One of the truths we have come to understand is that if love is not present in the process, it will not be present in the outcomes.
If the ethics we generate, on any subject and for any process, are to encompass the whole of life – the whole of our living humanness – love must be present in the process. With love and through love it is possible to have and to hold as a serious intent this common aim for all ethical guidelines:
To advance humanness… to enrich life –
the life of the whole, and the whole of life on this earth.
Reflecting on the “absence” of love we can see a possibility of enhancing existence – at least materially – but not of having access to the spirit and meaning that love brings.
Reflecting further we comfortably see that it is natural to want to move up planes of existence – to have a better life for ourselves, for our children, and for future generations. Love entering through the eye of the heart does not seek to deny or diminish this natural inclination seemingly inherent within us; rather love works to illuminate the truth and wisdom that would enable – that would let us see – ways of making progress that would advance our humanness, and would increasingly honor and harmonize with the whole of life.
With love in our process and holding in our hearts the common aim, “to advance humanness… to enrich life – the life of the whole, and the whole of life on this earth,” the eye of the heart, reflecting on these five ethical guidelines, would seek to see their essentiality, wisdom, wholeness and systemic relatedness:
No occlusion to the “tuning” of the planetary life energy field.
On entering a territory, seek to understand and honor, rather than interfere with, the spiritual culture and other essential life processes.
Honor and understand the working of the life of the whole.
Pursue technology and approaches that enable community self determination and environmental amelioration.
Create processes that engender understanding and discourage divisiveness.
Ethical Guideline One
“No occlusion to the “tuning” of theplanetary life energy field.”
As we reflect on our experiencing – innerly experiencing – the planetary life energy fields of earth, we can with a bit of effort recreate – in the eye of our heart – the depth, the nature, and the significance of our tuning experience. We notice that as living human beings we can innerly organize ourselves in ways that we become truly receptive to that which is at work here. We can tune ourselves into the spirit and energy of the landscape before us… and more impressively this effort of ours brings about – within us – a tuning by the life energy field itself. The life energy field truly works on us, a phenomena recognized by the statements, “You go to the mountains to build your mind; you go to the ocean to soothe your soul.”
Reflection on our experience of tuning into and being tuned by life energy fields leads to the understanding of the necessity for being-to-being interactions. Such interactions are not only energizing, but through patient receptivity on our part, bring about an access and elevation of spirit that itself leads to a coalescence – a oneness, a wholeness – not only within oneself, but with the whole of the universe. There is a deep sense of connectedness, at times a diminishment of self, that leads to a true appreciation – an overwhelming sense of awe and wonder – and in that moment we gain a taste of what it means to be fully alive – to be fully present to our living human nature.
Whatever is at work as we tune into and are tuned by life energy fields is undoubtedly significant and obviously an intended aspect of our intended humanness… and whereas we may be the highest order form of life on earth, we can readily witness and observe the tuning capacity of our fellow creatures of life – the flora and fauna of the life energy field. It too is not only an aspect of their intended patterns and ways – their living nature – but an inherent process in the working of life itself, a process that produces a particularized living system relative to that planetary life energy field… a living system that is both produced and enhanced – in both vitality and viability – by particular structures.
Now we know from experience, that there are times when it is difficult, if not impossible, to innerly organize ourselves such that we can be receptive to tuning. Preoccupation of mind, hurriedness, inattentiveness, etc., all work to interfere with our tuning capacity. Likewise, what works innerly also works outerly. Structures and structuring can be present that interfere with our ability to tune into and be tuned by the life energy field. What is true for us is likely true for all of life’s creatures.
Finally we understand that we are people of earth – people who live within and occupy particular life energy fields. Tuning into and being tuned by a life energy field gives us access to the virtue and spirit of the field itself… a process that, we are beginning to see and understand, enables us to come together in ways previously not attainable.*
*See “Becoming; Right for the Heart… Good for the Whole,” Path of Potential, 2005, for understanding of what becomes possible when a community adopts the virtue of the land as their living philosophy.
