Wed - March 2, 2005
Peter Benenson, Amnesty International
Benenson harnessed the power of sheer attention
by multiple small social networks to release prisoners worldwide, and to move
the focus of attention away from opinions (either imprisoning or imprisoned) to
the rights of individuals to express them.
The passing of Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty
International, is marked by powerful articles , one on the Amnesty
site by Richard Reoch, and one in the Globe
and Mail (March 2, 2005, p R5). Two things stand out. One is that the
key strategy Benenson identified and pushed was that of letter-writing by
individuals to lobby for the release of specific prisoners. This is a strategy
that mobilizes the power of
attention.
Ie, there is a three-fold pattern here:
1 There are certain points where sheer attention can make a difference.
2 Identify such a point
3 Extend continuity of attention
This is what Buckminster Fuller called metaphysical initiative.
The second is the power of putting individuals together both locally and remotely, with remoteness being both physical distances and outlooks. This became a long-term demonstration of the effectiveness of social networks (decades before that term started buzzing). From the Gobe and Mail article:
Those working in the same office, teaching in the same school, or worshipping at the same church, were encouraged to organize themselves into "threes groups." Each group was allocated three prisoners, respectively from the Western Hemisphere, the then-Iron Curtain countries, and what have since come to be called the developing countries... Thus, every member might be working for at least one prisoner whose views he or she did not share. What was at issue was not the opinions they had expressed, but their right to express them.
This pattern could be applied to the level of cities: sister cities, of comparable sizes, in touch around the globe, with both physical, internet-enabled, and social relationships.
Ie, there is a three-fold pattern here:
1 There are certain points where sheer attention can make a difference.
2 Identify such a point
3 Extend continuity of attention
This is what Buckminster Fuller called metaphysical initiative.
The second is the power of putting individuals together both locally and remotely, with remoteness being both physical distances and outlooks. This became a long-term demonstration of the effectiveness of social networks (decades before that term started buzzing). From the Gobe and Mail article:
Those working in the same office, teaching in the same school, or worshipping at the same church, were encouraged to organize themselves into "threes groups." Each group was allocated three prisoners, respectively from the Western Hemisphere, the then-Iron Curtain countries, and what have since come to be called the developing countries... Thus, every member might be working for at least one prisoner whose views he or she did not share. What was at issue was not the opinions they had expressed, but their right to express them.
This pattern could be applied to the level of cities: sister cities, of comparable sizes, in touch around the globe, with both physical, internet-enabled, and social relationships.
Posted at 10:02 AM
Tue - December 14, 2004
Thank U
Thank
U, by Alanis Morissette, my first purchase on the Canadian iTunes
Music Store.
Well, I made my first purchase on the Canadian
iTunes Music Store: Thank
U, by Alanis Morissette (the acoustic guitar solo iTunes
Originals version). Very Canadian of me, but the lyrics
could also be about the U:
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
and
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence
Her vocals on "disillusionment" and "silence" are the kind of expression which echos deep listening, opening up the limitless ayatanas of sound (ayatanas (sanskrit, buddhist) - sense faculties and objects codependently originating sensing).
One puzzle about the iTunes Music Store - there seems to be no way to give someone a song (ie, buy it as a gift for them). It might be a good business model to have a first purchase be 99 cents, with additional purchases of gifts of the same song something like 49 cents each.
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence
and
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence
Her vocals on "disillusionment" and "silence" are the kind of expression which echos deep listening, opening up the limitless ayatanas of sound (ayatanas (sanskrit, buddhist) - sense faculties and objects codependently originating sensing).
One puzzle about the iTunes Music Store - there seems to be no way to give someone a song (ie, buy it as a gift for them). It might be a good business model to have a first purchase be 99 cents, with additional purchases of gifts of the same song something like 49 cents each.
Posted at 10:04 PM
Fri - December 10, 2004
Presencing and U2
The Presence book, Theory U, the future Buddha,
and U2
Also on the flights back and forth from Halifax
to Berlin for Educa
2004 I read the Presence
book, subtitled Human Purpose and the
Field of the Future. (Cf also presence.net and the Introduction
(PDF). ) The authors (Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski,
and Betty Sue Flowers) address the change process for organizations and society
in the emerging light of global scenarios they are enacting in terms of
Theory
U. The
U is a
symbol, starting at top left with
Sensing
(downloading, observing) through
Presencing
at the bottom (suspending, allowing inner knowing), on to
Realizing
at top right (acting, becoming a force of nature). This process applies to
individual creativity as well as to group
intention.
