Here are three simple steps for generating a creative field of spiritually awake consciousness and energy.

The first step is oneness. It is the experience of one person being fully present, having a greater and greater experience of the glory of being, no matter what anyone else is doing or experiencing. This step is an experience of oneness between the inner reality of being and the human experience. One person, one with all of creation, one with the Creator, one with the glory of being; one person who has chosen to live their life experiencing reality.

Step # 2 is about two people. If my experience is oneness and so is yours, we are living in that reality together. In the usual world of human understanding, it is a radical idea that we could live and create with another person on this basis. But just because you and I are living in the glory of being and we know what it is to be in relationship having that experience, creation happens around us. If we are willing to stay in a deepening experience of oneness, and stay in relationship, the power and intelligence of creation moves easily through us. We find we can live a life this way. It is a creative life lived in the real world without buying into all the limitations of the human world in which we live. We could be ourselves in that world and be victorious in it, successful in the truest sense of the word.

We can live in the natural world this way; we can live in the human world this way. Because ultimately the whole world, everything, was created by the glory of being. And if you and I are living in the glory of being, we are coming in the name of the creative power of the universe, which is love. If we are doing that, and if we’re doing that together, we very naturally bring the spirit of the Creator into the world.

For the last several years, it has seemed to me that among a group of people there were only relationships between two people. And if there were more than two people involved, it was just multiple relationships between multiple sets of two people. So the thought that was in my head was that if you had a group of people or a community of people, it was just a lot of relationships between two people. And if all those people could manage a relationship with just one other person, and then repeat that experience with everyone in the group, then that group of people could be creative. What I noticed was that most people find it challenging to carry on a consistent, clear relationship with one other person—to stay in relationship through thick and through thin because the person chooses not to leave reality in favor of human drama, so that whatever happens in the relationship, however tough the going gets, they are not believing that their own limitations are the defining reality of their experience. And they are not believing that about the other person. Their attitude is “I’m here for this.”

The vitality of a group depends on the ability on the part of individuals to sustain relationships between themselves and others, one person at a time. I hear from those who want to live and thrive in community. We had a Thriving Community workshop at Sunrise Ranch recently, led by Peter McGugan, with many wonderful people attending. As I thought about what I have learned by living in community for most of my adult life, it was clear to me that the basis for a thriving community is people who can sustain creative relationships—first of all with one other person, and then with many others.

I have watched communities of many kinds falter. There are community “doctors”—professionals who are trained to assist a community to stay together when it is falling apart. It could be a counselor who is assisting a family. Or a consultant assisting a corporation. And I have seen many kinds of professionals trying to assist a spiritual community. Sometimes it reminds me of Humpty Dumpty: “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men / Couldn’t put Humpty together again.” Sometimes the professional is of real assistance.

When a community falters, there is a creative message for the people involved. Often that message is not really heard. The attempt is made to fix the community. Or the community is abandoned. The creative message when a community falters is simply this: Go back to step # 1. Experience oneness. Know who you are and why you are here. Let your experience of the glory of being deepen. Know that you are the creator of your world.

With that in place, you are ready for step # 2. Create or heal your relationships. Every one of them. Learn what it is to keep the energetic connection between you and another person in place with unconditional love. And when that has taken place, you are ready to create thriving community.

When steps # 1 and # 2 are in place sufficiently, step # 3 can be attempted. Step # 3 is thriving community. You take this step when three or more come together and hold a creative field. It is now clear to me that there is more to that field than the individual relationships that create it. There is the field, itself, that is created and must be cared for.

A name for a field that I hold with others is Emissaries of Divine Light. Yes, it is a name for all the people involved, and all our relationships are vital to the creation of Emissaries of Divine Light. But there is a field that is created by those relationships.

Do you know what it means to hold a creative field with at least three people? a field for creation, a field of consciousness and energy, a field in which things can grow, a fertile field in which ideas come, in which vision comes, in which there is potentiality, through which a new world is created. If you have touched that experience, you know the pleasure and joy of it. There are few greater privileges than holding such a field with other people.

A creative field could revolve around the simplest of things. It could be a garden and it could be a kitchen. It could be a family, it could be an organization, it could be a program—it could be so many things. For me, I care much less about the thing itself than I do about that field of consciousness and energy that is surrounding it, and the privilege of sharing that field with others.

That experience is lost to a self-centered person. It is not available to a person who is drowning in their own narcissism, which has been defined this way: A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem. Yet all people long for the experience of holding a creative field with others, because it is the most natural thing in the world for us as human beings to share that reality.

We can learn to generate a creative field with three people. But if we can do it with three we can do it with four, five and more. We can do it with a community of people. Or a worldwide network of people, some known, some unknown. We can invite the whole world into this experience.