How to Love the Mind and save the World
A guide to navigating the world of the Mind and Relationships
This part of robert jankovich’s book donated to support the world. It is under a protected creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
I. Introduction – The mind accompanies us
Shared unhappiness is half-hearted, but shared joy is double!
The mind accompanies us all our life. It can make life easier or harder for us, depending on the relationship we form with it. We can enjoy it and help it, or we can curse it, and destroy it, and be angry with it. In many teachings, the focus is on “showing up;” and controlling the mind, but in this book, we will see how to work with it. And maybe not just cooperate with it, but even like and love it. It’s an unusual perspective, so it won’t often stand on the usual assumptions, but I can assure you it will be an adventure. It will not infrequently take us to new, unexplored corners of the inner world that are often well outside our comfort zone. So, I invite you on an untrodden “(un)journey” of getting to know ourselves and our minds that will take us past our worldviews, past our opinions, thoughts, soulfulness, awareness, perhaps even to another holy place – the sacred perception of mindfulness and consciousness. One of the very-very essential – fundamental activities, will be dealing with what we believe. We believe what we choose to believe, but also what we take for granted, or at least natural – the “natural order of things”. We take for natural and self-evident things that we haven’t given much thought to and have accepted without consciously deciding whether we believe them or not, without deciding whether or not we believe them to be right or wrong. (Somebody ”sucked them in with his mother’s milk”, other people adopted them in their early childhood, based on the answers (or non-answers) to their calls, triggered by their needs. Why do we believe what we believe? Our unconscious choices open up the following question: Why do we believe what we believe? Why don’t we believe something that other people do? As I mentioned earlier, we have made a conscious decision to believe part of what we believe. But another part we have not chosen to believe, we have merely “believed” this or that, having observed and taken over from the world around us – the world that we still considered magical, sacred – that is, holy. We have observed and taken on insights or beliefs mainly from persons we have considered important and trustworthy. Over time, though, we discovered that many of these persons were not as much trustworthy, but we could no longer accordingly modify all our assumptions. We didn’t stop believing the facts we had come to believe based on observations and lessons from people we consider untrustworthy now! Whether we want to or not, part of our world view is created without our “knowledge” and consent, even often against it. However, if we would like to expose it, we have much to look forward to! There is a lot of work ahead of us – mental work, of wondering: “Why is my view such-and-such, and not that?” We will become (somewhat) incredulous “religionists” who will be the most interested in the answer, “because that’s just the way it is,” “because that’s the way it’s always been,” “because it’s natural,” “it’s given,” “it’s customary,” “it’s the way it used to be,” and so on. In these answers, we encounter the unrecognized and unconscious contents of our minds and perhaps even our souls that have arisen without our adult consciousness (self) and conscious decision. In my opinion, it is very important to recognize these contents and consciously re-decide for them or reject them. You may not agree with me yet, but I think that (also) the fate of the whole beautiful planet Earth depends on your decision. I think this is because the mind is “guided” by dominant patterns and myths, which are guided by grand narratives (called dominant narratives). The mind has unfortunately been led by them to adopt certain forms of selfishness – individualism and many destructive patterns of insight and behavior. To function responsibly on the planet Earth, we need to understand our conscious and unconscious choices – decisions – and revise them in favor of life. For the benefit of benevolent and life-giving forces and practices! For the benefit of the life of the present generations of flora and fauna, of which we are one, and of the generations to come, for without them there is no real future of the human species.
However, exploring our mind and our relationship with it can enable us to connect with the deepest knowledge and potential of ourselves and become true full authentic beings. Embarking on a “path-less-journey”, working for the common good of true togetherness. This principle, embodied in the philosophy of Buen conVivir, can lead us to love both our unique minds and the miraculous world – the sacred Holy in which we live.
I wish you with all my heart that you succeed, that you will deeply love your mind as well as your uniqueness. And I wish it to all the people and beings around you, too, so that together we could create a Holy World in which all would be well! The Holy World for which none of us will have to be ashamed in front of anyone, and everybody may even be proud of what we have brought and are bringing to it. Proud of what our common work, co-creation, will bring for centuries, millennia, and ages to come. I wish you much success and strength on this difficult but interesting “road-journey”, which we will gain through mutual support (love) and respect for life, and for each other.
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I. Chapter The Mind means no harm
The archivist and librarian – the mind, is a great “systemizer”. It is a tool, a servant who does his job, his service, well. Within it, it is also a “signaler” announcing overcrowding, overwhelm, and loss of balance! It sounds especially when something is not right. For example, rights or needs. It lets us know that it “doesn’t have” (not) having our needs met – “not getting fulfilled” all needs. Then, paradoxically, it happens that our zealously trying to make everything right makes a mess of our lives. The zeal to get everything right now sometimes converts our lives to a hell for us. Why is that? Because we think that orderliness and order to the exclusion of nothingness are fundamentally – ultimately – important to us. That without it we will be lost rather than well. We need to have the certainty, or at least the impression, that we understand things and events and that they are under our control. We are used to see it that way and that’s why we do it that way. We try to minimize our anxiety and keep ourselves in the zone of known facts, our comfort zone. The mind obediently helps to achieve this goal. It tries at all costs not to be left alone somewhere in an unfamiliar space. It cares for us, our safety, and comfort. Language of the Mind Its language is a kind of (quasi-)rational language, trying to systematize, order and tighten things up. The mind, therefore, behaves as if it were a drive, chasing us to catch up, trying to make order everywhere. The side effects of its action, however, are often so threatening and destructive to our relationships with ourselves and with our fellow human beings and the world – both social and natural – that they turn against us. (Today this is called being counterproductive, i.e., thwarting our productivity.) What, then, might we do to prevent the mind, with its striving for order, from harming us? Not drag us into slumps, despair, and depression? How (to understand how) does the MIND think? In my opinion, we could understand it. Understand and accept it for what it is and appreciate it for what it is. Appreciate and support her in what she does, and does well, for us and for the world well, honestly does. Appreciate her and make sure that she can do her mission well and have the right conditions to do it. Let’s look at what good conditions the mind might have to do its “work”, which it then does substantially and well for the benefit of us, and our surrounding social and(also) natural environment. For this purpose, let us liken it to an archivist-librarian who takes zealous care of the books and other materials entrusted to her. He cares for them, preserves them, and cherishes them, but most importantly he keeps them in order – a perfect system so that none is lost, taken out of the contexts we understand and protect, and ends up in the trash, whereby we lose forever the treasures hidden in it.
