When you pass someone on the street, or buy a product or service from an individual or corporation, do you wonder where they’re coming from, what their intent in life is, what their intent toward you is? Are they friendly or hostile? Are they loving or opportunistic? Are they responsible or irresponsible? Are they honest or dishonest? With their intent, can they be trusted with your well being, the well being of your family and the well being of the world?
Responsibility (response ability, accountability, creativity and self-development) is the price of freedom, peace and long-term human survival. We can view life as a burdensome journey of pain and suffering or a creative opportunity to learn and grow. As creative beings our ultimate challenge is to see where we are, decide where we want to be, and get from here to there, safely and responsibly.
We live in two worlds simultaneously – the dark, oppressive Value Judgment World of fear, separation, competition and violence; and the uplifting Value Fulfillment World of love, oneness, individuality, cooperation, sharing and peace. Historically, the former has dominated the latter.
The Value Judgment World
While all thoughts and feelings are available to us, we tend to focus on the few associated with our life experience, forgetting or ignoring other possibilities. Core beliefs like scarcity, separation and competition – predatory concepts we see dramatized in life, work and art every day – serve as the foundation for the Value Judgment World. In this world, the model for behavior is the Law of the Jungle (survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed), and money, power and privilege are its measures of success.
This world assumes we’re basically bad and we can’t trust ourselves (See: What I Learned in Catholic School). When we buy into these beliefs and question our integrity, we become dependent on external values and authority for guidance and control. From birth, we learn to compare ourselves to each other and outside standards of being and performance in every aspect of our lives. In the process of policing ourselves, and one another, to ensure we conform to established patterns of being and behavior, we become Master Fault Finders.
Ever vigilant, we look for discrepancies between cultural ideals and personal behavior. We attack and criticize ourselves, and one another, for the things we do and don’t do, for who we are, or are not, and for differences in our size, shape, weight, race, religion, age, sex, beauty, and intelligence. When we actively participate in this process, we not only live in the Value Judgment World, we maintain and perpetuate it.
Whether out of fear or self-doubt – in a world that defines us as “winners” or “losers”, “haves” or “have-nots” – there is a strong tendency to sleepwalk through life, to keep our heads down and abide by an “official” set of rules, a pre-programmed recipe for living. This system of beliefs supports fear, anger, hate, greed, limitation, mindless obedience, violence and suffering. As the failure of this world deepens, many of us seek the means to move beyond it. We know human survival depends on our ability and willingness to change!
The Starship Dream – a Symbol for Change?
In the late 1980s, I dreamed I was the leader of an elite American team of scientists and engineers racing to beat our Soviet counterparts in building the first Starship. Even though our respective governments wanted our projects shrouded in secrecy, both teams were aware of the other and the progress each was making. The leader of the Russian team and I were close friends and members of both teams had worked together on previous multinational projects. Driving us, more than friendly competition, was a growing concern for the safety of humanity. It was generally believed that the earth was in imminent danger of being destroyed – if not by natural disasters first, then by the thoughtless hand of man himself.
Both construction crews were working around the clock to build Starships. Similar in design, each was a massive globe, designed to carry many thousands of people and species of plants and animals. Each was a modern day Ark built to preserve the seed of humanity in the face of almost certain human extinction.
The size of each ship was so immense we knew we couldn’t keep them hidden from public view forever. I remember leaning against the metal rail of the observation deck outside my office, built halfway up one of the surrounding mountain walls. From this elevated and distant vantage point, I could think in larger terms and maintain an overall view of our progress. In the growing darkness of the cool summer evening, I watched as a large curved section of the ship’s hull rose into place for welding.
The powerful sense of urgency surrounding this project created a palpable tension in the valley air that yearned for release through the ship’s completion. Every member of the team vibrated with excited anticipation. Like Noah, we believed the very survival of humanity was at stake!
Waking up from my dream, I knew we would finish building our Starship and get it launched before disaster struck. The impact of the dream was so powerful I drew several sketches of it before getting out of bed. Within days, I hired an artist to create a more sophisticated drawing. She suggested we incorporate an image of the earth on the ship’s surface to reflect its point of origin.
While the starship the artist created is only a drawing of the starship in my dream, it serves the same purpose. It symbolizes our need and intent to change! What we do with that intention will determine the result. We are the Starship and the fuel to carry ourselves to safety. We are the power and the means for our own salvation!
The Value Fulfillment World
Unlike the Value Judgment World, which is a product of fear and prepackaged beliefs, the Value Fulfillment World is a product of common sense, creativity, love and ideals. It is not about right and wrong, good and bad, guilt and punishment. It is about paying attention to our own unique experience and learning from it. It is about seeing what works for us, and what doesn’t, what makes us happy, and what doesn’t. It is about accepting our own unique being and authority. God, or All That Is, is not outside us, it is us! We know we’re both one AND separate and that we’re not only the product of creation; we’re creation itself!
The Law of the Body, which depends on values like oneness, individuality, collaboration and sharing, is the unconscious yet dominant model for behavior in this reality and Love, Truth and Joy serve as its measures of success. In the Value Fulfillment World, we value our interdependence as much as our independence. We value You, Me, Us (our loving relationship) and All That Is equally. We know life is a matter of survival AND evolution. We know we are good, not bad. We know that freedom comes from trusting ourselves and learning how to manage our energy, not be afraid of it. We know that by changing ourselves for the better, we change the world for the better. We know we are responsible for our own actions and revel in freely exercising control over our own lives from the inside out. In this reality, we live by value fulfillment and practice idealism. We consciously determine the qualities of life and being we value most, our ideals, and actualize them to the best of our ability!
The 21st Century serves as a natural timeframe for building a dream, a vehicle for life in the New Millennium that will help transport mankind through the next 1,000 years in peace and safety.
