Evolutionary Tension &
Natural Hierarchy

The last two principles of Evolutionary Enlightenment are Evolutionary Tension and Natural Hierarchy. These two principles describe the dynamic nature and structure of a higher collective consciousness beyond ego.

Evolutionary Tension is the experiential quality of the new consciousness that is liberated between individuals who come together in the authentic self. The authentic self cares only about the future, and that care is felt in the human heart and mind as a powerful wakefulness, a thoroughly positive and wholesome tension that endlessly compels the individual to rise to his or her highest potential in order to create that future. It is the very opposite of inertia, which is the quality of the individual and collective ego, the downward drag of its endless fears and concerns. Evolutionary tension is an upward pull, a profound sense of urgency to bring into manifestation that which has not yet occurred. It is the dynamic awareness of and surrender to the creative impulse, the demand from the authentic self to become more, to reach for higher and more complex forms of harmony and integration. This positive tension creates a context for human relationship that is always evolutionary because it is infused with the living presence of unmanifest, immanent potential.

Natural Hierarchy is the structure of human relationship that spontaneously emerges in a living context of intersubjective enlightenment. Enlightenment means beyond ego, and intersubjective means between subjects. So natural hierarchy emerges when two or more individuals meet in a higher consciousness beyond ego. It is an egoless structure defined only by actual differences between individuals' relative levels of development and experience. In evolutionary enlightenment, while the ground of relationship is always nonduality or oneness, the reality of difference, which is the very fabric of any developmental perspective, must be honored. And therefore the relationships between evolving, enlightened human beings would clearly reflect the ultimate truth of non-difference while simultaneously respecting differing levels of experience, knowledge, and authority. If each individual was embracing the demand of evolutionary tension, which compels us to live up to our highest level of experience and understanding, a genuine natural hierarchy would become manifest—a hierarchy defined not by the ego's motives of power and control, but by the authentic self's desire to develop. Natural hierarchy is a delicate and ultimately challenging principle for most human beings to grasp, because it inherently demands that the ego must be transcended, individually and collectively. Only then will the matrix of human relationships become an expression of evolution and enlightenment: a dynamic and ever-changing reflection of the truth of nonduality.