It’s just that, no matter how well educated and programmed the archivist-librarian is, no matter how much brain capacity she has at her disposal, when her capacity is exceeded, she can collapse and “burn out.” (editorial note: In original language its the MIND of female gender. The translation used only it.) At that point, she can become very unpleasant(m), hypersensitive, disgruntled, unpleasant, and can begin to anger, drive, chase, and destroy us. When this has been going on for a long time, it can also bring us “to heel” or destroy us. We can give up or go crazy when we can’t redesign, (reset) or stop it. When it is too much (for MIND) I think it’s the same with the librarian as it is with our minds. As long as it is given appropriate tasks and the archives are safe, everywhere is tidy and dusted, there is peace. But when it gets overloaded with ever-increasing books and information, there starts to be “no” time for everything, some less-priority things get put off. Sometimes they get put off until they start spilling off the shelves and stacks. By then, the mind is already sounding the alarm or retreating and giving up on the task at hand. It may begin to take refuge in God, gods or philosophys, religions, sects, theories – simply anything that will relieve it and help it cope with chaos and uncertainty. The chaos and uncertainty of a post-factual age in which induced emotion is more important than facts. In such a state, it is not surprising that the mind is confused, frustrated, and unhappy about the impasse.
The state in which someone is sophisticatedly influencing our minds is not new; everyone who has exchanged something millions of years ago was trying to further their goals. (We won’t go into what they were here now, but I assume they weren’t always selfish; often the goal may have been all-around satisfaction and balance, which may have been far more important than short-term personal gain.) What has changed in the last century, however, is that perceptions began to be deliberately manipulated on a mass scale for profit. What has changed in the last century, however, is that perceptions began to be deliberately manipulated on a mass scale for profit. It was Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, who figured out that when we influence people’s emotions, the effect of advertising is much stronger. Propagandist Bernays – the “father of public relations” in the 1920s solved the unsolvable problem of the tobacco lobby. By combining smoking with freedom and independence, he got women to smoke.
Ads started to be created not as a way of informing you about what the product is like, but about how it makes you feel. While no one knows how it will actually make you feel, if your imagination causes you to decide that you would like to feel that way, you become willing to buy even what (and for how much) you hadn’t thought about because, for practical reasons, you don’t need it at all. The “perfumed gunk”* of advertising thus caters to our minds in such a way as to intrigue and direct it towards new needs, new purchases, and new consumerism. But how can we take care of our minds? *La Pub est une charogne qui nous sourit (Advertising is a carrion that smiles at us)
How can we take care of our minds? What can we do for the mind? How can we take care of our minds? We only give them consistent (one-sided) information and it will calm down. It won’t be constantly stressed to know something so (extremely) difficult, in the overloaded terrain of a post-capitalist civilization constantly producing “tens of thousands” of goods, offers, penalties, and contradictory claims. A terrain in which the econometrically most important value, Gross Domestic Product – GDP, may be rising, but that does not mean that minds are any less confused. The confusion caused by emphasizing quantitative financial-economic growth and the simultaneous perception of qualitative cultural-social decline is not something the mind is able to resolve satisfactorily. It needs our help. Help in the form of tidying up beliefs and establishing the importance (what is most important) by which it can orient itself, by which it can rearrange or re-arrange things and the relationships between them. In this case, the word rearrange is very important. Why? Because when we (with or without a decision) change the order of importance or focus, it is necessary to make everything “pedal” well to accommodate this by rearranging the folders and folders (so that we can easily get to them and understand how and where to look for them). When we decide to prioritize quantity-quantity indicators, quality (quality) indicators will be pushed and organized by the mind to more distant shelves, and vice versa, if we prioritize quality indicators, quantity indicators will be less accessible. The tricky thing is that we cannot create exclusively one-sided indicators and we will always be confronted with mixing them, i.e. a certain ratio – a balance between them. Our clear choices and decisions will always help and facilitate the mind, relieving it of some of the tension and relieving us of the pressure it puts on us. In this way, we can support each other.
Glossary Community – in English, a community is a group of people or living organisms (consciously or unconsciously) following a common goal. This goal is consciously or unconsciously set, spoken or unspoken, shared (as a vision) or close, as the accomplishment of an agreed or unagreed task facing it. (Unagreed definition: lacking agreement or accord ; not agreed) The community is bound together by external (enemy) or internal stimulus, desire, and verbal or other means of communication and (giving) feedback. Without this exchange and perception (sensation) of interrelationship, it is not a direct community, but a “mediated” community, i.e. a community unintentionally joined together in a particular territory – a geographical community, for a particular purpose, e.g. money – earnings. The connecting goal may also be to overthrow or defeat. Some degree of direct or indirect organization is always necessary but the degree of interest in intra-group relations varies greatly. The relationship may be to the goal, the purpose, the enemy, the members, and the links-relationships among the members of the community.
