Building Bridges to a New World

Symbiotic Culture Strategy

Dear Fellow Symbiotes, I have received many requests to share background on the Symbiotic Culture approach.

National and world events occurring weekly, if not daily, are a painful wake-up call
to the dysfunction of our current system. 

It's not just the American system; it’s the entire world system, based on what I call the Culture of Separation — with its materialistic worldview emerging over the last 2,500+ years.

The antidote, the Culture of Connection, already exists, hidden in plain sight.   And there is a pathway to making this happen that doesn’t compete with any of the worthy work you are already doing. 

Instead, it’s a way of Being and a growing network-centric infrastructure that can enhance all Goodness and Good works everywhere—at every scale and simultaneously—what I call Fractal Community Empowerment.

It’s a delivery system for “Connecting the Good.”  

My book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age: an Ancient Blueprint for a New Creation, offers a practical, reality-based approach — helping you and your community bring Heaven to Earth.

It’s based on system-transforming ideas that have successfully been applied in communities as diverse as Sri Lanka and Reno, Nevada.

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SYMBIOTIC CULTURE STRATEGY

SYMBIOTIC CULTURE

I am not talking about culturing bacteria. Actually, culturing bacteria is a whole lot easier than culturing human beings into a community mindset!

Symbiotic Culture is a society where mutually beneficial relationships and collaborations among diverse groups of people, from family to neighborhood to community, nation, and planet, become the norm.

I want to share an overview of the “glue, ” the DNA underlying Symbiotic Culture. It’s a cultural change strategy, a way of life, starting with each of us—in each local community.

And Symbiotic Culture could also be embedded and embodied within
any organizational community.

It’s not a pie-in-the-sky, utopian pipe dream, but an entirely doable “protopia” — I base that statement on forty years of on-the-ground grassroots community-building experience.

I am very excited to share my book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age: an Ancient Blueprint for a New Creation, as a weekly serial on Substack. Launched in January 2024, the first two sections (out of three) are being released during 2024 as a FREE offering to help us build our community together. Want to find out what part of the book is LIVE? Check out the Table of Contents link at the bottom of this post.

Symbiotic Culture Video in 4 minutes!

TWO QUESTIONS

This past several years, I’ve heard two related questions in conversations and meetings with people, changemakers, and networks hungry to change society. 

First question —

Is there anything that can unite a fragmented, conflicted, suffering humanity?

Remember, “divide and rule” has been operative in most societies where groups habitually fight each other rather than come together across the barriers of race, religion, politics, class, gender, etc. Until now, it’s been an endemic part of the human condition.

Even though this has been true — the answer to whether humanity can unify is still an unequivocal YES.  I will share many examples of people rising beyond divisions and differences to collaborate and cooperate.  The “how” is surprisingly straightforward.

In my book, I will show you practical and proven ways to unite local communities despite the divisions and wars breaking out worldwide.

I will offer these stories, principles, and the book in this Substack weekly. I will teach you how to implement this Symbiotic Cultural change strategy and unite your local community.

Second question —

How can we make any headway in a time of global systemic breakdown with interrelated global crises?

The paradox is that you can’t solve global problems globally. You have to solve them locally—and work together in parallel so that local communities can grow this new culture simultaneously and worldwide, from the bottom up. 

I get it—I’m proposing a sane society; I must be crazy!

In my post, “Isn’t it Time We Build a Parallel Society?” I highlighted how Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka has already achieved this remarkable feat on a national scale—it’s a model of multi-scalar (within and between communities) network growth that emerged into a national network of 5,000 local, “micro” bioregional ecosystem networks.

Here is a 7-minute video about Sarvodaya’s 5-stage development process, which starts with inner development (personality awakening) and is seamlessly integrated into building community ecosystem networks. Symbiotic Culture is based partly on this world-renowned, sixty-five-year-old grassroots movement.

Sarvodaya has demonstrated fractal community empowerment — releasing an underlying reproducible pattern based on emerging from an Ancient Blueprint.

In the coming months, with the release of my book, I will share the “secret sauce” of this Blueprint and Symbiotic Culture; actually, it isn’t secret, just hidden in plain sight beneath the noise of materialistic culture.

Symbiotic Culture reflects this new way of being, thinking, and doing — in local community building and a new way of life — a new Culture of Connection.

The paradox: it’s an Ancient Blueprint for a New Creation! Instead of having to build a separate new organization as a silo, competitively, you build ecosystem networks based on shared universal principles and Virtues — unifying existing citizens, as well as local leaders and their organizations, businesses, and local governments.

It’s about connecting the good in each community into an effective power for system change —reflecting what’s happening in natural ecosystems.

You can check out this post, On Cultural Symbiogenesis, for a glimpse into what may be the next step in human cultural evolution — from isolated single silos to a multi-siloed networked civilization.

WHAT CAN UNITE HUMANITY?

