Shiva the Hindu god of destruction is also known as Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance. Like yoga, dance induces trance, ecstasy and the experience of the divine.
The most common figures depict a four-armed Nataraja. These multiple arms represent the four cardinal directions. Each hand either holds an object or makes a specific mudra (gesture).
The upper right hand holds a hour-glass drum which is a symbol of creation. It is beating the pulse of the universe. The drum also provides the music that accompanies Nataraja’s dance.
The opposite hand, the upper left, bears on its palm a tongue of flames. Fire is the element of destruction of the world. It is also the symbol of passion.
The second right hand is held in the abhaya pose (without fear) and so a gesture of protection. It depicts the god as a protector.
The left leg is raised towards the right leg and reaches across it; the lower left hand is stretched across the body and points to the upraised left foot which represents release from the cycle of birth and death.
The hand pointing to the uplifted foot is held in a pose imitative of the outstretched trunk of an elephant. In Sanskrit this is known as the ’gaja-hasta-mudra’ (the posture of the elephant trunk), and is symbolic of Ganesha, Shiva’s son, the Remover of Obstacles.
Nataraja dances on the body of a dwarf apasmara-purusha, the man of forgetfulness, who embodies indifference, ignorance and laziness.
Creation is possible only when the weight of inertia is overcome and suppressed. The Nataraja image thus addresses each individual to overcome complacency and get his or her own act together.
The ring of fire and light, which circumscribes the entire image, identifies the field of the dance with the entire universe. The lotus pedestal on which the image rests locates this universe in the heart or consciousness of each person.
The hands of Shiva represent the Human Faculties of the Imagination (Creation, Spirit, Vishnu), Control (Destruction, Thinking, Compression, Shiva), Desire (Agni, Fire, Sensing &Acting, Expansion) and the Emotions (Soul, Ganesha, Motivation, Removing Obstacles).
Imagination
Humans need the “Illusion of Control” to sustain their Identity. Deep within they don’t want to believe that Other Human Beings or the Forces of Nature (“the Acts of God“) are also Active Agents.
The Imagination creates the Identity, the believe that I Am What I Am.
When we are in Deep Meditation, the Observer, the Consciousness, is able to watch the constant popping up of Images (Ideas) out of the Nothing.
If we are not able to keep the Observer-state, we move into the Sleep of the Darkness or our Senses are attracted by one of the Images and move into the Dream State.
According to Buddist belief the Dream State, (Maya, Not-That) is Not the Real Word. This world is hidden behind a veil. Behind the veil lies the Void.
The Void is not empty. It is comparable to the Zero-Point-Field, the state of the Universe before the Big Bang. In this state everything, even the impossible, is possible.
In the Void, Ideas of the First Creator (Brahman) Pop-Up, Move into Existence for a while and finally disappear.
For a very long time Brahman was in deep meditation until one of the Ideas of Brahman created a Huge Excitement. This was the Idea to become Aware of Itself.
To make this happen Brahman had to spit itself into two parts, the Observer (Being, Consciousness) and the Actor (Becoming, Desire, Acting).
Maya, the Material World, the Expanding Universe, was created when the Desire to become Aware generated the first Split of the Universe, the split between the Void and the Not-Void, the Whole.
At this moment the Left Brain and the Right Brain of Brahman are fusing and soon we all will experience the Whole which is not the Void. The Void will stay a Mystery for Ever and Ever.
Motivation
Ganesha rides a mouse, the symbol of mankind’s ignorance, his hidden fears and insecurities and his deep attachment to petty worldly objects.
By riding on the mouse, Ganesha shows that one can and must control and overcome all negative feelings. One can be the master of oneself and need not be a slave.
The head of Ganesha, the Elephant, symbolizes the Atman, the Soul and his human body signifies Maya.
Our “Head” or better our Soul is connected to the Void, but our Body is an Expression of the Non-Void.
Our Body is part of the Material World and has to obey the Rules of the Material World.
Ganesha represents the Emotions, the Motivation, the Rotation, that started when Maya started to expand. When an Elephant is In Motion it is able to remove all obstacles.
An Elephant is Part of a Herd that needs a Shephard (Vishnu, the Imagination) to find Its Way.
When an Idea pops up in the Imagination it moves the Wheel of the Emotions and the Body want to realize the Idea in the Material World.
Desire
Agni brings about growth, expansion, ascension, and transformation. It is the fire hidden in earthly things which rises out of them to heaven beyond.
Fire is the symbol of agni. The quality of fire is to spread itself. Because it spreads itself in every direction, it is present everywhere. Even though it spreads in all directions its motion is always upwards. It carries everything that it consumes and purifies, upwards.
If the motivation to realize the idea is there, the Fire of Agni is lighted and the Human becomes passionated.
If you are not able to control your passions you will become Addicted to the idea and the idea will never be realized.
Control
Shiva is the Destroyer. He wants to bring everything back to the void. The Fire of Agni is able to expand the orginal idea to exceptional proportions.
At a certain moment Shiva stops the Fire and takes over Control. The idea is simplified, put into a plan and is finally on its way to the Material World.
The Cycle Moves On
But the Creative Energy is already busy to generate new Ideas. If this happens, the orginal plan is adapted and adapted (“scope creap“) and will never be realized.
Sometimes You want to do the Good Thing and the result is a Bad Thing.
Sometimes You start an Activity with a Good Intention but the Activity runs completely Out of Hand because You were unable to Predict all the effects.
Sometimes you discover that you have started a Chain of Activities with a good intention and the Result of the Chain is Bad.
Good and Bad are Context Dependent.
Look at this little Story:
A Chinese farmer awoke one morning to find a horse grazing in one of his fields. Since nobody came to claim the horse, the farmer used it to plow his uncultivated land. “What a good this horse is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer. Soon after, the farmer’s 18-year-old son was riding the horse when it shied at a snake. The youth fell off and broke his leg. “What an evil this is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer. Soon after, the warlord’s agents combed the village, conscripting young men for his army. Because of his broken leg, the farmer’s son was not taken. “What a good this is for you,” said his neighbor. “We’ll see,” said the farmer.
About the Golden Rule of Ethics
The big problem is that we attach a Value to the Intentions or the Consequences of an Activity and this Value has just two Names named: “Good” or “Bad“.
When the E-Valuation is “Good” we Feel Good. When the E-Valuation is “Bad” we feel Anger, Sadness, Guilty, Depressed or Worse. The Names of the Evaluation trigger the Emotions Deeply.
Most of the time we feel Guilty without any need to feel Guilty because we are not in Control of Everything that Happens.
The Ego, our Identity, is not able to stand the Lack of Control it has on the Outside World.
Humans need the “Illusion of Control” to sustain their Identity. Deep within they don’t want to believe that Other Human Beings or the Forces of Nature (“the Acts of God“) are also Active Agents.
The Science that is trying to define the Good and the Bad is called Ethics.
Ethics is the Philosophical Study of “the Moral Value of Human Conduct and of the Rules and Principles that ought to govern it” or “the principles concerning the distinction between Right and Wrong or Good and Bad Behavior’
The most important Rule of Ethics is the so called Golden Rule : ” We should do to others what we would want others to do to us” or “do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you“.
The Golden Rule of Empathy and Forgiving is the most important Ethical Rule in many Cultures all around the World.
The Golden Rule uses the Principle of Self-Reference. Something is Applied on Itself.
When we apply the Principle of Self-Reference to the Bad, we move into the Domain of LadyJustice.
About Justice and Revenge
When Bad People don’t want to use the Good Golden Rule some cultures use the Rule “An Eye for an Eye” (Revenge) to do Justice to the Bad Ones. When you do Bad to a Person, the Bad Behavior is Applied to Yourself. “Eye for an eye” is used to make Bad People Aware of the Good Golden Rule.
The interesting point is that the combination of the Golden Rule and the “Eye for an Eye“-Rule (called Tit-for-Tat) is the best way to solve the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma, a Chain of Conflicts.
Strangely enough The Good (now called Cooperation) is Accomplished when you just Imitate the Behavior of the Others.
There is One (fatal) Exception to the Strategy of Tit-for-Tat. If you want to operate On Your Own and You think You don’t need the Others to Survive the best Way to Operate is to Betray Every Body. Bad Behavior provides you with a Huge Economic Win but also with a Huge Social Loss.
When you Betray the others, You have To Protect Yourself for the Revenge of the Others.
To Compensate your Social Loss You have to Buy the Others (Lawyers, Mercanaries, ) or (worse) you have to Force the Others with Violence to Cooperate with You. In the first Case you lose a lot of Money and in the last case the Amount of Revenge increases exponentially.