When a relationship, a connection, is defined in the lightest way on the basis of uniting against a common enemy, the connection is at the same time closely tied to its existence. With the demise of the common – connecting enmity, the group, disintegrates. With a common interest, hobby, friendship, or “gugu”, the bond is stronger, but what about when you lose interest in what bound you together? When the purpose and intent of the community is a common goal – it is a “goal community”. Goal communities include most religious communities. I would also call these “higher-goal” because they believe that their goal is higher and more correct than others and thus they elevate themselves. When the purpose and intent of a community is a common goal aimed at common welfare-prosperity, we can call it building “community for community’s sake.” This happens in many so-called intentional-intentional communities. This is how Jan Blažek, using the acronym “ZK”, summarizes it. “ZKs are defined as social structures or places for living with a collective identity, in which a space for living is deliberately created and shared by a social group, and where individuals are united by a certain way of life in order to fulfill a common goal. CoCs vary in size from a few families to several tens or hundreds of members and usually practice some form of common ownership. D. L. Christian defines ZK as a group of people who have made a conscious decision to live together or close enough to each other so that they can share a common lifestyle or a common goal, either in the form of a residential or a territorial community. FIC describes a ZC as a group of people who have decided to live together, with the aim of building a shared lifestyle that reflects their shared values. Environmental intentional communities (eICs) are then understood as those whose (shared value and) main goal is a collectively fulfilled environmentally friendly way of life. (Community form of an environmentally sustainable way of life. 2015. Jan Blažek) When a group of people do not communicate with each other but live together in some part of a city, we do not immediately have to call it an unintentional or geographical community. Despite the fact that they do not communicate with each other, they share common communal waste and sometimes communal politics. In Norway, I have come across the term commune as a purely geographical term. In Slovak/Slovak, the term “komunita” is used to refer to a kind of group whose members also share their income and have common property. Buen conVivir I translate and use to mean: Buen – beneficial, full of con… – common Vivir – life, living, being
(Dis)identify with it
I love my mind but I don’t identify with it. I have been living with my mind for half a century and we have been through everything. For a quarter of a century, I have been dedicated to understanding and accepting my mind and the minds of other people “on the path,” especially people interested in circles, communities, deep listening, eco-communitarianism, and compassionate communication. Also interested in philosophy, especially Buddhist and Taoist philosophy, and living a meaningful life. Communicating and living respectfully, in reverence and supportive encouragement. I have been able to discover the fact that the mind, whose rule I have been subject to because I believed it, because I identified with it, or because I fought it and lost, is not my enemy. Nor is it anyone who wants to control and dominate me. She is a good instrument who serves me and does it honestly and well. In spite of being well cared for, the outcome of human co-existence with the mind on this planet is sadly desperate! A mind is a good tool for organizing. However, when it is used improperly, no wonder it produces problems and misunderstandings. We try to solve it – to “fix it”, to control it, to subdue it and make it do what we want it to do – enslave it. (or at least try to cooperate with it somehow) We subjugate, colonize, prey on, and exploit everything we can, and often absolutely ruthlessly, relentlessly. See slavery, colonialism, militarism, and its “modern” (neo)forms. The planet is at its wits end under the leadership of people driven by minds and disrespect. The entire planet is being destroyed, damaged, and its diversity and functions are collapsing. Diversity is being lost in everything imaginable, from butterflies to languages to cultures.
(in)responsibility for the consequences – how will we be held (un)accountable?
There is a growing awareness of both the consequences we have caused and the responsibilities we have as humans. There is a growing (post)awareness that if we don’t take radical action, we are very likely to become extinct. (XR) But not just in a way that inspires and motivates us to change, but in a “and let’s be realistic” way – when we see the limited opportunities for change around us, even depressing and frustrating ones. As awareness grows, so do frustration, sadness, and depression. We also call this the environmental grief syndrome. I dare say that this syndrome is not an isolated one, for there has always been a usually unnamed one – the social grief syndrome. I have experienced it for decades. It was only after half a century of physically inhabiting this planet that I understood that what I was experiencing was cultural or social grief, disillusionment, and anger. I even argued that if someone convinced me that things were not going to get better, but they were going to (only) get steadily worse, my staying on it, would be pointless and I would try to leave it. Like it or after the bad. Like the main character in the drama “ Parades (USA, 1972, Robert J. Siegel). I was angry at my parents, principals, government officials, bishops, presidents, and all the authorities for doing nothing about it and letting relationships and the world deteriorate, even though I didn’t know about the environmental side of it at the time. In my previous book, “Awakening the Dragon,” I published a talk by Severn Suzuki, a 13-year-old girl who spoke at the UNGA about her fear that her children might not be able to see live butterflies in nature and her interest in doing something to prevent this from happening. It will soon be 50 years since her speech and children no longer have to worry about that. The warming is already being felt and the concern is no longer just about butterflies, but about entire ecosystems, such as ocean ecosystems, and all life – the entire biosphere. Today I have come to understand: if we fail to deal with social grief, we will never do enough to treat the planet better. Why does it control and direct us? He does it for us! He doesn’t mean it badly. He does it “for our own good” like a critical parent. He does it for us! He means no harm. He’s doing it “for our own good” as a critical parent. The challenge is that our minds control us, we don’t control it. We might, if we detach from it, hate it; if we don’t detach, but instead personify, hate ourselves. But as I have argued before, I believe – I believe – that the mind means no harm, and the problem is that we cannot detach ourselves from it – stop (self-)identifying with it, or even taking it as it is, and understanding it.
