Tag Archives: unity

Einstein’s New Way of Thinking – 100320

In Shifting Gears, I called for a new way of thinking.

It begins with a paradigm shift away from empirical science’s focus on the outer m=mass, material rim of the Life Wheel, towards an inclusive Unified Field paradigm.

What does Einstein have to do with all of this?

More importantly, what does all this mean for our everyday lives? How is this shift in thinking demonstrated as changes in attitudes and actions?

Here’s the long version.

In 2014, I published “Einstein’s New Way of Thinking” as part of Rethinking Survival. It has been public knowledge since then, posted on this website by the same name, rethinkingsurvival.com

I had recognized that the three variables of his famous formula plug into increasingly deeper levels of the archetypal Life Wheel. The result is Einstein’s intuited Unified Field Theory, including the consciousness factor.

I was also familiar with the quote where Einstein describes the urgently needed paradigm shift. Here, I’ve taken the liberty of blocking it as poetry. This format highlights each important piece of the puzzle:

Einstein calls for humanity to adopt the world view of quantum physics. Why? Because each of us is an inseparable part of a larger whole. But we’ve fallen into the illusion that we’re separate from the Universe, nature, and other beings. We have to break out of this restrictive mental prison. As a matter of survival, we need to expand awareness, accept how we fit within Universe, and embrace all life with compassion.

Psychologists have taken up Einstein’s call. When I searched on “quantum psychology,” numerous sites came up. Far too many for today’s purpose.

So I’ll keep it simple. Dr. Joe Dispenza is the expert on meditation and quantum reality the world has come to love and trust. In Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon, he describes the practical benefits everyday people experience in their daily lives as a result of shifting the way they think:

With practice, students produce positive, measurable, tangible effects in their lives simply by shifting the paradigm of their thoughts and feelings.

He explains:

. . . survival emotions such as blame, hate, rage, competition, and retribution have resulted in an endless, unnecessary trail of pain, suffering, oppression, and death. The results have caused humans to live in opposition and conflict rather than in peace and harmony.

But timing is everything:

This is a pivotal moment in the story of humanity where ancient wisdom and modern science are intersecting. . . This is a time in history when we can break that cycle.

How? By changing our internal state of being. The result? A sense of wholeness, connection and unity.

In 2019, I published an edited version of “Einstein’s New Way of Thinking” in You Are Already Enough as this appendix:

APPENDIX I

The following section is lifted whole from Rethinking Survival. It was written in 2014 in the voice of who I was then, quite different from who I’ve now become. It offers another perspective on the same subject. I’ll let it stand on its own because the message remains valid and completes today’s work.

Einstein’s New Way of Thinking

Barring biological deformity, everyone everywhere is born with the ability to Think Like Royalty. Einstein exercised this privilege. Using time-tested methods, with discipline and determination, so can the rest of us. Partaking of our universal inheritance is a matter of individual self-control, not controlling anyone else.

The secret to thinking like a genius has been known for thousands of years. Yogis call it Raja Yoga. “Raja” is the Sanskrit word for “king.” “Yoga” means “link” or “union.”

Modern medical researchers correlate ancient teachings with brain science. Breath control methods balance, harmonize and stimulate the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This links the inward and outgoing qualities of intuition and reason. It unites artistic with mathematical aptitudes. It completes the circle of yin and yang. It makes of a half-brain a whole person. A new Adam.

On rare occasions, it’s possible to get the same results naturally or by accident, without being able to articulate the dynamics that explain one’s good fortune. Both sides of Einstein’s brain, for example, were fully operational.

He was a born boundary-spanner. He was an accomplished violinist and philosopher as well as a physicist. Pipe smoking probably gave him some of the benefits of deep breathing. But to the best of our knowledge, at least in this lifetime, he never took yoga classes.

For most of us, however, systematic discipline and interdisciplinary studies accelerate the process. Why is it so important to link the hemispheres of the brain? What’s the ultimate spiritual benefit? It opens up the two-way street of the “highway to heaven.”

As pictured in the Life Wheel model, it links the outer world of daily experience with the inner world of inspiration and guidance. It results in the ability to both hear and do. It makes philosophers of kings, and kings of philosophers. The best of both worlds are combined to achieve Plato’s ideal of a philosopher-king.

This heightened human ability actualizes the scriptural promise, “With God, all things are possible.” The emphasis is on “with.” For lacking Divine Connection, our human existence continues to remain incomplete, an empty shell of unfilled dreams – a mere shadow of who we could and were destined to be.

The ability to think like a genius isn’t a guarantee that life will always be peachy, however. In his wisdom, God the Father doesn’t always gives his kids whatever they want. We can always ask. But we may not like the answers. Nor, from our limited perspective, can we comprehend them.