To Survive you always have to Balance the Social (“the Other“) and the Economic (“the Ego“). The “easy way’ is to do the Good and the “difficult way” is to do the Bad.
Cooperation is a highly Effective and Efficient Method to accomplish the Good for Your Self and the Others because Good Behavior attracts Good Behavior and Bad Behavior attracts Bad Behavior.
About the Seven Virtues.
To do Good or to do Justice you have to Apply the Same to the Same because The Same Attracts the Same.
The Same not only Attracts the Same. The Same Repels the Not-the-Same.
The Same Law: “Look-A-Likes Like Each Other and Repel the Organisms that are not looking alike” (called Genetic Similarity Theory) also explains Evolution. This rule was detected by Charles Darwin when he wanted to explain the huge amount of Cooperation in Nature.
When you Apply the Same to the Same (Self-Reference) it generates a Fractal Structure in which the Same Structure Repeats Itself on Every Level (“As Above, So Below“).
It Looks Like there is a Universal Moral Law that explains Behavior on Every Level of the Universe.
Some Scientists believe the Moral Laws are Eternal Truths. This believe has a long History that goes back to Ancient Rome (Cicero), Ancient Greece (Plato, Socrate) and Ancient Egypt (Ma’at).
During the Renaissance (“Rebirth“) the Moral Principles of Rome, Greece, and Egypt were reborn and transformed into Moral Systems based on the Four (Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude) or the Seven Virtues (The Four Virtues & Faith, Hope and Love).
When you understand and apply the Universal Moral Laws you use the Virtue of Prudence (Wisdom, Knowledge). To Apply the Golden Lesson you need to have Courage and a Strong Will, the Virtue of Fortitude. When you keep the three Virtues (Wisdom, Justice and Will) in the right Balance you are practising the virtue of Temperance.
They last three virtues are derived out of the First Letter to the Corinthians written by Paul:
“If I speak in the tonguesof men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”.
About the Temperance of Ma’at
Ma’at (later named Sophia ) was one of the (3×3) Nine Egyptian Neteru . She represented the Virtues of Truth, Balance, Justice, and Order. Just like Lady Justice she uses a Scale.
The dead person’s Heart was placed on the scale, balanced by the Feather of Ma’at. If the Heart weighed the same as the Feather of Ma’at, the deceased was allowed to go on to the Eternal Afterlife and gained Immortality (Heaven).
If the deceased had been found not to have followed the concept of Ma’at during his life (if he had lied or cheated or killed or revenged) his heart was devoured by a demon and he died the final death and was Reincarnated (Hell).
The Human, the Talking Baboon, had to start all over again to Learn and Apply the most important Golden Lesson of the Universe.
The way of Ma’at was to Act out of the Center of Conscioussness, the Heart. Acting out of the Heart is called the Virtue of Love.
Ma’at was also the God of Balance, Rythm and the Cycles. The Good and the not-Good moved the Cycles of the Universe.
The Good and the not-Good came out of the Same Source, the Void, the Sekhem, the Source of Infinite Potential and Love.
About the Trinity of the Mind
In the Eastern (Gnostic, Egyptian, Indian, African, Mystic) Believe System the Good and the Bad are both created by the Demiurg (or the Logos, “In the beginning was the Word and Word was God“) one of the Creations of the Void. The Void exists outside our Level of Existence. The Void is a Mystery.
The Good and the not-Good, the Bad, are Complementary Opponents. Their Union is the Whole. They Share the Void, the Empty Set. The Empty Set contains Everything that is Impossible.
The Good and the Bad Move the Cycles of the Universe. They represent the E-Motions (Expansion (Desire, Creation) and Contraction (Control, Destruction)) of the Void.
The Good and the Bad Cooperate by Competing to bring the Lonely Souls back to the Void.
The Good, the Creator, and the Bad, the Destructor, are Two Faces of the Same Entity, the Spiritual Trinity, who came out of the Nothing.
The connection with the Void can be found in the Middle (the Golden Mean) of the Body, the Heart, the Link between the Triangel of the Material World (the Body) and the Triangel of the Spiritual World (The Mind).
The Heart, the connection with the Void, is the Seat of Consciousness. It is also the Seat of the Emotions (Soul).
When the Heart Weights like a Feather, the Upper (Mind) and the Lower Trinity (the Body) connected by the Emotions are in Balance.
The Bad and the Good are Attractors. When the Attraction becomes too High you get Addicted to the Bad or the Good. A huge Expansion is compensated by a huge Contraction to Balance the Cycle. When you want to avoid the Pain of Contraction you have to Balance your Life.
The Two Triangels with the Heart in the Middle are the Same As the Seven Chakra’s (2×3+1) and the Seven Virtues of the Renaissance.
The Seven Chakra’s together with the Spiritual Trinity are Similar to the Tree of Life, The Egyptian Pesedjet/Neteru and the Jewish Sephirot (3×3+1).
About the Trinity of the Body
When Body and Mind are in Balance, the Ideas of the Spiritual Trinity are received by the Trinity of the Mind and are Implemented by the Trinity of the Material Body in the Material World (Earth).
When the Mind is not connected to the Body and the Spirit, the Ideas become Abstractions (only Words) or the Impulses of the Desire of the Body Takes over Control.
When the Mind is not connected to the Spirit Innovation stops and Old Ideas (the Seeds) Repeat Themselves All the Time. The Human becomes a Machine Caught in the Wheel of the Good and the Bad.
The One, the Spiritual Trinity, who is The Void, the Good (the Creator) and the Bad (the Destructor), uses the Strategy of Tit-for-Tat, the Trickster.
The Trinity Imitates the Behavior of the Humans or We the Humans Copy their Behavior (“We are made in the Image of God“)!
The One wants to make the Humans Aware of the Fact that the only way to Survive the Infinite Chain of Conflicts (Dilemma’s, Contradictions), which is Life, is to Cooperate (Live out of the Heart) with the Infinite Potential, the God of Love.
About Destruction
The Golden Rule of Ethics tries to avoid the Negative Emotions, the Emotions of Loss. It wants to Create a situation were Everybody is Happy.
The Golden Rule of Ethics helps a lot to Evaluate our Intentions and the Consequences of our Intentions but the effect of our Collective Actions on the Bigger Structures is almost Unpredictable.
It would help a lot if we could Expand our View from the Emotional Human Other to “all the Other Life-Forms” that are in Existence.
In this case we have to Understand the Effects of our Behavior on the Negative Emotions of the Bacteria, the Plants, the Animals, Earth and even the Universe.
It is not clear if our Emphatic System is able to Imagine the Inner World of the other Life Forms.
If the Act of Destruction is felt the same by all these Organisms it will be simply impossible to Live.
We have to Destroy Others to stay Alive.
The Universe Destroys to Stay Alive.
The Destruction of the Old is needed to Create the New.
At this moment we are confronted with a World-Wide Crisis on many Levels of Existence. The Collective Behavior of the Human Race is Destroying our Environment.
The Collective Desire to Create and Expand has reached the Limits of the System we Live in.
It is almost impossible to Control this Expansion. The Control Systems have also reached their Limits.
The Two Complementary Forces, The Good and the Bad, Expansion and Contraction, Desire and Control, have both reached their Outer Limits.
If they both reach the Limits the Expanding Balloon of our Outer Universe will Explode in Itself (Implode) and move through the Void to another State. There is Simply no Space Left to Expand.
If this happens the Expansion of the Outer World will be Transformed into an Expansion of the Inner World.
The Big Bang, the Big Explosion, the Sublime Act of Creation, will Repeat itself and the Big Implosion will Create a New Universe.
About Not-Acting
Wu Wei (Not Acting, Acting without Effort) is an important concept of Taoism.
When you want to apply this concept you have to Know Everything There is to Know about the Cycles and the Forces of Nature. Wu Wei is only possible when you have aquired the Knowledge and the Wisdom of Ma’at/Sophia.
Most of the Time the Power of the Cycle is so Strong that it is impossible for Us to influence the Flow of Time.
Sometimes on a Rare Moment on a Special Place the Cycles can be Influenced.
Only at that Special Magic Moment the Human is able to do the Good or the Bad.
At all the other Moments History Takes its Course. The Good and Bad Forces, the Acts of God, Act without our Consent on the Higher Levels of Our Universe. It is a Waste of Time and Energy to Oppose these Forces.
Most of the Time we are Pushed by the Forces of Nature. We Act without Effort.