The purpose of the mind is not to think
We don’t understand our own mind The mind’s intent, and probably the purpose, is not to “think” but to organize and sort – to catalog. What is it to Think? To think? To think? To think – to think through in one’s head, to invent – to invent is to actually think, creatively, appealingly, imaginatively, playfully, easily, entertainingly? But cataloging can also be routine, autopilot, mechanical, mindless, uninteresting, bureaucratic – is it (still) thinking? So the mind was meant to evaluate (compatibility) to guard, align, sort, classify and maintain (consistency) content – content structures? Is a waking mind identical with a consciousness? Is a good attitude “toward self” properly called self-consciousness? When the mind figures out When the mind figures everything out it is in order When things are “#ordered” then it is completely at peace. Applies to material things as well as to non-material things – relational – natural and social! How does the mind order things? It figures them out! That is, it figures them out in detail and stores the map. When it has it, it is no longer worried and is calm. How did I come to this? Well, I was sitting. On my arse.:) I was sitting in a monastery of the Terravada tradition of the old teachers and I was watching her. No matter how much I prevented her from doing what she needed to do, she never stopped and always eventually shrugged off the moment of inattention – of inattention – and kept going. She continued to do her “job.” And she did it as she always did, honestly and well. The only problem was that in doing so, I always lost the patience (called consciousness) – the awareness. And so I gave up (with her) after a few days of sitting trying and in pain in an “unnaturally” prone body, I gave up. I left her and sat. Sat and tried to watch her. Watch what she was doing and sit quietly. And she did, she labored, she worked, she processed, she sorted and stored. When it was all done, all thought out, suddenly she was quiet. Tired, soothed, content, had she fallen asleep? Was she quiet? Forever? Forever it wasn’t. She found other objects that needed to be “dealt with.” An aching body, a gasping air, a full or empty stomach, but mostly it wasn’t so disconnected from the present moment, nor was it so insistent. There was usually no returning to the “made up” things that were #ordered anymore. It was a big shift, it changed a big part of her worldview, and it wasn’t easy to maintain, especially after returning to the “dusty world”. After a couple of weeks, I retired for a few days in a cave under a swimming castle. The fasting body again managed to calm the troubled mind, allowing it to gradually work its way through the laundry to more economical trajectories that took into account both old and new needs and perspectives.
MindPaths – the paths along which the mind moves
I think the mind-archivist-librarian, needs to call attention to unfinished, unorganized, unfinished things, so it calls attention to them. Sometimes more and more frequently and more and more piercingly, until they are curiously attended to and taken care of. The mind-trains are renewed after the mind is relaxed by non-thinking and rest, by sleep. Meditation or contemplation is one way of resting or losing the mind entirely in an interesting activity (or its culmination) or story. The image that came to my mind’s ear in Myjava was of the mind driving down a snowy mountain peak each day, gradually carving out a “trail” of tracks in which it is comfortable and safe to walk. However, the tracks deepen over time and the mind finds it increasingly difficult to get out of them, until one day they are so deep that it is impossible to get out of them at all. One can let one’s attention go and pass through them unconsciously – on autopilot, but one cannot turn from them, and often one can no longer even see the surrounding space where one could go. If we want to make a ‘detour’, to do something differently, it costs us a lot of work because it is laborious and uncomfortable. Psychotropic substances can “flatten” them for a while, and we can thus try out some new “tracks”. It is not the mind’s job to keep the whole terrain passable, nor to create detours. Its job is to guide us safely through the maintained tracks and their order. The mind-track after meditation (“back in the zone of intention and purpose”). Even after meditation, the mind returns to its usual, established pathways, and it can look like this: “… the void is wonderful, and in time a clear presence, a light, a radiant light of the present, of the present moment, begins to emerge from it. A presence in which it is as if “I am not alone”, as if someone is present, maybe everyone” 😉 … but gradually the mind begins to put into it opinions about that silence, about that presence, to judge it, to evaluate it, to cling to it, to want it, to desire to keep it, to (possibly) remember it, to explore it. And the other, tired attention is lost in it, dissipating, diverted elsewhere, forgotten and left alone, disconnected, forgotten, drowned out, lost. The second attention and willpower Can I hold a thought by force, by (pre)force of will? “At all costs”? Can I try, at all costs, to recollect my most important, perhaps the most important thought in my life? Can I be frustrated that I don’t remember it and that I may not even remember (it) again? Can I let it go, let it be where it needs to be, maybe nowhere, maybe somewhere, maybe I’ll remember it in recapping before I die and say to myself: “good that you came and good that I didn’t remember you”.:) Calming the mind Perhaps our minds, like in dreams, because we similarly can’t remember dreams, need to go through, reconnect and relax. Maybe our mind just needs to go through and activate a given, irritated pathway, a connection, and when it is activated, regardless of whether we remember it, regardless of whether we write it down or tell someone, it can release it “out of our head”. After that, I can safely forget about it, because the path-connection is to some extent calmed down – deactivated and we can continue to “sleep” peacefully. Figuratively and actually, it can be because it will no longer disturb our dreams.
Calming the mind-track
The (so-called) “chatter” of women can have a similar function. Chatter that “leads to nothing”, serves “only” to create interconnection, coherence, and understanding. Perhaps it also serves to deactivate the pathways that have been switched on, built up, and need to be let go – released. And this happens by talking about it and being heard and listening and being engaged. This releases my tension, my pressure on myself, and my obligation to hold it in my head and take care of it because by talking about it and sharing it, I am actually taking care of it!