I think this book took a lot of courage - the authors go out on a limb, from some points of view, exposing themselves - but to a need they vividly experience as coming from the field of the earth, leaving them no choice.
One comment I have is that suspending the normal flow of reaction (ie, everything you know as you), realizing presence, and letting come the field of the future, needs a major, perhaps life altering, experience, at least initially. For Scharmer this was his family home burning down in front of his eyes, along with the up-till-then fabric of his existence - which allowed a field of potential to open up. Jaworski embarked on a controlled, week-long vision quest. I suspect that such shattering of ego into a more open view should be a required stepping stone to leadership and to, in fact, any action that may have large effects on others. Following that, of course, practice - incarnating this in everyday life and action - is necessary.
The authors join an emerging shift to seeing spirituality and a spiritual practice as necessary to not only individuals but also groups. The Tibetan Buddhist and Shambhala teacher Chogyam Trungpa gave a talk in London in 1968 at which he said that Maitreya Buddha, the buddha of the future, would be not an individual but society.
So here's a contribution to this: seeing the U in others with others is U2 (with a smile to Bono, who I'm sure is already there and understands). U2 is calling us: U first.
From yesterday's blog entry :
This is why the Good has come into your midst.
It acts together with the elements of your nature
so as to reunite it with its roots.
I think this book took a lot of courage - the authors go out on a limb, from some points of view, exposing themselves - but to a need they vividly experience as coming from the field of the earth, leaving them no choice.
One comment I have is that suspending the normal flow of reaction (ie, everything you know as you), realizing presence, and letting come the field of the future, needs a major, perhaps life altering, experience, at least initially. For Scharmer this was his family home burning down in front of his eyes, along with the up-till-then fabric of his existence - which allowed a field of potential to open up. Jaworski embarked on a controlled, week-long vision quest. I suspect that such shattering of ego into a more open view should be a required stepping stone to leadership and to, in fact, any action that may have large effects on others. Following that, of course, practice - incarnating this in everyday life and action - is necessary.
The authors join an emerging shift to seeing spirituality and a spiritual practice as necessary to not only individuals but also groups. The Tibetan Buddhist and Shambhala teacher Chogyam Trungpa gave a talk in London in 1968 at which he said that Maitreya Buddha, the buddha of the future, would be not an individual but society.
So here's a contribution to this: seeing the U in others with others is U2 (with a smile to Bono, who I'm sure is already there and understands). U2 is calling us: U first.
From yesterday's blog entry :
This is why the Good has come into your midst.
It acts together with the elements of your nature
so as to reunite it with its roots.
Posted at 11:52 AM
Wed - December 8, 2004
The Mary Magdalen Gospel Manuscript
Discovering the Mary Magdalen Gospel - from page
7 of the few remaining pages: "This is
why the Good has come into your midst. It acts together with the elements of
your nature so as to reunite it with its roots."
My friend Hal Richman, at Online Educa 2004 in Berlin
last week, suggested seeing the papyrus manuscript of the Mary Magdalen gospel
at the Egyptian
Museum. Turned out they had it but don't show it. Later, at the WiFi
equipped Café Maibach, I was completely knocked out when I read the text
(just 161 lines remain). Hal loaned me his copy of Jean-Yves Leloup's The
Gospel of Mary Magdalen, which has the following translation of page 7
of the root text:
[...] "What is matter?
Will it last forever?"
The Teacher answered:
"All that is born, all that is created,
all the elements of nature
are interwoven and united with each other.
All that is composed shall be decomposed;
everything returns to its roots;
matter returns to the origins of matter.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter
of the elements and the events of the world, tell us:
What is the sin of the world?"
The Teacher answered:
"There is no sin.
It is you who make sin exist,
when you act according to the habits
of your corrupted nature;
this is where sin lies.
This is why the Good has come into your midst.
It acts together with the elements of your nature
so as to reunite it with its roots."
Then he continued:
"This is why you become sick,
and why you die:
it is the result of your actions;
what you do takes you further away.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
[...] "What is matter?
Will it last forever?"
The Teacher answered:
"All that is born, all that is created,
all the elements of nature
are interwoven and united with each other.
