[Joe Mc]

Originally Posted by davidsun

I can't go along with "In wholeness there is peace" (peace understood as 'stillness' here) because, the way I see and experience It, 'the whole" is in constant co-motion, so "agitation" (in the sense of 'stirring excitement') and "movement" are real aspects of THE whole! process.

I can and do go along with "If one understands 'wholeness' one can 'love' and 'enjoy' instead of 'dislike' and 'fight' with what's going on in It."

I think people often react to the 'discomforts' that choices and actions which are necessarily part and parcel of both of the aforesaid ('positive' and 'negative') modalities by desiring to withdraw into the kind of peace (passivity?) I] that one experiences in 'peacefull sleep'. No 'problems' to 'solve' and so no possible 'suffering' of ''failure' there, aye what?

That course of inaction doesn't 'sit well' with 'me', however (meaning 'I' don't 'sit well' with that, except for short respite-periods. that is.)

The Life-Force (Creator? Brahman?) 'in' 'me' impels 'me' to active participation, which includes 'calling' others to join in conjoint positive-goal oriented activity.

Living and blazing (i.e. making 'marks' which point to) a 'path' in such regard, hoping it will inspire others to join with (the likes of) me 'walking' said 'walk', in chapter one of my book I wrote:

"You are not your own beginning or end. Neither are you just an offshoot or continuation of ancestral energies. You exist in resonant relationship with all else. The power that stimulates and sustains your every thought, feeling and action comes from All That Is in and around you. “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), is how this was expressed long ago, in then colloquial terminology.

Every one of us is a creative instrument ‘sounding’ in time, part and parcel of an orchestration in which each affects all and all affect each. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10) didn’t just apply to the one who boldly made such claim; it is true as well of you and me. We are, all in all, joint heirs to what the marriage of sun and earth has produced, brothers and sisters who both share and contribute to a common pool of physical and psychospiritual energy.

Even as you choose to act, you are not totally autonomous, for we are all aspects of a Living Whole, which continuously renegotiates the accumulated impetus of the past, through multi-modal Self-expression in the present, into a future that is conjointly desired and conceived. In maximal perspective, it is the Spirit-of-All-Life that perpetually incarnates Itself within each and every being, who serve as vehicles for Its further expression and development, to whatever degree is made possible by their current capacity for resonance and responsivity.

On a personal level, as you exercise yourself within such process, you may cause reverberations which augment development and consequent well-being. But, if contrary to or out of phase with what goes on around you, you may also bring about repercussions that are hurtful and deleterious. As any musician well knows, attunement and cooperation are essential for there to be a harmonious expression of creative energies.

Assuredly, frustration and failure are in store for those who don’t coordinate themselves with others in space and time, whether because of inconsideration or intractability. Those who just suit themselves and not others, as they detract from more than they add to what they are part of, cause contextual impoverishment, and so ultimately precipi*tate their own defeat. It cannot be otherwise. Those who simply consume all that they can, who don’t set aside enough and do what is necessary to seed the next spring, must eventually suffer conditions of stringency. Even a devoted mother, finally reaching the point of exhaustion, will become averse to a child that is constantly demanding. You may draw your own, more far-ranging conclusions from such examples, by analogy.

Those who are out of step with or oppose the progression of Life around them naturally end up withering, the flow of energy sustaining them disrupted by dissonance, reduced to a trickle, in time of critical shortage cut off completely. Conversely, as is true for a child who learns to pump in time with a swing, those who synchronize their movements with goings on around them reach great heights, quite exhilaratingly.

On a transpersonal scale, as everyone contributes to the co-motion, waves of thought, feeling and behavior ripple and ricochet around the globe, cumulatively adding to the vibration of the platform on which we stand, building in resonance as they sweep through the race. At present in particular, with populations soaring and availability diminishing, these are approaching a crescendo of intensity. Those who are conscientious are becoming more loving and co-ordinated in the process; those who are selfish, more paranoid and alienated. Those who are hopeful are buoyantly choosing paths of constructive action; those without hope are sinking deeper into depression and degeneracy. Tension is mounting as people take sides; polarities of attitude and expectancy are reaching extremes.

We are approaching a snapping point. Ultimately, triggered by ecological breakdown, consequences will be cataclysmic. Depending on whether aligned with positive or negative trends, some will move higher up on Life’s evolutionary ladder, others will fall—our dilemma will be resolved by a massive catharsis.

Take heed, for what you now choose affects, for better or worse, what happens in the future, not only to you but also to those who you are most cogently involved with. Since you are an integral part of Life’s process, you are bound to move and be moved, one way or another, by current developments and ongoing themes.

But also take heart, if you are one who subscribes to what is good. As times of want alternate with times of plenty, the crises engendered, though painful and upsetting to go through, are on the whole very creative. Attributed to
‘the hand of God’ by some and to ‘natural selection’ by others, a process of culling then takes place which, far from being random, is positively discriminating and therefore, in final terms, constructive.

Individuals and groups that are reciprocal and sharing emerge ascendant, resonantly reinforced by one another, despite general shortage, overcoming their difficulties. Those that are unresponsive and unrelated atrophy in isolation; unless they change for the better, they weaken and fail eventually. Those that are antagonistic and oppositional fare worst of all; their energy depleted by friction and their momentum destroyed by clashes and collisions, their creative thrust is halted and reduced to nullity.

With every denouement, asynchronous and discordant elements are deleted, while more cooperative and coordinated embodiments proceed forth, the degree of harmonious integration increasing as each new stage succeeds."

That is a good description of the interdependence or image of Indra's net and how obvious and very subtle our entwined lives really are on earth. On a good day this is displayed in all sorts of human activities. Especially in things like the nursing professions etc. who economically and politically are denigrated etc. and have been for along time. So yes without the basic co-operation of the baker the butcher the candle stick maker we would find it hard I think but the basic goodness of people is fairly well exploited albeit perhaps unintentionally, the best Rats win as one school teacher put it one day.

That being said, there is a perfection to it all that can be seen from time to time perhaps this is from a higher vantage point, a divine justice if you like. As you have alluded to a perfect creation where all the stones that are placed into the bag become smooth by 'co -motion'. I say a higher vantage point because although i've often been privy to this expansive insight into interdependence and synchronicity, the glimpses have never formed a basis or stayed with me. To describe it I would say I ascended from that new perspective back into give me my 'Tax' man and don't exploit me with your Harvardian Economic laissez faire education. Now there is a new one David, 'Harvardian', it's new to me anyway

I suppose i mean there is peace in the Whole, in the sense, that the Whole is alive, peace is alive and it is living. It is not necessarily the painted white dove that Cecilia the black lady painted on the wall of the community center last year but it could be too. To go to extremes on this one i could posit that Jesus was at perfect peace and congruence at all times even when he was hung up to die and in pain. So he was at peace but this is not a view im putting forward because it someone takes us away from the realms of infliction of pain and responsibility for its aversion etc.

Thanks for sharing there was a great deal of congruence in what you said in your book and in what i was thinking inside about the whole, interdependence and synchronicity. Joe.