Category Archives: Leadership

See With the Heart

Once in a seldom, precious while, I come across a YouTube conversation that makes my heart skip a beat, one which grabs my attention so powerfully that I feel compelled to listen again and again, parsing the content word-for-word to let the message completely register and deeply sink in.

Such was the recent exchange between Dr. Joe Dispenza and Russel Brand, You Can Program People To Do Anything. It lasts less than eleven minutes. But it’s packed with vital questions and exciting ideas. I’ll give you the highlights.

Spoiler alert. To my mind, the upshot is identical with what my teacher told me from the beginning. Something easy to say. Harder to understand. And even more difficult to actually do. That is, SEE WITH THE HEART.

From my experience as an ethnology researcher (interviewing people and drawing conclusions from what they say), I got in the habit of transcribing conversations. Because I found that of what’s said, we hear only a fraction. Revisiting, listening word-for-word, tells us volumes about what we missed, and why.

After the third go-round, here’s the gist of their interview, with an added bonus: my own comments. It’s now a three-way conversation. My input is identified either directly as Me or [in brackets].

I’ll circle back at end to the basic message. Humanity will evolve by learning how to see with the heart.

Russel Brand: I believe that in order to significantly change the world, we have to find a way of cooperating. We have to recognize that people have complementary but very different cultural identities. One of our priorities must be to diffuse the culture war. STOP squabbling about the differences between traditionalism and progressivism.

ME. Yes. “Unity in diversity.” Focus on Center all share in common rather than on the surface of manifestation. Adherence to the Core is the necessary starting point, lacking which, nothing of enduring value is possible. With awareness of the God-within each and every one of us, all IS possible.

Russel Brand: In a country as vast as the United States, you will inevitably have communities with vastly different views on a range of cultural issues. But in order to make any progress, we’re going to have to start addressing where real [political/ economic] power is centered.

Me: And, by contrast, where True, ultimate POWER rests, at the CENTER of the Life Wheel.

Russel Brand: It seems to me that there is state power in Washington DC. The pharmaceutical industry exerts a huge influence, both financially and politically. Big tech has the ability to create a surveillance state. There’s a high level of infiltration of big tech by various government agencies.

What concerns me is the challenge of overcoming a hegemony without a counter-hegemony. [We need a greater counter-balance, one sufficient to tip the scales.]

The old argument was that the only thing that could possibly defeat free market capitalism is some kind of centrist, state-led, left-wing project.

But with the fall of the Soviet Union, there’s total suspicion and lack of interest in the politics of the old left. People don’t want to be told what to do by any central authority.

Now. How do we use these ideas about individual awakening to create and coordinate a decentralized, counter-cultural movement that doesn’t sound like it’s being made-up on the spot by people who are just dream catchers?

Dr. Joe: If you study the neuroscience of culture, we share the same biology. We share the same brain. We have certain universal traits in common. We smile when we’re happy. We frown when we’re sad. We grab a stick with an opposing thumb. Structure and function are highly related. Those are universal traits.

Then we have our individual traits that make us unique. How the individual brain is wired is our unique fingerprint.

Culture is what bridges individuality with universality. [A culture is defined by its prevailing belief system, an agreed-upon set of basic values.]

For the most part, culture is defined by the past: what has worked over generations. And traditions vary by time and place.

But look at great people in history who changed their culture. Gandhi, William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King, [Christ].

They showed people [by their living example of courageous action] that there was an alternative future that they could actually believe or perceive in their mind.

It’s not easy to do, because you can’t see that future if you’re living by the emotions of the past. [In that state, you walk right by any other option as if invisible, because there’s no neural circuitry in place allowing one to perceive it.]

What you have to do is, you’ve got to get people out of their resting state. They have to become inspired. [They have to have HOPE.] They have to become enthusiastic — theos — filled with God.

They have to become motivated. [They have to be stirred. Set in motion. Mobilized.] When they are moved emotionally, then that energy — that positive, uplifting emotion — causes them to see the same future as that leader sees.

When you get people to see that same future, when they have that same clear intention and they combine that vision with an elevated emotion, you change people’s state of being.

Now. Get enough people doing that. [Amplify the effect by numbers.] What happens is, you get an emergent consciousness. In biology, emergence is such an amazing thing. When you see a flock of birds flying in the same direction or a school of fish moving together, they appear to be a larger, single organism.

When you study that principle in biology, you think that there is one leader everybody’s following. It looks like a top-down phenomenon. In fact, it’s not. It’s a bottom-up phenomenon. Everybody‘s leading. Everybody’s behaving in the same way.

Me: Take, for example, the emergence of Quantum Paradigm leaders, each saying essentially the same thing, but addressing a specific audience in its own language. A short list includes: Dr. Joe Dispenza (who speaks to medical community in the language of science.) There are his cohorts, Greg Bradon and Bruce Lipton. There’s Dr. David R. Hawkins. Tony Robbins. Tara Brach and Eckart Tolle. Marissa Peer and Christiane Northrup. Zach Bush. Donna Eden and Inna Segal. Nick Ortner and Brad Yates. Mantak Chia and Sadguru. Alana Fairchild & Colette Baron-Reed. Pam Gregory and Bryan Colter. Michael Sandler and guests. Alana Dannan and Michael Salla. Simon Parkes and the Connecting Consciousness community.

Dr. Joe: This synchronized movement gives the appearance of a larger, unified single organism, one which becomes more sustainable for that species.

But we have a stigma in our minds. If individuals lead with too much passion, in the end, they’re killed. Whether Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, William Wallace, the consequence of speaking Truth is that you lose your life.

But the real question is, “What if everybody’s leading?” You just can’t take out everybody.

Me: Yes! “I am Spartacus.” I am Spartacus.” “I am Spartacus.”

“I am V for Vendetta.” “I am V.” “I am V.” Every one of us takes a stand to end tyranny and abuse.

This attitude/energy is spontaneously, synchronistically arising, especially amongst the working classes and youth in Europe and U.S., as well as in China and Russia.

Dr. Joe: This is a really important time. [We are at critical mass.]

The coming emergent consciousness has to be built on principles that people can actually wrap their minds around.

Right now, the condition of the world, the way things are going, is based on self-interest.

You can control people when you control their emotions.

When you control their emotions, you control their attention; and

If you can capture a person’s attention, you can capture their energy,

because where you place your attention is where you place your energy.

So YOU CAN PROGRAM PEOPLE TO DO ANYTHING

based on the emotion that they feel.

And fear is a powerful emotion.

Fear is abused to lead the general population away from personal sovereignty and freedom, to submitting to an authority figure.

Me: Healthy, natural and prudent fear has been weaponized to achieve unnatural, ulterior ends – to enslave the masses emotionally, economically, politically. In collusion, politicians, media and big tech control the masses by manipulating their emotions. As a result, many are driven by negative survival emotions – primarily fear juiced by hatred or greed.

Dr. Joe: So when a new consciousness emerges, it won’t be based on externals [matter changing matter] like diet, crystals, colonics.

Me: It will be based on a fundamental paradigm shift, from the materialistic paradigm of empirical science to the holistic, quantum paradigm — the unified field of reality. There will be a shift in basic value systems, away from fear and separation, towards compassion and cooperation.

Dr. Joe: It’s game time. NOW is when something else –– [deeper, truer] has to be born [re-membered, restored] in human beings that is already INNATE in us. That is the power to organize as a species.

When we begin to heal one another, inform one another, respect one another. When we begin to shine for one another, stand up for one another, share right information and demonstrate that there are better ways of doing things, the emerging consciousness will arise.

Russel Brand: I like that answer, Joe. I like it a lot.

I like that leadership can be shared. Leadership can be cooperative. Indeed, it must be if we’re going to truly create new models.

And in order to do that, we have to have a shared set of values. And we have to be willing to overcome this current tendency towards extreme divisiveness.

There is clearly a requirement for us to be able to hold that apparent paradox. In one way, we are insignificant. An individual in limitless space is insignificant. But as a point of attention, all reality is held within my individual consciousness. There is nothing real that isn’t held within the field of my awareness. Therefore, the totality of reality is held within my individual nature. [We are each a fractal mirror of the whole.]

I like that you talked about visions and visionaries. We can elicit and articulate a shared vision. Then that can be our mandala.

Me: Exactly. That’s what the archetypal Life Wheel which embodies the Unified Field Theory actually is. A universal mandala.

Russel Brand: That can be what we head towards together.

Me: Yes. That which impels humanity towards a better future will be the remembered ability to SEE WITH THE HEART.

Russel Brand: That’s what I’m really trying to understand. I’m trying to cultivate a sense that you have more to gain from forgiving and loving people on the other end of a cultural spectrum than you have by vanquishing them. [As Einstein warned, It’s a matter of human survival!!!]

NOW, to be part of this convergent wave of the future, like and share this message of hope to amplify its effect. Let it go viral! I’d be most grateful.

—————————-

Patricia West is author of The Common Sense Book of Change and Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change. She’s currently working on The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn – in the Same Lifetime.

Fresh Start

This excerpt from Rethinking Survival follows the sections on “Alien Invaders” and “We’re in a Terrible Mess.” To repeat, it’s written in the voice of who I was in 2014, which now feels like a lifetime ago. But the substance is just as relevant to now as it was then.

Fresh Start

After facing up to the inescapable proof everywhere around us that our language and idea pools have been corrupted, what do we do about it? Extreme radical measures call for opposite and equal survival responses.

Scrap everything.

Clean sweep. Clear the decks.

Empty the overflowing in-baskets and clutter on the mental desktop.

Back to the drawing board.

Religious leaders have abused the teachings, so atheists have been conned into rejecting the fundamentals of the timeless, perennial philosophy altogether.

Human authorities have violated their responsibilities, so reactionaries have been conned into making the mistake of rejecting all authority on every level.

Let’s face it. Religious and secular institutions inevitably degenerate. They accumulate baggage over time and drift away from founders’ visions.

So from time to time in the repeating cycles of history, it becomes urgently necessary to sort out what’s worth holding on to and what not. Do a thorough cultural house cleaning.

Right now, people everywhere are overdue for a major rethinking of their paradigms.

Initiate OPERATION RESCUE.

One individual at a time, take back our most precious asset: our minds. Like tenacious truth-miners, sift through the mud to separate out nuggets of pure gold.

Hold fast to truth. Fearlessly put the rest behind. Go back to the drawing board. Wipe the slate clean. Start over with a fresh, unmarked deck.

Rethink organizations by the standard of the Quantum Paradigm. Start with the smallest unit of organization — yourself. Work with what’s possible. Be assured that every little bit helps. “One grain of rice can tip the scales.”

If this seems daunting, remember, the stakes. They couldn’t be higher: the survival versus extinction of all you love.

Each contribution affects the whole. Everyone matters. As Einstein warned in “Ensuring the Future of Mankind:”

Each one of us would be at fault if the goal were not reached in time. There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead.

Remember the scare of thermonuclear war, Einstein’s worst nightmare. In 1962, Kennedy and Khrushchev engaged in a personal ego contest, going toe-to-toe during the Cuban missile crisis. It threatened Soviets and Americans with mutual annihilation. Only at the last hour did they relent.

We have Khrushchev’s personal letter to Kennedy:

Only lunatics or suicides, who themselves want to perish and to destroy the whole world before they die, could do this. . . . If you have not lost your self-control, and sensibly conceive what this might lead to, then, Mr. President, we and you ought not to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter the knot will be tied. And a moment may come when the knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it. . .

Lest history repeat itself as world leaders posture and position themselves now, let us urge them to not to replay this potentially deadly sword-rattling scenario.

Here are recommended positive attitudes for approaching Operation RESCUE:

1. Gird personal determination to win the inner war that matters most. Put pride and old attachments aside. Let the consequences of failing to rescue your mind along with the rewards for doing it motivate persistence.

2. Take nothing for granted. Appreciate what you have while you still have it. Remember: it took only nine seconds for one lunatic to blow John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s head away. It changed the world as his family and the world knew it. Two bullets was all it took to extinguish our best hope for the future of democracy and world peace.

3. Proceed with equal parts courage and trust. Revisit the basic, important life questions carefully. Scrap the old answers. Shed the emotional baggage and prejudices we all carry from personal experience.

Be willing to look at the world and how one fits into it with fresh eyes. Attachments to familiar beliefs as well as obligations to teachers and family are irrelevant to the TRUTH. So are old animosities. Trust that if old answers were correct and personal loyalties valid, they’ll withstand the test of time.

4. Focus on the values everyone everywhere undeniably have in common. Following Einstein’s example, learn how to “think like a genius:”

The scientist or the artist takes two facts or experiences which we separate; he finds in them a likeness which had not been seen before: and he creates a unity by showing the likeness. . . . All science is the search for unity in hidden likenesses.

Begin with respect humanity’s underlying similarities. Let them be our cause for ensuring human survival. Regardless of national origin or racial background, we’re all endowed with native intelligence and the capacity to reason.

Barring unnatural distortions, we’re born with the capacity to love life and cherish family. Most people, most of the time, have an innate capacity for compassion, a thirst for truth and profound desire for personal freedom. We also enjoy a good laugh.

On the cellular level, we’re products of the same DNA pool. Scientists say that all humans trace back to a mere handful of ancestors. It’s testimony to the human intellect to have discovered the DNA code. It serves as a reminder of the wondrous workings of an intelligent Creator. For how could such an extraordinarily intricate, miraculous pattern (much less its reproductive process) be sheer coincidence? How merciful, that we have been allowed this insight into the workings of intelligent design.

It would be a tragedy for us to forget our common blessings, their single source and the preciousness of life. They should unite everyone everywhere against the destructive schemes of genocidal aliens invaders.

5. Focus on TRUTH. Give it the benefit of the doubt. If familiar expressions don’t work for you, dig deeper. Or try a better approach. But cleave to the life-sustaining essence which sincere practitioners of every faith have held in common from time immemorial. Communicate from that center. And build community from there.

Just as each atom has only one nucleus, in Quantum Paradigm context there’s only one core at the center of creation. Logically, over time and in every circumstance, inspired teachings partake of it. If you delve deep enough into the teachings with a sincere heart, you’ll find the same universal source. Since the center is timeless, its TRUTH has always existed and always will.

