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#1136 - Monday, July 15, 2002 - Editor: Jerry
JAN BARENDRECHT
death and destruction
life's theme park without a break
no exceptions made
know how old age loves disease
silliness games beyond past
how to cross the toll bridge
to beyond both birth and death
when the fee is life
when the cost of life is pain
when all efforts seem in vain
_______________________________________________________________________
ANDREW BREESE
from Live Journal
excerpts from
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/21/flores.html
"You must practice
assessments (to work on truth) and
generate commitments (to work on trust)."
Flores knows about words and how they translate directly
into deeds. He knows that talk is never cheap -- he
often charges more than $1 million for his services, a
fee that is linked directly to specific promises of
increased revenues and savings. He also knows that talk
is the source of these executives' failure. Their words
work against them -- which is why they can't get
anything to work for them.
Talk all you want to, Flores says, but if you want to
act powerfully, you need to master "speech acts":
language rituals that build trust between colleagues and
customers, word practices that open your eyes to new
possibilities. Speech acts are powerful because most of
the actions that people engage in -- in business, in
marriage, in parenting -- are carried out through
conversation. But most people speak without intention;
they simply say whatever comes to mind. Speak with
intention, and your actions take on new purpose. Speak
with power, and you act with power. [...]
"When I left prison, I had to figure out how to embrace
my past," Flores says. "Those three years represented a
tragedy that I used to re-create myself, not something
that was done to me. I never blamed Pinochet, or my
torturers, or external circumstances. I feel
'co-responsible' for the events that took place. I never
told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I
told a transformation story -- about how prison changed
my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth,
and trust are at the heart of power. I made my own
assessment of my life, and I began to live it. That was
freedom."
In 1976, nearly broke, Flores came to the United States.
In 1977, he began a PhD program at the University of
California at Berkeley, drawing together several fields:
the philosophy of language, computing, operations
research, and management. He found himself drawn to the
work of Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher whose
dictum "Language is the house of being" defined for
Flores the link between words and the self. From
Heidegger, Flores learned that language conveys not only
information but also commitment, and that people act by
expressing assessments and promises. Computers, he
concluded, would be more effective if they recorded and
tracked commitments, rather than simply moving
information. [...]
But more than that, Flores is committed to living what
he calls "life at its best." He chooses his clients. He
rewards himself for his hard work with shopping
splurges, sometimes buying $1,000 worth of books -- and
then rearranging his work schedule to give himself time
to read them. Last year, he bought a majority interest
in a school in Santiago, Chile in order to test and
teach his theories. It is a life filled with commitments
-- a life based on freedom. [...]
Become practiced in making assessments, and you come to
see others clearly, well beyond their fictions and lies.
You also come to see how much influence you have over
your own life. "We don't realize how much we create
reality through language," Flores says. "If we say that
life is hard, it will be hard. If, on the other hand, we
make commitments to our colleagues to improve our
productivity, we also improve our mood, and as a result,
clarity and happiness will increase. People talk about
changing their thinking, but they have no idea what that
is, let alone how to do it. The key is to stop producing
interpretations that have no power."
________________________________________________________________________
NINA
a piece on forgiveness that fell in my lap...
I stopped into the local metaphysical bookstore on the
way home for lunch, contemplating the round and round I
can get caught up in when it comes to 'pinning someone
down', when it comes to 'winning the good fight'.
Next to the angel cards and carved stone pocket totems
(hehe!) stood a 'dateless calendar' - 365 thoughts in a
flip-book - and upon the open face, one reply to my
wondering:
"Very often trying to forgive feels like trying to
change reality. But forgiveness is simply returning to
peace. If we experience someone as disturbing or
difficult our goal is not to squelch our troubled mind.
It is to return our attention to our peaceful mind,
where nothing needs to be done or undone." -Hugh Prather
I thought it was interesting how impersonally
'forgiveness' was described in this quote. It isn't
made clear who is being forgiven. Is there a forgiver?
A forgiven? It is as impersonal as "doing laundry"...
something you don't do TO someone, god forbid you do it
FOR someone (!), something that is easier when and more
fun when you do it with someone, something that just
gets done or not done, like any other chore.