But the facts of life remain the same: it’s a two-way street. Living on the surface, blocking out conscience and ignoring the center has awful consequences. So does rejecting the world. There’s hell to pay for turning the responsibility for government over to others. Survival depends on balancing and coordinating the hemispheres of the brain, and on linking the levels of creation.

The Life Wheel model pictures the viable, inward way out of endless revolutionary cycles which only replace one set of tyrants with another. Clever social theories and angry rhetoric make matters worse. On the surface of Wheel of Fortune, attempts at qualitative change are futile. The key is missing. It lies within.

Daily experience is often fragmented and noisy to the point of being life-threatening. Those who intend to survive need to step away from the fray to start over with a quiet attitude of truth- seeking. They must arm themselves the courage to follow wherever their conclusions lead.

This requires the ability to ignore distractions. Cultivating mindful quietness is essential. This is one of the benefits of working with the Book of Change as a decision-making tool.

Atheist intellectuals who depend exclusively on reason are at risk. They’ve forfeited their native inheritance. They’re so busy running around inside their heads that they get no deeper.

By blocking out inner levels with denials, they’ve become deaf to the still inner voice of conscience. But survival depends on the ability to LISTEN! Really listen.

There are many ways to meditate. Initially, dwelling on music, pictures or mantras may help settle the noisy mind. But going really deep requires more. It involves summoning up the courage to quiet the physical senses and delve deeper yet.

Use The Life Wheel a Measuring Stick

The Unified Field paradigm offers a contemporary approach to thinking in a holistic, integrated way. Here are a few basics:

No either-ors. A valid worldview satisfies both head and heart, intellect and intuition. If a belief system offends reason, it’s not complete. If it offends the heart, lacks compassion. or is counter-intuitive, that’s also not the comprehensive, positive way.

No more dividing the world into all good or all bad, white collar versus blue collar, jocks versus nerds, saints or sinners. Humans on planet Earth are complicated mixes of contradictory qualities that surface in different ways at different times over the course of a lifetime. No hero-worshiping. No scapegoating. Give the benefit of the doubt. Give people a chance. Hope for the best.

Keep the open mind, not closed. Relax. Take a calm approach. Work for the pinnacle overview. Work for moderation, with respect for all sides.

Step back from the noisy, conflict-generating approach. Truth-seeking is not a fight or a contest. It’s a search for what’s helpful and hopeful.

Look at the world around you with the fresh eyes of a curious child as Einstein did. Connect the dots. Look for underlying similarities. Ask, “How do things work?”

KISS. “Keep it simple, stupid.” Back to the truly basic, with an attitude of humility.

Thou shalt not adulterate. Don’t accept only what’s convenient and reject the challenging. Don’t tamper with the facts or the teachings, and never ever be tempted to spin (i.e., deceive either yourself or others).

At this point in history, the world’s belief systems have become adulterated, distorted and misrepresented. So accept that familiar, comfortable beliefs are inevitably an admix.

They’re approximately thirty percent TRUTH to seventy parts dross. So make it your responsibility to choose wisely. Cleave to the best. Leave the rest. Never, however, be conned into quitting. Don’t throw the precious baby out with the dirty bath water.

Dig deeper than vested ego interests and nationality-turf. Human survival has no patent rights. Don’t act on the false premise that because knowledge is power, it’s okay to hide it, hoard it, and make people pay out of the nose for your version of it.

Depend instead on the truth written in your heart, into your very DNA. The rest will follow.

Let go of intellectual pride. Release the baggage of fanatical attachments to one’s own ways and aversion to everyone else’s. Think deeper than social constructs. Both divine right and class struggle theories are man-made, self-serving static. They distract away from the heart of truth.

Seeing through the filters of fanatical extremes is blinding. They’re generated at gut level, not from head or heart. So settle down. SHUT UP! Think. Really think. Then ask, “Where am I focused?” If in the gut, look higher. GO DEEP. Like truth-explorers, travel to where the right answers are to be found.

No more us-versus-them, aligning with allies (right or wrong) and rejecting outsiders on the basis of national-political affiliation. We’re all at risk on the same endangered planet. If our misguided ship Titanic sinks, we all go down.

The real enemies are Dr. Who’s alien invaders and their agents. They’re embedded in every land, in every organization and every class, clandestinely working to undermine conscience and steer the human species towards extinction.

It takes a quiet focused mind to recognize who’s who. We’re never alone. But both sides are broadcasting. So be sure you’re tuned in to the survival station.

* * *

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At-one-ment – IC – 092820

Getting ahead of the story again, PEACE is the original outcome of today’s I Ching reading.

It isn’t the peace one usually thinks of, merely the absence of inner conflict or world war.

Far more, it’s the profound joy of wholeness, experienced when we’re deeply at one with ourselves and with the world.