Make the Jump from the Value Judgment World to the Value Fulfillment World
Humanity has faced serious challenges to its existence before. We are facing one now. More than ever, we must be still and “know”, not melt down in fear and become reactionary, which only makes matters worse. We must open our hearts and minds to new ideas, new ways to see ourselves, and the world around us. We must think with new clarity and boldness. We must explore, discuss, collaborate and share. We must grow beyond current limitations of thought and being.
First, consider there are two major value systems that serve as models for human behavior, and two value systems that serve as measures of success. Life as we know it plays itself out within the matrix of these ideas. These core concepts, and how we relate to them, determine how we think and act in life. They give us the option of creating a Value Judgment World or a Value Fulfillment World.
Whichever set of core beliefs we identify with most has the greatest influence over our surface thoughts, feelings and behavior. If we find the Law of the Jungle and the idea of money, power and privilege more appealing, we become more predatory and materially oriented. If we find the Law of the Body and love, truth and joy more appealing, we become more peaceful and spiritually oriented. Evidence suggests the majority of us are closer to the material end of the spectrum than the spiritual end – if this is not so in numbers of people, it is so in the impact of materialism on our lives.
Models for Behavior
1. Law of the Jungle – The Law of the Jungle is fear-based and tells us that life is about separation, scarcity, competition and survival of the fittest. Many interpret this to mean, “Every man is an island, eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.”
2. Law of the Body – The Law of the Body is love-based and tells us that life is about oneness AND separation, interdependence, collaboration, sharing, creativity and cooperation. We know intuitively, if not consciously, the lessons our bodies teach us or life would be short and brutal indeed.
Measures of Success
1. Money, Power and Privilege – money, power and privilege are objective, material measures of success. Providing food, shelter and safety for ourselves, and our families, is essential while we exist in material form. For many of us this is by far the dominant measure of success in our lives.
2. Love, Truth and Joy – love, truth and joy are subjective, emotional measures of success. Feelings of love, truth and joy are less tangible than money, power and privilege as measures of success but just as important, if not more so.
Many of us think life, as we know it, is failing or unsustainable, because, as a culture, we make money, power and privilege more important than love, truth and joy in our lives. As a result, we live with more fear than love. The challenge for each of us is to figure out what balance of ideas will work best for us, as individuals and as a world.
Imagine the Law of the Jungle is your model for behavior and Money, Power and Privilege are your measures of success. How will you think and act? To what end will you go to survive? What kind of world will you create and support?
Imagine the Law of the Body is your model for behavior and Love, Truth and Joy are your measures of success. How will you think and act? To what lengths will you go to survive? What kind of world will you create and support?
Look at contemporary issues in business and politics. Listen to conversations, examine popular language and observe behavior around you – can you identify their source? Are they products of the Value Judgment World or the Value Fulfillment World? How do you measure success? How do others around you measure success? Which world do you want to live in?
What are the pros and cons of using the Law of the Jungle as a model for behavior? What are the pros and cons of using the Law of the Body as a model for behavior? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using money, power and privilege to measure success? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using love, truth and joy to measure success? Which ideas or blend of ideas do you think will work best for you – for all of us? Use discussion, observation, imagination, meditation and dreams to explore the answers to these questions. Explore them from the head and the heart. Be creative!
If you’re a student, explore and discuss these questions in class papers and encourage classroom discussions. If you’re a teacher, have students explore these questions through writing assignments and classroom discussions. If you’re a writer, a radio talk show host, a television newscaster, a newspaper reporter, a columnist or a film producer, do what you can to examine these issues and expand the discussion. The future will reflect our answers.
In life and business, how many of us ask: is what I’m doing good? Do my actions improve the quality of life or undermine it? Do they increase humanity’s chances for survival or threaten it?
Instead of creating a world of leaders and followers, predators and victims, by letting thoughts of fear, separation and competition dominate our thinking, why not ask:
This takes YOU, ME and US (everyone and everything) into consideration. It takes into account the fact that we are both one AND separate. It also accepts the fact that we are not only the product of creation; we are creation itself!
- What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of business? (What is the best way to maintain the health and well-being of the planet and humanity?
- What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of education? (What is the best way for us to learn and grow? What are the most important things for us to learn in life?)
- What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of the environment? (What is the best way for us to treat nature and the earth?)
- What’s going to work best for ALL of us in terms of peace? (What is the best way for us to relate to each other as individuals and nations?)
Here’s another set of questions that directly relate to human and planetary survival, and the quality of both our inner and outer lives. Again, discussion, observation, imagination, meditation and dreamtime* serve as useful tools for finding answers. Questions like these are tailor made for town hall, school and business forums. Active and thoughtful participation in the creation of our reality is the change we are waiting for!
*Before falling asleep, think about a question(s) you want answered. After you wake up and before you get out of bed, look for the answer(s) and write it down.
Beliefs That Will Change the World for the Better
As we think, we create. Change what we think, and we change what we create!
We are both one AND separate. What you do to me, you do to you. What I do to you, I do to me. What you do to you, you do to me. What I do to me, I do to you. This largely intuitive knowledge is what gives substance and meaning to the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We are not only the product of creation; we are creation itself! In the dynamic dance of life, we lead and follow at the same time. It is a matter of perspective.
ALL life is sacred. You are one face of God. I am another face of God. God is All That Is and All That Is, is God!
EVIL does not exist in reality. Consciousness (Energetic Awareness, Aware Energy) or God wants to know itself in all ways. It seeks pleasure, not pain! However, to tell one from the other, Consciousness must know both.
Roger “Pete” Peterson – http://realtalkworld.com
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.
If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.
If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?
How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth
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