There is great power in TRUTH. There’s great power in inspired scriptures to move and instruct us in our ways. This includes the venerable I Ching. The Book of Change instills in the receptive observer a profound understanding of human nature and relationships, the better to lead effectively.

Likewise, the complete and accurate Quantum Paradigm of Change has the power to serve as a road map. Use it as a guide for anticipating and overcoming troubles. Let it serve as a link to TRUTH.

Heavy duty bad guys will do whatever it takes to cut humans off from the source of their power. They block inner awareness any way they can. People conned by alien invaders into denying their origins have been castrated, disinherited — cut off from natural power. They’ve been left helpless.

So be determined to take your power back. This is the deepest meaning of “power to the people.” It’s the foundation of genuine democracy. Never, ever be conned into abandoning the inner source of strength. It’s our hope of ultimate survival.

Don’t waste precious time and energy quarreling about whose version of TRUTH is best. Life is too short and precarious. Urge leaders to stop squandering natural resources to add man-made disasters to the roster of survival-threatening perils. Call on them to stop squabbling over the ego-illusion of world-dominance. It’s the height of human folly.

Countless natural disasters are hovering on the edges of history. Indifferent to our insignificant concerns, they’re poised to wipe humans off the face of the Earth. Violent hurricanes and floods, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, comet strikes and increasingly intense sun flares are pending.

Future generations depend on each of us to transcend our petty animal nature. They demand that we draw upon the inexhaustible resource of inner strength to keep the wheel of life together for their sake.

In times of great calamities and sorrow, the truly great in spirit will rise to meet whatever challenges may come, sustained by the eternal center within.

6. Don’t get hung up on language. Don’t be confused by misdirecting spin. Stick to the facts. Don’t let double-speaking truth-twisters insult your intelligence. If you allow them to play on your worst fears, they’ll manipulate you into becoming your own worst enemy. Have a standard for knowing who’s who. If you refuse to be fooled by name-calling, empty labels can’t stick.

Know friends from enemies by the fruits of their labors. Not by their whitewash excuses.

Don’t let baggage-burdened labels deter you from knowing what you know. “A rose by any other name still smells as sweet.” On the other hand, noone has a monopoly on the Truth. Don’t let anyone drive you off of “their” turf. Nor do you have to pay dues to partake of truth.

It’s no accident that Jon Huntsman, Jr., the son of a visionary father described above is now serving as point man for a group called “No Labels.” This organization would benefit by working from the deeper perspective the Quantum Paradigm has to offer. However, they are definitely moving us in a positive direction.

Here’s how their vision and purpose are described on the website, NoLabels.org:

No Labels is a growing citizens’ movement of Democrats, Republicans and independents dedicated to promoting a new politics of problem solving . . . We welcome people left, right and everything in between as long as they are willing to collaborate with one another to seek a shared success for America. This new attitude is what No Labels is all about.

In this spirit, take back the TRUTH. Find common language that works for everyone. So what if false teachers corrupt the teachings? So what if politicians turn timeless truth upside down? Even if horrible things have been done in its name, that’s all the more reason to get back to the original unchanging basics.

For example, one term atheists might relate to is “Universal Mind.” I’m partial to the term “Creator.” Others choose to call the unnameable source of life the Tao, the Great Father, Holy Spirit, the Buddha or Allah.

Author U.S. Anderson used “Universal Mind” interchangeably with “God.” Perhaps atheists squeamish about the name God, who defend reason as their means for accessing TRUTH, would resonate with the concept of a Universal Mind. The awesomely powerful human intellect is its miniature and mirror. This is, in fact, an accurate representation of the TRUTH.

7. The Danger. Don’t let alien agents define who you are. For example, in the November 2013 issue of Esquire Magazine, included an article on “The New American Center.” The web posting put forth a definition of “center” diametrically opposed to the common sense center described here. On the basis of 2,410 registered voters surveyed, researchers generalized that American voters have been shifting on the ideological spectrum.

They no longer have a comfortable political home or a champion. Of respondents, 49 percent agreed with the assumption-laden statement, “I never put faith in politicians of either party because they always end up disappointing me.” An additional 25 percent indicated that they were neutral.

This new center is said to agree that those in dire need should receive assistance, but would really prefer that government leave the rest of us alone. Researchers say that the new center wants government to spend less and go easy on regulation. But they’re okay with raising taxes on the rich and on polluters.

The new center “has had it with the rest of the world.” In particular, it doesn’t want American using its resources to fix things overseas when we have problems at home.

Researchers conclude: The center is up for grabs. More than one in three of the new center don’t “feel” that anybody in Washington represents them. They are, therefore, “waiting to be found.”

Those on the Left are somewhat confident that someone in Washington expresses their viewpoints. But more than half of the “Righteous Right” feel that no one speaks for them. This conclusion is, apparently, an open invitation to political chameleons. It tells them how to paint themselves to please this new center, the better to “grab” their votes.

Oh well. If you’ve read Part One, you already know how skeptical I am of such studies. My graduate school experience with research scientists wasn’t impressive. In that case as in this, the questions themselves were skewed. The way they were framed prevented accurate answers. Here, participant selection also supports pre-drawn conclusions. The opinions of those who opt not to vote are excluded. And as in my own experience, the conclusions not only appear to be foreknown. They seem intended to serve ends of political masters.

The dangers of media-influenced opinion polls, the precursor of media-selected politicians, cannot be underestimated. Who after all, funds and for all practical purposes owns the media, if not the likes of George Soros, the puppet master himself?

Regardless of what the agendas for redefining the Center might be, my first remedy is to take back the meaning of “Center.” Let it be defined by common sense in Quantum Paradigm context, not by paid political researchers. The hub at the center of life’s wheel can’t be equated with a political center. Quite the opposite.

Remember the Karate Kid? Pick one side of the road or the other. Good or evil. Truth or spin. As Mr. Miagi warned, middle-of-the-roaders get “squished like grape.”

8. The Opportunity. Inherent in endings are opportunities for new beginnings. “After degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.”

For one thing, no matter how extreme the danger, we’re never alone. This is so on both physical and metaphysical levels. Just as alien invaders are infiltrating society, there are conscientious souls who know very well what they are up to. They’re penetrating enemy ranks to reroute their plans. They’re also courageously calling public attention to blatant nonsense.

For example, follow Dr. Timothy Daughtry and colleagues. He’s captured the dynamic of deceptive messaging perfectly: “Whatever you intend, say the opposite.” Here’s a sample from “Liberals Love It When We Fight:”

Helplessness, and not hope, is the left’s real message. . .the uniform message from liberal politicians to minority Americans is that the system is stacked against them, and that their only hope is through electing liberal politicians — not through personal effort.

So, trust that people of conscience are embedded in the right places to say and do the right things at the right time. Just as invaders’ agents work to undermine humanity, modern-day sages are tenaciously working to expose and defeat their schemes. That’s why it’s imperative to cut across false boundaries. Connect with like-minded boundary-spanners wherever they are to be found. If they’re true to the common sense voice of conscience, they’re humanity’s best hope. Heed them.

Remember President Kennedy’s final, undelivered speech:

I look forward to a great future for America — a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purposes.

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will reward achievement in business or statecraft, which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well.

In this final message, John Fitzgerald Kennedy left behind a legacy of unfinished work and with it the key to a fresh start. We now have the opportunity to complete what his started. Here’s the vision he intended to make real.

With the tool of the Quantum Paradigm now in hand, we have the opportunity to universalize his vision. Let us urge all nations to balance strength with restraint, wealth with wisdom, and power with positive purpose.

Kennedy’s death was a comma, not a period. The ideas expressed in the speech meant to be delivered on the evening of November 22, 1963, the date of his death, can still be realized.

Parallel to Einstein’s unfinished quest for the Unified Theory, the time is right to pick up Kennedy’s fallen flag and move forward using the Quantum Paradigm as the basis of a common leadership initiative:

. . . our duty as a Party is not to our Party alone, but to the nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom. . . . So let us not be petty when our cause is so great.

Fifty years later, as he foresaw, not just one nation’s future is at stake. It’s an “all or nothing” challenge. So let’s call on world leaders to do something truly extraordinary. Forsake the conflict-driven quest for personal political power. Put it in the service of an even more powerful and truly worthy goal: human survival. Partner in a leadership initiative to fulfill Kennedy’s vision.

But don’t just sit back, waiting for politicians to wake up.

Follow Einstein’s advice.

Don’t build another human institution, a conglomeration of internally conflicted governments. Instead, build an international community of minds. The internet gives opportunities for connecting across limiting, artificial boundaries that Einstein would never have dreamed possible.

Bloggers, do your best. Put the pressure of public opinion behind a tidal wave of appeals to nation-shapers, wherever and whomever.

—–

Leadership NOW

flock

In 1983, during “getting to know you” conversations with OA (the one we respectfully called Old Avatar), he offered a choice between two avenues of service. The first was to teach, encourage and, if necessary, provide assistance. The second was to protect the innocent and those in need – to have their backs in the ongoing, multidimensional war between good and evil.

The precise technical terms he used went over my head, but I got it that he was a “universal avatar.” This is just one of his universes. (Yes indeed. Truth is sometimes way stranger than fiction.) As such, he could instruct along whatever path we chose – be it teacher, healer or spiritual warrior. His spirit was so vast and all-encompassing that anyone who sincerely asked in their hearts for wisdom could tap into his universal mind.

This isn’t to say he was without his personal ways. Though displaying genius in everything he touched, he was modest and unassuming. And great fun. He had a knack for bringing out the best in people. For about ten years during the 1990s, he focused his computer skills into building a karaoke business. Using his sound systems, even the most shy and unskilled singer magically sounded like a rock star. He used music to build community. “Clapping 101.” Encourage and support your buddies!

At the same time, on a deeper level, OA was continuously broadcasting information in all directions, throughout all time and space. Anyone open to wisdom picked up on his “thoughts.” The proof was everywhere. To me, it seemed miraculous. When he needed a better, faster computer, for example, exactly what he had “in mind” would “suddenly” appear on the market.

Many of his ideas, word for word, started to echo in the teachings of popular thought leaders. Whoever heard and followed through on his messages, he accepted his family.

Kelley Howell is surely his sister. She produces meditative tapes and CDs true to his message. One is actually called The Secret Universal Mind Meditation. OA gave me this CD, encouraging me to benefit from its use. In the rough times since his passing, I return to it often.

Another Healing Meditation available on YouTube is “ highly recommended by doctors and offered to patients at America’s most prestigious cancer treatment hospitals.”

Here is its description on amazon.com:

. . . blissful states of reverie . . . enhance immune function and activate the body’s natural healing abilities. In this quantum state of renewal, your body triggers its own powerful bio-chemicals to heal illness and cure disease. [my emphasis]

She begins with these basic facts:

Fact 1: Your body can manufacture and administer the precise balance of neurochemicals that can reverse illness and cure disease. Your body possesses the innate capacity to heal itself.

Fact 2: Science has proven, beyond doubt, that the contents of our thoughts and emotions directly and immediately influence our biochemistry.

Fact 3: You can consciously influence and direct the body’s output of healthy chemical information through meditation and visualization techniques.

Howell works in a yin, relaxation mode. Dr. Joe Dispenza repeats the same healing message in more yang, energetic meditation CDs like Blessing the Energy Centers and Walking Meditation. Both approaches use advanced sound technologies, as did OA, to amplify the affect of their words.

Now, Dr. Joe Dispenza and Gregg Braden are two of OA’s true brothers. Both are reformulating the timeless teachings. as I have also been given to do, free of the alienating overlay of corrupted abuse. Each is expanding the meaning of “science” (which simply means “with knowledge”) to include the full spectrum of not only empirical methods but also the deeper, introspective ones.

Since OA’s recent passing, I’m just now getting acquainted their work. In astonishing, synchronistic ways, each has been creating public readiness for the complimentary work I bring to the table.

For example, in a conversation in London back in 2015, the two discussed leadership, healing and physics. They intended to “paint a holistic picture of the nature of human consciousness and the potential for development.”

Gregg Braden said:

Physicists throughout the world are struggling to build a new story of you, me, our creation and the beginning of our universe, because the old story is no longer working. Science has been struggling to come up with a Unified Field Theory.

And continued:

They cannot find that unified field because their thinking . . . is incomplete. The piece they’ve left out is consciousness. (37:20) Traditionally, scientists have been reluctant or resistant to include consciousness in the Unified Theory.

I’ve supplied that missing piece, placing the variables of Einstein’s theory within the concentric circles of the Life Wheel which has appeared in sacred art throughout the world for thousands of years. The result is the Unified Field Theory Einstein already had, but missed. It is consistent with the Yoga Sutras and the Old Testament as well as with quantum physics.

PPoC

Even more exciting, this static model can be activated and personalized in countless ways to picture the fractures and distortions we bring to our personal and organizational lives. Creating new Life Wheels becomes a means for designing a better future more in alignment with original wholeness.

I will use, as an example, Braden’s observation made early in the London discussion. As previously described in Rethinking LEADERSHIP:

Gregg Branden remarked that he finds the shift towards the quantum awareness needed to create a better future MOST in the general population. Where he sees it LEAST is in the leadership of our nations.

Now, why is this? It can be pictured in terms of fragmentation and distortions of the Life Wheel. As also mentioned in that post, world leaders focus primarily at the third, solar plexus level of consciousness. To the extent they are out of touch with higher levels – disrespect or even deny the existence of love or conscience – they (and the rest of us) are in deep trouble.

People who operate primarily at the third energy center level, especially when they live an unexamined life plagued by unresolved personal issues, dominate the leadership field. Narcissism is being pinpointed by an increasing number of observers as a growing epidemic, particularly in the political area. This is probably another way of describing distorted third chaka dominance.

I pictured fractures between outer and inner life, appearances, emotions and capacity for introspection in a 2014 post, How Bad People Become Leaders. It was written in response to this question:

It seems many leadership models characterize leadership as a universal good . . [but] it’s hard to give much credence to any model that can’t explain how ‘bad people’ become leaders. What thoughts do you have on this?

