Introduction
Global warming, an existential crisis of monumental proportions, is rapidly descending upon us. We don’t know where this escalating apocalypse is going and we can’t instantly stop or reverse it. Science is working on it. Countless enlightened governmental and grass roots organizations are mobilizing for action. The news cycle is finally admitting the crisis is real. Will this concerted effort be enough? In consideration of this critical question, there is, yet, one more avenue we should pursue: mystical activism. This article explores the questions: What is mystical activism and how might it help us find our way through this time climate reckoning?
 
What Is Mystical Activism?
Mystical activism begins with mystical consciousness: an intentionally awakened, the thought-free, sacred of awareness of the mystic that transforms the experience of our self, our work, and the world itself. In its fullness, mystical consciousness reveals the exquisitely beautiful, infinitely precious, and timeless reality known as Creation. Permeated by the divine Presence, everything is perceived as sacred, including us, for the Beloved now manifests as the world itself. This transformation of self and consciousness leads naturally to mystical activism for we instinctively love and protect that which is sacred to us. In the process, we co-create the kind of world we want to live in.
 
How Does Mystical Consciousness Change the World?
The dualistic mind created by the evolution of the split-brain fools us into believing that there is only one world and one way to fix it. It says we live in a physical reality properly described by thought, that reality is what we think it is, and that logical thought processes are the best ways to improve the world. This is the left-brain approach to problem-solving and western science, technology and industry are extremely good at it. But when we name and explain things with intellectual constructs only, we lose touch with the magic, mystery, and wonder of the divine world and the sacred fabric of existence fades from awareness and memory. In fact, we may not believe it even exists. Jewish mystic Abraham Heschel explains, “As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind.” He adds that the greatest hindrance to an awareness of the sacred is “…our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental clichés.” The answer? “Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is therefore a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.” And Heschel warns, “Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation…”
 
Mystical consciousness is a powerful antidote to the conceptual mode of problem solving. In mystical consciousness, we temporarily leave the left-brain’s thought world, heighten sensory awareness, experience reality in a consciousness free of thought, expectation, agenda and self, and then open the transformative power of pure consciousness. With practice, we discover that nothing is what we think it is, everything is literally sacred, including us, and that consciousness is not just in me, I am in it and it is the consciousness of divinity. This is mystical consciousness, offering us a revelation of the infinite beauty and perfection of Creation and the untapped power of mystical activism. It’s not that we would ignore the left-brain’s prodigious skills but we would imbue them with sacred consciousness so our work benefits all of Creation. Left-brain planning with awareness firmly planted in the divine consciousness would make a huge difference in healing the world at both individual and collective levels.
 
The Practice of Finding Heaven Here
Finding the divine world cannot be an intellectual exercise. Because we need to see it directly, for ourselves, let’s explore an experiential exercise. This exercise is an experiment in the mystical consciousness. Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Don’t worry about whether anything is happening. Don’t try to figure it out. Just follow the directions and notice what you notice. Take all the time you need, go slowly, and try to experience the sensory qualities described in the instructions Ready? Here goes…
 
1. Find a relatively quiet and peaceful environment free of interruptions for at least fifteen minutes.

2. Keep your eyes open throughout this exercise. You can’t see the divine world with your eyes closed! And remember, this is not meditation, guided imagery, or spontaneous fantasy. In fact, it may be different than anything you’ve done before.

3. Take a moment to quiet your mind. Let your thoughts slow down and unwind. Get comfortable in your chair, centered in your own personal space and physical being. Focus attention on the sensory perception of the immediate here-and-now.

4. Now, slowly, consciously and deliberately, focus your attention on something near to you: you hand, watch, a pencil, the fabric of your pants. Let it be your visual focal point for the exercise. Just keep gazing at whatever you’ve chosen.

5. While you’re looking at this focal point, listen to the silence and sense the stillness of the present moment that is everywhere. Any time your thoughts resume, remind yourself to stop thinking and return to silence and stillness as you gaze ever more deeply at your chosen point.

6. Now in this still and conscious moment, I want you to heighten and sharpen your senses even more. Become as alert, awake and aware as you possibly can. Wake up!

7. Heighten this awareness even further by opening the awe response. You already know what awe feels like. You felt it when you stood in rapt attention as a child gazing up at the night sky or, as an adult, down at your newborn infant. That intense, wide-eyed, breath-catching, thought-free awareness. Awaken that intense consciousness and you expand your sense of awe as you continue gazing at your focal point.