All that is composed shall be decomposed;
everything returns to its roots;
matter returns to the origins of matter.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
Peter said to him: "Since you have become the interpreter
of the elements and the events of the world, tell us:
What is the sin of the world?"
The Teacher answered:
"There is no sin.
It is you who make sin exist,
when you act according to the habits
of your corrupted nature;
this is where sin lies.
This is why the Good has come into your midst.
It acts together with the elements of your nature
so as to reunite it with its roots."
Then he continued:
"This is why you become sick,
and why you die:
it is the result of your actions;
what you do takes you further away.
Those who have ears, let them hear."
Posted at 09:57 PM
Mon - June 28, 2004
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
Dying, straight up.
Tipped off by WebMink
to a video by Iron
and Wine, on the iTunes music store; some of the
lyrics:
one of us willl die
inside these arms
eyes wide open
naked as we came
one will spread our ashes
round the yard
- from Naked As We Came
one of us willl die
inside these arms
eyes wide open
naked as we came
one will spread our ashes
round the yard
- from Naked As We Came
Posted at 11:18 AM
Wed - May 12, 2004
memes and words do break my bones
Language as enactive of perceptions we then
respond to: the Iraq is behind
9/11 meme emerges at Abu Ghraib.
George W Bush (9/12/2001 and onward):
Saddam Hussein is behind
9/11.
American people (3% in 2001, 70% in 2002-3, 40% in 2004): Saddam and Iraqis responsible for 9/11.
American troops and contractors at Abu Ghraib (2003-2004):
[quote Guardian article ]
The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops. "The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11."
[/quote]
American people (3% in 2001, 70% in 2002-3, 40% in 2004): Saddam and Iraqis responsible for 9/11.
American troops and contractors at Abu Ghraib (2003-2004):
[quote Guardian article ]
The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops. "The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11."
[/quote]
Posted at 11:11 AM
Mon - May 10, 2004
Torture - Aberration, or Standard Operating Procedure We'd Rather Ignore?
The bad
apples take on American torturers in Iraq is
widespread, but is this yet another form of demonizing, diverting attention from
the fact that these guys and gals weren't improvising, but following a program
enabled by our own active ignoring?
The bad
apples take on the American torturers in Iraq
is expressed by many, including most of the senators at the Rumsfeld hearings on
Friday, and bloggers such as Tim Bray, who writes
that in any group of people, a small
proportion are going to be sadistic psychopaths.
He rightfully dismisses the apologia by the New
York Times article about those
poor soldiers on the scene at Abu Ghraib, understaffed, undertrained,
overworked. Excuse me? They’re
torturers!
They’re sick out-of-control sadistic animals.
Don Park's
blog counters with you are a
battleground of good and evil and
everyone is capable of committing
inhumane acts under the
right conditions.
I tend to agree with Park - in calling others animals we more easily become them - and as Hannah Arendt's exploration of the banality of evil has shown, demonizing others makes it easier to not look, to ignore, to not question, and to allow ever more amplified evil. Eichmann himself wasn't monstrous - he was totally superficial and cliche-ridden - but what he did was monstrous, enabled by that very surfaceness.
So let us not actively ignore, but look deeper. The International Red Cross has said that these abuses were (are?) widespread and systematic. Here's the smoking gun article in The Guardian: UK Forces Taught Torture Methods. What the guards were doing at Abu Ghraib was not an aberration, but Standard Operating Procedure, labelled, explicitly codified and numbered, trained in by both British and American forces. When George Bush made the determination that suspected terrorists and enemy combatants were not to be treated as prisoners of war, their treatment not legally bound by the Geneva Convention, and their detention located in the no-man's lands of Guantanamo, Bagram, and Abu Ghraib, what were we thinking, or, more accurately, what were we avoiding thinking? The intention and effect were clearly to "take the gloves off", and allow interrogation by any means necessary. This is carried out with well-defined torture techniques: prolong the shock of capture, use sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation (remember the photos of prisoners being transported to Guantanamo?), hooding, nakedness, humiliation, and simulated and real rape.
This is hard to acknowledge. As Samantha Power ('A Problem from Hell': America and the Age of Genocide) has pointed out, there's a tendency in the USA to think of itself as an elect nation, to say we don't do war crimes. Senator Joe Lieberman said almost exactly that on national television: we're different (so this is normal for non-Americans?).
I shouted out who killed the Kennedys, when after all, it was you and me .
