This is a blog about nothing. On some days, nothing is something, an empty space that represents potentiality and opportunity. Space on the calendar, space in the conversation. The blank canvas, the lack of agenda. Being “up to nothing” special can mean openness to new possibilities that one wouldn’t have with a life crammed with agendas. On some days, nothing is something.
This is a quote that came out of this week’s work on New Spaces (book 4). It reflects the art of creating sustainable balance in the dynamic cycles in our lives.
You can’t catch the emerging wave that’s coming up until you let go of the declining wave you’re on.
Some people blog and comment with an intention to broadcast their experience; others do so with an intention to spark and facilitate dialogue. I’ve now joined the emerging group of bloggers who are using wiki to create a unique and common space for people to dialogue.
Thanks to G and the GWIS guys for setting up a wiki page on DesigningLife.com. A wiki page is a page anyone can edit — a collaborative tool designed to facilitate shared mind. When you go there, you will see the link to the Wiki Wednesday page. Every Wednesday here at Gassho, I’ll pose a question for dialogue on the Wiki Wednesday page, and start things off with my thoughts there. In the meantime, feel free to post your comments to any day’s blog here or start or join the dialogue on the Wiki Wednesday page. Looking forward, as always, to the conversations.
One of the more radical notions that I remember learning as a young zen student in my early 20’s was that the self we believe exists that “owns” things is a social agreement — a utility illusion that ultimately became a dominant cultural meme.
The implication of becoming free from this illusion is the realization that what we say we “have”, we only have as stewards. They are things given to us from the universe, every molecule and wave of which will return again to the universe for endless cycles of other people “having” these things. The breath I now breathe, the money I will today make and spend, the ideas I get and express, the things I enjoy and get and give, and every quantum inch of my being — all come and go … that I am steward of. They are as much mine as clouds are the property of the sky. And there is nothing else to know in order to have compassion and wisdom the size of the universe.
I’ve had many conversations over the past couple of weeks about the need for strong leadership in our work, civic, and religious communities. The opposite of a led community is a self-organizing community. The latter is more healthy because self-organizing people share responsibility for wisdom, compassion, and initiative taking — rather than projecting it onto a few. Fact is, no amount of leadership can compensate for a community of people that project responsibility for what they think, feel, and do.
Improving the quality of any community is not a matter of leadership. It is a matter of cultivating a critical mass of people willing to share responsibility. I’ve coached many a self-directed team over the years and continue to see first hand how they consistently outperform a team of followers. We need to grow up and trade our need for dependency and heirarchy for shared response-ability to our dreams and opportunities.
There is an emerging blogger continuum, shown here from lowest to highest levels of participation:
^ People who host wiki on their blogs
^ People who blog with comments & participate in the comments
^ People who blog with comments & don’t participate in the comments
^ People who respond to blogs with comments/wiki
^ People who blog without comments
^ People who read blogs without commenting
^ People who resist blogging
^ People who don’t understand blogging
Without words, fish
glide through cat tails.
Without being asked, trees
cradle nests.
Without greed, butterflies
kiss warm blossoms.
Without a compass, stars
align.
To know one’s nature
is to find one’s happiness.
We are the harvest of someone else’s hope.
We sit under trees we did not plant.
We plant trees under which we will never sit.
from the new blog, Heart@Work
When our intention is to make and see a difference, we need to make sure we’re not substituting talk for action. Or, as the old Chinese saw goes: Talk doesn’t cook the rice.
