Seeking the “Holy Grail” - of Community Chapter 10 Part 6
Seeking the “Holy Grail” - of Community Chapter 10 Part 6
Breakthrough to a New Creation – New Wine and New Wineskin Networks
Welcome to the Birthing the Symbiotic Age Book!
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You are in Chapter 10, Part 6, Breakthrough to a New Creation … New Wine in New WineSkin Networks
Chapter 10 posts:
The Greatest Obstacle to a New Way of Living — The De-Platforming of God
Breakthrough to a New Creation … New Wine in New WineSkin Networks
Are you trying to figure out where this is All Going? Read Building Bridges to a New World — embodying the Transcendent through the nodes of intersection within local, grassroots-empowered community networks.
Voice-overs are now at the top of my posts for anyone who doesn’t have the time to sit and read! Also, find this chapter post and all previous posts as podcast episodes on
Spotify and Apple!
Previously, at the end of Chapter 10, Part 5
Here’s another “frequently UNASKED question”:
Why would we consider it intelligent to throw out humanity's religious and spiritual traditions and beautiful treasury of understanding of the universal Virtues at a
the time when we need them the most?
That leads us to the last three sections of this chapter, which describe the Breakthrough for a New Creation and how Symbiotic Societies can help us in a dual recovery process—recovering FROM the Culture of Separation by recovering our connection to the Ancient Blueprint.
Breakthrough to a New Creation … New Wine in New WineSkins
So … how do we build a network “superhighway” to extend the “unbounded power of Love” – through us and outward to the community?
Practically, how do we use this network to connect the Goodness and Good Works already happening so that they can ignite and spread, first horizontally in each community and then “upwards” into a Global Commonwealth of 50,000 thriving regional economies worldwide?
How do we animate and make real that “New Way of Living” that will jumpstart Fractal Community Empowerment?
First, remember that this New Way of Living is nothing new.
It reflects an age-old vision aligned with the Ancient Blueprint, which has emerged over time in different places, as I’ve said many times in this book. It’s what Jesus described as “Love God and Love Others,” practiced in a real-world “countercultural” community; it’s what Thomas Jefferson called a “Commonwealth of Ward Republics” for post-colonial America and Gandhi called the Law of Love. And, of course, Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne and the Sarvodaya Shramadana movement.
This age-old vision for a worldwide “new way of living” was perhaps best expressed by Dr. Ari when he said:
“We dream of a world that is a commonwealth of self-governing communities. We dream of people enjoying participatory democracy, where all human rights are respected, where spiritual and moral values are strong, and where people respect nature.”
As you read on, I hope you will see that there is a proven “strategy” to build a parallel culture, society, economy, and politics – instead of just doing more of the “same old same old” and expecting different results.
In the last section, I asserted that a supermajority of humanity—more than six billion of us—already knows there IS a Transcendent power and that this is perhaps the most incredible untapped resource we have in facing our wicked and seemingly intractable global problems.
Now, I want to take this a step further.
Not only are there billions of HEADS and HEARTS that may already be engaged in seeking what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Beloved Community in their way,
but their HANDS are already there as well.
I am referring to the 11 million formal nonprofits worldwide (and fifty million informal groups), 2.35 million religious congregations (and 10 million informal religious groups), with an impressive 350,000 religious groups in the United States alone and 500,000 in Europe – all doing good works in their individual silos and siloed networks.
Please allow that to sink in for a moment.
There are already millions, probably billions, of individuals and groups actively engaged in projects of mutual benefit. Great goodness is already being released into good works, but it is not coherently coordinated for maximum impact.
That’s not all.
There’s another key ingredient that has been left out and marginalized in “grand visions” of a new world: “main street” businesses—micro-enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses, which represent 90% of all businesses worldwide and 99.9% of all businesses in the US and Europe.
We are talking about the 272 million small businesses globally seeking to bring “good goods and greater goodness” to the world. At least 25%, or 68 million small businesses, are already oriented toward being “purpose-driven.” Perhaps there is a religious or spiritual mission behind the business, or they want to “do good” while they do well, so social, economic, and environmental concerns are factored into the financial bottom line.