I tend to agree with Park - in calling others animals we more easily become them - and as Hannah Arendt's exploration of the banality of evil has shown, demonizing others makes it easier to not look, to ignore, to not question, and to allow ever more amplified evil. Eichmann himself wasn't monstrous - he was totally superficial and cliche-ridden - but what he did was monstrous, enabled by that very surfaceness.
So let us not actively ignore, but look deeper. The International Red Cross has said that these abuses were (are?) widespread and systematic. Here's the smoking gun article in The Guardian: UK Forces Taught Torture Methods. What the guards were doing at Abu Ghraib was not an aberration, but Standard Operating Procedure, labelled, explicitly codified and numbered, trained in by both British and American forces. When George Bush made the determination that suspected terrorists and enemy combatants were not to be treated as prisoners of war, their treatment not legally bound by the Geneva Convention, and their detention located in the no-man's lands of Guantanamo, Bagram, and Abu Ghraib, what were we thinking, or, more accurately, what were we avoiding thinking? The intention and effect were clearly to "take the gloves off", and allow interrogation by any means necessary. This is carried out with well-defined torture techniques: prolong the shock of capture, use sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation (remember the photos of prisoners being transported to Guantanamo?), hooding, nakedness, humiliation, and simulated and real rape.
This is hard to acknowledge. As Samantha Power ('A Problem from Hell': America and the Age of Genocide) has pointed out, there's a tendency in the USA to think of itself as an elect nation, to say we don't do war crimes. Senator Joe Lieberman said almost exactly that on national television: we're different (so this is normal for non-Americans?).
I shouted out who killed the Kennedys, when after all, it was you and me .
Posted at 09:59 PM
Sun - May 9, 2004
Leadership as Care and Commitment - the essence of Motherhood
Bliss
Browne quoted Sara
Ruddick at a talk a few days ago to Envision Halifax ,
co-sponsored by the United
Way and the Shambhala Institute:
Motherhood is a sustained response to
the promise embedded in new life.
This was a remarkable talk. Trained in theology
and in finance, a banker and a priest, Bliss Browne is most noted for founding
Imagine Chicago , which
has inspired similar efforts around the
world around three questions related to youth, schools,
neighborhoods, and citizens:
What do you imagine and hope for your city?
Who can work with you to bring your vision to life?
What will you work to create?
Several things stood out. Foremost was how she embodied and expressed leadership as coming from commitment and care, from the feminine principle: motherhood as a sustained response to the promise embedded in new life. This is a take on leadership I had not yet experienced so tangibly in the leaders I have met and heard, but it seems to be at the core of what this 21st century world needs.
She recounted the story of how she asked her husband, "what if we had a child, a child of imagination: how would your raise her?" And he answered, that's easy, just listen to her.
Somehow that was very moving, and brings up a second highlight: imagination as creative and enactive. It generates images, which shape perceptions. As she said, language is a moral issue, because it not only describes, it creates.
The third striking thing was how she, as a practicing Christian, was able to communicate out of that tradition in a way that opened space, bringing out and sharing the heart of what is most human, without credentials. Paradoxically, it seems that it is by deeply rooting in specific culture and practice that one can touch primordial confidence, and be able to open to the winds of the sky and the moist breaths of beings.
If there were a Heideggerian Care is the Being of human existence award, I would have it go to Bliss Browne.
What do you imagine and hope for your city?
Who can work with you to bring your vision to life?
What will you work to create?
Several things stood out. Foremost was how she embodied and expressed leadership as coming from commitment and care, from the feminine principle: motherhood as a sustained response to the promise embedded in new life. This is a take on leadership I had not yet experienced so tangibly in the leaders I have met and heard, but it seems to be at the core of what this 21st century world needs.
She recounted the story of how she asked her husband, "what if we had a child, a child of imagination: how would your raise her?" And he answered, that's easy, just listen to her.
Somehow that was very moving, and brings up a second highlight: imagination as creative and enactive. It generates images, which shape perceptions. As she said, language is a moral issue, because it not only describes, it creates.
The third striking thing was how she, as a practicing Christian, was able to communicate out of that tradition in a way that opened space, bringing out and sharing the heart of what is most human, without credentials. Paradoxically, it seems that it is by deeply rooting in specific culture and practice that one can touch primordial confidence, and be able to open to the winds of the sky and the moist breaths of beings.
If there were a Heideggerian Care is the Being of human existence award, I would have it go to Bliss Browne.
