END OF THE YEAR 2021

 END OF THE YEAR AND START OF ANOTHER

2022 REFLETIONS YARO BLOG

 

 

 

 

As the new year is approaching, I am reflecting on the past year’s events and calamities. The global pandemic is still progressing with new strains and as a result we are suffering a global crisis of major proportions. Fortunately, in Queensland, we are now 90% vaccinated and living a life of closed doors to friends and limiting ourselves to few outdoor activities. Yet, the total damage of cultural and economic development is unprecedented. In addition to this global pandemic, we are still suffering great climate events, small wars and killings and people are leaving their homes to find a better life somewhere else even though many are dying on the way.

I am trying to define all this as a “natural cleansing” by Earth Mother, as people have abused nature over 200 years now. Michael Meade, my mentor said this very well:

“And so, in the midst of being lost in the darkest time of the year, in one of the darkest times of human culture, the way we avoid feeling and being lost is by connecting to the deeper sense of our own soul, which is secretly connected to the earth, which is itself a star and from there to the heavens above and to the cosmos. For, it is about interrelatedness and being present, and being part of things that are momentous, that are transcendent and yet somehow include us. And it was the dark times that ancient people understood to be the right times for finding our true selves and making more soul and redeeming life not just for ourselves, but for the Earth itself.”

SOUL WORK

Therefore, I am encouraging everybody to find a master teacher that you love and respect and celebrate the ideas they put out to the world. My two teachers are: Robert Bly, the American poet and Malidoma Some an African elder and drumming teacher. Both brought soul to their work. Both men are giants of spiritual messages and are clearly irreplaceable to all.

The poet Miguel de Unamuno stated: “Our greatest endeavour in this life must be to make ourselves irreplaceable, so that no one else can fill the gap that will be left when we die. Each of us is unique and irreplaceable; our soul that is, not simply our life.” So here they are speaking to us:

 

Michael Meade celebrates Robert Bly passing in November of 2021:

 

“I first read those lines by Unamuno shortly after meeting Robert Bly and it was immediately evident to me that he was one of those living so fully, so uniquely, that he was on the path of being irreplaceable. Robert had a sense of the immediacy of the soul, that rare sense that the next moment can break open. And that we must, not simply allow that, but we have to marry it, step into it and become ourselves in that moment of opening and awakening. If we fail to do that, then we have not fully participated in the world. Then, the awakening that is needed, the blossoming that was possible, fails to occur and there is a loss of soul.

Robert Bly spoke often of the necessity of grief and wrote that "personal grief can lead a person to the sorrow of the world. The growth of a person can be imagined as a power that expands downward into the hurt feelings, then further downward into compassion and further downward into the vast rooms of melancholy under the Earth where we are more alive the older, we get, more in tune with the Earth and the great roots."

 

 

Malidoma Patrice Some also passed away (December 2021) and here is a statement from Michael:

“The name Malidoma can mean “to make friends with the stranger or enemy.” Following that sense, Malidoma served as an ambassador from the tribal realms of Africa to the world of modernity. He had access to traditional practices of wisdom and healing, and also had a rare intelligence that made him able to shape meaningful pathways between ancient ways of knowing and the needs and longings of contemporary cultures.

There were many elements of his natural genius; of course, his ability to use ancient ways of connecting to nature and spirit; and the courage to bring healing rituals to the modern world. His radical intelligence could spark at any moment, quickly becoming a forceful fountain of ideas that could include insights into the human psyche as well as visions that could open the realms of nature and spirit.

You could say that the fire element of his genius involved his great intelligence as well as a way of seeing that connected to the ancestral realm. But his genius was also connected to water as natural element of his soul. At times, he would seem to become water, as he could be fluid and gentle, like a forest stream. And from that stream of inner water would come a great generosity and a deep sense of care.”

 

“The spiritual thirst that is latent in everybody can never come to a place of fulfilment unless people begin to think of each other as potential brothers and sisters”: Melidoma Some

Finally, I am attaching my small video recording that will reflect a ritual inspired by Malidoma.

 PEACE ON EARTH

 

 

 

 

DECEMBER 2021 DO NOT ABANDON YOUR SOUL

 

DECEMBER BLOG – DO NOT ABANDON YOUR SOUL

Dear reader,

We are coming to the end of 2021 and what a year! We are in a pandemic time that has not been around globally for more than 100 years, and we grew accustomed to the earning and spending culture. All this stopped now, and we are faced with an assortment of viruses that are getting more vicious in the many still unvaccinated and uneducated people who insist to have some human “rights” and do not care about spreading this virus (that is constantly mutating) to many others.

Let’s face it clearly, this is a BIOLOGICAL issue not political and claiming rights not to vaccinate is not on. Stop blaming the “rich” countries that they are reserving all resources to themselves and not share the wealth with the “poor” countries. This division of ‘them and us’ does not fit in a global crisis of today but only splits ideas as to what and whom to blame.

In addition, this chasm is created by several conspiracy theories that feed on disinformation and spread more separation between people of all cultures. First it was China sending a biological weapon on the world and now it is Africa spreading the new Omicron virus. On the other hand, the economy, the economy – we fear the decline of our goods that made the rich richer.

Panic shopping

                                                                 

We are in a state of great pain that is global in this critical time in the history of the world that requires major changes both in Nature and in Culture. There is NO going back to normal as some political leaders claim. There is no ‘normal’ as many people hope. Now we are living in an era that clearly is telling us that we must create new bridges, tunnels, and ways to re-connect with the human SOUL.

We are suffering major changes that are COLLECTIVE and not individual, or single group or one country. We all must realise that humanity is at a THRESHOLD and start to unite the Elders and the Youth everywhere to begin to construct a new synthesis of how to live on this planet or else we will be abandoning ourselves to increasing disasters in the future. We cannot abandon the youth (they are already reacting with gun violence) and dedicate time and effort to ensure a safe future for all.