Ethical Guideline Two
“On entering a territory, seek to understand and honor, rather than interfere with, the spiritual culture and other essential life processes.”
Life’s way is process… process that becomes more visible, more embraceable, through ebb and flow, cycles, cyclical patterns, and patterns within cycles. Culture is a process, a life process, an essential life process. It is the way of the people – the people’s way of living, way of working, way of worshipping, honoring, dignifying, celebrating, etc. Culture, when it is truly working, is in reality a living being. As such, it experiences all that is true for life. It struggles to survive, to sustain itself, to develop, to evolve… it struggles to become.
Behind the visible manifestations of life lies the life force – that which continues to bring life into existence, and works to sustain life’s course along the intended unfolding path. Once again, culture, like life, has that which lies behind its visible and embraceable elements – the systemic elements of values, rituals, totems, language, taboos, etc. Behind these visible elements of culture lies its essence, its virtue, its spirit – the particular manifestation of will entangled with love.
It is the active presence and manifestation of essence, virtue and spirit that are the ongoing source of what we have come to see as the spiritual culture of the people. Spiritual culture is the means by which the people can be and become that which they truly are… their way of being authentic throughout their journey. It is the way they stay connected to the Source of creation, their means of participating in the great unfolding, of taking on and fulfilling purposes… purposes that serve the whole of humanity, that work to advance our humanness along the intended path, and ultimately serve the whole of life. As such, interference, be it intentionally or unthinkingly caused, has consequences of significance to each and all – to each of humanity, and to all of life.
Ethical Guideline Three
“Honor and understand the working of the life of the whole.”
Life is about wholes; life always operates within and relative to particular wholes. These living wholes work to sustain their integrity by willfully sustaining their connection to their essence, their virtue, and their life purpose. It is within wholes that individuality is meaningfully manifested, and significance is realized.
Wholes provide for life a sort of boundedness, not a boundedness that would create a closed nature, but rather the nature of boundedness that brings about the orderliness and organizing necessary to carry out the intended work – the essential work, the purposeful work – of life within a particular whole. In the absence of the presence of such wholes, life cannot go about its work; life flounders, and access to the life force diminishes.
Seeking to honor the working of the life of the whole brings to the fore the notion of sustaining integrity – the necessity to ensure the actions taken do not violate or disenable wholeness and the capacity to bring about the orderliness and organizing required for life to carry out its work. This capacity has a component – a requirement – related to scale. Sufficient scale must be present to carry out the particular life’s work. A rain forest in our back yard, for example, would not be of sufficient scale to carry out the life work of the rain forest.
A second consideration in regards to honoring the working of the life of the whole relates to structures and structuring. There are structures that can naturally integrate into the working of the processes of life, and there are those that cannot. For those that cannot, we either need to refrain from creating or using them, or we need to generate methodologies whereby they are prevented from entering into the working of life’s processes. And in reality, even for those that can integrate naturally, there is most often, if not always, a need for thoughtful methodologies. With a bit of reflection we can see both the necessity for and the benefit of understanding the structuring that comes about as a result of the structures we create and introduce into living systems.
Honoring the working of the life of the whole also demands that we see and acknowledge the systemic nature of that which occurs within living wholes. Acting in accord with the reality that each element is related to and affects the working of the others is an inescapable requirement of honoring. “Touch one, you touch them all,” may be a useful phrase to remind us – to awaken us – to the necessity of honoring the working of the life of the whole, and of the consequences should we willfully or unknowingly choose to disregard it.
Ethical Guideline Four
“Pursue technology and approaches that enable community self determination and environmental amelioration.”