I responded:

A “scientific” leadership selection process takes into account only that which is measurable, for example academic IQ. Intangibles like the presence or absence of cultivated Emotional Intelligence (street smarts) fly under the radar, as do ethical intelligence, creativity and a capacity for visionary insight.

Further:

When selectors judge only by appearances, it’s easy to deceive them. As Lincoln said, “You can fool all of the people some of some of the time, and some of the people all of the time.” Those are pretty good odds for an ambitious con artist.

I offered a picture of levels out of synch:

In a second variation, all levels of the Wheel are operational, but they operate intermittently and out of synch, each disassociated from the others. The smallest circle which represents Conscience floats outside, detached from daily experience.

Stress

On one side of the continuum, this is the picture of a hypocrite, a person who operates on one standard with close family, but on another with strangers or at work. It represents someone who presents one image to the public, but acts quite differently when others aren’t looking.

Hitler is a familiar example on the far opposite extreme. This is the picture of evil, meaning anti-life: intentionally shattering and fragmenting the creative pattern. In Positive Paradigm context, the intentions and actions of any person (or group) that destroys its own and/or threatens to annihilate enemy groups, devoid of respect for the inherent sanctity of life, are defined as evil.

The empirical science paradigm has no language or structure for recognizing such malfunctions. In contrast, the Unified Field Theory’s Life Wheel can diagnose inner dynamics. Use it to identify “bad people” and prevent them from being given leadership roles.

Put the other way, this holistic model of human potential gives us the means to understand the possibility of and therefore recreate today, the leadership ideal of Plato’s philosopher king, or to train the healer-warrior-king in-one embodied in the Old Testament’s King David.

hand up

Both Joe Dispenza and Gregg Braden contrast the old, dysfunctional competition model of leadership with the cooperative model of the future . . . our hope for survival.

At that same 2015 conference, Dr. Joe said:

We have to go after this change in the world from a different level of mind. We have to really begin to unify and the ingredient that creates that UNITY is these elevated emotions called care and kindness and love and cooperation and WHOLENESS. These are the things we should be cultivating on a moment-to-moment basis.

There you go. Heal fractures. Restore wholeness to our personal Life Wheels.

He continued:

If you begin to tap into your own potential, into your own resources, it’s going to diminish your need for things external to you. Now all of the sudden, companies and organizations that are looking for consumerism – that’s how they make a profit – are no longer going to get what they need because you’re less controlled or seduced by the conditions in your environment.

I understand that what’s coming down the pike is that there will be some chaos. But I’m also really excited. And I think that all of us on some level have negotiated to be here.

I also believe on another level that in my experience of witnessing common people doing the uncommon, of healing themselves and changing their lives and creating miraculous experiences, that we all have the resources and the ability to do that.

I’ll let OA have the last word on that one. I think he would say, “We’ll see.” Because the hidden elephant in the room, which neither of OA’s brothers-in-spirit address is the ongoing, multidimensional war between good and evil. They have chosen the easier of his two avenues of service.

Few indeed have the courage and will to embrace the second, more difficult option. BUT, as OA warned, in addition to cooperation and healing, in balance, we urgently need spiritual warriors competent to protect us as we advance into the better future that his brothers envision.

Angel Calling

Rethinking LEADERSHIP

hand up

In speaking with Dr. Joe Dispenza, Gregg Branden remarked that he finds the shift towards the quantum awareness needed to create a better future most in the general population. Where he sees it least is in the leadership of our nations. His experience underscores my grave concern with what I’ve called the “international leadership deficit.”

It sketching a post called Leadership NOW, I recalled a relevant essay on Leaders. It will do for starters as an introduction to what will follow.

Here goes:

flock

ESSAY 4. LEADERS

Powerful individuals never show their strength, yet others listen to them because they seem to know. They radiate knowledge, but it is an intuitive knowing that comes from a direct understanding and experience with the ways of nature. — R.L. Wing, The Tao of Power

When it comes to answering the big questions such as what is going to happen to the world as a whole in five or ten years’ time, or even half-a-century hence, we are even more keen to find out what is likely to happen. For it will inevitably affect not merely our own future, but that of our children and grandchildren too. . . Fortunately, it is here that the world’s great seers and sages come to our rescue. — Peter Lemesurier, Nostradamus: The Final Reckoning

It is extremely valuable to train the mind to stand apart and examine its own program. . . Training without such education narrows and closes the mind so that the assumptions underlying the training are never examined. That’s why it is so valuable to read broadly and expose yourself to great minds. — Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

THE FRONT

According to Webster’s, “to lead” is to show the way, or direct the course by going before. To lead can mean to direct, guide, or cause to follow.

By extension, a leader is a person or thing that leads by directing, commanding or guiding as the head of a group or activity. In music, the leader is the conductor, who occasionally turns the lead over to soloists.

By definition, there are many kinds of leaders at every level of society. The scope of their responsibilities may be great or small. Followers can number from one to a multitude.

The native and institutional power any individual brings to a leadership role varies vastly. So also does the effect on others, either positive or negative. Leadership is not a fixed or absolute quality. Most of us act as leaders at one time or another, in one capacity or another. Most of us are leaders in some contexts, while followers in others.

Parents or caretakers who raise us are our primary role models. Next come teachers, who along with parents prepare us to live in the world and mold our early beliefs. Depending on their capacity for benevolence, they sow the seeds of trust or cynicism. Whether they feed or starve, honor or manipulate childish yearnings for acceptance and approval shapes our early years. The push/pull of positive/negative experiences later reflects in the quality of leadership we bring as adults to relationships and organizations.

Just as the seven energy centers influence conscious evolution, there are leaders who focus on each of these levels:

At the base chakra level, leaders take responsibility for the everyday maintenance of our infrastructure, keeping the roads in repair, the streets safe, the electricity running, and stores stocked.
At the second sacral level, they nurse, instruct and protect the young, the infirm, and those in need.
At the third solar level, leaders command our armies, negotiate union contracts and run for public office.
At the fourth heart center, leaders preach in the halls of worship, counsel those who seek solace and act as the peacemakers of the world.
Leaders at the fifth throat center open and expand the boundaries of knowledge, helping us define our ideas and ideals.
At the sixth, they serve as receivers of wisdom and transmitters of warnings about the future.

Wisdom traditions teach us to respect those more highly evolved than ourselves. They also hold those blessed with natural gifts and material abundance to a high level of accountability. It’s their responsibility to use their gifts to protect and uplift those they serve to the very best of their ability.

The immature look to more experienced teachers for guidance. But when we come of age, it is no longer appropriate to allow others to dictate our behavior. Ultimately, we must be led by the timeless, inner radar which informs us now as surely as it guided those willing and able to listen to stillness in ages past.

THE BACK

The positive complement of leaders are willing and worthy followers. Following implies loyalty, humility, sincerity and competence to comply with leaders’ decisions. The benefits of following include the opportunity to learn from those who know more and to share in projects they initiate for the common good.

The dark flip-side of leadership is coercion. Tyrants elevate themselves over others using psychological manipulation, intimidation and brute force. They inhibit and consume energy, discouraging free expression and growth. They can enforce the illusion of social cohesion, but cannot command love or loyalty.

Practical Ethics

After outlining an article on ethics, which Stefan Molyneux passionately, intuitively reasons is the necessary foundation of civilization, I did my homework. Come to find out, he went rounds on the subject with an atheist critic.

Unfortunately, for lack of the holistic Life Wheel framework which encompasses the full range of logic complimented by and reinforced with gut feeling and inner knowing, Stefan was hard put to defend his “feelings” from his ruthlessly, exclusively logical (but dead wrong) antagonist.

As shown elsewhere, the “hollow,” exclusively materialist-atheist belief system rules out the levels at which “gut feeling” and intuition reside.

MaterialistAthest

An updated version of the complete Wheel shown earlier puts ideology -isms in their limited place: on the surface, material rim, far removed from the vital energy level of gut feelings, even further detached from the core from which wisdom flows.

expanded wheel

What is fundamentally (fatally) missing from logician’s concept of ethics, however, is the dynamic action of karma. The Law of Karma is a fact of life which can’t be argued, but rather is known through direct experience by those who pay attention. It’s axiomatic.

Though there’s more to the subject, which I’ll bring up below, for starters, here is an excerpt to the point from The Handbook:

AXIOM FOUR

Consequences of Actions Are Inevitable; Those Who Respect the Law of Karma Succeed.

Axiom Four is the practical foundation of ethics. Were it taught earlier in schools both public and private as the survival basic which it is, today’s world would be very different indeed.

For in an exclusively materialist, linear worldview, it seems possible to “get away with murder.” Unethical leaders mistakenly continue to act on the false premise that they can avoid the consequences of their actions by hiding selfish motives and evil deeds behind a mask of false appearances.

But ultimately, they deceive no one but themselves. (Remember the fate of ponzi racketeer Bernie Madoff and his two tragically unfortunate sons?)

Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray dramatizes the horrific consequences of hiding hideous deeds behind an unnatural mask of eternal youth and physical beauty. Just as Dorian comes to an awful end, in the circular and richly textured fabric of the Positive Paradigm worldview, attempts at evasion and deception are ultimately futile. The concept of a “perfect crime” is an oxymoron. . . .

The Old Testament describes the karmic law of return in agricultural terms. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap” and “For everything there is a season. . . ” In modern parlance, the saying that underscores the circular dynamic of poetic justice is, “What goes around comes around.”

. . . a popular riddle asks, “Why do con artists do shabby work, charge unreasonably high prices, and get away with murder?” The cynical answer: “Because they can.” However, this cynical half-truth tells only part of the story.

They can, because there’s Free Will. They can, because they’re ignorant, or else incredibly stupid. Choices have (all too often unforeseen) consequences.

Whether one believes in God or not, whether one respects Natural Law or chooses to be blind to it, these consequences are the same. In modern parlance, “Do the Crime. Do the time.” Or, as it’s also said, “Pay back is a bitch.”

Punishment for unrepentant wrong-doing can take many forms. The consequences of breaking human laws include fines, jail-time, and in the extreme, death.

But on a deeper level, over time, retribution for violating Natural Law is visited in many forms, from mental or physical disease, to personal, professional or financial misfortune.

Consequences of misdeeds often return on the psychological level. Carl Jung, the Swiss analyst who popularized the concept of archetypes, also wrote the introduction to the Wilhelm/Baynes version of the I Ching. He noted the unintended kickback from rejecting the basic axioms of religion and natural law with mere reason. There are consequences not only for decision-makers, but also those they influence.

In sum, Jung noted that modern thinkers have made a fatal mistake. The facts of inner life can’t be driven out of existence by arbitrarily banishing them from the decision-making equation. Saying God doesn’t exist doesn’t make it so. It just leaves the unbeliever at the disadvantage of being cut off from the center.

According to Jung, denying the facts of inner life has the effect of burying rejected aspects of the whole in the “unconscious,” where they continue to reap havoc on our daily lives. Politicians and journalists under the influence of unacknowledged emotional demons “unwittingly let loose psychic epidemics on the world.”

Phoenix - sized

Here is a picture of the Law of Karma (a practical function of Natural Law). It resides at the middle, energy level of the Life Wheel associated chi, prana and emotions. Beliefs (at best, emanating from conscience – the domain of Divine Law – and experienced as intuition) trigger emotions. In turn, beliefs fueled by passionate feeling drive actions which produce results of the surface level — the domain of Human Law:

Law of Karma

Phoenix - sized

The “more” to the issue of ethics suggested above is this. Because karmic return emanates from the energy level, functional ethics necessarily has a DYNAMIC component. What’s right depends to some extent on the specifics of time, place, person and historical context.

For example, while the motive – compassion – remains constant, the correct actions taken to express this motive change with the situation. Working in a day care environment with an unruly child who doesn’t know better will require different methods of correction than would dealing with a raging psychopath who intends someone you dearly love violent, deadly harm.

For this reason, the best leaders, and the most successful people in every area of life, are the ones who are most self-aware, the ones competent to link the unchanging innermost level of Motive with the fluctuating levels of strategic Purpose and practical Intent. (Hence the admonition,”Get your act together!”)

Conversely, those who shun self-awareness, ignore the call of Conscience and go after what they want — others be damned — are a danger to themselves and others. In any case, while the Free Will to choose remains constant at the center, the unavoidable consequences implicit in the bargain will return in kind — it’s a package deal.

So here follows an Essay on Consequences:

Phoenix - sized

Essay 43. CONSEQUENCES

Unlike any kind of fortune-telling, prophecy, or magic, the I Ching does not tell the future, it can only analyze the present. Its use does not allow one to make forecasts, only diagnoses. If there were a comparison possible with a Western equivalent, it would not be to the crystal ball but to a chess playing computer program that analyzes the current situation in order to choose one of a number of options. — Cyrille Javary, Understanding the I Ching.

Quantum mechanics is a procedure. It is a specific way of looking at a specific part of reality. The only people who use it are physicists. The advantage of following the procedure of quantum mechanics is that it allows us to predict the probabilities of certain results . . .– Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics

One of the principles of modern physics which has contributed heavily to current organizational theory states that matter is nothing but relationships. That’s the glue of an organization — relationships. Without honesty, there is no trust, and consequently, very weak relationships. — Alan Downs, Seven Miracles of Management

THE FRONT

The literal meaning of the root word is “to follow after.” Webster’s first definition of consequence is a result of an action or process, an outcome or effect. Second, it’s a logical result or conclusion, an inference. Third, it’s the relationship of cause and effect. Last, it’s defined as importance or influence, as in a high-ranking person of consequence.

Board games like chess challenge the intellect to think in terms of strategy. High ranking players, white and black, oppose each other. Contestants maneuver their pieces, the object being to take over the field. Pieces of different consequence are ranked by medieval social status as kings, queens, and bishops, down to lowly pawns.

Each has a proportional range of motion, pawns having the least. But, with persistence, pawns can traverse the field and change rank, becoming powerful players in the end.

The United States was founded in reaction to European governments that violated Natural Law, subordinating merit to class interests and siphoning the resources of workers to fill the coffers of a privileged few.

In contrast, the ideal of the original American dream honored the natural law of cause and effect. Every person was free to advance according to merit. Each was entitled to receive just compensation for honest work. All were entitled to protection of individual civil rights under the law.

