By Alex Kochkin

Near-future events will cause many to seek and form new relationships and community. Why wait for circumstances to impose themselves? Why not begin to choose differently now?

About this Guide: "The What and the How"

This guide describes basic principles for awakened conscious community and simple ways that can be readily incorporated into weekly and daily activities and that do not require elaborate organizing efforts with meetings.

In discussing the process of forming community with various people, there has been the question of "finding enough time" as well as whatever localized "issues" there may be in a given area. Of course, there really is no barrier caused by a "lack" of time. It is all about awareness and intention as we go about our daily lives. From this we can attend to community, starting by simple acts in daily life. The result is a new type of community. When enough people are consciously so engaged, there naturally will be interest to gather and create the time needed. Concerning issues, there will always be "issues". Issues are never primary, although may at times catalyze people into coming together in a new way.

Wherever and however it starts, it is absolutely essential for people to address building awakened community in the geographic area they live. As you reach out and seek to address specific needs in your area, this all takes commitment and time.

Awakened Conscious Community and A New Earth

This is about new ways of being with one another and with oneself as well as our "host" planet. This is about people creating and discovering new relationships between and within themselves. Those who choose this now will become islands of inspiration and light for countless numbers of people. This is all about a direct person to person community, and not virtual Internet-based substitutions -although the principles apply regardless of type of situation.

The principles described here are universal to individuals, communities, organizations, entire national societies and bridge levels of social strata.

As we pay attention in our daily lives to principles of trust, caring, service, and a greater spiritual context for our existence, we cultivate a new basis for being --for humanity and for our own self. In our actions in this regard, we all become, in effect, "leaders". As we become more aware and find more nurturing ways to exist, naturally there will be others who will be "infected" in a good way. As more people find cause to turn away from what no longer works in society, they will be looking for something that serves a meaningful future. ŠAnd there you will be for them.

This is about creating something, not about opposing anything. What fails to nurture us in our humanity and in our nature as spiritual beings, will gradually become less an influence in our lives and a new freedom of many forms of personal energy will be available where before it seemed limited.

Basic Concepts to Use Now

Connection, Service, Spirituality -- A simple set of principles that makes commonsense -and that is solidly based on present-day core values. It reveals a story of insight into ways to bridge differences: for some people connection is primary - connection to others, humanity, nature, earth, cosmos, Creation, God, etc - for others service is primary - service to others, humanity, nature, earth, cosmos, Creation, God, etc. and for others, spirituality is primary - awareness and connection to higher consciousness - regardless of whether they are religious or not. For some it is important to relate through some combination of these, and certain people it is important for all three to be in combination. To support personal, social, and political positive change, a major social science research project (IOOW-2000) demonstrates that these values bridge roughly 84% of the adult population in the U.S.

In creating awakened conscious community, Trust, Caring, and Service can be used as guiding principles. These are within a greater context of spiritual awakening. These four principles are fundamental building blocks of Creation -ones that are clear of the dark influences that have so plagued humanity. You are invited to use these spiritually-derived principles in daily life and in finding conscious community.

How?

It is simple: first think about the people around you -home, neighborhood, school, workplace, stores, and people with whom you choose to associate. All it requires is to pay attention and begin looking at your relationship with others. Not in a harshly judgmental manner of "good or bad", but in a manner of simple honesty.

These factors cannot be taken in isolation from one another. It is not enough to simply trust that your neighbor can be counted on to help you fix your car and you in turn can fix their plumbing. Circumstances today demand more than mere material aid out of mutual self-interest. So let's look more closely at some guiding principlesŠ

Trust

Consider the meaning of "trust". It is essential to the durability of any positive relationship. There are many levels to this. At the simplest is an exchange - a monetary or voluntary agreement - between people to do something in a certain way within a certain time. Who is "trustable" at this level? It is here that basic issues arise in society. A common one concerns monetary relationships. Someone is paid to do something for another that they appear to be qualified for. Yet today, too many people who accept money for goods and services do not want to be accountable for the outcome of their work.

Consider those who you are in relationship with daily outside your home. Who is "trustable"? Is there mutual trust to be open and honest with another --even when there is disagreement? Can openness and honesty be exchanged that respects personal integrity? Or is the relationship merely on agreement of ideas and when there is disagreement, there is a lack of trust? Is there a larger context in which differences can exist but not be antagonistic? This is all about a deeper and more meaningful form of respectful relationships.

Where is there trust between people to aid one another when dealing with difficult personal and private matters? Who can you turn to? Do they respond honestly and truthfully? Or do they always "take your side" or speak in platitudes? One example of a stronger level of trust is when people are sharing some of the most profound personal challenges in their lives. Without trust, such intimacy can be potentially threatening. So this is yet another level up the trust scale.

Please bear in mind, this is not intended to foster avoidance or judgment others, it is mostly a matter of developing community by finding ways that trust can bridge differences and diversity.

So in your daily life as you carry on with your activities, be discerning as to the qualities of trust in your relations with others. Without trust, there can be no durable relationship or community. At times there can be "broken trust" and this needs to be addresses directly and honestly whenever possible and as your true heart directs.

To help connect and reinforce trust at any level, find ways to acknowledge this to one another. It is done through a simple expression of words of appreciation or gratitude to another for living and being the quality of "trust". For those meeting to develop community in a more organized way, cultivating higher qualities of trust will be one of many factors to attend to.