In Ancients Times the Forces were called Gods, Angels or Devils. At this moment we Name these Forces with Different Names (Gravity, the Strong and Weak Force and the Electro-Magnetic Force) but the Effect of the Forces on our Field of Existence stays the Same.
At a Magic Moment Everything, even the Impossible, is Possible. At such a moment we are “in Tune with” the Empty Set, the Void, the Sekhem, the Tao, the Field, the Love, the Mystery, the Unspoken.
The Emotions of Loss are created when we Lose Something.
If you Own Nothing You have Nothing to Lose.
If you Expect Nothing, Every Thing will Happen.
When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created. When people see things as good, evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other. Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other. Fore and aft follow each other.
Therefore the Master can act without doing anything and teach without saying a word. Things come her way and she does not stop them; things leave and she lets them go. She has without possessing, and acts without any expectations. When her work is done, she takes no credit. That is why it will last forever.
Many people believe that the theory of Evolution is based on the concept of competition. They believe that every gene, every cell, and every organism is designed to promote its own evolutionary success at the expense of others.
The big problem with this concept is that it does not explain the enormous amount of cooperation that is visible in Nature.
Atoms cooperate in Molecules. Molecules cooperate in Genes. Genes cooperate in Chromosomes. Chromosomes cooperate in eukaryoticcells. Cells cooperate in Multicellular Organisms. Multi Cellular Organisms cooperate in Humans. Humans cooperate in Families and Tribes and Families and Tribes cooperate in Organizations and Nations.
The question of how natural selectioncan lead to cooperative behavior or reciprocal altruism has fascinated evolutionarybiologists for several decades.
When Charles Darwin was writing his famous book the Descent of Man (1871) he was already highly puzzled by the social structures of the ants. Their cooperative behavior was “one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to my theory”.
To solve his problem Darwin proposed that in the case of ant societies natural selection applies not to the individual, but to the family or group. The ants were part of a “Super-Organism”, that consists of genetically similar individuals.
Although many individuals showed altruistic behavior in the group the “genetic code” was replicated because the individuals in the group were all “look alikes”. The Ants were “the Same” (Similar) and therefore every Ant that survived promoted the Genes of the Community.
To explain his theory Darwin wrote ‘sympathy is directed solely towards members of the same community, and therefore towards known, and more or less loved members, but not all the individuals of the same species’.
For humans, both Spouses and best Friends are most similar on attributes with higher heritability. People join clubs and societies that contain similar people and adopt ideologies that work in their genetic selfinterest. Genetic similarity also explains voting behaviour.
The Human Detection Center of Genetic Similarity is situated in the amygdala a part of the Limbic Brain System that is involved in Fear and Arousal. The Amygdala activates the Sympathetic Nervous System responsible for the fight/flight-response of the Body. It prepares the body to get into action.
The recognition of another person depends on a long series of fast electrophysiological and slow biochemical reactions to the stimuli particular to that person or situation. These stimuli include seeing the other person’s face, hearing his voice, feeling his touch, and smelling his personal odors.
The reaction patterns of Humans to a fearfull situation are different. Some people, the Hawks, re-act very fast. They Fight and Compete. Some people, the Doves, re-act very slow. They Freeze, Flight or Cooperate.
To find the appropriate reaction-pattern every one of our senses works hard to identify “the other” or “the others“. The detection of “dangerous others” has to happen very fast. This is the task of the electrophysiological pathways.
A fast detection is unreliable therefore a second “slow” cognitive pathway is started. In the cortex the frightening stimulus is analyzed in detail, using stored information from many parts of the brain, and a message is sent back down to the amygdala.
To detect stimuli that are really dangerous the amygdala uses a memory. This memory contains learned and inherited, imprinted, situations. The imprinted situations are highly related to the detection of genetic similarity.
If an animal or a human is frequently attacked the memory contains many Painfull Situations and the amygdala reacts more specific to a situation. The older a person gets the more difficult it becomes to erase this memory.
If people or animals are unable to make a distinction between their Own Whole and the Whole of the Others it will result in a Blurring of the Identity. The Whole of the Observer Merges or Overlaps with the Whole of the Observed. If this happens people act in a “friendly“, Emphatic, mode and experience others as more “the same” than others do.
A Cooperative Strategy is highly related to the possibility of the Cognitive Part of the Human Detection-System to Move into the Other and Imagine what will Happen. The Hawks lack the ability to Imagine.
The most interesting concept that came out of Darwins Group Selection Theory is the Idea of the Super-Organism.
This Super Organism shows itself in many ways. Examples are the Family, the Tribe, Society and the Earth.
There is a similarity between the roles played by different organizations in Society and the functions of organs, systems and circuits in the body.
Industrial plants extract energy and building blocks from raw materials, just like the digestive system. Roads, railways and waterways transport these products from one part of the system to another one, just like the arteries and veins. Garbage dumps and sewage systems collect waste products, just like the colon and the bladder. The army and police protect the society against invaders and rogue elements, just like the immune system.
If we take the concept of the Super Organism a little bit further we could imagine the Super-Super-Super-Organism that contains all the other Organisms. In some way every Organism is Genetically Similar (“the Same“) to this Organism.
If this is true and the Theory of Group Selection is Right every Organism is an enfolding of the “Architecture of the Whole”, the Tree of Life, and a Majority of the Organisms (the Doves) will have an Altruistic Tendency to this Super-Organism.
The Doves Love, want to Unite With, the Whole and the Hawks dislike the Whole because they want to be a Whole themselves.
Some Scientists call the Super Organism, Gaia, Mother Earth, but there is no reason why we should not include the Bigger Structures in the Universe until we have reached the Boundary.
On every Level the Same Pattern appears.
On every level the Whole is splitted into Individual Parts. The parts live a Life of their own (Agency). When we Move UP the Parts are United (Communion) into a Bigger Structure.
When we look DOWN we interpret the proces of Splitting as a Competition. When we look UP we see a different pattern we Name “Cooperation“.
If we look at the history of the splitting process it looks like the wholes were splitted without any reason. It just happened. If we believe this Evolution is based on pure chance. Life is just a coincedence.
When we analyze the process of Evolution a Pattern emerges. This pattern is Cyclic, Leveled and Self-Referential. The process is almost invisible because with every Name we Utter we carve out a portion of the world and create a Boundary.
Every Time we Divide the World with Words the World becomes more complicated. Every New Concept that is not created without a View on the Pattern of the Whole generates a higher level of Confusion and increases the Complexity of Something that is really very Simple.
We create distinctions between Animals and Humans, Humans and Plants because the Hawkish Genes Want Us to Believe We Are Something Special.
Because of their Special Status the Hawks treat their fellow organisms in a very brutal way. They Exploit (Desire) them because of their Need to Control their Environment. They want to Control their Environment because they are Afraid to lose Control. They are Afraid that their Identity (Their Ego, Their Agency, Their Whole) will disappear when they Commune with the Whole.
The Effect of the Behavior of the Hawks is the Destruction of the Environment that they Fear so Much. They are destroying their own Mother Earth who is certainly one of the Super Organisms that gave birth to the many wholes that are just there to Enjoy her Care.
The big problem we have is Naming. What we don’t see or don’t want to see is that every Split is a Split in two Opposite Complementary Parts (Yin/not-Yin= Yang, Male/not-Male = Female, Cooperate/not-Cooperate = Compete) that Share the Void, the Empty Set, the State the Universe was in before it was created.
On every level the Nothing, the State of Infinite Potential and Love, is still there but it is hidden because we started to use Words, to describe what meant to be an Experience.
This brings us to the final conclusion.
The big problem that is treatening Mother Earth is Hawkish Behavior. In the long term this kind of behavior is not helping the Human Gene at all. It not only destroys the Human Gene. It destroys the complete group of genetic “Look-a-Likes” of the Human Gene.
Darwin was Right.
Altruistic Behavior, Cooperation, is the Only Way for the (Human) Genes to Survive.
Let us Help the Hawks to Erase their Fearfull Memories.
A model of a model is called a meta-model. Meta-models are made to increase the efficiency of the software-development process. You can go on with the creation of models-of-models (a meta-meta-model).
If there is nothing to stop you to model the model there is something wrong with the modeling approach.
When you are modeling you are compressing data. When you compress data the amount of data is reduced. A compression of a compression amounts to less data so there must be an end to the process of meta-modeling.
The counterpart of Compression is Expansion. When you have used a valid meta-modeling approach the meta-model has to expand to the original model without losing data.