Throughout history, there’s been a push/pull tension between those who respect the biblical maxim, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” and those who would make themselves exempt from the law. In nature, there are times of plenty and times of want, times of success and times of defeat.

Some, however, ignorantly try to short-circuit the process, by-passing the hard times that teach us humility, abusing human law to short-sighted, personal and political ends. They’d rather, by cheating natural laws, be ceaselessly, excessively prosperous, at the expense of others who suffer in perpetual want.

Rather than engage in the give-and-take process on the chess-board of life, where the light and dark, yang and yin, alternate in orderly succession, such people would fold the board, refuse to play, and withdraw from the life process. But even the attempt to evade natural consequences has consequences.

The I Ching, like the game of chess, is a miniature of the human psyche and of community relationships. Like playing three-tiered chess, working with the I Ching not only engages the intellect, but cultivates a keen sense of the hidden forces, deeply irrational and sometimes sublime, which drive and even occasionally inspire the players.

These disciplines teach us to make our choices in terms of cause and effect, mindful of long-term implications. They help us to overcome daily challenges with wisdom and grace, and prepare us to survive and prevail when confronted by opponents who would wipe us off the board.

The title Dancing Wu Li Masters refers to the Chinese word for “physics,” translated as “Patterns of Organic Energy.” Sadly, the logical connection to the I Ching wasn’t made. The Positive Paradigm of Change derived from I Ching — consistent with Einstein’s physics — holds the key to fundamental life questions which continue to elude physicists, social and medical scientists alike. Whether or not we follow through has dire consequences for future survival.

THE BACK

The opposite of consequence would be inconsequential, having no meaning or importance. However, the Chinese saying goes that even one small grain of rice can tip the scales one way or the other. Logically, if there is no action, there would be no consequences. But consequences also follow from failing to take action.

Perversions of consequences include attempts to break the cause-effect connection, either to act without paying the price or to collect unearned rewards. Out of laziness, fear or greed, wrong-doers attempt to cheat life, change the course of events by unnatural means. In the long-term, it never works as intended. Instead, violating Natural Law sets chain reactions in motion that explode when events reach critical mass.

Angel Calling

Clarion Call

The day after America’s momentous national election, as I watched replay video of Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech, for the first time in months I felt a genuine hope for human survival. It may not be exactly the hope of which he speaks, or what others expect, be their motives for better or worse. But here, I’ll tell you what triggered this surge of hope in me.

I’ll also tell you why today, after eight months without posting a single blog, I feel a sense of urgency to spell out the opportunities and shadow dangers that move me to write again as predictable media backlash sets in.

My conclusion: Listen up America! Pay attention, people of the world! Regardless of what noisy, dark distractions his enemies throw at us, we dare not forfeit the reprieve we’ve been mercifully granted by failing to fully recognize, respect and hold fast to his message as a last hope for human survival.

For starters, I am focusing today on the message of the President-Elect’s victory speech, transcribed word for word. They are words of power because deeper than shallow politician-speech, they were spoken with utmost sincerity from the heart.

Surely he isn’t familiar with the Life Wheel and Einstein’s Unified Theory I’ve described over the past three years. Nor, for him, is it necessary. However, for the rest of us, this work might make a huge difference, perhaps even tipping the scales of history in favor of human survival. It shows exactly the ways in which he surpasses usual politicians, and what people worldwide have at stake in DJT’s success.

The Life Wheel validates Donald J. Trump as an authentic leader who lives true to his inner North Star. Though others may mouth similar words, rare indeed are those with the genuine inward authority to speak them. (Can you imagine expressions of LOVE for the American people coming credibly from the mouths of the politicians who opposed him?)

What I heard that day was a voice that speaks true to the basics of the humanity’s enduring wisdom traditions. Granted, he is a highly intelligent leader who deliberately surrounds himself with the best talent he can find. But significantly, he is also a “natural” – one who radiates the vitality and confidence to live true to himself, one who trusts his natural gut instincts.

Deeper than mere philosophy, DJT projects the presence of someone instinctively attuned to our common Source. His call for Unity in the spirit of humility and gratitude rings authentic and true to my ears.

His first words were inclusive.

It’s about US – OUR victory. Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of this land that I will be president for all Americans. And this is so important to me.

He continued:

For those of you who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there were a few people – I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.

He added:

As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hard working men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their families. It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, backgrounds, religions and beliefs who want and expect our government to serve the people – and serve the people it will.

What I heard is the voice of a dedicated servant leader, in stark contrast to finger-pointing opponents who have boldly and corruptly violated the responsibilities of public office to enrich themselves and brainwash the public – notably gullible young people — with divisive political-speech.

He observed:

I’ve spent my entire life in business looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country. Tremendous potential.

Ah. Here is language that acknowledges the E = energy middle level of the Life Wheel, welcome to my ears. He is in touch where his opponents are not with inner levels of the Life Wheel. Energy potential, though invisible, is very real indeed. It is the generator of true wealth.

I’ve gotten to know our country so well. Tremendous potential. It’s going to be a beautiful thing. Every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

This is the view of a world citizen, a voice of good-will, universal respect and self-actualization. It is neither new agey nor hocus pocos to those who understand the heart of enduring wisdom traditions.

He promised:

We will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal. I will harness the creative talents of our people and we will call upon the best and brightest to leverage their tremendous talent for the benefit of all. It’s going to happen.

Significantly, he concluded:

I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone. With everyone. All people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility. Partnership, not conflict.

This got my heart-felt YES! Here at last is a voice of the genuine Common Sense called for in my work.

It accords with the compassionate, common sense vision I sought to express in creating this composite image of Einstein’s compass superimposed on the concentric circles of the Life Wheel, quickening the globe of Planet Earth from within. My common sense survival meme, if you will, speaks to humanity’s common origin, universal values and shared interests.

Perhaps deeper than the President-Elect consciously knows (or even needs to), his words ring true across the full continuum of the Life Wheel.

BUT: here is the danger whereof I spoke earlier. Many people, due to a host of unfortunate circumstances, live primarily on the shallow surface of the Life Wheel. They haven’t the depth to recognize or respect what, for whatever reason, they’ve forgotten. Worse, some, unintentionally or otherwise, live at odds with inner truth. They will continue to spin, distort and attempt to delegitimize DJT’s victory for the people of the world. They will definitely stir up unnecessary conflict to destabilize the world, as if to prevent his best intentions from coming True.

Prior to the election, thanks to the persistence and personal sacrifices of Julian Assange, people worldwide were exposed to the depths of government corruption, including treasonous influence pedaling, satanic pedophilia and – Einstein’s worst nightmare – unconscionable provocation of nuclear war.

Thanks to valiant reporters operating outside the globalist corporate-dominated media, voters in this election were given the opportunity to see through the double-speak – recognizing the stark choice they were being offered, literally between good and evil.

For there is an archetypal, ancient war going on, not between nations, but far deeper, between those within every nation who affirm LIFE and those who destroy it.

Like every other value word in the English language, evil has been abused, confused, and ladened with nonsense spin. But the point I’m making here is based on science elsewhere explained at length.

For example, in How Bad People Become Leaders, I showed how the Life Wheel is fragmented into a functional picture of evil:

As explained, in this picture of evil, the concentric levels representing body, energy/emotions, mind and spirit operate out of synch, each disassociated from the others. The smallest circle which represents Conscience floats outside, detached from daily experience.

In this context, Trump’s clarion call to restore Unity to the United States is given depth and urgency. Agents of evil will predictably do their utmost to undermine all he seeks to accomplish. We must steadfastly refuse to be fooled or intimidated, choosing to stay the creative course of growth and renewal. The forces of destiny at work today are infinitely greater than any human individual. It is vitally important to see the results of the election from this larger perspective and to support America’s President Elect, mindful of all that is at stake.

God speed you in your chosen role as a messenger of unity and hope, Donald J. Trump. May God and his good angels protect, guide and bless you in all things, always.

Keep It Together

Although it seems there’s no longer much more to be said, yesterday’s Aha moment is an exception.

Here’s the back story.

Over Thanksgiving week-end, for the benefit of those who hadn’t seen The Walking Dead series, we spent several hours here watching back-to-back episodes of the first two seasons.

For me, this second go round had an even greater impact. The content speaks on many levels, in many ways, to our increasingly dangerous times.

Like life itself, the series is a complex counterpoint of relationship drama, political intrigue, philosophical ponderings and soul searchings. It’s intense: not for the weak of stomach or for lovers of sentimental fluff.

Beyond the surface story line, however, it is poignantly symbolic. Perhaps in a very deep way, it’s prophetic. Which explains why a simple pilot unexpectedly took off to become a sensational success. For those with ears to hear, it resonates straight to our very core.

How, you might ask, does a story about a world overrun by hoards of cannibalistic zombies apply to current events and leadership issues?

Well, let’s see.

In The Walking Dead, zombies are mindless corpses that carry on after humans die. All but the primal, limbic functions of the human brain have been disease-destroyed.

When you think about it, it’s not such a far cry from the end result being achieved (perhaps intentionally, perhaps not) by manipulating humans (programming them in the name of education) based on brain science.

Neuro-marketing, for example, stimulates the same vestigial, animal part of the brain that drives zombies – intentionally bypassing rational cognitive functions involved in critical thinking and rational decision-making.

An academic website defines neuro marketing as : the formal study of the brain’s responses to advertising and branding, and the adjustment of those messages based on feedback to elicit even better responses. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure specific types of brain activity in response to advertising messages. With this information, companies learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what parts of the brain are motivating them to do so.

It increasingly seems as if walking dead hoards include not only fictional zombies, but average consumers and citizens — even the college professors, marketing professionals and politicians who direct their communications to these same animal brain functions.

Economists and politicians have jumped on the marketing bandwagon, exploiting brain science. Earlier, I expressed strong reservations about the ethics and consequences of applying brain science research to marketing and policy making.

Intentionally targeting instinctual, animal functions of the brain with subliminal messages represents an intentional effort to control and dehumanize the general population. The results could be scary indeed.

In a LinkedIn article that points out serious problems with Thinking, fast and slow, Kahneman’s book on behavioral economics, I concluded:

To continue sleep-walking on the shallow surface of life as most of us do now plays into the hands of madmen and tyrants, some of whom, if it seemed to further their ambitions, would have no compunction whatsoever about plunging the entire world into nuclear war.

But back to The Walking Dead. As a commentary on leadership options in this scary new world, it triggered my Aha on the importance of “keeping it together” as a devolving world militates to tear us apart. The answer I came up with is part mystical, part medical for those with the training and diligence to practice yogic breathing and concentration methods.

The primary questions this series challenges us to think about are, “Who is going to survive in such a chaotic future, How, and Why?”

The protagonist, Rick represents the voice of reason. His words and actions show him to be more evolved than most. He’s a “natural leader,” if you will. This former sheriff’s deputy knows weapons and can handle himself in a fight. But in balance, he is also a “righteous dude.”

Rick earns farm-owner Hershel’s respect by showing him respect.

Hershel – a religious optimist who chooses to deny the existence of danger closing in on all sides – wakes up the hard way, losing all he owns in the process. He’s highly evolved, but out of balance. The practical street smarts were too late coming. At least in the beginning, he was extreme yin, out of balance.

And then there’s the opposite side of the coin. Shane. His exudes extreme yang energy. This treacherous shake in the grass, ruled by animal appetites, rationalizes his lusts and takes whatever he wants however he can.

Shane dogs Rick’s every step, working to undermine him, scheming to take everything – Rick’s wife, son, and leadership role in their small community. Shane operates from the solar center, with little heart awareness and no functional conscience. He has no concept (much less respect) for higher levels of consciousness. Mercy is outside his range of awareness. To Shane, Rick and Hershel seem weak.

Shane seduces whomever he can with the argument that, civilization being destroyed, he is the wave of the future. Only he is qualified to protect the group. But, depending on the rest of us, that vision remains to be seen.

How to deal with the Shanes of the ugly new world? I’m reminded of Lao Tze 41:

In thinking about what combination of leadership qualities will succeed in steering small communities through both the internal and external dangers they will face if/when “civilization” breaks down, I was amazed at how skillfully the leaders in The Walking Dead adjust to change. Like the ancients, they keep their balance by adjusting to the fluctuating demands of a dualistic world.

For in duality, as Solomon wrote:

In the future, those in small communities who persist in old ways of thinking, clinging to one extreme or the other, either rational or animal, rigidly ignoring the complex demands of an altered, endangered new world, risk forgetting Henry David Thoreau’s warning: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of feeble minds.”

Certainly Christ knew this. He taught, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Yet his was not an example of foolish sentimental permissive “tolerant” love. Certainly he had no use for the money changers and demonstrated fierce anger towards hypocrites.

It was at this point in my thinking that the Aha happened. The Star of David, traditionally worn over the heart, is the perfect symbol of balancing the polar qualities future leaders will need to keep civilization from devolving into the exclusively animal realms of a zombie-like existence.

This Star is housed in the “secret place of the Most High” described in Psalm 91. It is associated with the heart center located in the middle Dan Tien. It is the seat of compassion, the place where the upper Tan Tien’s mental light and lower Tan Tien’s solar fire join, blend and balance.

This joining is mirrored in the meaning of Ha-tha (sun & moon) yoga = union.

This six-pointed Star is formed by the intersection of two equilateral triangles. According to Chinese medical notation, the upward pointing triangle represents the quality of yang energies. The downward pointing triangle represents yin.

It is no accident that equilateral triangles are the strongest, most stable of geometric structures. Those who internalize and actualize these realities have the practical means to keep themselves and their communities together.

In the Hindu tradition, the Sri Yantra is similarly constructed of nine interlocking triangles that surround and radiate outwards from a central point.

These variations are each based on the same subtle geometry. They express the same inner experience of a central, underlying reality.

To repeat, while on one hand, the universal secret of these interlocking triangles is a profound mystery, on the other, for those familiar with yogic breathing and concentration methods, they are the foundation of practical disciplines with physical, mental and spiritual results.

Given time to refine what is written here, the ideas could be better expressed. But the substance remains as a Christmas gift offered to those prepared to receive it as such.

