Rol Fessenden wrote:
> Ray -- Your quote below which comes from your culture is a wonderful
> insight to me. From my experience, I would tend to extend it, but I look
> for direction here from you. for example, I perceive that in my culture
> people tend to begin early in life to speak from the heart. As time
> marches on, that heart-speak becomes suspect, and we recognize it as a
> sign of 'maturity' when a person can put the heart-speak aside, and speak
> dispassionately from the head. A systems dynamics model, for example, is
> head-speak.
Hi Rol,
What we say is that there is heart in all seven areas of life as
well as head, sensual awareness and spirit. The difference is in the
maturity. We say that this is the four directions which is, on one level
a schematic for the learning process found in most text books. At one
point I was explaining the seven step version and one of my students found
them in a book on agriculture which makes sense to me. The key to us
however is process. The beginning process is in imitation. The child
learns by putting on the skin of the teacher. There are various talents
that must be fed, in the brain of the child, if all of the senses are to
be usable in later years. American education tends to let the skills that
relate to hearing, seeing, feeling, moving, go until later in years.
Unfortunately, these skills like the language skills as well are set up in
the brain at various times in the first ten years of life. There is
however a direct line from the East which is perception to the West which
is expression and that line is the heart.
If you look at the four direction drawings for Shamanic peoples found
all over the world as well as in Tibetan Buddism you will see the various
versions of this process that is grounded in the evolution of human
character and mastery. Not a bad subject for a Learning Org. We say
that people who work in most business systems are stuck in their
head, meaning that there is a problem with integration of the abilities
of empathy (perceptual subtlity)
analysis (systems understanding)
practice (skill development)
wisdom (mature communication between equals) and
justice (The responsibility of spiritual power).
Forgive me, I'm making this simple almost to the point of untruth. I was
taught that this growth or centering process is as old as humanity and
exists in everyone who has grown up. The issue is conscious awareness of
those structures and how they are integrated in a mature life. An old
dance teacher of mine used to say, if you want to know the seven
directions just stand up. But if you want to know how to dance then you
must know (she didn't mean simple understanding, but Mastery) their
function.
The issue for organizations is the same except that perception, analysis
and practice from a stance of conscious planning, disciplined execution
and precise evaluation is crucial.
(I know everyone says it but I don't believe for a moment that they
"know", as in Mastery, it. If they did everyone would be "performing at
Carnegie Hall.")
Rol said:
> The next phase that I am aware of is when, based on study and deep
> thinking, a person can understand these analytical issues quickly and
> intuitively. At this point this person is freed from the energy required
> to _think_ and analyze, and they can return to heart-speak with renewed
> vigor, clarity, and maturity. Heart-speak backed up with a thorough
> understanding of the intellectual issues as well as the emotional issues.
>
> What do you think? Anyone else have any thoughts -- or feelings -- on
> this?
REH said:
We say that you have moved from what we metaphorically call the "war" of
the South to the mature wisdom of the West. There is however the North
and then renewal seven times. Or as the psycho-analysts love to say,
"that is one level." (kidding) A good place to begin the consciousness
would be the demands of the child (tyrant) on the Mother (slave) that are
translated to technology as Owner or Manager (child) to passive machine
technology (mother/slave). That is what we call being stuck in the East.
Good to talk with you,
I've always enjoyed your thought,
openness and spirit.
Hope everything is
well in Maine.
Reg.
Ray Evans Harrell
mcore@soho.ios.com
--ray evans harrell <mcore@soho.ios.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>