There is a whole lot more that unites us rather than divides us. The universal principles and values/Virtues described below have held communities together for over 3,000 years.

We call this Symbiotic Culture DNA.

Our criteria were their universality: could we find agreement across diverse cultures, religious and spiritual frames, and secular and civic worldviews?

The answer is YES!

Nearly twenty years ago, in Reno, Nevada, we convened community-wide meetings that included leaders and average citizens. We used those meetings to crowdsource their co-intelligence to discover shared principles, values, and Virtues. Based on these insights and the community's collective wisdom, we built multiple community-wide ecosystem networks. (You’ll learn more about what we did and how we did it in the book.)

We find ourselves in an “All Hands On Deck” moment in history, where we must prioritize these principles and virtues despite our conflicts and differences.

Symbiotic Culture DNA is what’s “injected” (through embodiment as well as a cultural meme) into the bioregional networks (symbiotic networks) you can build to address each of the community's 12 common needs (see below).

It’s not just the external network building out there — it’s what happens inside of us, “in here. ”

Do we want to be Uniters or Dividers?

The essence of Symbiotic Culture is intentional and conscious mutual benefit embodied in all our interactions.

The effects radiate outward from us as we go through our everyday interactions, starting with ourselves, our family, our street, our neighborhood, and our existing organizations and networks, and then building multi-silo (mycelial) networks in the local bioregion.

This is how authentic inner regeneration of “Spirit” becomes the foundation for the outer regeneration of the local community.

Symbiotic Kinship

That means emerging from our familiar tribes and safe silos, moving beyond our differences and narrow identities, and focusing on our shared aspirations and mutual benefit (which is, incidentally, the definition of “symbiosis” as applied to human society).

I call the approach to connect people and leaders across their silos Symbiotic Kinship. This term expresses the need to extend our sense of Kinship, usually reserved for members of our tribe/silo, to others we consciously collaborate with for mutual benefit.

Albert Einstein recognized this need as well. He said a human being …

 “… experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — an optical delusion of his consciousness … a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion.”

Symbiotic Kinship means uniting citizens and their organizations at the grassroots voluntarily in the spirit of what I call Universal or Divine Love because—as you will learn reading this book—it is a reality-tested way for us to transform the Culture of Separation.

Today, within any local community, people, nonprofits and religious groups, businesses, local governments, and local movements are already stepping up in response to our multiple crises. As I have reached out to existing networks that seek to address what is in front of us, I’ve been heartened to find a growing awareness that a fundamentally new level of collaborative bridge-building is required.

I see these functional and well-meaning individuals, groups, and networks as threads of a tapestry that has yet to be woven. 

 Weaving a whole-cloth movement that includes and transcends separate silos
is the task at hand.

What is uniquely transformational about Symbiotic Networks is that instead of being another silo competing with other well-meaning projects, they are a CONTEXT, an infrastructure to bring forth the worthy work already being done throughout the community. It’s a delivery system for “connecting and weaving the good.”

Community Operating System - based on Shared Principles

We distilled common community operating and building principles from how natural communities function, following a lineage of an “Ancient Blueprint” — from Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Love God and Love Others) to Mahatma Gandhi’s (Hindu) village-based economic development (Commonwealth of Village republics) to today’s Sarvodaya Shramadana (Buddhist) movement in Sri Lanka. Even one of the founders of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, had a similar vision: a Commonwealth of Ward Republics, a decentralized vision for America.

One example of this underlying pattern is the Golden Rule, a principle in almost every culture, religion, and time. It’s straightforward and not theoretical—it is about application and embodiment. The Golden Rule involves every interaction we have with others where we intentionally PRACTICE conscious mutual benefit or symbiosis of each situation.

It’s not about belief — it’s about action. It becomes a new way of life.

Here are some of those principles:

Walking Our Talk: Shared Values/Virtues

We all believe that the “recovery” of Virtues is essential, but they may not be at the forefront of our lives. Symbiotic Culture is an effort to encourage our whole community to “walk our talk.” At the same time, we practically apply what I call the “Transcendental Energies” of these Virtues in building communities in the twelve areas of everyday need.

As we’ve already mentioned, these shared Virtues come from input from the community (crowdsourced co-intelligence) and from looking at the “core values” of many societal institutions, from service groups such as Rotary to businesses, the U.S. Military, police departments, non-profit and civic organizations, religious groups, etc.

Note that when we crowdsourced these Virtues twenty years ago, we had previously called them values. (More about this in Chapter 8).

From the Old Battlefield to a New Playing Field — Common Community needs

Community-based symbiotic networks are built in twelve sectors representing “common needs,” usually areas of community life that people are already passionate about. These are everyday challenges that everyone can get behind: growing and consuming more local food, strengthening the local economy, a clean and healthy natural environment, wellness, religion and spirituality, and service, helping those who are on the “margins,” and other needs that communities share.