Caring

It is easy to say to someone in parting, to "take care". Consider all the ways we do not "take care" in our lives: What we eat, how we act with others, how we treat our natural environment, how we treat our personal home environment, how we treat our partners, children, elderly, etc. Multiplied by more than six billion people, the situation can seem hopeless. Public agencies fail to take care of social and environmental concerns they are charged with. Private agencies (especially business) too often fail to take care of ethical obligations.


"Taking care", means paying attention and then attending to what matters. What matters to you that is truly essential to your existence as a spiritual being that is having a human experience? As you take care in this manner, you begin noticing more what you may have not noticed and reflected on before. Your life becomes more real, more meaningful, and less frenetic and excessively busy with "busy-ness".

Except in rural communities and close neighborhood enclaves in cities, people are so separated from one another and their activities, there is always the expectation for someone else to "take care" of everything not in their immediate domain. In modern most of the world virtually no one has any personal motivation to truly "take care" to do they work honestly and thoughtfully with regard to the end outcomes. As a result the entirely of society fails to "take care". When things go wrong, it is expected that there is some outside entity paid to "take care" and fix things right enough. As human social-economy continues to break down, these private and public entities will fail more, and then what?

So, why live like this when it is possible to help one another to take care of where you live, work, trade? It is both possible and necessary to reclaim and take charge of our own lives and develop networks of awakened conscious communities.

To help connect and reinforce caring at any level, find ways to acknowledge to one another with simple appreciation or gratitude for living the quality of truly "taking care". This is in itself a form of caring and paying attention that builds further trust.

For those meeting together to develop new community where they live, consideration to the higher qualities of caring will be as important as the basic acts of service that you will likely be undertaking.

Service

Do you live and work in a way that primarily serves self-interest (perhaps under an illusion of "survival") --or in a way that is about a larger goodness and serves others, the planet, and greater creation?

When you do something for someone, is there expectation by either party of reciprocity? If you offer someone lunch or a ride home or some other manner of help, is it given with any expectation of something, anything, in return? Is the gesture of care accepted --or rejected due to a fear of being unable to "return the favor"? Rather, this is about generosity of ones very being and faith in relationships that are based upon trust and caring, and thus reciprocity never enters your consideration.

Engaging in a form of service helps to connect people to something greater than their own selves and personal concerns. Groups of people engaging in tangible service to others, their community, nature, etc. provides a common context for diversity to be bridged and for new forms of trust and care to be created. For those of you who are meeting to develop new community where you live, consider ways mutual practice around important material concerns can be used to connect people of diverse perspectives and beliefs.


A common ground of trust and care is vital to the existence of humanity. Serving the greater good by ones actions from the simplest acts and considerations to more involved acts of serving others and the planet, also serves our higher nature as spiritual beings.

The Larger Context

At first, it may be tempting to think it would be a great achievement for more of humanity to just live the principles of trust, care, and service. At one level that may be true. But there is much more.

Surrounding and permeating these three principles that represent our "ground, air and water", there is a fourth and greater bond/connection: Faith in our own connection and relationship in a "process of Creation" -a process that is about elevating form and consciousness to new levels of awareness and existence. This is at the center of our very nature of being.

A bond of trust in this process of creation provides a basis for self-integrity, no matter what. It provides supreme faith of the integrity of our origins as spiritual beings and in so doing further connects us all to our higher destinies. Awakened spirituality offers the greatest over-arching context for new community and a new earth -a context that offers each individual direct connection to higher consciousness. As energies based upon our fundamental goodness and nature as beings of spirit are shared, they actually multiply in their beneficial force and help increase our spiritual capacity further.

Awakened Conscious Community

As you connect in this manner, you will be forming a new fabric, a new warp and weft, one that is visible and accessible to all. Awakened conscious communities of people will be like "islands" that stand above the overall level of humanity. The presence of these "islands" will be easier for more people to shift to a new way of being. This is a vital part of a transition process that makes a greater transformation ever more possible. As the capacity for this process grows, the higher the overall vibrational state of your being. The stronger and higher the vibrational state, the greater your capacity for transformation. There is of course always the benefit of mutual material and spiritual support.

As you help develop a group in this manner, it will be important to examine the concerns of material life such as economy and livelihood, energy, natural environment, food production and distribution, neighbors connecting to and helping one another, culture, housing, governance, spirituality, and more.

There is no teaching, methodology, or gurus here, and certainly no fee to be paid! It is between you and your higher nature -and in your connection with others at the highest commonality possible in any given situation.

Through common practice, whether in meetings or in service with others in the general community, new spiritual energy is freed up and can flow. This in turn raises the spiritual energy available to more people over a larger area.

Conclusion

We have offered here some basic guidelines and principles to building awakened conscious community. Consider this a call to form new patterns of connecting with one another (like new molecular bonds) based on trust, caring, service to the greater good, and a faith in the process of Creation -all serving to uplift us to higher consciousness.

Whether the "old world" falls apart quickly or slowly, what will be the values and beliefs and practices of those who choose to live in a new way? What will be their highest vision?

There is a powerful commonality that embraces demonstrated core values shared by many people of diverse persuasions. These values include: universal connection to humanity, nature, Earth, the Cosmos, to higher consciousness; qualities of tolerance and reconciliation that permits difference to coexist without conflict; a sense of service to other people and to Earth; and spiritual values that are nearly universal. More than 80% of US adults agreed that whether we recognize it or not, we all just want to connect to God or higher consciousness. Let us give expression to this in our daily lives.