Our old old story is weak and worn. It has lost its meaning in a day and age of exponential knowledge growth.
Our old worldview is not sustainable. It’s foundations are unstable and crumbling.
I See a New Story is Emerging out of these paradigms, each of these rooted in ancient wisdom:
Seeing through the Eyes of the Brokenhearted and
Seeing through the Eyes of our own Brokenheartedness.
Living Life in a Spirit of Dialogue is a way that overcomes our old old story of Separation and Conflict, Dominance and Control.
Living in a Spirit of Dialogue means we must learn to suspend our assumptions, our agenda (hidden or not), our ego, our need to be right, our judgment, our attachment, and our resistance to others, to difference, to life. It presumes the necessity of equality, openness, respect for all leading to understanding, commonality, and shared meaning.
A World & Life View is the foundation from which we see and interpret our world and our life in our world. We do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. This is true because thought creates the world. We understand the world according to what our thoughts tell us. Perspective! And no two people see it the same.
We create a lens that works like rose colored glasses and changes our perception.
We filter reality through a lens that helps us interpret reality
according to what we have been told all of our lives.
If we think the world is out to get us, then we will live in fear.
If we think that refugees are coming for our jobs or our homes,
then we will define refugees as enemies in our minds and hate them.
If we think that “liberals” are coming for our church, guns, money, possessions, or,
Heaven forbid, Christmas, then we will define liberals accordingly and hate them.
If we think that people like us are good and the rest are bad,
then we will hate and fear those that are different.
This is the way of the world.
Thought, both individual and collective, is trying to protect us and keep us alive like it did when we hunted and gathered. But since we are not in danger of being eaten by predators, it continues to seek the enemy so that it can protect us. Those that are not aware of their thoughts and their intentions end up blindly thinking and acting mindlessly. We live in a world full of people that do not realize this and if they do not realize this, then they cannot do the innerwork necessary to live responsible lives.
Are you paying attention?
Are you blissfully unaware?
Are you intentionally ignorant?
Are you unintentionally ignorant?
Do you know what you don’t know?
Do you not know what you don’t know?
Are we going through life with our eyes shut?
Are we going through life with our mind shut?
Are we going through life with our heart shut?
Or are we learning to live with an open mind and open heart?
Living mindfully begins by taking care of our own house which means we must pay attention to each thought we think, each word we say, and each action we take. Mostly people do what feels good without considering the impact of what they think, say, and do. But everything we think, say, and do matters. And it affects everyone around us. The problem is that everything we think, do, and say has become automatic, based on our world and life view. What is it that is driving us? It is the way we see the world and interpret it.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life, and you will call it fate.”
(Carl Jung)
