Learning to expand our NOW

Tue Apr 26 01:55:49 PDT 2005

Learning to expand our NOWThen, we better go to these countries :...Indonesia, venezuela, netherlands or spain...to be more in the "endless,eternal now"   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Wallman 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:23 AM
  Subject: Learning to expand our NOW

  Harrison

  I agree with the fragmentation of past, present and future - i think it is particularly evident in the US. I just pulled out my Trompenaars - "Riding the Waves of Culture" and looked up the chapter on Time. In it he has some interesting Venn diagrams of individual cultural interpretations of time. These show the extent of overlap and the relative importance of each aspect of time. The intention is to give guidance to people doing business in these cultures.

  If his research is correct it is clearly not just Western countries or influences, eg Russia, China, Netherlands and USA seem to be among the most fragmented, France, Malaysia, South Korea and Venezuela among the least. I am fascinated by what drivers would produce these differences - language? culture? history? media? And perhaps this has changed since 1993 when the book was written?

  And the biggest NOWs (ie presents relative to pasts and futures) - Indonesia, Venezuela, Netherlands and Spain!!

  Will read your book to illuminate myself further,

  Peter

    Date:    Mon, 25 Apr 2005 08:10:15 -0400
    From:    Harrison Owen <hhowen at comcast.net>
    Subject: Re: Learning to Expand our NOW
    MIME-Version: 1.0
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    Peter - I think it is probably fair to say that for most folks on planet Earth the understanding of the Present (NOW) is much closer to (if not the same as) the Japanese. Only in the West (or western influenced) areas do you get the radical disassociation of past, present and future. This has many interesting effects, not the least of which is our rather interesting view of History as something over and done with. Of course this understanding creates jobs for Historians who "study the dead past." Might it not be better to concentrate on the living present (NOW)? I am not a psychotherapist (although I may need one) - but this fragmentation of time represents a distinct disadvantage, I think. Perhaps it is even pathological. Over the 20 years of The Open Space experiment it has occurred to me that one of the major impacts of being consciously in Open Space is that the deep fissures between the Present and the Past and Future are somehow overcome. Past and future are all included, and are experienced, I believe, as seamlessly existent in the present moment. Many people don't notice this, and some who do are quite perplexed - but I think it is a healing moment. I guess that is why I described Open Space as "Expanding our Now" in a book of the same title.

    Harrison

    Harrison Owen
    7808 River Falls Drive
    Potomac, Maryland   20845
    Phone 301-365-2093
    Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
    Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
    Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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    -----Original Message-----
    From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Peter Wallman
    Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 11:49 PM
    To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
    Subject: Re: Learning to Expand our NOW

    Hi

    This is my first post on this list although i have been listening for some time. I am based in Sydney and am an occasional open space facilitator.

    this wonderful idea reminds me of a Japan Australia dialogue i attended about a decade ago in which i was playing the role of the rapporteur. the topic was 'responsibilities to future generations' and was sponsored by the Japanese Foundation for Future Generations which ,by the way, was one of the major sponsors of the NGO part of the Rio Earth Summit.

    There were representatives from heritage, environment, business, media etc - an incredibly rich dialogue ensued but after a while it became obvious that we were talking about different ideas of past, present and future. I remember vividly one of the Japanese describing the 'present' in Japanese as meaning ' the dynamic domain in which the past and the future interact' - so it seems to me that we have something to learn from this.

    Peter Wallman
    +61 2 9882 3196
    PO Box 7103 McMahons Pt NSW 2060 Australia
    peter at passionmaps.com
    www.passionmaps.com

    "The figure whose attitude best expresses the passion
    that moves it is most worthy of praise."
    .....Leonardo da Vinci

    Ah -- Funda. Let me reveal a mystery to you. You just can't get away from
    NOW. It is all you have! Past is over, future hasn't happened yet. What you
    got is NOW. And the only question (at least for me) is how big is your NOW?
    If it is a tiny little "now" desperation quickly sets in. How are you going
    to get everything (you want to do) squeezed into this anorexic (pathetically
    thin) now? You can't! And the more you try the worse it gets.

    But there is an alternative. Just make your NOW BIGGER! It may sound a
    little weird, but with some effort (not to be confused with work), NOW
    becomes big enough to include what we call the Past and also the Future. The
    Past, with all of its richness of experience (including the pain) is always
    available. And the Future is not some far off thing -- but dreams coming
    into focus NOW. For me it is a matter of opening my (personal) space. You
    can do this in all sorts of ways, but (I hate to say it) Visualization can
    help! :-)

    Harrison

--
Peter Wallman
  +61 2 9882 3196
  PO Box 7103 McMahons Pt NSW 2060 Australia
  peter at passionmaps.com
  www.passionmaps.com

  "The figure whose attitude best expresses the passion
  that moves it is most worthy of praise."
  .....Leonardo da Vinci

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