionary tale that echoes across the cosmos. As we deepen our knowledge, we enrich our spiritual selves, reinforcing the boundless connection between science and spirituality. We are both observers and participants, ever-changing within the networks of relationships we inhabit. This is a revelation of self, a testament to our boundless capacity for adaptation, and a clarion call to recognize our integral role within life’s cosmic totality.

Originally published in the SpiritDAO Newsletter on July 11, 2023.

Adaptation and Infinity: Minimal Genome Evolution and Spirituality was originally published in Age of Awareness on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.