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CONTENTS
Issue 8
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Meditation has three benefits: relaxation, concentration and spiritual development. Each of these benefits can be useful when applied to daily life. We all know about stress, the first benefit of relaxation can help relieve stress from our often hurried and competitive work day. Concentration is almost self explanatory, it is important to stay focused for the efficiency required today at home, at work, and even at play. The spiritual aspect is a personal experience and can only be determined by the individual. At this level however things will begin to happen that you may not be prepared for and I advise you not to practice longer than fifteen minutes at a time. Take a moment to stop and think about how your mind is constantly working even in your sleep, it’s dreaming. The point of meditation is to stop that process and control it. You begin by sitting upright, back straight, hands resting on your knees, your neck aligned to your spine. If you have a timer, set it for fifteen minutes before you begin each session. Try to do this exercise on a daily basis at the same time each day. Breathe in and out through your nose, count to yourself one then repeat
this process to number ten. Your mind will wander, you’ll lose count,
don’t be distracted by this, it’s normal. Continue counting even if you
forget the number. When you begin you will want to look down with your eyes closed. At first it will seem uncomfortable and even painful but look UP as you count. Eventually your eyes will find their own comfortable place. The next thing you will want to do is take your tongue off the roof of your mouth and let your jaw relax. Tell yourself to do the same thing with your neck and shoulders, feel any tension in your neck and shoulders, and let it go. Continue this mental exercise all the way down each arm to your fingers, telling yourself to feel any tension and let it go. Do this same thing down each leg, the thigh, calf, and finally your toes feel any tension let it go. When you’ve done the non-verbal relaxation exercise, you should be very relaxed and you should be counting through out this whole process. The reason for counting and breathing is because you have two nervous systems. One is the autonomic nervous system that keeps your heart beating. The central nervous system you control consciously. Breathing is the only function we readily use both nervous systems to perform making it the link between the two. That is why it is so important that you do not think about your heart or blood pressure or anything that can harm you while practicing this method. Controlling your heartbeat as a novice could be disastrous. I wish you good luck and that you find some degree of benefit from this
exercise. People
Involved with the WCP: Peter Forbes is a senior fellow for the Trust for Public Land as well as founding member of the Center for Whole Communities. He has been an inspiration and valued advisor to the project and myself. Part of my break from full-time work to writing and consulting has come through his example. About a month ago, I listened to Peter present his essay, “Lifting the Veil,” on a phone-based presentation sponsored by the Center for a New American Dream’s Book Club. I also read the essay (in the book Coming to Land in a Troubled World with an introduction by Will Rogers) and found many of its points relevant to worldview change. Here is a synopsis of “Lifting the Veil.” Part I Our Celebration of Life Forbes describes several famous time capsules and notes how they record only positive things, ignoring or excluding from their story and message the negative transformations that occur at the historical time. There is no mention of hydrogen bombs or mass extinctions. The real human story, the one about relationships to land and other people, gets passed on through what we do, not what we put in a box and inter in the ground. Part II Evolution and Domestication Studying American Indian tribes we can see a grand diversity of ways of life, expressions of worldview, each emerging from the tribe’s relationship with the land, its own unique story. We then look at modern civilization and see a growing wave of homogenization, where people take cues from advertisements and look at themselves in the mirror for their sense of humanness. We are losing our connection to the land, losing our wildness in our technology. As our wildness goes, so go the relationships that it implies, as well as the values necessary to make moral decisions in an immoral world, such as resilience, continuity, reliability, honesty, patience, tolerance, diversity, awe connectivity, beauty, and love. As we continue to domesticate ourselves, we extinguish human experience. Each person needs to go back to the land and re-establish those connections. Part III Diminishment and Restoration Forbes critiques conservationists who tend to elevate their tools — means — above ends. They focus too much on passing laws and buying land and too little on the big picture. “The big picture solution offered by land conservation is healthy people and healthy land: an integrated, unified view of awe and justice combined.” Also conservationists often focus too much on the land to the exclusion of the people who live there. People have valid problems that can be the root of conservation problems, yet they are often ignored. Part IV Meaningful Resistance “The purpose of conservation is to preserve the freedom and honor of living within the wholeness of life.” Society often discourages dissent, yet those who bring the culture forward learn to deal with uncertainty. Meaning derives from our human and non-human relationships, and again those conservationists who shy away from discussing how we should live, how we should struggle for the soul of humanity, are not treating the root of conservation problems. Part V Connecting Soul and Soil “What does our human need for relationship say about wilderness? Wilderness will only be allowed to remain when humans can act with tolerance. Wilderness will be respected not only because it has been legislated by an act of Congress but because we define our connection to that place through our love and forbearance. Then health of a wild ecosystem becomes the standing, living definition then of our capacity for self-control, restraint and mercy. These are powerful characteristics of relationship too.” Part VI Whole Thinking Environmentalists often focus too much on the means not the ends. They look and act like the opposition in order to be accepted, and then forget to discuss what is land conservation’s larger purpose, even though there are many different answers for what this purpose is. By separating meaning from wildlife, the story of conservation changes. “Learning to tell stories starts with learning to hear them. Here are examples of the elements of stories that we can hear from the people who are connected to a place, and that we need to learn how to retell:
And stories is what the Worldview Change Project is all about. What I’m Reading:
Diffusion of Innovations He discusses what is diffusion, innovation, and its history. Then it goes through many of the variables that influence diffusion such as change agents, demographic characteristics, characteristics of the innovation, the the innovation-decision process (Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation Confirmation stages), kinds of channels, diffusion networks, opinion leadership, critical mass, organizational innovation, and the consequences of innovation (not always as positive as the change agents would like to think). He gives lots of great examples, especially from international development. The book focuses on specific innovations, mostly technological, leaving in question still much more complex innovations such as worldviews and paradigms. He may not address these simply because there is little research in this area. When society is the target audience, then larger systems are at work, but the book does not look at the system dynamics of innovation diffusion, instead focusing more on a linear models. Nonetheless, anyone involved in diffusing innovations, which includes anyone who works for a non-profit or governmental agency or private sector business with novel products, should be familiar with these principles. And that’s just about anyone. If you want to see a perspective on spiritual or social wisdom that is not currently present, add your wisdom in the Share Wisdom links and tools. |
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“Cosmopathy” is the pathology of worldviews, whereby a person suffers from competing worldviews or the need to change worldviews because the gap between the worldview’s beliefs and perceived reality cause a breakdown, a condition which the Worldview Change Project aims to help. Cosmopathy is distributed to those interested in the progress of the WCP. Your name can be added or deleted by submitting a request to the author.
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April 4, 2005