It’s the state of being that arises when the pairs of opposites – yin and yang, heaven and earth, male and female, black and white, mind and body — are harmoniously balanced. This was the vision of seers, described in Hexagram 11:

When the forces of nature

unite in profound harmony,

heavenly PEACE fills the earth.

It’s the perfect message for today . . which “just happens” to be Yom Kippur, the high holy day of atonement. At-one-ment.

Is inner peace actually achievable? If so, how can we reach this blissful state?

Through repentance.

Before you balk, first check out the following definition. By my count, in two brief paragraphs, the key word CHANGE repeats nine times.

Repentance fundamentally means to change your mind about something. It has to do with the way you think about something. You’ve been thinking one way, but now you think the opposite way. That’s repentance — the changing of the mind.

. . . Repentance is a decisive change in direction. It’s a change of mind that leads to a change of thinking that leads to a change of attitude that leads to a change of feeling that leads to a change of values that leads to a change in the way you live.

Now, this isn’t a theological tract. Nor am I a theologian. Nevertheless, the implications are worth considering.

Given the amount of conflict, pain and suffering going on in the world right now, change doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

Scientists and psychologists agree that our thoughts and beliefs create our reality. Creating a different, better reality starts with changing how and what we think.

In a world at critical mass, change has become a matter of survival. Einstein put like this:

By definition, atonement involves admitting sins, meaning “mistakes.” Sin is simply missing the mark, being off-target in our thoughts and actions. It’s focusing exclusively on the surface of the Life Wheel, out-of-alignment with the inner levels of experience. It’s being unaware of Source and acting without conscience.

So IF repentance consists of recognizing and correcting mistaken thoughts, words and deeds, THEN the reward of realigning daily experience with the inner levels of the Life Wheel is Wholeness. Unity. Peace, first within, then without.

Hint: working with the Book of Change is an excellent way to start changing the way one thinks. (It certainly was for me!!)

It gives us a practical way to align awareness and actions with the larger reality of the Unified Field.

We’ve not been trained to come to the Book of Change for answers to our deepest questions. That’s why I’m bringing the book to you. Let these bi-weekly readings serve as an opportunity to make the unfamiliar familiar.

The original answer to the question, “What should we be aware of NOW?” is:

Profound peace is the gift of this holy day, Yom Kippur. Heart-felt repentance opens the door to at-one-ment. This option stands in stark contrast to what’s going on in the world right now. The final warning, “avoid disorder,” gives caution to widespread unrest.

Which is probably why today’s Peace doesn’t last; two changing lines result in a very different outcome. In the notebook, the changes look like this:

The changing line in the 3rd place reminds us, “Nothing remains the same.” The familiar world as we knew it, which we mistakenly assumed would last forever, disappeared in 2020. And it’s not coming back.

So we’re warned, “Avoid decay by changing with the time.”

Holding on to familiar beliefs and focusing with regret on what’s been lost is a prescription for suffering.

Our old ways of thinking got us to the point of critical mass. Clearly, familiar beliefs weren’t serving us well. So changing our fundamental beliefs – especially about change itself – is critically important now.

Creating the new, better world we want for ourselves and our children depends, a la Einstein, on improving the way we think.

For those who heed the warning to change with the times, the 3rd line becomes ADVANCE:

Shifting to a complete and accurate paradigm reaps rewards across the board. It’s especially important for leaders to understand this.

Next, the changing line in the 5th position focuses in on leadership. “The way to lead is to serve without pride.”

From long observation, seers knew that leading with ego-driven agendas ends up causing grief for everyone involved. That’s why, in the I Ching world view, leadership is seen in terms of service, not power or control.

For those who adhere to I Ching leadership practices, the 5th line changes to:

Today’s path of repentance and atonement — the one that leads to PEACE — requires clarity, confidence, courage and determination.

Patience is a key virtue in the I Ching armory. Like Peace, it stands in sharp contrast to the fear-and-hate-driven energies tearing the world apart right now. It’s a counterbalance to insanity. Let the practice of calm, kind patience be a healing salve to our gaping wounds.

Finally, the outcome of combining changing lines in the 3rd and 5th places is:

LIMITS brings us full circle back to the blessing of this holy day: At-one-ment: PEACE.

“To find peace within, reduce desires.”

Again, I’m not a theologian. But my first take is that the advice of LIMITS resonates with the teachings of attained seers throughout the ages.

It wouldn’t hurt for you to think through the applications of all this to your own way of thinking, acting, and ultimately, to the feedback you’ve been getting from the Universe.

I’ll be publishing collected readings as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like your very own copy of the CSBOC to work with, to answer your own unique questions at your own convenience, or want extras to give others in need of insight, solace and support, it’s available here. : )

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

Redeeming Einstein

After my affinity with Einstein came up at a recent lunch date, the post dedicated to Dr. Joe Dispenza morphed. The new title reflects that change, but the promised subjects of Creativity and Genius fit in perfectly. I promise.

