The Age of Spiritual Empowerment

For some time I meant to make it through a book on my bookshelf, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun, but I never manage to conquer the 900 plus pages. Actually, I see Jacques Barzun smiling in the background (if he were to stumble onto my blog), "this is exactly what I am talking about my son, the youth of today can't even read a book anymore"; still, to me there is something wrong with this book title. I feel quite empowered in decadent today, whereas I feel mostly depressed when I read about our glorious recent 500 years of Western Civilization.

Actually, I do understand the apparent contradiction. The past had individual giants that lifted humanity with their incredible willpower and vision, whereas today we have the masses getting empowered instead, which is of course a much harder concept to handle for our historians. Indeed, the same applies for spirituality. Within 500 years, Buddha, Lao Tse and Jesus lived and carved a spiritual highway that following generations could merrily stroll along. I understand that historians would rather spend time with them than with spiritual fellow-travelers like you and I. Still, as a connected bunch we are darn powerful, especially because of the fact that we can draw on the accumulated insights of the spiritual giants who walked the earth before. They literally imprinted their spiritual insights into our DNA.

I am in awe of the massive spiritual wave that is unfolding in front of our eyes. I understand that each of us is just a small part of it, but the tide is rising steadily because of our accumulated contributions. Personally, I think it is bliss to be part of today's Zeitgeist, the Age of Spiritual Empowerment.