The radical transformation of humanity will fundamentally alter how we view spirituality. The fundamentalists of every religion will not be able to fit their fixed views based on centuries old paradigms into that brave new world.

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Shortly before his death, the great British historian Arnold Toynbee was asked what he considered the most important development of the 20th century. After two world wars, the invention of television and the first moon landing, few could have predicted his answer. It was, he said, "the coming of Buddhism to the West".... Source:TimesLive

As I have written, I consider Buddhism the most promising way for human kind to stay connected to spirituality while encountering and even embracing the scientific and technological developments that will transform humanity.

See also:

A Cosmic Religion of the Future

Gorbachev and the Buddha--A Middle Way for Humanity

Humanity will soon be faced with development of artificial intelligence and the emergence of man and machine.

Nick Bostrom, a philosopher, leading thinker on transhumanism, and director of Oxford's Future of Humanity predicts that transhumanism will allow for a new entity that will be radically smarter and more powerful than humans.

Bostrom says, "We want to preserve the best of what it is to be human and maybe even amplify that."

This radical transformation of humanity will fundamentally alter how we view spirituality. The fundamentalists of every religion will not be able to fit their fixed views based on centuries old paradigms into that brave new world. As we are seeing today, to continue to hold on to these fundamental religious views and beliefs of ancient peoples and tribes often requires a great deal of disconnect between science and technology and those often irrational and superstitious views.

The danger is, obviously, that the radical destruction of old belief systems can lead humanity into a hellish world of materialism and brutish abuse and neglect of humanity. Unfortunately, humanity has moved in that direction with the promotion of globalization and disaster capitalism.

Organized religions have proven to be powerless over the dangerous forces of economic globalization that subjugate humanity to the materialist viewpoint that profit, quantity, and consumption are the only meaning to life.

Buddhism can offer another Spiritual way without the dogmatic, reality denying fundamentalism that Organized Religion promotes.

Buddhism in its purest sense sees life as change, and sees materialist fixation and selfishness as a source of suffering. The Buddha taught that by engaging in mindfulness and meditation, a person can find the truth of existence that heals.

Underlying the Buddha's approach is a pragmatic, empirical, and courageous approach to life and our very nature. The Buddha taught that we must mindfully consider our relationships and our thoughts, words, and deeds if we are to find a way to pull that 'arrow' of suffering from our lives.

The most disturbing aspect of the Buddha's teachings for many has to do with the doctrine of 'No Self.' It is unique to the world's great religions in that the Buddha's view was that there was no fundamental and eternal entity, or soul, that existed. Rather the Buddha taught that humans were a system that were constantly changing and interacting with its environment. According to the Buddha, the only way we can define and understand something, including ourselves, was in relation to something else. Thus, there was no separate 'I' that could exist apart from everything else. There was also no separate 'I' that remained unchanging since matter and energy is in constant flux.

The Buddha's understanding of nature and the ego fits with the radical transformation of humanity that will arise. Transhumanism will demonstrate that non-biological life forms will have self awareness and a type of consciousness. They will have no souls but yet be aware and interactive. Transhumanism will occur if humanity doesn't destroy itself in the process. Transhumanism will demonstrate that the Buddha's view of biological beings will also be true of non-biological beings. What we see as a self is merely a focus on and a view that requires an emphasis on the illusion of separateness from the rest of life

The Buddha's view of life also has much to offer in the understanding our present societal and environmental struggles. The Buddha rightly saw that humans were life forms, constantly changing and interacting with the rest of life, and a part of the universe. Therefore our attitudes and behaviors not only effect our own lives but also have a deep and profound impact on the rest of life.

The Buddha taught the Middle Way as a way to limit our own suffering while promoting the welfare of the rest of life. The Middle Way is the path beyond extremes and a path of Understanding and Compassion that sees human thoughts, words, and deeds as directly responsible for much of the suffering of humanity. The Middle Way is a path between materialism and sensuality and the dogmaticism and fundamentalism of societal religious intolerance and ignorance.

Ultimately, the Buddha taught that ignorance was the source of suffering. The Buddha would not, in my opinion, ask humanity to abandon technology and science to transform humanity. Indeed humans wouldn't listen to that advice. No matter how much people pretend to believe in this or that philosophy or religion, their ultimate goal is generally self preservation.

Instead the Buddha would have asked humanity to consider what is helpful and beneficial to all of the various life forms and what is the source of happiness in life. The Buddha would have rightly pointed to the truth that Compassion and Understanding for life will help us through transhumanism with greater dignity and less mental and spiritual suffering.

If the Buddha were asked about God or whether a particular religion were true, he would have maintained the Noble Silence. These questions, the Buddha rightly observed, would not help humanity discover the source of joy and wholeness in life.

The Buddha doesn't deny a spiritual existence, however, he just sees the numerous spiritual worlds as ultimately subject to the same forces of change and suffering.

The Buddha taught the truth of Nirvana, the blowing out of desire and grasping, and the realization to pure and infinite awareness. No matter whether man develops into a near machine or remains a purely biological entity, there will always be the truth that the Universe is aware and we are all aspects of that awareness. As we move beyond structures, systems, and complex egos and relationships, there is the Still source of tremendous joy found in pure awareness and infinite wholeness beyond movement.

As humanity moves toward transhumanism, Buddhism offers the fundamental truth that no matter how we transform there is a way to Peace and Joy. That way is found in stilling the mind and focusing on the truth of our infinite pure awareness that is untouched by matter and energy or by any structures or systems. We can rest in this infinite zero or vacuum of being and it will transform our understanding of our relations and our place in the world. It is the source of infinite potentiality in the world and the resting place of the Great Buddha's of humanity.

Authors Bio:

I am a progressive.