When you want to make a meta-model you can model a static (a database) or a dynamic model (a process). Most of the meta-models of dynamic models are static models. They are stored in a database (dictionary, repository). The process of meta-modeling has the tendency to freeze the dynamics of a dynamic model.
A database is a combination of a storage-system and a software-program that stores and retrieves the data at the right place. A storage-system is also a software-program connected to a rotating device, a disk-drive, which is also managed by a software-program.
In reality every thing moves. Meta-Modeling splits a Dynamic System in a Database (a Datamodel) and Software (a Process) to Apply the Meta-Model. The Software is used to Expand the Compression of the Dynamic Model.
If you want to evaluate the efficiency of a meta-modeling approach you have look at the efficiency of the compression and the expansion of the data and the process.
When everything is a process, a method is a dynamic meta-model of a process. The meta-model of a method, a meta-meta-process, is a summary of the method. If you are not able to use the summary something is wrong with the method. If the summary is sufficient the real method is too complex.
The only way to create an efficient and reliable meta-model of a process is to find the self-similarity of the process. A self-reference, a fractal, of a process always contains less data and it is possible to enfold the fractal to a lower level without losing data.
If you use the fractal approach meta-meta-meta-….modeling is not needed because a fractal meta-model contains two parts, the fractal and the program to expand or compress the fractal to a lower or higher level.
Fractal compression and expansion is very successful in the area of image processing and textual summaries.
Is it possible to find the meta-model fractal?
The big problem is language. We express our reality in language and our current language is heavily distorted. It contains many interrelated overlapping layers.
If we use the language that is produced to describe processes we will perhaps be able to summarize, find the essence of the text, but we are never sure the text contains the real processes.
The solution to this problem is to observe processes and make a picture. If we Observe processes, look with the Eyes, we are producing Images. Fractal compression is able to compress these images.
How about the Ancient Scientists?
The ancient scientists were aware of the divine fractal. In my blog “About the Whole and the Parts” I use the Ternary Numbers or the Trinity to define a Meta-Model. The model starts with the Dynamic Whole and is expanded until it has replicated itself.
Interesting enough the theory behind fractal compression uses iterated functions based on the so called Sierpinski Gasket to detect fractals. The Sierpinski Gasket is an expansion of Triangles in Triangles. It is used to simulate DNA, a Biological Meta-Model and other “natural” structures
What happened?
The first expansion: Ø → 0. The Void, the Infinite Potential, transformed into the Nothing.
The second expansion: 0 →(-1,0,1). The nothing expanded in a negative and a positive part. The sum of the expansion is still zero. This is the principle of voiding. Every part that is created needs a counter-part that is it’s opposite (Part ∩ Counterpart = Ø). Every Expansion is compensated with the same Compression. When we divide a Whole we always have to make a “clear” cut (no overlap).
The third expansion: (-1,0,1) → (-2,-1,0),(0), (0,1,2). This is the creation of the Four Forces with the Void, the Zero (now the Fifth, Quintessence), in the Middle. Two of the Four Forces are the Same Forces that were formed in the Second Expansion. They could be called Expanding Expansion (Desire) and Compressing Compression (Control). The other two combinations are Expanding Compression and Compressing Expansion. Most of the time they are called Spirit (Creating) and Soul (Connecting). In the third expansion the Divine Fractal has expanded in Itself. That’s why we, the Humans, are created in the Image of God, the Creator.
Is it possible to transform the “divine” metamodel into a “normal” metamodel?
The whole problem comes down to language again. Are we able to translate the numbers into the Right Words? Let’s have a try.
0 or 5 are mostly called consciousness or the observer. In the terminology of IT 0 or 5 could be called a Monitor. The Monitor has to take care that every part has a counter-part.
1 and -1 are called Control and Desire. In terms of IT they could be called Rules and Sensors. The Sensors and the Rules are opposites. The Facts of the Sensors always fight the Structures (Methods, Systems, Programs) of the Rule-System. The conflict between Facts and Rules (Testing the Model) is the basic conflict behind every Scientific Approach.
-2 and +2 are called the Creator, the Imagination (Ideas) and the Emotions (Social Relationships). They represent the Possibility (in terms of new combinations of the existing Parts) to Enfold the model to a New level and the Role of the Human, the Actor, in the Game (defined by the Rules) that the Controller is playing with the Sensors. The Creator and the Emotions are also opposites. The Creator Splits and the Emotions Merge.
What is the fractal?
The Fractal is a Spiraling Spiral that moves Three Cycles Up and Three Cycles Down and rests in the Middle (the Seventh Day).
In the Cycle the Controller, the Sensors, Spirit and Soul are connected in Twelve possible ways.
Sometimes Spirit & Soul and Control & Desire void each other. It this case the Spiral moves back to the Void.
When Soul, Spirit and Desire (The Mother), the Female Trinity, are connected the Spiral Expands.
When Soul, Spirit and Control (The Father), the Male Trinity are connected the Spiral Compresses.
Spirit moves the Spiral Up and starts a new Level of Awareness.
Soul moves the Spiral Down to an existing Level of Communion.
The Divine Rule, the Golden Mean, the principle of Harmony, controls the Trinities of the Golden Spiral, to make sure that the spiraling spiral always voids itself in the end and returns to the Beginning.
A few years ago (2003) somebody asked me to address the Dutch IT Architecture Congress. The subject was the Human Measure. To understand the Human Measure you have understand the relationship between the Human Being and The Human Measure System, The Emotions.
At that time I was already highly influenced by Will McWhinney so I used his model of the Four Worldviews to describe the Human. Later I discovered a Fifth Worldview (Consciousness) that was hidden in his teachings.
The consciousness is the monitor of the Whole of the Human Being. It reflects about the behavior of the parts and takes action when the Whole is not in Balance (Stressed).
According to Will McWhinney the Human can be described by The Emotions (Values), The Imagination (Ideas), The Senses (Desire, Facts) and the Expectation (Control, Rules).
The Four parts can be combined in six (or twelve = 4x3x2) Games. A Game is a strategy to solve the Conflict between the Four Independent Parts.
To me it is very clear that IT is focused on the combination Expectation/Senses. This combination is called the Analytical Game. It solves the Conflict between Facts and Rules. Will showed that this game was the dominating game in Western Culture.
In the Analytical Game the Emotions, the Consciousness and the Imagination are not important. In the Analytical Game you want to find the Absolute Truth, The Rules of the Game, by Analyzing the Facts sensed by the Eyes.
When you want to understand the Emotions you have to look at “emotional” Psychology. When you start to study “emotional” psychology the “box of Pandora” of Psychology opens up. Psychology is not a science like Mathematics or Physics. Everybody has his own theory about Emotions and everybody is defending his own “territory”. Psychology is simply a scientific mess.
One of the most helpful scientists (a friend of Will) was Rodney Cotterill. Cotteril analyzed the evolution of the Sensory-Motor System of every Organism on Earth. The Sensory-Motor System is an Interaction between the Emotions, the Motor, and the Senses.
The bacteria is drifting around, explores an inhomogeneous environment that contains all kinds of chemical structures. Some of these structures are destructive, some of them are neutral and some of them are attractive (food). When the bacteria finds (senses) food his rotator (the flagellum) moves the bacteria in a circular motion. The circular motion of the bacteria is preserved for a short time and this preservation could be called memory
The emotions are aimed at the survival of the human being. They Explore environments to find something that helps them to survive and Avoid destructive environments. When Humans have found an Attractive environment they Stay there and Store the data about the environment in their Memory. Humans are Moving Memories (E-motion means movement!).
According to Rodney Cotterill the Emotions are the basic structure, the infrastructure, of an organism. All the other structures are specializations of one of the parts (the Sensors, the Calculator (Imagination, Expectation)) of the Emotional Infrastructure.
IT is highly focused on Sensors and Calculators (the Senses and the Expectation). IT has no idea what to do with the Emotions, the E-Value-ator, the basic Measurement System of the Human Being. The main objective of the Evaluator is to find Food and to stay Alive.
The Human Imagination has created many “abstractions” of Food and Secure Environments. They are all stored in the Memory as Symbols and Metaphors but it is not difficult to define what Humans don’t like. They don’t like the same thing IT-experts don’t like. IT-experts want to be Valued. They don’t want to be Dominated. They demand the freedom to Express their Creativity. They don’t want to play a role in a Play that was Designed by somebody else.
