(RESPONSE): Inquiry Regarding Collective Buddha "Story of a recent 2.5 day OST"

[Richard Holloway]

there are a number of recurring themes that are consistent with the thoughts
shared by both of you.  Certainly the idea of Gaia consciousness, proposed
by several leading thinkers, including Gregory Bateson, is one.  Another,
Meme theory (info at http://www.memes.org.uk/meme-lab/WELCOME.HTM  ) offers
an explanation that some find useful and interesting.  If "Open Space" (as a
practice and philosophy) can be transmitted from person to person as a virus
of the mind, replicating both practice and philosophy through the minds it
infects, then it could be considered a "meme."  That would infer that you,
Harrison, may share something in common with Typhoid Mary.  (-;  However,
the virus you so widely spread can certainly be considered beneficial rather
than destructive.

peace be with you,

Richard C. Holloway, M.A.O.L.
P. O. Box 14
Ocean Shores, WA 98569
(360) 289-2776
  -----Original Message-----
  From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Harrison
Owen
  Sent: Monday, August 27, 2001 4:55 AM
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
  Subject: Re: (RESPONSE): Inquiry Regarding Collective Buddha "Story of a
recent 2.5 day OST"


  At 07:45 PM 8/25/2001 -0700, Mark Jones wrote:


    Tich Nhat Hahn is the Buddhist teacher that made the proclamation
    regarding the "Collective" as the next manifestation of the Buddha.

    I believe that Open Space as a life practice creates the minimal
structure
    required to begin to grok "Community / Collective"  -- in terms of
    intention, communication, and behavior.

    I believe that communities like the (Centers for) Spirited Work
    that practice ongoing (3 years now) community, organization,
    and business model using Open Space as the core practice  -- are the
    training grounds for the manifestation of the Buddha as the Collective.

    I note that the active inclusion of children into the Spirited Work
    community in the USA has had a positive and profound transformative
    effect on the community and the practice of Open Space as a Life
Practice
    (in contrast to using Open Space as just a "facilitation" tool.

  Welcome Mark! - I don't know the work of Tich Nhat Hahn but he doesn't
seem to be alone in the speculations. A fellow by the name of Joel de
Rosnay, a Frenchman no less, writing in a book called "The Symbiotic Man"
seems to be saying much the same thing, although he starts from a rather
different place. The argument in brief, is that as our electronic
environment lays down the necessary neurons and synapses for a global
collective, in fact the forces of evolution are at work one more time -- but
this time leading to what comes after us -- which he calls Symbiotic Man.
Which sounds a lot like the manifestation of consciousness in (as) the
collective. And myself. I have found my thinking moving for the last 20
years in a similar direction. Those of your who have wandered through "The
Power of Spirit," (or the predecessors, Tiger or Spirit) will recognize the
argument that we are currently in what I have called the ProActive
Organizational Consciousness -- heading towards the InterActive, which is
characterized as a conscious, living, open self-organizing system. Of
course, we have always been living, open self-organizing systems -- but the
new thing is the consciousness of the fact. Or better yet, the appreciation
of this fact. Which means (amongst other things) that control as we used to
think we had it, no longer exists. It also means that the (I think)
artificial distinction between the organization and the individual is
blurred, and perhaps abolished. This does not mean (at an experiential level
that we all turn into an un-differentiated blob --  but it does mean that
the individual finds meaning largely in terms of the collective -- and
perhaps more striking, the collective is infinitely more than the sum of the
parts. In short, rampant Individualism of the sort worshipped by the likes
of Anne Rand may be on the way out (Thank God). And of course, the
experimental data upon which I have based some of these wilder notions is
our collective, global experience in Open Space. So we will see what happens
next.

  Harrison


    Harrison Owen

  7808 River Falls Drive
  Potomac, MD 20854 USA
  phone 301-469-9269
  fax 301-983-9314
  Summer Phone 207-763-3261
  Summer Address
  189 Beaucaire Ave.
  Camden, ME 04843
  Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh
  Open Space Institute website www.openspaceworld.org
  Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com

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