JUNE 2019 REFLECTIONS
“The material reality that surrounds you is beginning to
crack apart, and with it all your illusions. The global capitalist system that
is currently devouring your planetary resources will soon self-destruct,
leaving many bereft”.
Daniel Pinchbeck
CHECK IN
WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME
In many esoteric philosophies and also in Gestalt therapy,
we are focused on the teaching and practice of what is generally called THE
HERE AND NOW.
Science is also ‘catching up’ with this concept. Science has
confirmed the old wisdom that TIME is always here and now, always present so we
can live it in process or actuality. So, while there is still this reality
called TIME, we need to focus on how to “check in” into this crucial ingredient
for the human survival to be able to develop a new structure for living on his
earth.
While we are avidly searching inspiration in art, music,
travel and so on, there is a will to be present but not HOW to be this
way. Therefore, we can no longer aspire to
a future from the dualistic point of view. Most, if not all our human
development, stems from the notion of “divide and conquer” and this pattern
continues today.
By developing our strong SOUL SENSE, we become more embedded
in a fuller, grander and more profound understanding that time and being is the
way because it is always here and present . It is like air; we need it to live
with clean air yet we are not aware how much time we use in wasting our source
of survival.
No one can ‘waste time’ if he or she is AWARE. Here we go
beyond optimism or pessimism, good or bad. All those dualities are dead
concepts, based on outmoded and old ways of thinking. Through the SOUL CRAFT we
are able to contemplate and reflect on the nature of duality through a
intuitive lens that makes time count so we can still BE- HERE AND NOW.
Use your life time, while still here, to redirect your concept
of duality and join a small group of practitioners like my old mentor Dr.
Arnold Mindell. He is the developer of PROCESS PSYCHOLOGY, later re-named as PROCESS WORK to give us a very clear concept and practice method to become
aware of our dual thinking and brought together psychology with soul work (my
definition). I am therefore including here Dr. Mindell’s explanation of
DEEP DEMOCRACY, a structure and process to develop a different consciousness
for the survival of humanity and the Earth.
DEEP DEMOCRACY EXPLAINED
Deep Democracy is the philosophical basis of the Worldwork
Paradigm, a psycho-social-political theory and methodology. The term Deep
Democracy was developed by Arny Mindell in 1988 and first appeared in Leader as
Martial Artist (Mindell, 1992). Mindell, a physicist and Jungian Analyst, has
researched and written extensively about how awareness interlinks with
reality and how we perceive it on different levels, creating different
frameworks of reality. An example for this is how we perceive time: the
measurable reality of the seconds ticking in a clock, the dreamlike
"subjective" perception of time as it passes during an encounter with
a lover - or during a conflict with an opponent - and the sentient essence of
timelessness at the moment of sunrise that transcends "known" time
(if only for a moment) and replaces it with the concept of a hopeful future.
Mindell calls his paradigm Process work. He formulates these principles
and demonstrates how they can be used to facilitate individual, relationship,
and group transformation.
Mindell started to
formulate these principles as a philosophical construct that he called Deep
Democracy. Unlike "classical" democracy, which focuses on
majority rule, Deep Democracy suggests that all voices, states of awareness,
and frameworks of reality are important. Deep Democracy also suggests that the
information carried within these voices and frameworks are all needed to
understand the complete process of the system with awareness.
This type of awareness can be focused on groups,
organizations, one's own inner experiences, people in conflict, etc. Allowing
oneself to take seriously seemingly unimportant events and feelings can often
bring unexpected solutions to both group and inner conflicts.
Although the term and the concepts of Deep Democracy are now
being used by various groups in different ways, Mindell formulates their common
denominator: Deep Democracy is the experience of a process of flow in which all
actors on the stage are needed to create the play that is being watched.
Deep Democracy is a natural process that occurs in all
community building processes, but often goes unnoticed or un-used. Just as
conventional democracy strives to include all individuals involved in the
political process, Deep Democracy goes a step further in the effort towards
fostering a deeper level of dialogue and inclusivity that makes space for all
people (with the individual right to vote) as well as all various and competing
views, tensions, feelings, and styles of communication - in a way that supports
awareness of relative rank, power, and privilege, and the potential of these
forces to marginalize other views, individuals, and groups.
Deep Democracy is our sense that the world is here to help
us to become our entire selves, and that we are here to help the world to
become whole (Mindell, 1992).
Evolution of Deep Democracy
The most fundamental forum is your own heart. Both as a
facilitator and as a human being, you must learn to hear yourself there. (I
would name this SOUL CRAFT).
Deep democracy has many aspects, many of which relate to
philosophical concepts derived from quantum physics. Deep Democracy at its
deepest manifestation refers to an openness towards the views of other people
and groups. It also embraces emotions and personal experiences that are most
often excluded from conflict and rational public discourse (Mindell, 1992). As
R. Buckminster Fuller said: we need to support the intuitive wisdom and
comprehensive informed-ness of every individual to ensure our continued fitness
for survival as a species.
One of the primary concerns of Deep Democracy is the use,
maintenance, and awareness of metaskills. The concept of openness to
diversity and dialogue between various views doesn’t mean that the facilitator
goes along with what the group wants—that is only one metaskill (although it
often reflects a lack of awareness). Facilitators must also practice, embody, and
express other metaskills such as toughness, anger, intractability, love,
detachment, concern for the wellbeing of
others, and a genuine desire to achieve consensus. Some of the
metaskills in the above-mentioned list are organic responses. However, when a
facilitator uses her internal organic (intuitive) responses to better inform
her intervention, she is using a metaskill. Therefore, the human development
(the internal psychological and spiritual growth) of the facilitator is so
important.
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