Category: Spirituality

Scriptural Reasoning and the Garden of Eden

Scriptural Reasoning (SR) is an open-ended practice of reading- and reasoning-in-dialogue between scholars of the three Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). This international journal is designed, written, and edited by undergraduate and graduate students. – http://abraham.lib.virginia.edu/sjsr/ ©2006 Society for Scriptural Reasoning Collated and reproduced from: http://abraham.lib.virginia.edu/sjsr/issues/volume1/number2/index.html The Student Journal of Scriptural Reasoning Volume 1, No. 2… Read More

Embracing the paradigm shift – from the principalities of darkness to the principles that value life

I am a seeker of truth, a lover of wisdom and a crusader for social justice; three life assets in great demand but now in very short supply. There is a hefty price we are paying for this state of affairs in terms of life destroyed at all levels of discernment, including the life support systems of the planet and society that nourish us, sustain us and allow us to grow, develop and flourish.

This scarcity of truth, wisdom and social justice is not natural in the sense that it was not preordained by the physical laws of the universe or the workings of nature. This scarcity was manufactured by the hubris of a small group of people hell-bent on dominating and controlling the planet’s resources by using the methods and technologies of distraction, deception and deprivation to destroy the essentials needed to live a flourishing life.

As Professor John McMurtry laments:

The air, soil and water cumulatively degrade and disappear; the climates and oceans destabilize without connection; species become extinct at a spasm rate across continents; pollution cycles and volumes rise endangering life systems on all planes in synergistic despoliation; the world’s forests, meadows and fisheries are cumulatively destroyed by the profit drivers of globalization; food pollinators, songbirds, coral reefs and large animals crash in unconnected response; public sectors and services are defunded and privatized as tax evasion by the rich multiplies; the global food system produces more and more disabling junk and wastes; non-contagious diseases multiply to the world’s biggest killer; the global financial system issues money out of control while collapsing in productive investment; the vocational future of the next generations is erased across the world; official lies and corruption are normalized as public relations. All the trends are one-way, degenerate, and undeniable. – Winning the War of the World | Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization by Prof John McMurtry

McMurtry has diagnosed this global systemic disorder as a cancer that invades its social life host without resistance from its social immune system, a causal explanation that moved me to study and take seriously given my expertise as a life-care provider. I see all too frequently the effect of cancer growth on individual patient’s lives as the life support systems within their bodies are systematically destroyed by the invading and metastasing cancer until the demise of the life host that “feeds” the cancer.

At the base of this global systemic disorder is a systemic value disorder. McMurtry goes into more detail in his books Unequal Freedoms: The Global Market as an Ethical System (1998), The Cancer Stage of Capitalism First Edition (1999), Value Wars: The Global Market Versus the Life Economy (2002), and The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure Second Edition. Basically he shows in pains-taking detail why the life predicaments we are in are fundamentally because money-value has trumped life-value in almost all of our deliberations and until we wake up to this realisation and put in life-value above money-value, the one-way degenerate and undeniable trend of life despoilation will not mend.

In trying to come to a better understanding of the root of this life injustice, a verse from Scriptures come readily to mind:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. – NIV Ephesians 6:12, 14-16

What I have learnt over the years in interpreting the scriptures in my pursuit for truth, wisdom and social justice, is that “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” are not without but exist deep within our psyche, within our individual and collective unconscious. Synchronistically, a few days ago, I came across an article by Paul Levy that connected McMurtry’s global cancer system with the unrecognised cancer within our psyche.

Read More

A Collection of Articles on Structural Violence and its Impact on Peaceful Coexistence and Healthy Flourishing for ALL Life

Violence, Peace and Peace Research by Johan Galtung (1969) “…violence is present when human beings are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their potential realizations… …Violence is here defined as the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual, between what could have been and what is…… Read More

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (KWML) – archetypes of the mature Masculine by Eivind Figenschau Skjellum

As any man with life experience knows, life is a constant struggle wherein the desired goal is our attainment of inner peace as well as the ability to give and receive love fearlessly. On this journey of discovery and growth, there are many forces within us that battle for attention. Our personality is not a single entity with one homogenous voice as much as it is a variety of different voices that battle for dominance. Sometimes unfamiliar voices may shock or delight, and sometimes worn out voices may become so irritating, so jarring, so profoundly removed from what we want to hear, that we come to hate ourselves.

One of the most important types of work we can can do in our growth into maturity is to identify and befriend these voices, so that they find and relax into their rightful place in what becomes an increasingly integrated psyche. Maybe we must tune some voices down, others a little up. Maybe we must make the baritone into a soprano, the bass into a tenor. Whatever voices are within us, our primary mission in life is to conduct them from being a cacophony to being a beautiful and powerful choir. Such important work requires a powerful framework, a model for teaching, learning, and living. That is why we will now dive into the deep waters of the archetypes known as King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (KWML).

Read More

Integral Worlds Theory Deconstructed and Applied to a Deeper and Wider Understanding of the Life-Grounded Self Via Illustrations

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent signifying our preparation for the symbolic “re-birth” of the founder of our Catholic faith – Jesus Christ. My family was honoured to be given the privilege to light the first candle to signify Jesus’ light coming into this world. And it was yesterday that the significance of my… Read More

The Trans4m Movement – Integral Worlds Theory: Articulating a “Whole” (New) Perspective

Trans4m is a local-global movement driving integral transformation processes to address today’s burning issues by actualising positive impact via new integral thinking and action.

Integral Worlds is a pioneering approach for the holistic development of individuals, organisations, communities and societies. It serves to address imbalances – within an individual, organisation, community and or society, but also within specific fields, such as economics, enterprise, or human development. Over the past decades it has been gradually applied to a large number of knowledge fields: from economics to management, from development to education – with its applications, in theory and in practice, ever expanding. The Integral Worlds approach is simultaneously transcultural, encompassing the wisdom of the south, east, north and west; transdisciplinary, spanning the natural and social science and the humanities; transpersonal, straddling individual and community, organisation and society; and transformational, evolved out of original and particular local grounds towards integral global effect. Integral Worlds serves as the core knowledge base for the Trans4m movement. Read More

Why are our institutions no longer beacons of light and why have they become shadows of darkness?

I have lost faith in the institutions of our society, be they our schools, churches, businesses and as of late our government. Instead of being beacons of enlightenment, they have become shadows of endarkenment. We have heard recently from an economist that about 88% of our students are being left behind. Our churches are failing in reaching out to the spiritually sick and are now only preaching to the choir. Our businesses are more concerned about profit and the bottom line, rather than the social and environmental consequences of their lack of engagement in their communities. And a government of national unity appears to be united in name only.

How is it that these institutions which are supposed to mold our minds, hearts, hands and policies, are failing miserably in their fiduciary duty to provide the highest standard of care and stewardship for the people they serve? And why instead of seeing progress on these fronts, are we seeing uncertain days ahead? And finally, why instead of seeing the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we are in fact in the majority witnessing disease and death, mental and debt enslavement, and the production and distribution of misery?

Read More

Collection of articles by Prof Ervin Laszlo from The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/ervin-laszlo 05/08/10 Why Your Brain Is A Quantum Computer 05/12/10 If Your Brain Is A Quantum Computer, Can It Connect You To The World? 05/17/10 Using Your Quantum Brain to Connect to the World 05/24/10 The Quantum Brain, Spirituality, And The Mind Of God 06/05/10 Quantum Consciousness: Our Evolution, Our Salvation 06/12/10 Cosmic Symphony: A Deeper Look at Quantum Consciousness 06/15/10 Evolution… Read More