Nihilist philosophy accepts the inevitability of death but does not allow despair and abandonment of the coming generation. We need to develop great compassion and give support facing the future and help them generate new solutions and an increased capacity and wisdom to generate the new vision of the possible.

We are in a place called the threshold that is placed between what is possible and annihilation of Nature and therefore of those who depend on it and that is all humanity. This new transformation will come not from a social agreement or an ideology or some belief system telling us that all good will come from some ‘higher power’ but from an inner awakening of heart and soul. This is where all the solutions of life’s dilemmas come from – OUR OWN SOUL. When a few people can turn their fears around to soulcraft, then there will be a flow on to others. Clear understanding that most of us now are living a life full of fear and panic, we turn this fear around and live a life open and full of possibilities on a daily basis.

As my mentor states: “face your soul and discover what are the things to risk your life for”! He also speaks wisely about the wisdom of the Threshold that is there for all to share. Here is his quote:

 

MICHAEL MEADE AND THE Wisdom of the Threshold

As human cultures seem increasingly at odds with the rhythms of nature and modern societies succumb to inner conflicts, people of all ages can feel that there is no longer any purpose in life. Although we all may be suffering a modern predicament, Michael Meade suggests that we are also in an archetypal mythic condition.

Like characters in an ancient story, we are collectively on a great threshold which can be simply seen as the edge where everything falls apart or be viewed as a great threshold of awakening, where ancient wisdom as well as new visions of life can arise. Meade uses a dramatic scene in an old story to show how the turning point depends upon whether or not we abandon our true selves.

As everything seems to teeter on the edge of destruction or else on the verge of transformation, meaningful change does not come from a social agreement, an ideology, or a belief system. Rather, it comes from awakenings of the heart and soul in individual lives. As an old saying reminds, if there is no change at the level of the individual soul, there can be no change at the level of collective culture.

The sense of identity that we need to tolerate the great tensions and pressures of contemporary life is not a “social identity” or some kind of collective abstraction. What we are looking for, what humans have always been seeking for, is the precise and unique identity that was written on the walls of our souls before we were born. Seen that way, the edge of our life becomes the place where we connect to missing parts of ourselves and find the hidden “wisdom of the threshold.”

When that type of turning point happens in the lives of enough people, everything can begin to turn around and we can find ourselves on the way home, with home meaning the place where young people find their genius and true dreams of life and older people have meaningful visions that include renewed connections to the living world of nature as well as to the nearby realm of spirit and great imagination.

 

This blog is the final one for 2021 and I sincerely wish all readers to come around to meet their Soul that is eternal and waiting for your attention. May the new year be a truly NEW and prosperous for all. Here is a gift that you may give yourself: a book By Bill Plotkin  SOULCRAFT (Amazon) and connect with the web page: https://www.soulcraftanz.com/

 As always, your comments and reflections are very welcome.

 

WELCOME TO FEAR - NOVEMBER 2021

WELCOME TO FEAR

 

Last night I was listening to a podcast by my Mentor Michael Meade and became fascinated by the Sufi story about FEAR.

Mulla Nasrudin or Nasreddin, a 12 century Mulla (1208 – 1285) is still quoted in the Middle East and Tukey areas, where he lived and travelled on his faithful donkey. His stories are profound teaching stories. In this story he is dealing with a lesson about Fear:

One night, Nasrudin was riding his dinkey and suddenly heard a powerful noise near him on the road. He was overcome with fear and was about to run like mad, but he stumbled on a person.

“WHO ARE YOU? Asked the Mullah.

“I am a Dervish, and this is my place of reflection” he was lying on a cot in a poorly lit room.

“Well, you must let me in” said the Mullah, “for your snoring left me shaking with fear”

“Well, take the end of this blanket” said the Dervish, “but be quiet as I am in contemplation now”

Nasrudin became quiet and fell asleep. But in the middle of the night, he woke up and was thirsty. He woke up the Dervish and said: “Now I am thirsty”!

The sleepy dervish said: “Go down to the pond and get some water”

“NO”! Nasrudin said: “I am very frightened”

“All right” said the Dervish, “I will go but only because providing water to a stranger is a sacred obligation”

But the Mulla cried” “NO! do not go, I will be even more afraid if you go and leave me alone here”.

The Dervish said: OK, take my knife to defend yourself” and went to fetch the water.

Alone, Nasrudin worked himself into a lather of fear and was shaking all over. Soon the Dervish came back carrying the water.

“Keep your distance!” shouted the Mullah, “or I will kill you on the spot!”

“But I am the Dervish with the water for you!”

“I do not care who you are, you may be a robber or a fiend coming to hurt me!” Exclaimed the Mulla.

“But you were thirsty, and I brought you the water” said the Dervish.

“Do not try to make nice to me, you fiend” Said the Mulla, “be gone”!

“But that is my cell you are occupying”!

“Then hard luck to you - now you must find another place, you fiend” exclaimed the Mulla.

 “I guess I will have to, but I do not know what is going on here”! said the Dervish. All perplexed now.

The Mullah answered: “Fear is multidimensional. It is stronger than thirst, sanity, privacy, or property. You do not have to have it in order to suffer deeply from it.”

 

FEAR IN PANDEMIC TIMES

In today’s times of Covid pandemic, climate crisis, military coups, economic failures, and all sorts of corruptions, we have plenty of things to fear about indeed. When reflecting on the multidimensional causes of fear, we can reflect on these ‘causes’ in a psychological way. Here we discover that our “little ego” (I call it our inner child) wants to make sure that we are protected and safe all the time. Even safe from our own feelings that are inside and may be the energies to connect with the big Self or True self that deals with erasing fear when connecting with Soul that is the real source of all love and wisdom.

