Empire and the Way Through

Empire is the force that tells a mother she must choose between caring for her child and keeping a roof over their heads; it’s the logic that measures a forest's worth in board-feet rather than breath.

It's the exhaustion in our bones from endless competition, the algorithms that profit from our attention while fragmenting our presence, and the sense that we're trapped in a machine grinding toward catastrophe even as we know another way is possible.

Empire makes us strangers to each other and to the living world, organizing billions of humans to destroy the very conditions that sustain our existence—and calling this "progress," "growth," or "the way things are."

It creates the scarcity it claims to solve, then sells us salvation at a price. It is the delusion that we can flourish by standing on each other's backs.

Empire lives within each of us—in the fear-voice that mistakes control for safety and separation for strength. Its greatest leverage is the unprocessed pain in our hearts.

Left unchecked, Empire empowered by exponentially increasing technologies will converge toward catastrophic collapse, authoritarian control, or both.

So we have to go beyond Empire.

How do we know we can go beyond Empire?

Empire is predicated on the idea that the impulse to dominate, control, and extract is just human nature—that ultimately, we have to suck it up and recognize we live in a world where “might makes right”. And if we don't accept this? Then we must be naive or stupid.

Thankfully, we don't have to take anyone's word for it. We can test this out for ourselves by learning to face the roots of Empire deep within our own consciousness. 

With the right training we can investigate human nature as deeply as we’d like. And when we do—when we turn inward with honesty, courage, and support—we discover something crucial: what has been deemed “human nature” and “the way things are” is actually a coping strategy built upon layers of pain and fear.

Those of us who have gone deep within know this. More people discover it every day.

The technology of transformation

How we create the conditions for deep inner transformation is not a mystery. A generation of wisdom teachers has integrated the insights of Western psychology with contemplative traditions like Buddhism.

And it works.

Just as we can organize external matter to create computers and smartphones, there's a whole world of "inner tech" in the form of teachings and practices that can reliably facilitate profound inner change. And like external technology, there are levels and degrees of sophistication that make a real difference.

With basic knowledge of electricity, someone can get a lightbulb to turn on. But they won't be able to design the integrated microchip that runs our phones. The current landscape of weekend meditation retreats, plant medicine ceremonies, and self-help workshops is closer to the lightbulb than the microchip.

This isn't a critique—it's an orientation. Understanding where we are helps us see what becomes possible with more advanced approaches.

And here's the hope: if the "human nature" playing out in society stems from insufficiently developed inner technology rather than inherent destructiveness, then transformation is actually within reach.

We just haven't yet deployed sufficiently advanced inner tech.

Recognizing advanced inner tech

Advanced inner tech involves teachings and practices that support each of the following dimensions:

• Healing developmental, familial, and multi-generational trauma

• Seeing from multiple perspectives and widening our scope of care

• Recognizing our fundamental interconnection with all of reality in a direct, ongoing way

• Initiating into a deeper basis of identity

• Discovering and expressing our unique gifts

The most advanced approaches cultivate multiple dimensions simultaneously within a single practice.

This level of sophistication isn't common yet, but it exists. Here's what to look for in teachers:

• Integrative expertise – They bring together deep knowledge from multiple traditions and streams of wisdom

• Decades of experience – This work takes time to master

• Long-term orientation – If they're not talking about years-long processes, they're not talking about the kind of growth we need

• Lineage connections – Even if they've developed their own approach, substantial formal training in contemplative and psychological traditions is a good sign

• Healthy communities – Great teachers understand that certain growth only happens in relationship and practice with others

The inner tech exists. But when we look out at the world, Empire consciousness appears as strong as ever.

So what do we do?

Begin

Find your community and teacher(s) to grow with. Understand that your healing, growth, and awakening are not nice things to do on evenings and weekends but an evolutionary imperative for our species to have a viable future.

If you're fortunate enough to find a community and teachers with sufficiently advanced inner tech, and fortunate enough to understand how deeply your growth matters, how deeply you matter—then after a few years of practice, you will know without doubt the role you are meant to play in this great transition.

What starts small within the quiet of your own heart will grow. Allies will appear. Communities will form. Then networks of communities. We'll remember what healthy living looks and feels like. Others will see. It will spread. Not through domination or proselytism, but through a lived invitation—to participate, to connect, to co-create a new way.

With love,

Ethan