Taking care of yourself and taking care of each other are very important things. They bring attention to places that are neglected and unappreciated in the hivemind of Western culture. Especially women, who make up most of the emotional backbone of the household (oikonomy – economy) and are valued for it mostly only indirectly, through transfer income,
Women, in particular, need to be valued and to be given attention and appreciation for their (not appreciated by the quantitative system) invaluable work for the preservation (health) of the human soul and the human race. I will give an example of not valuing caring and work. In Banská Štiavnica, after my lecture on communities, I talked to people who told me that there was no need to consciously create and pay for know-how and services because they happen somehow “by themselves”. They said they had traveled from Spain and solved one girl’s “challenge” the whole way, and they did it for free. But I asked if: was it really “free” what they put into it? Couldn’t they have spent that time (48hrs) on some productive activity that would have moved them forward?” When I tried to econometrically convert this to the value they put into it, it came out to 4people x 24hrs x 15eur/hour of therapeutic work. That equates to 1440 euro and if they thought that such a value was not an appropriate valuation, I guess they won’t go far, they won’t. Caring for themselves Taking care of ourselves and each other is essential for sustainability in Taking care of ourselves and each other is absolutely essential for relationship sustainability and cultural and social sustainability and wellbeing! Without it, we get lost in gradual self-destruction, depletion, and deprivation in which we do not grow either humanly or spiritually, but gradually burn out and become stunted. We need to take care of ourselves and our minds in order to live a fulfilled and meaningful life! Together we will gradually reveal how to create a (solid) foundation for a supportive culture in which we and our minds and souls are cared for. This will allow us to find and fully manifest our innermost potential and contribute beneficially, not only to the fulfillment of our surrounding environment but also to the entire life-giving force (biosphere) of Mother Earth. When the world (spins) according to the mind We identify with the mind (gradually) from early childhood. When, as children, we become aware of our ability to control the world around us, we do so. We become completely identified with our minds and the experience that the world spins for us and according to us, and when it doesn’t, something is wrong. And the mind-child (ultimately identified with it) wants to set the record straight, the way it’s right: “Parents always do this!”(what I want) “In a fairy tale, this sentence goes like this!” “…” When the world spins their way, they often become “little bullies”. Like the mind, they bully everything to make the world work the way it’s supposed to – “after all, this is the right way!”, “this is how we were taught” and taught, “this is how it’s safe”, “this is how I’m safe”. Over time, however, children can come to see that the mind is not identical with the whole being. They may come to see that it has different needs than we do, like the soul. =Then they need us not to overwhelm them, but rather to confirm and facilitate this acquisition of awareness. They need to listen to stories of how people figure it out and what they do with it. They need to understand that their mind has a purpose and can be assisted in it, and their soul has a direction and can be progressed towards it with the mind’s help. Every new thought and discovery must be integrated into the structure of understanding They need to come to grips with the fact that every new thought and discovery must be incorporated into the (structure of) understanding, and when that incorporation is extensive and a great deal of insight and attitude must be rearranged, it can be very difficult. They need to learn that it is not wrong, that it is perfectly natural, and that the mind and soul will always handle it well in the end. (And when they don’t, it’s not over, they need more time and understanding, trust and support to do it.) They need support and reassurance that the processes in the mind and group are natural (natural by nature) and can be relied upon, and it is not necessary to always control and understand everything immediately. They need to learn forbearance and patience with the happenings in the mind and soul.
They need to know/understand that staying in the feelings of confusion – chaos is not a bad and destructive thing to get out of immediately at any cost.
They need their self-confidence and self-worth to come not just from externals, but also:
from inner knowing and peace – the (magical)certainty that we are okay even in moments when the mind is lost and as desperate as the “I” is looking for how to have things #inorder. Relating to the world – the story Ever since I was a little girl, I have felt something like grief at the unfairness of existence and the little/imperfect/social support, love, acceptance, and acceptance (from the human race). I grew up in a rural environment for the first few years and acquired a special relationship with nature. And, interestingly, also to the possibilities of reshaping it, because my father worked in the Botanical Garden, where he created habitats suitable for plants that otherwise would not have had suitable conditions in Bratislava. I wished to be able to do things like him, I wished to understand (and help) nature – to be a naturalist. I learned in my childhood that when adults or children cheat or lie, everyone or someone else will get it, as they should. I learned to recognize and recognize injustice and unfairness and felt disillusionment and sadness about it. The greater and clearer the injustice became, and the greater at the same time was my powerlessness to set things – the facts – to “right,” the more desperate and despairing I became. I adapted, enclosing my delicate childlike perceptions in the safety of a hard, impermeable shell. The sadness of how little would often be enough to resolve things in a win-win way for everyone so that everyone could be happy and enjoy the sunshine and a full breath (with their loved ones) instead of a bitter sense of injustice. As I grew up, the world taught me that it’s better not to bring these things up, to keep them to myself, and the absolute best thing to do is to not deal with these childish things and forget about them. However, my interest in, and love for, nature soon began to bother me when I saw how insensitive some people, and even civilization, treat animals, trees, and forests. Ruthlessly not looking after anything but their own interests – their own earnings. I looked for ways to change this but found very little, and so I experienced helplessness and grief again. Similarly, in often unnecessary interpersonal misunderstandings and disputes, I saw how often little would be enough to make things different.
I (have come to) understand that until we are capable of sensitivity and perception of each other, the path to perceiving and protecting nature, which has neither voice nor reasoning as a human being, will not be viable or even possible. In a new strength, I felt the realization and grief that
as long as we devastate our relationships, it will not be possible for us to stop destroying nature.
It was not until decades later, when environmental grief (over the state of the planet and the impasse) began to be talked about openly (as a diagnosis in the US), that I became fully aware of my perception of the inseparability of environmental grief from social grief, for environmental grief, is about grief over the state of nature, but grief over our inability to do anything about it, is not grief over nature, but grief over our inability to do anything about it. It is our incompetence, even the curse that we have cursed ourselves with. I also call it “the curse of Western civilization, by which it has cursed itself to do things for profit and to measure that profit in money as if other values were worthless and unworthy of protection. To change this, we must either intoxicate our minds so much that it will be okay for us to destroy everything, or we must cure ourselves and give value (including legal personhood) to all living things and together with all things fulfill a non-destructive – destructive mission. To heal and give value to all life and together with all fulfill a sustaining and healing, rather than a destructive, mission. We have the opportunity to regenerate what has generated food for us and degenerated itself for centuries, to create a new story of hope, cooperation, and belonging in which we can experience hope and meaning in the creation of value that benefits all throughout the biosphere. Where we will all be winners: win-win-win. In what connection is mind to Soul? In the Soul, thoughts are imprinted. Into the Soul, which I perceived in my belly and chest like a second brain, they imprinted, like plasticine, a kind of matrix. The Soul could be something that keeps thought patterns “alive.” As if the thoughts were in the mind as in an operating memory (RAM) and the Soul was like a hard drive (HD) where the thought patterns are imprinted – stored? This may explain that 95% of our thoughts are repeated every day. Of course, they repeat because they relate to things we do every day. Imprinting is more about how we approach them, how we react to them. We stereotype our reactions so that they take up as little of our attention as possible so that we still have room to pay attention to new opportunities and threats. A well-known example is driving a car, where it seems impossible at first to keep track of all the activities, but after a few weeks of practice, we can listen to a podcast or communicate or create in a meaningful way. This is because: the mind stores and arranges and optimizes data and processes so that they take up as little operating memory as possible, and thus attention, and that it is available for more.
