Much can be told about our joint process, and certainly a description trying to be complete would exceed the framework of this brief talk. Moreover, many are the viewpoints that can be used for this, and more numerous still the interpretations that there may be. As it could not be otherwise, this will be a story in broad strokes, based on one of the possible looks about our joint process. One of the interests that motivate me is trying to give a panorama of such a process that should put some important aspects in a coherent and integrative relationship, highlighting the intention that gives it a direction to the future. For those who would like to have more details, the sources on which this talk is based are available to all in our bibliography and, in particular, I refer them to the website [http://silo.net](http://silo.net)
The birth and development of our endeavor is not explained exclusively as a function of itself, but rather it was always explained in relation to the situation and process of the psychosocial environment.
From the dawn of the human history, civilizations arose, developed and declined in a relative isolation. Throughout the time the contacts among them were increasing gradually. This way the peoples and their cultures got related to each other basically through trade, war, conquest and migration.
Technology went on impelling such a communication and interaction in a slow but relentless way, and this went on accumulating and accelerating in the course of centuries. In this last century there no longer remain any peoples or culture that can remain isolated from the rest in this worldization process. The world is becoming one. All the peoples and cultures are interrelated and interconnected in a planetary network. This unique condition in humanity’s history, and its correlation in consciousness, makes us to be close to a leap towards an evolutionary new step of the human being.
But this is not happening without troubles. The crises of change can also be accompanied by eruptions of violence of different types. Conventional wars, nuclear accidents, social upheavals, civil wars, secessions, collapse of financial and productive systems, interruption of the basic services (water, electricity, transportation, etc.), and a lot of mental imbalance and even suicides ̶ nothing can be discarded in a worldwide unstable situation that nobody controls.
What can we do to avoid this? Almost nothing. We have neither the means nor the power of preventing these unfortunate events. They are integral part of the agony of a dehumanized world. However, within limited conditions, we could have a certain influence that can prevent or diminish cases of violence. Anyway, our main objective is not to preserve or patch up a violent system that falls by itself, but trying to become positive guides in the transition toward a new world.
The individuals in their vital cycle go on growing, passing from a vital stage to another, and each change of vital stage is accompanied by a crisis. This is due to the fact that there is a change of development necessities. The old no longer works, while the new is not still consolidated. The transition from a stage to another is to a certain degree painful because, while we no longer find the old attractive or it no longer works as before, the new is still uncertain or incipient. Even though we were attached to the old, the change is unavoidable. The human being in that transition has a foot resting on each stage, the old one and the new one. This position is unstable since the gap between the two stages grows inevitably, not leaving other alternative than to abandon the past.
Nowadays, as well as it happens to individuals, also the peoples and the cultures are going through a process of global and accelerated change. They go on losing their original identity by incorporating models, products and usages that originated in alien landscapes. The old no longer works, while the new is still imperceptible or doubtful. The old world has disappeared, while the new one can only be glimpsed or yearned for. Nothing of the old thing can give a world answer to build the future that is coming, since the old was shaped in the past and it was an integral part of it.
As it happens with systemic changes, it will be useless to pretend that the change takes place by patching up the old, or through a humanitarianism that doesn’t face the congenital root of the violence, or by recycling the old presenting it as though it were new. It will also be useless the illusion that an organization, party or government of the same system can change it integrally at its root. The violent system will necessarily get disassembled to give place to the new that differs essentially from it.
It won’t be possible to gestate the new on the basis of an old sensibility, of an obsolete mental form or mentality that have been the essence of the old and that, actually, are what lead the system to its necessary stage of exhaustion and failure, not just in its social organization but, mainly, in the hearts of the good men and women.
As it happened before in humanity’s history, a new civilization will be foreshadowed by the dawn of a new spirituality. This new spirituality will be the seed of the new world that will later begin to be perceived and to take shape. But so that this seed grows and fructify, it has to be a true spirituality.
What is the true spirituality? True spirituality, as religious sentiment or feeling, does not depend on temples and priests, on the gods and their statues. A person can be spiritual whether believing or not in god, whether following a particular creed or not. As Silo explained, true spirituality “is not the spirituality of superstition, it is not the spirituality of intolerance, it is not the spirituality of dogma, it is not the spirituality of religious violence, it is not the ponderous spirituality of ancient tablets or worn out values.”
True spirituality is about trying to improve as human beings, at the same time that we help others improve as such. To improve as human beings means, in the first place, to overcome pain and the suffering in ourselves and in others; it means to overcome our own violence and to rebel in the face of the violence that surrounds us. But it does not get exhausted with this. To improve as human beings also means to learn without limits, it is to love the reality that we build: it is to humanize ourselves and to humanize, unveiling the highest Sense in the life. And the source of wisdom and inspiration for all this does not lie far from us, but rather in the most intimate depth of our own consciousness.
This new spirituality is the only way to overcome the crisis that the world is undergoing. The change we speak about will not be able to arise from any movement or organization without a new social mysticism, without a new spirituality that drives and inspire an essential and true change. In other words, the change will only be able to arise from what is not system.
But from whom will this new spirituality arise? Only from the human spiritual beings that can show a new direction after the system stops working and leave room for something new. And our common Work, what we are also doing jointly, is to summon all those spiritual human beings from all the peoples and cultures, from all the walks of life, from all age groups and genres, etc. They are those who already resonate with the nascent new sensibility.
And how have we been and are doing that? Towards the year 1998, the Humanist Movement had completed its formation. From 1962 up to 1974, it went through a stage in which one of the main objectives was to assemble a group of individuals with enough elements so as to achieve that that nascent movement differed of the environment, becoming strong and growing. It was called “stage of minorities.” From 1974 to 1986, the main focus was to form teams of members, called “structures,” that had a bigger organizational capacity for joint action. It was called “stage of cadres.” Lastly, from 1986 to 1998, the emphasis changed in order to give those structures the minimum means and experience as to have influence on big numbers of people. It was called “stage of masses.” Those were three big stages of 12 years each.