In the Mulla story there is a warning as to how easily we can find ourselves in a situation where the instinct to help others can encounter people who make demands out of fear and then we lose our centre and get lost in the drama of what I call the “poor me” syndrome that stems from neurotic fears of ‘something out there’. Also, giving a weapon to a scared person can lead to harm to one that is helping without awareness. Fear reverses a situation by creating more anxiety, more projections and more panic leading to damage of self and others.

Today the world situation is much the same where Covid pandemic (Panic) has been spreading globally and people are reacting with anxiety and get very fearful and feel great pain from losing their family members, and others are denying the reality of the disease and take on strong aggressive action against vaccination and hurt others with attacks against mask orders and border closures.

Further fears of the collapse of the economy, climate crisis and lack of clarity in political leadership, creates a space where the “little self” enters the survival mode (fight or flight) and thus people develop a strong lack of trust in others and begin to create a state of collective paranoia with the raise of conspiracy theories and false beliefs. The old extremist feelings emerge when fear is at the centre and groups evolve that are ready to ‘defend’ themselves and their families against any imagined enemy.

Historians state that during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, people developed extreme beliefs in leaders that would save them. in Germany they supported the emergence of the NAZI party that promised health and wellbeing to all.

There is a similar surging of the extreme right and white supremacist groups that promise a new dawn for the good people and eliminate the bad. Some denigrate and deny the medical research and resist vaccination despite huge evidence of success in many fully vaccinated countries. Some believe that only god can save us and urge people to pray for a cure from heaven.

Unfortunately, many people do not understand the phenomena of fear as an energy that drives us into panic and all sorts of self and others harming behaviours. The loss of rational thinking collapses the intuitive centre and a loss of inner resources that give us a chance to evolve and grow even if fear is so strong that blinds us from resetting our lives towards real growth and development.

INTUITION AND AWERENESS are the main tools of developing strong capacity to deal with fear. This way we realise that fear is a door to our own survival as it generates body/mind hormones that energize us into positive beings that have been living on this Earth for many thousands of years developing solutions from the Big Self. Seeing the direction fear is guiding us (with awareness) we evolve as a greater human.

Any emotion (or motion) and particularly fear can move us to a massive amount of information and knowledge to be able to resolve our life issues, but by repressing our emotions, we lose our emotional intelligence and become more lost to our creative resources. As a wise teacher said: “who fears to suffer winds up suffering from fear” Courage wakes up in times of fear.

 

 

NIHILISM AS A SOCIAL CRUTCH - OCTOBER 2021

 

NIHILISM AS A SOCIAL CRUTCH

                                                                                               the expanding universe

 

Definition

Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin nihil 'nothing') is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects general or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values or meaning. Different nihilist positions hold variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some sets of entities do not exist or are meaningless or pointless.

Dear reader,

October is my month - I was born in October. This time, I am reflecting on a topic that is as mysterious as it is dark - It is called NIHILISM. That is a topic that has been debated for many years by academics and philosophers. The main protagonist of this idea was the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche - 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900. A philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, writer, and philologist whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history.

To understand how a purposely empty way of viewing the world has become filled with such darkness, it pays to spend some time with Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche hated systems and fixed moral principles; he saw no objective order to life beyond what we give it. Many choose to fixate on this rejection of traditional belief systems and understanding of meaning. Yes, he felt that moral and social conventions stifled individual thought and reason − but he didn’t say we should destroy them for the sake of it. Another master of nihilism (although he was not aware of this modern name) was Buddha.

Nirvana and nihilism

The culmination of the path that the Buddha taught was nirvana, "a place of nothingness…non possession and non-attachment…[which is] the total end of death and decay." Ajahn Amaro, an ordained Buddhist monk of more than 40 years, observes that in English nothingness can sound like nihilism. However, the word could be emphasized in a different way, so that it becomes no-thing-ness, indicating that nirvana is not a thing you can find, but rather a state where you experience the reality of non-grasping.

In the Alagaddupama Sutta, the Buddha describes how some individuals feared his teaching because they believe that their self would be destroyed if they followed it. He describes this as an anxiety caused by the false belief in an unchanging, everlasting self. All things are subject to change and taking any impermanent phenomena to be a self-causes suffering. Nonetheless, his critics called him a nihilist who teaches the annihilation and extermination of an existing being. The Buddha's response was that he only teaches the cessation of suffering. When an individual has given up craving and the conceit of 'I am' their mind is liberated, they no longer come into any state of 'being' and are no longer born again.

Nihilism is one of those terms that everyone uses very freely, often without fully understanding what it means. It is subbed in for ‘negative’ or ‘depressing’, a perennial indicator of a bad vibe. So, before we can examine our changing relationship to the concept, we must reflect on it carefully:

Nihilism is a nice “crutch” that most modern people use when they are faced with fear and anxiety. Now we have the global pandemic called COVID-19 and responses to this crisis has divided the world into two camps:

a)       Those who promote the need to vaccinate everybody in order to stop this virus and

 

b)     Those who say that Covid is not only the only problem, but we are experiencing the climate change problems, neo-liberalism and the failings of capitalism and the demise of democracy.

 

We, therefore, are experiencing a major loss of control of our daily lives and consequently, many people cannot find any meaning in life, and many suffer mental health problems and as well as chronic loneliness particularly we see this in many youths who are feeling a lack of adult guidance and are seeking (mainly online) an ideal way out. Enter Syfret, Wendy the Australian author of “The Sunny Nihilist” She states:

“Sunny nihilism breaks away from the previous fixation on destruction by viewing pointlessness as a chance to breathe and think. Ultimately serving as a blank page, a chance to enjoy the moment, the present, the chaos and luck of being alive at all”

After examining in great detail the philosophy of Nietzsche that spanned over a century, she offers the possibility to change our relationship with the term NIHILISM. She calls for a new revision of the idea and thus creates a shift in using the negative belief into a positive perception and thus, creates a new paradigm.