IT-experts love to play the Analytical Game. In this Game the Humans, called the Users play the role of the Object, the reusable Module, that has to do its Job. In the Analytic Game Users don’t have Emotions and Imagination. They have to Eat the Food that grew out of The Seeds of the Imagination of the Architect.
What is the Human Measure?
The basic measure of the Human Being is related to everything that gives him or her a feeling, an Emotion, of Security. The Human Value-System, the Emotions, is always looking for Shelter, Protection and Love. Humans Beings need other Human Beings to tell and show them that they are Value-able.
If the Human Being has an Expectation this Expectation has to be realized in the near Future.
When the Emotions of the Human Being are Dominated it wants to move away from his environment because a dominating environment could be Destructive. When something or somebody is Dominating a Human Being he/she feels worthless.
If the Imagination of the Human Being experiences No Change, (Highly Repeating Actions) it wants to Explore a new Environment.
If the Senses experience Too Much Change the Human Being becomes Confused. When you are Confused your Expectation fails and the Human starts to drift around just like the bacteria.
If the Human Being is not Conscious (Aware, Focused) it is unable to Reflect. If the Human Being is not Aware he is unable to Balance the Emotions, the Imagination, The Expectation and the Senses. If there is no balance the Body becomes Stressed. A Stressed Body slowly kills the Immune System. An Unbalanced Immune System is the Cause of many Diseases.
What is IT Doing?
IT is still creating Dominating, Always Changing, Insecure and Confusing Software.
IT is not automating the repeating activities Humans don’t like. IT is producing highly disconnected software-systems.
IT is not helping the Humans to makes senses of the complexity of the Outside World. IT is increasing the Complexity of the Environment.
IT is not supporting the Human to explore its environment. IT is shielding the outside environment and is creating an artificial outside environment. Many people believe the Imaginary World is the Real World. The most destructive artificial worlds are the Destructive Computer Games. They give the Player the Believe that Killing People is no problem at all. The destructive Games are the Games of the Military. They kill people by looking at simulators and pushing buttons.
IT is Playing the Same Game using Different Terminology all the time. If you understand the transformation of the terminology the Game is Boring. If you don’t understand the terminology the Game is Confusing. If you Mix the Terminology the Game is too Complex to Play. Almost nobody knows the Rules so many People make mistakes, believe they win the Game but in reality lose the Game.
What to do?
Perhaps somebody is able to Invent a New Game.
I have an Idea.
Why don’t we create a Game that Creates Games? According to the Theory of Will this Game is called the Game of Culture. It solves the conflict between The Imagination (The Creator) and the Emotions (The Mover). When the Mover is Inspired by the Creator the Sensory/Motor-System starts to Act with Spirit (Imagination) and Soul (Emotions). In terms of Emotional Psychology: The Human becomes Highly Moti-vated!
If we look at the theory of Will we now can see that the Analytical Game is the Complement of the Game of Culture.
If we Unite the two Games, the Games of the West and the Games of the East, we are able to connect all the parts of the Human Being in a Cycle, the Cycle of Human Innovation.
Economic Cycles move Up and Down. We are now in a Down-state, a Recession. To stimulate consumers the Central Banks lower the interest and are pumping a tremendous amount of money into the economy.
Pumping money generates inflation and when inflation happens prices start to rise again. What the economist wants to avoid is deflation.
When prices rise people will buy goods and invest money. When the prices go up you can make a profit. When prices rise you have to buy the goods on the short term because they will be much more expensive in the future. When consumers believe the economy will contract they will start to save money to cope with the problems they believe they will encounter in the future. They will also postpone the buying of (luxury) goods. When they postpone producers will lower their prices and when prices are lowered other prices will be lowered. This is called Deflation and Economists are terribly afraid Deflation will happen.
A state of contraction is just like a state of expansion highly related to Expectations and Expectations are a Self-Fulfilling Prophesy. If the self-fulfilling prophesy of a down-fall is not broken the economy will shrink until eternity. To motivate consumers to believe in an Expanding Economy Economists tell scientific fairy-tales hoping people will start to believe things are going the right way again.
Social scientists know for a long time that the majority of the people are not rational at all. Humans act on impulse and explain their behavior later. Humans believe others who believe others who believe others. Most of the things that are happening in the Economy are very complex and we need a simple explanation of a trusted expert. At this moment there is one thing everybody believes. Things are going in the wrong direction and One Thing is for Sure.
Bad news travel very fast.
The current state of technology has speeded up the transport of bad news to almost the speed of light. The contraction of the current economy moves much faster than the comparable contraction during the Great Depression.
The economy is controlled by two variables, Production and Consumption.
In a balanced economy the two variables are voided. The consumer destroys (consumes, eats) the products of the producer. The destruction of the product starts a new production-cycle. When the production is not voided producers have to create an inventory and take stock or speed up production. Producers don’t like to take stock. Stock costs a lot of Money.
Producers are just like Consumers highly controlled by their Expectation of the Future. The big difference between the two is the reaction-time. Consumers are able to Act on Impulse. It takes a lot of time and coordination to produce. Producers have to control their impulsive emotions but to sell their products they have to stimulate the impulses of their customers.
In the current economy the time between production and destruction is extremely shortened. To keep the customer satisfied new versions of products are produced almost on-demand (on impulse). To organize a demand-driven production-line the producer needs highly advanced logistic systems. One of the most important concepts of logistics is to optimize the Inventory. Inventory costs money and space. To produce a product the chains of suppliers are heavily integrated.
Nobody is taking stock and one disturbance in the production chain causes a disturbance in the complete chain. When the impulses of the consumers are suddenly stopped a complete chain slows down and production has to stop.
When the Banks are not able to finance a slowdown of the supply-chain the production has to stop even faster. Again the effect of bad news has a huge and fast impact on every producer in the world. At this moment all the interconnected wordwide supply-chains are collapsing
We are living in a time where negative impacts propagate with the Speed of Light. The political institutions are unable to react to the speed of change that is now changing the world in an instant.
People remember negative impacts much better than positive impacts. The expectation of the Human is constructed to avoid big trouble. The constant sequence of bad news lowers the trust in almost everything that was trusted before.
At this moment Advisors, Bankers, Politicians, the Stock exchange, the Banking System, the Political system, the Medical System, Pension Funds, Insurers, the World Economy, the Climate and much more are not Trusted anymore. Everything is interpreted out of a negative perspective. Not only the economy is contracting but also the trust in the now and the future is contracting. Not only the Economy is in a Depression, many people are Depressed.
Production and Consumption are two important variables but there are really five variables at stake.
The cycle of Expansion and Contraction is balanced by two other variable called Spirit and Soul. Soul is related to the Human Emotions. Spirit is related to Human Creativity. The Four variables move around a Center and this Center is moving around other Centers.
Spirit is the Creator of New Ideas. Ideas want to move Down. They want to be realized on Earth. It is very difficult to determine these ideas because Old Ideas want to be Replicated all the time. Old Ideas have to be destroyed to make place for the New ones. The only way to do this is to enforce Stress on the old replication-system. It is very clear that this is happening at this moment. The old solutions don’t work anymore.
Soul contains the Human Potential and this potential is basically unlimited. When the Soul is Stressed it Explodes and new Opportunities become visible. There are two types of Stress. The Stress to create something New, the Stress of the Artist who is desperately trying to Express something that is there but cannot be Grasped. The other type of Stress is caused by the constant pressure of something that is forcing the Human to do what he really don’t wants to do or is not capable of doing. Let us call this type of stress, Negative stress.
Soul and Spirit are connected to the Destructor and the Controller.
When the Negative Stressed Emotions connect to The Destroyer of the Senses the Human becomes Violent. Sadly enough the Destructive force of a World Wide War will certainly generate an Up-state of the Economy.
When the Negative Stressed Emotions connect to the Expectations of the Controller it will generate Fear. Fear is the Destructor of the Senses. It narrows the view of the Human and produces the simple insight of the Common Enemy. They (not we) are the cause of all evil. A long time ago the Jews were the scapegoat. Recently Islamic Terrorists were the most important enemy. At this moment the “Greedy Bankers”, the Capitalists are the cause of the big economic crisis. If we don’t watch out we are moving into a new Struggle of the Classes.
When people are Afraid they simply stop moving. They wait and see and start to look for protection. In this case Big Brother is always there to help them. Extreme fear generates the need for all kinds of weapons to prevent war and to stop or even destroy the Agressive Humans. The Stressed Emotions create Enemies, Protectors, Weapons and finally the perfect reason to Fight a War or start a Revolution. If we don’t watch out a Huge Violent Conflict is unavoidable.
