What’s amazing is that in the universe everything does have a role, everything has a certain creative mission to accomplish. And this would be one way to talk about authenticity in the universe. (There is in this end) To discover one’s authentic role can require a lifetime or it can come in an instant. But it is one of the deepest mysteries that we are involved with, [that] is to find our actual role in the universe, our authentic role. (And) What’s amazing is that it’s unique to each person. (And) We might have a certain sense of it (with even when we are early I mean) early in our life even when we’re children. We could have sense of what we are here for and (that this) [a] kind of fascination for a certain kind of life or a deep passion. But it is only in the process of life itself, by pursuing these visions and these passions, that we begin to discover what our authentic role is. It is the ultimate, the ultimate creative act: To find and give expression to who we truly are authentically. And here is the promise of the new story. (That) As we find our way into our authentic self the community of life will blossom forth. That’s the fundamental mystery of authenticity. It is generated by a deep exploration within and yet it ignites a vibrancy of life without.”

Dr. Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist, professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, author of several books including The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos and The Universe is a Green Dragon and founder of the Center for the Story of the Universe, talks about the authentic role in an interview he gave for Global MindShift in 2006 [edited transcript]

Image above:
First Archery of the New Year (Yumi hajime) by Torii Kiyonaga (1787)