My own reflections on the dark side and the light side of nihilism led me to evolve the third side that comes from the gestalt therapy work and that is make a dialog with both sides or polarities and discover the possibility to become aware of a third side. The ideas that emerged for me, seeking the third side, came from the reading the book THE URBAN MONK by Shojai, Pedram. He is a master monk and a teacher.

 

THE WISDOM OF URBAN MONK

We live in a culture of proclamations instead of self-inquiry. What this means is that, at the ripe age of 17 or 18, we must decide what we want to be for the rest of our lives and somehow announce that to the world. “I’m going to be a doctor, lawyer, programmer, teacher . . .” We end up making a proclamation about who we are based on what our whimsical interests were in our late teens and are oftentimes stuck with this decision for the rest of our lives. Suppose we decided to be a lawyer because we wanted job security and were good at reading; we then find ourselves surrounded by other lawyers for much of our lives. If we then decide to practice criminal law, we could then find ourselves with clients who may not be too savoury. Doctors are surrounded by sick people and other doctors. Teachers are saddled with politics and crowded classrooms. Essentially, if we are what we eat, the decisions we make early in life oftentimes surround us with the types of people we’ll engage with for decades. This isn’t inherently bad, but what it does is serve us with a worldview that reinforces a fabricated identity. Who we think we are is compounded by who buys into that role? All of this happens at a time in life when we should be asking an important question instead: Who am I?

BIG PICTURE EXERCISE

A powerful way to frame a transformation in your life is to change your current circumstances in a hypothetical scenario and play it out. Ask yourself: If time, money, and place were not a consideration, what would I love to do with my time? Then ask yourself the following questions:

 ​Why? ​What can I do to go there?

​What stands in my way?

 ​Is it a real or a perceived limitation? ​

How can I transform these obstacles?

​How can I change my current lifestyle to accommodate this and move toward the goal I planned?

HERE ARE SOME WAYS TO DO THIS:

Stress

Being saddled by too much stress impacts the immune system and the nervous system, and it messes with our metabolism. It cuts flow to the frontal part of the brain, which is the part associated with higher moral reasoning and the critical thinking capacity that makes us human.

Time

 Time connects us to all the power in the Universe. Our better understanding of what it is and how we can exist within the flow of it will liberate us in ways we can’t even imagine. Time is one of our greatest teachers and an ally in life. It is the anchor of our being; when we squander time, we waste our life force. Because we are disconnected from our essential selves, we spend it frivolously and speak of being bored.

Energy

 This is the currency of life. As you may recall from martial arts, qi energy can be cultivated into Shen (or Spirit). This becomes the juicy stuff that helps us connect with the life all around us. It is the fabric of consciousness that we share with all the life around us, and it is something we can enhance and refine with our practice. The baseline is having a robust, healthy system that flows with qi. Getting out of our own way and then refining our energy into spirit is the way of alchemy and one of the missing pieces to the “lack of purpose” dilemma we face in the West.

Sleep

What goes up must come down, and sleep is where we heal on the soul level. It’s where our subconscious minds connect with the collective unconscious and where we derive meaning from our day’s events. Most of us are so far behind in sleep debt that we always feel like something’s missing. Correcting this and connecting with our daily “small death” helps us tap into the web of life. When we have adequately slept, our baseline anxiety starts to go away, and we regain the focus and perspective to find answers for ourselves.

Stagnant lifestyle

Now is the first time in human history that we’ve become so stagnant, sitting around most of the day. Many of us are lost and disconnected from our primal roots. Getting moving is essential to unlocking our vital energy and activating key genes that code for growth and longevity. When the body doesn’t move, it signals a shutdown and makes the mind dull, leading to a sense of disconnection and unease. Purpose doesn’t always hit you over the head. It comes naturally once we’ve turned our lights back on by getting back in the flow of movement.

Diet

Good food powers the brain and activates higher spiritual centres to wake us up. Bad food does the opposite; it lulls us to dull sleep and messes with our energy flow. Getting on the right side of this equation is critical. You can’t eat junk and expect to find some higher purpose in life.

Nature

As the shamanic teacher Alberto Villoldo says, in the West, we are the only people who see ourselves outside of the Garden. The perception that we were evicted from a natural paradise has cut us off from the profound respect for the natural world that is bred into so many cultures. We tear through forests, mine through mountains, pollute rivers, and fill the earth with plastic shit we didn’t really need. Disconnecting from nature pulls us from the umbilical cord of the universe and separates us from all the other life to which we are bound.

Loneliness

There is no such thing as loneliness when we find God, Truth, or whatever you need to call It. When we’re disconnected from our essential selves, we feel isolated and confused. Tapping into our childhood passions and understanding that we’ve all got bullshit we are carrying around is the first stop. We can then find meaning in each other. We can understand our common plight and see ourselves in others. As we take care of ourselves and vitalize our own lives, we can support others and tap into the energy of service.

Money

 There are lots of wealthy people who lack meaning in life. They go on expensive retreats, wear the nicest yoga clothes, buy lots of massages, and are still miserable. Money doesn’t buy meaning if you’ve bought into the false promise of conspicuous consumption. Use money to fuel your dreams and lead you on a life of adventure and inquiry. Use it to help others and make the world a better place. Meaning isn’t bought. It is home grown.

