Entropy

1710: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

The thrust towards evolution (and the energy it requires) moves in an opposite direction to entropy. To be involved in our own spiritual growth, we have to work against the force of entropy. It's much easier to be lazy, follow what others are doing, think as others think, eat what others eat. We all have material drives. We earn money to buy what producers produce and often it's so comforting to feel 'normal', that we'll choose to live life to the fullest as materialists. But if our spiritual growth is important to us, then there's work to be done and entropy to be resisted.

Let's imagine we're off on an instinctual open-ended journey with no clear end in sight. We're willing to leave our material interests behind and pursue the pull of our own unconsciouses, as yet not fully revealed. This journey will be hard work. We'll be on the move for a long time and we can't expect much that's familiar or receive outside help. The driving force will have to come from a source within ourselves. But moving requires energy - fuel. Fuel which will allow us to grow, despite the natural resistance of our own lethargy. Love! With this all-purpose fuel, we can draw from the unconscious and impel ourselves towards our own (and others') spiritual growth. I imagine that love is the distillation of ourselves-extended, the main evolutionary force that develops consciousness.

Our spiritual growth as individuals (and as a species) depends upon each of us finding a significant focus for development; something timeless and of universal importance. The focal point we choose isn't primarily for our own enlightenment or necessarily for our own benefit. It can have the double purpose of contributing to others most in need of help while at the same time giving what we do a great sense of meaning. As well, our focus would be on reforming what our fellow humans have gotten most wrong; where humans are at their laziest and where most damage has been done to the victims of that laziness - animals!

We must be conscious of animals because of all the wrongs we've done them in the past (and are still doing); the millions we've put to death for what was never essential to our survival. There is a great debt to pay and a great need for repair. Nothing better to draw us away from the entropic forces tempting us to do nothing. If we are to evolve, to grow spiritually, we need to disassociate from specific behaviours of our fellow humans, draw away from the entropic side of human nature. Only then can we start our journey-proper which involves some difficult and very honest questioning that others might not dare to do. Yet we do it for love, through love and by using love.
Our questioning is simple. Can we survive (and thrive) without using animals for food? Are we determined enough to work on ourselves? Are we convinced that love is the most effective driving force? Twenty-first century humans need spiritual growth - and that growth demands all that we can give. We need to push ourselves to high levels of consciousness, loving activity and a high sense of responsibility to counteract our own laziness and a need to stop and rest and be just like everyone else around us.

It comes down to this. We face choices between pleasure and spiritual growth. If we go for growth, then the pleasure may not be immediate or it may come in unfamiliar forms or come later, perhaps in increments. And it's not only down to love. We need to find reasons for the path we choose. If we choose to be vegan - why vegan? We need to ask specific questions; for example about cows! Why shouldn't we eat them? Why shouldn't we use their skins to shoe our feet, drink their milk and encourage their methane flatulence? It's not just about love and reasons however. It's also about the debate we never seem to have. Because such questions and answers are the stuff of debate and our spiritual growth is also a matter of listening and learning from views which don't accord with our own.


At each turn, at each point of growth, entropy can pull us back. In response, we must push on through the choosing, the working and the reasoning with a determination to continue our journey inwards, towards the fount of what we already know in our unconscious.