This happens in the estimated two million villages, towns, and cities worldwide.
So, let’s do the math. If we want to activate 50,000 communities worldwide and have 12 needs sector networks for each community, that is 50,000 times 12 = 600,000 individuals out of 8 billion.
We “only” need to mobilize 600,000 changemakers worldwide
in 50,000 villages, towns, and cities to weave and Connect ALL the Good already happening in local communities – and then to reach billions!
As I’ve shown, excellent work is ALREADY HAPPENING. Still, because the work is being done in silos and networked silos, it does not have the collective coherent impact that will bring forth a Culture of Connection. Why? Because regardless of any network’s beneficial mission, even in collaboration within networked silos, they are still in competition with other networked silos – in that sense, still isolated within a Culture of Separation.
And …consider the potential.
Religious, nonprofit and informal organizations, small businesses, local governments … and billions of people who believe in Transcendent Power seek to amplify that power worldwide—and all that has been lacking until now is a Unified Purpose and coherent coordination.
And wait, there’s more.
In addition to formal networked silos, there are movements whose “threads” are reaching outward and upward, who acknowledge the necessity for radical collaboration – yet don’t know how to build new coherent community networks at the same time as their own “work of Heart.”
Here are some threads of the tapestry of a yet unnamed, global – yet community-based — “whole cloth” movement to promote Intentional Mutual Benefit and Connecting the Good Worldwide:
Religious and Spiritual groups, formal and informal, provide direct care and services.
Regenerative culture movements
Civic engagement and bridge builders
Charities and social change efforts
Religious who are already supporting "creation care."
“Purpose-driven” small businesses globally
New Economy and Commons movements
Localization, Re-Localization, and Cosmo-localization movements
Pro-democracy and civil society movements
There are probably so many more not mentioned here, so please feel free to help me add to the list.
And yet …
I’ve attended several global meetings and conferences recently, and this massive potential doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar. Instead, there still seems to be a sense of being overwhelmed by the intractable global situation. So many people are doing good work inside their siloed domains, but because they haven’t had the bandwidth to see this bigger picture, they feel a sense of despair and frustration, wondering how a breakthrough is even possible.
I think that’s partly because, inside the Culture of Separation, we are taught to believe that to have any more significant societal impact, we would have to expand or create an additional formal organization– and that takes lots more energy, capital, time, employees, rules, and regulations.
The reality is there is an easier, more elegant, and more effective way — mobilize and
Connect the Good that is already present into a more effective,
robust systems change networks.
A place-based global movement for Intentional Mutual Benefit!
When people hear that building local community movements for Intentional Mutual Benefits doesn’t take much time, excessive energy, formal infrastructure, managing volunteers or paid staff, etc., they have difficulty processing it.
I remember someone interested in doing this work said, “I can’t believe this is possible. It’s too simple.”
Even after we built and demonstrated these Symbiotic Networks that Connect the Good in Northern Nevada, many people still scratched their heads. They kept asking me how we achieved such rapid and tangible results as we did with the Local Living Economy Network, Local Food System Network, and Neighbor Networks.
After 50 years of having this conversation and doing this work, I can tell you it is simple.
But it’s not easy.
The hardest thing may be to let go of the “head” and head for the heart.
I mean that in our “only matter matters” culture, the first place we look when confronted with a problem is structural “fixes.” To make the leap of faith required to have the breakthrough we all desire, we need to go beyond the notion that you need endless philosophical discussions, white papers, long-term plans, and formal organizational structures (coalitions, alliances, or “umbrella” organizations) and instead lead with your heart.
That’s how those networks sprung up in Reno. We were just people and local leaders who had a HEART for service, saw the community's needs, and applied our skills and resources to benefit the community and, in the process, benefit ourselves.