It is easy to forget how at the beginning of the pandemic, things felt briefly surmountable. When the numbers were low − and for those of us living on an island at the edge of the world, the crisis far away − people liked to talk about what this unparalleled break in normality ‘meant’. We told ourselves it was nature hitting back after centuries of abuse, a call from the universe to slow down, some cosmic reminder to get to know our neighbours better or finally tidy up the balcony. Clearing out cupboards, archiving family documents and calling old friends, so many marvelled, ‘I never would have gotten to this without a pandemic.’ We looked for reason within the blooming chaos because reason and meaning are the superstructure, we’ve been taught to build our lives within.

 

 

Your comments will be greatly appreciated.

SEPTEMBER 2021 BLOG - REFLECTIONS YARO

THE YIN/YANG OF PEACE

 

 

 

                     

Definition: In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the cycles of Yin and Yang and formed into objects and lives. Yin is the receptive and Yang the active principle, seen in all forms of change and difference such as the annual cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (north-facing shade and south-facing brightness), sexual coupling (female and male), the formation of both men and women as characters and socio-political history (disorder and order).

The notion of duality can be found in many areas, such as Communities of Practice. The term "dualistic-monism" or dialectical monism has been coined to express this fruitful paradox of simultaneous unity and duality. Yin and Yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. According to this philosophy, everything has both yin and yang aspects (for instance, shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation. (Wikipedia)

My reflection for this month, is about my need for a sense of peace as I am witnessing the enormous challenges that seem to be more and more impossible to control either individually or socio-culturally. There is no person or group that is not busy wondering, with concern, about the future of our next generations to come. Apparently, we are all drowning in fear, anger, despair and being lost.

Leaders and wise counsellors that supposedly have solutions to protect and make safe the environment and the people on Earth, seem lost in confusion and indecision. I ask: where are the Elders and Wise men and women that can spread the good news and prevent more suicides, more mental health crisis and more crime and killings? There are now more evil groups like the Taliban and others destructive groups that only believe in the demise of all that will not follow them.

One way that emerges as an idea, for me, is to be more aware and more accepting that we are all in this mess together. That we have reached this threshold between DARK AND LIGHT.  For millennia, the old Chinese Taoist symbol YIN/YANG, has been indicating the constant change between the dark field and the white field of life, but in every dark place there is a small white spot and in the white place there is a small dark spot.

Realizing that in each life-space there is recovery and a constant shift that is a permanent movement eternally exposing all the manner of changes that are inevitable. Being aware of the phenomenon, both young and old people can find hope. Genuine hope is a creative way for the youth to envision a new era of peace and for the older a wisdom that comes from experience and true change.

One of the most interesting reflections I explored just recently, was the idea of NIHILISM.

“Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value. With respect to the universe, existential nihilism suggests that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant, without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence. According to the theory, everyone is an isolated being born into the universe, barred from knowing 'why'. The inherent meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism, where one can potentially create their own subjective 'meaning' or 'purpose'. Of all types of nihilism, existential nihilism has received the most literary and philosophical attention”. (Wikipedia).

I always felt that this word and concept, implies a rather depressive sensation that everything in life is pointless, everything we experience is irrelevant – what is the point being alive and do your thing?

Therefore, today, with all the crises of global proportions, destruction of both nature and culture, we could easily re-interpret nihilism as a ‘wake up call’ to really confront clearly what is good and positive instead of what is terrible. We need a reframing of our purpose in life. The knowledge that our planet will continue to exist and thrive for the next few millions of years, may inspire us to be more attending to climate change decisions both individually and socially. We may re-think how to become more involved in change activism that can creatively develop healthy solutions to live well and care for the planet. Enjoy simple things as much as possible and minimise our spending addiction.

Take more time and effort to mentor the young and encouraging them to be more HERE AND NOW with the self and others in community and learn to be more distant from the games and online addictive entertaining.

You, the reader may have more suggestions and ideas that can encourage people to be involved in the doing rather the passive thinking. Meditate on the YIN/YANG image as a life symbol and imagine yourself being in the white circle that surrounds the black dot or the black circle that surrounds the white dot. Then imagine your white dot getting larger and larger until the black dot disappears, and you are now surrounded with a white circle. Play with this vision until you will come up with a creative solution – no matter how small – and be brave enough to connect with your soul, the source of all creation, bringing peace to everybody.

To end this reflection, I want to summarize a story by Michael Meade: this is a story about three fish in a lake having a good time. One was a wise fish and another not so wise but smart and the third one not smart at all. One day they saw a fisherman throwing a fishnet in the lake. The wise fish knew the meaning of this and just swam away from the area. The smart fish pretended he is dead and was thrown out and then slowly escaped to the water and swam away. The third fish, the not smart at all, got caught in the net and when he was in the frying pan he thought: “if I ever survive this, I will not wait for the net thinking it is not for me. I will not get stuck in this lake but swim to the wide ocean of life.

Your comments are welcome. 

AUGUST - 2021

 

ARE WE ENDING AN ERA?

Drawing of John of Patmos

 

ARE WE ENDING AN ERA? – YARO STARAK

“Some of the water of life tries to enter the world and flow through each of us. So that the collective and personal crises which all are facing now may threaten our habitual ways of being and acting on one level of life, while opening the doors of vision and understanding on other levels. Part of what happens amid all the uncertainty and liminality, because we are changing in ourselves, our relationships change, and we can find new ways of relating to other people, but also to nature and also to the divine.” Michael Meade

Recently I was listening to Meade’s podcast about the old story of John of Patmos who was banned to a cave near Greece and wrote his prophecy about the coming of APOCALIPSIS. Here is what history tells us:

Early tradition says that John was banished to Patmos by the Roman authorities. This tradition is credible because banishment was a common punishment used during the Imperial period for a number of offenses. Among such offenses were the practices of magic and astrology. Prophecy was viewed by the Romans as belonging to the same category, whether Pagan, Jewish, or Christian. Prophecy with political implications, like that expressed by John in the Book of Revelation, would have been perceived as a threat to Roman political power and order. (Natural History 4.69–70; Tacitus, Annals).