Arguing and nit-picking would miss the point. The better choice is to bring your own understanding to an urgently important subject and make it your own. It is a key to not only personal survival, but the hope for a better future.

As Conflict Escalates, What Can Be Done NOW?

As Conflict Escalates, What Can Be Done NOW? originally appeared in the August edition of Prabuddha Bharata, or Awakened India – an English-language monthly magazine of the Ramakrishna Order. Founded by Swami Vivekenanda — a disciple of Ramakrisha who traveled to the West — it has been in publication since July 1896. With the kind permission of Editor Swami Narasimhananda, I am reposting the full-length article here.

by Patricia E. West, Ph.D.

The Creator’s most miraculous and precious gift is often the least appreciated. In fact, in the midst of hectic daily life, it sustains everyone – friend and foe, good and evil doers alike – virtually unnoticed by all. Increasing strife and conflict bombards us from every direction. Yet we have very close to our hearts the elusive means of reconciling illusory differences and restoring original unity, first within and then without.

The priceless gift of which I speak is, of course, the breath.

Magically and mystically, every breath each person on the planet takes is infused with prana, that which links the individual being with the Universal Life Source.

Swami Vivekananda defined prana as “a manifestation of the universal power, indefinite and omnipresent.”¹ Riding on the vehicle of the physical breath, prana is the most basic, potentially unifying aspect everyone everywhere shares in common.

In Meditation as Medicine, Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. writes, “According to the ancient masters, prana is the mystical force found in all living physical entities. It is in the air without being air. It is in water without being water. It is in food without being food.”²

This commonality repeats on every scale of magnitude. Thus Vivekananda quoted, “I am the thread that runs through all these pearls.” According to him, “Each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different pearls, and God is the thread that runs through all of them.”³

He continues, “most people, however, are entirely unconscious of it.”

So how has it come to pass that most people remain unaware of the energizing life force that breathes through them every minute of every day, and even dare to deny its single origin? How is it that so many pass through their lives ungrateful for the waves of potential abundance they move through like fish in the ocean, seemingly starving for what is so close and so freely given?

As a possible answer, let me tell you a favorite story. It seems that long ago, there was a very old man who took his lunch every day at the same restaurant. He often complained about the service. So, one day when he called the waiter over, the waiter asked impatiently, “What is the matter this time, old man?”

The answer: “Taste the soup and find out for yourself.”

“All right,” said the waiter. “Where is the spoon?”

“Aha,” exclaimed the old man, delighted. “Now you see!” There was a delicious soup, but no spoon for taking it in.

Which is to say, most people have the nourishment of their heart’s desire everywhere about them, but no means or methods for accessing it. Medical research finds that, for many reasons, very few humans get enough oxygen into the body to fuel the brain or move the muscles properly. Although many are learned and accomplished in intellectual matters, the basics of practical breath control are often ignored. All too few have learned basic paranayama exercises or benefited from the profound insights gained from regular practice.

Workers who slouch long hours at their desks cut off their wind. Tight-fitting clothes force shallow breathing that fills only the top part of the lungs. Habitual tension and chronic anxiety further reduce the limited portion taken in. Attitudes of boredom, apathy and depression produce postures that strangle and suffocate the lungs. Pride stiffens the neck and twists the spine, strangling air circulation. Anger hardens and explodes the heart. Terror causes panic breathing and paralysis in the face of crisis, exactly when full powers are most urgently needed.

In such ways, sadly, many people ultimately cut themselves off from that Universal Source of blessings which everyone everywhere shares in common. So here we have a “chicken and egg” question. Which comes first? Does escalating religious intolerance and extreme violence cause people to increasingly forget their common humanity? Or does lack of fundamental awareness and oxygen deprivation increase the sense of alienation, illusion of lack, and rush for retaliation? Perhaps each feeds the other, causing a downward-spiraling disaster.

The Universal Key

To address the related question of why leaders at every level have failed to correctly identify and heal the root causes of conflict, first within and then without, I will draw contrasting pictures. One is the complete and accurate world view I’ve called the Positive Paradigm. Another shows distortions of the Universal Life Wheel responsible for today’s worldwide deficit of inspired leadership.

Here is the Life Wheel described in Rethinking Survival: Getting to the Positive Paradigm of Change.⁴It embodies Einstein’s dearly sought Unified Theory. Ironically, he had already received it, but, for lack of yoga training, didn’t recognize what he’d been given. Being universal, its applications are seemingly infinite.

Utopia.sized

This multi-directional, mandala-like pattern of interdependent wheels-within-wheels is equally compatible with the world’s enduring religions, the teachings of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and modern physics.

It is universal key, the answer to Shaunaka’s question, “What is that, knowing which, all else is known?”

This structure mirrors the pattern of each cell, where electrons and protons spin around a single nucleus.

It likewise pictures our solar system’s organization of planets circling the sun. As written:

This well-familiar atomic structure repeats smallest to largest in the patterns of nature, from snowflakes and intricate flowers to spiders’ webs and sea shells. Similar symmetrical patterns repeat worldwide in the art of every culture — including, to name but a few, the prayer wheels of Native Americans, the colored sand mandalas of Tibetan Buddhists, the stained glass windows of European cathedrals and the intricate geometrical patterns that cover Muslim Mosques. They offer proof of the universal awareness of a central inner reality, of an inner structure common to all humanity, and to a continuity of experience deeper than individual lives or transitory cultures.”⁵

The “m = mass” level at the surface correlates with daily experience and tangible, physical objects measured by empirical science. The “e = energy” level corresponds with subtle energies which, though invisible, are experienced by their effects. Prana and electrical energy reside here. It is the field of motion and e-motion. The level of “c = light” is associated with intuition and guidance. Deeper still, within the stable hub of the Wheel, beyond the duality of polar opposites, resides the changeless eternal source.

According to medical brain science, the vibrational speed of the levels slows with inward progression. Beta waves correlate with the busy, cluttered surface of the Life Wheel. Alpha waves associated with relaxation and then theta waves produced in revere or meditation rest increasingly deeper within. Delta waves are slowest of all. Measurable brain waves, in turn, match closely with the states of waking, dream and dreamless sleep described in the Mandaka Upanishad.

In clinical psychology, intelligence at the outermost level is measured by IQ tests. At the middle level it is described as EQ (emotional intelligence) and towards the center as SQ (spiritual intelligence). The levels, which flow along a continuum, neither separate nor totally distinct, are linked in an infinite, two-way loop. One who succeeds in joining the levels, living here and yet there, in the world but not of it, enjoys the experience of enlightenment – Christ Consciousness.

Integrating and balancing the levels of the Life Wheel produces health in every aspect of life – personal, social, economic and political. The executive equally capable of both inspired decisions and effective action embodies Plato’s ideal of the Philosopher-King. Such accomplishment is the goal of Raja Yoga and of holistic leadership. Masters of the creative in- and out-breathing process hold the key to Life itself. For teaching purposes, they occasionally demonstrate their ability to perform apparently miraculous feats of magic.

The Life Wheel is especially useful because, in a clear, simple way, it shows the critically important distinction between 1) what is absolute, eternal and real at the center hub and 2) that which is ephemeral, transitory and subject to change on the surface rim. A very early version the Life Wheel shown below pictures where genuine Unity is to be found as well as where it is NOT.

062514 Balanced World View

The “Pleasure and Pain” level includes the pairs of opposite sensations/ emotions, hot and cold, anger and fear.

The “Right and Wrong” level includes not only competing religions, but also the social/political and economic “-isms.”

The surface, material rim of the Life Wheel is the abode of fashions and fads as well as power and ego contests. Generational swings are reflected on the surface. Enduring, timeless values abide at the eternal center.

Distortions of the Universal Pattern

Those who focus exclusively on the material surface of the Life Wheel cause themselves and those obliged to depend upon them untold amounts of unnecessary pain and suffering. Sometimes, calling it “unity” – whether in the name of God, the common good, or world domination – they seek to impose unnatural social regimentation and political conformance upon others. This naturally stirs up violent reactions from those who have different ideas about such things.

Now, why is it that international leaders have brought the world to its current state of violence and fragmentation? Put another way, why — given the demonstrated and documented benefits of something as basic and simple as mindful breath awareness – is this not taught to every school child and to every medical patient suffering from degenerative diseases and mental disorders? Where is the method in such irresponsible madness?

One hint can be gleaned from the description of a basic pranayama exercise, the Complete Breath. Benefits listed include increased calmness, reduction of toxins, increase of pranic intake, enhanced oxygenation of the blood and even synchronization of personal breath rhythm with universal vibration. However, another benefit is “increased consciousness of unconscious acts.” ⁶

Sadly, for a host of different reasons, most are unwilling to increase conscious awareness of matters “conveniently” tucked out of sight. They lock themselves in uncomfortable, rigid postures that freeze out self-awareness. There is too much they prefer to hide from themselves and others. Further, monied elites and tyrannical governments have no interest in the education of a self-aware, self-responsible public capable of throwing off the chains of functional slavery.

Like the protagonist of Oscar Wilde’s Faustian tale The Picture of Dorian Gray,⁷ many choose to focus exclusively on the surface of the Life Wheel. They strive to maintain the physical appearance of youth and beauty, while concealing the internal ravages of ill-spent time from public view. They delude themselves into believing that the paltry profits gained by saving face while heartlessly exploiting others are worth the ultimate price.

It appears as if many world leaders today, the ones we should be able to depend upon to help improve our lives, have themselves chosen the fragmented path of self-deception, cutting themselves off from conscience and inner truth. As educators, such leaders cram youthful heads with hypnotic information to make them passive yet useful workers. They deny followers the basic knowledge of who they truly are, thus preventing access to the Universal Source from which infinite intelligence and power flows.

The following illustration shows how levels become fragmented by living inauthentic to Life, cutting oneself off from the Creative Source. This is but one suggestive version of what it looks like to distort the natural, complete pattern of Creation. Those who themselves are cut off in turn enforce this sorry state on others.

world gone mad.sized

In the extreme, individuals dissociated from their inner lives become psychopaths capable of committing horrific crimes with no apparent remorse. Out of touch with their True Selves, they remain insatiably hungry, thirsty, afraid and very, very angry. No addiction can satisfy. No amount of wealth or worldly success can compensate for the loss of inner connection.

Sages Transcend Conflict

Now then, wherein is consolation to be found during the present difficult times? For Hindu sages foresaw them. We are now enduring the decline described as the Kali Yuga. Christ similarly foretold the End of Times.

It lies in this. Time does not exist for sages established in the eternal center of the Life Wheel. To enlightened beings, it is but an illusion. Because they experience themselves as eternal, at one with the Creator, their inner peace cannot be disturbed by outer violence. For them, life will go on whether or not the world as we now know it continues. Even if for this reason alone, seeking enlightenment should be a top priority.

To the point, a modern day Chinese meditator acknowledged the seamless continuity connecting his tradition with Einstein’s vision:⁸

Truly, Einstein was an exceptional man, not only because he proved the theory of relativity, but because he took the chance of pursuing the goal of his enlightenment. The important point is that although we might not reach enlightenment through meditation, it is a grand enough aspiration for us to make the effort.

In this, the wisdom of Jou, Tsung Hwa reflects the teachings of the much earlier, world-loved Lao Tze, who knew that true survivors ride the crest of repeating historical cycles to carry on.

Passage 42 of the Tao Te Ching describes the experience of sages who have purified, integrated and mastered the elements of their animal nature. Like the numerous watercolors and ink drawings which depict Lao Tze riding his ox, sages of all times harness instinctive impulses to the service of intentional goals to reach their metaphorical mountain top destination.⁹

PB LT 1

Wisdom is Lao Tze’s antidote to the instinctive dread of death. He assures us that merging with the Source, the unchanging Tao, overcomes the illusion of mortality. Passage 16 illumines the apparent paradox that death cannot change the sage:¹⁰

PB LT 2

For those of us who are less attained, the best efforts made to improve and preserve Life at all levels NOW are noble and worthy in themselves, as valuable as for the experience of the journey as for the end result of achieving immortality.

What Can We Do NOW?

In the past, monasteries arose as islands of hospitality, learning and civility during Europe and Asia’s so-called dark ages. Once again, as another dark age looms on the horizon, intentional communities dedicated to preserving the essential teachings will naturally arise. My best hope is that future leaders will meet the responsibility of shaping hopeful new beginnings; that they will succeed in transmitting the wisdom of the ancients to future generations along side the complimentary technical know-how of today’s sciences.

In the Positive Paradigm reality map, future educators have a versatile self-awareness tool with which to teach the basics of leading an integrated, self-responsible life. Building on the seven basic axioms which flow from it, tomorrow’s leaders have a viable model upon which to structure healthy social organizations.

As described in The Positive Paradigm Handbook,¹¹these basic axioms are:

1. A complete and correct paradigm is the key to personal well-being and success.

2. We are each a world complete, containing the potentials of the universe.

3. Unity and diversity are necessary compliments.

4. The consequences of action are inevitable; those who respect the law of karma survive.

5. History is neither linear or progressive, nor can human survival be taken for granted.

6. Used as a linguistic tool, the Life Wheel promotes clear, accurate and effective communication.

7. With a correct paradigm, practical methods and useful tools, you can make yourself whole.

Herein lies another discussion, complete in itself.

Conclusion

Resolving conflict necessarily occurs one person at a time, and from the inside out. For this reason, however complex and overwhelming world problems may seem, we each have the option and responsibility to improve that which is closest to home: ourselves. By reducing internal conflict within, each of us has the potential, if only in modest ways, to reduce the conflict without. By remaining ever mindful of the breath and the Divine Source from which it flows, self-selected survivors will surely find from deep within the answers to every question along with sufficient intelligence, courage and power to overcome and outlast every challenge.

