The World - A "Space" of Relations

I am calling the world a "space." A space of relations.

We are so used to thinking of objects that we can point to as the model for anything that exists, that it is difficult to reorient ourselves to "relations" as something that are even more existentially primary than objects. But I'm saying that they are so. (This is a little -- a little, I underscore, since analogies easily lead astray -- like saying that "spirit" is more real than "matter.")

Our habit, when we move intentionally into thinking, is to imagine the things of the world as objects. Not only is it an age-old starting place for western philosophy, this "positing" of things as objects, it's also a way, quick and easy, of orienting ourselves us in the totally "disorienting" place of thinking. (In my mind, I "point" to that thing and other things -- yep, there those things are and here I am. Yep, let me double check. Yeah, that seems pretty clear.)

In thinking, we conceive, we make distinctions, we make determinations and judgments, which together are the essence of what orients us. Yet thinking can be disorienting, because it is so vast in possibility, and because thinking can question anything and everything, and destabilize all that makes us feel secure.

Before thinking, in the supporting underbeing of thinking, we are living mammals, living in co-ordinated interplay with other people and the earth. Our species, having come into being through eons of interaction between the earth and solar system, between organisms and earth's environment, is naturally fit into and embedded in nature. Hence there precedes language and thinking in language great and complex systems of coherences, which are the systems of all life on earth, and the individual living systems -- such as ourselves -- within them.

Hence thinking on the one hand comes into a world already characterized by order.

Yet on the other hand, thinking itself -- by which I mean language and the making of distinctions in our experience (which is more than words themselves, but involves a way of relating in the world) -- brings something new into existence. It adds a new layer of being to nature. It brings things into existence that never would exist without thinking, speaking beings. Languaging is not merely a transparency on the world, an "adding nothing" that, when it's working rightly, "only reveals what is there." No. Not at all. Languaging makes possible what we call human community, institutions, arts -- languaging is a power whereby we can create a human world that is set within nature.

World Space - Love as the Differentiating relating

I want to see spaces everywhere for coming together, harmonizing all peoples, engendering love, good will, skill, creativity to guide human action to build human relations.

At the root of such a space, at the eternal beginning of such a space, is the mute unknown, the question, a returning to before language, thought and experience to begin anew.

Imagine all of us around a fire. Representatives of the world. How to entertain the fundamental questions. Where is the starting point?

But we do not come naked to the circle. That is our trouble, that is our gift. It is our trouble, because our holding to the words, concepts and experiences, painful and joyful, that we know can keep us from hearing what is new and different. It is our gift, because in offering our skilled knowings to all, we offer power, potential paths of doing and knowing. We offer, also, achieved islands of meaning, as it were -- achieved coherent perspectives, which offer landings to other people, and in so doing increase the scope of our freedom, enlarge the landscape of being.

How to build the place, the regular coming, where each of us brings his and her unique gifts, and offers them up to all, throws them in the fire, the common treasure?

Two things can be said to characterize human beings: We are all of us in fundamental ways alike. And each of us is utterly unique. How in the context of this paradox do we create a common world?

The paradox easily confuses our thinking. How can we build the skill to hold the required distinctions in place so we are not so easily confused. This is one function of neologisms. Let us consider neologizing. Hence, isonomy is not democracy.

There are many ways to create a common world within the sway of the poles of our uniqueness and difference. But the common world I look to create is the one that arises between people who appreciate and seek to further draw out and develop the uniqueness of each. Differentiation through love is deepening relation and growth of power in each and all.

Mindell on "The Field" or "Atmosphere" of Groups

Indigenous people teach us a lot about atmosphere or fields. According to their traditions, the atmosphere is a sacred space ruled by the spirits of the North, East, South and West.
I call such spirits "timespirits." These elements, polarities or roles create the field and change in time. Any city street that is full of problems has undergone polarization around sensitive issues that might include gender, age, sexual orientation, race and money. Issues and themes have different sides to them - different directions in nature, so to speak. These different polar directions, or polarizations, require elders to facilitate. In a way, worldwork is an aspect of indigenous cultures.
How do we deal with the tensions of polarization around rank and cultural and psychological bias? Field work focuses on these tensions and improves the overall atmosphere by enabling them to express themselves. This causes many of the immediate issues to disappear or become more amenable to solution.
Work on the atmosphere is both personal and transpersonal. It brings people together. It often requires dialogues, arguments and moments of confusion or even chaos. Soon the air clears, and a new community atmosphere is created.
It is not only the worldworker who must learn to tolerate conflict. Group work enables the whole group to sustain tension for as long as resolution takes. This makes it possible for whole communities to sit in the fire. Instead of becoming more rigid and breaking apart when faced with a challenge, they are transformed in the direction of greater flexibility.
Like Native Americans, I consider the group atmosphere sacred, whether it is troubled or heavenly. We need elders who can create community, inviting everyone in and staying aware of timespirits' processes. Worldwork elders encourage people to stand for what they believe, to "channel" and voice these spirits, and to help express what is in the air. People who feel identified with one side of the issue speak for that. Others speak back. There is permission for people to change sides. [Arnold Mindell, Sitting in the Fire, p. 44]