At the Sportman’s Bar in Muscoda, I was telling Courtney, a friendly banker, about my early fascination with Einstein. He was a violinist, as was I. The violin is an instrument that mirrors human anatomy. Names given to its parts reflect this – the neck, back, belly and spine. I grew up thinking of myself as an instrument of consciousness; tuning that instrument has been a life-long quest. And I was certain Einstein resonated with the instrument, that his famous formula reflected this mindset.

The conversation with Courtney went from meditation, to energy centers, to mental metabolism. She intuitively understood what I was saying. It wasn’t all that complicated, I told her. Many teachers express the same basics, but in different ways.

Then it clicked on me. I said, “The greatest, most important ideas can be stated clearly. Simply.”

I was thinking of Einstein’s Unified Field Theory. It perfectly meets Occam’s razor standard of maximum inclusiveness with greatest simplicity.

So I opened to the blank side of a page and sketched the picture of The Unified Field Theory for her. He didn’t recognize what he’d been given, I said, because his thinking was linear. He lacked yoga training and the concept of concentric circles unified around a central core, linked by an infinity sign:

Unified Field Theory

This is how Creativity and Genius are explained, as well as our ability to access them through the quantum field during profound meditation.

The inward path leads towards stillness. Linking with the Universal Mind, one taps into the mind of the Creator and takes a sip of that creativity. The return, outward path manifests what was received in silence. That expression is recognized as a work of genius.

Here’s a modification of the basic Wheel, which to me looks strikingly like a flower:

Wisdom Overcomes Fear

The left-hand side represents the materialist mindset of empirical science. That’s the surface, m = mass level of the Life Wheel. Only what’s observable and measurable is allowed in this reality. The middle, e = energy level associated with emotions and subconscious programming as well as the innermost levels of light and Source are taboo. Ruled out. Which is why Einstein missed it.

Whereas the right-hand side represents the complete experience of a creative, holistic worldview. All the levels are allowed, linked, prioritized and in harmonious, infinite exchange. This is the reality paradigm acknowledged by the ancients.

Now, though by cultural conditioning, Einstein was cut off from a deliberate, consistent experience of wholeness, through music he had flashes of in-sight. When he got stuck, he’d take out his fiddle. The genius of Mozart relaxed and opened his mind. He honored those rare and precious flashes of intuition. He freely admitted that the famous formula came from inspiration, not reason.

I told Courtney how dearly I want this Unified Field Theory with all its implications and applications to reach the general public. And that I recognize the “three amigos” (Joe Dispenza, Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton) as the ones best qualified to make this happen: their work resonates in wonderfully synchronous ways with the wisdom of the Universal Avatar whom I served.

I owe it to Einstein, I told her, to complete his work. I can only imagine the grief and regret — the absolute horror — he felt when when his work was used to destroy life.

Along parallel lines, working in the corporate world instilled in Gregg Braden a foreboding of annihilation so powerful that he changed careers, in essence to honor Einstein’s warning:

“Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison [of illusory separateness] by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. . . . We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

To redeem the catastrophic misuse of Einstein’s work, the  opposite and equal, unifying and creative uses of his formula must become universally well-known.  

We owe it to Einstein and to ourselves to include this simple, elegant explanation of how meditation works, as well as its potential risks, when teaching others.

And I’ll give you another picture, in OA’s honor, because he was closely aligned with Christ and deeply deplored rampant abuse of biblical teachings. Just as OA was so far beyond human understanding that those who loved him could only accept and gratefully follow him, he told us that the original disciples of Jesus could barely fathom him.

One of the later teachers (forgive me for not doing a Bible search) . . . it was probably Paul . . . likened Christ’s essence to the matrix. That’s the exact word. And this is how I pictured it in Life Wheel context:

Christ Broadcasts

This image likewise suggests the possibility of rebirth in the same lifetime open to meditators with the self-honesty, discipline and grit to overcome limitations of the past.

For the sake of the message, please forgive imperfect presentation. These images were created early on, while I was still teaching myself the basics of blogging and photo-shopping.

But they suffice to give an inkling of how, as old paradigms no longer serve, we can return to this model of creation to envision future sciences that will serve us better . . . new approaches to healing, education, law, community, governance, etc. etc.

Given the opportunity, I would gladly participate in this work. If a more hospitable work environment and resources were made available, there’s so much that could be accomplished. In any case, I invite the three amigos to OWN the UFT. Modify it in as many creative ways as possible. Disseminate it . . . “for the good of all.”

So be it.