It is natural to want to move up planes of existence – to have a better life for ourselves, for our children, and for future generations. This natural inclination has been a significant force behind our use, pursuit and consumption of energy. In much the same pattern, this natural inclination is becoming a significant force for more and more people across the globe. The so-called thirst for energy is not diminishing, but increasing at significant rates, and is taking place in a world that exhibits characteristics of social/political instability and unpredictability. It is this uncertainty that has added a new dimension to the conversations and concerns regarding energy. “Securing energy” has been added to previous notions of “economics” and “environmentally friendly.” This latest dimension has brought with it a sense of urgency seemingly greater than that which accompanied previous (but still valid) concerns.
And so, as is our pattern relative to matters of existence, we look to technology to provide solutions to the energy issues before us, solutions which if they are to be ethically guided cannot be pursued in isolation from, but of necessity within, the context of the whole – the whole of humanity, the whole of life. Grounded in the current situation (ours and the world’s) as a reality before us, and holding the aim, “to advance humanness… to enrich life – the life of the whole, and the whole of life on earth,” we can, and by necessity will go forth. With a bit of thought we can see clearly that “stopping” or “putting a halt to” current human activity (tempting as it may be sometimes) is not a viable option. We can, however, go forth in increasingly ethical ways.
Bringing ethics and being ethical relative to our development and use of technology represents for all of us a true choice, a turning point… one that demands understanding beyond that which can be achieved through argumentation… a turning point, an imposed requirement if you like, that is lifted up by the ethical guideline: Pursue technology and approaches that enable community self determination and environmental amelioration.
Community self determination offers the possibility to manage existence in a way that is open to and along the path of our potential, the path of intentionality, the path along which we can advance our humanness – move toward becoming fully and truly human. As humanness advances, peace – a particular manifestation of love at work within and among earth’s people – becomes strengthened… and grows both in possibility and in realness of experience.
Environmental amelioration – bringing about an upward shift in our environmental state of being, an ongoing process of continuous improvement – takes us beyond just arresting entropy (run-down), and brings into play negentropy (run-up), which in turn results in actions that reflect a deeper, more wholistic, more systemic understanding… actions that reflect more consciousness, and more ableness for being conscientious. And as our work to enrich life – the life of the whole, and the whole of life – unfolds, harmony – the intended relationship between humankind, the community of life, the life processes of earth, and earth herself – also advances.
There is much hope in this turning point, this time of true choice, and in this shifting of patterns.
Ethical Guideline Five
“Create processes that engender understanding and discourage divisiveness.”
It is natural for a life species, a life community, a life system, to bring or impose particular demands – real requirements for continuing their existence and well being – on the processes of life. As human beings we have inherently within, a developable capacity to understand the life community members’ requirements, as well as to understand that which is required to sustain the vitality and viability of the processes of life, a capacity that is being called upon out of necessity – true need – for ourselves, for our children, for future generations, for the whole of life. This capacity is the very capacity required of us if we are to carry out a stewardship role upon and for earth, a role which cannot be filled as individuals, but rather as community… a community that can generate images of the wholes involved, the right and good – right for humanity, good for the whole of life – working of each whole and the systemic nature of its working… a community that can create a process that generates understanding.
It is through understanding that true reconciliation can be achieved… a reconciliation that can elevate both human demands and life demands, two phenomena that often seem to oppose one another… a reconciliation that can bring into reality actions that simultaneously advance humanness and enrich life – the life of the whole, and the whole of life on earth.
This nature of understanding comes about through reflection and reflective dialogue. True reflection does not lend itself to (or in reality tolerate) the energies of argument, the energies that serve to divide. For the work of reflective processes is to gain understanding through the building of imagery – imagery coming from and working to create wholeness, a wholeness from which one can discover one’s own role, one’s work, the work of the heart.
And so what is seemingly being called for now is to take the energies of argument – the energies that are required to sustain the presence of a particular perspective or viewpoint – and transform them into willful actions of integration… willfully and reflectively ensuring that the particular perspective – its essence, its valuable contribution – is woven into the tapestry of the whole, thus enabling the community to generate and have access to wholeness and completeness of thought… and out from this living synergy of wisdom and reason, truth and knowledge, wise choices and conscious and conscientious decisions can be made.