Mind, Thinking, Mindfulness, Mind, Mind, Mind Mind, Thinking, Mindset, Mind, Mind, Mind, Mind, as (their) language explains. To spiritualize, to do something soulfully – perhaps in a preoccupied way, brings our minds closer to the word base “to eat”, to be interested in, to take an interest in, to take hold of something. Perhaps also the base um. Um is in honorifics also like umět, – can. In Slovak as “it came to my mind” – I remembered (it came from my mind), umný and from there it is just a step to rozUMný, – UM – rozum, but also Umenie – ART. I am thinking (d-UM). Roz-UM, we can elaborate further as roz-consider, roz-thinking, roz-putting, and back to roz-think, roz-mind, mind. Further to sense, nonsense, intent, intent, think, unthink, unthink, conceive, conceited/thought, contrive, expel. “Out of sight, out of mind” Thinking, thinking, opinion, consideration, preState (position, attitude), judgment, reasoning, insight, consideration, (insight),… “Lies on my mind.” “It is heavy/light on my mind.” “It #crossed my mind” “It came to my mind.”
II. Chapter Mind Control – Dominant Stories What is the mind and “its world” governed by? By dominant stories. Dominant stories (also) help the mind to orient itself and discharge responsibility. They provide it with criteria by which to sort. But for this to work, we need to believe (them). FAITH – Faith as a miraculous balm for the mind Religious, religion, religiosity describes (to me) something like:
“I believe that this is no longer under my control and I believe that these forces beyond me are taking care of it”.
Classically they are represented by the forces of monotheistic deities and their prophets or ancient mythologies with their primitive pantheons assigning deities to natural forces. We don’t know much about the undepicted deities or deified forces of contemporary grand-fistic propaganda because they are not so simply depicted. But this does not mean that they are any less destructive, threatening and tyrannical than ancient religions, instituting (u)stoning, practicing the Inquisition and waging “holy” wars against incestuous barbarians who do not profess the “one true” god.
The opinions of others correspond to what these people believe.. don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
Contemporary beliefs often pretend to be non-religious (secular) and offer a completely different perspective. One such belief, for example, is the belief in the “American Dream” – wealth and prosperity for all expressed in huge houses, expensive shiny spare cars, exotic vacations, and ostentatious consumerism. It is brought about through a belief in the rightness of displays of wealth and taste, through advertising and the film industry. We only see the glamorous, painless life/living in advertisements anymore. In the commercials we “pay” for. Not directly, with money, but with our time, attention and soul. They (parasitically) steal our attention, soul and ideals. The real world is in turn approximated in the news. It is intimidating, threatening, dangerous, stressful, paralyzing, deadly. It creates fear and distrust. The vast majority of perhaps as many as 6/7 of people are denied to live in the dream brought by advertising. The system does not even need them to live in it, nor does it allow it. Nor does it have the ambition to allow it. It just needs and needs them to desire it, to work for it, to strive for it. In our faith and desire, we fail to see and see that it is not our dream. Nor is it the dream of the earth that everyone take out loans and have everything at once. All that slickness, success, painlessness, wealth and immortality. – – – Contemporary faiths often pretend to be non-religious (secular) and offer a completely different perspective. One such belief, for example, is the belief in the “American Dream” – wealth and prosperity for all, expressed in huge houses, expensive shiny spare cars, exotic vacations, and ostentatious consumerism. It is brought about through a belief in the correctness of displays of wealth and taste, through advertising and the film industry. We only see the glorious, painless life/living in advertisements anymore. In the commercials we “pay” for. Not directly, with money, but with our time, attention and soul. They (parasitically) steal our attention, soul and ideals. The real world is in turn approximated in the news. It is intimidating, threatening, dangerous, stressful, paralyzing, deadly. It creates fear and distrust.
The vast majority of perhaps as many as 6/7 of people are denied to live in the dream brought by advertising. The system does not even need them to live in it, nor does it allow it. Nor does it have the ambition to allow it. It is enough for the system to want them to desire it, to work and strive for it.
In our faith and desire, we fail to see and see that it is not our dream. Nor is it the dream of the earth that everyone take out loans and have everything at once. All that slickness, success, painlessness, wealth and immortality. …
III. CHAPTER Faith in agreements and rules He who makes the norms, controls the world (We make them consciously by ourselves, or we take them from above) Norm-making control of norm making or control by norm making? One of the key things in the group and all that is to become of it is norms, i.e. the making of norms – the manner and agency of their making. Norms are the foundation on which everything stands, the whole cultural-social, that is, social construction, the superstructure of society. Norms become what is considered normal and right. Norms can support or contradict tasks, goals, as well as mission and vision. When they are supportive and in harmony, it is beautiful to live and create, but when they contradict each other, it is terror, misery and suffering. For these reasons, we need to attend to norms, and we need to attend to them ultimatley, because durability, resilience but also and often even beauty depends on them! Rules and norms emerge both consciously and unconsciously.