8. Now carefully examine its visual properties of your focal point: its colors, pattern, and texture. Experience its depth, beauty and perfection. Notice how the light plays on it. Smell it. Touch it. Look deeply into it with your soul. Love it. Merge with it. See it exactly as it is without thought. This is pure perception. See it as if you’ve never seen anything so clearly before. Be amazed.

9. Keep looking at the object. As you gaze at it, become aware of your own consciousness, in other words, become conscious of consciousness itself, remembering that all consciousness is divine consciousness. Keep gazing at the object with this pure awareness. See if you can sense that divine consciousness now exists all around you, as if space itself were becoming alive and aware. Just notice.

10. This heightened state of mystical consciousness may further change your perception. Leave your focal point and begin to look around you. Notice that your environment may seem brighter, more beautiful, interesting, radiant and alive, and it is, because you are dissolving the lens of thought that separates you from the divine world. In this consciousness, everything is incredibly beautiful, infinitely precious, perfect, enchanting, radiant, shimmering with light, conscious, alive, and full of love. The divine world is still here, you are looking at it, you are looking into it. You knew this world as a child, you can find it again as an adult. Be amazed. Be grateful. Take your time to absorb this profound revelation. You are in deep communion with divine being as the world itself. Just experience it.

11. When you’re ready, bring yourself back to normal everyday consciousness. Move around a little, sit up, and reconnect with your customary self-experience. Get the operating system of your mind back on line, as the computer folks might say, so you can reflect on this experience and perhaps write in your journal.
 
Review
What did you experience in this exercise? Reflect on the little or big things that surprised you and any curious intuitions you had. Understand, too, that mystical consciousness, like any skill, will develop with time and practice. As you practice this exercise again and again, try to keep track of what did happen, not want didn’t, and continue developing your mystical awareness.
 
Conclusions  
Mystical activism means waking up to the firsthand, timeless experience of Creation and sensing what our work is in the present moment. It is a hands-on, action-oriented mysticism – mysticism in action. The flow of Creation becomes the source of our work and our creativity. In this awakened consciousness, the mystic becomes the artist and prophet, revealing – and defending – the divine as the nature, source and purpose of life against the destructive forces of the patriarchal false world. We sense that reality is alive, conscious, love-drenched, and always brand new, an experience so precious and profound that we defend it with our lives. The illusory dualities of sacred and profane, divinity and humanity, Heaven and Earth disappear. Experiencing the inner divine Self, we always know what to do; we dwell in Garden consciousness and care for it as like a new born baby. In sum, mystical activism is about returning to – and embracing – the divine world as our very self.
 
Of course, people will want to tell you that this mystical “woo-woo” is a waste of time and that you should be doing something more important, but here is the counterpoint: the most authentic doing comes from divine being. In conscious being, we know in the moment what to do whether that means driving and flying less, avoiding plastics, filling our gardens with drought-resistant plants, or simply being kind. When we fall in love with a Creation, we do everything we can for the Beloved. Yes, we absolutely must heed the warnings of science and make huge changes in civilization, but all that comes more easily when we know who and where we are: divine beings in a divine world. Explore mystical consciousness, step into the divine world, and then do your work. In Mystical Activism, we hold the power to perceptually change the world right where we are. Who can do this? The answer is anyone who tries. Maybe not all at once or all the time, but as a spiritual practice, Finding Heaven Here will steadily open our eyes to the real world we are meant to live in.
 
The Ultimate Choice
We stand at the threshold of the divine world and the ultimate choice of humanity: the choice of which world we want to live in. Warring thought-driven worlds perish in time; Creation as divinity survives and flourishes in eternity. Let us choose the latter and restore thought to its rightful place as a divine gift in service of Creation. At this moment in human history, our greatest work is to wake up to who and where we really are and birth a new flowering of civilization.
 
If this article doesn’t change your consciousness, read it again. Read it a thousand times. Read it until you see what I see, what the mystics see, what truly is. Read it until you wake up from the self-perpetuating illusions of this suffering world. Wake up and help others do the same.❤️

(The documentation and experiential exercises behind this work can be found in the forthcoming book, Mystical Activism: Transforming a World in Crisis with a foreward by Matthew Fox, and throughout my writing. See www.johnrobinson.org for details.)