When the Emotions connect to Spirit, Spirit will generate an Insight. When this Insight has appeared Spirit will Transform the Soul and the Human will be lifted to another Center, a new Frame of Reference, a new View on the outside World. In this case Spirit gives the Expectation Hope, a view on a Bright and Exciting Future. The Creative Spirit is the Powerful Force behind Enthusiasm and Motivation.
We are living in an Illusion. Money is an illusion, the Economy is an Illusion, The Banking System is an Illusion, and the Contraction of the Economy is an Illusion. If we keep on believing this Illusion, the Economy, will slowdown, until it finally stops. At that time we have to cooperate to survive.
We See what we want to see and when we See a Contraction, the Contraction will happen. Our Expectation creates the world it wants to see and when the Expectation is without Hope, the outside world becomes Hopeless.
The tetramorphs are four angelic beings, drawn from Babylonian symbolism in a vision of the Hebrew Prophet Ezekiel:
“As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle “
The beasts are later described in the Revelation of John: “And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.”
The four Babylonian symbols represent the four fixed signs, the Cross of the Zodiac, Leo, Taurus (Bull), Scorpio (Eagle) and Aquarius (Human).
They are related to the four ancient elements of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, the four evangelists (Mark/Lion, Luke/Bull, John/Eagle, Matthew/Human), the four Seasons and the four possible Views on the world (Rules (Lion), Senses (Bull), Emotions (Human) and the Imagination (Aquarius) of Will McWhinney.
The Twelve parts of the Zodiac are the twelve (4×3) possible combinations of the Four Tetramorph.
The tetramorph themselves are combinations of the same aspect (the Bull = SensesXSenses).
Will McWhinney calls the twelve combinations “Games” or “Conflicts” because it is impossible to Unite the Four Tetramorphs.
They represent a Tension or a Force. We have to learn to Balance the Four Forces so they are able to Unite in the Center, The One (the Thirteen).
The Zodiac denotes an annual cycle. The constellations also move in a cycle, called the Precession, with a duration of 25,800 years. The Precession is moving retrograde (in the opposite direction) of the movement of the Sun in the yearly Zodiac.
The precession is an indicator of the cultural or religious state of our World. During the phase of the Pisces many Fish- and Water related symbols were used.
It is very interesting to see that the Roman Church is based on the worldview of a very old precessional symbol, the symbol of St Peter and St Mark, the Lion. In the Roman Church the Sins (the Senses) of the Bull have to obey the Moral Rules of the Lion.
Starting about 200 BC, Pisces, The Fish, became the ruler of the cycle of precession. Love thou Neighbor, became the object of Early Christianity. The Roman Church, an extension of the Empire of Rome, was never able to implement the Social Vision of the Fish.
It remained a hierarchical controlled structure with the Pater (Peter), the highest rank in the hierarchy of Mithras (The Killer of the Bull), at the top.
We are now moving from the State of Water into the State of Air (Imagination, Creation). The Social Structures of the Church will be replaced by Connected Individuals who want to Share and Express a Personal Mystic Experience.
The view of John the Evangelist, the view of the Mystic and the Poet, is hidden in the Inner World, the Imagination, of the Human. According to the Mystics the Outer World is an Expression of the Creative Power of this Inner World.
John the Evangelist was a disciple of John the Baptist before he became a disciple of Jesus. John the Baptist used Water when he baptized Jesus. He initiated John the Evangelist and Jezus into the Gnostic Mysteries. Jezus relates John the Baptist to the prophet Elija (Elias). (“there has not been raised of those born of women greater than John the Baptist. … if you are willing to accept it, he is Elias … the one about to come.” (Mt 11:9-14)).
The symbol of John the Baptist was not the Eagle but its antagonist, the Dove. When we look at the symbolism of the Dove we are able to detect who John the Baptist really was. John the Baptist represents Elija, Vishnu, Oannes, Enki and Ea, the Creator of our Universe, the Lord of the Waves. The Dove is represented in the Zodiac by the Pleiades, the Center of the Cross of the Universe.
In the next part I will give you a very brief introduction into the Believe System of the Mystics.
It is very important to understand that the Mystics believe that the Creator of our Universe is not the creator of the Whole, the creation itself. The process of Creation is an Act of the Imagination of the One, a formless Entity also called The Light or the First Logos, the Word. The One has delegated the process of creation to other creators who are an emanation of the One.
A creation of a creator is able to create his own reality. One of the creations is Earth and the Humans on Earth are also able to create their own reality with their Imagination which is an expression of the Imagination of the One.
The One splits itself in many parts. The first creation, the Second Logos, is the Two, The Cosmic Father and Mother (Light, Darkness, Yin, Yang). The One, The Cosmic Father and the Mother are the Trinity represented by the Letters I (I am the One), A (The Beginning) and O (the End). (Revelation 1: 8: I am, the Alpha and the Omega). IOA comes back in the name Ioa(ness),the Fish-man, John and the IOROBA of Africa.
The Human is the last step in the creation. He is a five-fold creature, a combination of the Four Forces of the tetramorphs and the Light of the One.
Our Universe is one of the creations of a creator called the Demiurge (Ea, Enki). The Human Soul is in exile in the creation of this Demiurge. There are many universes and Earth is part of one of these universes. Earth is part of the (Dark) Material Universe.
The Soul, the Sparkle of the Light, will eventually return to the One. It is helped to return to the One by other Souls (Angels, Archangels) to reach ‘the Worlds of Light’. One day the world will be saved when Oannes, Enki, Vishnu, Jesus comes back.
Our Reality is governed by a Cyclic Process. This process is created by the Demiurg to keep the Souls in the Black Material Universe. Planets and stars influence fate and are also places of detention after death.
The Book of Destiny, the Book of Revelations, created by the Demiurg and written in the language of ancient Astrology, describes the Cycle. The Souls have to Jump out of the Cycle, through the Hole in the Universe, to reach the World of Light of the One. The Hole in the Universe is in the Centre of the Rose, The Heart.
Mysteries (Rituals, Sacraments) purify the soul, to ensure her rebirth into a spiritual body, and her ascent from the world of matter. The Knowledge of the Mysteries is hidden. The Hidden Mysteries are revealed by the Light, the First Logos, at the time when the Seeker has stopped looking for the Answer to all his Questions. At this moment of complete silence The Light Leads the Way.
IOnA is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland (Scota) that has an important place in the history of Christianity. Iona formerly named Innis nan Druidhneach (the Island of the Druids) was a primary seat of learning for the pre-Christian Celtic Druid Magi until St. Columba, the Dove, was exiled from his native Ireland (Tara).
St. Columba founded a monastery on Iona with 12 companions. Iona’s fame as a place of learning and Christian mission spread throughout Europe. Iona became a holy island where several kings of Scotland, Ireland and Norway came to be buried.
St. Columba later came back to Kells, close to Tara, and created another Monastery. One of the most important relics that was taken from Iona to Kells is the Book of Kells.
The most important mystical place in Ireland is called Tara. It is, according to legend, the place where the followers of Ioaness, guarded by the prophet Jeremiah (586 BC), accompanied by his scribe Baruch, and the daughters of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, went in exile when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.
One of the daughters (Tea Tepi, Scota) marries Eochaidh the high king of Ireland. Jeremiah brings many important relics to Ireland including Jacob’s Pillow, the cornerstone of the temple of Salomon.
The religion that came out of Kells and Iona was very different from the religion that came out of Rome. It was the religion of the Celtic Druids AND the followers of John the Baptist called Celtic Christianity.
Celtic Christianity was completely destroyed by the English Rulers of Ireland and Scotland. Just like the Roman Church destroyed the Cathars and Islam destroyed the Druze. Celtic Christianity went underground and came back as The Kabbalists, the Alchemists, the Rosicrucian’s and the Free Masons.
We are now entering a new phase in the Zodiac called Aquarius (Imagination). The view of John the Evangelist will become the Spirit of the Time. It is not necessary to create a New System of Rules, a Religion. The Dove is silently waiting in our Inner World to move Outside to bring Peace to the World. The Rose of the Heart will slowly open without any outside pressure.
The current Foundation of the World Financial System, the US Economy based on the Dollar, is in a Fatal Crisis. The Solution to the Current Crisis, Bailing Out, will finally Speed Up the Crisis. The real problem is moved to the Near Future, to another Level of Society (MiddleClass, the Poor) and to another part of the World. In the End it will fireback on the US itself and deepen the Recession that is already taking place.