Posted at 10:11 AM
Mon - February 23, 2004
Operationalizing Gross National Happiness
Bhutan is hosting an international seminar on
Operationalizing the
Concept of Gross National
Happiness.
The Centre for Bhutan Studies announces
an international seminar on
Operationalizing Gross National
Happiness, held at Thimphu, Bhutan ,
18-20 February, 2004 and following.
About 90 presenters (10 of them Bhutanese) are
addressing issues related to using Gross
National Happiness as a better Genuine Progress Index (GPI)
than is GNP (Gross National Product). Among the delegations is one from Shambhala /Canada, Shambhala being
the enlightened society that is the basis for the Shangri-la
(misspelled) myth and others.
It's nice to see the mythic element interweaving with the daily news and stories, as in Javanese shadow-puppet plays, and as it does anyway through our TV media screens. How do we choose, care for, show what is important for us?
It's nice to see the mythic element interweaving with the daily news and stories, as in Javanese shadow-puppet plays, and as it does anyway through our TV media screens. How do we choose, care for, show what is important for us?
Posted at 11:14 AM
Sun - December 14, 2003
Smoke ceremony for new Canadian Prime Minister
Paul Martin became Canada's newest Prime Minister
December 12th in a two-part ceremony - a purification with smoke and feather,
and a swearing in. The latter got all the press, but the former could, in a
world where ceremony points to
practice,
be much more significant.
I happened to catch the smudge
ceremony on television. It started with a man in a suit and tie,
white-haired and pony-tailed, walking up and laying a small rug on the floor, on
which he put a bowl. This was Elder Elmer Courchene of the Sagkeeng First Nation
in Manitoba. He then put some sage in the bowl, lit it, fanned it with a white
eagle feather, and proceeded to move all around Paul Martin, patting him -
hands, head, back - with the feather.
The ceremony is a cleansing one, to drive out obstacles and damaging influences. It is remarkably similar in both spirit and form to the lhasangs performed in Tibet and, nowadays, in the Shambhala community.
What if this were not a one-time ceremonial occasion, but part of an ongoing - how about daily? - practice of recognizing self in world, a world that is not just the TV world of discursive politics, but one where earth and sky are joined by the motions of our human hands?
The ceremony is a cleansing one, to drive out obstacles and damaging influences. It is remarkably similar in both spirit and form to the lhasangs performed in Tibet and, nowadays, in the Shambhala community.
What if this were not a one-time ceremonial occasion, but part of an ongoing - how about daily? - practice of recognizing self in world, a world that is not just the TV world of discursive politics, but one where earth and sky are joined by the motions of our human hands?
Posted at 05:11 PM
Wed - December 10, 2003
Shambhala Warrior Paper Dolls
Shambhala
Warrior Paper Dolls - I'm speechless...
but they definitely deserve an entry! Is this the
life cycle of Shambhala
being-in-the-world?
Actually, the really neat thing about the path of the Shambhala warrior is that you visualize yourself as king (queen). Maybe if we all did this democracy would be possible :-) ?
Actually, the really neat thing about the path of the Shambhala warrior is that you visualize yourself as king (queen). Maybe if we all did this democracy would be possible :-) ?
Posted at 04:54 PM
Jimmie Vaughn and Sun City
Tim Bray's ongoing weblog recommends
Strange Pleasure by Jimmie Vaughn - I second that emotion!
Also notes the song
Sun City
, with Little Steven of the E Street Band
(I've got the video of this on VHS!), and his Underground
Garage radio
show.
Back to Strange Pleasure - check out the samples at the iTunes music store. Six Strings Down is a homage to the great guitar masters. Dark and tough and tender and contemplative - a record worth buying and giving!
Back to Strange Pleasure - check out the samples at the iTunes music store. Six Strings Down is a homage to the great guitar masters. Dark and tough and tender and contemplative - a record worth buying and giving!
Posted at 11:53 AM
Politics: Binding through the Net?
The
Dean Connection (New York Times, free registration required)
describes the Howard Dean internet grass-roots campaign, complete with
blogs-with-comments, meetups, distributed news research by volunteers,
etc.