References

Swami Vivekananda, quoted by Dharma Sing Khalsa, M.D. and Cameron Stauth in Meditation as Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Force. (New York: Pocket Books, 2001), 55
Meditation as Medicine, 55
Swami Vivekananda, quoted at http://izquotes.com/author/swami-vivekananda
Patricia E. West, Rethinking Survival: Getting to the Positive Paradigm of Change. (Wisconsin: +A Positive Action Press, 2014)
Rethinking Survival, 104
Meditation as Medicine, 64

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. (originally published in England, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 1891)
Jou,Tsung Hwa, The Tao of Meditation: Way to Enlightenment. (Scottsdale, AZ: Tai Chi Foundation, 1983), 71
Patricia E. West, Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change. (Wisconsin: +A Positive Action Press, 2014), 31-32
Two Sides of a Coin, 70
Patricia E. West, The Positive Paradigm Handbook: Make Yourself Whole Using the Wheel of Change. (Wisconsin: +A Positive Action Press, 2014)

I’m Writing To . . .

globe

Like magic, hints about the baby steps to take next have been coming from all directions.

Today, I’m writing in answer to a comment made on Two Out of Three Isn’t Enough:

Hi Patricia, I enjoy your writing style. That said, one must write with a target audience in mind; at least commercially. Otherwise you are just writing for yourself.

For a split second, I went on the defensive.

What??!! Just mental masturbation? Focus on making money?

This particular LinkedIn connection has followed my posts from the beginning. He should know me better by now.

To state once more what I’ve repeatedly said, I write because — like so many men and women – my lonely, early years were haunted by unspeakable specters of suicide and abuses of power. If what helped save me could, paid forward, make a difference in even one life, it would, for me, be enough.

“To save one life is to save the world entire.” This is the mantra that keeps me going late nights, after daily tasks are completed, even when my physical body urgently wants rest.

Though surely not intended, what “a target audience” conjures in my mind is the image of armed game hunters dressed in orange and camo garb, scouting for animals to snuff the life out of and eat for dinner.

Not that I haven’t given conventional writers’ wisdom – “know your audience” – some thought, thank you anyway. I have. A lot, in fact.

Here’s part of the problem. The Life Wheel is universal. It offers a scientific underpinning to support humanistic calls to live in peace. As written in Sages and Scientists Can Agree on This, it has the potential to restore awareness of the common humanity everyone everywhere shares in common.

On the opposite, shadow side, today’s lack of a universally accepted, complete and accurate paradigm answers the plaintive question, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Limiting, misleading paradigms are a root cause of widespread conflict and suffering in today’s dangerously volatile world.

Everyone is fascinated by both sides of change. On the one hand, we yearn for positive improvements. On the other, we dread the unknown. That’s because no one taught us the survival basics in school. We never learned how the dynamics of duality drive relationships in the world. We don’t know how to balance yin-yang opposites to maintain stability, first within, then without.

So we remain conflicted – on all levels. Ambivalent. Paralyzed. In fact, lack of survival basics has become our Achilles Heel – our fatal flaw.

Change is a word on the lips of CEOs, politicians, radicals, therapists, pastors everywhere. All use it. But very few have an in-depth understanding of what it’s about, much less have the methods and means to act as effective agents of positive change.

That’s one reason why I have a problem with niche thinking. The current trend of carving humanity into smaller and smaller, mutually exclusive either/or interest groups is a symptom of the fragmented, isolating thinking we desperately need to overcome. . . . which the Life Wheel has the potential to heal.

Fortunately, however, this coin has a flip side too. Being universal, the Life Wheel can be brought to life – animated and applied to illumine each and very tiny corner niche.

So, I’ve done my bestest to go with the flow of common wisdom.

For example, for a time I focused on MILLENNIALS. Being tech savvy, I thought, they are especially well qualified to resonate with the digital technology of the Book of Change — The I Ching. Further, they’re the ones most disillusioned of the “American dream.” Being less invested than their elders in prevailing, dysfunctional paradigms, I thought they would “get it.”

In When the Lights Go Out, Who Will Millennials Call? I wrote what still reads to me like a wake-up tour de force.

I continued with Good News and Bad News for Millenials.

Did any one get it? What more can I say? (Perhaps, I sometimes think, someone else might say it differently and better.)

Nevertheless, I tried again, suggesting what could have been billion dollar game and app ideas in An Inner Compass App for Millennials.

Response? Instant contact from a venture capitalist. He wanted to pick my brain; tried to coerce me into signing a non-competition agreement that would, in effect, block further blogging. So sorry. No can do. (Reminded me of Hannibal’s words, “When the lamb cries, the wolf comes. But not to help.”)

Next, in frustration over the foolishness of a self-proclaimed millennial leader who didn’t get it whatsoever, I wrote What the Generations Share in Common.

So, moving on to other audiences.

The I Ching has been the primary decision-making tool used by LEADERS in every walk of life – government, military, monastic, medical, mercantile . . you name it . . . for thousands of years.

So I applied the Life Wheel, as the next generation Book of Change, to address a host of leaderships issues. For example, in response to a direct question, I wrote How Bad People Become Leaders; and then Savvy Leaders Go with the Flow.

In True Leaders Trust Their Inner Compass to Over Come Confusion, I introduced the Life Wheel to Authentic Leaders who already accept the importance of following their North Star.

In The Positive Paradigm Handbook: Make Yourself Whole Using the Wheel of Change, I’ve shown how THERAPISTS and SELF-HEALERS can turn the Life Wheel into a diagnostic and a decision-making tool. I have a special fondness for Jungian analysts, and said so in Therapists as Positive Change Agents.

For those who chose to frame their truth in the language of PHILOSOPHY, I wrote Change the Rules of the Knowledge Game. Here I focused the Life Wheel on the field of epistemology – the (politically charged) study of who can know what, and how.

The list goes on.

But . . . I still ask myself, how does one “target” the diverse and widely scattered audience of readers who hide painful dark secrets under the facade of their ordinary lives as housewives, students, soldiers, athletes, priests, poets, politicians, CEOs, entrepreneurs and on and on. . . ?

How does one “target” the hidden army of loved ones so poorly equipped to win the war to rescue sons, daughters and spouses from quiet desperation?

How does one effectively extend compassionate hope to the multitude of isolated, face-saving power abusers in high office — addicts driven by psychological forces outside their conscious awareness, rendered taboo by current dysfunctional paradigms.

How do I tell all of them, that like me, with the I Ching as a confidential best friend, they would find out that they are never, ever truly alone. And that everyone can choose to change for the better.

With its wisdom and support (explain its magic as you will), I have brought myself back from every temptation – from hated, the impulse to revenge, from self-pity and despair.

With its help, I’ve gleaned the benefit of lessons to be learned from adversity.

It has inspired me, instead reacting against abuse and succumbing to the danger of becoming an abuser myself, to live and to serve as a healing beacon to others.

What follows is a personal example of desperation and life-saving help excerpted from Rethinking Survival:

The scriptures were inspiring. [the swami] cynically perverted them. A pundit disciple based in Minneapolis initiated gullible students in the rituals of guru worship. This aristocratic charmer held Western seekers in contempt and dummed the teachings down.

The powers of this smooth, flamboyant “holy man” were foreign to Western sensibilities. He flaunted a repertoire of magic tricks. He could change blood flow in his feet. He read minds and hypnotized students.

He reportedly bilked American students out of thousands of dollars for nonexistent hospitals in India.

By his own admission, disciples in India would have burned his ashram to the ground had they known he was habitually performing sexual tantra (rape) on unsuspecting American women. . . .

At his ashram in Rishikesh, India, three women he’d seduced got together and traded information. We realized none of us was a “special exception” to his vow of celibacy.

When we blew the whistle, he flipped out. Tantric teachings, he raged, were sacred teachings. Exposing them would damn us forever. We were terrified and backed down.

To the detriment of other relationships, I obeyed his command, “Keep still!!”

Covering his backside, the swami informed his psychologist henchmen that I was “mentally disturbed.” Protecting vested interests in their careers, they treated me as if I were crazy.

It took years to get over the pain, anger and confusion caused by their betrayals.

But I healed. I used yogic introspection to get over it mentally. To repair emotional damage, I turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine. For solace and hope, I looked to the New Testament.

But my best friend and advisor throughout was The Book of Change. I didn’t dare talk with people who knew the swami. They would have turned against me, not helped.

His powers were outside the experience of university-trained therapists. There were no qualified professionals to turn to.

Confiding in family was out of the question. If I went to them with one problem, I’d end up with two.

But with the I Ching, I could be completely honest. It has no agendas. Opening my heart to ask my questions was like talking with my True Self. Its answers rang true. Instead of tearing myself apart by warring against abuse of power, I used it to turn inward to the higher authority I could trust: my own conscience.

The I Ching and ME

A guest blog I’ve enjoyed writing focuses on using the Book of Change to experience the difference between KNOWLEDGE (information) and KNOWING (introspection). Maintaining a balance between the two is a survival priority.

The article’s section headers include Lao Tze and the I Ching, Jung and the I Ching, and The I Ching and You.

After submitting it, this thought flashed into mind. A section was missing: The I Ching and ME. So here it is.

For me, the Book of Change is a gateway to magic. On this side, it has been a close companion, good friend and advisor through the years. On the far side, perhaps remembered from lifetimes past, it speaks to me from a place beyond time and space.

With it, I was never alone, even and especially when I was loneliest in crowded rooms. When the world impelled suicide, it brought me back to a deeper, all-pervasive love of life.

So I will share a few sections from Rethinking Survival about how I met the book, and how it has grown on me.

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First Introductions

. . . I’d had a hunch about [the I Ching] for a very long time. Ellsworth Carlson, who lived in Shansi, China during WWII, was a classmate of my parents at Oberlin College. When I was nursery school age, he bounced me on his knees at Harvard.

As Freshman student, I took Dr. Carlson’s course in Asian History at Oberlin. What stuck with me how vast an influence the I Ching had on China for 8,000 years and counting.

So, when I left the U.S., all I took with me was my violin and one small suitcase. Of that, half contained clothes. The other half held sheet music and one small book: the Legge translation of the I Ching.

It made no sense to me. I could barely get through a page or two before giving up. But I kept coming back to it. It led to something important I had to know more about.

When I happened upon the Wilhelm/Baynes edition in Düsseldorf’s International Bookshop on Konigs Allee — Finally! — I had a version I could relate to. It literally became my teacher. It gave me a whole new concept of how the world really works.

Not just this family or that institution or the other county. Not arbitrary and capricious, fluctuating fashions, but the constant anchor over time.

From it, I could deduce the fundamental energy dynamics of action and reaction which drive behavior, internally at a psychological level, and externally in relationships and day-to-day events.

It was an extension of the logic my English teacher Miss Elson impressed on my high school brain. But more. It gave me a map of logical consequences, as inevitable as computer language. “If this, then that.”

For example, If you kick people, they kick back (if they can) or otherwise resist. If you are kind, you inspire love and trust in others. If you violate natural law, nature bites back — your mental health suffers; relationships deteriorate; your behavior becomes erratic and social/physical survival is imperiled.

Asian cultures call this “the law of karma.” Its operation is also described in biblical terms: “As ye reap, so shall ye sow,” and “to everything there is a season.”

In sum, its 64 permutations map a progression of the AC-DC energy changes which constitute the natural law of repetitive, cyclical change.

Value

From my point of view, this ancient, timeless science fills a critical blind-spot in Western thinking, lacking which, all efforts are partial and incomplete. Put another way, the glaring absence of this information explains why so much goes so wrong, despite even the best of intentions on the part of politicians, priests, coaches and leaders of every ilk.

The Book of Change combines the best of many worlds. On the one hand, it’s pure logic and math. Its binary-digital code long predates both Leibniz’s calculus and computer science. On the other hand, it leads inwards, serving to link the material world of physical experience (empirical science) with its ultimate source (the realm of con-science).

Working with it, one starts with immediate, practical experience, with the option to travel with it to the opposite end of the reality scale that merges with the apparently mystical. This interactive book, regarded by some as magical, depends on the phenomena of synchronicity to link person, time and events in the decision-making process.

The longevity of ancient Chinese dynasties is attributed to sages who advised their emperors on ways to balance and thus survive historical yin-yang cycles of decay and regeneration. By working in harmony with the laws of nature, rulers succeeded in maintaining social and political stability, riding out the predictable, alternating pendulum swings between extremes.

Even the Communist Chairman Mao, an avowed atheist, owed his success to the I Ching. Its influence permeated both his moving poetry and highly successful, if unorthodox, military strategies.

When I described the many benefits of working with The Book of Change to a business consultant, she summed it up for me. “It sounds to me like the ultimate personal survival guide.” She was exactly right. So I used her description as the title of a book describing its many virtues (as well as answering the unfortunate prejudices/assumptions which have kept the book too much in the shadows).

What You See Is What You Get

The I Ching‘s value, I’ve finally come to understand, is measured by the quality of focused attention, self-honesty and positive intention with which it’s used. Those who dismiss it, who “believe” it is superstitious nonsense, fulfill their expectations. In a way, the book has its own fail-safes. Those who approach it with arrogance or evil motives get little from it.

In my case, it has provided ongoing, life-confirming support, most especially when humans failed me totally. Probably any truth book approached with concentrated attention and an open heart connects the personal mind with the guidance of the Universal Mind. Truth is timeless, so whether the catalyst that triggers inner knowing is ancient or modern doesn’t much matter.

But for me personally, working with The Book of Change is an especially powerful form of introspection. It’s a favorite mindfulness practice, if you will. Best translations link magic with science to satisfy head, heart and soul.

I admit that, as with any good friend, it took a while to break the ice and get to know it. For example, once, when I was relatively new to the book, on an early winter morning in Spring Green, I woke up with a bad feeling and consulted the I Ching for feedback. Its advice, in essence: “Don’t move. Don’t go anywhere. Anything you do now will go wrong.”

Friends were skeptical. I was scheduled for a job interview that couldn’t be missed. Even when the bald tires on my vintage Buick skidded on the ice, spinning me into a snow bank along Willow Gold Farm’s long driveway, they refused to quit. They drove up the tractor and jammed a curved metal hook under the front fender. It punctured the radiator, emptying its yellow-green fluid onto the crystal white snow.

I wasn’t going anywhere that day. Or, after their “help,” even the next.

This was definitely a book to be taken seriously!

But enough for today. There’s much more, of course. Will have to wait for later.

What Is YOUR Worst Fear?

“Stay just the way you are,” pleaded a friend. Another graduating pal scribbled in my 1964 year book, “Stay as sweet as you are.” A third warned, “Don’t ever change!”