Money represents a Value of Something. For a very long time money was based on the value of Gold. This foundation failed. The failure of the Gold Based Money system created the Great Depression and finally the Second World War. At this moment the Financial System is without any Foundation.
To prevent a Third World War the Bretton Woods Agreement was created in 1947. The foundation of the International Money System was based on the Dollar. In 1971 the US broke up the Agreement because it was unable to stabilize the International System. At that time the US was spending too much money to fight the war in Vietnam. It became a Debtor and remained a Debtor until today.
From that Time on the International Money System is Floating but the Foundation, the Dollar, is still used. The Euro is an alternative but it is almost impossible to move to the Euro without destroying the US Economy and the World Economy. Europe, China and even Russia are Forced to help the Biggest Debtor in the World to avoid the destruction of their own Financial System. In the mean time the Biggest Debtor in the World keeps on Spending. It is even Increasing its Spending Behavior.
Many people believe that the reason behind the Financial Crisis is the Credit Crunch. They believe mortgages are the cause of everything but the reason is much more complicated. The main reason are financial derivatives.
Derivatives are very complicated ways to gamble with money. They are so complicated that almost nobody is able to calculate the value of these financial instruments. They are so complicated that almost nobody is able to keep the books. The controllers of the banks lost the control a very long time ago.
Derivatives are the playingfield of dealers and the dealers are able to confuse almost everybody when they want to play their game. The effect of playing dealers has shown itself in many cases like the falldown of Barings. The Derivatives have transformed The Banking Industry into a Casino.
The US Government and its Allies are trying to avoid a new Great Depression by bailing out or protecting every US Bank, Insurance Company and other Company (Farmers, Chrysler, Boeing, Ford, ..) that is unable to pay its debts. The US Government is moving the huge and uncertain debt from the Market to the Government hoping the Market will Restore itself. They believe the Market is going Up and Down. Someday they will be able to Sell the current Debt with a Profit back to the Market.
The strange thing is that other countries are helping the US to protect their vital companies from a certain disaster. The US, the Protector of the Free Market, is protecting its Own market and the only reason why others are helping the US is to avoid a certain disaster on the level of the World. Strangely enough they are disturbing their own market to avoid the destruction of the market of their biggest competitor.
In the background investors, Countries and Companies are slowly moving out of the US Economy. The are investing in Europa (Warren Buffett) or are creating their own financial market and currency (China, Russia, India).Nobody believes the US will recover but they have to prevent a total meltdown.
China is even taking over control of the US Economy. With their enormouss funds they will be alble to “blackmail” the US. They are already doing this. The Chinese are in contrary to the US fighting the war with the Wapens of their Opponent. They know how to win without fighting.
What many peopl don’t realize is that the long term Economic Cycle (The Kondratiev) is going Down for about 26 years. We have entered a State of Compression in 2000. The Expansion of the World Economy during the last 26 years has stopped. We are just in the beginning of the Phase of Compression.
During the phase of compression the Baby Boomers will stop working. They have invested a lot of money to buy a pension. During the compression their pensions will evaporate. During the phase of compression many people will get old and ill. The Social System will be without any money to help them. Many people will move into a very angry state when they realize what really has happened.
During the Downfall The Debts will increase tremendously. The move from the Market to the Government (and the Tax Payer) is a temporary solution. Someday the Debts have to be repayed and the only thing US Govenment can do is to accept the fact that the US and the strongly related Western Economy will enter a state of Recession.
The Economic Activity will go Down but Social Activities will Move Up. When you are losing money somebody (Your Friends, Your Family, Your Community) has to help you.
What many people also don’t realize is that the very long time cycles are supporting the DownFall of the Economic System. The very long time cycles and especially the Cycle of the Precession is Jumping to a new Level. It is jumping to a higher level of Consciousness.
The current instability of the World System is not only visible in the Financial System. It shows itself in every System of the World. It shows itself in the Psychological System, the Cultural System, The Religiouss System, the Political System, the Ecological System, the Weather System and the Planetary System.
These Systems are highly interconnected. A Disaster in one of the Systems has an impact on all of the other Systems. When the Financial System is fixed, a Political Conflict (Russia) starts and the Financial System is unbalanced. When the Political System is stabilized a huge Earthquake or a giant Tornado will move the total System into unbalance. This will go on and on until everybody realizes that we are living in a Highly Interconnected Reality.
The only thing we can do is to act on the Level of Earth and Face Reality. We have to realize that all the Isolated Systems are One and the only thing we can do is to find Balance on Every Level.
We could start to Find Balance on the Level of the Human.
We could start to Reduce the Power of the Ego, Desire, by reducing our Needs.
We could start to Reduce the Power of our Expectation, our Thinking, and start to Trust the Other.
We could start to Empower our Imagination, Spirit, and Imagine a Shared Future.
We could start to Empower our Soul, Empathy, and start to Take Care of Others.
We could start to use our Consciousness and become Aware of what is really Happening.
Many people believe the current crisis will be a Fatal Crisis, a (Financial) Apocalyps. I don’t believe this will be the case.
Imagine a world were you are not Working all the time. Imagine a Life without Stress.
Imagine a World where You don’t have to Play Political Games to Survive.
Imagine a world where You could enjoy Nature.
Imagine a World were You are able to Help without Being Payd.
Imagine a World were you are able to Create when You want to do this. Imagine a World without War and Violence. The only thing You have to do is Leave a Little Bit of Your Current Luxury behind.
If this happens the Downfall of the Bad Buck would be replaced by a tremendous Rise of Good Luck.
Humans attach much greater weight to future losses than to future gains, especially when the former are certain and immediate and the latter are uncertain. Humans take unwise risks to avoid certain and immediate losses.
They don’t want to take risks to pursue gains or will unwisely turn down proposed changes or concessions that offer a mix of gains and losses, even when the promised gains are objectively greater than the losses.
To calculate a loss a Human chooses a personal reference point which is usually the individual’s status quo.
Human beings reject or devalue whatever is freely available to them. They strive for whatever is denied them. They want to fight because when you win a fight you don’t lose a fight. Humans get exited when they have removed an Obstacle.
Without an obstacle Life is Boring. To remove an Obstacle Humans create Imaginary Obstacles. They need a Challenge.
They don’t believe their adversary offers a compromise because when he offers a compromise he is losing. Somewhere behind the compromise is a hidden tactic. The adversary will attack out of the blue and will suddenly win. On the other hand when the compromise is sincere the enemy is getting weaker and it is possible to increase the demands in the negocation.
The total effect is that future compromises and package deals decrease in attractiveness once they are offered especially when they are put there by one’s adversary rather than by a third party (Reactive Devaluation).
The Effect of Future Losses on Human Decision Making is researched in Prospect Theory.
The basic Stategy of Humans is to avoid the Emotions of Loss (Anger, Frustration, Grief, Fear, Sadness, Yearning, Pity, and Sorrow). This is not strange because the Emotions of Loss have a negative impact on the body. They influence the Immune System and are the cause of many ilnesses.
When two parties imagine a joined future where both of them lose they will never cooperate. In terms of the prisoners dilemma this is called a lose/lose-situation.
When two parties have seen a win/win situation and the realization changes into a lose they are in conflict. They have to envision a new win/win or break the cooperation.
Sometimes it is impossible to break a cooperation because both parties share vital resources or don’t know how to divide the assets of the former cooperation. In this case they are in a the win/lose-mode of the (Iterated) Prisonners Dilemma, constantly switching between losing and winning.
When a party wants to move from a lose to a win he has to apply the tactic of Tit-for-Tat. When you apply Tit-for-Tat you simply copy the behaviour of the other. When one of the parties sustains his unwillingness to cooperate both of them are in an Infinite Chain of Conflicts.
When two parties were united it is very difficult to recreate independent disconnected units. Many of the joined activities where performed without negotiation and were never formalized. When two parties cooperate they are acting as one Mind and one Soul.
Moving out of a Cooperative Relationship needs a Cooperative Relationship. When this relationship is broken two parties are needed who enter into a Cooperative Relationship to resolve the Cooperative Relationship on the lower level. When this Cooperative Relationship fails another level has to be created. If all the levels fail they are in an Infinite Chain of Conflicts.
If a Conflict of Interest arises the first action is to avoid the conflict or to speed up the conflict. In the last case the Primary Emotions (Desire, The Emotion of Loss) are bothering them. To avoid a Conflict we have to Articulate our Emotions at the Right Moment in a Respectful Way. We have to Communicate.