Angel Calling

Use the Wheel to Make Yourself Whole

AXIOM SEVEN of the Positive Paradigm states, “With a Correct Paradigm and Useful Tools, You Can Make Yourself Whole.”

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The Handbook’s preface starts with a caveat. Everyone is already intrinsically whole. Put another way, “God don’t make no junk.” This is the wisdom behind the biblical admonition, “Ye must be perfect like your father.”

However, just as Einstein already had the Unified Field Theory but didn’t know it, each and every one of us on the planet is perfect in potential: made in God’s image. But we’ve forgotten.

Worse, many have been deceived into believing they’re inherently not-okay. The Handbook confirms inherent wholeness. Its structure provides a practical, hands on method for waking up. The goal is to re-member (“get it together”) and actualize in-born potential. It initiates the on-going process of making and keeping ourselves FUNCTIONALLY whole, over and over again.

The subtitle Make Yourself Whole Using the Wheel of Change isn’t intended to suggest that this or any other book can magically or literally make anyone whole, or that once through the book, you’re done. It requires not only initial work, but on-going follow-through. It’s personal intention and consistent effort that produce results. This is just a really useful tool.

But it is tremendously important to start this life journey with a reality map that accords with the way things really are. As written in Rethinking Survival:

Chances of success in life are slim to none without an accurate reality map. It’s imperative to have a complete picture of your potentials along with a correct understanding of the world around you, and what’s required to survive in that world.

Basing decisions on a worldview that’s distorted, incomplete or otherwise out of synch with the way things really are seriously diminishes chances of survival. In times as dangerous as these, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re operating on complete and correct information.

Unfortunately, many have been led to believe, not only that they’re no-okay, but that they have to look outside themselves for permission to be okay, usually at a stiff price. There’s a method to this madness.

. . . tyrants want you to sleep on. They’ll do anything to prevent you from remembering that you’re inherently okay. Because once you do, as Einstein did, no one can intimidate, control or dominate you. You’re aware that nothing anyone has for sale can make you more perfect. Nor can anything that anyone threatens to take away alter your essential okayness.

It’s your inalienable birthright. A given.

The Positive Paradigm is the viable basis upon which to build valid self-esteem. It’s the key to personal freedom — freedom from ignorance, freedom from fear.

It’s the rock-solid foundation of functional democracy. It’s grounds for rethinking what the word really means and how to implement its promise.

One minor caveat: it all depends. While we all have the option to remember who we truly are, most of us are like Lambert, the sheepish lion. It takes a smack with a two-by-four upside the head before we’re finally ready to wake up.

Often it takes the form of life-threatening danger to those we care for. A personal health crisis will also do the trick. So will job loss or a run-in with natural disaster.

But, like Dorothy stranded in the land of Oz, when you want dearly enough to return “home,” you can click your heels whenever you chose — and come to find out, you’re already there.

Useful tools do make a difference, however. Part Four of The Handbook gives examples of putting the Wheel into motion. Part Five supplies instruction on how to modify the Wheel with virtually limitless applications to suit personal interest and needs. Forms supplied in the Appendices help complete the process.

For example, Rethinking Survival shows my personal, evolving uses of the Wheel:

Over time, I began sectoring the circles into quarters, giving it North-South, East-West compass directions. I cut out a single eye from a graphic tiger and pasted it into the center of my template Wheel to represent an all-seeing eye.

I plugged the aspects of my daily life into the model. I chose major categories: work, personal life, social life and public service. I used it to analyze where sectors had changed to take too much or too little space within the wheels, where the layers had grown too thick or thin, or how sectors or levels were coming into conflict.

I repeatedly worked with this information to bring the various demands on my life back into balance, to continuously reintegrate the aspects of daily life.

Later, I found it necessary to break the quarters down into smaller subcategories. The concentric wheels began to look oddly like the twelve-sectored zodiac used by astrologers to diagram the placements and interactions of planetary energies.

I used the model not only to organize the sectors of my life, but to plan for alternative futures. I used it to picture not only where I was, but where I intended to go and what changes were necessary to get from here to there.

Another time, I used the Wheel to record my life history. I used compass North to mark my beginnings. On the surface I noted the date and place of my birth. On the middle level, I plugged in the names of my parents and grandparents. I created new sectors (pie-slices of experience) for each move, from Peoria to Boston to Tucson to Buffalo and so forth.

Inside, I drew significant events and people associated with each time in my life. I used stick figures striding along the surface to represent me in the role I played at that time. I drew happy or sad faces to indicate my state of mind during that particular period.

Personal work with the Wheel over many years has evolved into the inclusive method presented in the Handbook.