Check out What’s Under the Hood to understand how we build Symbiotic Networks with an example of creating a Local Food System Network.

As each bioregion builds its ecosystem networks, these local networks connect organically and come together as a whole system. For example, people connect local food to health, education, and a clean and healthy local environment.

This becomes the basis for a new Network Commons — a parallel culture,
society, economy, and politics.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
A New Network Commons and Symbiotic Societies

Building a Network Commons

So, how do Sarvodaya’s and Symbiotic Culture concepts spread from one person in one community to a worldwide commonwealth of strong regional economies?

Building a Network Commons requires both the interior and spiritual developmental process and real-world practical network building, which involves “multi-scalar” and “fractal” network evolution. 

• Multi-scalar means networks of organizations spread horizontally within a community that can extend upward to national and global levels, with infrastructure to support that.

• Fractal means that there are patterns and universal structures within the Ancient Blueprint that, when embodied in one community, could simultaneously emerge in thousands of communities!

In my book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age, you will be given a proven pathway and roadmap to create small groups and start consciously weaving a truly expansive tapestry. The focus is on building a new, parallel Culture of Connection as “scaffolding,” a new “Network Commons,” a bridge to a new culture alongside (inter-dependent yet independent) the existing Culture of Separation.

When you connect across silos, you release the hidden and protected assets available in any community.

A Network Commons represents a community-based collaborative initiative where nonprofits, religious organizations, civic entities, mutual aid and gifting groups, cooperatives, private enterprises, and public resources are intentionally interconnected, shared, and governed by an engaged community of stakeholders. 

It comprises the various interdependent, distributed symbiotic networks engaged in widespread collaboration and embodies a peer-driven production and consumption model.

It encourages local communities to produce and consume local goods, services, and knowledge, which are then linked to self-organized regional marketplaces for the mutual benefit of individuals, organizations, businesses, and the broader community.

Examples include networks that strengthen local systems for food, energy, and water, boost the local economy, and promote and advance endeavors that serve those on the margins of society, including education, housing, arts, culture, spirituality, wellness, and healthy local living environments.

The principles underlying Symbiotic Networks can be applied to any community need or purpose, even within your existing organizational network.

The Ancient Blueprint provides a pattern for building these networks — available to all. I hope this book will inspire you to jump in and make this a reality right where you live, raise your family, do business, play, worship, and create the seeds of a parallel society and economy in your region.

Activating Symbiotic Societies and Circles

To this end, in the last part of the book, Section 3, I will share a simple group process, a “delivery system,” to deploy the idea throughout a local community or even through your network. Symbiotic DNA could also be applied to any community construct. It’s based on an informal structure like Alcoholics Anonymous—in that it’s like a “recovery group.”  

It can be thought of as a cultural recovery group. I call it a Symbiotic Society. This group structure, purpose, and process are based on the proven track record of the successful Sarvodaya Societies, as well as the “Conscious Community Network,” “Weaver Groups,” and “Connections Gatherings” that were created in Reno, Nevada, and described in this book.

So, what are we recovering? It’s not like there was some previous perfect society for us to recover.

Instead, we are recovering the Transcendent (however we think of that) and putting
that power back into our lives.

We embody the agreed-upon Virtues (“recovering them”) that flow from this and then connect the “nodes of intersection” (silos) in the organizational networks we are already embedded in, starting in our families, neighborhoods, and local region.

Check out Chapter 8, Part 4 — Decoding Symbiotic Culture DNA

The recovery groups will support a personal and community transition towards a new way of life: a Culture of Connection.

We can start immediately in our lives and strengthen our immediate family unit—the nucleus of a healthy society; then, with our neighbors and the organizations we are already part of.

I trust that as we come to recognize how the Culture of Separation has divided us and thwarted our fundamental impulse for what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “Beloved Community,” the movement that begins within each of us will extend to our families and our neighborhood, our region, and ultimately, the whole world.

It’s about activating local Network Commons, A NEW CONTEXT, uniting people of goodwill locally, and then connecting EXISTING local community-based organizations, religious organizations, businesses, and local governments that are already doing good works rather than creating a new separate project.

Overview:
The elements of a unifying worldview and strategy are:

1. Shared purpose and goals

2. 8 Shared principles

3. 5 Shared values/virtues

4. 12 Common community needs

5. Distributed Network Infrastructure of a new Network Commons

6. Symbiotic Societies - an activation group to launch your effort

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The universal purpose we can get behind — a Global Commonwealth of Regional Economies

Thanks for reading! I know this may be a lot of information, but I wanted to share a bigger picture and context for you as we co-create this reality.

Remember that these six main worldview elements above are not set in stone but should evolve in the future. There are reasons why these elements have been chosen—they reflect a common understanding, they have been tested in the real world, and THEY WORK.

Check out the 2-minute BOOK SYNOPSIS.

GO TO THE BOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS — BIRTHING THE SYMBIOTIC AGE