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At 07:45 PM 8/25/2001 -0700, Mark Jones wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Tich Nhat Hahn is the Buddhist
teacher that made the proclamation<br>
regarding the "Collective" as the next manifestation of the
Buddha.<br>
<br>
I believe that Open Space as a life practice creates the minimal
structure<br>
required to begin to grok "Community / Collective" -- in
terms of<br>
intention, communication, and behavior.<br>
<br>
I believe that communities like the (Centers for) Spirited Work<br>
that practice ongoing (3 years now) community, organization,<br>
and business model using Open Space as the core practice -- are
the<br>
training grounds for the manifestation of the Buddha as the
Collective.<br>
<br>
I note that the active inclusion of children into the Spirited Work<br>
community in the USA has had a positive and profound transformative<br>
effect on the community and the practice of Open Space as a Life
Practice<br>
(in contrast to using Open Space as just a "facilitation"
tool.</blockquote><br>
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.<br>
<br>
Harrison <br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Harrison Owen</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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