Most Conflicts in Nature are violent. Humans have found a way to abstract from Violence. We have created Imaginary Violence. We Fight our Case in Court. We don’t fight our Case in the Court Yard. We have replaced the material Sword of Iron by the Imaginary Silver Sword of Words.
If both parties are unable to define the conflict in a coherent model the conflict will not resolve. They need help to do this. If the advisors of the two parties are unable to do this the conflict has to move to a higher level of abstraction. When the conflict is resolved on this level somebody has to translate the consistent model to the lower level. When this is not possible the conflict starts again. They are in an Infinite Chain of Conflicts.
When an Abstract Model is always Moving Up and Down, the Model is not in Harmony. Harmoniouss Models are applicable on Every Level of Abstraction. Models that are The Same on Every Level are Self-Referencial. When a Conflict is Modelled as a Conflict it will never be solved.
The solution to this problem is to Extend the Context of the Conflict until a Balance has been found. Both Parties have to Widen their Perspective. They have to step out of the Status Quo and Imagine a Bright Future. A Future where the Darkness of the Night has been replaced by the Light of the Day. They have to wake up out of their joint Nightmare and Face Reality.
A Conflict is resolved when all the parties that are involved are Satisfied. They are satisfied when they experience a Balancing of their Emotions. A Victim is satisfied when his Emotion of Revenge is resolved. The Killer is Killed or put into prison for many years. The Emotion of the Killer is balanced by the Emotion of his Victim(s).
To Balance Emotions we have to Objectify Emotions. When we are buying a Car we have to pay Money. The Car is an Objectified Emotion (The feeling of the Freedom to Move) and Money is an Objectified Emotion (The feeling of Freedom to do what we want to Do). The Potential of Money is balanced by the Potential to Move. When we buy we are balancing Potentials.
Humans use Mental Accounting to define what their Potential is. They divide their Potential in many “Isolated” boxes and are unable to combine the boxes. A savings account is meant to save money and not to spend money. If Humans put their Potentials in “closed” Boxes they are Poor although they are Rich.
When they feel Poor they will experience every potential solution of a conflict as a loss. When a Human accepts that the Future is not the Past he will realize that there are many possibilities he has never seen. When a Human accepts that his Potential is his Creativity he is able to negociate with an Open Mind.
Many people believe the Juridical System is the most objective system in our Society. Sadly enough this is not true. The Law is highly confusing. Judges don’t have the background to understand what has really happened. Lawyers are telling their own biased story and most of the cases are very complex. The System is a System of Last Resort. It is used when many future and current losses are accumulating.
The Judicial System is meant to resolve Infinite Chains of Conflict without Applying Violence. This is accomplished by Balancing Emotions by Objectifying Emotions by Articulating the Emotions in Words by Combining the Words into a Model by comparing the Model with an Abstract Juridical Model by Solving the Conflict Applying this Model by Translating the Model to a lower Level by Explaining the Model to the Parties hoping they will Agree so the Emotions are Balanced so both Parties are Satisfied.
If this is not happening the whole process starts all over again until somebody (a Judge, Somebody who Speaks Law) utters a Solomon’s Verdict.
I hope You see why it is much better to settle a Conflict on a Lower Level.
When you lend somebody something you assume he (or she) will give the item back in due time. To lend you have to Trust somebody. There are many ways to create a trusted relation. When a long term trusted relationship grows out of a long chain of interactions the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma is at stake. The Chinese are the Masters of Playing this Game.
In some situations it is very clear that a try-out is not necessary. If we look at the cultures of the Earth we can see that the concept of Family or Tribe more or less guaranties a trustful relationship. In a Family it is not needed to create very complicated arrangements like contracts, procedures, laws and judges. The Family uses it own rules.
The consequence of the Concept of the Family and the Tribe is a formalization of relationships based on a Place in a Hierarchy. Everybody has to know its place.
A King has to play the role of the King and a Father has to play the role of the Father. In a Family or an Extended Family (Tribe) you are trained to play the roles you have to play in your life.
Confucius (551-479 BC) saw the universe and all living things in it as a manifestation of a unifying force called the Doe (translated as the Truth, Unity, or the Way). Doe constitutes the very essence, basis, and unit of life that perpetuates order, goodness, and righteousness.
It manifests itself in the harmonious opposition of yin (“feminine, gentle“) and yang (“masculine, strong“), and in humans through duk (“virtue“). Virtue is a gift received from Heaven.
It is through Virtue that a person is able to know the Heavenly Truth and it is the “locus where Heaven and I meet“. Virtue can be realized through self-cultivation. It provides the fundamental source of insight and strength to rule peacefully and harmoniously within oneself, one’s family, one’s nation, and the world.
There are two inter-related aspects of virtue: in (“Human-hearted-ness“) and ui (“Rightness“).
The basis of individual and humanity is the Human-heartedness. Human-heartedness is essentially relational and it involves loving, sacrificing and taking care of others. Individuals are born with Human-heartedness and experience Human-heartedness through the sacrifice and devotion of their parents.
The second concept, ui (“rightness“), notes that an individual is born into a particular family with a particular status. Rightness articulates that individuals must perform and fulfil their duties as defined by their particular status and role.
Confucius considered family and society to be hierarchically ordered, necessitating that everyone fulfil their duties. Fulfilling one’s given role as a father, mother, child, elder, teacher, or politician is considered a moral imperative and not a matter of personal choice.
Confucius considered society to be socially ordered and that each person has beun (“portion or place“) in life. Each beun had attached roles and duties, and each person must fulfil these roles and duties. Duties and obligations of each beun are prescribed by yea (“propriety“).
Propriety articulates expectations, duties, and behavior of each individual according to his or her status and role. For example, chemyon (“social face“) need to be maintained by a person of social stature defined by his or status, regardless of his or her personal preference.
Social order and harmony are preserved when people observe their place in society and fulfil their required obligations and duties.
The fourth concept is ji (“knowledge“). Knowledge allows us to understand the virtues of Human-heartedness and Rightness and to follow these virtues through Propriety. It is the basis of the development of Wisdom.
By the applying the principles of Confucius Chinese Society became a Well Oiled Machine. Every action that was taken was pre-programmed by all levels of education. Every part in the machine knew its role. Life was highly predictable and everybody accepted its place in Society. There was Harmony and Peace in the world.
If there be righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in character,
If there be beauty in character, there will be harmony in the home.
If there be harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation.
If there be order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.
The big changes of Chinese Society came Out of the West. The English Empire destroyed the Heavenly Order by selling large quantities of Opium. The huge underclass of China was a beautiful target for the people who followed the theories of Lenin.
The Upperclass was destroyed and a new Upperclass, The Communist Party, took over. The culture of China has not changed. People still know their place and the Doe (The Way It Is) is now proclaimed by the Party. The new upperclass knows it has to keep the underclass in harmony.
The Party decided to create a higher standard of living by importing capitalistic principles from the West. It is now moving in high speed to the level of the Consumer Society. The West is paying for this move by buying Chinese products for a very low price.
In this way China has accumulated an enormous amount of money (mostly dollars). They are able to buy what they want. With the enormouss stock of dollars they are able to manipulate US Government. China is able to destroy the US Financial System in one fast move. They certainly will not do that.
The Chinese people are experts in strategy. They know how to acquire power without fighting. They keep a social face and play the game others want them to play. They are experts in applying the Iterated Prisoners Dilemma. They know Confucius and his predecessors were Wise man. They knew how to move with The Cycle, the Tao.
Western Society has lost its cultural foundation. The principles of Confucius don’t sound very strange to us. They are easily translated into Christianity.
When the West lost the basic principle of Christianity, Human-hearted-ness (in) one of the two pillars of Trust was lost. The West rationalized Empathy (Compassion, Emotion). I Think, therefore I Am (Descartes) became the basis of the Self.
When people started to do the “wrong thing” the second pillar of Trust, Integrity (ui, Rightness) dropped. Politicians were not Playing the Role of the Politician and Managers were not Playing the Role of Manager. They lost their Virtue.
Finally the Doe (Unity) of Western Society was gone. Families broke up. Everybody was Left on its Own and started to act on a Short-Term Perspective.
The Interated Prisoners Dilemma changed into a chain of disconnected attempts to leave the Prison. The best way to win such a Game is to defect. You always win but your victory is never a Win-Win. On the long term Everybody changes into a potential Enemy.
The West entered the State of Individualism and even Egoism. In this state it is almost impossible to act out of Unity. Everybody is going its Own Way or is Competing with the Other. This makes it even easier for the Chinese Masters to create a new Machine to support their Extended Family.