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Corollary A: The Positive Paradigm of Change is the ultimate answer to the ultimate question, “What is that, knowing which, all else is known?” It’s proof that humans are made in the image of the Creator — the microcosm mirrors the macro. It’s the universal confirmation that everyone everywhere is inherently okay. The purpose of working with the Wheel of Change is to remember who you truly are, to repair the pattern and make yourself whole.

Corollary B: The Wheel can be used to discriminate between absolutes and ephemerals. The “small stuff” goes on the surface. Unrealized hopes, dreams and plans fit in the middle level. Basic commitments are placed close to the center, next to guidance and connection with Conscience.

The Wheel can be used to separate the signal from the noise. Used as a meditative practice, it is a discipline for quieting the mind, withdrawing from draining distractions, eliminating bad attitudes and healing negative emotions.

The Wheel serves to prioritize the levels. By placing first things first, you can see what’s irrelevant and weed it out of the picture. Once Conscience as your ultimate personal survival guide is placed at the center, then everything that gets between you and your conscience is recognized as antithetical to ultimate survival.

Corollary C: Those who’ve done the hard, honest work of mental house-cleaning not only understand themselves better, but also others as well. You can’t leave a place you’ve never been. But once you’re been there and prevailed, you’re in a much better position to empathize with and serve others humanely. Nor can you be easily fooled. Compassionate, skillful leaders/therapists have earned their in-depth worldview through experience.

Conversely, those who block out memories or reject some sectors and levels of experience find it difficult to relate to the needs and experiences of others which they’ve rendered invisible to themselves.

Corollary D: Especially in dangerous times, changing the world is an overwhelming, seemingly impossible prospect. But that’s not your job, nor do you need to be overwhelmed. It doesn’t matter how much is going wrong “out there.” As your primary responsibility, the one manageable unit is the one closest to home: yourself.

The premier self-management method for linking and balancing the levels of the Wheel is the Motive + Purpose + Intent formula given in Chapter Five. Using the Wheel, you can map out and balance the Why (motives) at the center with the How (strategies/actions) in the middle level and the What (results) on the surface.

With this process, there are always choices. Hence the motto, “Because I can’t change the world, I change myself.” The world is a great motivator. The time to remember and wake up is NOW, while there’s still precious time left!

In the face of daunting odds, there’s comfort in the wisdom of quantum realities. The beating of a single butterfly’s wings can change weather patterns continents away. The same is true of personal change. The long-term effects of personal improvements and good deeds may never be known to the doer. But as a simple law of nature, good karma returns over time, exponentially.

Corollary E: Unity is accomplished through personal effort, one person at a time. Attempts to enforce global unity through world organizations operating at the surface of the Wheel are unnatural, unrealistic and no matter how seductively presented, “scary bad.”

Corollary F: Numerous authors have written about to the necessity of changing from the inside out. They include, but are not limited to, Stephen Covey, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, Dr. Phil McGraw, and Julie Morgenstern. The Positive Paradigm Handbook is a useful compliment that gives a memorable picture of the dynamic process which they advocate.

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Unity & Diversity Are Necessary Compliments

AXIOM THREE of the Positive Paradigm of Change is now “Unity and Diversity are Necessary Compliments.” Although the idea isn’t necessarily fun or sexy, understanding this essential relationship will significantly improve the quality of both your personal and professional life.

Taken out of context, the second axiom is subject to distortions and misunderstandings. Resulting confusion can generate conflict in family relationships and on, all the way up the life chain to conflict amongst nations. That’s why Axiom Three is an such important extension of the second.

According to Axiom Two, “We are Each a World Complete, Containing the Potentials of the Universe.” This inherent inner similarity is the realistic foundation of common understanding. However, the fact that we each have the same inner structure does not mean that everyone is identical and that we should act as if we’re all the same.

Like snowflakes, humans are identical in their basic structure. Each, however, is a unique expression of the universal pattern. Personal abilities and needs are the result of an infinitely complex set of variables.

And just as an integrated balance of energy centers is necessary to the overall health of an individual, a balance of complimentary abilities and interests promotes the general health of society at large.

We share the potential for perfection in common. However, in balance, innate potentials are filtered by cultural conditioning. Each of us has an overlay of education and personal experience which tends to distort and even mask that common core.

Each of us has a long history of decisions, not all of them good. We live with the consequences of past actions as well as our hopes for the future.

Further, while our inherent structure is identical, within the evolutionary chakra scale, at any given time and place, most individuals are narrowly focused on only one or a small combination of the seven centers and their specific issues. The roles which meet our immediate learning needs and simultaneously best serve the whole are the outcome of these combined influences.

Bottom line: diversity on the surface is an inevitable, necessary and beneficial compliment to unity at the center. So long as the levels of the perfect pattern are understood and correctly prioritized, there is no conflict between unity and diversity.

