Flyfishing for Steelhead and playing Tai Chi have a lot in common. They look silly from outside, but feel great inside. Both require you to step into the great rivers of life and wade in their flow. They take time and practice, but they give you time and patience; to ask questions of yourself. Questions like, what am I? What is the deep purpose of life? What is the Tao in my own nature?#
How do you relate to the Gaia hypothesis? Do you perceive the Earth as a living being? How does this affect your own relationship with the rest of life on Earth?#
I see GAIA as a living being in feminine form. I think of her as having birthed all of life, but that is too simple and does not capture her Tao. It is important to see her as both created by life on earth, and the creator and sustainer of life on earth, both yin and yang. She reaches all the way down into the magnetic core, includes all life in the biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere; and reaches all the way to the Sun and beyond. Maybe GAIA is best thought of as Great Grandmother?#
Where do you see the forces of entropy and/or negentropy playing out in our day-to-day lives (socially, environmentally, personally)?#
The Taoist masters of ancient times were funny creatures. But modern Physicist have outdone them with silly terms like Entropy and Negentropy! Why not just call them Yin and Yang?#
Entropy is Yang, energy dissipating, increasing disorder. We see entropy everywhere. Societies are breaking down as so-called social networking addicts humans to dopamine hits and destroys social cohesion with anger. The rich diversity and complexity of natural ecosystems are simplified into monocrops polluted by chemical inputs. Fossil fuels safely sequestered underground, are dug up and burned dissipating energy and heating Earth. The life force in all of us and our creations, declines continually, requiring energy and maintenance til the end.#
Negentropy is Yin, energy concentrating, increasing order. I prefer to view Negentropy as Einstein framed it- CosmoGenesis: the creation of the cosmos and life within it. Civilization has created great works of art, architecture, music; and has literally probed the universe to make meaningful order of it within our minds. We are witness to new ways of relating to the environment with sustainable design, a return to organic farming, and beginning to recognize the “legal rights” of other species, and even places as entities. Western science has embraced eastern science and now recognizes the life force within us all is real- creating new tools and methods to heal illnesses in whole beings, and extend life. #
If humanity were to be invited to join “The United Federation of Planets,” what would we have to do to make ourselves ready?#
The story of one person illustrates what is required of all of us- together. Hellen Keller suffered an unknown disease at the very young age of 19 months that left her blind and deaf. Thanks to a gifted teacher, she experienced a miraculous transformation in her mind. One magical day she suddenly began to “language” with her teacher in a flash of inspiration that opened up the entire universe to her, with one simple word spelled out in braille on her hand, ‘water.’#
In order to join the United Federation of Planets, the human race must likewise transform itself, and join into “languaging” with Earth, GAIA, or better yet, Great Grandmother. And to me, ‘water’ seems like good a place to start.#
I met a man on the river one day. After talking for awhile he said he knew me, he said I was a “Russian pessimist.” I asked him what a Russian pessimist was? He said a Russian pessimist is someone who believes things can get worse than they already are. He knew me alright. But no more.#
Consider a current cultural attractor (e.g. consumerism, the #MeToo movement or Black Lives Matter), and how you relate to it. Can you identify elements of it that are more general, and those that are more specific to your own unique experience?#
It has been all too easy for me to be a pessimist. The cultural attractors that drew my attention were big ideas like environmentalism, collapse theory, planetary extinction, and the loss of everything specific that I loved in the natural world; beautiful, wonderful extraordinary, amazing beautiful living creatures and landscapes. As an outdoorsman, I have indigenous experience with the destruction of our fellow creatures. As an architect, I have professional experience with the destruction of our natural landscapes.#
Which phase in the Adaptive Cycle Model do you think our civilization is in right now?#
The Adaptive Cycle Model is a powerful idea (cultural attractor) to think with about our civilization, and ourselves. Like an ‘egregore,’ is it associated with a shape, an infinity symbol with similarities to the yin-yang circle. The idea/symbol has the power to help us understand transformations in human and natural systems. The model is well understood from a western scientific perspective, and worthy of meditation from an eastern spiritual perspective.#
Taken as a whole, our civilization is clearly well within the conversation phase, on the cusp of a radical release into a transformative reorganization. Like yin and yang, there is much to be excited about, and much to fear. Such is the Tao.#
What is an attractor of consciousness that you can identify in yourself? How might you want to reshape this attractor through intention? #
Pessimism and fear have been defining characteristics in my worldview. But no longer. I choose to consciously rearchitect the neural connectivity of my mind/body. I choose to embrace “water” as Helen Keller did; and keep waking up- over and over again- to the flow I am embedded in; until I return to the Tao. My intention is to deepen my practice of Tai Chi (and teach my grandchildren how to fish). My intention is to use “consciousness to refine consciousness” as the internal martial arts of Taoism teach- a whole mind/body reshaping of a whole mind/body. In this way, I can harmonize with others, and together we have the potential achieve the transformation of humanity and be invited to join the United Federation of Planets.#
Yours truly, Ken Hall ( No longer a Russian Pessimist :)#
Flyfishing for Steelhead and playing Tai Chi have a lot in common. They look silly from outside, but feel great inside. Both require you to step into the great rivers of life and wade in their flow. They take time and practice, but they give you time and patience; to ask questions of yourself. Questions like, what am I? What is the deep purpose of life? What is the Tao in my own nature?#
How do you relate to the Gaia hypothesis? Do you perceive the Earth as a living being? How does this affect your own relationship with the rest of life on Earth?#
I see GAIA as a living being in feminine form. I think of her as having birthed all of life, but that is too simple and does not capture her Tao. It is important to see her as both created by life on earth, and the creator and sustainer of life on earth, both yin and yang. She reaches all the way down into the magnetic core, includes all life in the biosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere; and reaches all the way to the Sun and beyond. Maybe GAIA is best thought of as Great Grandmother?#
Where do you see the forces of entropy and/or negentropy playing out in our day-to-day lives (socially, environmentally, personally)?#
The Taoist masters of ancient times were funny creatures. But modern Physicist have outdone them with silly terms like Entropy and Negentropy! Why not just call them Yin and Yang?#
Entropy is Yang, energy dissipating, increasing disorder. We see entropy everywhere. Societies are breaking down as so-called social networking addicts humans to dopamine hits and destroys social cohesion with anger. The rich diversity and complexity of natural ecosystems are simplified into monocrops polluted by chemical inputs. Fossil fuels safely sequestered underground, are dug up and burned dissipating energy and heating Earth. The life force in all of us and our creations, declines continually, requiring energy and maintenance til the end.#
Negentropy is Yin, energy concentrating, increasing order. I prefer to view Negentropy as Einstein framed it- CosmoGenesis: the creation of the cosmos and life within it. Civilization has created great works of art, architecture, music; and has literally probed the universe to make meaningful order of it within our minds. We are witness to new ways of relating to the environment with sustainable design, a return to organic farming, and beginning to recognize the “legal rights” of other species, and even places as entities. Western science has embraced eastern science and now recognizes the life force within us all is real- creating new tools and methods to heal illnesses in whole beings, and extend life. #
If humanity were to be invited to join “The United Federation of Planets,” what would we have to do to make ourselves ready?#
The story of one person illustrates what is required of all of us- together. Hellen Keller suffered an unknown disease at the very young age of 19 months that left her blind and deaf. Thanks to a gifted teacher, she experienced a miraculous transformation in her mind. One magical day she suddenly began to “language” with her teacher in a flash of inspiration that opened up the entire universe to her, with one simple word spelled out in braille on her hand, ‘water.’#
In order to join the United Federation of Planets, the human race must likewise transform itself, and join into “languaging” with Earth, GAIA, or better yet, Great Grandmother. And to me, ‘water’ seems like good a place to start.#
I met a man on the river one day. After talking for awhile he said he knew me, he said I was a “Russian pessimist.” I asked him what a Russian pessimist was? He said a Russian pessimist is someone who believes things can get worse than they already are. He knew me alright. But no more.#
Consider a current cultural attractor (e.g. consumerism, the #MeToo movement or Black Lives Matter), and how you relate to it. Can you identify elements of it that are more general, and those that are more specific to your own unique experience?#
It has been all too easy for me to be a pessimist. The cultural attractors that drew my attention were big ideas like environmentalism, collapse theory, planetary extinction, and the loss of everything specific that I loved in the natural world; beautiful, wonderful extraordinary, amazing beautiful living creatures and landscapes. As an outdoorsman, I have indigenous experience with the destruction of our fellow creatures. As an architect, I have professional experience with the destruction of our natural landscapes.#
Which phase in the Adaptive Cycle Model do you think our civilization is in right now?#
The Adaptive Cycle Model is a powerful idea (cultural attractor) to think with about our civilization, and ourselves. Like an ‘egregore,’ is it associated with a shape, an infinity symbol with similarities to the yin-yang circle. The idea/symbol has the power to help us understand transformations in human and natural systems. The model is well understood from a western scientific perspective, and worthy of meditation from an eastern spiritual perspective.#
Taken as a whole, our civilization is clearly well within the conversation phase, on the cusp of a radical release into a transformative reorganization. Like yin and yang, there is much to be excited about, and much to fear. Such is the Tao.#
What is an attractor of consciousness that you can identify in yourself? How might you want to reshape this attractor through intention? #
Pessimism and fear have been defining characteristics in my worldview. But no longer. I choose to consciously rearchitect the neural connectivity of my mind/body. I choose to embrace “water” as Helen Keller did; and keep waking up- over and over again- to the flow I am embedded in; until I return to the Tao. My intention is to deepen my practice of Tai Chi (and teach my grandchildren how to fish). My intention is to use “consciousness to refine consciousness” as the internal martial arts of Taoism teach- a whole mind/body reshaping of a whole mind/body. In this way, I can harmonize with others, and together we have the potential achieve the transformation of humanity and be invited to join the United Federation of Planets.#
Yours truly, Ken Hall ( No longer a Russian Pessimist :)#