I am reflecting about the current ‘Revelations’ about a rare coronavirus that supposedly came out of a fish market in China and quickly spread globally. That pandemic is only an example of what people like John of Patmos (if he were alive today) would proclaim the end of the world as we know it.

 Currently, we are in several crisis that are threatening our survival as humans. Covid-19, fires in Canada and California, Floods in Europe and many more disasters everywhere. The modern apocalyptic story is now with us and many so called “experts” are filling the web and social media with extreme stories of our demise.

The great predictions of John have not materialised, and I am certain that we will also solve the many challenges this time. In the meantime, I am proposing a way to spend the time (in lockdown) by placing an empty chair in front of you and have a ‘dialogue’ with yourself. Gestalt therapy is a way to discover how to live HERE AND NOW and create space only for you. Videotaping or recording your dialogue is very useful for healing self and help others. There is no coming back or ‘returning’ to the “New Normal”, as many leaders and experts are promising. Everyone must examine their inner soul and discover what is the NEW TIME.

The water of life is flowing as Michael Meade says: “When I hear people talking about returning to normal, I find myself repeating the idea that normal cannot know itself. Normal is not a place anyone really wants to be, especially if a person wants to be themselves. Since there is no normal self, the idea of living in normal is truly self-defeating.

Rather, we have a desperate need to figure out how to go forward, which means finding our way to a better place, one that is more inclusive of all kinds of people, but also more inclusive of the various parts of our own selves that are often excluded from the ideas and the practices of normal. There is also a danger in trying to return too quickly in ways that are not healing or reassuring to our own souls”

 

BEARS IN ALASKA

I am proposing here a metaphor to reflect upon. Recently I saw a video of several bears catching salmon on a river flowing downward and the salmon jumping up stream and the bears skilfully catching as many as possible. Perhaps we are the “bears” catching all we can to live a rich and healthy life while the climate changes and pandemics are closing in on us, and we are not aware or do not care.

Most people are attached to solutions that give us expert answers in exaggerated images of what is good for everyone. But in troubled times we get attached to extreme visions (like John of Patmos) believing in fantasies, prophecies and conspiracies.

I was reflecting about the bears catching salmon and one thought came to me about the river slowly getting dry and the salmon will not be able to jump to produce new ones up-stream and the bears will go hungry and even die. I do not know what the bears will do to survive but we human beings have a mighty brain that is capable to survive and by creatively design solutions and in time, the Apocalyptic fears will dissolve as time goes by.

I have some ideas already to fine-tune our creative thinking and stay ready for the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. One idea came to me reading a book by Sol Luckman: POTENTIATE YOUR DNA, another one is by Pedram Shojai THE URBAN MONK.

The first book claims to have the secret to regenerate your DNA using specific sound effects.

Here is what the author said: The Potentiation session initiates a progressive repatterning designed to “reset” your bioenergy fields, which serve as the blueprint for your body-mind-spirit and, as such, when distorted by trauma or toxicity (or both), can induce dysfunctions of various kinds.

 In the second book, (a bit simpler to understand) we can use his healing methods. The author states:

“Chronic stress is a killer. Modern stressors are basically death by a thousand cuts. Our abstract concept of money or currency is tied to our very survival and triggers the same circuitry. It messes with us and stresses us out. Money is tight, and deep down that means something that our bodies understand viscerally. Low levels of cortisol release over a sustained period have terrible consequences for the body.”

I am reflecting about the word “MONEY”. I am imagining that this is our biggest stressor. Like the bears frantically fishing on the river, we frantically ‘fish’ for more and more money. Statistics in the Western world indicate that we are coming to a “dry season” as there are more and more poor and only a few rich. Governments are frantically getting Covid vaccines and businesses are closed on lockdown.

So, I am suggesting some ‘at home’ simple rituals to stay alert and well, the Urban Monk suggests:

CLENSING

1.    Light a candle.

2. Take holy sage and light it and cleanse yourself with the smoke

3. Breathe in the new YOU!

4. Breathe in 4 x and hold breath for 4 x and exhale 4x.

5. Do the ritual 3 times.

MEDITATION OR MINDFULLNESS

Try to use meditation as an operating system instead. This means you constantly scan your consciousness and cue for calm. You can sense thoughts that make you reactive and uneasy, and you learn to let them pass. You don’t let them knock you off your perch.

LEARN TO LISTEN

 Millions of bits of information pass through your brain every second. From the position of your foot to the wind hitting your face, it’s all data that reflects in the mind as noise. There’s also a steady stream of past memories, trauma, emotions, and pain that your brain is constantly working to keep at arm’s distance. It is loud up there. Most people first notice this when they try to meditate and panic when they realize it . . . chaos is actually inside.

SHAKE IT OUT

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with your hands in front of your torso. ​

Turn your palms so they’re facing your chest, as if you’re holding a tree or beach ball in front of you.

​Bend your knees slightly and curl your tongue so it’s touching the roof of your mouth. ​

Breathe gently in through your nose and out through your nose to your lower abdomen. ​Keep your shoulders, wrists—and your entire body—relaxed. ​This is called Tree Pose or Tai Chi Pose.

​Let yourself relax into this stance and take a few breaths into your lower abdomen. ​Allow your body to start subtly moving around within the confines of the stance.

WALK BAREFOOT IN THE GRASS

Take a walk to the park and take off your shoes and just slowly walk on the grass and you will feel the regeneration that the Earth is giving your body. Do this every day or at least on weekends.

 

 

NAMASTE!

JULY 2021 BLOG

Fritz Perls
 

Dear Readers,

I am starting this July blog a bit late due to a lot of complex issues, both personal and social. Brisbane is now on lockdown for about 4 days, and I personally am not choosing to get the AstraZeneca vaccine and waiting to get the Pfizer one. However, the good news is that I am inspired to write more and share myself online.

One of my reflections this week, was on the matter of Elderhood. I wrote a paper on “Chaos Theory and Elderhood” and this paper was accepted as a discussion paper at the AASW (Association of Social Work) international conference to be held in Brisbane  in November of this year.

  The other topic that I am reflecting on, is the Mentoring Initiation for men over 50 and who are ready and willing to help the young men of today in their initiation into adulthood. This idea comes from my attending the MANSHINE event last month where 130 men shared their stories in small and big group gatherings every day.

At this event, I noticed a small group of elder men that called themselves “old cogers." I joined them excited to hear their stories and share my own.  Being with the elders there, I became  inspired to design a proposal for men over 50, where they could join me in a group that will learn and experience the skills of Mentoring, leadership, initiation rites and more.

As a gestalt therapist and trainer of group leaders, for over 20 years, I want to share my skills and knowledge with men who can become facilitators and develop Mentoring abilities to help young men. My own Mentor, Michael Meade, gave me a lot of tools and ideas by way of rituals, stories, myths and poems that led me to design a "bag" of teaching tools. I add here my own gestalt theory and practice to enhance the Humanistic perspective.

You may listen to Michael Meade’s podcast by clicking on the link below.

 

Michael Meade podcast: 

 

 What follows is a facilitators program ideas for Mentors -  a gestalt approach in working with groups. Much of this content was derived from my readings of  books by Malcolm Parlett and others.

1. The group is an ‘organism-environment’ field consisting of multiple forces in functional interrelationship to each other and to the whole.

2. Experience has an underlying structure

3. The group field has multi-boundaries.

4. The group field is multi-layered.

5. The group has many contexts (field conditions), all of which affect its here-and-now process.

6. We can discover the nature and structure of the group field both by observation and by systematic experimentation.

7. Everyone has a point of view, and no point of view is inherently preferable to any other.

8. The observer is always and necessarily part of the situation, and affects the object of study, and vice versa.

9. We should try to distinguish ‘naïve experience’ from theories, hypotheses, assumptions, preconceptions etc.

10. Begin by describing phenomena, rather than trying to explain them.

11. All information is potentially relevant.

THE FIELD PERSPECTIVE

Gestalt therapy has a particular version of field theory. Its starting point is the ‘organism-environment field’, a field that is created and sustained from the interactions of humans (and other animals) and their environment. In this field many kinds of factors operate at the same time. I am a physical body, also biologically an animal, as well as a therapist – a social role – an Australian, etc. All these are part of the field, and all must be considered in any investigation of the field. Let me illustrate this more concretely:

Imagine that I am a therapist who is starting a new group. The members arrive and settle themselves in the group room. I look around at them, noticing my own feelings and wondering what theirs are. As I sit in the group room waiting for the group to start, my present physical environment includes air to breathe, a chair to support my body, and a room temperature. Looking out of the window, I can see trees being blown by a blustery wind.

All group phenomena are 'of’' the field, in the strong sense of being actually constituted by the field and its complex structures and dynamics. The people and events of the group are continually mutually influencing and affecting each other so that no events in the group field are isolated from other events. We sometimes describe this in Gestalt as ‘co-creation’ – I create something that is in turn helping to create me…and so on.

FIGURE AND GROUND

Returning, again to the group, I notice that it is time to start, and close the door to signify this. Looking round, I see Jim sitting silently, without his usual energy. I wonder what is up with him. For a few moments, he is the centre of my attention, and stands out for me. At that moment, I do not notice the others in the group. They have momentarily faded into the background.

The point is a general one: in perception, we do not see all things equally. At any given moment, some things are 'figural', and grab our attention. Then something else stands out for us, and the previous figure recedes into the background. We are continually organising and re-organising our experiences of ourselves and the environment into a series of 'meaningful wholes' or gestalts in this way.

MULTIPLE BOUNDARIES IN THE GROUP FIELD

In Gestalt theory, experience occurs at the boundary between the organism and its environment. This boundary is sometimes called ‘the contact boundary’, and its operation is what creates the world as we experience it.

‘Contact’ – being in touch with objects – is the basis of both our sensing of the world, and our action within it. Contact, in Gestalt theory is ‘the simplest and first reality’. It is through this contact that the boundaries that come to define us as human organisms and as people in the world come to be constructed. Let me briefly show how this occurs.

For our purposes, it is useful to think of three different boundaries operating in the formation of experience. First is the so-called ‘self’ boundary. This includes my body-boundary (skin surface) and the sensory organs which operate in it and which give me my basic experience of the world – sights, sounds, smells, surfaces and so on. Next is the ‘Me’ boundary. This is where I begin to get a sense of myself: who I am, what I want. I do this by making choices about which bits of the world are important and interesting to me, and which are not. I identify with some things and alienate myself from others, giving myself a sense of I and not-I. Finally, is my ‘Social’ boundary, where I can be aware how others and I would describe or characterize me.

THE GROUP FIELD HAS MANY LAYERS

Both the group leader and the group members are trying, in their different ways, to gain insight into the structure and dynamics of the group field, right here and now. I would like now to consider a way to divide up and focus in on current process that is of particular interest and use to group leaders. This involves identifying three natural 'levels' of group life: the individual level, the interpersonal level, and the group-as-a-whole. If the group leader understands these levels, then he can organise his observation and intervention in the group setting by choosing to concentrate, as appropriate and useful, on the behaviour and experience of group members as individuals; on the interactions between individuals, and on the 'group-as-a-whole', the group system.

