072 Peter Russell – Letting Go of Nothing State of Emergence

Futurist, teacher, and author Peter Russell joins Terry in person at his home to connect more intimately and explore several profound considerations about this human miracle and our current predicament. In a previous podcast episode (February 2020), their conversation focused on an essay Peter had written called Blind Spot, in which he explores how human creativity builds on itself, leading to an exponential acceleration of complexity that he believes inevitably exceeds our capacities as a species. Then, he suggested we might be best served by a radical letting-go of our efforts to counteract that destiny. In this new episode, they venture deeper into the how of this letting-go, and how it can open into an uncomplicated relationship to what is right now, dissolving whatever gets in the way of us showing up fully, sanely, and gratefully. Peter and Terry consider together how wonder releases tension in the mind, how gratitude releases tension in the heart, and how a radical practice of letting go, releases the whole being into its true nature — beneath and beyond even our humanity. 


Peter Russell is a leading thinker and writer on consciousness and contemporary spirituality. He is on the faculty of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and a fellow of The World Business Academy and The Findhorn Foundation, and an Honorary Member of The Club of Budapest. In the 1980’s, Peter coined the term "global brain" with his bestseller of the same name, in which he predicted the Internet and the impact it would have on humanity. Peter has studied theoretical physics, experimental psychology, and computer science at the University of Cambridge, and meditation and Eastern Philosophy in India. He also pioneered the introduction of personal growth programs to corporations, running courses for senior management on creativity, stress management and sustainable development. We appreciated Peter’s work to distill the essence of the world's spiritual wisdom and to present it in ways that speak to people in current terms. He is the author of ten books, including Waking Up in Time and From Science to God. His beautiful new book, Letting Go of Nothing: Relax Your Mind and Discover the Wonder of Your True Nature, will be published in August of 2021.


Here are some of the questions that Peter and Terry explore in the episode:


What is it to let go? And what exactly are we letting go of?  Can waking up to the existential severity of our civilizational predicament serve as an initiatory force, drawing us into fuller presence with ourselves, each other, and reality? If we let go of the energy in us that’s opposing our societal predicament, what emerges in its place? If we accept Peter’s thesis that humanity’s creative impulse is contributing to our inevitable collapse, how can we relate in new ways to creativity as it arises within us? How might our doing of good works in the world evolve in the future as we become more rested in Being and trusting of our inherent nature? How can we practice accepting that our conditional perspectives will inevitably keep arising but that their context is unconditional, radiant, vast, beautiful, and more primary?

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For more information on Peter Russell and Terry Patten, check out the following resources: