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)
Our old story expresses itself worldwide with constant conflict and war. It expresses itself in culture through the extreme polarization, constant argumentation, and the vile vilification of the “other”. America has been in 93 - 134 wars depending on who is counting. We have been at war 222 years out of 239. It is as if we live on different planets. We can’t even talk anymore because our constant conflict has caused us to politicize words and weaponize them to destroy the “other” leaving us with no shared meaning or common understanding. And we do this in the name of politics and religion.
Are we getting the results we want in this world? If not, then our thinking and actions are not coherent. The results will forever be the same if we don’t change our underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, that is, our worldview. We can’t get a different result if we keep on doing the same thing. We must uproot and rewrite our world and life view, or things will never change.
Where can we find an absence of conflict and the presence of peace. Mankind has always yearned for peace. ‘Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.’ But do we really believe this is possible? Some may say that the presence of god brings peace. The Word of God names God a God of Peace. But when we examine what’s really going on in religious settings, we see all kinds of dominance, power, and oppression causing constant conflict. Modern American Christians that I see are so entrenched in political propaganda that it is impossible to tell what they stand for; although they make what they stand against perfectly clear in their judgement and rage. Why do you think there are over 40,000 Christian denominations on earth? It is because of the necessity of being right that results in the “other” being wrong, whether in principle or practice, dogma or creed. It all divides us, unrepairably tearing us apart. And they are all seeking after the God of Love, Joy, and Peace; or should I say I’m seeking after “My God” rather than yours. The most important issues of our day, politics and religion, create the most chaos and conflict. It is not the fault of the different ideologies. Those are just ideas and stories in our heads. The problem is people and the way we choose to interact with each other and tolerate differences. We know that we are all different and always will be, that is a key part of creation, so why can’t we live like we are all different? We even live in conflict with the realities that we know; realities of creation, realities of being human.
The old old story tells us that we are sinners, that we were bad people and ate fruit that a snake told us to do when we knew we were not supposed to but because we wanted to understand good and evil we ate it anyway and thus began the great divide between mankind and god. Within the first few days of “creation”, we became sinners, fallen from grace and from God's favor. But when we go back to the beginning of that story, we are told that we are created in the image of god and that god looked at creation and proclaimed “It is good.” It sure didn’t take long to destroy that. Bad design? Bad creation? Equals Bad creators? Bad Bad Bad, everything is bad! But when we look at religious beliefs and practices as they have been evolved by men, there are neverending conflicts between man and man and between man and god and between man and the earth, with mankind constantly trying to dominate the other and make them submit and conform. It is a story of constant separation and conflict, dominance and control. It seems to me that when a person is born again, it makes the problem worse, based on the track record of Christianity above. Because once that happens we think we are better than others and can’t rest until we make them just like us, sometimes beating them into submission verbally and even physically, individually or collectively. Maybe this proves that we are created in the image of our god. See Behold Thy God.
We desperately need a view of the world “where we may see the assumptions which lay beneath the surface of our thoughts, assumptions which drive us, assumptions around which we build organizations, create economies, form nations and religions. These assumptions become habitual, mental habits that drive us, confuse us and prevent us from responding intelligently to the challenges we face every day.” (David Bohm)
“Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture.” (David Bohm)
“What is essential here is the presence of the ‘spirit’ of dialogue, which is, in short, the ability to hold many points of view in suspension, along with a primary interest in the creation of a common meaning.” (David Bohm and David Peat, ‘Science, Order and Creativity’)
When I came across these quotes several years ago, I thought, yes, that’s it! Like Bohm and Peat I’d been deeply troubled by the feeling that something essential was missing; and that missing thing that was causing all the problems in the world. What made me aware of this were the brief moments in my life when the ‘feeling that something was missing’ was replaced with the ‘feeling that something was there!’ It was like finally hitting the mark after an incalculable number of tries! And all that I could say about those particular moments and what made them so remarkable, so entirely different from all the rest, was nothing more than an absence of conflict.
I realized that our dialogue has been for generations, mostly argumentative and polarized. In the kind of dialogue we are normally engaged, one person expresses an opinion. When one pole is expressed, the opposing pole naturally surfaces. Someone, it could be me or you, is intuitively driven to express the opposite pole. Feeling that the preliminary opinion is only partial, he rushes in with an opposing view in an attempt to fill in the gap. This appears to be a structural malfunction inherent in our culture. Those participating in this kind of dialogue see, on the one hand the genuine need to correct a perceived imbalance to achieve a state of coherence, while on the other hand they are caught in the grip of the ego’s need to dominate and control. I realized that my opinions and assumptions form the robe I wear. They give me a clear identity, a shelter, a place of security. And this robe is what we commonly call, ego.
It seems to me that true dialogue can only emerge when all participants are genuinely willing to disrobe. It became for me a personal question; am I willing to be stripped of my ambitions? I’m definitely a mixed bag; sometimes my personal desires are transparent and can be dismantled, and sometimes I get trapped in my opinions. I’m not necessarily advocating ‘navel staring’. From my experience, it doesn’t seem to be effective. What worked for me as an incentive, was the longing for the ‘sweet’ taste of encounters that had no conflict.
Our nakedness, in front of a genuine question, allows the full ‘ground’ of meaning to be revealed and we as participants realize that one pole does not contradict the other pole, but rather complements it with love. That is how the full meaning of the moment is expressed, and in this moment something new is born, a common meaning is shared. This is the eternal dance between male and female, primordial poles, begetting a new meaning. Like Bohm and others, I strongly sense the calling of all creation for a new relationship to dialogue. It is a personal call that I take very seriously, but it is also a collective call addressed to all; “A new kind of mind thus begins to come into being which is based on the development of a common meaning that is constantly transforming in the process of the dialogue.” David Bohm in the forward to ‘On Dialogue’. https://www.infinitepotential.com/the-spirit-of-dialogue/
https://ronirvine.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/living-in-a-spirit-of-dialogue/
“In a dialogue, however, nobody is trying to win. Everybody wins if anybody wins. There is a different sort of spirit to it. In a dialogue, there is no attempt to gain points, or to make your particular view prevail. Rather, whenever any mistake is discovered on the part of anybody, everybody gains. It’s a situation called win-win, in which we are not playing a game against each other but with each other. In a dialogue, everybody wins.” (David Bohm)
Suspending our assumptions is the key. Assumptions are like the stories in our head that we believe and follow, that can make us automatons.
We spend our lives thinking the same, believing the same, speaking the same, doing the same; droning on in the same old story getting the same old result.
Einstein once said that
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
"There is a difficulty with only one person changing. People call that person a great saint or a great mystic or a great leader, and they say, 'Well, he's different from me - I could never do it.' What's wrong with most people is that they have this block - they feel they could never make a difference, and therefore, they never face the possibility, because it is too disturbing, too frightening." David Bohm
But if we can step back and see what we are doing or not doing and if it is giving us the result we want, wouldn't that be a way to begin? It is far too easy to be an automaton living life thoughtlessly. But if we could live mindfully with intention, determined to do things that give the result we really want, would that not be a beginning of making a difference? Change will always create fear and disturbance which are just stories that we tell ourselves. We don't have to believe everything we think or feel or fear. Right?
World & Life View
Living with Open Hands
I see this important work of developing a world and life view also becoming a paradigm shift of everything, at least it was for me. Soon after I started questioning everything, I kept seeing an image that resonated so deeply with me that I now see everything through the lens or paradigm of Living with Open Hands as an expression of an Open Mind, Open Heart, and Open Will. I see this for me as more than a creed or doctrine. It is a way. A way of seeing. A way of treating others. A way of interacting with people and our planet. For me it also was a contrast to what I started to see as a woke up. I see puny people clinging to their puny stuff, their puny ideas, their puny and insignificant lives, their puny sense of meaning and purpose. I’ve noticed that if they have a god they believe in, that god is extremely puny also. Everything is about hanging on to what we think we know. When in fact there is nothing that we know. I developed Living with Open Hands into 10 Mythic Guideposts that help me with everything I think, see, say, and do. https://livingwithopenhands2.blogspot.com/2020/05/my-mythic-guideposts.html
After this paradigm shift, I was rocked by another even more profound understanding that is captured in this image.
