How do you live in open space?

EVERETT813 at aol.com EVERETT813 at aol.com
Thu Jan 20 21:18:12 PST 2005


In a message dated 1/20/05 2:03:11 PM, mccafferty at inwind.it writes:


> To say it another way. Lots of time and mental effort has been spent on
> wondering "What's the meaning of life?" as if 'life' was a thing capable of
> holding meaning on its own. Well, 'existence' is a fact, whereas 'life' is
> in my opinion a construct or process and so the 'meaning' or 'purpose' or
> 'content' is really dependent on what the individual decides.
>
> By itself, life is neutral. We are born, we live, and when it's over, it's
> over. What happens after that I don't know, ... and I don't have to know to
> give my life meaning. I can just decide the meaning of my life.
>

Lex:

These two paragraphs provoked a bit of 'interior discussion' that I thought I
might share with you and any others on the List who might have an interest in
somewhat esoteric philosophy.  I (and Joelle) were fortunate enough to have
had a great teacher from South Africa, a white mining engineer turned
transformative-thinker (best I can say it).   He taught a philosophy of life as well as
many other issues around making our lives (working, family, personal) more
whole, more human, more complete.   He said that a human being was an organism,
not a stimulus-response mechanism as contended by some folks at the time (BF
Skinner).   He also taught that logic is only applicable to a very small slice
of life, that intuition and wholeness applied to the most of life.   As part
of that, some of us developed, with him, the following, which may help in
sorting out the above paragraphs:

What is PURPOSE?

Purpose is Meaning, Made Important, All Depending On You.

What is Meaning?   Meaning is Difference.  The Difference some person or some
physical thing makes in any given situation by being there, being present.
Thus, we can intuit the meaning by noticing the difference.   Our teacher felt
that if he had created anything unique in his life, it was this single
understanding, that Meaning is Difference.

Made Important?   How do you make something or someone important?   By
focusing your attention on it or them.   Hence, by focusing, (being a fully aware,
fully alive, fully functioning human being in the moment) you make the moment
important.   It contains your most valuable asset, your life's time.   And
thus, you make the person or persons important in your eyes (the window to the
Soul).

All Depending On You?   That is the inner feeling that the needed outcome of
the action or of the moment is all depending on you and you will be in such a
state as to be wholly focused on the requirements of the situation in which
you find yourself.   Now, sometimes the situation is so overwhelming that you
are simply unable to cope, no matter how centered or focused.   Natural
disasters such as the tsunami's or earthquakes are examples.   Man-made disasters such
as war's are another.   However, by being in that state of personal
responsibility for the outcome, you have a very much better probablility of meeting the
needs of the situation, and doing so brilliantly, with 'savior faire' (I hope
I got the French right).

Therefore, we came to the understanding that a human being longs to be a
meaning-maker.   One who can say 'I have made a difference'.   And, thus,
organizations that strive to help that to happen will be uncommonly successful because
they will have created the needed "open space" for people to make meaning by
making a difference.   Which is what I find so powerful about Open Space, it
provides the alchemist kettle, the area of bounded instability, in which people
are turned on by making meaning in the space provided.

That's what I think tonight.   I sure am enjoying this thread.   Thank you,
Doug, for the evocative question.

Warmly,

Paul Everett

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