Earth, as you know, is facing many threats and challenges that largely have to do with us, the humans who inhabit it. We have all been sensing this more and more. Humanity is increasingly confronted with the consequences of its past and present decisions – consequences which include the possibility of large-scale destruction and loss of way of life.
Not only does our current way of life negatively affect our planet and those living in specific geographic areas that are very poor or vulnerable to natural disaster, but it seems to keep most of us feeling at odds with our own lives and behavior.
About a year and a half ago I came across a book which lays out a different way of living that would likely be able to considerably help individuals live more happily and offer us a great opportunity to properly care for our planet and each other. The book calls its suggestion for living “The Third Invitation”.
Before I explain what it is, let me share with you a short story to help open your mind.
There was once a man who believed he was an ape-like biped of indeterminable absolute size, living in a city of similar bipeds who wrapped themselves in fabric to shield their own anatomy from their friends and relatives as they would walk around on a spinning, magnetic rock shrouded in gas, orbiting a ball of plasma in a vast bendable space-time fabric, which contained inexplicable and invisible laws, and was birthed from a chance explosion in absolute nothingness. He believed his species possessed a consciousness with which it created stories to explain its own existence, his favorite of which, called science, offered him no sound explanation of the link between his own personal consciousness and the material he believed he was made of. The End.
Now that you are comfortable with the most bazar of all possibilities, let me explain The Third Invitation.
It lays out 16 essential differences between how humans currently live and- get this- how societies of awakened beings live (societies in other parts of the Universe, which are far more evolved than our society). It then invites any individual who resonates with the invitation to “self-select” to model the behavior of these highly evolved beings for the rest of us.
The principles are:
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1. An awakened species sees the Unity of All Life and lives into it. Humans in an unawakened state often deny it or ignore it.
2. An awakened species tells the truth, always. Humans in an unawakened state too often lie, to themselves as well as others.
3. An awakened species says one thing and will do what they say. Humans in an unawakened state often say one thing and do another.
4. An awakened species, having seen and acknowledged what is so, will always do what works. Humans in an unawakened state often do the opposite.
5. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concepts that humans refer to as “justice” and “punishment.”
6. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concept that humans refer to as “insufficiency.”
7. An awakened species does not embrace a principle in its civilization that correlates with the concept that humans refer to as “ownership.”
8. An awakened species shares everything with everyone all the time. Humans in an unawakened state often do not, only sharing with others in limited circumstances.
9. An awakened species creates a balance between technology and cosmology; between machines and nature. Humans in an unawakened state often do not.
10. An awakened species would never under any circumstances terminate the current physical expression of another sentient being unless asked directly by that other being to do so. Humans in an unawakened state often kill other humans without that other human requesting them to.
11. An awakened species would never do anything that could potentially damage or harm the physical environment that supports the members of the species when they are physicalized. Humans in an unawakened state often do so.
12. An awakened species never poisons itself. Humans in an unawakened state often do so.
13. An awakened species never competes. Humans in an unawakened state are often in competition with each other.
14. An awakened species is clear that it needs nothing. Humans in an unawakened state often create a need-based experience.
15. An awakened species experiences and expresses unconditional love for everyone. Humans in an unawakened state often cannot imagine even a Deity who does this, much less do they do it themselves.
16. An awakened species has harnessed the power of metaphysics. Humans in an unawakened state often largely ignore it.
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So there we have it. These are the principles of The Third Invitation.
The invitation comes from the book “Conversations with God Book 4: Awaken the Species” by Neale Donald Walsch. I first listened to the audio book while I was working and thought it was a great idea I might take up, but never went any further than that. I was more interested in my personal ambitions. Anyway, the endeavor seemed rather radical to me and I didn’t like the idea of having to rely on others if I wasn’t to own anything.
However, since then I have thought about The Third Invitation many times as it immediately struck me as being the only type of change that would be a real and permanent solution to humanity’s plight and the widespread suffering of individuals.
It doesn’t seem to me a coincidence that the principles sound similar to what Earths spiritual teachers have taught throughout the millennia.
The idea is that the differences between our behaviors and those of awakened beings are not arbitrary, but come from their clearer perception of the truth.
When humans begin seeing the truth as clearly as awakened beings do, the logic follows that we will naturally seek to behave in similar ways as they do.
In my own life, the only things I consistently look back on and think I would do differently next time are instances where I was living out of alignment with the truth. These instances did not bring me closer to my deepest intentions and created unhappiness in me.
Since I’ve come to realize that truth is an indispensable part of creating a happy and functional life, and I’m open-minded to the possibility that these principles are indeed based on truth, I can no longer ignore that The Third Invitation is more or less a standard by which I can gauge how much I really care about my fellow humans, the planet, and living by the truth in general.
I don’t feel any more prepared to dive into living these principles than the next guy. Sometimes I give a few dollars to poor people I walk by, but I’ve never intended to “share everything with everyone.” I mean, I’m staying and writing in a studio apartment. Would that mean I should find a homeless person to offer my couch to? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind it.
What I’ve now done is abbreviate each of the 16 principles and write them on a small white board which I keep in the open where I can see it.
This is, at the least, encouragement to keep my eye on them and no longer ignore how true selflessness would look compare to my behavior.
My thought is that if I were to give or sacrifice far beyond my comfort level I would experience doubt, regret and fear. Reality would then reflect back to me the results of that output. I imagine it is a better approach to simply see what I can do without going into fear, nor turning a blind eye to the whole thing.
In this way I hope to open myself up to the potential of being surprised at how far I may be able to go in the direction of The Third Invitation in my life.