We just rolled up our sleeves and did it. As soon as we started our Local Living Economy Network and local businesses began benefiting, the network took on a life of its own, and a true “counterculture” emerged. People didn’t need to rationalize or explain it; we were LIVING it.
Given that this “way of life,” to some extent, is already being lived in every community on the planet, involving billions of people, where is the breakthrough?
To make the next evolutionary leap, we require new “interstitial tissue” to bridge the siloes, bringing forth the frozen assets in each community.
This goodness has been hidden or thwarted by a system based on “divide us and rule” and an economic system in which “only money matters.”
I realize that at this point, many of you may be thinking,… I am already doing it! " I can’t tell you how often I have heard those exact words. I’m already doing it.
You may remember in Chapter 7 what happened when I approached a large-scale successful farmer and invited him to co-create a Local Food System Network. He said, “I am already doing it.” Fortunately, he was open to a more expansive network, and we built it TOGETHER.
His was a natural reaction, and it makes sense that we want to believe that our most beautiful, networked silos are “already doing it.”
But there is an even more profound distinction between networked silos
and Symbiotic Networks.
Networked silos are about ATTRACTING RESOURCES – in other words, even though you’re collaborating, you’re collaborating to “feed” your network, attracting more participants to join and support your separate “brand.”
Symbiotic Networks, instead, are about LIBERATING RESOURCES from within any existing place-based community — from inside silos and extending them outward to connect and multiply the good — where all “brands” are lifted up all at once.
Symbiotic Networks are a new CONTEXT – to address the
twelve COMMON NEEDS of a community.
We might say that the Symbiotic Network is the “no-brand” that supports all brands.
By all means, continue to do your worthy “work of heart” inside your silo or siloed networks. But keep in mind that inside the Culture of Separation, working separately from all the others doing their excellent work is not solving the problem.
The PROBLEM is SEPARATION itself.
And … to be an effective catalytic connector and space-holder to build these radically inclusive networks, we must first confront the separation in ourselves, the habits and beliefs that keep us separated and on the battlefield.
The challenge is moving beyond our limited awareness, our thinking, our tribal connections, and our comfort zone – to work with others whose beliefs
we may question or even dislike.
This requires rising above our personal likes and dislikes and making those secondary to what is truly in your heart—a united community and world that includes everyone.
It’s taken me 50 years to see the simple elegance of this idea, and to do so, I’ve had to strip away much of what I thought I knew, particularly cherished preferences and the organizational forms and structures I believed held the answers.
And as I’ve said so many times in this book, our work rests firmly on the foundation of the Ancient Blueprint, a time-tested, universal model. There’s no need for “re-inventing” the wheel. All we need is to rediscover what is already there, connect with that, and “install” it as our new operating system.
It doesn’t require a new religious path, philosophical system, or magic formula.
This “secret sauce” is ever-present and available to all—Now.
This new way of living begins in each of our hearts. It radiates out to the world through practicing the Virtues and then creating and populating the Symbiotic Networks that are the delivery system for intentional mutual benefit and Connecting the Good.
This is not merely a high-minded vision or academic theory but something that has been proven to work—in both “underdeveloped” Sri Lanka and “overdeveloped” Reno, Nevada. Anyone can do it with a big enough heart and a desire to hold space for their local community.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his Drum Major Instinct Sermon:
"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve … I want you to be first in love. I want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in generosity.
That is what I want you to do…
You only need a heart full of grace… a soul generated by love.
And you can be that servant.
Just look at the lineage we have to guide us!
First, the countercultural communities grew up around Jesus's living presence and teachings within the Roman Empire in the first century AD. Even Roman writers marveled at how these early Christians cared for everyone, not just their “kind” or tribe.
Then there is Gandhi, who was influenced by the Sermon on the Mount and translated Jesus’ teaching into what he called The Law of Love. Not only did he build his commonwealth of village economies in India as a counterculture inside the British empire, but he led a spiritual movement that sent that empire packing.