Anyway, a funny coincidence I wished to share, not a
lecture or call to (non?)action by any means.
sweep the dust where you wish,
Nina
_______________________________________________________________________
VIORICA WEISMAN
Aspects of the Divine THE CHAMELEON
From Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a
tree. He came back and told another man that he has seen
a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree.
The second man replied : "When I went into the wood , I
also saw that animal. But why do you call it read ? It
is green." Another man who was present contradicted them
both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others
arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue
and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling
among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went
to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it.
On being asked , he replied :"Yes , I live under this
tree and I know the animal very well. All your
descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red ,
sometimes yellow , and at other times blue , grey and
so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no
colour at all. Now it has a colour , and now it has
none."
In like manner , one who constantly thinks of God can
know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals
Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God
has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man
who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can
appear in various colours , and he knows further that
the animal at times has no colour at all.
It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile
argument. [128]
___________________________________________________________________
JAN BARENDRECHT
free from opposites
love, like gravity, attracts
until - until what?
could mind increase mass
attracting those spinning thoughts
called conditioning?
so much mass no thought escapes
just an impact makes some waves
how is that perceived?
such a mind is dark and dense
it's the opposite of still
_________________________________________________________________
BRUCE MORGEN
Hitting bottom: are we there yet?
I call it a wonderful old Byrds
song, written by Roger McGuinn
in the mid-'60s:
_____
Oh how is it that I could come out to here,
and be still floating?
And never hit bottom and keep falling through
Just relaxed and paying attention....
All my two dimensional boundaries were gone,
I had lost to them badly.
I saw that world crumble and thought I was dead,
but I found my senses still working.
And as I continued to drop through the hole,
I found ALL surrounding,
who showed me the joy that innocently is:
"Just be quiet, and feel it around you!"
And I opened my heart to the whole universe,
and I found it was loving --
and I saw the great blunder my teachers had made,
scientific delirium madness!
I will keep falling as long as I live,
all without ending.
And I will remember the place that is now,
that has ended before the beginning.
Oh how is it that I could come out to here,
and be still floating?
And never hit bottom and keep falling through,
just relaxed and paying attention..
______________________________________________________________________
JOHN METZGER
CONSCIOUSNESS AND SOUL
Hello listers
I'm wondering about a notion from Thomas Moore in
Original Self and would like some feedback. He states:
"Consciousness is a sign that we haven't yet learned to
live from the soul." He agrees with James Hillman that
the soul leads us into unconsciousness, and that for our
benefit; that this psychic fog may lead to levels of
self-possession beyond those attained through cleverness
and self-awareness. In other words, that not
consciousness and self-understanding but a passionate
inner presence makes us what and who we are. Comments?
John
HEIDI
Hear, Here...
Perhaps a passionate inner resistance to ask questions
is what makes us who we are - conscious being...
And a passionate inner willingness to ask questions is
what makes us what we are - ignorant...
______________________________________________________________________
LOBSTER
from Nasrudin list
Veracity
Nasradim is sitting in his house when a neighbor comes
and asks if he can borrow his donkey. Now Nasradim did
not want to loan out his donkey, so he said, "I'm very
sorry, but I loaned out my donkey yesterday." At that
point, the donkey brayed in the barn. His neighbor,
believing he has caught him in a lie, says, "Then what
is that I hear in the barn?" And Nasradim replies,
"Friend, are you going to believe me or a donkey?"
====
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase -each other-
doesn't make any sense.
--Rumi (1207-1273)
___________________________________________________________________________
YOSY
from Nasrudin list
means
"god will provide" nasrudin told a man that complained
that all his money, twenty silver pieces, was stolen.
"really? i doubt it" said the man skepticaly.
"well,
come, i'll show you" said nasrudin, leading him to the
communal place of prayer. "god, please give this man
back his twenty silver pieces!!" yelled nasrudin upon
entering. "please, god. he is a good man, and this
stolen money was all he had!!!" he kept on shouting and
imploring god, until the upset and annoyed congregation
made a quick collection, and gave him the cash. "you
may not understand the means", said nasrudin handing the
man the money, "but i'm sure you trust the end..."