Looking back, the strange and impossible expectation that we live the rest of our lives frozen in time, forever unchanged, was at best, unrealistic.

What lurked beneath the surface was fear of the open-jawed monster – the Unknown – looming ahead, threatening to swallow up this class of bright-eyed but poorly prepared graduates, changing each of us forever in unforeseen ways.

Back then, we were as cocky-confident as the youthful Luke Skywalker who boasted, “I’m not afraid.”

Little did we suspect then, as savvy Yoda warned, “You will be.”

Had we been cavemen, our dreads would have been limited to the instinctual fear of loud noises or falling off sharp cliffs.

But we were born in the year nuclear bombs ended WW II with horrifying finality. The list of fears we grew up was quite different from those of our earliest ancestors.

Even so, following the example of our elders, most of us have continued to engage in daily tasks, hiding behind a hedge of busy-work to fend off the unacknowledged terrors that lurk on the furthermost edges of awareness.

Today, international leaders and the rogue terrorists of shadow governments continue to flirt with Einstein’s dreaded nuclear destruction. Horrific headlines have become so familiar that we’ve become numb to bad news. Likely outcomes of nuclear war are so horrific that the mind refuses to wrap itself around the possibility of a world suddenly changed forever.

We say to ourselves, “If we deny the possibility, refuse to even think about it, it can’t happen.”

But according to Plato, we’ve got it backwards. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” For, seeking light on all levels – literal facts, metaphysical truth and inner illumination – leads us to recognize what inevitably changes as well as what does not. It secures triumph over petty fears and victory over illusory death.

Yet, rather than acknowledge danger and take decisive action to avert it, we continue to fend off awareness of the monster of all fears – total annihilation. Instead, we fritter away precious time and energy sweating over inconsequential “small stuff.” We allow ourselves to be seduced by the trivial and irrelevant . . . until, finally, inevitably, calamity strikes and finds us unprepared.

What is the greatest fear you allow yourself to be aware of?

Do you categorically dread any change to your comfortable (or at least familiar) status quo?

The list of specific possibilities is virtually endless. Fear of abandonment, of failure, of success, of poverty, of rejection, of ridicule. There’s the death of loved ones and finally one’s own decline and departure from the physical.

Importantly, are you aware of what you DO about your fears? For, in fact, you do have a wide range of options to choose from.

You can unconsciously project them onto others and make them happen. Or take responsibility to face and overcome them.

You can deny them, bury your head in the sand and hide. Or go to the opposite extreme and overcompensate: adopt a fatalistic hedonist “Eat drink and be merry” attitude. Or choose one of gratitude, focusing on and appreciating the good things of life now, while they last.

As ever, there are two sides to this coin. On the one hand, fear attracts danger. Dwelling on fears can make them come true. But, on the other hand, denying the existence of one’s fears invites danger as well.

Timing is also a important. Now versus later also factors into end results.

Where’s your balance point? It’s a puzzlement.

From Conscience, here are a few thoughts to help sort it out.

Essay 34. FEAR

“Tao does not seem to be something we need to acquire. We are already a part of it. We can, however, do a great job of blocking its manifestation within us. We primarily block the Tao through fear and tension. . . Fear is the source of blockage; it underlies our painful, negative emotions, even though its presence is usually hidden.” — Wolfe Lowenthal, There Are No Secrets

“Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds are nothing but lies, and we suffer because we believe all these lies. In the dream of the planet, it is normal for humans to suffer, to live in fear, and to create emotional dramas . . . If we look at human society we see a place so difficult to live in because it is ruled by fear.” — Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

“Fear is an essential part of our nature, installed in our DNA, no doubt for very good reason. Fear is an alarm system. It is there to push us in one direction or another, out of harm’s way. . . it is part of our intelligence, part of an ingenious guidance system to help ensure our survival — as individuals, as communities, and as a species.” — Thom Rutledge, Embracing Fear and Finding the Courage to Life Your Life

THE FRONT

An Old English root means sudden attack, ambush or snare. Webster’s first definition is a feeling of anxiety and agitation caused by the presence or nearness of danger, evil, or pain. It suggests doubt, timidity, dread, terror, fright or apprehension.

Alternatively, fear is defined as a respectful dread, awe, or reverence. Fear of God is often a combination of both types, including both awe for the majesty of God’s creation and guilty anticipation of punishment for wrong-doings.

Fears are part natural, part the result of cultural conditioning. Those which are unreal are best dispelled by analysis and understanding. Those which are justified are best faced by correcting and atoning for one’s own mistakes as well as preparing to meet and overcome external dangers.

Working with the I Ching helps us discriminate between appropriate fears which require positive action and illusory fears to release and forget. It is an invaluable aid in the process of cultivating self-honesty for the purpose of self-correction. It is equally useful in the process of articulating immanent dangers and deciding on the best strategies for effective response.

Primal fears are associated with correlative chakras. At the first chakra level, the fear is of physical death. At the second, loss of sexual prowess or family support. At the third, the fear is of losing of material and financial accumulations, along with social connections and influence. At the fourth, failure in love relationships. At the fifth, fears turn to losing face or being judged wrong or inadequate in intellectual matters. At the sixth, one fears loss of connection with the creative source.

As one ascends the evolutionary ladder, emotion-based fears lessen, seen in larger perspective. Integrating and balancing the levels reduces the influence fear has on decision-making.

Some fears have physical causes. For example, habitual muscle tension packs lactic acid into the fascia, producing chemically-induced anxiety. Relaxation and stretching exercises which release tension and reduce acid levels relieve tension anxieties.

Fear is also stimulated by abusing internal organs. Excessive sugar and/or alcohol intake causes metabolic imbalances. The kidneys and liver are stressed by the burden of excess toxins and fluids. The nervousness, anger and fear associated with imbalance in these organs is corrected by improving lifestyle choices.

Cultural conditioning causes still other kinds of fear. Authorities who use terror as a means of control instill a sense of inadequacy and helplessness. Hitler, for example, was the product of an authoritarian, fear-based culture as well as the embodiment of its shadow opposite, destructive megalomania.

Fears denied or unresolved undermine self-confidence, sabotage love relationships, and turn life against itself. They manifest in the physical body as heart disease and cancers.

Fear of God, meaning awe, on the other hand, is life-protective. Direct experience of divine connection (the timeless heritage which everyone everywhere shares in common) overcomes ephemeral fears with the larger light of wisdom and higher love.

Awareness of unseen benevolent powers standing by us on all sides though danger and distress restores strength and courage. It is also the ultimate deterrent to wrong-doing.

THE BACK

Ignorance is the root of fear-caused suffering. Its antidote is confidence gained through inner knowledge and direct experience. Trust that deep within, we each hold the answers to every question and solutions to every problem is the beginning of wisdom.

Terror is a perversion of natural fear. Terrorists may believe playing on fear is the best way to control subordinates or get the attention of unjust leaders. However, unlike math, where two negatives make a positive, two wrongs don’t make a right.

When Leaders Can’t Be Trusted

In ancient times, seasons of drought were foreseen by the prophets and prepared for by the leaders they advised. The best known example is Joseph, who correctly interpreted the Egyptian Pharaoh’s dreams. Working together as protectors of their people, they succeeded in storing sufficient supplies of grain during times of plenty to outlast years of famine, saving countless lives.

Today, Obama’s reign up-ends the story of Joseph in Egypt, weaving a tangled, dangerous legacy designed to outlast his years in office.

Now, vulture-like, presidential strategists who “never let an emergency go to waste,” lie in wait for opportunities to further the incremental process of world domination by administrative fiat.

Executive Order 13603 is a blatant case in point.

What it boils down to is that federal agencies have been given free license to take anything from anyone, including virtually ALL privately owned resources. All it would take to trigger this social-economic disaster waiting to happen is a dramatic crisis – a convenient excuse to declare a national state of emergency.

Does escalating race-baiting and violence against urban police ring a bell? Inciting massive Muslim retaliations with cartoon contests in the name of “freedom of speech” would also do the trick. Surely you can easily come up with other likely triggers.

Sounding the alert, M.D. Creekmore, author at TheSurvivalistBlog.net, writes:

Over the years I’ve read many articles and books which suggest that the biggest threat to your survival post collapse are refugees fleeing the cities or your neighbors coming to take your preps. While they maybe a legitimate concern, as you can see by reading the except from executive order 13603, they probably won’t be the biggest threat to your survival.*

Following up, I looked for other descriptions of EO 13603. Wikipedia sanitizes it entirely.

The National Defense Resources Preparedness executive order (Executive Order 13603) is an order of the United States’ President signed by President Barak Obama March 16, 2012. The purpose of this order is to delegate authority and address national defense resource policies and programs under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Executive Order 13603 provides the framework and authority for the allocation or appropriation of resources, materials and services to promote national defense.

Contrary to a few initial claims otherwise, the Order appears to update long-existing directives that have been issued as far back as the Truman Administration and makes no claim to allowing the federal government to confiscate private property or declare martial law.** [emphasis added]

In stark contrast, according to MinutemenNews.com:

The EO includes all of Obama’s out-of-control agencies and they would have unlimited power if the president declared a “national emergency.” Executive Order 13603 — National Defense Resources Preparedness allows the government to completely control our lives through the “industrial and technological base,” should the president declare a national emergency.

EO 13603 gives Obama the power over all commodities and products capable of being ingested by human beings and animals; all forms of energy; all forms of civil transportation; all usable water from all sources; health resources; forces labor such as military conscription; and federal officials can issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources.*** [emphasis added]

Rather than encouraging and supporting individual initiatives to prepare for seasons of natural disaster, the federal government is systematically blocking such efforts, jealously taking unto itself the exclusive role of “protector” – quite the ravenous wolf in faux-sheep clothing. Home farming is banned in favor of huge corporate monoliths. Second Amendment rights, a basic premise of the Republic, are under fire while the feds are simultaneously arming local police to the teeth.

Which leads me to ask, “What recourse is available to sincere leaders at smaller levels of organization? How are they to fulfill their responsibilities to sustain and protect themselves and those they care for, especially from the onslaught of regulations imposed, ironically, in the name of protection?” For all empty PR, feeble gestures and false pretenses to the contrary, world leaders are part of the problem, not any viable solution.

When, far from being trustworthy, those in positions of authority can be relied upon to be self-serving and deceitful regarding the very real dangers we face from the environment and national enemies alike, where do we turn?

Although I’m never given to know more than what I need to function in the moment, I do know this. The “interesting” times we’re going through now were long foreseen by the prophets. Further, the more extreme external dangers become, the more urgently, in balance, we are obliged to turn to the internal, eternal resources which no government can confiscate with the excuse of exercising “emergency powers.”

Unfortunately, those who riot, protest and return violence for violence play into the hands of their enemies. Those who survive and succeed in protecting those they care for know better.

For far greater subtle powers have always protected those who hear and heed them. In an earlier post, I described Joseph, husband of Mary and protector of the baby Jesus, as a wondrous example of “knowing” where to be when to avoid persecution and ensure his family’s survival.

The earlier Joseph, before becoming Pharaoh’s advisor, also miraculously survived the attacks of jealous brothers, the unjust accusations of his owner’s spiteful wife, and years of imprisonment.

With or without the intercession of religious authorities, the living presence of Christ endures as the ultimate source of guidance and protection. I take his words quite literally. He said he was before, is now, and will continue after the End of Times. As such, his universal presence pervades the essence of all true wisdom traditions. He promised he will be with his followers always, even to the End of Times. When humans leaders prove untrustworthy, this is the deeper promise I implicitly trust.

The challenge inherent in extreme times, a blessing in disguise, is that they force us to return to the basics and draw upon the inner strength too easily forgotten when life on the Wheel’s surface is easy. To repeat, Christ’s essence (call it the Force, or the Tao, as you will) pervades the matrix of creation. It broadcasts from the center of the Life Wheel, ever available as the unfailing fount of strength and help to those listen and trust.

Christ Broadcasts-sized

* http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/executive-order-13603-and-what-it-means-to-preppers/

** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13603

*** http://minutemennews.com/2013/06/executive-order-13603-how-dangerous-is-it/

Now Needed: An Army of Arjunas

Sometimes it seems the magic is gone forever from my life. All that remains is chores, living like an unwelcome fugitive, dodging the condescending cruelties of householders who bring in more money. Pretty grim.

But suddenly that changed. Today the magic is back, full force. Coming out of the blue, encouraging messages from strangers sparked me back into the writing mode.

It started this morning (Saturday, April 18. 2015) with an email notice. A recommendation had been voluntarily added to my [now cancelled] LinkedIn profile. “Insightful, ground breaking, immensely important.”

Shortly afterwards, a delightful, koan-like message (re: Humanity) appeared: “Very acknowledgeable am smiling please carry on.”

That me jolted out of my funk. After thanking these messengers of the Universe (no naming names, so as not to offend anyone), I continued, responding to overlooked messages I earlier hadn’t had the heart to answer. One simply said, “Hey Patricia, Thanks for the new post.”

Another wrote, “Patricia, Good morning, I trust you are doing well. Take good care.”

After that, I checked an abandoned blog site to see how old friends are faring there. I was delighted to find a post from an earlier commenter whom I thought I’d offended beyond repair. Resonance with my work showed he’s following through in his own way. He wrote:

We tend to miss that our immediate environment is part of a much bigger ecosystem whose dynamics and ramifications extend far beyond our limited grasp of space and time.

Though delighted, I kept my response short: Well said. Agreed. : )

But I still had questions about writing. If I should I continue, in what in direction? I’ve been stuck on the topic of intentional communities, which has stalled on the drawing board for months. The content continues to elude me. Outlines only generate more questions.

Further, one LinkedIn connection who’s now occupied elsewhere rejected the topic, assuming communism is what I have in mind. (No way!) Another connection with enormous potential to do great good has taken a different direction, choosing to engage in a family-run start-up.

I considered listing my doubts and inviting comments. But that didn’t click either.

So now, in thinking about the “interesting” timing of encouraging emails, I remembered that today – April 18^{th –}– is a new moon, traditionally associated with new beginnings. Before checking for a description of the day’s potential, I “knew” I should first consult my old, best friend, the Book of Change.

That’s when the magic kicked in big time.