Planet Earth does not understand the concept of money
Earth’s dream is for us to have a good time and to support each other in doing so. To support ourselves and all living things as our own dearest and most important brothers and sisters, without whom life has no meaning for us at all. .. the realization that Mother Earth doesn’t need to know anything about money, but that beings are well off on her.
The =We-the-people are the Ones who alone can help Mother by and in not giving weapons to others, but by giving them the Gift of communion, of closeness, of wholeness. Of uniqueness, of value and meaning! Earth through me dreams a dream of support. A dream in which every atom, every molecule, rejoins again and again in the great work of life. Collaborating to make us understand. To understand that I am of Her, for Her, to Her. Her organ, her soul, her mind, her Heart, her breath. Earth’s dream is that we have a good time and that we support each other in that. To support ourselves and all living things as our own most beloved and important brothers and sisters, without whom life has no meaning for us at all. .. the realization that Mother Earth doesn’t need to know anything about money, but that beings are well on her. We humans are the Ones who alone can help Mother by, and in, not giving weapons to others, but by giving them the Gift of communion, of closeness, of wholeness. Of uniqueness, value and meaning! The Earth through me dreams a dream of support. A dream in which every atom, every molecule, re-shares again and again in the great work of life. Collaborating to make us understand. To understand that I am of Her, for Her, to Her. Her organ, Her soul, Her mind, Her Heart, Her breath. I believe that the drive and desire to do and make something for the planet is not limited to people and beings who own money. I believe that if my dream could help them fulfill their drive and desire, this world would be a better place for them, and for us, to live in. And there would be a third huge WIN! There would be many more flowers and trees and splendor and fragrance blooming and developing on the planet, and many new, healthy, strong roots would be planted, from which many strong rhodostromes – projects – would grow. Beautiful projects that would have her and our common benefit in mind, and that is called Buen ConVivir – our mutually beneficial, beneficial coexistence! I believe that the drive and desire to do and make a difference for the planet is not limited to people and beings who own money. I believe that if my dream could help them fulfill their drive and desire, this world would be a better place for them, and for us, to live in. And there would be a third huge WIN! There would be many more flowers and trees and splendor and fragrance blooming and developing on the planet, and there would be many new, healthy, strong roots taking root, from which many strong rhodostromes – projects – would grow. Beautiful projects that would have her and our common benefit in mind, and that is called Buen ConVivir – our mutually beneficial, beneficial coexistence!
IV. Chapter How to Create a “New Story” A story of support&locality? A new way of looking at the mind, A new story for the future?
V. Chapter
The defeat of leaders means the defeat, or rather the transgression of hierarchy, especially paternal (patriarchal) hierarchy. We experience an endless tension between co-rule and command. The tension between the horizontal and vertical ordering of society – between heterarchy and hierarchy. The tension between equality and superiority.
VI. ChapterGroup processesIn a group, different processes take place. Many of them at the same time – simultaneously. Some are directed towards the goal or purpose for which the group is together/created, others take a different direction, follow other purposes, other logic that may be unknown and incomprehensible to us. Let us try, on this adventurous journey through (un)paths, to look at some of the processes and happenings together, and maybe even understand them. We can divide the events in the group– the processes leading to the fulfilment of external tasks for group (extra-group tasks)
VII. ChapterPOWER of been Moowed (FEELINGS) On experiencing the experience of community and discerning inner motivations 3.+ 4. The art of sharing and closeness VIII. ChapterTHE ORDER OF THE LEADERS
The defeat of the leaders signifies the defeat, or rather the transgression, of hierarchy, especially paternal (patriarchal) hierarchy.
IX. Chapter
Perception of connection Perceptions of community connectedness and the range of perceptions of community connectedness X. Chapter The Sacredness of a Supportive Culture6. The Art of Support Ecological lifestyle, minimalism and zero waste We can also focus our minds on buffering our adverse impact on the planet. We can playfully invent new and novel ways in which we make our lives less environmentally destructive and more constructive. Less burdensome and more supportive. We can begin to reduce and continue to minimize our enviroimpacts in a variety of areas. I don’t like wasting my drinking water and mixing my eco-excrements with neeko cleaners and chemicals. I have discovered that by separating urine, it is possible to eliminate the stink and I can return my eco-excrement to my garden that needs it.-Gardens of the Soul- I invented a “game” for gardens of the soul.
