Editorials of Nancy Roof

The Emerging New Paradigm

Kosmos is for those who want to participate in the global transformation from industrial society to the new civilization. It is for all of us who have been disillusioned with the greed, materialism, disrespect and deep suffering caused by inequities in harnessing the world’s resources and wealth. It is for those who want to hear the finest, most noble voices of the future. It is for those for whom heart is as central as mind. It is for those burning with passion to make a difference.

The Emerging New Paradigm
Kosmos was first published in 2001. We were beginning to see signs of worldwide breakdowns and breakthroughs of consciousness, cultures and institutions. Science was finally supporting what contemplatives have known for centuries; we live in an interdependent world. Thus, this Great Transformation will be global and will include all living beings as well as body, feelings, mind, and spirit. It will bring forth our collective interdependence as new collaborative efforts and global networks arise to manage the complexity of today’s challenges.

The modern rational, analytic perspective honors the ego as a separate entity rather than understanding that the essence of life is in our relationships. Modern science rejects subjective experience and diverse ways of knowing, eliminating what is most human about us and fragmenting knowledge rather than synthesizing into wholeness. People from all countries in the world are shifting paradigms as the Internet connects humanity for the first time in history. We now have the extraordinary opportunity to heal societal wounds and to create a new civilization that works for the common good.

The Heart: Source of Beauty, Truth and Goodness 
Kosmos invites leading edge contributors who have experiential knowledge about their ideas and who also listen and speak from the heart, the source of wisdom and compassion. By combining head and heart, our contributors inspire our readers to purposeful, compassionate activism. Award-winning photographers create a moving experience of profound beauty in our pages. Many tell us that just by holding the journal in their hands they feel the presence of heart and the dynamism of change. Beauty and infinite care is in the most subtle levels and substance of Kosmos.

A Wider Vision: Scaling Our Concerns and Responsibilities
Our concerns scale from ego-centric to ethno-centric to world-centric to kosmic-centric. Our intergenerational perspective honors and respects past generations that laid the foundation for the new civilization, our present partners and colleagues, and our responsibility to future generations who will inherit the world we leave to them. Our widening vision includes stewardship of all life—animals, plants and minerals. We are eager to publish about new capacities for expanded ways of knowing—‘infinite sensitivity’ beyond intuition, often developed in contemplative practices or spontaneously revealed. As global citizens, we are in consultative status with the United Nations, and online visitors from 180 countries follow our work to address solutions to global problems.

Evolutionary Approaches and Life as the Defining Value
We work with four evolving views of reality: individual interior consciousness; collective interiors including worldviews and culture developed through collective intelligence, dialogic methods, and non-dual knowing; individual spiritual activism and service; and the transformation of collective institutions such as governance, economics, education, media and science. We are learning to communicate with different cultural value systems—tribal, traditional, modern, post-modern and integral. These value differences account for many world conflicts—from personal to global. The recognition of Mother Nature as sacred Teacher, nourisher and provider runs through Kosmos and we honor a living universe. Life itself is the defining value.

Power of the People: Transforming Institutions—Local to Global 
In the new civilization, dominant hierarchical power moves to distributive power of the people. Civil Society is now recognized as potentially equal to governments and corporations in power and impact. The new civilization is about networks, collaboration, sharing, civil society, and international protests for democracy, power and equality. Groups are experimenting with such approaches as Collective Presencing, which taps the wisdom of a group through contemplative techniques. Occupy is developing amazing horizontal approaches to potentially connect the voices of all Humanity for the first time. The Commons movement is rising to preserve for future generations the natural, cultural and digital resources that we need for survival. Agendas are the same worldwide—a cry for the end of corporatization and the emergence of direct democracy, justice and equality.

From Contemplation to Insight To Action: Creating Structures that Reflect the Emerging Consciousness 
It is a time of systemic transformation in all of our institutions, evolving in step with the new consciousness. The new culture that we all yearn for is based on global human awakening to a giant worldwide reflection and contemplation on who we are and why we are given the gift of life on planet Earth for a few short years. What is our role in this vast universe? What is our responsibility to care for the natural world that has given us a home and nurtured us for 3.8 billion years? How can we get along as one Humanity and celebrate our diversity? Will we act to reorganize our institutions and creatively innovate our future in time?

Our vision is bold—tracking and co-creating the emerging new civilization that works for everyone and  that operates at a higher frequency as our knowledge and wisdom expand our consciousness and worldviews. This is the passion of Kosmos.

[kj-contributor-profile]