Of course, Dr. Ari—taking cues from both Jesus and Gandhi—started with “the least of us” and built Sarvodaya Shramadana, perhaps the most visible and viable living example of the Culture of Connection in action. He’s been demonstrating this for over 65 years, and he has built a robust network of millions of people and a national network of 5,000 “micro” bioregional communities in Sri Lanka, each with a Sarvodaya Society that Connects the Good.
Years ago, Dr. Ari told me that the foundational focus of his work was “creating a critical mass of spiritual consciousness.” He explained that at the root of everything Sarvodaya has been able to accomplish is what he called “personality awakening” through the four loving Virtues — Compassion, Loving Kindness, Equanimity, and Epathetic Joy.
Dr. Ari also said that Love needs a radically different kind of coherent community-based “container” or infrastructure, distributed through a “parallel society.”
That’s how Sarvodaya has spread rapidly to thousands of communities.
So, from this awakened fractal of Cosmic Love, Sarvodaya Shramadana has built “parallel” infrastructure networks – social, economic, cultural, and political – to address the Ten Basic Community Needs they identified (listed in Section One).
For more than 40 years, I’ve been working to translate this profoundly wise and simple approach into Western society. The lineage of the Ancient Blueprint, with its universal emergence through Western, Eastern, and Indigenous religious and spiritual traditions, has guided me in the development of Symbiotic Culture.
Thanks to this repeatable pattern of bringing the Transcendent power through us and whole communities—reproduced through what I have called Symbiotic Culture DNA in Chapter 8—we now have a universal architecture to build community networks and society.
So … how do we get there from here?
What breakthrough would empower a “new way of living” so that a Culture of Connection could simultaneously erupt in thousands of communities worldwide? The Biblical teaching about placing new wine into old skins is a good metaphor for the transformation required. Here is a version taken from the recent TV series, The Chosen, about Jesus’ ministry:
“New wine must be put into fresh wineskins. The ways of the Kingdom I am bringing into this world will not fit into old containers or frameworks.” From Luke 5:38
Jesus offered a parable about how every man-made institution, including religious ones like the Jewish Temple of the times, becomes rigid and inflexible. Its original mission is overshadowed by the drive for power, position, and self-interest that is natural and endemic to the Culture of Separation.
People often forget about the foundation underlying these organizational structures—the impulse for Cosmic Love—and become fixated on perpetuating them. Jesus critiqued the Pharisees for focusing on the external trappings and not the inner essence that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven.
Throughout history – evidenced by rising and falling empires – we’ve used one system to replace another to replace another. Every system that starts as a “solution” becomes a problem. And throughout all this, good-hearted, well-meaning people with promising plans have focused on specific issues and their “solutions” rather than addressing the meta-problem – separation itself.
In recent centuries, we’ve tried to repair corrupted institutional “old wineskin” frameworks—what has now metastasized into an “Everything Industrial Complex”—through the same traditional social, economic, political, or even religious strategies and struggles that got us here in the first place.
The “new wine” is the Cosmic Love that wants to flow through us so that we thrive inside a Beloved Community.
The “old wineskin” is the Culture of Separation that denies the Transcendent and the Law of Love, reinforces materialism, and thus perpetuates a battlefield mentality where we feel we need to compete to survive.
A worldview framework based on separation obviously cannot encompass interrelatedness.
Inside this context of one against the other, every individual and organization seeks to maintain its interest, its position, and, in many cases, its supremacy. And, as I suggested earlier in this chapter, even those devoted to good works (including those building beautiful networked siloes) find themselves in competition for resources with others who desire the same.
That has been the nature of our reality and its system logic—a pattern that has gone on for thousands of years, which is why fundamental change is so hard to imagine.
“Nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new.
The old is good, he says.” Luke 5:39
In other words, humans are creatures of habit and comfort.
However, now that this empire is in decline globally and there’s nowhere to run from, survival requires addressing the problem at its source.
Let’s get right to it.
What’s next in Chapter 10, Part 7, From Networked Silos to Universal Symbiotic Kinship
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