I believe that this way of looking at group life in terms of 'levels' stems directly from Gestalt’s holistic roots. When we talk of levels, we are talking about the hierarchical ways in which the group field is structured by natural and social forces, and our attempts as group leaders and members to gain insight into this structure both by how we conceive it and how we act within it. AS A WHOLE

SEVERAL WAYS TO NOTICE THE GROUP ZONES OF AWARENESS

(i) Here and Now: This is what goes on in group sessions, the here-and-now process of the group. In field theory, this is what is 'real', our primary therapeutic focus. A few of the relevant field factors which constitute the group process are: the physical conditions of the group room, group member's current feelings and desires, individual contact styles, contact patterns between individuals (pairs and sub-groups), energy levels and so on.

(ii) There and Now: This zone includes factors relating to the current (spatially) external field in which the group operates. This includes group member's current lives outside the group and between sessions, the location of the group room, events in the world that may be impacting on the group in some way (in the electronic age, spatial distance is irrelevant). The current pandemic is creating a need of spatial distance.

(iii) Here and Then: This refers to the group's history, what has happened to group members in previous sessions. This includes their memories of what has happened, and fantasies and stories about the past.

(iv) There and Then: This largely refers to the past history of group members - their life stories.

DISCOVER THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF THE GROUP FIELD BY OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION

Uncovering the structure of the actual situation is a key task for the leader and the group together. Sometimes this is done by observation, noticing something, perhaps making a comment, and sometimes by an experiment, trying something out to see what happens. When we do this, the underlying structure is often made more visible. A feature of group life that was not in individual or group awareness suddenly becomes figural.

The more we understand how this process of exploration and discovery works, the more we can systematically endeavor to make the field structure visible by exploration and experiment: ‘What will happen if I/you/we….?” Some simple but relevant questions that group leaders and members might ask themselves are:

· What, in general, seems possible or not possible here and now?

· What can be done or not done?

· What can be said or can’t be said?

· What can be felt and what is rarely or never felt?

· What do we know and what do we avoid knowing?

· What are the present enabling and restraining forces around possible group events?

So even though several people are in a group room together, their phenomenal experiences are all different. They will have different perceptions, needs, desires and backgrounds. No two people will experience the group process exactly the same, and sometimes perceptions will vary very widely indeed. There is therefore no absolute objective 'truth' about how the group really is. The best we can hope for is an inter-subjective, negotiated view of what is going on which allows for multiple perspectives.

The implications of this for group processing are profound. Even if we think that a situation is repeating itself, we must recognise this is literally impossible. Every situation and every experience is, if we consider it fully enough, unique, different to any which has preceded it. This does not mean that there are not regularities, that one situation will never resemble another, but that the resemblance is always partial and limited.

THE OBSERVER IS ALWAYS PART OF THE TOTAL SITUATION AND AFFECTS EVERYBODY.

In groups we are all observers sometimes, noticing things that happen or do not happen, aware of ourselves, others, the group in the situation. And we are also subject of observation by others. We act and are acted upon in turn.

This applies to the group leader as much as to any other group member. The group leader has an important role to play in the group, but he always remains part of the group field. The idea that the leader is (or should be) a separate, objective figure who must somehow distance himself from the other group members in order to study them does not fit with a field theory perspective. No longer, in this relational universe, can we study anything as separate from ourselves. Our acts of observation are part of the process that brings forth the manifestation of what we are observing.

  BEGIN BY DESCRIBING PHENOMENA, RATHER THAN TRYING TO EXPLAIN THEM

If we take a phenomenological approach, then several things become clear. The first is that our knowledge of the group comes through the experience of all its members. Not just the group leader, but also everyone who is in, and experiencing, the group has something to offer. there is no single truth about what is happening in the group or about group process. If several people have a similar experience, which they then interpret in a similar way, then there will, to that extent, be a consensual reality, but it is not ‘the truth’ of the situation.

Perhaps the group has a feeling of stuckness that we cannot understand, until we realize that several people are feeling angry with the leader but are not voicing this feeling. Once we realize that this is happening, we have an ‘Aha!’ experience. So that’s what was going on! Suddenly the energy rises, and people start to relate more freely…

 BEGIN BY DESCRIBING PHENOMENA, RATHER THAN TRYING TO EXPLAIN THEM

This theme encourages us to initially focus on our immediate and concrete experience, and not to rush to explanations and theories too quickly. Of course,  we can never escape theorising at a conscious or unconscious level entirely, but we can learn to recognise the continuum between more concrete description at one end, and more abstract theorising at the other. Once we appreciate this, we can combine our observing and theorising more effectively.

CONCLUSION

The gestalt work with groups is not the only way to describe and work with group process, and no way is ‘truer’ than any other approaches. Whether you use the Gestalt approach described here, or prefer some other, the approach you use is a means to an end, and the end is helping you and group members to get greater understanding of the complex and constantly changing facets of the overall group process.

 

READING LIST

John Harris [1995], 'Working with Large Groups and Teams', Topics in Gestalt Therapy Vol 3 No 2

Malcolm Parlett [1991], 'Reflections on Field Theory', British Gestalt Journal, Volume 1 No 2

Peter Philippson & John Bernard Harris [1992], Gestalt: Working with Groups, Manchester Gestalt Centre

*Peter Philippson [1995], 'Why Shouldn't We Interrupt?', Topics in Gestalt Therapy Vol 3 No 2

Ernesto Spinelli [1992] The Interpreted World: An Introduction to Phenomenological Psychology, Sage Pubs 1989

Starak, Yaro (2012), Group Work Skills.

Shaw Martin  The Branch From the Lightning Tree .White Cloud Press