Finding Meaning, Purpose, and Wholeness Through the Evolution of Consciousness

In The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. Arthur C. Brook says

many today, especially young people, are experiencing a growing sense of emptiness.

• There’s a lack of purpose and significance
• Loneliness, anxiety and dissatisfaction are on the rise
• I’s the feeling that something essential is missing

Growth in adolescence depends in large part on the amount of meaning one is able to extract from the culture. — Mihalyi Csikszenthihalyi, Psychologist

He attributes this to having our more choices, conveniences and distractions.

• The perennial questions (Why am I here? What is worth living for?…) are seldom discussed.
• The culture advises “Become successful, and then you’ll be fulfilled.”
• The theme of modern life is self-centered: my identity, my desires, my opinion…
• Emersion in technology provides constant stimulation.
• There’s a loss of higher connection—to God, nature, beauty, truth, love, awe.
• Everyday living is largely reduced to productivity and consumption.

I’m moved to write about this because evidence of this is showing up in attitudes and media. Also, because meaning is the organizing principle in life. It gives our experience coherence, connecting our story to larger stories. And it helps us endure hardship, make choices, develop our gifts and feel that our lives matter beyond survival or success. Without meaning, we may be comfortable and having great experiences, but its accompanied with a persistent feeling of disconnectedness, restlessness or emptiness.

Socially, meaning is the bond that holds communities together. Shared meaning creates trust, belonging, cooperation and a sense of responsibility for something larger than oneself. Even large cultures are sustained by stories about what’s valuable and sacred, and what people aspire to become.

A crisis of meaning becomes a crisis of relationship: separation from ourselves, from one another, from nature and from the great mystery of existence.

The arc of human evolution

(Source: ChatGPT. My request: “I’d like a timeline: first appearance of mammals; first appearance of “homo sapiens”; first appearance of self-reflexive consciousness—awakening to the inner life. And what would characterize the transition from then until contemporary humans?”)

• ~225–200 million years ago — First mammals: beyond reacting, life developed feeling
• ~65–55 million years ago — Early primates: monkeys, apes and humans diversify. Life begins relating in complex groups
• ~7–6 million years ago — Earliest human lineage separates from other apes. Life begins to reshape its environment intentionally.
• ~2.8–2 million years ago — The genus Homo Life begins to accumulate knowledge across generations.
• ~300,000 years ago —Homo sapiens appear in Africa. Life becomes aware of possibilities; early signs of a symbolic inner world.
• ~100,000–40,000 years ago — Symbolic awakening (“inner life”). The great point of self-reflexive consciousness: “I am aware that I am aware.” “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” “What happens after death? What is my relationship to the cosmos?

Since then—

• Mythic humanity (~50,000–10,000 years ago). Humans experience themselves embedded in nature.
• Agricultural humanity (~12,000 years ago). The Neolithic Revolution transforms consciousness. Less nomadic, more sedentary.
• Humans begin controlling ecosystems. (“We can shape the world.”)
• Rational/scientific humanity (~500 years ago). The rise of modern science. (“We can understand the world.”)
• Contemporary humanity. Emerging planetary consciousness. (“We are the world becoming conscious of itself.”)

What does it mean to be human?

We’re the creature in whom the universe looks back on itself, wonders and continually ask: Who am I? What does it mean that I am here? What have I come here to BE? What have I come here to DO? What’s going on? What matters? 

These being “perennial” questions, it’s the seeking itself that creates coherence and connection to the larger story. It helps us endure challenges, make good choices and feel like our lives matter. Behind the scenes, evolution moves at a glacial speed toward greater complexity, awareness and capacity for relationship.

Considering the causes for feeling disconnected, restless or empty, many in our culture were—or are—never taught or give thought to these questions. Others just don’t want to go there. Still others get so busy there’s no time to consider them in earnest. 

What does it mean to become more fully human?

For me, perception opens the doorway. For most of biological history, seeing served survival: Where is food? Where is danger—mate—shelter? Sight was primarily functional.

As human consciousness evolved, seeing became something more. The eye became connected not only to the brain, but to memory, imagination, emotion, meaning, and spirit. We became the creature who could see and appreciate beauty. 

Ecologian Thomas Berry suggested that the great work of our time is moving from seeing Earth as a collection of resources to seeing it as a communion of living beings. Both perceptions carried meaning, but the latter elevates it—expands the mind and opens the heart to greater levels of relationship, connection and belonging.

While increased capacities to perceive opens the door to meaning, the “light” it lets in (to the mind and heart) opens a constellation of capacities—

Self-awareness: the ability to reflect our thoughts, emotions, motives, preferences and actions. We’re no longer only shaped by life—we participate in shaping it.

Love: it expands the circle of identity; the capacity to reach concern beyond ourselves. Teilhard de Chardin said love is the movement from separation toward communion.

Compassion: feeling another’s experience as real; suffer for people we never met.

 Interpretation: even in the experience of suffering we can transform it into understanding.

Creativity: we can imagine and create realities that don’t yet exist. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said “The most important thing about creativity is that it enriches life.”

Wonder and Awe: the feeling that we tapped into or belong to something larger than ourselves.

Conscious Choice: freedom from instinct; we can notice things and choose. 

For me, meaning-making occurred in every facet of life. In family—to learn, share and grow together with loved ones. In photography—using a camera to see the divine in all things. In film and television production—to exercise my creative potentials. In blogging and maintaining web sites— to share my photographs, interests and thoughts. In researching— decades spent studying anthropology, physics, philosophy and spiritual traditions. In studying the Ancient Maya of Central America—learning the significance of past life influences. And 26 years of teaching— afforded me the privilege of passing on practical lessons and hopefully some wisdom to young minds. Every day—meaningful. Every step—meaningful.  

Wholeness  

(Source: ChatGPT. I asked: “How does becoming more fully human relate to becoming whole as a person?)

Becoming more fully human amounts to a movement toward wholeness. The two ideas are inseparable.A human being is born with extraordinary potentials—perception, intelligence, imagination, love, creativity, compassion, self-awareness—but they do not automatically mature. They must be awakened, cultivated, and integrated. To become “more fully human” is to bring more and more of our capacities into conscious expression.

In that sense, evolution has two movements:

• Outer evolution: the development of the human organism—hands, eyes, brain, language, tools, technology.
• Inner evolution: the development of human consciousness—wisdom, empathy, meaning, creativity, compassion and love.

The first gave us the ability to shape the world. The second asks whether we have become mature enough to shape it wisely.

Abraham Maslow suggested that development moves beyond personal fulfillment toward self-transcendence: using one’s gifts in service of something larger than oneself. And Viktor Frankl emphasized that fulfillment is not found by turning inward in self-concern, but by reaching beyond oneself toward meaning: “The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is.”

The awakening meaning

What does it take?

• Quiet
• Self-inquiry. Asking the perennial question within—where all the answers reside.
• Daily appreciating what is—as it is.
• Continuously asking: What does this mean? What am I supposed to be learning?

Becoming “more fully human” isn’t necessarily about adding something new to ourselves. It’s about awakening gifts that have always been within us—but that modern life has taught us to ignore or suppress.

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My other sites:

David L. Smith Photography Portfolio.com

Ancient Maya Cultural Traits.com: Weekly blog featuring the traits that made this civilization unique

Spiritual Visionaries.com: Access to 81 free videos on YouTube featuring thought leaders and events of the 1980s.