Granted that the I Ching (especially useful as a vehicle for entering the fourth dimension of time-space where synchronicity comes into play) is outside the comfort zone of some professionals. Nevertheless, please stay with me. After all, it has also been the enduring, practical foundation of leadership training in Asian cultures for many thousands of years – with good reason.

Be that as it may, I queried for direction. The resulting hexagram COMMUNITY was directly to the point of my concern. The CSBOC reading for #13 is:

IC 13

A changing line in the second place reinforced the concluding warning against selfishness: Avoid special interest groups. Selfish and corrupt motives bring downfall.

The resultant change, were the warning heeded, is #1 – CREATIVE POWER, which further reinforces the text.

The changing line in the fourth place reads: If you have become isolated, understand why and correct yourself.

This warning line pin-points a major problem. If heeded, the resultant change would result in # 37 – FAMILY, the cornerstone of community. I take the concluding warning very personally: Avoid roles not suited to your nature.

This returns full circle to my immediate dilemma. As a writer, my topic – the uncertainty of human survival – puts me in the role of a Cassandra relative to the larger, defiantly oblivious society. Being the messenger of an unpopular warning, though it seems my calling, can be isolating, not to mention unrewarding. It results in lifestyle issues with no immediate solutions in sight.

Nevertheless, I persist in believing that as increasingly more people find themselves in desperate social and economic straits, readiness will increase and my time eventually will come. The funding needed to support the intentional communities I envision will eventually materialize.

The situation reminds me of the dilemma faced by the warrior-charioteer Arjuna in the Bhadavad Gita. Those who opposed him were corrupt relatives, which posed a great conflict. Was it morally right to take sides against family, even if they were in the wrong? Forced to make an apparently no-win choice was paralyzing. On the battlefield, overwhelmed, he put down his weapons and refused to fight.

But at this crisis and turning point, his chariot driver, Lord Krsna, revealed his true identity. With inspirational encouragement, he encouraged the warrior to take heart, stand firm and win the righteous battle against evil.

GITA sized

Similarly, the communities which timeless scriptures encourage, of which Einstein wrote, and of which I am thinking, are not based on biological or even cultural kindred, but rather on resonance of heart and mind. Communities connecting kindred souls, if you will. And in this, the exceedingly dangerous times in which we live hold magical seeds of opportunity. From Two Sides of a Coin:

Whereas most rulers suffer the unanticipated consequences of ignorance, pride and greed as shock, humiliation and undoing, sages intentionally harness the forces of nature to positive ends. Thus it is, that throughout history, at the right time, in the necessary circumstances, leaders of ordinary and humble beginnings have catapulted to extraordinary levels of accomplishment, effecting broad political and social change.

By voicing the collective yearnings of the suffering masses, perennial sage-leaders shed the light of eternal hope on times of greatest darkness. By inspired words and living example, they recreate ever-new the Gita’s vision of opportunities hidden within the outward experience of hardship.

For as sages know, “when social degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.” From Passage 78 of the Tao Te Ching:

78a snippet

Returning to this morning’s magical COMMUNITY reading: another next bend in the road occurred. Surprisingly, the changing lines combine to produce a most inauspicious outcome: # 9 – FRUSTRATION, which begins:

External factors you may not even be aware of will cause FRUSTRATION. New projects will not work out now. . . Your choice is either to wait patiently or to leave the situation.

It concludes by advising, Avoid major commitments.

So, turning to what I saved for last, I asked, What is the nature of the frustration in building intentional communities? The answer, when I checked the astrological description of today’s new moon was this. Timing. Major planets of communication and reform are currently going into hibernation, so to speak. Retrograde.

According to the calendar, the correct decision for me personally is to wait until the end September and into October. For the time being, continue to patiently endure unavoidable frustrations.

For others, for many other reasons, there will be other choices. What is consistent across the board is that building effective intentional communities will depend on an army of Arjunas, each of whom listens to the inner voice of conscience represented by Lord Krsna rather than to the dictates of their particular biological families or immediate social, political and religious prejudices.

Sometimes I wish I could win the largest lottery in history, as if that would end current frustrations. Yet I know bringing in money that way cannot solve the deeper problems. It would not influence hearts or minds, persuade the public of the wisdom needed to ensure human survival. For this, patience is required. So it is no accident that first three letters of PATIENCE are also the first letters of my name.

Today’s magic provided the immediate encouragement now needed to keep writing . . . balanced with acceptance of long-term timing. May my telling of it encourage fellow Arjunas-in-waiting, those who also will, when the time is right, God-willing, be ready to build on common ground.

Where Is the Unity in COMM-UNITY?

Working with words mindfully is an interesting challenge.

For example, have you ever wondered about the names United States and United Nations? Why did Founders choose to describe their country as United? United on what levels and in what way(s)? By common principles? Common interests, commitments, or vision for the future?

What did charter members of the international organization intend by using the same word, United? Pursuing common goals, pooling resources and/or standing firm against common dangers? Does the word hold the same meaning today as it did earlier? What does it mean now, and to whom? Does United mean the same thing to insider elites as to the rest of us? Why does this matter?

The use of the word United is ironic with overtones of tragedy, given the current fragmented and contentious condition of both entities.

It part, current problems were inherent from inception, a consequence of failing to be philosophically correct in foundations. This single picture shows wherein unity can truly be found, and where not.

0 Def of Paradigm

Looking for unity in the wrong places was fraught with potentially dangerous consequences which are still bearing poisonous fruit today.

It’s especially important to rethink the meaning of Unity in the context of building intentional communities, for the chain of individuals bound together by common purpose is no stronger than its weakest link. The foundation of viable, sustainable communities begins with the integrity of each participating member.

The following Essay from Conscience provides food for thought along these lines. It offers a holistic perspective on unity, both within and without. This comprehensive view offers a useful understanding for building effective communities, as well as diagnosing past failures experienced as a consequence of limited vision and follow-through.

Essay 60. UNITY

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. — Martin Luther King, Jr., The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have always felt that one of the simplest and most apt metaphors for an organization as complex as the United Nations is the Rorschach inkblot test. What one person sees as the hope of a world free of war, famine, poverty, and disease, another interprets as a global boondoggle comprised of uncaring civil servants threatening the cherished concept of state sovereignty. — James Holtje, Divided It Stands: Can the United Nations Work

THE FRONT

The Latin root of “unity” means oneness. Webster’s first definition is the state of being one, or united; oneness, singleness. It means something complete in itself, single, or separate. It can be the quality of being one in spirit, sentiment, purpose; harmony, agreement or concord. In contrast, it can also mean uniformity.

It can refer to an arrangement of parts or material in a work of art or literature that produce a single, harmonious effect. It can refer to constancy, continuity, or fixity of purpose or action.

The difference amongst these definitions reflects a general cultural confusion as to the optimal relationship of the individual to nature, society, and their creative Source. Effective, consistent action depends on an integrated concept of self and a comfortable relationship of each part with the whole. Therefore, thinking carefully about what unity means — as well as what it doesn’t — is a necessary prelude to ultimate success in life.

Accepting the I Ching view that accomplishments begin with the smallest unit, unity is first to be attained within. It’s common to say, “My mind’s not made up” or “Get it together.” The familiar saying, “The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing,” could also be phrased, “The left brain doesn’t know what the right brain is doing.”

When Westerns say, “I’m of two minds on this,” it reflects confusion, ambivalence or lack of discipline. However, the martial arts advice to have eight brains and eight hearts refers to the height of attainment. It suggests ability to intentionally shift internal gears to meet any situation. From the totality of unified mind, the ideal I Ching master focuses from above while acting through each of the energy centers according the immediate need at the time.

According to the MPI Standard, the Motive, the WHY of psychologies and meditative practices is the same: to unify fragmented, antagonistic functions of mind, personality and behavior.

The Purpose, the HOW they accomplish this is diverse. Some practices start from the outside with behavior and work inwards. Others start with the mind, ideas and attitudes, and work outwards. Still others work on both simultaneously, which is possible in comm-unities where work and self-awareness training go hand-in-glove.

The Intent, the WHAT, ranges from personal self-mastery to inner peace and/or functional relationships.

As pictured above, in a holistic world view, external diversity complements inner unity. The core of life’s concentric circles, like the hub of a wheel, remains still as the outer rim revolves, constantly changing and in motion. Meridians, like spokes of a wheel, link center to surface, connecting and organizing the Wheel of Life in a dynamic unity.

It hardly matters how the goal of inner unity is attained. Once one is focused and all the facets of inner energy are coordinated by a single-minded purpose, the pieces of life’s mosaic fall into place, forming a coherent picture. Then life becomes a work of art, like a poem or a song.

Albert Einstein — equal parts musician, philosopher, physicist and world citizen — searched lifelong for a Unified Theory. The Book of Change embodies the universal code he sought. We’ve failed to recognize the clues hidden for centuries in a venerable text that have the potential to lead us to solutions desperately needed NOW. Restoring this treasure to the general culture would provide a fully functional paradigm from which positive, life-sustaining results can be generated across-the-board.

THE BACK

Regimentation and conformance are perversions of unity. Nature flourishes in diversity. Like snowflakes, each individual is a unique variation of its kind. Yet, in extreme social contexts, variations are suppressed and punished. While this unnatural state might be appropriate to unnatural situations like war, it’s antithetical to personal well-being.

Technically, because all things are connected, it’s possible to dabble in the dark worlds of demons and departed souls. However, though these realms do exist, it is dangerously unwise to explore them without a specific, positive purpose (“know the enemy”) and a white magician’s guidance.

Therapists & Business Trainers as Mindfulness Teachers – Implementing Kahneman’s S2

Comments added by Tony Ayaz, Business Trainer, to a recent LinkedIn article* deserve a post in themselves, not only for the important points he raised, but also as reminder of the mindfulness skill he calls “read-listening.”

Rather than speed-reading, skimming through articles for key phrases and/or surfing in search of attack points, he advocates a thoughtful reading between-the-lines. What does the author, deeper than words, really mean?

On first reading of the original comment, out of all that was written, alas, I focused only a single part, overlooking the rest. Out of context, I answered only the final paragraph. He wrote:

I think we expect too much from our brain, we have a choice, we either slow down our pace or keep going till we drop off and no retirement, except to retire in a grave, I live to work.

I responded: If you live to work, I sincerely hope it’s because you love your work and find enjoyment/ fulfillment in what you do.

But that didn’t do his comment-as-a-whole justice. I’d failed to “read-listen” to his words. He corrected me:

Patricia, I have never worked in my life, it has always been an employment and/or running a business and now teaching at uni . . . I have always found what they call as work as learning, teaching is just imparting what I learnt myself and from others like you too. I just prioritise my listed routines so my brain is kept in check, while I observe what is around me from outside my body (have you tried that, it guides your heart and mind together in sync!).

In rethinking his read-listen attitude, I connected it with lessons learned from ethnology research interviews. Here’s the description of how it works from RS:

Simply put, the researcher goes into the “field” and gets to know the people. Either formally or informally, she gathers information about the system from different insiders’ points of view and puts it together to form an overview. From this, the researcher can draw conclusions and, when appropriate, make recommendations regarding change options.

At that time, I found that all the skills previously acquired along the way served me well as an ethnology researcher. It was a living example of a favorite maxim, “Nothing is ever wasted.”

From youthful musician years, I gained listening and technical keyboard skills. Playing the piano eventually translated into typing at computers. This in turn found other applications. For example, when I paid the rent by working as a legal secretary, plugged into a Dictaphone, I transcribed dictated words faster than a speeding bullet.

All this, in turn, came in useful as a researcher. With permission, before beginning an interview, I set up a tape recorder. That way, rather than scramble to take sketchy notes during an interview, I could give the subject my full attention. I was free to observe body language, maintain direct eye contact, give non-verbal as well as verbal cues and gently keep the conversation on track.

But what a shock, when I later transcribed, word-for-word, what had been spoken! Of all that was said, I remembered only a small part. I thought I was listening carefully. But much went over my head. And of what I did hear, I often remembered it inaccurately. Only re-listening and quoting directly from transcripts allowed me to accurately report the information collected.

From this experience, I learned that, when we’re able to slow down and listen really carefully, we find out how much is missed during the rapid-fire pace of everyday communications, be it conversation or reading.

When Tony read-listens, he’s slowing down the pace, much as I should have done in reading his comments.

Read-listening is a form of practicing mindfulness, which is exactly to the point of the article in question. It compared full-spectrum awareness (repackaged in contemporary language as mindfulness) to the empirical research findings of Nobel prize winner, Daniel Kahneman.

As Tony corrected me, in his own way, he practices what might be called “meditation-in-action.” I observe what is around me from outside my body (have you tried that, it guides your heart and mind together in sync!).

Other of his comments raise thoughtful concerns. I missed their full implications on the first go round, and definitely must slow down to read-listen better in the future: I do believe no one understands the brain, it is like finding the black hole or looking for GOD particle. And, I believe it is not only outside the research it is outside the human capability and will always remain a work in progress or humans will become the creator.

These are exquisitely important questions.

But now, an A-ah! Here’s another relevant Tony-clue: To fast and slow decision making of the mind S1 & 2 could simply be linked to time and stage of life and the environment one lives in.

Historically, changes have been observed to occur in repeating patterns on every scale of magnitude. That is to say, the seasons of one’s personal life are writ large on the pages of human history. Just as, on a personal scale, the applications of listening and keyboarding shifted from music to law firms and then to ethnology research, weaving a pattern of unforeseen but consistent adaptations, so also meditation sciences shift. They remain essentially the same, but at the same time are continuously renewed to suit immediate circumstances.

No matter how often things change, nothing of real value is lost. Not possible.

By repackaging ancient sciences as Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn has adapted the timeless essence of meditative teachings, making them suitable to the pace and aptitude of today’s fractured and fracturing world.

Earlier I described therapists as agents of positive change. Now I would add, so also are thoughtful business trainers. By adopting the language of empirical research science, which has arguably reconstituted yin and yang in the contemporary terms of S1 and S2, they too are helping the next generation of decision-makers to slow down, become more self-aware and thus – one can only hope – improve the outcomes of the decision-making process.

* See: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/re-search-look-again-patricia-west

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