0 Axiom 3

When the levels are not prioritized, problems follow. Unity at the surface — meaning regimentation, uniformity and coerced one-size-fits-all thinking — is antithetical to life, just as diversity is at the center is impossible.

So it’s essential to prioritize the levels correctly. Be clear and correct about what is absolute and unchanging. Conversely, worldly success depends on accepting what is ephemeral, non-essential, subject to change and short-lived for what it is . . . and is not. Recognizing the difference is critically important to maintaining both personal and institutional stability.

For example, when alliances are formed on the basis of surface appearances — whether it be immediate self-interest, perceived attractiveness, race, gender, age or other biological markers — the connection is weak and likely to be short-lived.

In contrast, relationships remain stable when they’re based on a personal connection with the unchanging, universal center – that which everyone shares in common and upon which everyone depends. They withstand the tests of time and prove to be mutually beneficial.

For eight-thousand years and counting, Chinese sages operated on an understanding of how the world really works based on The Book of Change. This explains the longevity of dynasties which were steered in alignment with the fundamental axioms of change.

To the extent that ancient societies understood and were governed in accordance with the universal pattern, their leadership choices mirrored this organization. At the family level, the leadership role of the biological father was regarded as a natural reflection of the divine pattern.

In increasingly larger levels of organization, in each case the greatest among the group was designated as its natural leader, seated at its center, and entrusted with the grave responsibility of maintaining stability and balance in the best interests of the whole.

Although rarely honored and only imperfectly implemented, the universal pattern pictured in the Positive Paradigm Wheel remains the organizational model which best accords with reality, and has the most likely chance of generating beneficial results.

Just as we dearly need to depend on the center of our personal lives for inspiration, wisdom and stability, we need to be able to look to the leaders in our lives – families, schools, business, and governments – as stewards of our trust.

When leaders at every level, worldwide cannot be trusted to maintain stability or protect the common good, the times grow exceedingly dangerous. In such times, personal balance and ultimately survival depends ever more greatly upon an unshakable connection with the unchanging center within.

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Corollary A: The levels of the Positive Paradigm Wheel are interrelated and interdependent. But they are qualitatively different and should be prioritized accordingly.

The surface is transient. Hurt it, and it can heal. Have a bad day, and there’s always tomorrow. This is “the small stuff.” The center, however is absolute and absolutely necessary. “With God, all is possible.” But without a conscious connection to the center, nothing of enduring value can be accomplished. Violate this connection with impunity long enough, and eventually there will not be another tomorrow.

Corollary B: Looking for completion and stability on the surface, where none exist, is a sure formula for disappointment. Creating false expectations and failing to teach realistic attitudes towards inevitable changes on the surface of the life wheel (as well as where to turn for wisdom and solace in the face of life’s disappointments) is bad for mental health and long-term relationships.

Corollary C: Unrealistic, dysfunctional paradigms are the root cause of addictions. When people are cut off from their center or deny their emotional/physical needs, they feel starved. Not knowing why, they turn to substitutes which don’t truly satisfy. When mental escapes aren’t an option, self-destructive alternatives present themselves.

Corollary D: Bigotry, discrimination and violence of every stripe are a function of ignorance in regard to Axiom Three. We are different on the outside, but eternally the same on the inside. Look past appearances which are often deceptive for the foundation of enduring relationships of value.

Corollary E: Reason is necessary but not sufficient. When used to link the material surface with the middle and inner levels of the Wheel, it is a powerful tool. When turned against the life force, elevating itself as if it were the exclusive way of knowing, it presumes to judge what is beyond it. This is hubris, the catalyst of tragedy. Rationality in the extreme changes into its opposite, producing desperately irrational results.

Corollary F: Forgetting (or denying) the existence of a nucleus at the center of our personal atomic structure along with fighting over the illusion of superiority and possession of ephemeral assets is a sure recipe for personal suffering, relationship problems and professional failure. On an international level, it leads to atrocities and genocidal wars.

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Unity Within, Diversity Without

Here’s a note to acknowledge ongoing conversations with Mike Lehr and Steven Z. The first illustration (it dates back to 1982) shows what I mean when I say “Unity Within, Diversity Without.” By extension, it also shows that enduing stability rests within the eternal center. Growth takes place in the middle level. The diversity of unique personalities is associated with the surface level of ongoing change.

062514 Balanced World View

In contrast, the second, companion illustration shows the divisive either/or worldview that is currently causing so much confusion, pain and suffering.

062514 Evil

Additional pictures contrast two opposite and equal mistakes. The first shows the hollow shell of the exclusively materialistic, empirical science model.

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The second shows the dangerous, anti-life orientation of religious extremists.

Religionist

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The Positive Paradigm of Change translates the old-new I Ching world view into the yoga-compatible Unified Theory. Based on Einstein’s theory of relativity, it offers the hope of a positive future for generations to come.