After 36 years of process, with a great development and having acquired a great experience, the Humanist Movement became a complete body with a capacity of carrying out a wide range of activities at a world scale. Thus it remained endowed with an organization, a doctrine, and organisms for the action in specific fields of the social activities.
After this process reached its synthesis in 1998, Silo’s words at Punta de Vacas on May 4 1999 inaugurated a new stage of our endeavor and preannounced the nascent new spirituality. From then onwards, the Humanist Movement should advance expressing a new vision, a new sensibility, and a new spirituality in the political, social, cultural, and other specific fields.
Soon after, Silo started two other new expressions of that new spirituality, thus creating a new “differentiation” (in a methodical sense) to keep on moving ahead in the growing process of our endeavor. And he did this on the basis of developing aspects that were an integral part of the historical emergence of our endeavor, i.e., the religious feeling and the works on one’s own consciousness for contacting The Profound. If at the very origin of our endeavor the “Harangue of the Healing of the suffering” announced our Work for the social change, “The Inner Look” announced our Work for personal change. Both terms were always considered indissoluble and they were always present, although at times more stress was placed on one than in another.
Hence The Community of “Silo’s Message” arises as expression of the new spirituality. This was launched in 2002, when its book “Silo’s Message” was published. It expresses the new spirituality in a very simple and concise way, but with a very strong mysticism and a great social projection. This new spirituality does neither appear in a dogmatic way nor excluding creeds or cultures, but as a common ground for all human beings. It is about a personal and social new lifestyle. It is about deep experiences that make the best of ourselves and the best of the relationship with others come out, which are then shared with all without distinction. Organizational aspects and formalities are minimal, allowing that millions participate with the degree of commitment that they want to assume. All those who so wish can become “Messengers”, diffusing “Silo’s Message” wherever they want and in the way that they deem it appropriate.
By then, the School had already begun to manifest itself through the initial works of the Disciplines. Those who completed these works joined the School, hence becoming Masters of their respective Disciplines. Initially a few, they went on multiplying until becoming hundreds at this time in which we are speaking. The School is the environment that enables us for a very deep and systematic approach to the spiritual subjects. The experiences and knowledge of the Masters are expressed through a deep inspiration that impels their selfless action toward the world. They also take the shape of contributions written on very varied topics, but related with the highest possibilities of human consciousness and the most positive and conscious directions for personal and social life. Although the expressions they use might sometimes be very abstract or difficult of apprehending by the average citizen, those works are then translated into simpler terms to grasp and implemented for the benefit of all. These works will give foundation to the culture of a new civilization.
Summing up, those three expressions of the new spirituality that go on getting defined from 1999 onwards arise differentiated among themselves, but they go on getting more and more related in a new 12 year-old stage. Toward the 2010 they already appear like a new synthesis of our process, converging on a greater Work that includes them, giving them direction and meaning.
Our common Work remains endowed with the necessary elements to be the seed of the first planetary civilization in humanity’s evolutionary new leap. Namely, the School, as centre of gravity from which the translation of the contact with The Profound irradiates, capable to provide meanings, directions and answers that do not come from the habitual sources of the consciousness. The Community of “Silo’s Message”, as a simple and deep expression of the religious feeling that is capable of universally inspiring millions. The Humanist Movement, with its organisms, as our translation and as ideological and organizational implementation of that new spirituality in specific diverse fields of the social activities. Although having their own characteristics, in spite of their essential identity, these three will move now in a synergistic and convergent way. Each one of them is necessary for the other two, and none of them by itself could achieve the common objective.
This synthesis we talk about is also expressing itself among our friends, who express the new spirituality, coupling in themselves the action for social transformation in simultaneity with the work for personal transformation.
Those three expressions of the new spirituality have their own places for their specific activities; but they also converge on a physical venue called “Park of Study and Reflection.” The “Parks of Study and Reflection” are many, and they are disseminated all over the world. The friends of the School, of the Community of “Silo’s Message”, and of the Humanist Movement, find in the Parks a common venue for their meetings, retreats, workshops, ceremonies, gatherings, etc.
The Parks do not just work as appropriate venues for the joint expression of the new spirituality; but they are meant to be centres from where to irradiate references and positive contributions toward the surrounding social environment. For example, a positive contribution is represented by the leveling and Discipline works that were offered to everybody in the Parks. The latter, as well as the three environments of our endeavor, already move towards an unprecedented new stage of decentralization and operative autonomy.
The movements and the organizations are subsidiary of the spirit that gives them direction and drives them. In this sense, there is no organizational resource that can substitute for the lack of their members’ internal quality. This way, our endeavor will only develop and will accomplish its goal thanks to the existence and development of the new spirituality. Otherwise, it will remain as an unfinished noble intent. The more our endeavor grows in number and quality; in particular, the more people have access to the works of School, higher will be the chances of being able to make our contribution during this critical transition of humanity in its new stage.
In other words, through the different expressions and development of the new spirituality, we try to demonstrate a constructive way to head towards the best possible outcome of the current crisis. We jointly try to become humanity’s spiritual true guides. And perhaps a few ones, with their consciousness strongly inspired from The Profound, can be enough so that a positive turning point can be introduced in the direction of History. If we will achieve it and in what measure, is to be seen; but in any event it is a valid action worth the while being attempted. This is our general objective. There is no other plan other than this. This explains the crucial importance of supporting the Parks and the works of School, in particular, and of supporting all our Work in general.
To conclude, it is necessary to point out that all the above constitutes the Great Work of its founder, Silo, spiritual guide of the new times.
