Gear Shifting

Intergenerational Disturbance and Evolutionary Practice, Part 3 of 3

Perhaps you have a vision of where you would like to head, or a sense of possibility you feel for our world. But running parallel to this hopefulness are perhaps deeply entrenched identities, interpersonal dynamics, social constellations, or personal patterns that keep you stuck in old ways of being. This is where evolutionary practice comes in. 

The quick definition of “evolutionary practice” for Agents of Evolution is: the cultivation of presence, at your evolutionary edge. The dynamics and patterns we experience are not there to thwart our vision. They are tailor made opportunities to liberate ourselves and our world. Your evolutionary edge will not be the same as your neighbor’s, or even your sister’s. Your evolutionary edge exists where you sense there is greater love and freedom to be had, inside yourself or for our world. When you encounter a dynamic or a pattern, you have a choice – be run by it, or engage in evolutionary practice.

All evolutionary practice involves gear shifting. It requires a conscious act of will to decide you are not going to stay stuck, that instead you are going to attempt something new, or that you are going to practice an unfamiliar way of being. Gear shifting by definition requires releasing an old gear, an old pace, an old rhythm, and taking up a new one. When change comes suddenly, it helps to have the fruits of your practice to fall back on. Like training for an athletic event, it helps to have cultivated the strength, endurance, and muscle memory required for the game, so that they are automatically available when you need them. 

Ultimately, all change, whether individual or collective, provides opportunity to prepare for that greatest of evolutionary challenges that comes at death – will we be able to stay present through the changes in state as we drop our bodies, maintaining awareness through to the final merging with the All That Is, or will we get stuck in an identity, an attachment, an addiction, a trauma, a social constellation, or a personal pattern? Evolutionary practice during life helps the soul navigate at death.

How easy is gear shifting for you? When change comes, do you have the attitude, “change is here; no problem.” Or do you stress, and get nervous and anxious? In all honesty, I am resisting change right now. I am about to move from southern Oregon, my home of 14 years, to somewhere on the east coast. I am anxious about it. But I have had the great good fortune of decades of spiritual training. So I engage in evolutionary practice, which for me is about staying present to exactly what is, right now, and as the changes come, shifting gears with as much effortless ease as possible.

In addition to the practice of staying present through change and gear shifts, I do other practices. These other practices are like warm ups for a dancer, or scales for a musician – they keep you in the game. The main forms of practice for me right now are meditation, dream work, ancestor reverence, mindfulness, prayer, Chigong, and reading the words of great beings. Meditation helps in how it shows me who I really am (not the stories I tell myself about the changes that are happening) and helps me loosen my grip, not trying to force things to be a certain way. Lucid dreaming helps in how it shows me that things are much less solid and real than they seem, where I can practice staying aware and awake – present – through the dreams. Mindfulness helps, so that rather than being run by my thoughts, patterns, memories, attachments, I can make fresh choices in each moment.

I recently added ancestor reverence to my normal practices because the intergenerational cooperation in evolution has made itself more and more known to me these past few years. We all participate in various lineages – our biological lineages, our spiritual lineages, our national lineages… some even have a lineage of people from whom they learned the work they currently do. All these lineages are operating behind the scenes for us, the force of their collective evolutionary practice a legacy we have inherited.

When we do evolutionary practice, we liberate those who have come before us, as well as those yet to come. Our practice benefits the collective.

What does evolutionary practice look like for you right now? What helps you stay present at your evolutionary edge, not collapsing or getting stuck in old, familiar patterns?