PositiveParadigmWheel

Rethinking POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION

An earlier blog took a different approach to racial prejudice in the context of Affirmative Action legislation. Here is the balancing, opposite and equally positive approach to discrimination.

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19. DISCRIMINATION

“Relying more on the social scientists than on legal precedents . . the Court insisted on equality of the mind and heart rather than on equal school facilities. . . . Brown symbolizes the Good America, rather than the country that slaughtered Native Americans, subordinated women, and enslaved blacks.” — Jack M. Balkin, What “Brown v. Board of Education” Should Have Said

“Dealing exclusively on a rational level with an issue like discrimination which is deeply emotion-laden (sub-rational) on the one hand, and highly value-laden (super-rational) on the other, fails to acknowledge and draw on the levels where problems begin and where solutions can be found.” — Patricia West, Positive Action: The Next Generation

“Seeing and hearing are like food and drink; you need them every day, but you also need to digest and eliminate them every day. If they are not digested and eliminated thoroughly, they remain in the gut, eventually producing illness.” — Taoist Meditation, trans. Thomas Cleary.

THE FRONT

Three levels of definition attribute opposite, contradictory meanings to the single word discrimination. In the last century, failure to recognize and sort out this confusion resulted in muddled perceptions of purpose, inconsistent implementation and half-hearted compliance with Affirmative Action legislation.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s rational definition of discrimination posits a neutral function of mind. To discriminate is to distinguish with the mind or intellect; to perceive, observe, or note the difference in or between. As an analytical tool, discrimination is the neutral function of mind used to dissect a situation’s parts and deduce cause/effect relationships amongst them. As a tool, effects of its use, whether creative or destructive, depend on the motives and competence of the user.

The last given definition adds a preposition: against. To discriminate against is to make an adverse distinction in regard to, to distinguish unfavorably from others. This negative definition is the sub-rational use. It describes abuse of the critical faculty of mind to separate, distance and subordinate others, and to rationalize exploitation. Discrimination as a function of biased, negative emotions such as fear, hate, envy, arrogance or greed is the polar opposite of objective analysis.

Still further from the rational meaning of discrimination is its super-rational definition. It is not included in The Oxford English Dictionary. However, in Eastern scriptures, the highest function of mind is called buddhi (hence the name Buddha), translated into English as “the power of discrimination.”

This usage alludes to the ability to see through deceptive illusions, to recognize the eternal in the midst of change, to be aware of all-pervading spirit operating within gross material forms. While rational discrimination is neutral and sub-rational discrimination has separatist results, the super-rational function of discrimination is unifying in effect.

Depending on the user’s mind-set, the I Ching can be used to serve rational, sub- or super-rational motives. Ideally, it’s used to facilitate the process of mental metabolism. When the senses are overloaded with impressions, the Book of Change can be approached as a discipline for settling down and organizing one’s thoughts sufficiently to define the immediate situation and ask questions about it.

As negative emotions surface, they’re named and released, not unlike the process of separating toxins from useful nutrients, eliminating them as waste. Rational thoughts are then simplified, prioritizing essentials and aligning them to basic purpose. Then, when emotions and rational mind are harmonized and stilled, the higher mind is invoked.

It is in this state of tranquil revere that one pierces the veil of ordinary thought, allowing the transcendent awareness attributed to genius to come forward. Einstein, for example, acknowledged that his famous e = mc2 formula came in a flash of inspired contemplation. He faulted his peers for what he called the “fateful fear of metaphysics,” a pernicious prejudice that’s easily as dangerous as racism or sexism.

THE BACK

Mercy and compassion ameliorate the effects of negative discrimination. Introspective activities like self-analysis and use of the I Ching promote the positive capacity to discriminate, make correct decisions, and act wisely. In human law, the opposite of discrimination is justice and equity. In an equitable society, wisdom is promoted as the foundation of harmony and order.

The discipline of positive discrimination is neglected in an unjust world. Ruthless extortionists in positions of political power will kill to prevent discriminating thinkers from recognizing and opposing their abuses. Tyrants promote negative discrimination. They exploit hatred, weakening the people by turning them against each other, conquering by dividing them.

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What “Brown v. Board of Education” Should Have Said. Ed. Jack M. Balkin. (New York University Press: New York, 2001.) pp. 4, 5.

Patricia West, Positive Action: The Next Generation of Affirmative Action. Unpublished paper. (Madison, 1976).

Taoist Meditation: Methods for Cultivating a Healthy Mind and Body, trans. Thomas Cleary. (Shambhala: Boston, MA, 2000.) P. 57.

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See the UPSG for a description of the structure-within-structure format of the Essays, an overview of CONSCIENCE: Your Ultimate Personal Survival Guide, and an alphabetical list of the Essays.