<quote>...
responsiveness is the essential sound of the Dean campaign. It is embodied not
only in Dean himself, but also in the blog, which creates the impression of a
constant dialogue between supporters and campaign staff, and in the organizing
on the ground. </quote>
The article quotes Zephyr Teachout ("she darts around the office in a pair of silver shoes with the balletic, boyish energy of Peter Pan"):
<quote>''the revolution,'' as she calls it, has three phases; the first is Howard Dean himself, the second is Meetup.com and the third is the software that Rosen, Johnson and Brooks [Dean's hackers] work with: Get Local, DeanLink, DeanSpace. ''DeanSpace,'' Teachout says, ''is the revolution.''</quote>
GetLocal "helps organize local events independent of the campaign". DeanLink is really Deanster, a version of Friendster , binding Dean-related nets of friends of friends. DeanSpace knits together information being generated and distributed through multiple web sites.
Most intriguing quote, by Gray Brooks, who does GetLocal: <quote>But the strongest thing was that I could tell he is a good man. And if a good man were president, it would change everything in ways we can't even imagine.</quote>
The article quotes Zephyr Teachout ("she darts around the office in a pair of silver shoes with the balletic, boyish energy of Peter Pan"):
<quote>''the revolution,'' as she calls it, has three phases; the first is Howard Dean himself, the second is Meetup.com and the third is the software that Rosen, Johnson and Brooks [Dean's hackers] work with: Get Local, DeanLink, DeanSpace. ''DeanSpace,'' Teachout says, ''is the revolution.''</quote>
GetLocal "helps organize local events independent of the campaign". DeanLink is really Deanster, a version of Friendster , binding Dean-related nets of friends of friends. DeanSpace knits together information being generated and distributed through multiple web sites.
Most intriguing quote, by Gray Brooks, who does GetLocal: <quote>But the strongest thing was that I could tell he is a good man. And if a good man were president, it would change everything in ways we can't even imagine.</quote>
Posted at 11:34 AM
Fri - December 5, 2003
DiveIntoMark at the Infinite Hotel
This blog, DiveIntoMark contemplating the Infinite
Hotel , is what I like about the web: finding a mind acting as a lens
into some topic.
The infinite hotel has an infinite number of
rooms, each occupied. How do you fit in a newly arrived guest? I was thinking
you could add the guest to room infinity + 1, but infinity is not a number like
an integer:
there's no Room #infinity (or room ℵ0).
(now I know how to make an aleph-null!).
This nicely complements my current reading of Cryptonomicon , which certainly plays with the notion that putting pure information at an acupuncture point of karmic decisiveness can produce real effects in the real world (e.g., shaping the course of war).
there's no Room #infinity (or room ℵ0).
(now I know how to make an aleph-null!).
This nicely complements my current reading of Cryptonomicon , which certainly plays with the notion that putting pure information at an acupuncture point of karmic decisiveness can produce real effects in the real world (e.g., shaping the course of war).
Posted at 03:34 PM
Thu - December 4, 2003
Spirituality in Business and Life
Peter Senge's article Spirituality
in Business and Life: Asking the Right
Questions
, in the Shambhala Institute's
newsletter Fieldnotes
.
Why are you so
unhappy?
Why are we so unhappy?
Because everything you do
and 99 percent of what you think
is for yourself.
And there isn't one.
- Wu Wei, 12th Century
That's the quote that opens the article. How is the soul of an organization/corporation to become self-aware? After all, it may well be already wreaking havoc through collective unperceived and unintended consequences of its actions as a legal entity. Senge suggests that the connection between the living individual and the larger whole is through spiritual practice, a discipline of openness within which intention and purpose are made visible and emerge. Is the bottom line for business really, as it says in Cryptonomicon , "PURPOSE: To increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]". And if this is too one-dimensional, actively ignorant, and dangerous to the 3-D globe's well-being, how do we cultivate a more open care that enters into what we do?
Why are we so unhappy?
Because everything you do
and 99 percent of what you think
is for yourself.
And there isn't one.
- Wu Wei, 12th Century
That's the quote that opens the article. How is the soul of an organization/corporation to become self-aware? After all, it may well be already wreaking havoc through collective unperceived and unintended consequences of its actions as a legal entity. Senge suggests that the connection between the living individual and the larger whole is through spiritual practice, a discipline of openness within which intention and purpose are made visible and emerge. Is the bottom line for business really, as it says in Cryptonomicon , "PURPOSE: To increase shareholder value by [doing stuff]". And if this is too one-dimensional, actively ignorant, and dangerous to the 3-D globe's well-being, how do we cultivate a more open care that enters into what we do?
Posted at 01:24 PM
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