Seeing through the Eyes of the Brokenhearted
Along with learning to see the world through My Own Eyes of Brokenheartedness.
There is so much depth and explanation in this paradigm that I’ll refer you to the blog that I wrote to explain it when it first came over me.
Seeing with Eyes of the Brokenhearted.
I’m just beginning to dig into this and all that it means and how it changes everything. It has profound impact on perspective and on understanding this world, society, politics, and religion. Even more so it completely changes how we see history. History has always been told by the powerful, the influencers, the winners, those that shape the ideas and values of this world. 10 years of history in the 1700s is told so much differently depending on if it is a slave that tells it or a slave owner that tells it. An incident in 2021 where a person ends up dead is told completely different by a policeman that was involved and by someone involved that is black. We have been blinded to the People’s History and instead fed the Powerful’s History.
“The vast majority of people throughout history have been poor, disabled, or oppressed in some way (ic.e., “on the bottom”) and would have read history in terms of a need for change, but most of history has been written and interpreted from the side of the winners.” (Richard Rohr, Franciscan Monk, in his newsletter “Bias from the Bottom”)
Most of us refuse to face the fact that aging brings on a whole variety of disabilities and debilitating diagnoses; often followed by poverty, oppression, and discrimination, bringing the inevitability personal heartbreak closer to home.
And hence we completely miss the most important, accurate, and life-giving way of Seeing this world; currently and throughout history by learning to See through the Eyes of the Brokenhearted and learning to See with my own Eyes of Brokenheartedness.
Endnote
Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the United States is one of the few books that is not written from a perspective of power, success, and accomplishment but rather through the eyes of the people at the bottom.
ch 01) Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress
ch 2) Drawing The Color Line
Etc. in YouTube
Here's a relevant conversation on Facebook related to this topic.
I see you only through the lense of my world and life view,
which is distorted.
You see me only through the lense of your world and life view,
which is distorted.
Maybe, just maybe, that is why it is so important that we do not judge each other.
Judging is a form of prejudice and hence a form of violence, just like labeling.
Judging further distorts my perception and your perception of others, of issues, of truth, of reality, of our whole worlds.
Hmm. This then means we probably all got it wrong.
None of us really know.
No wonder we have become so divided, so polarized.
Why hate difference when it is inevitable and it expands and deepens us so?
Why do things that are so self destructive?
Loving people live in a loving world.
Hostile people live in a hostile world.
Rajiv Pande
I have often wondered about hate. It's like there is an object between the hater and the hated that exists but not fully defined. The hater justifies the hatred. He has many ways to explain it, and even convince a bunch of people why but hey! It's hate, after all, it's negative, so something must still be amiss. The picture is not quite as objective as you would think precisely because the net result is negative
However when the understanding becomes complete, the intervening object, the distorting lens becomes clear and hatred is replaced by objective clarity
Hatred itself is not evil. But hatred that is allowed to remain untreated is a kind of moral laziness.
Ron Irvine
This is so true: "Hatred itself is not evil. But hatred that is allowed to remain untreated is a kind of moral laziness." Hatred is so much easier than understanding. We can hate from afar, but we can't understand others from afar. That requires the effort of relationships and first hand experience. Distance is easy and safe and secure. Understanding requires effort and risk. When I look back on the fundamentalist religion that I was raised in, one of the greatest changes between then and now is that the work of the church has gone from hard work based on hard relationships to being issue based allowing one to keep a distance and stay safe and secure. Risk is no longer needed. Just sit in the padded pew and donate money to causes out there somewhere; and watch a documentary occasionally. Religion has become sanitized and homogenized with no skin in the game. That's one of the reasons it has lost its relevance and significance in this world.
Ron Irvine
I think a good metaphor for hate is a wall. Maybe the object in between is a protective wall keeping us safe and secure (which are both just stories or fictions we tell ourselves).
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