Gardens of the Soul – a connection between the worlds …
Preserving the WellbeingGift Society exists to provide and bring individuals (from danger-from-zero) safety for and support for their development and wellbeing – buen convivir – beneficial coexistence. In the past, when some communities and societies have succeeded in achieving a balanced, safe and supportive state, they have naturally sought to maintain and proliferate (reproduce) it. With the next generation(s) in mind, they have sought to pass on the balance, the benefit, the abundance to them. Every society wants to preserve for posterity the key values that enable survival.Societies and societies usually wish to pass on the gifted, the well-being Societies and societies usually wish to pass on the gifted, good things, practices to enable the ancestral legacy to endure in abundance and contentment and to develop, cultivate – to improve. To be able to further cultivate it and pass it on to the next generations as the greatest, most precious gift.Every society wants to preserve for posterity the core values that enable balance, security and stability to endure. To this end, it creates agreements and rules that enable benevolent functioning – bringing and sustaining WellBeing and CoBeing – CoBeing – CoBeing – WellBeing – Swaraj – Suma Qamaña – Sumak Kawsay – Buen conVivir.But how to do this when the next generation-generations do not have the same experience? They do, they experience quite different feelings and experiences. How to do that when we know that the experience is non-transferable? Transmitting non-transferable experiences One way to preserve core experiences is to make them sacred, holding, maintaining a healthy and strong balance. A way to transfer experience and supermind is to create an experience. This can be done through liminal experiences. Such experiences can be created through initiation ceremonies. These are experiences, often close to threat and death, outside the comfort zone. Preserving the BlagoGift through celebration The preservation of well-being is possible through the celebration of the home of presence and reality. We encounter reality precisely because of this amazing quality of group agency and (collective) wisdom. We are able to navigate reality through the eyes of others-the feedback they give us-which we give to each other (by sharing). When we can fully appreciate group sincerity, authenticity, and wisdom, every feedback becomes a celebration, and celebration becomes our way of approaching life, coexistence, community, and the sacred world. The art of celebration is the supreme seventh art that brings our minds to the home of the present, to the barest, most poignant reality of existence. Holy of whom is my soul Once a question came to mind: /A question once came to mind: What kind of world would you like to live in? The answer was clear: Well, what kind of world? In the Sacred! Of course, in the sacred, in what other world can one live contentedly? Only in the sacred and perfect in relationship and fervent reverence for the world around us – a holy world where all things, all creation, are sacred and holy. Not only this soul is of the holy, in which all is sacred. Not only freedom, love and abundance, but also suffering, sorrow, hatred and lack. Just because it is sacred does not mean that it is merely fine and pleasant. It also means that it has its place, its reasons, which are real. Real, and thus sacred. It means that we are not to run and hide from them, but that we are to “acknowledge” them, to accept that they are there and that they (and we) need something from us.I see this as a sacred approach to sacred things – a reality from which there is no point in hiding. This soul is from the holy of holies, in which people are close to each other. So close that they touch. Like monkeys, touching, living in close proximity most of their lives. Stroking, nuzzling, or just sitting or lying against each other, warming each other. They are close – touching not only physically, but emotionally. They sense how the other, or others, are feeling – what they are experiencing. They see it in their faces, gestures, body movements and postures, (hear) it in their voice, intonation, colouring, sighs, syllables, ‘words, sentences, stories’.They see how the eyes get rock hard and the face gets gloomy – sad when someone who has hurt, someone with whom, things aren’t right, comes along, or how they brighten and shine when a loved one, children, or someone comes along, who supports us and is close to us. ??? The most sacred gift is to have loved ones and loved ones close by. Through them and the connection with them (emotional and physical) I experience falling in love over and over again and my whole life is filled with it. In my blessed world, lovers do not hide! They know that they have been given a tremendous gift, and that it is not just a gift for them, but for the whole community. They know that they have an obligation to share it with everyone, and they are delighted to do so! They receive an overwhelming amount of gratitude for it – in songs, flowers, touches and words – in soul and in love. When they walk into an area where there are children, the children immediately crowd around them, enjoying their blessing. They greet and connect through touch, enjoying the connection, closeness and … The lovers give special care to the old and sick members of the tribe. They visit them and, more or less ceremonially, bestow their favours on them and share a common gift with them.When hard times come that do not favour the lovers, they all look forward to the time when the blessing will once again come upon the tribe. Sitting in a circle or on the front porches, they observe and discern who might become close to whom, which hearts find (questing?) their way to each other, and can bring blessing to the family and its saints.If the infatuation, the grace fades, falls away, if the union breaks up, all stand by them, no one blames, all thank them for the grace and blessing they have brought. They care for everyone as their own child, sister, brother, father, mother, loved one. Anyone they can come to curl up with, snuggle up with, snuggle up to, snuggle up to. He can come to anyone to curl up, (to cuddle), to snuggle, to hug, to seek support or a kind/affable word from anyone. And over time, after a flare – up/burst of new grace, acceptance and love to reconnect/power up again/re-energize.It is the same with the fruit of rapprochement, the gift of a child. Everyone looks forward to it, everyone cares for mommy, everyone plays with it and receives its blessing. Blessed SaintWord and Life – Buen conVivirIn which the children sit with the adults in a circle, and they know they will be heard! Endowment / obDARenie On the way here with too many raspberries, …and medicinal plants, and alpine plants/rocksplants..,I was touched, for I received and gave a gift. Both received and gave.The life-saint has gifted me and I am grateful.I can’t quite be thankful for everything right now, but I’m finding my way to respect for the ancestorsthough hardest to those left behind, the parent-last. It’s time to start writing about what kind of world I’d like to live in,what am I doing for? Only, wouldn’t I rather be free?When my tears flow, I am so close to myself, and the soul of the worldIs it not better to be united? Connected? True?Tired, still hopeful, still trusting?Still with faith to rise and be still close to each other,to the essence, to God,the great Mother – Bhagathe ancient source of bliss,suckled by the sweet drink of her breast.Together with others in connection to the holiness of ArtemisGoddess of the many-breasted Earthsatiating us all,who are willing to open our mouths and suck on the pungent taste of her milk,to the essence of her, and of our holiness. Dream of the Holy A dream I had at the well of a saint who realizes the gift and gives it away and offers it, kindly and (not even out of a hat). To all, quite all around, even to the whispering of leaves .. and the gurgling of waters and the moisture in the air of the spring. Of its cooling power, in which the fairies seem to live. They live, they sew the water and spin the thread of time and weave the cloth of the holy, they arrest the power and catch the soul in it, they entangle it completely until it is lost and forgets itself completely. There remains only the newly formed idea of itself as a unique separateness of bone and flesh, of blood and milk. Only the idea without the holy, without the sacred which has gone under, lost itself from being. And believe, it is not found until the substance, emerges in nakedness, until the woven fabric, crumbles in the storm that the soul will stand, unmoved in the calm, in the midst of the reality of the true holy, not of the superficial world that has lost its light no longer and does not shine like a beacon, but confuses and gives birth to the tension, where we perish. But we take with us countless beings that no one hosts, but deprives of the possibility of pushing the boundaries to perfection. The boundaries of the world, to the holy, to the sacred testament that you are not alone when you care and love. “Because shared love is doubleand shared sorrow is half!”
