Overcoming What Ails Us! - Life After the American Election

Dear Friends, I wanted to share a deeper context about the recent American election — in a short essay I wrote more than ten years ago. If you have been wondering where I stand, this should make it crystal clear!

It’s not about who wins the election, it’s about what happens after — what we do!

Overcoming What Ails Us!

Every four years in the U.S., we see the same misguided and blind hope—somehow, some politician or another will make things right for us and fix the brokenness of our lives and the world, e.g., war, climate change, the economy, health, depression, poverty, etc.

And then we end up disillusioned because it doesn't happen.

Why? Because human beings get the government and society we “deserve.” Our government and society reflect how we are within ourselves and how we live — a reflection of our individual and collective consciousness.

It’s time to face reality: All social, cultural, political, environmental, and economic issues are interrelated and have spiritual root causes.

Conflicts in societies mirror the battles inside us.

As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and it is us."

To change our governments and the world, we must also change ourselves and the real communities that we inhabit.

It does not make sense to spend so much energy continually hoping to achieve real "change" in large institutions without working concretely on the root of the problem in the sphere of human and community consciousness — at the grassroots.

It doesn't mean we should withdraw from that national sphere of social and political life.

It is just that the time has come to build up grassroots community consciousness in a more long-term and radical undertaking.

Grassroots Potential and Inertia

Hundreds of millions of community-based small organizations — religious groups, small businesses, churches, change groups, and more- are already making a difference at the grassroots level and acting as a countervailing “movement” to unresponsive institutions.

With all these groups and people doing good, why does it seem that the forces of negativity are overwhelming them?

The answer to this question is no further than our own hearts.

Most groups come together with a particular affinity: for example, those in a specific religious or spiritual path, such as Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or “New Spirituality,” or people with strong feelings on particular issues like local food, environment, peace, and wellness, or political affinities like Democrat or Republican, etc.

Because of our human nature, we identify with groups and hang out with people who think like us or have the same beliefs. The dark side of group identification is that we often unwittingly divide our society and community into those who believe like us and those who don't. This tendency stems partly from humanity's evolutionary history, in which tribalism was a vehicle to protect ourselves from other groups and natural forces.

Stanely Milgram’s now famous experiment, where people were asked to “electrocute a stranger” and did so, revealed our primal and “fear-based” human nature to conform to “groupthink” and to follow established authority.

When we get comfortable around people who think as we do, especially in religious and spiritual groups, we can hinder our spiritual growth because we are not challenged by the "other" — people who are different from us in some way. We hang out in our own "silos or bubbles" —- it could be Christian, Spiritual, Democrat or Republican, social activist, or other silos -- all the while believing that our way is the best.

This false sense of superiority (spiritual pride) is like a cancer within our society. Unless we consciously try to overcome it, we are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Divide, Dominate, and Rule

We are easy prey to negative forces in our society (I simply call this Darkness) that feed on our being divided into separate groups to exert power and control over us for their personal agendas. We consent to this domination of our interior spiritual life and soul and give the Darkness allegiance by supporting the day's social, cultural, political, and economic arrangements.

It has been this way since the beginning of history.

It is difficult to overcome these differences because we have become so used to being part of "in-groups" for so long. There is a sense of security and safety within our groups, but the times call for us to reach out beyond ourselves and our comfort zones.

It's time to challenge this pattern of group identification—really, we are talking about our ego'’ over-identification with this world. I know I still need to!

We are called to do something very difficult — to see others not through the lens of belief and group identity but through an available, open heart and the most profound spiritual consciousness from Divine Love.

As we overturn our petty judgments, assumptions, and fears about the "other," there will be discomfort and tension at first. But building new relationships across boundaries by conquering our fear is the rocket fuel that will ignite a whole new level of spiritual and community consciousness.

Connecting Across Boundaries

Grassroots groups around the planet are already bringing love into the world every day, bringing people together, and people with differing beliefs are working to make the world a better place.

I can speak to our effort in Reno, Nevada. (this was written in 2012).

We have spent the last ten years growing what we call Connecting the Good. In the previous seven years, we have developed the Connections Gatherings process, which simultaneously focuses on personal and community transformation. We call these folks who do this work "community weavers." I just spoke with someone who calls this type of person a community "mender."

So, instead of hanging out with others who simply reinforce our own sometimes cherished and insulated worldview, we connect heart-to-heart with others beyond the intellect and ideology, building a community of practitioners -- people who want to grow in Love, to be in service to others, and who are wanting to weave the community as a whole together with this same power of Love.

As a result, by simply being a catalyst for community "emergence," this approach has generated many projects and new social and economic networks.”

The Power of Love

Throughout history, many names have been given to this grand vision of what Reality is all about and what is possible for humanity. Jesus called it the Kingdom of Heaven (…on Earth as it is in Heaven”). Dr. King called it the Beloved Community. Mahatma Gandhi and our friend Dr. Ariyaratne (Sri Lanka) point to it as Sarvodaya (Awakening of All through Sharing).

These different names reflect the longing within our hearts that the power of Love can overcome the love of power.

A Connections Gathering is a humble attempt to support one another in living this “Kingdom” now, in the present moment, inside each of us, and with each other. We connect in a new way beyond our “comfortable” group affiliations to help this Kingdom break into the everyday reality of our busy lives—in our families, businesses, physical neighbors, and all our relations in the community and world.

The spiritual and community revolution of Love, like Jesus spoke of and lived, bridged all divisions and walls between us.

But here is the paradox: If you try to organize the power of Love and the Spirit into narrow containers such as religious and spiritual groups, over time, the result is always the same—you either kill the Spirit and/or domesticate its potential power.

The ego always rears its head, spiritual pride sets in, and people in one group naturally think they are better than people in other groups. People get comfortable and forget the professed purpose of the group. Perpetuating the group becomes more important, thereby becoming institutionalized. Groups always seem to become self-interested, compete with each other, and unwittingly create division.

How can we break out of this cycle?

Community Emergence

When you bring people of different beliefs together who already belong to many groups to support each other’s spiritual growth, connect the community, and catalyze the emergence of something bigger, you are not creating just another self-interested group or silo.

We have found that it is possible to connect people and groups informally through an “emergent” network without building a formal, self-interested structure. This liberates Spirit to flow freely through the new “nodes of intersection” of the community's continually developing social and economic infrastructure.

This is the literal “weaving” of the community I’m describing. It is like building a much larger “container” for Spirit to flow into, expand, and impact people's lives at the grassroots level.

What is missing is the entrenching of dogma, superiority, and lock-step ideology. What is created and experienced is freedom.

This form of servant leadership is the antidote to all "dominator" systems (within ourselves or the society) and their reproduction. Love, connection, and service become the glue holding this developing culture together.

It is easy to start. Reach out and find others who are different from you yet have the same longing for a new world. It doesn’t take large numbers. It just takes a small group of committed people to start weaving their community together, keeping the highest vision in their hearts.

What works in one region can work elsewhere as this kind of organic movement will erupt at the grass-roots level around the Earth. As thousands and millions of communities simultaneously participate in an unnamed eruption of Spirit, it is natural that new leaders will emerge at the grassroots in social, economic, and political life, and structures will then be changed from the bottom up.

The times call for this gentle approach, and we can be more like mothers and fathers nurturing our children, helping each of us grow in Love so that we may heal this broken world.

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BUILDING BRIDGES TO A NEW WORLD - Symbiotic Culture Overview

READ the TWO-MINUTE BOOK SYNOPSIS

JUMP INTO the BOOK, BIRTHING THE SYMBIOTIC AGE

Catch up on the recent Chapter 11 posts from the Birthing the Symbiotic Age book about One Sphera (a technology to Connect the Good) released so far:

• Introduction…Trusted Connections at the Root of Community

• Building a “Super-Highway of Love”… One Sphera is Born … The Currency of One Sphera: TRUST
  

  Have a great week! Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions.