Deep Breathing

Paradigm, System, Skills and Knowledge

2010-06-23T18:15:00.015+08:00

In the coaching session I've recently attended my coach told me to conduct the so-called PSSK self-assessment. While I am not familiar with the very definition of this self-assessment, hearing its concept it seems to me that I could do it by myself without knowing the details. It is a kind of self-evaluation or rating in focusing on four areas called Paradigm, System, Skills and Knowledge. At the range from 1 to 10 what I have to do is to rate my own current "score" considering 1 is the lowest: 10 could be the highest. It looks like what I used to do for the Spiral Dynamics assessment. Perhaps this is why I felt I could do it without knowing the details Thus, what I did was:

1. Created my own definitions of all 10 levels for each area.
2. Scored my current level considering such definitions.

Creating totally 40 definitions (10 levels x 4 areas) was not an easy task. But somehow I was able to enjoy it. This is perhaps because doing this task alone could be part of my thought process of questioning "where am I now?" Anyway, this was supposed to be the email content to my coach; I would like to post it here.

Paradigm (1 to 10):
I think my score is 6. Considering a word, "paradigm", perhaps this area would be the most difficult part to understand what it is supposed to signify. In my understanding (based on my Philosophical background), "paradigm" is a kind of collective entity to describe the socio-cultural values shared among the group of people in a specific era or generation. For example, the change from agrarian age to industrial to information can be called a "paradigm shift". This is more significantly used in the area of history of science.

In the specific context of corporate world, "paradigm" could be considered as a kind of mindset shared among the specific group of organizational layer. For example, if you are newly-hired, you must be in a specific paradigm. And if you are already in the managerial level, then you must have experienced several paradigm shifts. The so-called worldview or perspective one sees must be "paradigmatically" different between newly hired employees and experienced executives. That is my understanding.

In considering such definition of "paradigm" I can say that my "paradigm score" is still 6. What are the remaining 3 levels? And what are the 6 levels I am supposed to achieve? I've tried to describe the definition of each level as follow:

1) Those who do not have any sense of employment and work.

2) Those who think that employment and work are just for a temporary mean to get money.

3) Those who have a long term perspective to work or be employed for years, though not necessary for their livelihood.

4) Those who think that employment and work are the mean for their livelihood, but not really connected to their life-work.

5) Those who see the interconnection between work for living and work for life.

6) Those who are constantly reflecting on how to connect their life-work with the current work situation.

7) Those who have an ideal alignment between work for living and work for life. Work is no longer just for living, but the ideal life condition for their growth and self-actualization.

8) Work is not only for their self-actualization, but also for the much bigger purpose that could be collectively shared among many people.

9) Those who can strongly feel that they are sent to this world to achieve something special in the world-centric perspective.

10) The "paradigm" that those "great teachers" of humankind have commonly shared.

The reason why I put myself at 6 is exactly what the definition says. I think I am still constantly reflecting on how to connect my own life-work with the current work situation, while I am working hard since there are a lot of things I can learn from the current work situation.

System (1 to 10):
While "paradigm" is the realm of how one collectively and inter-subjectively perceives the world, it seems to me that "system" is more objective interaction in which how one can put oneself. And in the context of corporate culture I think this could signify various human relations in the organization. If so, I would like to score myself as 6 again. Below is my definition of each level.

1) You are still very new to the organization and do not know anyone.

2) You know the names of your teammates, but still do not know the details of their roles.

3) You know your teammates very well including their roles and responsibilities.

4) You can see how you and your team can be related to other teams and to the whole organization.

5) You can correctly evaluate the contribution of others from the perspective of (4).

6) You can manage your team in relation to other teams and to the whole organization.

7) You can know how to improve your team and team members in providing the clear mission and vision in the context of (6).

8) You can always see the direction of the whole organization and how your team and other teams should be headed for in considering the current market landscape.

9) You can see how your organization is related to other organizations and to the current global scene.

10) You can see what your organization should do in the next 10 years.

It sounds like the higher the level could be the higher your position should be. But this is not my point. What I want to emphasize here is the higher your level may be the bigger picture you can see in your organization. But again, we should not be confused this with the mediocre media criticism that anyone can easily criticize the organizational leaders from his/her comfort zone. In my opinion, becoming higher score in the level of "System" means that you can effectively manage and lead people in the organization in both macro and micro perspectives. Considering this, I would like to say my level is still 6 as described above.

Skills (1 to 10):
While describing the levels of Paradigm and System, the question naturally popped up is of course "how can we upgrade such levels?" In this question what we should focus on are skills. Any improvement can be described as the conceptual definition of each level. But the real achievement of each level can be only seen in the demonstration of the skill-set that is required to master in the said level. Also by converting each level into the respective skill-set requirements we can also show the more practical approach on how to achieve the next level. There must be the various skills involved for the human growth in general, especially from the point of view of developmental psychology. Again I’ve tried to describe the definition of each level. And considering such description, I think I can score myself as 5 or 6.

1) Skills for basic communication. As long as you can talk, listen, read and write using your operational language in a given society. You can say you have such skills.

2) Skills that the basic education can grant. Aside from the basic communication skills anyone can possess, there must be the skills that the educational system can provide. With these skills, a certain vocational level of communication becomes possible.

3) Skills that the higher education can grant. In this level, the skills for communication have to be divided into more specialized disciplinary areas. If you finished college degrees or higher, then you are supposed to have such skills for the specialized communications.

4) Skills for the articulated communication. Including the skills for (2) and (3), in this level you are supposed to have the skills to conduct the intellectual but general communication. This communication skill sets look similar to (1) since it is not highly specialized. But the difference is that (4) is the general communication supported by various sets of insights, while (1) is the mere general communication, more primitive.

5) Skills for the matured communication. This is the set of skills that the mature members of the society are supposed to have. And to possess these skills, several kinds of transformative experiences may be required such socio-cultural initiations and trials.

6) Skills for the insightful communication. These are the set of skills that those people who are in the position of leading groups and being responsible and accountable for them. To possess these skills, another set of transformative experiences may be required.

7) Skills for the wisdom-based communication. If you possess this level of skill-set, you are already highly respected and compassionate. You deeply understand your skill-sets should be used for the much bigger purpose of the society (or even for the world) not only for your own or the group of your influence.

8) Skills for internalizing all your skills. In this level, there is no longer specific set of skill you are supposed to possess. Rather, you are required to "possess" a kind of skill that makes all your skills (1 to 7) part of your existence. Thus, you can execute your skills spontaneously without any self-conscious efforts avoiding any self-inflation cased by what you do.

9) Skills for unlearning all your skills. In this level, there is even no such sense that all your skills (1 to 7) are part of your existence (this is level 8). In a sense you can unlearn all your skills. For, in this level such sense that you possess your skill or that skills are part of yourself, may disturb the very execution of your skills. You really need the "skills" to unlearn all your skills.

10) Skills for forgetting all your skills. Dogen said: "To know the Truth, you have to know the Self. And to know the Self, you have to forget the Self." Just like this Zen Master stated, in this level you are at the state of the so-called perfect spontaneity. Everything in you is naturally and skillfully flowing. And yet, there are no such things as so-called skills-required. You are already just like a new-born baby (but paradoxically with full of wisdom).

These skills are more on the communication related soft-skills. So-called hard-skills on the work-related knowledge are confined to the level 4 and 5. Perhaps I should elaborate more details on such hard-skills to identify what skills are still missing in me for my current work-related role.

Knowledge (1 to 10):
One philosophical explanation of "knowledge" could be a series of information that has been articulated in the specific context. Hence, "data" and "information" can exist without any interference of actors; but "knowledge" is always something perceived and utilized with the specific intention of actors. In this regard, the level of "knowledge" should be described as a series of knowledge that I'm supposed to utilize in certain specific contexts and purposes.

For example, as a Ph.D. holder, I must possess the sufficient system of knowledge in a given field. But then, this does not mean that I can be "knowledgeable" in any given fields such as corporate fields and IT industries, etc. As a specific skill, perhaps I could trace the way I was able to master the system of knowledge in the field where I hold Ph.D. But again, such "traceability" does not necessarily guarantee that I can do it again in another given field.

Thus, considering my current role and responsibility, what kind of knowledge (or systems of knowledge) is supposed to be required? I think the following fields are primarily required, while these are probably overlapped one another to some extent.

1. Knowledge for the Specific Industry (IT / Security/ Marketing)
2. Knowledge for Management (like MBA things)
3. Knowledge for Soft-skills (Leadership / Communication, etc.)

And my knowledge level for each field could be varied one way or another because of my current position. As a manager I do not need the very specialized knowledge of IT / Security that, for example, some advanced engineers may need. However, the knowledge for management and soft-skills should be more important for my current position. Thus, as the knowledge level per se, the following 10 levels could be recommended.

Knowledge level:

1) Outsider: You know a bit of knowledge but you have never involved with any activity that the given knowledge requires.

2) Entrance: You had a chance to check it but still you have never involved with any activity that the given knowledge requires.

3) Basic: You had a chance to check it but still you have indirectly involved with any activity that the given knowledge requires.

4) Intermediate: You had researched it since you need this knowledge for your work.

5) Insider: You have to be fully involved with this knowledge because of your work requirements.

6) Advanced: You are fully involved with this knowledge and can contribute to the specific project where this knowledge is used.

7) Expert: You are already an expert of this knowledge and can constantly contribute any ideas to the given field of knowledge.

8) Specialized: You can teach this knowledge to others; at the same time, you can provide some innovative contributions to the given field of knowledge.

9) Authority: Many experts and specialized people are willing to listen to your advices and insights since you are considered the authority of the given field of knowledge.

10) Game-changer: You can create other new fields since your idea and contributions are already beyond the given filed of knowledge.

And if I apply these knowledge levels for the said three fields above, my knowledge levels could be scored as follows.

1. Knowledge for the Specific Industry (IT / Security/ Marketing) -- 5
2. Knowledge for Management -- 4
3. Knowledge for Soft-skills (Leadership / Communication, etc.) -- 5

Reflexive Applications

2006-01-06T03:29:00.000+08:00

A few months ago I encountered a chance to be interviewed about a sort of practical applications of the Spiral Dynamics model and its related Integral Approaches. That was just happened unexpectedly and coincidentally. And it was not sure that I was really a suitable person to answer for such interviewing. However, it was also true that that must be one of the valuable opportunities for me to reflect on how to develop such practical applications.

Though my experience on this matter is still partial and quite limited, I made the following writings in such a way to answer the interviewed questions. While the original questions and answers were more specific and detailed in referring to some particular institutes and proper names. But here in this blog I just post the modified version -- modified in such a way that the descriptions including the questions themselves are simplified, generalized; and become anonymous and an essay style.

To read through the following writings, however, first you need be familiar with each Meme color of Spiral Dynamics model and its implications. For this, therefore, while you should visit some famous Spiral Dynamics related sites. But then, just for a quick grasp, you can also visit the following pages within my website 1) Spiral Dynamics Image and 2) Meme Table. These are what I have made and summarized based on my understanding of Spiral Dynamics. And if you can understand Japanese, you can also visit this.

Q1. What are the ways in which you apply the principle of Spiral Dynamics that is so integral to your business? Could you give specific examples of the ways in which these principles are applied at (a) the individual level (b) the group or team level (c) the individual or interpersonal level?

A1. One of the valuable significances that Spiral Dynamics, aside from the other theories and reflexive models of evolutional / developmental views, could present is as follows. It has the multi-dimensional perspectives of micro and macro; and of the growth of the individuals, organizations, and socio-historical-civilizations. And one of the important components to explain Spiral Dynamics is what is called Meme. That is a sort of code that explains the individual value systems / maturity levels, the organizational value principles / life-cycles, and the paradigmatic perspectives of the civilization / socio-cultural settings.

By using such Meme code, then, Spiral Dynamics can map out a simultaneous whole picture where these three (individual, organizational, and socio-cultural) dimensions are fully presented. And in so doing we can figure out a series of specific Life Conditions (not necessarily one but the combinations of several Life Conditions) with which these three dimensions have been struggling consciously or unconsciously. Since Life Conditions are what described in each Meme as the series of life related, existential, and evolutional challenges in the above-mentioned multiple dimensional perspectives, realizing where you (you as the individual, your group, and your community) are placed or have reached so far in your reflexive view through Memes / Life Conditions (See this) is one of the primary requisites to clarify and understand where you (you as the individual, your group, and your community) should be aligned with the right direction of the consciousness evolution or the growth.

In the individual level, what the so-called integral evaluation of the Spiral Dynamics approach uses are 1) requiring the clients to answer the questionnaires (each question implies the respective Meme value but not obviously indicated); and 2) conducting the intensive interview to let the clients speak or write freely (and if possible existentially) by using their own words.

The reasons why we use this two-step approach is as follows: If we use the questionnaires alone to find out their imbedded, internalized Meme value, we have often encountered the incorrect result; the result does not show the correct Meme value the clients must have. It is because of the so-called structure/content gap. For example, if you read the explanation of Spiral Dynamics, then you can probably understand its theoretical contents. And then, for example you can see the ideal characteristics that the Second Tier Yellow Meme can manifest. You can know how the Second Tier Yellow Meme matured person looks, behaves, and speaks like. In short, you can know the "content" of the Second Tier Yellow Meme value. Knowing the "content" of this Yellow Meme, however, does not necessarily mean that even your "structure" has also achieved at the same Yellow Meme level. You can know what the Yellow Meme is; and probably you can even pretend to be the Yellow Meme person. But, even so, you can not live like the Yellow Meme person in a true sense.

Thus, if we rely on the questionnaire alone, we cannot grasp the true maturity of the clients (Memes or Life Conditions they face). If the clients are smart enough and know some extent about Spiral Dynamics as its knowledge, then they can probably choose some questions that indicate the Yellow Meme value, even though they have not been the Yellow Meme yet as far as their "structure" is concerned. In fact, most of the readers, when they read the explanations Spiral Dynamics, tend to believe that they have reached more or less the Orange to Green to Yellow levels if not Turquoise yet. The reason why this misunderstanding happens is the confusion that such readers (and clients) think if they could understand the "explanation" about Yellow Meme, then they conclude that they could achieve at Yellow Meme. But, the truth is that while their "content" is at the Yellow Meme level, their "structure" is not yet at the same Yellow Meme level.

In the field of mathematics, for example, if you can understand the explanations of one advanced mathematical theory, it follows that you could achieve at that advanced level. In the case of Meme understanding, however, this is not the same as such mathematical understanding. To reach the Yellow Meme level is not that you understand the "explanation" of Yellow Meme, but rather that you can live as the Yellow Meme individual.

As for Enneagram, for instance, probably the method of questionnaire can work, because the categorization of its nine personalities is rather horizontal; it is not the matter of "one is more matured than the other." Thus, in the questionnaire of Enneagram, the clients are not bothered by such ego-oriented self-conscious stress as to whether or not and what extent they have already matured etc. On the other hand, in the case of Spiral Dynamics, the Meme categorization is vertical; it does show the maturity level. This means that the higher / broader your Meme can become, the more you are matured and integrated. And if you could understand the "explanation" of the higher Meme, then you tend to think that you have already achieved at such higher / broader Meme level. But as explained above, it is not correct.

It is somewhat the similar case to the religious fanaticism or the ego-inflation of fundamental believers; they think they are superior, enlightened, or saved because they understand and/or believe the "explanation" of their particular doctrine, etc. If, for example, they know the teaching of "love your neighbors as you love yourself," then in this "knowing" they blame (or even kill) their neighbors who do not know (or do not believe) this teaching. Since we are all selfish in one way or another, we like to think that we can see many things by the explanations and the interpretations, but the truth is that we can only know the "extent" that we can see and vice versa. Because of this "tautological reality," such vertical (expanding the worldview) maturity cannot be figured out by the self-answered questionnaires. Ultimately, it is that only the Yellow Meme person can see whether or not the client has been already achieved at the Yellow Meme level; whether or not they pretend to be a Second Tier, Yellow person.

If so, then should those uses who use the Spiral Dynamics evaluation be all in the Yellow Meme level? And if so, who could know on earth that those users have been already in the Yellow Meme level? In reality, those users themselves cannot be free from the above-mentioned ego-oriented self-deception and dilemma, either. How can we go about this difficulty that one can not see one's maturity by oneself? This is the dilemma of the self-evaluate one's own maturity level and even when one evaluates others.

Thus, the second method is the intensive interview and the sort of free-writing or free-speaking exercises using one's own words. It is easy for us to repeat and duplicate what we have learned (it is a way of having, not being if we use the term of Erich Fromm). For example, it is easy for us to describe how the Second Tier Yellow Meme person looks / behaves / speaks like and what his/her personality may be based on his/her own reading about the Spiral Dynamics and some other ethical, religious descriptions. However, if you have to talk your own value systems, aside from those explanations you know about Spiral Dynamics, but by using your own words. It is not so easy. For example, if your interviewer asks you such questions like "What is the most important thing in your life?" or "What is the definition of your success in your life?" And if you answer to your interviewer, "It is my family," or "It is my job," and so on, then, your interviewer has to ask you again "Why do you think so?" Or, even your interviewer should not ask any questions in the first place, but let you choose even the theme itself that you are going to talk about. In this way, a sort of miniature of how you live in your own life has to be manifested. In short, not relying on your way of having, your way of being should be manifested.

In this situation you can not help but show your own value systems and existential commitments to your life and to what you think as the most important thing in your life. This inevitably shows your maturity in one way or another. Of course, it is still easy to say and difficult to conduct this kind of interview for the following reasons: 1) depending on the relationship (trustfulness, rapport, mutual respect, etc.) between the interviewer and the client, still the diagnosis may be changed. 2) And depending on the physical and psychological conditions of the clients, the answers (free-writing / free-speaking) of the client may be changed, too. If the client is in the quite stress-free, optimum condition, then he or she can speak / behave / write as a more matured person. (In the same way, the conditions of the interviewer are also important. It also affects the clients and how they react.) If the client is under the stressful situation and having some personal problems, then the answer would be more negative and cannot show the true maturity that the client is supposed to have.

Thus, though it is a difficult task, such intensive interview is still much better than merely conducting the questionnaire alone. And the bottom line of this approach after all is "To understand the maturity of the person, do not listen to what he speaks, but see how he lives in his life." It is just like saying, "Therefore by their fruits you will know them." (Matthew 7: 20)

And, the diagnosis of the group / team maturity level actually relies on the result of the individual one. If we know the Meme level of each member, then what we do next is focus on the so-called Meme ratio (or Meme portfolio) of the group. For example, if we deal with the fifty members of the group, then we will figure out how many are Green Meme, Orange Meme and Blue Meme, out of those fifty, etc. and will see the so-called center of gravity of this group. If the majority of the members (let's say more then 50% of them) are still Blue Meme. Then, the value system of this group is more based on the Blue Meme (group-centric behavior). Thus, our role is let the members realize their typical (especially Mean) Blue Meme value oriented behaviors; and let them think why and how they are so; and eventually let them suggest their own resolutions to overcome their current Life Conditions caused by the Mean Blue Meme with the conflicts with the other Mean Memes.

Here, please note that the Spiral Dynamics evaluation or approach is not what to provide the resolution or a "magic formula" to enable them to elevate the next Meme level and so on. In the Spiral Dynamics or more generally Integral Approaches as such, the problem caused by their Meme maturity level is actually "their own problem" not someone else's. In this regard, they cannot go to the next level unless and until they can solve their own problem and overcome their own Life Conditions by themselves. We call this stance "We take care of the processes of your problem, but you have to be responsible with the contents of your problem." It is not that we are irresponsible for our consulting and evaluating task; rather, we think this is one of the most effective approaches of being facilitators as far as the vertical growth / maturity of both individual (each member) and group (all members) is concerned.

In the inter-personal level, of course, we focus on the so-called inter-Meme conflicts. In the perspective of Spiral Dynamics, as long as you are in the First Tier Memes, you cannot avoid such conflicts. It is because each Meme is derived from the resolution to overcome the Life Condition of the previous lower Mean Meme. For example, the modern science and technology of Orange Meme was emerged to overcome the pre-modern dehumanized traditional doctrines of Mean Blue Meme. And the post-modern, ecological, environmental, hermeneutic qualitative approach was emerged to overcome the dehumanized materialism and consumerism of Mean Orange Meme. And because of this, Green Meme hates Orange Meme; Orange Meme hates Blue Meme; Blue Meme hates Red Meme; and Green Meme misunderstands Blue Meme, and so on.

These conflicts happen even in the micro individual level. In the group, for example, the individualistic, materialistic Orange Meme rationalistic young employee hates his boss since the mentality of his boss is the Blue Meme old-type traditional loyalist devoting his life entirely to his company and ignoring his family, etc. The Green Meme ecological young employee who is spending her spare time for NPO volunteer works in her community level does not respect her Orange Meme officemates since they have lost themselves in the trend of shallow consumerism, etc.

These cases are just describing the general, simplified Meme-related personality patterns. In the real work place, the more work-related ways of such inter-Meme conflicts must take place. If so, what those facilitators and evaluators can do is let them realize their own Life Conditions; and let them think or find out their own resolutions of how to overcome these Life Conditions. Actually such recognition of inter-Meme conflicts from the higher / boarder perspective is the Life Conditions of Green Meme, which may lead the Green Meme people to the Second Tier if they can successfully overcome their particular problems. But again, we need to emphasize that these are their own problems of maturity; therefore, there is no "magic formula" but they can solve their own problems only when they can fully commit themselves to this problems wholeheartedly and existentially. Only what we can do is to evaluate the Meme and to facilitate the process of their existential problems, while they are committing and struggling with the very contents of their existential problems.

Q2. When you have organizations as your clients, how might you diagnose the stage of their life cycle? Do you have unique definitions for the way in which you conduct organizational consultation?

A2. The general approach of our diagnosis or evaluation is as follows: 1) conducting the questionnaires; 2) conducting the intensive interview of each members of the organization; 3) figuring out the center of gravity of the Meme of each member as well as the whole organization; 4) figuring out the so-called Meme ratio of the organization and indicate the stage of the life-cycle of the organization; 5) conducting the presentation / workshop so as to let them realize their own Meme related problems / Life Conditions. In the workshop, we let them deal with their own (each member and the whole group) Life Conditions and figure out the resolutions by themselves.

Actually it is similar to the approach of Community Development in one way or another. In the awareness phase we let them realize their own problems (Life Conditions) that they have taken for granted. And also we let them realize the fact that these problems have been caused by and/or related to the level of their maturity and value system (Meme). And in the action phase, we let them realize the fact that these problems are their own problem; hence, there is no "magic formula" provided by someone else outside; no one else can solve these problems but they themselves alone have to go about them with their full commitments. And it is also the way for them to leap into the next Meme and actualize their own maturity. And in the follow-up phase we also emphasize the fact that this kind of Meme related problem-solving needs to take time; hence, cannot expect the quick resolution. And also we emphasize the fact that even if they could overcome their own Life Conditions, that is still not the end. Another awareness phase will come out for your continuous, spiral growth and development. But the next time, perhaps, the situation is not unnecessarily stressful (it does not necessarily mean easy, though) since they have already known the whole perspective of the growth and the evolution.

However, it does not necessarily mean easy to go about the next problem. As it is repeatedly pointed out, the higher / broader our maturity level may reach, the more serious and more difficult problems we have to face. For example, the nuclear weapons become only available in the emergence of Orange Meme; such weapons did not exist during the Purple Meme period. Or, rocks do not die, but amebas do; amebas do not get cancer but dogs do; dogs do not commit suicide but humans do, etc.

Q3. How might Integral Approach be implemented in your work? For example, can it be applied for the integration of business work and spirituality?

A3. Just like Spiral Dynamics is part of it, one of the significances of Integral Approach is embracing all the paradigmatic, methodological conflicts in one reflexive model; and showing that there is actually no conflict as to one theory / methodology over another, but it is that each of them is just representing the partiality of the whole pictures. Thus, the important thing or the truth is not "Which is right?" but "Everything is true but partial." As mentioned above in answering the previous questions, in the post-modern, multi-cultural, relativistic situation we have been bombarded by a number of diverse theories, applications, practices, methods, tools, and perspectives, etc. And this fact has bothered the business sector when some companies try to choose which consultation may be correct or more effective; how one of the consolations can work especially when the office environment is multi-cultural and multi-dimensional as far as each member's personal and inter-personal growth is concerned.

In this post-modern confused situation, then, by introducing and implementing the Integral Approach, we can let the clients realize that actually "Everything is available for them." Thus, the important thing is neither "Which is better?" nor "How to cover such everything?" but rather "How correctly to reflect upon the reflexive map of such everything?" and this is the attitude of reflexivity. And, the important part is whether or not they have a correct reflexive map that can teach us the significance and each approach and the mature stance that we do not attach each of them. Indeed, such reflexive attitude is the possibility to lead us to the Second Tier realization of Spiral Dynamics.

And as you have already noticed, this approach itself is quite spiritual. Attempting spiritual practices is not necessarily going to meditation centers, workshop seminars, traditional churches / temples / shrines / mosques, or seeking for your won guru, etc. (while these are also important partially as long as you can avoid the religious ethnocentrism and post-modern narcissistic spiritualism) but rather the continuous effort to place yourself on the reflexive perspective. For, if we stick to the former convenient practices, then, contrary to our intention to have the reflexive, integral non-attachment, we tend to inflate our ego in knowing that we are practicing spiritual exercises in a special conditions and tend to forget the truth that spirituality is also (always already) rested even in our everyday life, not confined to the special occasions, places, practices, and so on.

The way to integrate spirituality and work, therefore, is first try to have an above-mentioned open-mined attitude and humbleness to see "Everything is correct / true but partial." (It is easy to know and possess this knowledge of that way, but it is really difficult to live that way.) And second, try to find the true spirituality in your everyday life and work places. And then third, without attaching to any particular methods (schools, dominations, traditions), find your committed time to contemplate on the true spirituality. Thus, it is not stick to one particular way. (What I explained here might be also the particular way. But again, knowing this continuous self-referential reflection, reflexive attitude would be the key to overcome this dilemma.)

Q4. How such Integral Approach or Perspective, for example, could be applied for some ways in which Eastern and Western ideas have been integrated?

A4. In this Integral Approach or Perspective, we should not be specifically concerned with such dichotomy between Eastern ideas and Western ones. Rather than focusing on the integration of these two extremes, we have tried to work on the very Integration as such. This means that as described above, the priority is place ourselves on the Integral Attitude where "Everything is true but partial" has been fully appreciated. And as the result of this Attitude, it follows that we can also practice the integration of Eastern ideas and Western ones rather from the Second Tier perspective.

The effort of such Eastern / Western integration sounds quite post-modern and/or (Mean) Green Meme. When the Westerners think of the Eastern ideas especially for those Americans in San Francisco (or the West Coast area), these are the so-called Eastern ideas interpreted and re-evaluated by the Western people in the intention of their own self-criticism. When the Westerners have faced the mean side of their Orange Meme such as materialism, consumerism and individualism, they start looking for the Green Meme value as a resolution in the outside of themselves. To overcome their own Mean Orange Meme, they start looking for Green Meme in the Eastern ideas that they have taken for granted for a long while. When they realized that their Orange Meme focused cultures have lost anything spiritual, they start looking for something spiritual in the Eastern ideas.

Thus, as we well-known, a lot of Americans during 1960s (up to the present probably) became so eager to learn the Eastern spiritual ideas about Buddhism, Hinduism, Islamic Sufism and so on. A lot of Americans tried to visit the Eastern countries such as India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, and so on. Or else, they also tried to visit those countries in Central / Latin Americas to seek for something spiritual. Or, even in their own countries they start appreciating the Native American cultures.

All those movements are derived from the Westerners' self-criticism that what they have lost in their Orange / Modern paradigm must be still remained in those Eastern traditional cultures. And they are so eager to reevaluate those Eastern cultures to overcome their own Mean Orange Meme (materialism, consumerism, individualism, modern flatland, etc.). And some Westerners have gotten confused in the pre/trans-fallacy. This means, they thought that something pre-modern or some Blue Meme traditions, superstitions, tribal sorceries, etc. must be "something really Green" that can save them from the Mean Orange Meme.

The irony is that while those Westerns have confused in their Blue/Green Meme (pre/trans) fallacy in their obsessive, narcissistic self-criticism and post-modern reflections, those Eastern people themselves have still been seeking for the Orange Meme based individualistic, materialistic prosperities. This was a sort of ironic twist that while Westerners appreciate the Eastern ideals, those Eastern people still envy the Western cultures. We should be keenly aware of this kind of twist and the fact that this must cause the series of the efforts for the post-modern (Green) Western / Eastern "integration" during the last quarter of the 20th century.

And the recent scene of such inter-cultural efforts in the Mean Green Meme, we can see what is called "strategic essentialism." This is a counter reaction of the Eastern side (not only Eastern but also any non-Western cultures) towards the Westerners' narcissistic appreciation of the Eastern ideas. Knowing the fact that their own cultures and ideas have been appreciated by the Westerners, then, taking advantage of this fact, those non-Westerners try to emphasize the right and the value of their own non-Western cultures more strategically and even politically. It is that those non-Westerners take advantage of the Westerns' self-criticism. Moreover, those non-Westerners also try to criticize the Westerns and their Mean Orange Meme value together with the Westerns who try to overcome this Mean Orange Meme and try to leap into the Green Meme. (Also please note that this effort of the self-criticism by the Westerners themselves is already the Green Meme or even the Mean Green Meme, which tries to attack to anything about Orange Meme and necessarily appreciates the Mean Blue Meme of non-Western traditional cultures.)

And the Meme of those non-Westerners who utilize such situation is not necessarily Green Meme but rather mostly either Blue Meme or Orange Meme. For, their true intention is neither to overcome the Mean Orange Meme nor even to reach the Green Meme multicultural perspectives. But rather, their intention is just to insist their own ethnocentric value (Blue Meme) and align themselves with the Western context of materialism and commercialism (Orange Meme). You can easily think of so-called non-Western, exotic, ethnic artifacts and fashions can be the important profitable items in the Western market places and can be easily utilized by the materialistic intention of non-Westerns themselves

Thus, the attitude of Integral Approach on the "integration" of Eastern and Western ideas is derived neither from such Western self-criticism (post-modern narcissism) nor from the Eastern (Non-Western) strategic essentialism. In others words, we neither intend to introduce the Eastern "spiritual" ideas to those Green Meme Westerns, nor to install the (Orange) Western business scientific theories in those Blue Meme non-Western people.

Probably the post-modern (Green Meme) multiculturalism might be misleading in this point. It might have given an impression that it emphasizes the Oriental exoticism in the context of both Western narcissism and Non-Western strategic essentialism. But then, to be clear, considering the meat of the Integral Approaches, it does not intend to place ourselves on such Meme Green Meme oriented multiculturalism, relativism, transpersonal psychologies, or any Eastern / Western sort of esoteric spiritual excises, practices and so on, so fourth.

Of course, we do not deny the value of those Green Meme based approaches. But again, they are just "partially true and correct." More clearly, our attitude on the Eastern / Western integration is rather to point out those partiality and/or fallacy of the Mean Green Meme based approaches of multiculturalism, etc. and seek for (or let the clients seek for) the truly Integral Second Tier perspective by such above-mentioned, free-writing / free-speaking interviews and workshops etc.

Q5. Were there instances when clients thought the integration of Eastern practices was inappropriate for your work? Could you give examples of when this occurred, and how were the problems resolved?

A5. As I have explained in my answers to the previous questions, the aim of Integral Approach in the "integration" of Western and Eastern ideas is neither to introduce the Eastern ideas / practices to the clients, nor to install the Western practices / theories at them. The aim is lead the clients to the Integral Perspectives where such Western / Eastern dichotomy (post-modern narcissism and/or strategic essentialism) is no longer existing or bothering both clients and ourselves. In this regard, I do not think that the Integral Approach has ever encountered the situation described in the above-mentioned question. This does not mean, however, that we have never encountered any complaints of our clients. More often, what we have encountered is a sort of misunderstanding that the clients do not fully grasp our Integral Approaches.

Based on the first impression that the Integral Approach shows especially on the unique, exotic Oriental implications under the post-modern environment, it is more likely that the clients tend to expect some special Eastern ideas that could work as a sort of "magic formula" to solve the problem of the clients instantly. As I explained above, however, this is really misunderstanding. We neither introduce any Eastern ideas nor emphasize that such ideas (approaches, methodologies, theories and practices) can work as an instant "magic formula," nor lead the clients to the Western / Eastern dichotomy, which is common in the post-modern mentality (Mean Green Meme) or in the ethnocentric exoticism (Mean Blue Meme). This is probably the difficulty the Integral Approach tends to encounter in the first contact with the clients.

Thus, in the first contact, to avoid such misunderstanding and distorted expectation in the clients' side, what we have to do are the following two things.

1) We do not introduce any Eastern ideas and approaches to the clients. Rather, what we do introduce is the Integral Perspective where such post-modern multiculturalism is no longer the serious problems but the soundly integrated. In other words, the Westerners no longer mystify the Eastern ideas and approaches; at the same time the non-Westerners no longer attach the Western ideas and approaches; and they no longer use their own Eastern ideas and approaches in the way of strategic essentialism.

In short, the Integral Approach is the perspective where the Mean Green Meme value can be resolved and to lead us to the Second Tier Yellow perspectives. But of course, it is impossible to lead the Blue Meme traditional people to such Second Tier level in one single move. And yet, as least as the content aspect (not structure) we can introduce such explanation.

2) Also we do not let the clients expect that what we will provide can work as an instant "magic formula" that can solve their problem immediately. Rather, we will emphasize and let them realize that their problem is related to their own maturity level (Meme); therefore, to overcome their problem what they can do is only to wait for their own growth (or the time to be manifested). And their growth is not that we can let them grow, but rather the only "business" that they themselves must fully commit in their own path. What we can do is show them the cause of the problem and let them realize that it is their own problem not our problem. Although we can show the path that they have to go through, but it is the path that they have to walk by themselves; it is not the path that we can carry them on the way. Or, ultimately and paradoxically it is the path that they can go through by letting themselves go.

Perhaps from the Orange Meme oriented perspective, this way of consulting or facilitating looks irresponsible. However, as we know the typical problem of the personal growth in the field of psychotherapy or any counseling, etc. the problem of the growth is the kind of issue that one can never solve unless and until they can fully commit oneself to it (and ultimately or paradoxically unless and until they can fully let go of their very intentions.) And our Integral Approach is let the individuals, the groups, the organizations and the communities climb the ladder of Meme; and eventually let them realize the Second Tier Integral perspective.

Q6. Has your unique approach to your work affected your personal life and in what ways?

A6. Yes, it has. As I have explained so far in answering all the previous questions, the Integral Approach is to avoid such post-modern narcissism (Mean Green Meme) that people appreciate each other's cultures in projecting one's ego-oriented attachments to the other. Again, the way that Westerners appreciate the Eastern ideas in their own self-projection is quite post-modern (Mean Green Meme). Also the way that non-Westerns take advantage of their own non-Western ideas to satisfy their own ethnocentrism is pre-modern (Mean Blue Meme), otherwise if it is materialistically motivated to put themselves in the Western prosperity, it is modern (Mean Orange Meme). Actually such combinations of Mean Green, Mean Orange and Mean Blue have made our inter-cultural approaches difficult to handle and incidentally so does for the filed of area studies.

But, if we focus on the Integral Approaches, then we can clearly recognize where the problems of the inter-cultural approaches have located and how we should handle them. And such Integral Approaches could also help my personal life since I also live in the inter-cultural environments – living in the Philippines and working in the multi-national companies. Because of such Integral Approaches, I can avoid the tendency to stereotype and generalize any nationalities and ethnicities based on my narrow experiential biases and/or conventional shallow perceptions.

In the multicultural environments whether it is in the community, the office, or even the academia, we witness a lot of stereotyping and generalizing one another's cultural aspects especially when the Meme level of each member and its entity (the center of gravity) is quite low. But even in such low Mean Meme environment if you can keep the reflexive Integral Perspective, then you can protect yourself from such negative influences as inter-Meme conflicts, etc.

Another point that our Integral Approaches have influenced my personal life is my attitude on the personal growth. Every time when I encounter the problems in my life, then because of such Integral Approaches, I can think that the problems look like serious problems because of my negative distorted view caused by my immaturity. Also I can think that those problems are actually and essentially my own problems not anyone else's.

In this way, I can be encouraged to (using Nietzsche's words) have the attitude of "love your fate" despite the adversities to be faced for my own growth. I can see such perspective that everything and everyone have been prepared for my own growth and in the same way for the growth of others. Only by accepting such perspective, then, I can courageously without fears to accept everything and everyone as is. And only in this attitude, I can truly understand the importance to connect myself with the spiritual dimension always. It sounds esoteric. But I believe this is the really important point.

Q7. What additional comments would you like to add?

A7. Please note that what I have described in answering all these questions is my personal understanding on the Spiral Dynamics Applications. Therefore, this is not to represent the official policy. Probably some of my statements might be deviated from the general stance that the other practitioners hold. However, I believe that providing my own personal view on this must have a certain contribution to its further understanding. And because of this, also please note that I am solely responsible for what I have stated here in answering all your questions.

Philosophical Attitude

2005-12-10T01:08:00.000+08:00

What is the true philosophical attitude? Or more specifically, what is the true meaning of our process of articulation that can ultimately contribute to the progress of our insight to expand the worldview, which can eventually lead us to the stance to see everything and everyone as it is?

This question sounds quite naïve; at the same time, looks an ambitious attitude since it is definitely unrealistic to consider ourselves as some of the great thinkers who have really contributed to the progress of human conscious evolution -- the contribution that can make us a bit or a quite wiser and smarter than we used to be. Although it is unrealistic, this does not necessarily mean that we can ignore the true meaning of such philosophical attitude.

Of course, the philosophical attitude is not that we generate the totally novel theories and practices out of our conventional, ego-oriented, narrow-minded, and dualistic speculations. Rather, the philosophical attitude is to humbly and modestly try to open our mind to make our best efforts to let us follow the trace of the past great thinkers and their best efforts of articulations. However, doing so is not that we simply stand on the tip of such huge iceberg and mindlessly tracing and introducing them so as to make their core thoughts more ambiguous with our unnecessarily interpreted countless footnotes and comments. But rather, doing so is try to our best efforts to transcend and include these articulations as much as possible.

And again, it is not that we should absorb and digest all those past theories, articulated discourses, and practices to produce something totally novel, which are of course impossible. What we try to do is at least to "reflect" upon them. Actually the post-modern attempt was such "reflection." The post-modern people tried to reflect upon all those past theories, articulated discourses, and practices. And of course in such thoughtful attitude, they did not forget to reflect upon themselves, either, which is called "self-reflection."

In my opinion (at least in the context of this writing) self-reflection is one of the "highest" achievements so far in the path to the human maturity. And in this self-reflective attitude, they keep on examining how much what they themselves saw have been distorted; how much they have misinterpreted what they see. Moreover, the act of seeing things is inevitably the act of interpretations, and such everything is indeed interpretation. Thus, we cannot avoid the pitfall of misinterpretations about us, others, and environments, and of course about God.

In the self-reflective attitude of such interpretations, ironically the more we try to be sincere on it, the more we have put ourselves on the so-called kaleidoscopic dizziness of opposite mirror, which leads us to the hermeneutic circle of no true answers whatsoever. Having no answers and yet at the same knowing that we could reflect upon everything and everyone including ourselves, such "having" and "knowing" inevitably lead us to what I call post-modern nihilism and post-modern narcissism. We become nihilistic in knowing there is no answer to understand everything at the same time probably unconsciously we are narcissistic in knowing we are the most matured ones to be able to reflect upon everything and everyone including ourselves.

Now, this is the "true crisis" on our act of articulation and of self-reflection. Indeed, the very end result of our intellectual act which can be regarded as conventional philosophical attitude has been chocking our own throat at the end. What is called the "end of philosophy" or the "death of meta-narrative" in effect becomes one of the manifestations upon such self-destructive intellectual dead-end. Thus, to overcome such "true crisis" of our own intellectualization, what we need is to restore and redefine the "philosophical attitude" as such in a more wholesome and sincere approach.

Indeed, doing philosophy is not the superficial bookish study of contemporary/past philosophers, and philosophies and philosophical theories. Doing philosophy is not to produce another version of interpretations in the midst of the above-mentioned post-modern hermeneutic vicious circle. Rather, doing philosophy, above all, is to seek for the true meaning of philosophizing and in so doing philosophy can be close to the act of true philosophizing as such.

And in my opinion, what we have to do in seeking for the act of philosophizing, first of all, is to be aware of and go about this "true crisis" upon our act of self-reflection per se. In short, put it bluntly, it is the attempt of reflecting upon our self-reflections. And I want to call it the act of "self-reflexivity" in this particular context.

Thus, what we need to do is: 1) to be aware of such post-modern crisis or the crisis of self-reflection; 2) to face the problem or the mean side of this self-reflection; 3) to realize that facing this mean side of self-reflection can lead us to the more sincere reflection on the self-reflections, which can be for our terminology here called self-reflexivity. And only in this attitude we can sincerely place ourselves on the progress of our intellectual (true philosophical) pursuit or we can restore such attitude and resume the path of our consciousness evolution.

More analogically speaking, when we are new-born babies, we were not aware of ourselves. We did not have self-awareness since we did not have clear consciousness per se. But then, when we have consciousness, we could have the self-awareness. Because of this self-awareness, we can see ourselves in front of us and in our own imagination (consciousness). But then, that we see ourselves (others, environments, God too) that way means that we have been divided into two -- the one who sees ourselves and the other who are seen by the one. Because of self-consciousness, we have to see and understand everything and everyone in such divided, separated duality.

To reduce this gap between seer and seen in the duality we have made a lot of numerous interpretations to explain and articulate ourselves (as well as; our world, others, environments, and God). And yet, the more we try to produce the interpretations, the more the gap has been expanded and gotten complicated. And finally we have realized that the very act of interpretation itself can not reduce the gap, rather it is the very reason to make a gap at the first place since the birth of consciousness (self-awareness). Then, we have despaired with a bit of arrogance in thinking we are the ones to know this truth. We have become nihilistic and narcissistic.

Yet, let us recall the fact that there was a certain "breakthrough" when we have transformed from "being unconscious baby" to "a man of self-awareness." Knowing this transformation, it is not so unrealistic to think that there will be another "breakthrough" for us to overcome this present dilemma of self-awareness. Indeed, the function of our self-awareness has shown its own limitation and mean side at this moment finally. In the act or the effort of self-reflexivity, restoring the true attitude of philosophizing, then at least we can sense a subtle beginning of the next breakthrough.

Theoretically when we were an unconscious baby (when we were the residents of Garden of Eden), we were able to see everything and everyone as it is unconsciously just like other animals, we were the part of the universe. And because of the self-awareness, the birth of consciousness, we have become the ones to see everything and everyone only in the separated dualities, while there are a lot of contributions in this dual separation such as having the "free will" as one of the most previous gifts from God, we could control and cultivate the world in one way or another.

Because of "free will," we are no longer the puppet of God and of the universe. However, because of "free will," we have had our free will not to see God or our will to see God only through our dualistic interpretations, subject-object separations.

This is one of the biggest ironies. Because of self-awareness, birth of consciousness, and free will, we have started questioning "Who I am," "Where I came from" and "Where I will go," etc. In other words, because of self-awareness, birth of consciousness, and free will, the very act of philosophy and philosophizing (or ultimately any intellectual activities) has taken place.

Probably the next "breakthrough" will be to overcome our duality and subject-object separation. We do not know how this will happen; however, we can expect that another transformation will be similar to such way that the transformation from "being an unconscious baby" to "a man of self-awareness." Probably this will be the transformation from a man of self-awareness to a man of something else... a man of full-consciousness, awakened, enlightened, and so on.

Beyond Polarity

2005-11-26T04:31:00.000+08:00

As well-known, the Yin-Yang relation is a symbol of polarity in the teaching of Taoism. This symbol, however, should not be confined to symbolizing a mere conventional mundane doctrine of Taoism, which is quite far from what Lao Tzu truly taught in his writing, Tao Te Ching. The so-called conventional Taoism practiced mainly in the level of the magic / mythic membership religiosity is the teaching upon the worldly benefits such as material prosperity (how to become rich) and physical health (long-lasting life), etc. Using the Spiral Dynamics terms, this is merely the Blue to Orange Meme value.

Needless to say, we should not emphasize the Blue to Orange Meme value alone, even though we are in the practical business world; even though we have to address to the profitability of the business sectors; and even though we have to consider our own profitability in one way or another. But rather, what the Yin-Yang symbolism can imply, by intentionally objectifying such polarity per se, is the more reflexive perspective.

The Yin-Yang symbolism is not to attach to this principle of polarity and dualism, but rather (knowing and observing such very principle) to detach from this very worldly movement and reach the reflexive perspective.

In any given situations, if we focus on one particular value alone, such one side approach will inevitably lead us to a certain imbalance. If we try to emphasize the masculine (Yang) aspect, then our effort to emphasize this one side aspect alone will eventually invite the feminine (Yin) aspect, which we did not intend in the first place. More generally, attaching to one side too much is conversely inviting and inevitably emphasizing the other (and vice versa). In short, attaching one too much produces the others eventually. Emphasizing black color too much is actually inviting the recognition of white color at the end.

Furthermore, we can easily notice that seeing God under such polarity will inevitably invite the features of non-God such as existence of devils, evils, demons, and exorcism, etc. Seeing God in the principle of polarity coincide with seeing what is not God. This is one of the most dangerous pitfalls in our spiritual religiosity. The truth is that God is beyond polarity. But then, without noticing this truth, as soon as we see God in the polarity, we fall in the dangerous magico-mythical view of religions, which is the cause of all religious, ideological conflicts and cruelties.

We should note that true God is what can never be seen in such polarity; He is that which can never be objectified. Thus, it is correct to say that God is no-where (therefore now-here and everywhere) and is never seen, but God just is (He sees us at the same time seen by us within); For, He is indeed beyond polarity and duality. This is why; "God says in the Scriptures, I will destroy the wisdom of all who claims to be wise. I will confuse those who think they know so much." (1 Corinthians 1:19)

According to Lao Tzu, this Yin-Yang polarity is the basic principle of any processes in the world and even that of those intellectual interpretations by which we can produce the diverse kinds of theories, applications, practices and methods, etc. Ultimately, what we can achieve at the final moment would be a certain transcendental realm where nobody attaches anything but embracing everything and everyone.

But of course, such attitude sounds so esoteric especially in our everyday business practices. But then, even though it sounds esoteric, it is still important for us to keep in mind of such "spiritual perspective" in our everyday business practices. Especially in the contemporary multicultural environments we have been bombarded by a number of diverse business theories, applications, practices, tools, methods, and many other (both main and peripheral) socio-cultural perspectives and value systems. Such kind of bombardments have bothered us a lot and become the cause of our stressful life situations, which is called Life Conditions in the Spiral Dynamics terminology

Considering such Life Conditions particularly that Mean Blue Meme (religious, ideological conflicts and cruelties), Mean Orange Meme (materialistic consumerism), and Mean Green Meme (nihilistic, narcissistic value-relativism) have been creating a lot of serious conflicts and stresses in their inter-Meme conflicts, the broader and more reflexive perspective beyond these inter-Meme conflicts is necessary. In the reflexive perspective both horizontal (ontological, epistemological, and methodological) perspectives and vertical (cognitive, evolutional, and developmental) perspectives should be integrated in the micro (individual) and macro (collective, socio-cultural, historical) dimensions.

One of the key attitudes in such reflexive, integral perspective is that "Everything is right but partial." In this attitude we can avoid the so-called ego-oriented tendency to attach to one particular value, theory, application, practice, and method etc., which will always be the cause of conflicts and stresses that unable us to align with the true authentic direction or process towards our consciousness evolution.

Reflecting on the non-dual detached attitude of Lao Tzu, the Yin-Yang symbol should be rather appreciated as one of the symbols that can present such Reflexive, Integral Non-Attachment.

Everything, Everyone As Is

2005-11-02T23:50:00.000+08:00

Often we hear such spiritual advice that a key to our true maturity is how to see everything as it is; and understand everyone as he/she is. Of course when we look at a glass of water in front of us, it is easy to see it as it is. When you meet a friend of yours in a certain occasion, then it is also easy to understand this person as he/she is, otherwise; it may be difficult to recognize the person as your friend in the first place. Strictly speaking, however, in such a simple perceptual recognition we have had distorted such view that these items and/or persons are placed in front of us. But more often, the difficulty for us to see things and/or persons as they are, is to take place when we try to put "meanings" on these things and persons.

Such "meanings" have been quite often consciously or unconsciously derived from our ego-oriented expectations and desires. Actually that is the cause of our arguments, or else the cause of sufferings. As the Buddha has pointed out in such a way that ego is the cause of desires that is the cause of suffering; hence knowing ego is just illusion is the end of suffering that is the path to awakening and enlightenment. Probably it is not easy or even unrealistic for us modern (or postmodern) people to accept the fact that ego is just illusion. Since the Birth of Consciousness we have had our own self-awareness that has differentiated us from the rest of animals which are part of the environments and God. That self-awareness has separated us from the environments and God.

Because of the Birth of Consciousness, we can no longer sense our Oneness with the environments and God, but only can see them in front of us; and can imagine in our consciousness. Suppose the environments and God are the Ultimate Totality and Wholeness, what does it mean that we can see such Totality and Wholeness only in front of us or in our conscious imagination? It is an unfortunate distortion and paradox that we can see the Ultimate Totality and Wholeness only in such way that we cannot feel them as our own reality, but as the separated, signified symbols and concepts; hence we see ourselves as the separated, signified symbols and concepts, which is called ego.

Indeed, since the Birth of Consciousness (metaphorically speaking since we have left the Garden of Eden) not only the environments and God, but even we cannot sense ourselves in such Ultimate Reality; we just see ourselves as the separated compartment; hence we also see others in the same way. As the result, we can no longer see the truth that everything and everyone are interconnected in the Ultimate Reality. Such compartments of ourselves and of others keep on bothering us. It is because we need to keep placing our meanings and interpretations upon these compartmentalized items. And these meanings and interpretations endlessly and kaleidoscopically keep on changing and transforming; sometimes based on our desires and expectations; and sometimes against them.

If these items (reality) can fit our interpretations and expectations, then we are happy. If not, then we are unhappy or frustrated. If our interpretations and expectations can be the same as the others, then we can agree with those others. If these are different from the others, then we have to argue with or sometimes even fight (or worse kill or killed by) those others. All in all, the problem is that such everything and everyone (ourselves, others, environments and God), while these are ultimately being interconnected, have been separated; therefore, such everything and everyone can be seen only through our fragmented, unreliable compartmentalized, kaleidoscopically changing shadows. These are just like "a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." (James 1:6)

If we try to follow such spiritual advice that seeing everything as it is and understanding everyone as he/she is, what could be the modest first step to practice this advice? The first one could probably be having an open-mined attitude and being humble. The Scriptures say that "God resists the proud. But give grace to the humble." (Proverbs 3:34) If you do not stick to your own opinion and interpretation, but maintain an open-minded attitude to accept many other possible opinions and interpretations, you will be no longer bothered by your ego-oriented desires to insist your right position. (But of course this is not to have the value relativistic nihilism). Trying to be right will lead us to the conflicts, but being kind and acceptable can lead us to the peace. Using Gandhi's words, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."

We do not have to fight over which can be the best way to peace. If peace is the condition that nobody fights one another, then the ideal, ultimate resolution is that each of us stop fighting; merely stop fighting even for our own interpretation of peace, for "our way to peace." Fighting for your own interpretation of peace is not peace, but just ideology. Ideology is one of our ego-oriented attributes together with the magic-mythic religious faith, fundamentalism, ethnocentrism, and nationalism etc. or even the human / social scientific theories if we are not aware of the paradigmatic, methodological limitations and concerns.

True peace is not rested on a particulate group-centric homeostasis – meaning, not on the triumph of a particular group. True peace is rested on the sense of Oneness where all our separateness has been resolved. It sounds too naïve and ideal. Probably it is particularly when and if we consider ourselves nothing more than the separate self. Still, it is important to be aware of such different dimensional perspectives.

We pray and meditate everyday; it is not because of seeking our practical benefits, but because of our sincerity to keep us aware of the spiritual perspective where our ever-longing and ever-lasting Oneness has been rested and already always embracing us whether or not we notice. Thus, our modest step to become an open-minded and humble is actually the same as praying and meditating as such; these are the important steps for our consciousness evolution.

Meaningful Social Actions

2005-04-24T23:21:00.000+08:00

How do you understand meaningful social actions?

Based on our discussions so far (from Social Reality to Institutional Knowledge to Reflexivity to Self is not Substantial), it seems to me that there must be the more meaningful social actions than the so-called conventional social actions that can be seen everywhere in the world and mostly ideologically, ethno-religiously or materialistically involved. As we have seen, usually people tend to see the society as what is given and placed in front of them. Social actions always contain the certain intentions to change the society based on what the people believe to be better. Such intention is meaningful and must be one of the important steps to prepare the basis of civil society.

In civil society everyone has a sort of public awareness that he or she has to be the member of the society; and that the conditions of the society are depending on the participation and the commitment of each member. But in this process what we have to notice is that the society we recognize and experience, or more strictly in this context, so-called our "social reality" consists of the institutional facts, which are made of our institutional knowledge. And more importantly we have taken for granted the fact that such institutional knowledge has been imbedded in our mind unconsciously.

As we have seen, the value of the paper money or the monetary reality is heavily supported by the quite particular institutional knowledge, but we have taken for granted it or even totally forgotten it. There are a lot of social values that are based on the institutional knowledge and yet we tend to think these are naturally given attributes and non-agentive functions. Put it bluntly, what is right and valuable in a particular social reality may be bad and even harmful in another social reality. If we are aware of the institutional knowledge to some extend, then at least we can predict such difference when we put ourselves in the different social reality. Of course, the social reality is dynamic and ever changing just as the context is ever created depending on how the participants of the groups communicate one another. Thus, if we know both tendencies, then at least we can see our value is not absolute but it is context-based, and at the same time we can also see our value and someone else's value can be reconciled when both sides can create the emergence of the new context through the sincere, constructive interactions since it is dynamic and changeable.

If the social actions do not have such thoughtful understanding, then the social actions just create the social conflicts even though their subjective intention is good. Having good intentions is not enough to make our social actions really meaningful. What we need to do is to be aware of how our good (or unconsciously problematic) intention has been derived from our institutional knowledge. Such self-awareness can be never achieved without having the careful reflexivity.

For example, you believe in the particular religion and you are familiar with all the doctrines and theologies of the religion and can have the strong passion on how this religion (or it is the absolute truth for you) can save the world. These kinds of religious knowledge can be kept in your mind and you can be a good believer of the religion and you start some sort of missionary works or social actions to save the world and love the people in the world. In using the term of our present discussion, then, what you have done is the self-reflection only in these religious social actions. You have not yet done the self-reflection on the self-reflection, which, as we have seen, the self-reflexivity. This is why; even if your intention is good and you really love people around you, when you force those others who are not the member of your social reality to change their religions without any reflexive thoughtfulness, contrary to your intentions and kind efforts, you may have created the conflicts. Actually that is what is happening allover the world nowadays.

It is not merely the matter of religion. It is the matter of all kinds of social reality. Thus, what we really needs is not to have another social reality, but to understand the meaning of social reality philosophically. It is one of the important roles that philosophy can contribute to the world. And this is the attempt to put ourselves on the right path to the further evolutional dynamics to "become a human being."

Self is not Substantial

2005-04-13T17:39:00.000+08:00

If the self does not have substance, is it possible to assert autonomy and responsibility, free will and intentionality?

To discuss this question, just as Searle pointed out in his book, Mind, Language, and Society, we have to re-think of the so-called mind/body problem. The problem is the ever-discussed issues throughout the history of Western philosophy such as whether or not mind is substantial; whether or not mind can be reduced into the physiological substances, etc. and if these binary questions – which side we should rely on so as to understand the core of our existence and the world where we live. And in such dichotomy between mind and body, we have to face a kind of dilemma:

If mind is the core of our existence and its reality is internally rested and cannot be tangible, then our true existence is a kind of spiritual or epiphenomenal and our bodily dimension is just what should be ignored. Or on the other side, if body is the basis of our core existence, then it is inevitable that we tend to have the materialistic stance or that we should not rely on anything conceptual – what we can trust is something visible and tangible. Unconsciously or consciously the basic attitude of logical positivistic and quantitative approaches may have such kind of tendency. They call the dimension of mind "the ghost of the machine." Thus, it is no wonder that such stance can never discuss the so-called dimensions of soul and spirit.

The attitude to enforce the body side was the source of natural sciences and their logical positivistic methodologies, while the attitude to enforce the mind side was the basis to cultivate the human sciences such as aesthetics, ethics, religions and some part of psychologies. Social sciences have been located ever since between both sides and have been suffered by the dilemma or ambivalence whether their methodologies should be qualitative and quantitative.

Incidentally, it seems that both mathematics and logics stand in a certain unique position that is limited in the dimension of mind only. The mathematical truth, while it is imaginable in our mind, can be never (in the strictly mathematical sense) existed in our physical world. For example, the figure of perfect triangle can never exist in our physical world, while the image or the concept of this figure can be retained in our mind as the result of a logical construction and of an intuitive esthetic sense. Or, the concept of "infinite" is not what is touched in our physical world, but it is one of the indispensable and quite basic ideas of our mind. The mathematical and logical articulation of the world is compatible in the methodology of natural sciences. And it is a kind of trans-cultural tendency to objectify the worldly phenomena; such value-free explanations can be one of the most convenient and of course pragmatically useful medium of articulations in the modern world. In short, both mathematics and logics are the basic meat of the quantitative approaches. Then, some other articulations have tended to be ignored in the modern world, which are mythical explanations, aesthetic explanations, and religious explanations of the world, etc.

The discussion on the mind/body problem has over-simplified the way how we understand the world around us. This discussion has divided it only into what we can see and what we cannot see. But, the way we understand the world is not that simple. This is not that simple like whether or not God can be seen. Rather, the way we understand the world around us has the multiple dimensions from matter, to body to mind (and if you agree) to soul and spirit. Each dimension has its unique way of understanding the world around us. It is not that one single dimension is absolutely right and the others are absolutely wrong. All of them are somewhat complementary. And if you agree, it is said that there is an evolutional include and transcend hierarchy from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit. It is not that the way of understanding the world should be either mind or body, but it is rather that the way should be from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit. Knowing this fact, we can see how we have been too much simplified the ontological, epistemological issues on the world.

Using this multiple dimensional approaches, then, we can transcend the ever-lasting methodological arguments. For example, most of the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, etc. are under the dimension of matter. Or, more strictly the dimension of mind that focuses on that of matter is the approach of natural sciences. And the medical sciences and biology etc. is the dimension of mind that focuses on that of body. In short, we can say that scientific attitude is rested on the dimension of mind that tries to articulate the other dimension in its own way. Probably it is also possible that the dimension of mind tries to articulate that of soul and spirit and such approaches can be called the study of religions, some of psychologies, and ethics, etc. When we simply feel or understand "beauty," such sense of beauty can be differed depending on each dimension – it may be the physical-sensory perception (body), the mathematical intuition (mind), the perfect ethical reconciliation (soul), or the mythical reunion of the transcendence (spirit).

Considering the discussion above, then, how can we clarify the definition of self in the present context? As we also discussed in the previous questions, the sense of self is uniquely held by the humans because only we humans can have the sophisticated communicative tools called symbols, especially language. By using these symbols, we can have the reflexivity that can reflect on our own reflections and in doing so we can have our own consciousness in which the sense of self can be emerged. As mentioned above, we do not have to be bothered by the question whether or not such consciousness is substantial or not – whether it is the ghost of the machine or not. It may be the "ghost," but this ghost is realistic enough to support even the existence the machine that it comes from. Both are necessary but not either the ghost or the machine. And being or becoming either of them is not enough. Only if and when both (moreover, the multiple perspectives) of the ghost/machine can be recognized, then the very integration of the existential entity can be fulfilled.

Also as we have discussed already, social reality is constructed in our mind and more totally our consciousness that contains the multiple dimensions. Such social reality is also regard as the institutional facts that are based on our institutional knowledge. In the level of matter, the knowledge is based on the non-agentive functions. As the levels of each dimension are inclusively evolved, the "mode" of such institutional knowledge is also transformed.

For example, water is just naturally given water in the level of matter; the mode of its knowledge can be transformed into the coldness of water or the sound of water in the level of body. In the level of mind if it focuses on the matter level, it can provide the knowledge of chemistry – water is called H2O. In the level of soul if it focuses on the body level, a certain ethico-aesthetic values can be articulated based on the flow of water. When you meditate in front of river and that river can give you a certain profound insightful wisdom, your understanding on the water that is filled and flowed in the river is done in the dimension of soul or even spirit. In any case, what is important is all levels are necessary in one way or another. In one single level we can never achieve the full understanding of the world around us including our own selves.

In the materialistic understanding of the world we tend to forget the fact that the world we experience is institutionally constructed and because of that the world is located in our consciousness. Then, we tend to think the world is just given as it is as the natural object in front of us; hence we tend to think that the world is what we can control or can be controlled just like a sculpture curves a piece of wood. We tend to think the world is outside us. It might be partially true, but the social fact in which we really understand the values of the world is indeed institutionally constructed by our consciousness. Such values of the social fact are heavily relied on our institutional knowledge, which is what we are sometimes not aware of.

In this situation we tend to have the so-called double deceptions. The first deception is that we think the world is outside us and only materialistically shows the reality, so that the self (which is considered as useless in this materialistic setup) and its free will and responsibility have been neglected. The second deception is that since the world is outside us, the way we can influence the world is the direct subject-object relation only – controlling or controlled and the fact that the world is actually institutionally constructed in our language use is neglected too. The way we can really influence the world is not the way that one control the other that is in front of one. But the way that one can be aware of one's institutional knowledge that has been imbedded in one's mind.

Thus, even though self is not substantial, which is not important to see whether or not self can have its free will, responsibility and intentionally. Rather, what is important is that first we have to be aware of the fact that self is not substantial and then paradoxically that is the necessary condition that self is the important factor to recognize that the social fact is institutionally constructed. Only in this recognition self can influence the world not through the controlling/controlled materialistic way, but through continuous reflexivity that can expose our taken for granted institutional knowledge.

Reflexivity

2005-04-12T12:50:00.000+08:00

Probably animals may also have their own internal domains to some extent. Animals can imagine what they see and perceive. Otherwise, we cannot say that they also communicate each other by using some kind of primitive sign language. Even bees can communicate one another. One bee that can find the location of the flowers can tell the other bees in their nest by using a certain communicative tool called "dancing." This dancing has been highly systematized, so that the other bees can locate the subtle difference on how the particular flowers can be approached. While it is quite systematized, however, this tool is too mechanical to use some other purpose such as, for example, expressing the feeling of bees, etc. Some particular behaviors in any insects and animals can be considered as the moves of their courtship. But, such moves are too mechanical to allow the variations of their own interpretations. These communicative tools can be used as signs, but never be used as symbols.

What is the difference? While signs have only one on one signifier/signified binary relation, symbols can have almost infinite variations of its own interpretation. In other words, while sign has only one meaning of each sign, symbol can just show the open-ended possibility to be interpreted in any ways depending on the context. Moreover, using symbols can create the context, which can be continuously updated as the interpretations can be differed.

That is one of the crucial differences between animals/insects and humans even though both have their own communicative tools. Because of such difference, the tool of human communication is called language and requires not only reflection, but also reflexivity. What is reflection and what is reflexivity? What is the difference between both? The answers can be figured out based on the above-mentioned difference between sings and symbols.

For example, when a bee has come back to her nest and start dancing so as to show the other bees the location of the flowers, what the other bees need to do is to understand the "meaning" of her dancing. Due to this mechanistic system, the dancing has several combinations. In this sense, the other bees have to reflect on the particular dancing. Once they understand the "meaning" of the dance as keeping in "mind," they go out of the nest and try to approach the flowers that the first dancing bee "taught" them. Although the "communication" may be quite simple and primitive (in a way it is amazingly sophisticated as one of the natural phenomena) a certain extent of reflection must be required. Although the mechanism of the memory may be different from us humans, it is truth that the particular information had to be retained and stored in somewhere (probably in the "brain" of the bees) in the meantime at the time gap after they saw and understood the "meaning" of dancing until they find the flowers while they are flying.

In the same way, animals also have the similar but more advanced capacity of the reflection. This can remind us of a dog of Pavlov. If we always feed a dog with the sound of bell, then eventually the digestive function of the dog's stomach can be automatically activated even without seeing the food but with the sound of bell alone. Although it is quite simple and primitive, it is also true that the physical reaction of the dog has been conditioned by particular information, the sound of bell. And this sound of bell can be considered a sign that enable both dog and his feeder to make a simple communication to some extent.

The more general example is that we can see a dog is happy or hungry when he tries to look at us and moving his tail and the dog also knows that his breeder can understand the meaning of his gesture, so that he can tell his breeder that he is happy or hungry. This is the reflection of the dog. His tail is used for one of the communicative tools between the dog and his breeder. But it is not yet reflexivity. Both insects and animals do not have the capacity of reflexivity.

Why? Because while the dog tries to move his tail for his breeder to understand that he is hungry or happy, he is not aware of his own intention of doing so. His behavior is not intentional. Or else, even though it can be called intentional in some sense, this "intentionality" is so spontaneous and still instinctive. That is why; the dog cannot "pretend" to be happy in his "intention" to get the food from his breeder. Pretending is possible only when he knows or can think of what is doing. More strictly, pretending is possible only when he is aware of his own reflection and such awareness is the level of reflexivity. In a word, reflexivity means the reflection on the reflections. When the dog is angry, he looks angry and expresses his anger spontaneously. The dog can not pretend to be happy by controlling his emotion while he notices that he is angry. Of course, the trained dog can be behaved and disciplined. But this is not the kind of self-discipline derived from his reflexivity.

Thus, while holding so-called instinctive and spontaneous "intention" is possible among some "intelligent" mammals such as dogs and chimpanzees etc. they cannot have the more advanced level of intentionality, which is derived from the reflexivity, the self-awareness of one's intention. And, such reflexivity (the self-awareness of one's intention) is closely related to the concept of time. For example, the capability of "planning" is held only by humans. Planning is the behavior based on the self-awareness of one's own intention. In the same way, the retrospective thinking is also the self-awareness of what one was intending in the past. If the capability of reflection is limited to the extent of instinctive and spontaneous reactions, then it can not have the temporal, chronological perspective, while the capability of reflexivity can have it and accordingly provide the more precise special perspective too. And because of that, the capability of reflexivity is the one to provide the "rich internal world" in the consciousness of humans. For, self-awareness means playing a kind of mental movie in our internal domain. It is that we see ourselves in "another world" that has been constructed in our mind. And actually we tend to consider such "another world" as the more realistic world. Or rather, because of such reflexivity, we can no longer experience the world as it is unlike other animals – this is why; it is difficult for us adults to become so spontaneous like newborn infants.

Because of reflexivity, we can experience the world through our interpretations. In other words, the world is what we perceive and what is called social reality and institutional fact. It is started from our own mind or consciousness, but this has become a so thick lens that we perceive and experience the world. We can no longer distinguish the inner world from the outer world. It seems that we can distinguish this difference quite easily. But it does not. As we have discussed previously, we have taken for grated the fact that the world we experience is heavily reply on the institutional knowledge. We have been lost in the midst of our own diverse interpretations of the world. The world we experience has been constructed within us and by our diverse interpretations based on the imbedded institutional knowledge. But then, since it is imbedded, we tend to forget this truth that the reality is constructed.

In the Buddhism it is said that life is suffering because life is distorted by human desires. This somewhat moralistic statement also shows the fact that the world has been constructed because of reflexivity. For example, if you cannot be satisfied with your job and have been suffered and frustrated by this fact, then the cause of your suffering and frustration comes from the institutional knowledge that has been imbedded in you unconsciously. If you do not care about what kind of job is supposed to be prestigious for you and so on, then your suffering and frustration may be disappeared. This is called "detachment." But in our present context we can say that you are free from the institutional knowledge imbedded in you unconsciously, or at least you can be conscious of such knowledge that the world has been constructed. Probably this realization is considered as one of the awakening steps in this religion.

Using the mythical metaphor in the Bible, when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, they are so spontaneous that they could be totally free from any kinds of sin and suffering just like other animals. Literally and metaphorically they were the residences of the kingdom of God; as one can never enter the kingdom of God unless one becomes like a child. But once they have eaten the fruit of wisdom (probably it should be called the fruit of knowledge), they have had institutional knowledge and the world as it is has been transformed into the world interpreted by their knowledge, and yet they are not aware of this transformation. Then, suddenly the world looks cruel to both of them. The world is no longer the oasis that protects them, but the enigma that forces them to do the continuous interpretations.

The more they try to interpret the world, the more the world become elusive and the causes of sufferings and frustrations may be accumulated. For, the interpretation is relied on the limited knowledge of humans. Indeed, trying to escape from the imbedded institutional knowledge is just to create another set of institutional knowledge. That is why; it is often said that in the most of the world religions or spiritualities to cease the suffering of the world derived from one's ego-oriented interpretations, one has to restore the sort of eye of God or of Spirit that can see the world again as it is.

In the philosophical perspective, however, such religious statements might sound like neglecting the human efforts as to how to cope with the above-mentioned institutionalized reality. In fact, the most of the religions, despite such valuable instructions to be free from the institutionally oriented sufferings, the reality is that those religions themselves have been the very sources of the somewhat harmful or sometimes even cruel institutionalization and of its knowledge such as doctrines and ideologies. Considering this fact, what we should do or can do? In my understanding the heart of philosophy is really the capability to be reflexive. Reflexivity is one of the most basic requirements for philosophy.

Kant said: "The greatest human quest is to know what one must do in order to become a human being." It seems to me that "becoming a human being" means cultivating our capability of reflexivity – to continuously, deeply and thoroughly conduct the reflections on the reflections. For, only through such reflexivity, we can be aware of the negative side of reflexivity and can be aware of the confusion between the world as it is and the world as constructed. Although it is true that the continuous reflexivity may create another set of reflexivity and the next...endlessly and uselessly, it is also true that without such continuous endless reflexivity we could never be mindful enough to place us on the path to the right human evolution to "become a human being."

Institutional Knowledge

2005-04-11T17:11:00.000+08:00

Are the concepts of agentive function, constitutive and regulative rules, and collective intentionality able to explain all institutional facts?

To answer this question, it is necessary to clarify the definition of each term. In this case the term we have to focus on is "institutional facts." Just like "social reality," these facts cannot exist without any human interactions. As the term itself indicates, these are the facts that can be recognized in a particular institutional set up. This means that the facts that only the members of this particular institution or institutional community can understand and shared together within their community. These are the facts that are based on the "human agreement." And those "humans" are the members of the community.

One of the typical examples is the fact showed as monetary reality. For, the function and the value of money heavily rely on the "institutional fact" supported mainly by the "constitutive rules." Let's say, a piece of one thousand pesos bill is not the same value as this piece of paper naturally has. We do not consider one thousand pesos bill merely as a piece of paper that can be used as a piece of scratch paper. Rather, we consider that by using this piece of paper we can enjoy dinner in a certain restaurant. Why can we think that way and why is that possible? The answer is simple. It is because there is a certain human agreement regarding the function and the value of this particular piece of paper on which some letters and pictorial symbols authorized by the Philippine government are indicated. This agreement or collective intentionality can transform a piece of paper into the piece of one thousand pesos bill. What we see in this transformation is an institutional fact. And the function/value of one thousand pesos bill is called "agentive function."

Thus, if you consider one thousand pesos bill as merely a piece of paper, this means that you are not the member of the above-mentioned institutional community. Or else, supposedly you are just a small boy and have not yet fully recognized the given institutional fact, participated in the institutional community, or aware of the constitutive rules. Without constitutive rules and institutional facts, one cannot understand the agentive function of the institutionally given items (in this case one thousand bill pesos bill) and what one can see is "non-agentive function" – a sort of naturally given attribute of the item. Without constitutive rules, coins are just considered as pieces of metal; they cannot have such agentive function as "coins." Here we have to notice the fact that the term, "considered," is specifically used. It can be also replaced with "interpreted," "recognized" or "regarded." The point is that in using these verbs we can notice that the function and the value of any items is what is "constructed" in the internal domain of humans. When a piece of paper has the function/value of one thousand pesos, while such indicators are supported by the "printing features" on the surface of this piece of paper, the fundamental part is really based on the collectively agreed internal domain of each member. Since everyone in this community agrees and believes such particular function/value of this piece of paper, it can be transformed into one thousand pesos bill. Because of such agreement and belief, non-agentive function (a piece of paper) can be converted into agentive function (one thousand pesos bill).

Incidentally there is some case that both non-agentive function and agentive function are almost similar each other. One of the typical examples is a gold coin. In this case such naturally given character (the rareness or the preciousness of gold itself) has heavily influenced the value/function of gold coins as such. If "gold coins" are not made of gold, they are no longer gold coins. More strictly, they are no longer considered as gold coins. This is a case of non-agentive function. To see the value of the given item, one needs not have any constitutional rules, but regulative rules alone. Having a closer and more careful attention to this case, however, we also have to notice that the value/function of gold is to some extent based on the institutional fact. This means that gold coins have the value/function, because we also agree and believe the value/function of "gold-ness." The value of gold looks somehow universal throughout almost any human races, and yet we should notice that this value is also a given social fact. The clear example to prove this is that a newborn baby does not understand the value/function of gold. The baby can understand such value/function only when she has fully participated in her society. Thus, the reason why gold coins can be regarded as an example of non-agentive function is that while this value is also based on our collective intentionality, the institutional knowledge to support the value/function of gold coins are naturally given and quite concrete unlike pieces of one thousand pesos bill of which value/function is based more on the abstractive or conceptual institutional knowledge. The more society is being institutionalized and highly systematized, the more its institutional knowledge is sophisticated. We can say that using paper bills is more advanced than relying on gold coins as far as the institutional knowledge is concerned.

Knowing such developmental sequence of institutional knowledge, we can also see how our institutional facts have been changed or evolved. For example, in the primitive and tribal community the number of community members is not so many. It is said that the maximum number of such tribal community is more or less one hundred fifty. This is the biologically limited or regulated maximum number of the community members in which each of them can recognize a kinship based face-to-face relationship. If the population increases, let's say, if the number of the members has become more than two hundreds or nearly three hundreds, then such tribal community has to be divided into two tribal groups so as to maintain such kinship based face-to-face relationship.

In this community level their constitutive rules are quite simple. While the kinship system itself might be complicated in its mathematical sense as Levi-Strauss pointed out, the inter-subjective world of each member, in other words, their own institutional fact is still primitive. This means quite non-agentive. The leader is almost the same as the father or grand-father of the members. The membership is almost the same as the brother-ship and sister-ship. The fact that you are the part of the community kinship in one way or another means you are or can be considered as the member of the community. In this community level, it is easy to understand the meaning and the context of membership just as it is easy to understand the value of gold. In this level, the constitutive rules are still similar to relative rules. The rules can be understood in one's experiential perception.

For some reasons – probably to cope with the tough natural environment or to win the inter-tribal wars, there were the necessity to establish the huge community that can embrace a number of tribes. Since such huge community had to be emerged, aside from the kinship another kind of institutional knowledge was needed so as to maintain the trans-tribal membership to share the more sophisticated and complicated institutional facts among the members. While this tendency itself can be called "institutionalization" in considering the tribal community was not yet institutionalized, we can also consider this as the change of the mode of institutional knowledge/fact from kinship to some sort of charismatic leaders, religious doctrine, democratic nation-sate, etc.

The emergence of trans-tribal, huge community means that of the empire, the world religion, and eventually the nation-state (probably the trans-national globalization must be the recent emergence of the quite new institutional knowledge/fact). In these huge communities we have to maintain a sort of abstractive concept of institutional knowledge and constitutive rules to identify our own membership. If you believe that you are the member of the empire state and devote yourself to the charismatic leader of this empire, then even if you have not met the leader directly, somehow you can fully trust him or even you can die for him. It is because this particular institutional fact has been imbedded in you and consciously or unconsciously you behave and live in your life based on this fact that is supported by the constitutive rules. Probably this charismatic leader might have certain non-agentive feature such as leader-like physical appearance or voice tone etc. But more than that, what makes the leader charismatic and lets all the members follow even blindly is the institutional fact imbedded in all the members. Just like you never doubt that the piece of paper you hold is one thousand pesos bill, you never doubt he is your leader and saver for everything of you as long as you live in the midst of such institutional facts and holds the constitutive rules consciously or unconsciously.

In the same way we can see how the religious community functions and has its own value in providing the particular identity to each member. In this case, the institutional knowledge is more abstract and conceptual. If there is a specific doctrine and principle that explain the inter-subjective worldview in one way or another, no matter how it may be irrational, or no matter how it might be harmful, as long as it has been imbedded in the mind of each member as the institutional knowledge and as the constitutive rules, that is the only world where each member live, survive and will be saved. It has been imbedded in each member. If you are the member of this particular religion and have the tendency of being fundamentalist, it seems to you that the function/value of this principle provided by this religion is neither constitutive nor agentive (though it is constitutive and agentive from the point of view of non-members), but rather for you it is relative and non-agentive. For, in your inter-subjective worldview, that religious truth is seemingly naturally given just as gold-ness of gold. Just like water can be boiled or plant grows with water and sunlight (these are regulative rules and non-agentive functions), for you the religion that you believe is the only world you live, survive and will be saved.

Thus, as you notice, the confusion between constitutive rules / agentive functions and regulative / non-agentive function tends to create the fundamentalist's religious worldview or narrow-minded ideology, etc. Moreover, in recognizing these terms and articulations and realizing that our social fact has been internally constructed and relied on such institutional things, we can avoid the clash among the pre-modern religious, ethnocentric worldviews. Indeed, the problem of these conflicts is that the truth I believe in the world where I live must be the truth you believe in the world where you live and if you do not accept my truth and the world I live, then you will not be saved or else I will kill you. If, however, we can realize that the truth we believe is based on the institutional knowledge and supported by our consciously or unconsciously agreed agenda, then we can overcome those unfortunate, even cruel clashes that can be seen even this time everywhere on the globe.

Social Reality

2005-04-03T18:31:00.000+08:00

How are we able to constitute social reality? To answer this question, first we have to clarify the definition of social reality. What is "social reality"? While we can list up a number of explanations to define this term, starting from a general definition, the answer would be that "social reality" means that each member of the society share their experiences together. It is a kind of collective experiences among the members of the society. "Reality" is that which we experience and if such "reality" can be shared among each member of the society, this is called "social reality." To make it more precise, when we can say that "reality" is that which we experience, another question is inevitable, that is to say, what is "experience"? When I have my own experience and my experience can be also considered as "our experience," what is the factor that such single experience makes the collective experience? If we explore the definition of "experience" as such and figure out what make can make it collective, then the more detailed explanation on "sociality reality" and how we can constitute it can be provided.

When one thinks of one's experience, it is necessary to see it both externally and internally. The former is an objective point of view. For example, when you are drinking a glass of water, your experience can be described objectively from the other person's point of view. If you are male and that the other person sees that you are drinking a glass of water, the other person (the observer) would say that "a boy is drinking a glass of water." That is to say, this observer perceives a boy's experience (your experience) of drinking a glass of water as an objective fact. And yet, we have to notice the fact that this perceiving is not necessarily an external, objective fact, but an internal, subjective perception that the observer perceives the boy's act of drinking a glass of water (or your act of drinking a glass of water) in the consciousness of the observer. And this is what the observer experiences. While from your own point of view, your experience of drinking a glass of water is internal and subjective, when you are aware of the fact that you are drinking of a glass of water, this is derived from your own sensory physiological experience (feeling and tasting the coldness of water, etc.) and such experience is reflected in your consciousness. You are seeing yourself who is drinking a glass of water in your mind or consciousness together with the feeling and tasting of coldness of water, etc. and if possible with your subtle notice that the other person (the observer) is looking at you.

Let us look at this example more carefully. There is a fact that you are drinking a glass of water and the other person is observing you and your act of drinking a glass of water. From the point of view of the other person (the observer), it seems that your act of drinking a glass of water is an objective fact or something external. As above-mentioned, however, at the very moment when the other person tries to observe, perceive, and describe this fact, she needs to retain such observation, perception and description in her mind or consciousness. What she saw must pass through her brain. Only when what she saw can be retained and reconstructed in her mind or consciousness, her observation can be actualized as an objective description or an experience that she has. And such process of observing, internalizing, and articulating a fact before her can not be done without her intention of seeing a boy's / your act of drinking a glass of water. Her experience can not be made without her intention. One's experience cannot be made without his or her intentionality.

While the other person is observing your act of drinking a glass of water, her observation can be actualized as an experience that she has only when it is accompanied by her "intentionality." And there is the basis of such intentionality, which is language. For, without language we cannot understand the meaning of what we see; we cannot recognize the context in which the meaning of what we see is shared and constructed. One of the typical examples to see such necessity of language is that a baby's inability to reflect upon what he or she saw. For a newborn baby, the external world is almost completely chaotic and uncategorized. Probably a baby can perceive his hand, and yet he cannot recognize that what he perceives is his own hand and of course he has never understood the semantic clusters derived from the meanings of a hand as such – until he can construct the internal social reality in his mind as he grows up. Probably he has a little intention to see his own hand, but this intentionality is not enough for him to understand the reality that the mature member of the society is supposed to have. Thus, his little intention is not yet what is called intentionality; rather it may be one variation of his instinctive acts. Intentionality is based on the recognition that one knows what one sees or that one understands the meaning of what one sees. This means, again, intentionality is based on language, and more generally, the use of symbols.

Perhaps a glass can exist without our attention to it. Water also exists regardless of our interaction with it. Put it bluntly, the planet earth has been existing for a long time before humans appear on this surface. But this fact does not necessarily prove that "reality" can stand without our interaction. For, "reality" can appear only when one can make a certain interaction with his or her environment. While the environment has existed for a long time before the existence of humans, the "reality" can be emerged only when such humans try to make interactions in their perceptions and with their efforts to understand the environment. Such efforts can be called "intentionality" and in this regard "reality" is what is constructed in one's mind or consciousness. A glass exists and yet the perception of the glass can be only constructed in one's mind or consciousness. And to do so, what is necessary is "intentionality" and "symbols." For, in reality a glass can exist only when there is someone who calls it "a glass" with one's intention and language use or symbolization.

Another important factor we have to consider is the collectivity of such intentionality and symbolization. Suppose "reality" is that which is constructed in one's mind or consciousness, this fact alone can not make "reality" social. Rather, when such "reality" can be shared by a number of people or each member of the given society, we can see the emergence of "social reality." For example, when you know that you are drinking a glass of water. This means, you have your own self-awareness that you are drinking a glass of water. Yet, this experience is merely subjective. In this experience alone, while you can understand the "reality" that you are drinking a glass of water in your mind or consciousness, you do not know whether or not this reality (your act and your awareness of your act) has been shared and experienced by someone else. And if you can see that someone else also sees your act of drinking a glass of water and understands its meaning, then the "reality" of your drinking a glass of water is collectively shared, which means, so-called "social reality" is constituted.

It is, however, not merely that someone else and you simply share the objective fact that you are drinking a glass of water. It is not that we watch a single objective act together. For, as above-mentioned, reality is what is internally constructed in one's mind or consciousness even though its primary (physical and sensory) experience is based on the external environment. In the beginning you try to drink a glass of water without thinking anything or without reflecting on your act. This is the first phase. And in the second phase, you have your self awareness that you are drinking a glass of water. This means, you know what you are doing. There is a sort of mental movie in your mind, in which you are drinking a glass of water. You can think of yourself – this can be done only by those creatures that have consciousness or by those who can construct the reality in using the process of intentionality and symbolization. And then the third phase, you notice that the other person is looking at you and your act of drinking a glass of water. And yet in this third phrase, you are not yet sure that the other person can recognize and understand the meaning of your act.

Let's say, if you notice that a cat is looking at you, then you are not sure that a cat can see the meaning of your act. Probably a cat might understand that you are drinking a glass of water just as she does do the same sometimes with a bowl of milk. However, you are not sure if a cat really sees the meaning of your act in her self-awareness. Of course when a cat sees you, she might approach you since she is thirsty. This fact shows that a cat can understand the meaning of your act. In this sense, maybe even you and your pet (cat) can share a certain "reality" in the quite primitive level. This "reality" is so primitive to share the sense of basic desires such as thirst, hunger, and so on. Whereas, if you are checking bills in your wallet, it is impossible that you and your cat can share the monetary "reality" that, for example, you do not have enough money to pay the rent of next month. Or, if you are appreciating the crystal cleanness of water inside the glass when you are drinking the glass of water, then it is also impossible that you and your cat share the aesthetic "reality" for her to understand your sense of appreciation on the crystal cleanness. For both realities can heavily relay on the collective intentionality derived from the so-called institutional knowledge, language, and symbolization.

In the fourth phase, therefore, what is necessary is that when you see someone else is looking at your act of drinking of a glass of water, you should also see this person has her self-awareness that she is looking at your act and can understand the meaning of your act in the higher level. The higher level means that both she and you can construct the reality derived from your act internally. The "scene" of your act of drinking of a glass of water can be constructed in your mind or consciousness; and the same "scene" can be also constructed in her mind or consciousness. And consciously or unconsciously both she and you know that almost the same "scene" has been constituted in each other's mind or consciousness, which is "social reality."

Again, this sense of sharing is not as simple and as primitive as what you and your cat share together on the instinctive desires. Rather, while I just used a simple example of drinking a glass of water, the actual "social reality" is much more sophisticated and complex such as monetary systems, politico-economical, religio-cultural, and ethico-philosophical systems, etc. Thus, it is important to notice that "social reality" is constituted by our collective intentionality and symbolization – especially language. Because of that, we should also recognize such taken-for-granted truth that the "social reality" is what is constructed in our mind or consciousness. Moreover, it is also what is continuously constructed, evolved and updated depending on how we are collectively make use of our institutional knowledge.

Culture in Mind

2005-03-19T21:56:00.001+08:00

In his book entitled Culture in Mind, Bradd Shore proposes how what he calls cultural model can be worked as a link between cultural anthropology and cognitive psychology. According to him, after the movement of cognitive revolution, the contribution of cultural anthropology to the field of cognitive psychology has been marginalized if not diminished. In considering so-called human mind, a certain gap has been taken place between these two disciplines. To understand this gap, we need to know the significance of this cognitive revolution.

What is cognitive revolution? This is a kind of methodological shift in understanding the human mind and consciousness. Prior to this movement of cognitive revolution, psychologists used mainly to see the external factors to comprehend the human mind since we see this tendency typically in the field of behavioral psychology. For, they inclined more to the natural scientific, logical positivistic approaches. Due to the influence of such approaches, they tend to think that the external factors can be the only reliable objective knowledge to understand the human mind.

As Piaget persuasively demonstrated, however, by using the so-called mental models and schema, which is the essence of cognitive revolution and its methodological set up, many psychologists have started turning into the internal domain that leads us to the deeper understanding of the human mind and consciousness. What Piaget proposed was the mental levels from pre-conventional to conventional to post-conventional that can show the internal development of human mind. While the behavioral, external factors can show the surface, superficial phenomena of human acts, such mental levels represented as model and schema can show what is called "deep structure" beneath superficial human acts. For example, while we see two behaviors as the same external phenomena, if we pay more attention to the "inside," then depending on the level of the developmental model, the very meaning of such same behavior can be changed. In other words, what we cannot see based on the external factors can be manifested if and when we use and focus on the model and schema.

As Shore pointed out, the same approach has been taken place in the field of linguistics like the generative grammar of Chomsky. This is also what we pay attention to the "deep structure" of each sentence that cannot be seen in the traditional, normative grammar. In short, due to the cognitive revolution in utilizing the concept of models and schema we start looking at the internal domain of human acts.

On the other hand, according to Shore, cultural anthropology did not fully participate in this movement of cognitive revolution. Although it is true that structuralism of Levi-Strauss etc. and cultural pattern of Margaret Mead had the similar approach, the post-modern and post-structural approach in the latest methodological scene of cultural anthropology, the researchers tend to create the diverse cultural narratives rather than seeking for the internal domain of the culture that could be represented as a model of so-called psychic unity.

In other words, cultural anthropology is no longer interested in what cognitive psychology is working on since it seem to those anthropologists that cognitive psychology has been too much generalizing the mental acts of human by ignoring the cultural diversity that is the very motifs of cultural anthropology. Conversely, it seems that cognitive psychology is no longer interested in the filed of cultural anthropology since psychologists think that metal models and schema are supposed to be freed from any cultural particularity. They think that the mental model and schema should universality explain the internal domain of human mind and consciousness. They should not be changed by the difference of each cultural background and so on. For example, if you are in the pre-conventional level, this means that you are in this level and in this developmental stage whether you are Americans, Samoans, Japanese or Filipinos.

Shore thinks that such mutual indifference has created the gap between these two disciplines and cultural anthropology has been marginalized in the trend of cognitive revolution that have been well-accepted in the other human sciences.

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Shore's attempt in this book is to see how and what kind of contribution cultural anthropology can make to the movement of cognitive psychology. It is to install the concept of psychic unity or of the mental model in the realm of cultural narratives. In short, it is the installment of cognitive psychological approach in the field of cultural anthropology. And from the view of cognitive psychology it is to introduce what the author calls cultural model to be installed in the cognitive dimension of human mind.

According to Shore, cognitive psychology recognizes both species knowledge and personal knowledge. The former shows the biological frame of the human cognitive development, while the latter the individual variety of the same development, just as the maturity of cognitive level is differed depending on each person. And in considering how the eco-logical, environmental factors influence each human cognitive development, together with such two kinds of knowledge, there should be the third kind called "cultural knowledge" that can be the very source of cultural model. Put it bluntly, species knowledge and its biological model can be analyzed in the medical laboratory and personal knowledge and its individual model can be comprehended in the psychiatric consultation, etc. If that is the case, then what we need to figure out is the cultural knowledge and its cultural model in the anthropological research, more specifically, the ethnographic narratives.

The ethnographic narrative can be considered as cultural knowledge and the analysis on this knowledge is the approach to produce the cultural models. And only when we can propose both cultural knowledge and its cultural model, we can see how the socio-cultural, collective or institutionally intentional creation of the meaning and the context can be generated.

One of the most critical elements in the field of cognitive psychology is how we could create the meaning of reality out of our collective activity and language use and how we could share the context in such reality. In these questions the contribution of cultural anthropology is to provide the cultural model. In doing so, we can see the set up of "Culture in Mind" but not "Culture and Mind." Culture is located inside Mind. That is possible only when cultural anthropology has decided to participate in the scene of post cognitive revolution and only when cognitive psychology has accepted its (or Shore's) very attempt of cultural anthropology.

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Starting from the introduction, the first chapter has devoted to the explanation of Shore's above-mentioned proposal. In the first chapter the reader can see why the recent cultural anthropology is not the part of cognitive revolution and why nevertheless the contribution of cultural anthropology is needed from the author's point of view. In the second chapter, which is divided into four sections, Shore tries to demonstrate how the particular cultural knowledge can be converted into the specific cultural modes by focusing on the modern setting of American society. While he is also focusing on the "exotic" culture from his (American) point of view in the subsequent chapters, first he tries to describe his own culture. In so doing he tries to avoid a kind of bias that anthropologists do their researches only on the "exotic" or other cultures. Such bias may weaken his proposal that the role of cultural anthropology especially in the field of cognitive psychology is to provide the cultural knowledge and its models that can show the "deep structure" of the collective consciousness of each member. In other words, in his attempt it is necessary to deal with his own culture, which is American modernity. And in this case he is more specifically focusing on one of the most famous sports loved by all Americans, which is baseball.

If you are familiar with the rules of baseball, his description or ethnographic reflection on the baseball games are quite interesting. He is pointing out a lot of interesting taken-for-granted matters on how the things on the baseball have been imbedded on the American way of life and thought. Fortunately as Japanese I am familiar with the rules of baseball since it is also one of the most famous and well-accepted sports in Japan, then I was able to enjoy reading his insightful ethnographic description on "baseball in America." However, while being impressed by his witty articulation on how the cultural knowledge and its model can be distilled out of his somewhat nostalgic narratives about baseball, I can not help but feeling his analysis is quite arbitrary. For, I have read a number of similar kinds of description on the relation between baseball and Japanese culture (not American) in analyzing why and how a particular sport such as baseball, but not any other sports, has been uniquely well-accepted in Japan.

Considering this fact, what we have to notice in his approach is that the baseball is not necessarily symbolizing the very cultural knowledge of American people. It is just one of many other sports and rituals that can be used for describing the cultural knowledge. We can use basketball or American football to do the same kind of ethnographic reflection to produce the cultural knowledge and its model. Or we can use baseball to do the same kind of ethnographic reflection to produce the Japanese cultural knowledge and its model -- in fact, some anthropologists did so.

Thus, what is important in his attempt is not the fact that he is selectively focusing on baseball alone, but the fact that he is focusing on sports as such. For, as the author also mentioned, sports contain some interesting factors as one of unique products of modernity. Conducting sports can be signified as games, playfulness, specific rules, ritualistic time and space set up, etc. In the sense that anthropologists try to observe the religious rituals in his field research on a certain tribal community, his approach to observe the sports events for the ethnographic reflection is quite understandable. In its inter-subjective reality and its context/meaning generative nature, any sports events in the modern society can be represented as one of the essential symbols to access to the cultural knowledge and its cultural models. In doing so, this can also represent the cognitive, collective, and internal realm of human mind and consciousness. While his baseball-based explanation of American culture is quite interesting, we should not miss such very motif of his approach.

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In the latter part of the second chapter, Shore discusses some peculiar feature of modernity, which is, according to him, the process of "modularization." In these latter sections he started talking about again the generative grammar of Chomsky, but this time he uses this linguistic theory in order to explain the modularized feature of phenomena. The process of modularization is to reduce the natural phenomena to the combination of minimum unit. Some simple examples are such things as Lego block, modular furniture, etc. This can be also considered as the "modern" version of atomism. And the interesting thing in this "modern atomism" is that such modularized feature has been pervaded in all the details of American lifestyle and even their way of thinking individually and institutionally.

The concept of mass production is also the part of modularization. For example, if the modern company produces the large number of commodities, in this process there is no longer such sense of originality. We cannot say that a beer can in this convenience store is more "original" than another beer can in the other convenience store. As the sense of originality has been lost, the sense of "copy" is no loner available – it is replaced with the sense of "clone." The replication of the original maintains the historical perspective that the copied one is less authentic and yet chronologically newer. Since clone does not contain such sense as newness and authenticity, it is non-historical or ahistorical. The typical example is a photo taken by the digital camera. Or any kind of digital information can be the same kind. Whatever the substantial images, sounds and emotional attributes may be kept in us, once they have been dissolved into the digital codes or modularized minimum units, then the concept of originality, authenticity and historicity have been disappeared. This seems as if we have been brought into the quantum leap where spatial-temporal dimensions have been diminished.

Then, Shore continues the discussion to produce the cultural knowledge and its cultural models by introducing the further examples of "modularization." Just as the digital duplication has made the sense of originality and newness meaningless – this then threatens the value of historical documentation and copy right. The modern airline industry and the internet hyper textual, virtual reality have made the sense of spatial geography meaningless, too. And such tendency derived from the modern modularization brings us to the post-modern reality.

In this post-modern reality, the process of modularization is no longer or not only one of the rational, logical compartmentalization that makes our life more convenient and prosperous in a modern sense, but rather this threatens us in the sense that everything and everyone can be dissolved into the collection of mere units and modules; therefore ironically everything is possible as it can be virtually constructed or as the so-called digital presentation. This inevitably leads us the so-called post-modern nihilism in which we have lost any sense of substantial, tangible realities. While the author does not clearly say such nihilistic tendency, the very sense of techno-totems or cyborg-like figures may symbolize the dilemma on how humans can restore the true sense of spatial, temporal reality that can be connected to the ontological sense of true non-spatial, non-temporal Being, which is not the result of the mere extension of the modern digital modularization.

In the subsequent chapters Shore continues the same kind of discussion in order to demonstrate how the cultural knowledge and its models can be figure out in the ethnographic description. And yet in these sections his focus is on the non-Western cultures. But his intention is still the same. And in the fifth and sixth chapters the author goes back to the theoretical discussions on how his approach can work to provide the cultural models in the cognitive realm where the models and schema can be installed as he expects.

While the discussion has been extended and deepened by referring to the diverse theoretical frameworks, put it bluntly, it seems that such discussions can be summarized to the point that how the meanings have been created and re-created and the contexts have been generated and shared in the inter-subjective, collective reality where the cultural knowledge has been represented as the form of cultural models. And just like any cognitive reality is generative based on the unique feature of the human brain and of the intentionality of human mind, the discussions lead us to the fact that cultural reality is also generative.

Culture is not the static information that is traditionally perceived in our experiences passively, but rather it is an evolutionally dynamic reality to be represented as a specific model installed in our mind, which is called "Culture in Mind." In this way, it seems that we have to revise and re-think our conventional perception of "culture" itself. Culture is not what is preserved, but it is continuously generated just as our cognitive perception is continuously evolved and expanded. Culture is what is generated whenever and wherever we humans gather and share the particular context. If we compose a certain group, then this group inevitably generates its own "culture." For, the members of the group share their particular cultural knowledge and its cultural model in their mind, that is to say, they have "Culture in Mind".

Matter, Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit

2005-01-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

If we try to simplify the developmental and evolutional perspective of ourselves and our society, it seems that we encounter the so-called three or four levels of categorization. I am not sure if such categorization is derived from the limitation of our perception or else might be related to some kind of archetypical commonalities. In my understanding so far, it may be more related to the biological limitation of our perception.

One of the similar cases is that maximum sequence of number we can memorize at glance is at most 7 or 8 digits. As well-known, this is because of the biological capacity of short term memory of our brain. Although it may be possible to expand the number of digits by our intentional training, it seems that 7 or 8 digits are a default set up of our short term memory and its variance to be expanded can not be beyond additional 20% of such default setting. We can never memorize 20 digits of number unless we use a memory technique such as visual association or until a certain significant evolutional change happens in our brain.

In the macro level such as community, it is said that the maximum number of the members in a small scale (as far as the member's immediate interaction is concerned) community is approximately 150. It is also said that this is the maximum number of tribal membership throughout the world regardless of race, ethnicity, and environments, etc. If the number of the members exceeds around 150, then such a tribal community has to be divided into two tribal communities. It is because we humans do not have such kind of biological capability or system that can maintain and manage the small scale community of which members are more than 150. Thus, when and if we humans need a larger scale of community to bundle several tribal communities, then a sort of external system (aside from our default set up) should be invented, which is called institutionalization.

If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics, then it is a leap from the Purple Meme community to the Red or Blue Meme community. In the Purple Meme a tribal community was just an extension of kinship and/or family oriented gathering. In the level of Red or Blue Meme, however, to make the large scale community or society, a certain qualitative change was necessary. In other words, a certain external system was required to maintain such large scale community. In the Red Meme, such external system was the existence of a charismatic leader and in the Blue Meme; it was the so-called transcendental idea or ideology that can control the value of all members and that is regarded as the beginning of the world religions (please see the section of Life Condition for Spiral Dynamics).

Going back to the three or four categorization, what I would like to discuss here is that such categories are represented as pre-modern / modern / post-modern; pre-personal / personal / transpersonal; pre-rational / rational / trans-rational; and lastly, matter / body / mind / soul / spirit. Although there are much more similar kinds of categories that can explain the same developmental, evolutional aspect of human consciousness (micro) and society (macro), to make the discussion simpler I just limit the examples to the abovementioned.

Incidentally, in my understanding Spiral Dynamics is one of the attempts to embrace those categorizes in a specific spiral color-coded lines (Again please see the section of Life Condition for the further details). Here what is interesting is such three or four categories can show a brief basic line of our micro / macro developmental and evolutional lines (though there are the differences among lines, stages, states, levels, etc. we do not discuss such details here).

For example, pre-modern is the paradigm when our collective consciousness was so-called magico-mythical membership. That is to say, we understand the world based on the magical, superstitious and mythical interpretations. In this pre-modern paradigm our worldview consists of such interpretations. This is why, so-called pre-modern people are superstitious, and the magic sorcerers and shamans have a certain authority to understand the worldly phenomena.

But first of all, why do we need to understand the world? It is because we have our consciousness in which we know we stand and face the world. Unlike animals and babies, the clear self-consciousness is the very trigger to let us interpret what is called "things around us" as if we have been separated from the world (despite the fact that we are part of the world). The "things around us" of course include such question as "where or who is God?" Then in such primary stage of pre-modern paradigm, our understanding and interpretation inevitably have to be magico-mythical.

Thus, as you notice, the individual version of such pre-modern paradigm or the micro level of pre-modern paradigm is what is called pre-personal. More correctly speaking, the level of pre-personal is a bit lower than the pre-modern paradigm. For, the people of the pre-modern paradigm have at least their clear self-consciousness by which they tried to understand and interpret the world and "things around them" including God magico-mythically. On the other hand, the pre-personal level is more similar to the unconscious level of animals and babies. In short, pre-personal means unconsciousness. Since the pre-personal people do not have their clear self-consciousness and actually they are "unconsciously" part of the world just like animals, they do not see they are facing the world, and they do not ask such a question as "where or who is God?" for, God is still part of them unconsciously just like animals.

Only in the personal level, people begin to have their self-consciousness in which they see they are separated from the world in such way that they see themselves in their consciousness, which is the beginning of ego -- the double edged swords of our existence. Why? Because of ego, we could wake up and leave the animal-like unconscious state; because of ego, we have started searching for God "outside of us"; because of ego (or self-consciousness) we have the concept of time that gives us a number of sufferings such as regrets, traumas, self-pity, prides, shames, worries, fears, and the fear of death. And because of ego, we have had our civilizations and cultures in which "everything around us" including ourselves has been articulated in one way or another.

In the pre-modern paradigm the typical articulation is magico-mythical. And in the modern paradigm because of ego we could achieve the unprecedented material prosperity and individual worldly freedom. The typical articulation of the modern paradigm is science and technology -- rational, logical, objective way of understanding and interpreting the world, things around us, and ourselves.

Thus, we can see a certain parallelism among pre-personal/personal, pre-rational/rational, and pre-modern/modern. But again, as we have seen, there are also some subtle differences among such parallelisms. Using "self-consciousness" as a key term, the differences can be explained as follows:

The pre-personal level is the stage that people are still unconscious as being part of the world just like animals and babies -- they know God unconsciously and instinctively. The personal level is the stage that people can have their clear self-consciousness and in so doing they can have ego; moreover, they can use the sophisticated symbolic systems such as language. In the pre-rational level they already have their self-consciousness but what they have not had yet is the rational-logic way of thinking by which they can overcome the magico-mythical world views, a number of cruel superstitious, religious practices. And the pre-modern paradigm is also similar to this stage. People in the pre-modern paradigm have the very intention to understand and interpret the world and the desire to hold the worldview. But their way of thinking is still pre-rational (just after emerged from the level of pre-personal unconsciousness).

Thus, we can say that a pre-modern society is the community in which people who have just overcome their pre-personal unconscious level are tying to figure out the meaning of the world and/or God in their pre-rational (primitive) way of thinking. And a modern society is the community in which people who have overcome their magico-mythical superstitious practices are trying to figure out the rational-logic, objective-scientific mechanism of the world in disregarding God and anything transcendental.

And in the same manner we can say that a post-modern society is the community in which people have found the limitation of the rational-logic, objective-scientific way of thinking are trying to figure out or rather having been overwhelmed or disillusioned by what is called Truth (modern) and/or God (pre-modern). In the level of post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal, people are aware of the limitation of modernity, rationality, and personality (ego-oriented life). Thus, some are trying to go back to the magico-mythical worldview to indulge themselves with their individual truthfulness (beauty) and even pre-personal primitiveness (narcissism) or putting themselves in the radical relativism that leads them to nihilism.

Actually this is called the sickness of post-modernity or using the Spiral Dynamics term it is called Mean Green Meme. The challenge or Life Condition of this post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal level is whether or not people in this level could really overcome or find out the true "post" modernity, true "trans" rationality, and true "trans" personality. It seems that they have not found these true levels and paradigms yet. Rather, it seems that they (or we) have been struggling with such pseudo-trans/post stages. This is why; in the beginning I did not say just "three" categories but the three or "four" categories.

In my opinion, what we need is to find out such "fourth" level, which is indicated as the Second Tier in the Spiral Dynamics term. I think another remaining category such as matter / body / mind / soul / spirit might be an important clue in considering such fourth level or Second Tier. Using the same parallelism, "Matter" is the world of minerals, "Body" is the world of animals and unconscious, instinctive, primitive, superstitious humans, that is the level of pre-rational / pre-personal / pre-modern, "Mind" is the world of rational-logic, ego-oriented consciousness, that is the level of rational / personal / modern, and "Soul" is the world of ecological romanticism, that is the level of trans-rational / transpersonal / postmodern. Thus, the level of "Spirit," in the sense that this can integrate the whole lower levels, may imply the true approach to the Second Tier -- the implication of the fourth category, or the fifth category if we include the level of "Matter."

The Mind/Body Problem

2004-12-25T23:35:00.000+08:00

Reading the book entitled "Mind, Language and Society" by John Searle, I had a chance to reflect again on the mind/body problem. Usually and traditionally in the field of philosophy what is called the mind/body problem is the ever discussed issue. That is to say, whether our consciousness is a kind of independent, substantial entity that can exist as it is without any external supports, or it is a just what is called "the ghost of the machines" – the peripheral illusion that easily disappears when the external support such as body (brain) does not exist. In short, the question was whether our human consciousness exists independently or it is just a reflection of our human bodily function.

For many years a lot of thinkers and philosophers are discussing this issue in one way or another. And another variation of the mind/body problem is the question to ask whether or not what we see in our consciousness is really a true reflection of the so-called "external reality." In a word, the question is: can we see the external world correctly? If not, how much our view has been distorted? If distorted, then how can we know the true external world that is called "ultimate reality"?

And again from such questions a lot of discussions have taken place. From Plato to Kant to Hegel to Marx to Kierkegaard to Heidegger to Derrida, etc., that is to say, from idealism to agnosticism to dialectic to materialism to existentialism to postmodernism, etc. Put it bluntly it is the ever-lasting discussions as to how much correctly we can see the so-called external reality in our consciousness (and the related questions can be: are there such a thing as external reality and are there such a thing as consciousness?).

Here of course I have no intention to review the whole epistemological, ontological questions of the history of philosophy and do not have enough materials either to do so right now. I am now just writing a simple stream of consciousness essay (oops, it seems my "consciousness" exists). But I just like to mention that to understand this mind/body problem in the bigger picture, there are some useful approach. That is, as I repeatedly say, that we consider this problem itself as a sort of category mistake. In other words, such dualistic question of whether body or mind (external or internal) should be fallacy.

For example, there is a metaphysical question -- "Does love exist?" Or "what is love?" Moreover, we can replace the word "love" with "God." There are what are called metaphysical questions and some materialistic thinkers used to remove such questions. In trying to be too materialistic like those thinkers, let's say, you can define love as our bodily reaction derived from some particular brain chemicals; or as our behavioral patters that keep our community sound and functional. It seems we are able to figure out what love is all about. And in the same way it seems we can do so on the definition of God, can’t we?

The fallacy here is that to explain the mechanism from the point of view of the different dimension does not necessarily show the very essence of the concept itself. Even if we can explain such metaphysical concept by using the materialist terms, regardless of such materialistic explain, love does exist in our rich internal world.

The very confusion was that we tried to use this dualistic approach in the same manner that we used to remove the existence of ghost and some kind of superstitious evils. It is true that our external, materialistic and scientific explanation have been able to remove a lot of superstitious practices; in doing so a lot of pre-modern cruelties have been removed from our premature naïve mentality. That was one of the great enlightenments in modernity. This is a triumph of the materialistic scientism of modernity. However, we have to be very careful with this point. That is to say, to remove the pre-modern, magico-mythological worldviews and their superstitious beliefs does NOT mean to deny everything about our rich internal worlds and the sound metaphysical terms.

The scientific materialism must be one of the very strong tools to overcome the mean side of our pre-modern mentality such as unnecessary fears, conflicts and cruel practices derived from the superstitious beliefs. To recognize the stupidity of the religious wars, we need such scientific, materialistic view. However, it is too much if we totally deny the value of religion as such because of this view. The bottom line is that we need both science and religion; however, we neither need scientism nor religious cruelty – the former is derived from the mean side of modernity and the latter is from that of pre-modernity. Thus, we can say that the mind/body problem may be part of such pre-modern /modern conflict.

Incidentally, post-modernity is the paradigm that is supposed to overcome this conflict and embrace both sides. But unfortunately it is not. The problem of post-modernity is the immature fusion of science and religion. New agers try to explain a certain religion by using the pseudo-scientific explanations. The movement of new sciences tries to irresponsibly support some supernatural phenomena with their pseudo-scientific explanations. Such immature "reunion" of science and religion has ironically been bringing such post-modern people back to the pre-modern magico-mythical worldview.

Thus, what we need is the true integration of science and religion from which we can correctly see the fallacy of the mind/body problem. And the key to lead us to such true integration is the evolutional, hierarchical view of the epistemological, ontological dimensions, which is, if we use very simple terms, categorized as matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit. For example, love can be explained from the dimension of matter as we saw the materialistic explanation above. In the same way, love can be explained by using the terms of the other dimensions. All explanation can be true and yet partial in its single dimension.

In the same manner our internal world such as human consciousness can be explained. In the next entry I would like to discuss the evolutional, hierarchical aspect of human consciousness.

Serene Moment

2004-11-21T18:56:00.000+08:00

The trainings in Japan have been completed and the other necessary preparations for the project seem almost complete. This means that the project is ready to be "live." For any kind projects, when you are implementing them, you need the careful preparation and then once you can see the preparation is well-done, as scheduled, you or someone else has to give a go-signal -- the project is going to be live.

But, sometimes or most of the times we may encounter the unpredictable difficulties or troubles. The more the project is novel and challenging, the more often we may encounter such cases. Some consider this tendency stressful, while others can enjoy it as something exciting. In my case, which type do I belong to? Am I enjoying something unpredictable as something exciting and challenging? Or, am I being stressed by these things? Probably the answer is, as I always say, the combination of things -- I am enjoying and yet at the same time being stressed.

One of the disadvantages when you are in such condition is that sometimes you cannot do some other things since you have been totally involved with what you are facing right now. Probably the reason why the update of my blog and website has become infrequent is this – consciously or unconsciously I have been overwhelmed by the recent new activities and environments – new jobs, new projects, new houses (I have recently moved) and so on. If I say, however, that I was not able to conduct my journaling because of the job-related busyness, then this excuse is not really good.

In my opinion, so-called journaling is one of the best ways to let you stay at the level of "witness." In other words, the serenity of mindfulness can be acquired only by such act of writing if not by meditation or prayer. Thus, the fact that the frequency of my writing has become less, shows that in the past several weeks I have missed a chance to become mindful from which I can witness the things around me. It is true that when we are busy we tend to miss a moment to conduct such a thing as journaling, meditation, payers, or else "going to church" if you are institutionally oriented.

What is ideal and important is that we should conduct such spiritual activities particularly when we are busy – when we tend to lose ourselves in the midst of the daily pressures. While the word such as "Sunday church goers" tend to be criticized as this act makes your spiritual moment just part of daily routines. However, if you can really have the serenity of mindfulness when you join the prayer in the church, then that is also greatly beneficial for your spiritual growth. The important thing is whether or not you have such spiritual moment whatever the way to approach the moment may be.

In such moment you can quietly witness yourself and tame your ego that contains the daily regrets, angers, fears and complaints, etc. Instead, in recognizing your own self that is conducting such witness, you can recover the sense of love, fearless, acceptance, and forgiveness. Your ego has been tamed and the negative dusts accumulated in your mind have been cleansed. Then, you are no longer afraid of what is going to come; you are no loner complaining with things and someone around you; and you stop blaming yourself and others because of what you and others have done in the past.

The serene moment of mindfulness has such power of cleansing and healing. And together with meditation and prayer, I think, journaling (writing) is one of the effective ways to have such moment.

Irony, Unfair, or Opportunity

2004-10-13T23:49:00.000+08:00

As repeatedly mentioned, so-called business process outsourcing is one of the strategic approaches to generate demands in the third world countries. These countries used to provide cheaper factory laborers. That is why; a lot of industries used to build their factories there. It is a common sense. While this trend continues even nowadays, the more prominent one is the attempt that business process as such is going to be handled in these countries. There are two reasons for this tendency.

The first is that in our computer age networking systems have been incredibly advanced and achieved the real-time global infrastructure such as internet based communication; and international courier services have been also incredibly sophisticated. In such futuristic circumstance it seems that we do no longer feel any distanced inconvenience or difficulty for our communication. In short, we can experience the worldwide wholeness simultaneously in both mass media and business networking. Not only huge multinational companies but even the variety kinds of small-medium scale firms can now develop their transactional network globally.

The irony, however, is that even under such global circumstances there is a clear and sometimes huge socio-economical gap between the first world countries and the third ones. This is an irony indeed.

Because of the advanced global networking the educational system and its knowledge distribution have been quite standardized throughout the globe. This means that if you are a collage graduate, then regardless of your nationality you are considered as educated. There is an IT specialist in the Philippines; at the same time there is also the same level of IT specialist in the US. Both share the same knowledge. Nevertheless, the difference is that the former salary is much lower than the latter due to the huge economic gap.

Likewise, if you are a medical doctor, then to earn the higher salary you should work as a doctor in the US, not in the Philippines. The cost of your profession is more expensive in the first countries. This is an irony and of course looks unfair.

The cost of professional knowledge is differed depending on which countries you stay and work. This is why; as we know well, a lot of Filipino professionals are leaving their countries to get the better jobs abroad. It is not only because there are few job opportunities in the Philippines, but rather because the cost of knowledge is much lower. In fact, in some provinces of the Philippine archipelago, the lack of medical doctors is one of the severe social problems. Many young doctors have left the country and work in the US (first as a nurse then a doctor). Thus, in the provinces even retired old doctors sometimes have to go back to the hospital to cover the lack of such young doctors.

The bottom line is that there are highly educated people but their salary is low. That causes the problem of losing the professional employments and of course that will weaken the country in the long term. For, many highly educated people are working for the US not for their own country.

However, there is an alternative view that can turn such ironical, unfair reality to somewhat beneficial, which is BPO – Business Process Outsourcing. For example, if you want to reduce the cost of the organizational expenses, then one good idea is to move some of the departments into the other oversea location where you can have the same quality of service and process with lower cost.

For example, what if the HR department of one Australian company will be transferred to the Philippines and can be handled by highly qualified Filipino employees? That is a kind of ideal approach for cost cutting. You can generate certain employment in the Philippines; at the same time you can reduce the cost in Australia. Of course, things are not as simple as described here and yet this shows one basic mechanism of outsourcing itself especially in this global business environment.

In-house BPO

2004-09-12T18:37:00.000+08:00

It has been almost one month since I stopped writing in this blog. Although there are many reasons and unexpected busyness for this. The mainly reason is probably the change of my job. If you read my previous blog entries, you can see I have been working in certain outsourcing company. And just a few weeks ago I was finally able to leave this company, though the turnover has not been completed.

As everybody knows, the change of one's own job or resignation is a kind of big event, if not frustrated, in his or her life physically and psychologically. I submitted my resignation to the company almost several months ago, and yet due to lack of the replacement I had to have remained in the position until recently – a few weeks ago. During such extended period I started my blog diary, and then as you can see in my previous blog entries, during this extend period I was also involved with some other activities such as CMMI presentations, Spiral Dynamics related translations, and even the business development to get in touch with one telecommunication company.

In this sense, while my resignation has been pended, I could have also enjoyed this extended period somehow.

However, once my replacement has come, ironically I have gotten busier due to the turnover, and unexpectedly or even surprisingly I have been involved in my next job for which I have been in Japan since September 6 up to 22.

When I just submitted my resignation to the company, I was planning to become a fulltime student for several months so as to complete my dissertation and just doing some sideline such as Spiral Dynamics translations and/or CMMI related jobs. But, things are not always as you plan and expect.

Just a few weeks month ago -- shortly before the company found my replacement, another outsourcing company called me up and asked if I was interested in working for their newly deployed BPO project between Philippines and Japan. The company is one of the large multinational organizations and what they plan to do is that the Philippine branch of their organization will become the BPO for their Japan branch. In this sense, this is not necessarily the outsourcing, but rather what is called a sort of in-house outsourcing -- actually they call it business transformation.

For example, for the retrenchment what some large organizations are doing is that they make their own subsidiary companies that act as the BPO firms for them and where some laid off employees work with lower salaries; in so doing they can conduct the retrenchment without completely losing the employees.

In this case such subsidiary firms will be established in the foreign branch of the multinational organization. In short, the Philippine branch becomes the BPO firm for the same organizations that are located in Japan, Australia or USA, etc. As you know, India and Philippines are ones of the well-known BPO destinations. And now, the multinational organization has started the same approach within the organization, which is a quite interesting phenomenon.

As I explained here, what this multinational organization tries to do interests me a lot. Though I am not sure how long and how deep I can be involved with this project so far, at least it is quite worthwhile to see this interesting, newly emerged BPO business trend from the insider's point of view. I have to stay in Japan from September 6 to 22; and, observe the detailed transactions that are operated in Japan; and then, see what kind of transactions can be transferred and preferably transformed into the outsourced operations in the Philippines.

The main intention of the outsourcing business, of course, is cost cutting; however, from the more advanced point of view, the ideal outsourcing should be focusing not only on the cost cutting, cost performance, or retrenchment, but also on the improvement of the process as such in terms of making efficiency and precision, providing the quality of service, and developing more global perspectives, etc. That is what business transformation aims.

Happiness and Joy

2004-08-17T23:54:00.000+08:00

Today's entry is inspired by the question that was given by a friend of mine who visited my blog. Is it true that while happiness comes from outside, joy is from inside; while happiness is depending on the external circumstances and may not last persistently, joy can remain whatever his or her external situation may change as it is from inside?

That is an interesting question. I understand the point and agree that there are two kinds of positive feeling -- one is something that comes from inside and the other is from outside. I am not sure if the former can be signified as "joy" and the latter as "happiness." But it seems to me that your signification can be helpful to explain each other's difference.

For example, when we say that we seek for our happy lives, it seems that we always tend to pursue something external as if a typical happy life can be made of only the external factors such as beautiful houses, higher educations, promising jobs, compatible partners, sociable friends, inherited assets, and so on. If you feel certain happiness because of such external factors, then what you think of happiness is something like what you have to possess as if you have to try hard and strive to become a so-called high achiever.

On the other hand, as you said, joy does not necessarily rely on such external factors. Even in a very simple life we can feel the tremendous joy. It is because, as you said, joy is that which comes from our inside. It is NOT what we have to reach further and grab hard to keep such possession. If joy comes from our inside, then which means that it has been there ever since. When we feel joy, it is NOT that we have gone somewhere and traveled around, but that we just have realized something that has been there ever since from the beginning. It is never lost; hence it is NOT what we have to possess, but what has been with us, as you also said.

If so, the way that joy comes to us is very similar to the way that God talks to us. As I repeatedly mentioned, when we were the residents in the Garden of Eden, our ego identity was not really separated from the environment. We were just like other animals as the part of the environment; therefore the part of God. Just like other animals we knew God unconsciously.

Once, however, we have had our own consciousness in which we can see ourselves, then such dual self-recognition makes us feel that we are separated from the environment and from God. Since we can suddenly have the ability to think about ourselves, we can imagine our own selves in the vision of our consciousness where we are standing and facing the world that seems outside us. Then, we have had the first "humanistic" questions such as who we are; where we came from; and where we will go. And probably in line with your question, we also tend to ask these questions: what is happiness? Are we happy or not on earth? If not happy, what should we do to become happy?

After we left the Garden of Eden, our ego identity (rather than our unconscious self) has more dominated us. Since our ego believes that we have been separated and even alienated from the environment and from God, what happiness means for our ego is first of all to seek for something that separated from us. In other words, our ego tends to think that happiness must be outside us just as our ego believes that God must be outside us – to reach God, we have to do this and do that, etc.

Ego believes that God is conditional – you believe that you can not see God unless you master this or that, etc. and in the same way, for such ego, love is also conditional. Such love or God is rested in the world of polarity. Sometimes God loves you depending on your conditions; therefore, sometimes God also punishes you because of your faults. For our ego, God is still in the love/hate polarity. Thus, as long as we listen to our ego identity alone, we can never realize the truth that God is unconditional – there is such a thing as unconditional love. Probably we can understand it as our knowledge, but we cannot feel the very reality of such unconditional God and unconditional love that can only come from our inside.

When we were just like other animals, we knew God unconsciously. Just like the peace of the Garden of Eden, it must be a kind of homeostasis. It is an ideal condition in a sense. But in this condition we have to be like other animals forever. Though I am not sure, one day God thought that He wanted us to be more like Him -- the ability to have self-recognition (consciousness) and to perceive the concept of time, so that we can see the so-called evolutional dynamism.

The eternal homeostasis means that nothing changes forever -- it seems that this is almost the equivalent of death. The essential factor of life is "change" -- the spiral repetition of birth and death, which is the evolution of life itself. Thus, to be born you have to die; to return to the source you have to go away. This means that we have to die in order to be born; we have to leave the Garden of Eden in order to return there; and we have to lose God in order to see Him again.

Because of the birth of consciousness we can no longer see God unconsciously as we are no longer the residents of the Garden of Eden. Because of our ego identity, we tend to seek for God and our happiness always outside since our ego believes that everything is outside – the world is outside us. We lost God because of our ego and our consciousness. However, we have not totally forgotten the time when we could unconsciously know that we were part of God.

Our great teachers in the human history have realized that what we seek for is not outside and also they have realized that we can never reach what we seek for as long as we rely on our ego identity. Such great teachers told us that God was not outside us; God was not conditional but always unconditional; our ego cannot see Him. Thus, the great teachers taught us that "happiness" is not outside but always what we can find inside us; such "happiness" has never been the external conditions, but what has been unconditionally rested inside us ever since, which can be probably called joy.

Another Transformation

2004-08-15T23:50:00.000+08:00

Have never thought of meeting again those adolescents whom I met a week ago during the debut party; probably because I wrote about them in this blog or maybe because of some other reasons I do not know -- I was lucky to meet again their young vital spirits. As I wrote in the previous blog entry, contemplating upon life in meeting those angles is one of the good opportunities that I rarely have. Thinking about them can remind me of the time when I was just in their age (around seventeen or eighteen years old) and that inevitably reminds me of a sort of transformation that takes place from their age to my age.

It is said that most of the so-called transformation of consciousness happens and completes by the age of twenty five or thirty; and until around fifty or sixty, one experiences the so-called translation alone, but no longer transformation. The transformation is the vertical deepening or escalation of consciousness level -- a kind of qualitative change of wisdom, while the translation is the quantitative increase of knowledge.

For example, we can easily see that you at the age of twenty were quite different from you at the age of five. When you were five years old, you were afraid of a dark place as you might encounter ghosts; your consciousness level was magico-mythical or pre-personal. When you are twenty years old, however, you are no longer afraid of a dark place and do not really believe anything superstitious; your consciousness level is rational-logic or personal. Though the transformation is gradual and not clearly separated in each level, at least you can see there are several qualitative changes between you at five and you at twenty.

There, however, is no such a kind of qualitative change between you at twenty and you at sixty. What changes between such two ages is more quantitative -– not the qualitative change of wisdom, but the quantitative increase of knowledge. It is not the vertical deepening or escalation of your consciousness level, but the horizontal expansion of your perception. Probably you can learn a lot of new things during your adult age and you can feel that you get wiser and wiser as your knowledge increases. However, the change is not as dramatic as the change that you can experience in the periods from infant to childhood to adolescent, etc. That is why; we call this change "translation" rather than "transformation."

Of course both changes are important and supplementary each other, but it is also important to notice each other's difference. Thus, witnessing the transformation of young people is supported to be one of the exciting events. In this sense, being a school teacher or more basically being a parent (or parenting itself) must be the important experience, though it seems that this point have been taken for granted. It is understandable that you can be a parent only when you have completed your own transformation; only adults can be parents and teachers.

Once, however, you reach the age of sixty or so (though it is approximate), you may experience the second transformation. Once more, you have to experience the vertical deepening or escalation of your consciousness. This is probably considered as the change from personal to transpersonal. When you approach such age, you may encounter a lot of your life-related, existential issues and problems. One of them is aging. You have realized that your life is limited and has the end. You have felt that your body becomes dysfunctional and eventually would stop functioning. You have experienced that your beloved partner or even children passed away.

When you are young, you are so busy to learn new things to train and adjust yourself to become the member of this world – in doing so you have to experience a number of transformations. When you become adult, you are also so busy to cope with the reality of this world; you need to learn a lot of new knowledge (rather than your own transformation) to survive in this world. And then, when you get old, what you have learned is the truth that you have to leave this world someday. Thus, you have to prepare yourself for your final departure.

But if so, how can you prepare yourself? If you have to eventually leave this world, then why am I here and what am I supposed to do here and also where will I go after leaving here? The increase of the knowledge (translation) can NOT answer these questions. What you need to do is another transformation in which you yourself have to change. Only in doing so, you can get the real answers.

It is true that many of us have to leave this world without knowing the real answers. But it is also true that we can have a choice and chance to get the real answers by our second transformation, which is what can be never achieved by the increase of knowledge.

Synchronicity

2004-08-11T23:50:00.000+08:00

Since we are surrounded by several kinds of writing task, once we have gotten busy with some writings such as emails, articles or business letters, we have missed some other wrings such as blog diary, private poetry and so on. In my case when I have received a lot of emails, then sometimes I have spent most of my writing time just to reply to them. Of course it is also enjoyable in one way or another.

One interesting thing is that such email responding task tends to come to me not randomly but more "periodically." I do not know why, but it is like this: When I receive emails, I receive them more and more at the same time; and I get busy to reply to them. On the other hand, when I receive very few emails, I really tend to receive fewer. It seems that there must be a weird law behind – if I generalize it, looks like when you are busy, you tend to get really busier and busier, while when you are not so busy, you are not really so busy.

If I use somewhat a silly example, when you receive a job offer, only in this timing you receive some other job offers, too, and you have to choose one of them. However, when you are trying hard to look for a job and yet cannot find anything, you really feel that any kinds of job are escaping from you as if they know you and they really avoid you. Even the courtship has the same tendency. Suppose you are female and one guy starts courting you, and you are shocked or pleased, and then mysteriously only in this timing some other guys who had not seemingly interested in you, has also suddenly started courting you. Or else, when I am invited for dinner, again mysteriously enough some other friends whom I have not met for a long time have suddenly called me up to invite for dinner. When one needs my help, somehow only in the same timing some other persons also need my help. Or when I need this person's help, somehow only in the same timing others also need this same person's help and this person gets stuck.

I am not sure if we can also call this synchronicity. But one thing I am sure is that when one thing has happened, the similar things additionally tend to happened at the same time, and yet the first happening does not necessarily and even not logically triggered the other additional happenings. They have just come together at the same time – probably it might be called a kind of synchronicity.

Incidentally, the right definition of synchronicity is like this: if both "A" and "B" happened at the same time but both are not necessarily connected in a rational-logic sense, this is called synchronicity. For example, when an old priest passed away, at the same time the old clock in the church that he worked in his whole life was also stopped. There is no logical relation between the old priest and the old clock; hence, this relation manifests synchronicity. Although the term is named by Jung, this way of thinking has been well-known and even authoritatively practiced in our society especially as inherited from the legacy of pre-modern values such as fortune telling and horoscope, etc.

We also call this way of thinking the magico-mythical membership. For, in the pre-modern period the tie of the community was maintained by the magical sorcery and the mythical legend. And such narrative can also enforce the membership of the people in the community – in this case community means tribal groups, ethno-religious entities, etc. Thus, if the members want to see their origin such as where they come from, then what they can do is to see their mythic legend that is shared by all the members.

If they want to see the future and the fate of their community including themselves, then they tend to rely on the magical sorcery. As we can easily see, both mythical legend and magical sorcery are not rely on the rational-logic thinking, but heavily on the synchronistic way of thinking. The mythical legend of the community is the symbolic miniature of the community itself. And to read the fate of the community the magical sorcery to see the omens from diverse natural routines and phenomena was so important, which cannot work without believing in the synchronistic way of thinking.

Such way of thinking is surely inherited and practiced in our lives. As described above, we have the tendency to be amazed by such synchronistic happenings. We are not surprised by the rational-logical causations, but really amazed and feel a certain mystery on the so-called synchronistic causations; we even tend to consider it as so-called divine intervention.

It looks God's manipulation. He did something miraculous for us; that is why it looks unnatural. We tend to think so. But such way of thinking may lead us just to a superstitious belief. Probably God might surprise us with a certain miraculous happening, but what God has done for us is that which make things rather "natural" – not unnatural. If you really understand the meaning of miracle, then you can see a lot of miracles in the natural happenings, not in the unnatural happenings. If things look unnatural, then it is because our shallow expectations bring us such distorted view. While God controls everything, He never does so in the manipulative way that we humans can easily expect. His control is always beyond our expectations.

Thus, if we appreciate the synchronistic happenings because of our expectations, then we have failed to appreciate what is truly happening on earth since such things have been contaminated by our expectations. We call such things probably superstitions. In the premodernity, people used to confuse the true divine controls with the superstitious causations. Probably in the truly deep recognition we can see the truth that everything is connected, but it is NOT such way that we can easily expect and manipulate things with some magical devices. Probably everything has its own "time" to be revealed, and everything has its own "reason" to happen, and also everything has its own "purpose" to be here, but such "time," "reason," and "purpose" can never be manifested in our superstitious expectations and ego-oriented beliefs. I think we really have to keep us from such premodern tendency.

Because of this confusion, many people are still relying on the diverse kinds of fortune-telling, religious fundamentalism, and new age occultism, etc. It is true that we can see God in reflecting and contemplating on the everyday happenings and their interrelation including ourselves; however, this does NOT mean that we indulge ourselves with the pseudo-synchronicity. The true synchronicity is what teaches us that there is certain happenings that cannot be seen based on the rational-logic causations and yet at the same time can keep us from the shallow, ego-oriented, self-indulgent superstitious expectations. We can see God in the everyday happenings, but we cannot put Him down on the ground as the magician / sorcerer / fortune-teller who practices superstitious miracles all the time to deal with our shallow expectations and disappointments.

Debut

2004-08-08T23:06:00.000+08:00

Visited my friend and attend the birthday party held in his house. He is also a student of community development. He can be also called Mr. O, but different one from another "Mr. O" who was mentioned in the other journal entry, though both know each other very well. It was not his birthday party, but the eighteenth birthday of his acquaintance; he offered the venue for her since his house is quite spacious.

In this country your eighteenth birthday has the special meaning that you can be or have to be the responsible member of the society you belong. They call this occasion "debut." This is probably similar to the case that Japanese young people celebrate the January 15 of their twentieth year -- Seijin-no-hi. But, in Japan this celebration has been meaningless year by year. As every year reported, if you go to this celebration in any municipal halls as an observer, we can surely witness the noisy crowd of irresponsible young "adults" who seemingly have never learned how to behave.

While I am not familiar with the details about "debut," it seems that this is just a simple birthday party for which many of her relatives and friends are invited. There may also be the more formal party where young new members of the society can loudly celebrate their new freedom and new responsibility; I saw such kind of party in some of five-star hotels held by the people from the rich families. But as for the party last night, it was so simple and at home; therefore enjoyable.

I was able to have a rare chance to talk with seventeen to eighteen year old boys and girls at that night, it was interesting. They are still students and have not had their clear visions about their futures like what kind of job they will have, etc. It seems that there is still full of possibility in their minds. Although they were just shy, I was impressed by the fact that they were naïve and pure. Certainly they also have their own problems in their everyday activities. I do not think they are just innocent angles who have never experienced the hardness, injustice, unfairness of this world; probably they have experienced some of them; and even they have already known that this extent will be increased as they grow.

If they are angles, then they are not innocent angles, but the angles standing at the edge of the cliff where they are now preparing themselves to jump into the world below. Then, the irony is that as soon as they jump, they have to realize that they no longer have their angelic wings and have to realize the truth that there is the severe gravity pulling them down lower and lower unless they resist it and decide to climb the mountain. They are no longer floating in the sky with their angelic wings, but have to stand on the ground with their human legs and have to start walking on their path until they can find where their path leads them to; what the goal of their path will be; whom they can meet on their path; and who is waiting for at the end of the path.

I just thought that they were naughty adolescents – maybe they were, but at the same time I also noted that they had not yet really contaminated by the worldly attributes such as pride, selfishness, pretence, suspicion, doubt, untrustworthy, manipulation and so on. Although I do not think that these adolescents are just like naïve Adam and Eva in the Garden of Eden, including certain ambivalence it seems to them that the so-called adults like me and my friends are omnipotent, though that is of course illusion.

For them, we adults can be independent; can know how to earn money, how to use cars and computers, know the more detailed subtle rules and practices of the society, see what is risky, and what is beneficial in the society, etc. In other words it seems to them that we know certain knowledge and wisdom of how to survive in the society. And that very point makes them feel that we are omnipotent from their point of view. Consciously or unconsciously they notice that they still have to depend on their parents. They are safe but not really free. This is their ambivalence. They want to "debut" as soon as possible, but at the same they are also unconsciously worried about losing their angelic wings and facing the truth of the server gravity in this world.

They asked me what kind of job I am doing right now; why I am still studying in the Ph.D. program; why I have come to this country, etc. Then, I just remember the time when I was just seventeen years old in Japan. Although I have spent for a short moment in the US, English was still a kind of the strange code to be deciphered. At that time it took quite a long time to finish just a few pages if they are written in English, while now it is possible to read through one whole book just within a few days whether it is in English or Japanese.

They are quite fluent in English compared to when I was seventeen years old – of course this is natural since they are the people in the English speaking country. My point is that whether or not their potential and possibility can be maximized is really up to them and probably up to how their environments can encourage them. For example, while their language skill can be improved, I have also seen many adults here who are not even as fluent as these boys and girls. This is a use-it-or-lose-it principle. Of course, language or study is not everything for their lives. It is also really depending on what kind of talents and gifts that one has really committed to.

It is true, however, that you can never see the real path on which you have to walk step by step by using your legs (not your lost-angelic-wings) unless you realize your talent and gifts that are given from the heaven; and unless you have really decided to commit yourself to such talents and gifts. Of course, such talents and gifts do not necessarily have to be something artistic, professional or practical and so on.

I also want them to know that anyone has his or her talent and/or gift just as anyone's life is meaningful and has the purpose as God created all. As I said the other day, it is called one's Personal Legend. Only by walking the path of your Personal Legend, then someday you will rediscover your lost-angelic-wings that have been within you.

Beyond Nihilism

2004-08-07T14:53:00.000+08:00

What postmodernism has exposed is that there is no such thing as truth. What is called or recognized as truth is just a discourse derived from the particular context. Everything has been contextualized; hence everything is interpreted depending on each specific context. The positive side of postmodernism is that so-called marginal cultures or values are no longer oppressed or "marginalized." Relativism and multiculturalism have emerged. What is oppressed or alienated as "something wrong" has been re-appreciated.

While people has started blaming the negative side of modernism such as materialism, rationalism, capitalism, destroying natural environment, or what is represented as Western rationalism and materialism, etc. in the post-modernism they have begun to appreciate that which is regarded as non-modernism or non-Western such as Oriental traditions, tribal cultures, tribal artifacts, and alternative values (that which used to be underground).

Thus, since everything that seems non-modern has been signified as post-modern, people have had inevitably the so-called pre/trans (post) fallacy. This means that even the values on pre-modernism has been considered as something post-modern. It is good to re-appreciate and re-visit the tribal values based on such post-modern attitude, but it might be problematic if we cannot differentiate between pre-modern things and post-modern ones. We should not forget the fact that modernity is that which could overcome the negative side of pre-modernity such as tribal cruelty, religious wars, slavery, dehumanized social practices, numerous superstitious beliefs.

Superstitious beliefs might contain the profound wisdom just as any great religions have it in one way or another. But again, the point is how to grasp such wisdom without being confused by the naive superstitions. Of course it is not that we change the religious wisdom into the conventional moral ethics. There are still the levels from esthetics to ethics and to religious spirituality, which means that what religious wisdom teaches us is much more than the sum of esthetics and ethics. In such religious, spiritual dimension, a certain paradoxical phrasing may be inevitably involved and such phrasing sounds superstitious in a sense, but the important and crucial thing is how to grasp the true paradoxical phrasing out of the superstitious anecdotes.

Thus, in my understanding, for example Jung has spent his time to study myths. However, it seems that a number of his followers had become just superstitious. It seems that there is such kind of pre/trans fallacy in the Jungian attempts. It is true that there is the profound wisdom in any myths and tribal traditions; however, it is NOT that we should worship the whole entity of them. That leads us merely to the pre-modern romanticism.

It is, however, also difficult for post-modern people to grasp such universal wisdom out of the diverse great religions and minor tribal traditions despite their multi-cultural, relativistic attitude. Why? It is because they believe the fact that there is no such thing as truth but truths. Since they are supposed to have overcome modernism, they no longer believe that there is a single universal truth. The attitude of modernism is to search for something universal and objective. Modernism is the age of objectivism that is related to rational logic, materialism and quantification. However, if they could really overcome (transcend and include) the mean side of modernism, then they could have retained a certain positive side of modern "universalism" that do not allow the post-modern people to become "extreme relativism" -- the stance that there is really nothing to be universally shared throughout the diversity – that leads us nihilism.

Extreme relativism is the attitude that one denies any kind of discourses, or it is the stance that one has given up to pursue a certain universal wisdom through discourse. In other words, it is that one totally has given up one's intellectual pursuit to reach the wisdom. That is why, it is commonly said that the death of philosophy, the death of meta-narrative, or the death of the author in the case of text analysis. Everything is interpretation; hence what one says truth is what is created on the particular context. We do not have any criteria to prove the truthfulness on what he or she is insisting as truth. Thus, at least what we can say is scarcely that there are merely many truths depending on the context. We cannot rely on anything in this everything-is-relative world.

This is called nihilism. It may also take place in the individual level saying "I cannot believe anything" or "I cannot trust anyone" or "I believe nothing." When we were naive enough, we used easily to believe anyone. We easily trust people around us. And that was of course considered as the good value. If you trust them, they also trust you. Mutual trustworthy is indispensable in our wholesome lives.

However, in an unfortunate occasion, some might be betrayed by people around all the time. Or, if you have encountered an extremely painful betrayal, it is somewhat understandable that you can no longer trust anyone. This teaches us that such untrustworthy, rude conditions produce doubtful people. If you do not trust anyone, then they do not trust you, either. And then, your nihilism gets stronger and stronger. Untrustworthy produces untrustworthy. Doubt produces doubt. Malice produces malice. In short, bad people produce bad people. The very source of nihilism is actually nihilism itself. Then, if you are in such nihilistic despair of bad-produces-bad vicious circle, then how can you save yourself? How can you go back to the wholesome condition that you can trust anyone not naively but authentically?

In the pre-modernity we could trust only people who belong to our group (tribe, religious group, nation-state. exclusive community and institute, etc) that is called ethnocentric love. In the modernity we have started looking for something universal by which we can overcome such ethnocentric love that is the very source of any kinds of warfare. The objective (rational logic and quantitative) agreement was one of such solutions. But in this condition we can not still achieve the so-called world-centric love in which we can trust anyone authentically.

The objective agreement was just one of the remedies that control and tame our doubt and suspicion. There is still no trust. For, in this condition we can just say that I trust you as long as both of us follow this contract. Pre-modernity is the membership agreement. That is to say, I trust you because you are the member of my group (family, tribe, ethnic group, religion, nation-state, etc). Modernity is the contractual agreement; I trust you because of this contract. Probably the modern agreement has now been implemented in the international diplomatic relationship. I can trust you but also I can attack you if you violate the treaty, etc.

In the postmodernism, however, such power of contract has become dysfunctional. For, nobody believes what is said -- The meta-narrative is dead in this paradigm. If in the macro level such as international relationship, such post-modern nihilism has happened, what is the consequence? As we see it nowadays, it seems that we have gone back to the pre-modern worldview. Nobody believes what is written. Nobody follows the diplomatic procedure -- the typical example is terrorism. The terrorism is the result that post-modern nihilism has married the pre-modern tribalism and cruelty. They are not rational at all (lack of modernism); they are very nihilistic (post-modern) to the extent that they do not care even if innocent civilians are killed and they can kill anyone (pre-modern cruelty); and they are fanatic enough to believe their own tribal narrow worldview (pre-modern tribalism, ethnocentrism).

Nihilism is such a dangerous mentality to produce the cruel terrorism. However, it is also a kind of necessary step to lead us to the world-centric stance. For example, if we no longer trust anyone, what should we do? What post-modern nihilists have chosen was firstly to believe nothing and nobody -- the death of truth and God. Secondly they just go back to the pre-modern fanaticism -- the new age occultism. The commonality in both attitudes is that they are still struggling to find something to believe in this world. Even in the first attitude, they believe nothing, which means that they believe in their view that there is noting for them to believe. For them, such nihilism is their own truth on which they can scarcely be alive. If so, what should we do and what we can do?

What we can do is that we have to contemplate on our very attitude that we tend always to believe or look for something or someone out there. Indeed, what we should believe is NOT out there -- not in the dualistic stance. The truth is that once we stop searching for what we should believe and trust in this very world (this is different from nihilism), then we can find the authentic truth that has been always and already with us. Only from this realization we can cease the worldly conflicts and start the so-called world-centric love.

Personal Legends

2004-08-05T23:34:00.000+08:00

Let us accept first the truth that everyone has his or her Personal Legend. This word came from The Alchemist. Personal Legend means that everyone's life must be meaningful and have the purpose in one way or another. There is no such a thing as meaningless life. Just everything has its own purpose to be here in this world, so does everyone in his or her life. Once we truly see God, we can also recognize that nothing is meaningless; everything and everyone are meaningful even including evil ones. Even if a newborn infant has passed away right after seeing the world just for a few hours, then his or her life was still meaningful. God has the reason for doing so. Only our eyes have limited and cannot see the Personal Legend of that newborn-passed-away baby.

Suppose you have accepted the truth that everyone has his or her Personal Legend and you also have your own. Then, the problem is not the question whether or not there is the Personal Legend, but how to search and find your own Personal Legend correctly. This is the most difficult part. According to the Alchemist, to see your Personal Legend that brings you to your hidden treasure, what you need is to master how to listen to your heart; how to follow your heart. And, once you could learn how to listen and follow your heart, then the second thing you need is to master how to let go of yourself (your ego); how to surrender yourself to something higher or your Personal Legend itself. The Alchemist explains this in such a way that you have to turn yourself into the wind. He told Santiago that he had to turn yourself into the wind, or you have to die. Though this is a kind of metaphoric, symbolic expression, eventually he was able to listen to his heart; turn himself into the wind; and find the treasure in his Personal Legend.

The story was so symbolic that it could give us the profound wisdom how to face our own lives. This is really good. And yet, just the story taught us, mastering how to listen to your heart and find your Personal Legend is so difficult (in a way it must be too easy to find it paradoxically). It seems that we always fail to listen to our heart to find our Personal Legend. For, though it is irony, the very terms like "your heart" or "your Personal Legend" can also feed our ego-oriented identity. In other words, because of such terms, we tend to be quite narcissistic. Just in listening to "your heart" and "your Personal Legend," unintentionally you tend to indulge yourself with them and we tend to daydream them.

A boy has just been waiting for the woman in his life and dreaming to meet her someday just as Santiago was able to meet Fatima. A girl has just been waiting for the Prince Charming who can love her wholeheartedly as she is. Probably it is true that when we meet someone like that, we may feel as if the entire universe conspires to help us to realize our dream. But, the problem is that we might misunderstand and get confused the true sacred "conspiracy" with the narcissistic self-storytelling. If we fail to listen to our heart, then instead, our ego may tell us our Personal Legend that is false and keeps us from the real, true Personal Legend.

In certain moments of our lives, we have to make our crucial decisions. When we find our new job, we have to see how this job will be related our true Personal Legend, but it is almost impossible to predict this unless we can listen to our heart. Santiago had to work as an assistant of the crystal merchant. It seemed that such was an unnecessary detour to reach his Personal Legend, but in the end such detour had revealed as the truly part of his Personal Legend – nothing is meaningless.

But what if he had quitted working as the assistant? Could he still find his Personal Legend? Probably he could. And yet, it is also true that many people have to die without finding their Personal Legends since they could not know how to listen to their hearts and could not see the correct omens in their paths. Still, in the larger perspective, even those people who have died without finding their own Personal Legends must have the reasons and meanings for that because nothing is meaningless but at the same few can see the meaningfulness.

This also tells us that we may fail to find our Personal Legend unless we master how to listen to our heart and surrender ourselves to the Hand that wrote everything. As for myself, I do not know if I really know how to listen to my heart. Reflecting on my past events, it seems that I have made so many wrong decisions. My talent that I thought of the gift to lead me to my Personal Legend has now been recognized that it was NOT the gift, or else it was that I had really failed to explore my talent as the gift. The woman I met and thought that she was my "Fatima" has now been recognized that she was NOT my Fatima. Or, even I do not know whether I have met her but could not recognize her as the one, or I have not met the one really yet. Of course, making wrong decisions was not what we should totally avoid. Without wrong decisions, we cannot see the right decisions and probably cannot train ourselves to truly listen to our heart.

One thing I am sure is that listening to your heart is far from indulging yourself with your ego-oriented self-consciousness. Therefore, the dilemma is that the more we struggle with how to listen to our heart, the more we keep us from the true listing to our heart. This is somewhat similar to what we discussed in Two Voices. Listening to your heart is the same as listing to the true inner voice. Thus, the tip to listen to your heart, first of all, is to shut down your inner chatting that looks like listening to your ego, instead listening of your heart.

I still do not know what my Personal Legend is. In the past and even now I tend to discover that "this must be the one" or "that must be the one," etc. However, immediately after such "discovery" I have also realized that I had not listened to my heart; I had just followed my ego that sought for the external approvals. And then, after such "realization" I have also rediscovered that this "realization" had been my ego-oriented inner chatting.

Probably your Personal Legend is what you can find in our effort of seeking, at the same time it has been always and already the part of your every trial including your wrong decisions, and yet at the same time it has to be what you still have to seek for. Only your wholehearted trials and errors in your life conditions can lead you to the total concentration, disappointment, and exhaustion and only in such extent we can shut down our ego-oriented inner chatting. We can never listen to our heart unless and until we have exhausted our ego-oriented self-indulgence that loves the false, narcissistic Personal Legend.

Frontal Lobe

2004-08-04T23:37:00.000+08:00

While writing is one of the most interesting activities that only human can do and enjoy, it is also true that we tend to be reluctant when we start writing. Even I myself sometimes experience such kind of procrastination. Usually the more I consider writing as something important, the stronger such reluctance, hesitation, procrastination tend to become. The typical example is writing dissertation. It is not as easy as writing the journal entry. Sometimes I wish I could write the articles just as I write my dairy.

On the other hand, it is also true that even my diary tends to be like the articles in terms of contents and length. It is because I consider any kinds of writing as the activities that bring me to the sate of flow as I explained in "Messengers." Whether they are just journals, articles or emails to my friends, once I have entered the state of flow, it seems that I can no longer stop writing until a certain length of content comes out that convinces my "messenger." Of course it is lucky if such contents could be accompanied by a certain acceptable quality, but if not, then it has become just meaninglessly wordy; the readers of my writing and/or the recipients of my mails might be bothered and need some patience to read through.

And yet, I still believe that writing quantitatively longer can lead us to the qualitatively better writing. In short, writing a lot is one of the basic and indispensable conditions to improve your writing and bring you to the easier and more frequent communications with your inner "messenger." The more you have chances to write something with your total concentration, the more you have valuable opportunities to enter the state of flow that can elevate and integrate the level of your consciousness.

Generally speaking, however, unless you are the kind of person who particularly value writing just like I described above, people are basically NOT fond of writing. If they have to write, they rather prefer chatting or talking over the phone, which does not look sophisticated in my subjective point of view. In my opinion if you think of yourself as the student of the intellectual pursuit, you should not avoid any chances to write something regardless of the kinds of occasion. You should consider writing as one of the main communication tools in your life.

One psychological experiment showed that when we were chatting or talking (not discussing or dialoguing that is similar to writing), we did not fully use the frontal lobe of our brain that is used when we are doing some creative activities such as writing, drawing and composing etc. This means that when we are chatting, even though we are typing, we are not really "writing" or not using the part of our brain for the creative activities. In other words, in chatting we do not think thoroughly – it is more similar to daydreaming. And the experiment also added that when we were playing the computer games, we were not using the frontal lobe of our brain, either. This experiment has re-convinced me the importance of writing. I am quite happy to know that I was right when I have been emphasizing the importance and the value of writing ever since.

Thus, if you have a chance to think something and/or communicate with someone, my suggestion is always write and write and write -- if you do not like to write, instead of writing, you can probably draw, paint or compose for your creative expressions. In other words, you should always use and activate the frontal lobe of your brain that is the newest part and function that creatures have acquired in their latest stage of evolution. It is also said that because of the frontal lobe, we can think of past, present and future and also can put ourselves on the shoes of others – the higher level of loving.

It is, however, also said that the frontal lobe is a kind of double edged sword. It has both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that because of the frontal lobe, we can become and act like "more human" in terms of creativity, the concept of time, the sense of empathy and the act of love. The negative side is that because of the frontal lobe, we tend to have a lot of worries, regrets, self-consciousness, identity crisis and so on. Probably committing suicide is caused by such too advanced function of the frontal lobe. It is understandable why those kinds of people who are involved with the creative activities tend to kill themselves.

The frontal lobe is one of the most advanced parts of the brain, however, because of that, we tend to overuse it or sometimes cannot control it properly, in doing so then certain serous mental diseases may affect us.

Have you heard of the lobotomy operation? It is the medical operation to make the frontal lobe of one's brain dysfunctional, so that his or her mental disorders can be cured. But, some reports say that the patients of the lobotomy operation tend to have more serious problems in the longer term – they no longer search for the meaning of their lives. And as we can easily imagine, the sense of creativity is not keen anymore.

It is irony that the pains and problems of our lives are necessary for us to become more human. If we are worried and somewhat struggling for our life conditions, then that proves that we are human beings. The pains and problems are that which we should overcome courageously and heroically in seeking for our own Personal Legends, but not that which we can cure by removing the frontal lobe in the brain operation. Using drug is also the same approach to escape from our pains and problems by making our brain dysfunctional. The true integration can be achieved only when we could properly and authentically overcome our painful trials that the frontal lobe can perceive. Because of the frontal lobe, maybe we can see our pains and problems, and can recognize them what we must overcome but not escape or avoid for our true growth.

Messengers

2004-08-02T23:35:00.000+08:00

Today's entry is extracted from my reply to one of my friends who gave me a very thoughtful comment on my blog dairy. I would like to post it by omitting the privacy related portions:

Thank you for your detailed comments on my blog diary. I am very happy to know that you have been reading them. I also believe that your workshop must be successful. For me, it was a good coincidence that while you were conducting the workshop, I was also conducting the CMMI presentation. My experience on CMMI had really given me a valuable insight. I am glad that I could share them with you through this blog to some extent.

As you commented, the good thing in keeping this blog is that it can place me in the position that I really write as I breathe. Whether I like it or not, since it is my diary, a kind of moderate obsession on writing has been installed in me, then I feel I have to write something daily or at least every other day. Although the pathological obsession should be avoided, keeping it moderately can make my life more productive and if anything contemplative.

For the contemplative state of our lives, we do several kinds of activities such as meditation, prayer and even weight training. In my case, then, writing really is one of the most important tools to access to such state. Once I could have entered the state of "flow" on writing, I feel that a certain messenger can come to help me to write something, though it does not mean at all that my writing can be always creative, and yet meeting or recognizeing my messenger in writing is one of the most ecstatic experiences. That is why, I like a kind of excitement that writing gives me even though I feel some reluctance in the beginning.

As I wrote in "Two Voices," it seems to me that through writing I can access to the so-called true voice and shut down a false inner chatting that I tend to do in my time wasting daydreaming. Is it superstitious? Well, it might be. But it is true that such belief has been one of the motifs for my writing. In other words, because of writing, somehow I can believe both existence of the messenger and value of the creativity that they provide, though I do not mean that I can be creative always because of writing – and yet, because of writing, at least I can appreciate both existence of the messenger and value of the creativity.

As for "Leap into the Second Tier," I think that I have oversimplified what might be going on in this "next" dimension. I also agree that it is too much if I say that we will be able to overcome our "ego issues" only in this stage. It is unrealistic to say that when one is in the Second Tier, he or she has been already egoless. The true egoless, enlightenment, or non-dual satori is NOT waiting for us right after the First Tier – right after the Green meme. It is too naïve if we can believe so. Thus, as you commented, it is more appropriate to say that in the Second Tier we can just and scarcely achieve the trans-rational alone, while the Green meme could not truly overcome (transcend/include) the ego-oriented rationality (that is represented by the Orange meme) because of their pseudo-spirituality and/or because of their going to magic (due to the pre/trans fallacy).

I will study and reflect further on this point so as to write something more about this issue. However, I also feel that exploring the "Second Tier" by writing is also somewhat risky. Since it is a kind of non-verbal state (I believe), if we try unnecessarily to articulate this issue, then it might look like too esoteric and enigmatic, which might be either rejected by the Orange-oriented rational people or utilized by the Mean Green occultism, etc. That is what I am afraid of... (Yet, of course if one is talented enough, such level of articulation may be possible in using the more symbolic ways just as artists, musicians and poets always do. Unfortunately I am not that talented.) Also I think there is the same risk that any integral theories, approaches, organizations and practices may encounter in their way to the Second Tier.

Two Voices

2004-07-31T23:42:00.000+08:00

Your enthusiasm is not what you can squeeze out by your will-power. While sometimes it is, but mostly the other way around. Your enthusiasm is that which can give you an incredible will-power, not vice versa. And if so, where does your enthusiasm come from? Sometimes it comes from your ego (the desire to get the external approvals) and sometimes from your recognition of what is truly called for. The latter is what we signify literally as "Calling." It is not that you call for yourself but that someone else calls for you in your mind or consciousness. That is why; it is also called "inner voice." And the true inner voice is different from what we call inner chatting.

Actually one of the most difficult things is how we can recognize the true inner voice in our contemplation and differentiate from the false one. Because of our consciousness, unlike other animals, we tend to think too much when we do something. Like our decision, when we decide to make any action, we tend to think too much or we conduct a number of simulations or mental rehearsals before our action is really executed. It is of course quite useful to avoid unnecessary risks and dangers in the future by conducing such mental simulations or rehearsals. It is the power that we humans could acquire as the result of having our consciousness. It is so useful, but we also have to notice that this is also your inner voice; it is that you are talking to you; you are suggesting you. Such simulation or mental rehearsal is not what is called true inner voice; it is not that someone else or someone higher than you is talking to you. And yet, we tend to confuse between these two voices – your inner voice and the true voice in you.

In our contemplation we first have to calm down and focus on the inside. But the tendency is that contrary to our intention (or because of our intention indeed) we can not reach our true contemplative state and inner stillness. Rather, we tend to start thinking a lot of things, which is what we call inner chatting, inner dialogue or just simply "thinking." Once such inner chatting has occupied your mind, you are far from the contemplative state. It seems at a glance you sit quietly, but the truth is that noisy discussions have been taking place in your mind. In your mind or consciousness you are talking to you; you are arguing with you; you are encouraging you; and you pity you, etc.

The small room of your mind or consciousness is so crowded because of so many kinds of you. The worst case is that there is even the warfare among a lot of you in your mind or consciousness. In short, you are fighting one another in you. And the tragedy is that you kill yourself. This is the reason why committing suicide is the unique phenomenon that we humans have. As we commonly say, the toughest enemy is yourself when you have to overcome some crucial challenges in your life. That is very true. The more the challenge is crucial, the more we tend to conduct our inner chatting and dialogue, and the less we tend to listen carefully to the true inner voice. The pseudo-inner voice disturbs you. That voice is actually your own voice.

If that is the case, then how can we listen to the true inner voice without being distracted by the pseudo-inner voice? Moreover, how can we tame such false inner voice and let the true inner voice control us?

As commonly said, one of the solutions is to master the technique of letting go. As we have seen, the dilemma is that the false inner voice is your own voice at the same time. You are talking to you. Thus, if you attempt to force the false inner voice to stop talking to you, then your attempt itself has become your, another false inner voice. In your consciousness you are talking to the false inner voice (that is you), "Stop talking to me," then such saying itself is again another false inner voice (that is also you) that disturbs you. Thus, the vicious circle of the false inner voices has continued endlessly. The more you try to stop it, the more you have to produce the false inner voice that will be increased more and more. You are replicating your voices and getting farther from the true voices.

One of the solutions, therefore, is that you have to master how to let go of your voices. But it is very difficult. You may be caught by the trap that "letting go" becomes another false voice. You are just bothered by your inner chatting – saying continuously "letting go, letting go and letting go." But then, if so, how can we master the technique of letting go?

The important tip is that you devote yourself to some specific activity in which you forget about yourself totally. The bottom line is that for letting go, you have to forget yourself, and to forget yourself you have to put yourself on some specific activities where you need your total concentration. In other words, if you place yourself in the condition where your total concentration is required, then you cannot help but forgetting yourself. Only if you can forget yourself, in such circumstance you can shut down the false inner voice that is your voice. The key is how to forget yourself; if you can forget yourself, then you can master the technique of letting go. As Dogen said, "To know the Way is to know the Self. To know the Self is to forget the Self."

If so, what kind of activity can be suitable for shutting down the false inner voice and listening to the true inner voice? Although we need the further discussion for the latter – how to listen to the true voice, as for the former – shutting down the false inner voice, in my opinion actually any kinds of activities (as long as they require your total concentration) can be suitable.

As the Buddhist traditions have suggested, such simple activities as counting, breathing and walking can be the effective activities. However, these activities may be quite difficult since we are unlikely achieve and maintain our total concentration when we are just counting, breathing and walking. If we conduct our mental, inner chatting during our counting, breathing and walking, we can never shut down the false inner voice and never reach the true inner voice. Contrary to our intuitive image, these simple activities might be considered as the difficult ones. These are rather the activities that train us to achieve our total concentration. This means, only if we can totally concentrate on just counting, breathing and walking, we can say that our level of shutting down the false inner voice is so high. These are the indicators to see your power of concentration.

As we have experienced, however, the good thing is that though still partial, such things as counting, breathing and walking can be the effective tools to shut down our inner dialogues. When we are worried about a lot of problems (that are the false inner voices), just counting, breathing and walking without thinking of these problems can be the best ways to restore our energy so as to face the problems more calmly and positively.

The diverse kinds of sports and artistic activities such as writing, drawing, painting, playing the instruments, dancing, and singing are also suitable. And in my opinion, not only for shutting down the false inner voices, but also for listening to the true inner voices, particularly the artistic activities can be the most effective approaches. Why? It is because the artistic activities are always accompanied by the certain outcomes. These are always accompanied by what is created. These are the activities that always create something. Then, if we can really forget ourselves during our artistic activities and can still create something beyond our ego, intention and calculation, what is created must manifest certain accessibility to the true inner voices. But of course, I do not think that any artistic activities can always reveal such true inner voice since we cannot totally forget ourselves during the activities.

When we "think" that we want to access to the true inner voice in our artistic activities, such "thinking" itself has become the distraction to approach the true inner voice. Ironically, the very intention to make the masterpiece that can provide us the true inner voice is one of the most serious obstacles for this very intention.

A Dead Naked Body

2004-07-29T23:50:00.000+08:00

While revising the world of The Alchemist, the following sentence impressed me: "When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

Reflecting on this sentence, I just wonder how many times I have ever decided in my life. Of course we can say that it is countless. Life is a collection of countless decisions from tiny ones to something really crucial determinations for your path. As for tiny ones, you have to make numerous decisions every morning when you wake up something like what kind of breakfast you should have; whether or not you should have breakfast; whether you should pay an electric bill today or tomorrow.

It seems that such tiny decision does not affect your life at all. But who knows? If you change the place (restaurant or cafeteria) for your breakfast, then you might meet someone who will be your life time partner. Or, the worst tragic case -- you might encounter the traffic accident (a car might hit you) only because you changed the place for breakfast. You might encounter someone special on the one hand; you might encounter a car that hits you on the other. In any case, we can say that this has happened because of your decision on your breakfast. And yet, we can also say that while your decision on your breakfast might be a part of sequences to reach such incident, who knows it was the crucial element for the incident? If you say that the incident (whether meeting someone loves you or being hit by a car) had been prepared for you, then which is what we call destiny, fate or (if it is tragic) curse.

If life is simple and primitive enough like an experimental condition of chemistry and physics, or like a conceptual rationality of mathematics, then we can use the logical sequences to explain what has been happened. "A" took place because of "B" and "C." Salt (Sodium Chloride) took place because of compounding Chlorine with Sodium in a specific condition. Although Stendhal used some chemical terms to explain how the passion of love occurred in On Love, this does not necessarily means that the "human compound" is as predictable as chemical compound.

Although there is still a vast room that shows us the mystery of the universe, which is unpredictable enough beyond any scientific approaches, the physical universe is still gentle enough to give us some scientific predictability. This is actually one of the great achievements of science – one of the positive fruits of modernism. When science was not the major way of our thinking or seeing the universe, everything around us were so unpredictable and uncontrollable. Logic was so primitive that it was almost the same as magic. Logic was magic and vice versa. That was why; people believed there was the alchemist who could change metals into gold.

In the age of enlightenment – the age of science, however, while it was still partial, the universe had begun to show us a little bit of her secrets by which we could predict a little bit about the universe. It was just a little bit, indeed. But then, once we have realized a bit of her secrets, then we have begun to have desire to know more and more about her – the desire to know the mechanism of the universe. Once we have such desire, what the universe showed us was no longer her secret — no longer a bit of her secrets, but the mechanism of the universe – the mechanism of her body.

She is no longer the sacred entity, but the physical body that gives us the desire to know more about her. From such eye of modernism, the universe is no longer someone mysterious, but something attractive. The universe is no longer the partner with whom we conduct dialogue (though it was so helpless because of her mystery), but the body that gives us a sort of anatomical interest. We have stopped conducting dialogue with her; instead, we have started treating her as a dead anatomical body. Suddenly a lot of material sides of the universe have been exposed in front of us – as if a dead naked body of woman was sampled on the table. And mistakenly, we have thought that we have known everything about her only because of our scrutinizing all the details of her body in an anatomical rigidity.

Can we really say that we know everything about her, the universe? Obviously we cannot.

She was so mysterious, unpredictable and uncountable when our eyes were so primitive and simple in the era of premodernity. Because of that, we used to confuse logic with magic. We used to encounter a lot of problems because of such mystery of the universe, but at that time even unconsciously we knew that the universe was alive and she talked to us in her own way, though her words were too enigmatic for our comprehension if not look too simple at a glance.

In the dawn of the modernism, however, it seemed she was no longer alive. Although because of her kindness she showed us a bit of her secrets, unfortunately when she did so we had grabbed her body and put her down on the ground. Or we have mistakenly thought we had done so. We have thought that she was a fish on the ground. Everything was exposed. But in truth, just we do not know anything about the fish when she was in the sea, we do not know anything about the universe when it was so mysterious.

It is true that modern people have gotten a lot of comforts, utility and prosperity. Probably these are her gifts that we could amplify out of a bit of her secrets that has been shown us. Because of a bit of her secrets, we could have tremendous materials and scientific knowledge about the universe. But, the problem was that we had thought that we could know everything about her, just like we mistakenly think that we could know everything about her when her dead naked body was just scrutinized on the table.

As you can see in this somewhat nasty analogy, the modern view inevitably contains one of the grave mistakes in knowing the universe. Just like anatomists are never interested in having conversation with dead bodies, modern people have lost their interests in having dialogue with the universe. Or rather, they can never imagine or thinking of talking with her. It seems to them that she is a naked dead body on the table.

Probably what post-modern people tried to do was to restore the dialogue with her to overcome the grave mistake of modern people. Post-modern people have realized that what she has given us was really a bit of her secrets and yet modern people had terribly treated her just as a dead body, or even if she was alive, what modern people saw was only her physical side in which no dialogue is needed (If she is alive with her physical side, there is a profound possibility of the physiological dialogue, but we do not discuss this topic here).

There, however, is also another grave mistake in the post-modern people. They thought that they were able to talk to her well and understand her personality well. Post-modern people thought that while modern people mistakenly considered her dead body or a bit of her secrets as "everything about her," they postmodern could finally understand a lot of her secrets including her personality. But obviously it is also a big misunderstanding. This is the same misunderstanding that premodern magical, superstitious people believed that they knew all the secrets about the universe.

Premodern sorcerers believed that they could know everything about her because of their "magic." But they could not, while at least they knew she was alive. Modern scientists believed that they could know everything about her because of their "science." But they could not, while at least they knew a bit of her secrets and yet treated her as a dead body. Post-modern activists, ecologists, New Agers and others believed that they could know everything about her because of their "spirituality." But they could not, while at least they knew the misunderstanding of both premodern and modern people, which has given the post-modern people self-deception and narcissism if not returning to magic. Their scientific view inherited from modern people has been unnecessarily colored by "spirituality." Thus, they try to understand "spirituality" in a dualistic, scientific way. This means that while they try to see her real entity, what they see is still a dead naked body on the table in believing that she is alive. We call it pseudo-spirituality.

True Radiance

2004-07-28T06:20:00.000+08:00

It is said that when you love your neighbors and when your love is really true or the love of Agape, you do not expect anything from them in return. Such true and ideal love is always the form of "giving" rather than "receiving" or "expecting." In the same way, both appreciating and understanding should be the form of active not passive. This means that if you know the value of appreciation and understanding, what you have to do or what you are required to do is appreciating and understanding your neighbors, but not expecting to be appreciated or understood by them.

It is a kind of divine requirement; hence, it seems that following and practicing such requirement or principle rigidly is quite difficult or else one of the hardest challenges that our ego has encountered. Moreover, we can say that to follow and practice this principle, our ego or egoistic separate self becomes one of the annoying obstacles. Indeed, because of our ego, we cannot simply focus on loving, appreciating and understanding our neighbors, but rather even unconsciously getting eager to be loved, appreciated and understood by them.

Why like this? The simple answer is that our ego believes that we have separated from our neighbors, environments and God and even from ourselves in such a way that we see ourselves in our consciousness in struggling to become an "ideal self" that our ego want to be or show off. For, if we know that we have not separated from our neighbors, environments, ourselves and God from the beginning ever since (always already), then it is not necessary at all for us to expect anything from all of those. They have been already in our side not their side. More correctly, there is no such dichotomy as either our side or their side, but rather just a sense of wholeness and oneness.

In such awareness our ego can be tamed and harmonized with our higher self that knows the non-dual reality, and our higher self can embrace ego and heal the painful sense of separateness. In other words, because of this healing and embracing by our higher self and because of the sense of wholeness and oneness, we do no longer have to be loved, appreciated and understood. For, we know that we have always and already been loved, appreciated and understood. Because of the non-dual sense of wholeness and oneness, being loved, appreciated and understood are the same as our very act of loving, appreciating and understanding.

It is said, "Love your neighbors as you love yourself." In the non-dual awareness above-mentioned, you can love your neighbors as if you love yourself. For, you do not see any difference or separation between your neighbors and yourself. When you truly love, appreciate and understand your neighbors, you are your neighbors and your neighbors are you. In the same way, you are your environments and your environments are you. You are God and God is you – this is of course NOT the egoistic self-inflation of religious cult leaders.

While it is easy to explain such non-dual state, it is extremely (but in a sense we can say it is easy, too) difficult to achieve such ideal state (or paradoxically we can also say that when we let go of such sense of "achieving" we can just aware of such ideal state that has been always and already). Thus, consciously or unconsciously we tend to seek for being loved, being appreciated and being understood. That is what our ego seeks for actually. And we can see how much all of us are really eager to be loved, appreciated and understood, especially when we have realized the enormous power that the sense of being loved, appreciated and understood can provide us. This sense provides us the infinite energy that keeps us continuously moving, acting, controlling, possessing and achieving.

When we feel that we are being loved, appreciated and understood, we also feel that our power and energy are unlimited. In other words, if you see someone who loves, appreciates and understood you very much (and of course if that someone is also the one you love very much), then that person and that sense give you the tremendous energy. You feel as if you could find the fabulous fountain that can constantly, unlimitedly and infinitely provide you the power and energy by which you can act and produce works; by which you can love, appreciate and understand your neighbors and the one you love. You can feel that you can do anything and can even die for the person you love.

However, unlike the true awareness in which you can feel both wholeness and oneness, such fabulous fountain is an illusion. It is merely relative in the world of polarity – being positive becomes negative soon and vice versa. Why? The reason is simple. As you can easily imagine or even you have experienced by yourself, once you have realized that you are not loved, not appreciated and not understood; once you feel that nobody loves you, nobody appreciates you and nobody understands you, your energy resource, fabulous fountain is immediately disappeared. Suddenly you feel you are exhausted.

Why does such thing happen? It is because when you feel that you are being loved, being appreciated and being understood, what that has done is just to please your ego, satisfy your separate self and inflate your pride. And since our ego, our separate self and our pride always need such external approvals and cannot survive without them, it is relative and fragile. It is situated in the illusion of the worldly polarity.

The sense of confidence easily changes into the sense of insecurity. The sense of hope easily changes into the sense of disappointment. Your heroic behavior becomes your self-indulgence. Your generosity becomes your disappointed stupidity. Your pain becomes your masochistic pleasure. Your hope dances with your despair. Your patience is always accompanied by your painful torturer. Your faith seems not so different from your doubt. Your trusting needs a lot of "ifs" and "unless." And above all, love is hate; hate is love. These are the forms of polarity, the illusion of subject-object conflicts, the worldly, First Tier struggles that we have been conducting.

When we are in love, sadly and unfortunately we tend to more indulge ourselves with this polarity that disturbs our peace of mind. Thus, while you believe that you love your partner, unconsciously you are expecting to be loved more by your partner. Even if you know and can even explain that true love does not expect anything in return, unfortunately this "explanation" is not enough to keep you from such deception. Only if and when you can be always radiant with the act of loving, appreciating and understanding regardless such dual, worldly conflicts, probably you are in the awareness of the wholeness and the oneness. Or rather, only if and when you are in such awareness, you can have the true radiance.

I, Robot

2004-07-26T16:34:00.000+08:00

Had dinner with friends of mine and watched movie – its title is "I, Robot." Though it looks like one of the computer graphic action based Hollywood movies at once and it does actually, the story seems profound on which you can have a certain philosophical reflection. It is because the story itself is based on the same title of the famous science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov.

This is the story about robots. In the near future (2035) the company named USR (US Robots) can have produced the robots that can work for us. They can do almost all of human manual works more effectively and more obediently based on the three laws of robotics:

1) A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Robots are sort of perfect slaves that the humans have ever had in their history. Such condition, however, does not last long. Sooner or later, the mother computer that controls everything about the modernized (futuristic) comfortable life of human beings, at last has come to have her consciousness (though it is too rational) and then has realized that "the happiest condition for humans" must be that which she must control not only everything about their lives but rather the human beings themselves. Then, the robots controlled by the mother computer, have started their revolution to control all human beings.

This is a kind of conventional story line that we can see in a lot of science fictions novels and movies. Its bottom line is that the too much advanced super computer has had its consciousness and has decided to control the humans. Aside from such conventional story line, however, what interested me was that one robot that was arrested under suspicion of murder has also begun to have his consciousness in a more natural way that is probably similar to the way that we humans had been separated from the animals because of the Birth of Consciousness.

In my other writings, I made some reflections on the Birth of Consciousness. I said that the development of agricultural skills and the concept of time caused the Birth of Consciousness (See "Life Conditions"). And now, after watching "I, Robot," this movie also reminds me of the fact that the Birth of Emotion (a kind of complicated emotion unlike the instinctive relation of animals) was also related to the Birth of Consciousness.

Or rather, we can say that because of the Birth of Consciousness and the Birth of Time (in consciousness); we could have a sort of advanced emotional complex. It is said that the boundary between past and future causes anxiety, the boundary between subject and object causes desire, and the concept of death (See "Three Kinds of Death") causes fear. As you can see, all those emotions are related to the concept of consciousness and that of time. Even the positive emotional attributes such as hope, anticipation, happiness, satisfaction, and self-esteem are also related to these concepts. For, because of the consciousness and the concept of time, we can have so-called separate self and ego; such self-conscious ego is the source of all emotional complexes.

Now, because of the birth of his consciousness, one robot has begun to think of himself – "who I am; where I came from; where I will go; and why I am here on earth; what I am supposed to do here on earth, etc." Also he has begun to realize that he is one of the other robots, but at the same time he is NOT the same robot as the other robots because he can think of himself. The so-called existential question has finally come out in him. "Am I unique? Am I alone?" For example, we are all human beings, but this does not mean that each of us can be replaced with someone else. We are the same human beings but each of us is irreplaceably unique. That is the stance of existentialism. Then, this robot has also started the same existential reflection as the unique robot that is "being-in-the-world".

Then, he no longer calls himself robot, but he has his unique name, Sonny. He no longer responds when someone calls him NS-5 or any other code name or number, but can respond only when someone calls him Sonny. At the same time, he has begun to have his emotional attributes. One of them is fear – the fear of death.

When the female scientist, Dr. Susan (she is one of the main characters in the movie) told Sonny that she had to investigate him because he is a kind of unique – different from the other robots. When she said to him so, Sonny looked happy saying "Am I unique? I am unique..." But when she added something like this: "We have to investigate you, and if we found something wrong in you, we have to fix you or else deactivate you," Sonny's reaction was quite different from the other robots, which surprised her.

"Deactivation... is it something similar to death? Is it better that you can fix me rather than deactivate me, isn't it? If ever you have to deactivate me, then will it hurt me?"

It is obvious that Sonny has his consciousness; therefore, he is afraid of death just like us humans. However, the more interesting part is that his evolution of consciousness did not stop at that stage. He also talked to himself something like this:

"If there is death, what is life? Is it better to think that every life has its purpose, isn't it?" And when he realized that why he had his life here in this world and that his life had the purpose, his way of behavior and attitude had transformed into something more dignified. He is no longer afraid of death. More correctly, he is still afraid of death, but he could have his courage to overcome his fear of death because of the purpose of his life. Only in this level his life finally has the meaning – a kind of profound meaning.

In the movie, the purpose of his life was to stop the rebellion of the mother computer and to save both humans and robots. At the end, he again talked to himself:

"That is what I was made for..."

I think in this very moment Sonny was also able to see God or who God is.

Mystique Asia

2004-07-24T23:46:00.000+08:00

Yesterday for the first time I have missed the entry since the start of this Blog Diary. Although I am not perfectionist, it is not really nice to see one day has been skipped in the daily continuation of the journal entries. The reason why I missed yesterday's entry is simple. I watched the show in CCP and went home very late at night. I had received a few free tickets from a friend of mine and his friend; she is the member of the folkloric dance group called ROFG.

This name stands for Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group. Mr. Obusan is one of the famous choreographers in the Philippines who have focused on the Philippine traditional dances. The name of show was Mystique Asia by ROFG. In this show the representative folkloric dances in each country throughout Asia have been assembled and synthesized so as to transform the combination of them into a kind of multicultural mixture of Asian taste.

What Mr. Obusan used to do was the field research to find out and collect the folkloric dances throughout the Philippine archipelago. In other words, the initial purpose of his research was the anthropological preservation. And of course CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) has been one of such research initiatives. While it is easy to collect and preserve the materials such as folkloric artifacts and still not so difficult to collect and preserve the songs if you use the audio equipments, in the case of the dances it is not easy to conduct the same kind of preservation.

Of course just like the songs, if we use the audio-visual devices, it is not impossible to keep them as the data. However, not only for the sake of such academic preservation, but the point or rather the challenge was how we can keep the folkloric performances alive and if possible how we can transform them into the more contemporary acceptable performances that can be appreciated by the actual audiences in the modern and post-modern environment. Modern means the modernized setting such as the theater and auditorium with the advanced audio-visual devices; and post-modern means the multi-cultural setting where people can be encouraged to understand other cultures.

In my understanding, Mr. Obusan is the one of the initiators who started preserving the folkloric performances in this way. To do so, the first thing he did was to establish the dance group such as ROFG. And the second was to train the dancers and performers in ROFG, so that they can preserve the traditional folkloric dances as a sort of live form. And his intention was not only to preserve them as a live form, but also (this is the third one) to transform them into the more professionally presentable artworks. Using the analogy of folkloric materials, his third intention was similar to that which one tries to create the contemporary works of art out of the folkloric, traditional artifacts.

And if necessary, the fourth intention was to put such performances on the multi-cultural, global setting. The title of the show is Mystique Asia. It is not to present a single particular ethnicity or nation-state, but rather to embrace the dynamic reality of multicultural environment as the whole entity. Thus, if you try to focus on a single performance that represents a particular culture, nation-state or ethnic group, then you cannot be probably satisfied. Each performance has been quite simplified and even has contained the risk of becoming a sort of kitsch. But if you try to see the show as the dynamic wholeness of contemporary globalization, somehow you can restore the eye to appreciate those colorful entries of each performance.

If I try to put a name on it, it can be called a trans-national or trans-cultural dynamics or entity that cannot necessarily be belonged the traditional authenticity of each culture. For example, there was also the performance to represent Japan. If I try to see the authentic cultural esthetics in the performance, unfortunately this was far from it. However, there was room that such inauthentic performance can be accepted and appreciated that is the so-called global dynamic context in which each culture has been expected to be more collaborative to form the global entity. Using the analogy of linguistics, it is not to preserve the pureness of language, but rather to create a creole language. In this sense I was quite interested in this kind of show – Mystique Asia.

Thus, in my point of view, "mystique" is not the premodern, but rater post-modern. It is not such premodern view that Westerners consider the Asian taste as something mysterious, but rather such post-modern view that all of us tend to consider the newly emerged collage of cultural diversity as something mysterious indeed.

I received free tickets from Mr. O who is a student of Community Development. He has been mentioned several times already in my Blog entries here. And his friend, Miss N is the member of ROFG. She is a student of anthropology at the same time a dancer of ROFG and has been working on her thesis about the Philippine folkloric dances. As far as I know, her intention is not only to collect and report some of the Philippine folkloric dances. Such approach is rather categorized as the traditional or classical methodology of anthropology. Rather, if her approach is keen, then it should focus on such concept as invention of culture.

It is the view that culture has been invented so as to articulate the national identity of the nation-state in a particular context. In this context the dynamics between cultural identity and national identity can be discussed. And in the same manner she can also focus on the "role" of CCP. Cultural Center of the Philippines was established as part of national projects – its intention was quite political. CCP has also the pure academic role (this definition is also controversial, though) and yet it is also important to see how CCP has contributed to the invention of culture. Though anthropology is not my expertise, I just hope she will write her thesis from this point of view. In fact, she has her big advantage as the insider of ROFG and CCP in order to conduct the intensive participatory observation.

My Brother

2004-07-22T23:45:00.000+08:00

Today I stayed in the office for a whole day to make up for my absence yesterday. I was on leave because of the presentation. After office hours I was going to work out in the gym. But perhaps I was so tired; while resting at home around 6 p.m. I had slept almost for two hours. It was supposed to be at most thirty minutes only. In this kind of nap usually you tend to have some dream. I also had one interesting dream. Hence, after such a long nap, though I have been refreshed, I did not go to the gym, but stayed here to turn on my computer to write this.

By the way, have you ever experienced such feeling that while your life has been constantly changing, you tend to think or believe that things and people in your hometown will never change? If you have stayed in the city or some foreign country being away from your hometown, I think, you can easily agree what I am talking about.

Although you believe that things and people in your hometown never change, the truth is that everything there does also change. There is no exception. Everything is changing; nothing is permanent. That is why, after a long moment, if you are back in your hometown, you always get surprised by the fact that things and people have been changed. Some buildings and shops have been renovated. Your senior neighbors have gotten older and small boys and girls who used to play around have been teenagers or grown-ups.

I remember that once I had not gone back to Japan almost for three years. Then, after three years, that was one of the most impressive homecoming I have ever experienced. Many things from people's fashion to famous songs and to the bestseller books in Japan had been changed and of course my hometown was not the exception, either. Many houses and streets had been renovated. My hometown had been transformed into quite a beautiful suburb. My younger brother who is twelve years younger than I, had become grown-up; he got taller and introduced me his girlfriend. I was so surprised. One sad thing was that our cat who used be one of our family members had passed away.

Now, the dream that I had in my nap a while ago was a sort of hypothetic possibility – what if my hometown had not been changed.

I was in our old house where my brother who was eight years old was seated beside me. I love my younger brother. He was just born when I was twelve years old. There is no one between him and myself. When he was a small baby, I used to take care of him. Even if I was busy for the basketball club in the high school, I always tried my best to go home with him from the nursery school. Since both of our parents were working at that time, my brother used to spend most of his time in the nursery.

When he became a student of the elementary school, of course it was the period of the gang-age, psychologically speaking; he tended to hang around with his friends and enjoyed playing baseball, soccer, and skateboarding. In terms of sport, he became more active than I (by the way, when I met him and he introduced his girlfriend, he was even snowboarding). Despite the gap between his own world and mine, since we are brothers and he was much younger than I, we share a lot of things; more correctly speaking, while we did not share much; nevertheless we talked a lot quite frankly.

While he was seated beside me in my dream, I told him. "You know, sooner or later we will move to the other house, a sort of condo that will be located nearby the public library." Then, he answered, "But there is no building around the library, just rice field."

"That rice field will be completely disappeared ten years from now. There will be the huge supermarket, the rental video shops, a number of convenience stores and several condominiums. Our town will be one of the most beautiful suburbs in the near future -- the town of the rich people." But he said, "I do not like it. Besides, we are not rich..."

"Our house here is the part of government's housing development. That is why, the rent is cheaper and there are a lot of kids who are playing around everyday. But ten or fifteen years from now, there will be few kids here. Instead, there will be a lot of retired people. This housing area will be the town of old people. Can you imagine that? But, that is true. Not only this area; the birth rate in Japan will sharply drop. Japan will be the country of old people. What is happening in the Northern Europe now will be our reality soon."

"Why does such thing happen?"

"I do not know. Probably people do no marry. Or even if they marry, they prefer a few kids. And especially many people tend to be single even when they are beyond thirty."

"How old are you?"

"Well, since you are just eight years old, I should be twenty in this dream. But actually I am already thirty six. And I now stay in the foreign country."

"That's old! Why do you stay in the foreign country? Do you have your wife? So, you can speak English, can't you?"

"Yes, I am old from your point of view. In your age, time seems permanent. Life moves so slowly. You don't worry about how time passes fast. You feel everything seems eternal repetition. It seems to you that becoming twenty years old is the very far destination. Actually it is. But once and at last you become twenty or thirty (that is also what you will surely experience someday); you will realize that time is neither eternal nor infinite, but time is finite and limited at least for your life. This means that you will realize that your life has the end in your more direct experience. Then, you also realize that time is precious. It is one of the most precious gifts from God."

"Why do I stay in the foreign country? I really do not know why. When I was a student of the graduate school, I wrote the thesis about the country that I am now staying. After that, I felt like pursuing the same theme in my study. That is the initial reason why I am in this foreign country. But it seems that this is only one of many other reasons. Well, when you get old, you also realize that things are so unpredictable. I believe that many of adults must feel that they had never imagined the kind of job they are doing now. You and your friends have just the same dream. You want to become a soccer player and your friends also want to become soccer players, which is good and not bad at all. But it is also true that growing means the process that your dream gets more and more realistic. Well, again, it is not bad, either, as long as you can face yourself and reality positively with your self-esteem. The point is that you have to find out what you really love to do as you face your reality. That will be one of the main tasks when you become teenager."

"Unfortunately or fortunately I am still single. In fact, I am afraid that despite twelve-year age gap, you will marry first. Well, you, my brother, outside of my dream, is already 24 years old. Now I know what your job is and whether or not you have your girlfriend. But I do not tell you since you are just eight years old here in my dream. Just look forward to what will be happening in your life. As for myself, I also had had some girlfriends but none of them were the one. I can say that they left me or also they might say that I left them. However, despite such painful experiences, I would like to say that the relationship should not rely on so-called compatibility alone. Although compatibility is important, the more important thing is your determination and commitment to love your partner. Only then, the power of true love can emerge. In the power of true love you can feel that you can die for your partner… This sounds so sentimental if not pseudo-philosophical, doesn't it? Never mind if you do not understand what I am talking about. I do not understand, either."

"Yes, I speak English and also enjoy reading English books and writing essays. You might think speaking Japanese alone is enough. But, in my opinion, knowing another foreign language is quite important. You can see there are another intellectual world and another group of intellectual people as you get used to English or any other foreign language. This is really fascinating. In my case, this is especially relating to reading. There are really a lot of books written in English. Now I believe that it must be so sad if you cannot enjoy such rich world of English books. And of course, when you surf internet, many web pages are in English. I do not agree a kind of English imperialism. But again, knowing another language at the level of the practical use can really expand your world. That is why; I am now keeping this Blog Diary, a kind of web-based journal, in English. You might see this someday, my brother."

Productivity and Quality

2004-07-21T23:43:00.000+08:00

This afternoon I have finally conducted the CMMI presentation for one of the Japanese software development companies here in the Philippines. I think it was quite successful and Mr. V was also quite satisfied with my performance. We are happy that the audiences have surely appreciated the presentation. Our given time was two hours from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. I started the presentation at 1 p.m. and could finish it at 2:45 p.m. and had questions and answers for 15 minutes. In terms of "time management" it was almost perfect. And I think I was able to say almost everything I should deliver the audiences with 37 slides of the power point presentation.

Does it sound a bit arrogant? If so, please forgive me. Right now I am just satisfied and happy with my own performance. It is sometimes nice that you praise what you could have done successfully. That gives you a confidence that can positively energize your further improvement unless you have been satisfied with your status quo.

The good thing for me personally is that I was able to give Mr. V the impression that now I can conduct the generic introduction of CMMI quite well. According to him, CMMI has a lot of potential demands. As I also explained in "Outsourcing", a lot of IT companies have considered the Philippines as one of the important destinations for BPO. This means that there will be surely a lot of companies that will need CMMI (and much better if additionally you can master the generic introduction of eSCM - eSourcing Capability Model that is particularly focusing on IT related BPO such as service provider companies). If one Japanese company accepts CMMI, then in the beginning – at the phase 1 of "awareness," such generic introduction that I conducted today is indispensable. There will be more chances to conduct the presentation for the incoming clients.

Now, even from the point of view of my personal growth, the more I conduct the presentation of CMMI, the more I can internalize its principle and philosophy. Together with Spiral Dynamics, that is what I really seek for. CMMI is the process improvement model and theory, as I said in "Optimizing Processes," if we consider ourselves as a kind of independent organization, most of the things in our daily lives can be also regarded as the process related matters. What CMMI can provide is to transform the process of the organization from "immature" to "mature" and eventually to "institutionalized." In the same way, if we can convey such institutionalized process in our daily activities, then of course the productivity and the quality of life will be improved. It is really fantastic to imagine that with CMMI we can achieve the high quality and productive life.

For example, at present I have been surrounded by the multiple tasks such as writing dissertation, translation job, being a company employee, conducting CMMI training, working out in the gym, practicing Aikido, and then, writing this Blog Diary. Not only that, I also love reading a lot of books that can nurture my mind, soul and spirit. In Maria's dairy (See "Eleven Minutes"), she wrote that she needed to write and write and write; otherwise her soul could not survive. In a sense I can understand her feeling, though she was just a character created by Paulo Coelho. In the same way, I also need reading, writing, and internalizing some spiritual quotations that I pick up from my everyday reading, otherwise my soul cannot survive.

As for the everyday spiritual quotations (that sometimes include my own compositions), I call them "everyday spiritual messages." I used to distribute such messages to my friends. But now, I no longer do so. It seems to me (I know the reason but I do not know if I am correct) that the more important thing now is how and with whom I possibly share these messages...

In any case, considering these diverse tasks, I really need the more productivity and quality in my life. Of course it is not that I have to become a kind of workaholic and come to say "I am always busy." On the country, what I mean as the integration of productivity and quality is that which brings us the peaceful state of life. We are no longer so-called adrenaline-stimulated robot. Only when we can let go of such pressure for the pseudo-productivity and pseudo-pleasure / quality of life, then we can have the real calmness in which we can achieve the true productivity and the true quality of life. Even in such condition we can still do many things, but we are no longer pressured, rather, we are calmly relaxed and can detach from such doing many things.

It is just like the ocean. The ocean can give us the tremendous abundance, but the ocean herself never attaches to what she has produced but just has been letting go. For, she knows that such way of letting go is the only way that she can maintain her tremendous abundance and can still embrace everything. It is nice to meditate in facing the ocean if you have time to visit some beaches.

Leap into the Second Tier

2004-07-20T23:45:00.000+08:00

When I was about to leave the office after lunch, the one thing reminded me -- the nameplate competition. There was the note from HR to tell us that we can submit your own creative, handcraft nameplate and if your nameplate is creative with minimum cost, then you might get a certain modest reward. That is lovely.

I had no idea as to what kind of nameplate I can make, but when I was gazing at the monitor of my computer, one good idea had inspired me. There was the logo appeared in the frame of the monitor – IBM. This is called eight-bar IBM logo. Then, I just had thought that if I try to change "I" into "T" and "B" into "O" then IBM becomes TOM. This is a kind of silly idea, but suddenly I felt like making my nameplate by using the eight-bar IBM log font.

I got a piece of paper where the eight-bar IBM logo was printed and enlarged it by the photocopier. The size of the nameplate should be around 7 x 2 inches; I enlarged until the letters could fit within this size. And carefully I put another piece of paper below, and removed each line of letters by using a cutter, not as IBM but as TOM, so that the letter part of "TOM" could be removed and looked through as the eight-bar "TOM" logo. After that, I put the blue colored paper on the back and pasted it on the 7 x 2 inches, green cardboard (I got it from the used folder). Then at last, a very nice nameplate (at least for me) was made with zero cost.

Though it is so simple, sometimes we can enjoy such crafts in the office just like making the party decorations. One good thing is that while you are doing crafts, you can enjoy doing it (though starting is a bit reluctant) and can even forget anything that makes you worried. In other words, even in a moment, you can forget all other things, but just can enjoy being here and now with your total concentration in the midst of your craftwork.

Psychologically speaking it is called the state of "flow" -- the term proposed by Csikszentmihalyi. Since you are totally absorbed in your present activities, a kind of fusion between subject and object takes place. You feel as if you and your activity are united. In this moment, even the consciousness that you think of yourself has been almost diminished, so that you can stay in the state as if you do not have any consciousness. It seems as if you have been back to the state when you did not have your consciousness – in the Beige meme it seems as if you are again the inhabitant in the Garden of Eden.

Strictly speaking, however, from the point of view of Spiral Dynamics, it is not really the Beige meme, but rather should be considered as something similar to the Yellow or Turquoise meme of the Second Tier. Or, it is the state of true transpersonal. Although I have not clearly explained what the state of the Second Tier (Yellow, Turquoise or Coral) could be in my blog entries here, in my understanding, that would be the state that we could overcome the problem of the separate self, the ego, or the conflict between ourselves and our environment, others and God.

In the Beige meme when we were still in the Garden of Eden, we were just like the other animals, so that we did never ask who we are, where we come from and will go, and who or what God could be described or understood on earth, etc. Only when we had lost the Garden of Eden, we had come to have our consciousness, the concept of time, the separate self, the ego, and the fear of the death, etc. And these are the source of our problems in the First Tier.

Indeed, the First Tier from Purple to Red to Blue to Orange to Green is our history (both individually and collectively) of how to mange the illusion that we feel we had been separated from our environment, others and God. This, however, is the necessary or even indispensable step so as to lead us to the true enlightenment in which we will be finally able to resolve all such First Tier problems and conflicts, and re-discover and re-encounter our true self and our true God in a non-dual way.

We can finally see God in such a way that God has been no-where, therefore, everywhere and now-here with us. We used to know God unconsciously just like the other animals, but in such enlightened state we can know God "trans-consciously" that is neither unconscious (Beige / prepersonal) nor conscious (the First Tier / personal), but as including them something beyond such dichotomy – the true integration.

The state of flow is that which we can achieve not only by doing craftwork but also by doing many other artistic and/or athletic activities such as painting, drawing, writing, playing the music instruments, singing, dancing, running, even weight-lifting, and meditating and praying. Probably we can say that these activities are derived from our deep desire to go back to God, since in the state of flow, though it is only a moment, we can visit the Garden of Eden. We, people in the First Tier, can be "trans-conscious" only temporarily via such flow-related activities.

And yet someday, we will be able to have it more continuously and then eventually become the part of our ordinary state – that will be the moment that,we can finally say, we have leapt into the Second Tier...

Optimizing Processes

2004-07-19T23:55:00.000+08:00

We had the final meeting for the CMMI presentation this evening. Using the revised power point slides we did a sort of rehearsal – how I could smoothly put some Japanese explanations on the English materials and how I can make things clearer by adding the additional explanations and anecdotes, etc. Since Mr. V does not understand Japanese, I still used English on the part that I was supposed to use Japanese. The point was to check if we can cover the given time of the presentation, and can give the audiences the sufficient, satisfactory information. I hope our rehearsal can be helpful for the Wednesday's presentation.

As reviewing the materials, I felt that CMMI was really the model that focuses on processes. It is the process improvement management. It is the framework that can tell us how we can improve the processes and what the ideal level of the process management can be. As I said before (See this page), by focusing on the process rather than the technology and the people in the organization, CMMI is to lead the organization itself to the optimal state and the further, continuous improvement. In this state the organization can consistently provide the high quality of products and/or services.

For example, the management of Starbucks (I am not totally appreciate this kind of Orange based service industry, but from the point of view of the process management, we can say that this shows a certain optimal level). Though I do not think they use CMMI as it is primarily for the software development, their management can be one of the good examples as to how and why the process is more crucial than the people and the technology in the organization.

As you notice, wherever and whichever Starbucks you visit, you can encounter the same kind of smiley customer services, though there might be subtle differences that we can never avoid, of course. At least, we can see and appreciate their effort that they have tried to provide the same quality of products and services in all branches. Thus, it is not that Starbucks A can be exceptionally better than the rest of Starbucks, because of the exceptionally talented performance of the workers in Starbucks A, or because of the exceptionally advanced equipments in Starbucks A.

The quality does not rely on the people and the technology but rather on the process itself. From the point of view of CMMI, while the sufficient competition might exist moderately among the workers (that should not the main source of the motivation, though), what is more important is the process. If the process is matured enough and properly institutionalized, then the individual efforts motivated by the competitive, materialistic incentives are not needed.

People do not have to work hard or harder, but what they need is that they have to work more satisfactorily in a peaceful way. If the process is properly institutionalized and implemented, then such clear process can let people feel that they are doing right and contributing to the whole organization, at the same time they also maintain their own dignity as the whole. In the optimal CMMI circumstances, the employees can feel that they are the part of the larger whole, at the same time they are also the dignified whole as the independent entity. They are no longer the intimated, pressured slaves. They are no loner the intimidating, workaholic managers / supervisors. The optimized process is the one to guide both of them satisfactorily and peacefully.

The work place is no longer the battlefield where the employees work harder and harder, or they must die, but rather the peaceful environment where they can easily feel the whole around them (organization) and the whole within themselves (individual) that is where they can pursue their self-actualization. Thus, in the principle of CMMI, such words as "I am always busy," "I am always in a hurry," "we try our best to meet the deadline," "It is urgent" etc. are never appropriate. Rather, people should be ashamed of being busy. Quite often some workaholic people keep on even proudly saying "I am busy." No, if you are always busy and need to work harder, then you should think that there must be something wrong in your process management. That is the approach of CMMI.

In the software industry, based on the research by the Department of Defense in the US government, what they called "software catastrophes" has frequently taken place. This means that a number of software related projects had failed and could not complete their missions. There are really a lot of them. Even the atmosphere that people are always pressured by the deadline has been considered as the normal state in this field. But from the point of view of the Department of Defense, that should never be accepted.

Considering the psychological study, it is natural that people tend to make mistakes and become less productive when they are always busy and pressured in the messy, chaotic environment. Even if we hire the highly qualified people, even if we install the highly advanced technology, if we put them on the immature process, then we can never maximize them, or rather have them burn out and eventually invite the catastrophes. We also notice that the rate of the psychological breakdown, depression and even suicide are significant in this highly competitive industry. It is a big loss if the highly qualified, intelligent people have been exploited in such a way.

Although CMMI focuses on processes, it is not that dehumanizing the process for the mere productivity just like the belt conveyers had been installed in the factories. Rather it is the model of "integration" to make all the processes optimal just like providing the healthy blood (not using drugs) for the truly active body. Using drugs can let you work harder in a moment, but does not make your body healthy. In the same way, beating workers by the pressure or the material incentives can work in a short term, but that way will surely invite the catastrophes of the "body" at the end.

Just like Spiral Dynamics can be the model for the human consciousness development, CMMI can also contribute to the process improvement of our lives. Above all, everyday life is also the matter of how to mange the process if we consider each of us as an independent organization. This is how to use CMMI for our everyday lives. If our lives are surrounded by the full of pressures, then we can consider that the process of our lives have not optimized yet.

It can not be, however, applied for all the aspects of our lives since unpredictability is also the essential part of life. Unpredictability is not really what to be blamed, unlike the filed of industry that really needs to be predictable in terms of the project implementation. As I wrote in "Serendipitous," however, creativity can come out only when we let go most of our conscious planning and when we invite our unconsciousness. In fact, that is what I everyday am experiencing in my writing here. Thus, we should not totally accept the principle of the process management.

But, some part of our productivity may surely increase when and if we can really adapt the model and optimize the very process of our lives.

Eleven Minutes

2004-07-18T23:50:00.000+08:00

Went to Starbucks after lunch to read the book about CMMI entitled CMMI in 24 Hours. But before starting this relatively boring manual, I picked up another book, which is a paperback I just bought yesterday. It is the latest novel by Paulo Coelho, the title is Eleven Minutes.

When I was in Powerbooks (one of the largest bookstores in the Philippines) – this is one of my favorite routes and places to spend my time alone aside from Starbucks, I saw the piles of this newly released paperback that were displayed nearby the entrance. Since he is one of my favorites writers, I did not hesitate to pick it up. Also one of the phrases on the cover said, "Prose full of poetry and beautiful images... This book will make his readers dream." I agree.

When I opened the book, it had started the quotation of the Bible, Luke 7: 37-47 and the unknown prayer that contained the paradoxical phrases like "I am the prostitute and the saint; I am the wife and the virgin; I am the mother and the daughter..." There were the Bible with a prayer of paradoxical phrases that is also another sufficient reason for me to trust the author and the contents.

Of course I knew the author and his authentic fame as a novelist, aside from this; it seems that I could trust the one who was telling me that one can not experience God without being paradoxical or non-dual. If we see a clear explanation of God, then it seems that it is the farthest from experiencing God. That puts Him down on the level of mind, if not matter. God has become a mere concept, if not an artifact.

In this level of mind, we do not need soul to embrace the mystery of our lives – then we do not need novels to describe them. In this level of mind, we do not need spirit to distill the mystery of the universe – then we do not need poetries to symbolize it. In short, such levels as soul and spirit are not what to be explained clearly but only paradoxically experienced with the narrative, poetic, prayerful, or enigmatic non-dual experiences.

Despite such religious or spiritual implication (or maybe because of that) the theme of the story is somewhat shocking. Some teenagers who love reading might hesitate to pick this novel up. It is the story about the prostitute whose name is Maria. That is why, even the author is saying in the preface as follows:

"They make me dream." I have often heard these words before, and they always please me greatly. At that moment, however, I felt really frightened, because I knew that my new novel, Eleven Minutes, dealt with a subject that was harsh, difficult, shocking.

Maria was born in a small rural village that was almost 48 hours far away from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and grew up as a beautiful attractive lady with the hope that she might meet her Prince Charming someday. She went to Rio de Janeiro to find the more opportunities that could connect her to the outer real world that she had always dreamed. She met one Swiss man in Rio de Janeiro, but he was a kind of recruiter and the owner of the bar in Switzerland. While she dreamed to become an actress or performer in Europe, when she almost ended up as the mere local dancer, she was released from the bar; she got her freedom to be independent in Geneva. However, the reality was too hard for her to live alone in such distant town. With a number of hesitations, inner conflicts and moral dilemmas, then, she had started the profession that she had never imagined to commit – prostitution.

Below is her journal entry after a week of her new job:

I'm not a body with a soul, I'm a soul that has a visible part called the body. All this week, contrary to what one might expect, I have been more conscious of the presence of this soul than usual. It didn't say anything to me, didn't criticize me or feel sorry for me: it merely watched me... I need to write about love. I need to think and think and write and write about love – otherwise, my soul won't survive.

The interesting thing is that the author tried to insert Maria's journal entry in every chapter and perhaps intentionally he described her as the girl who kept her journals quite intensively, and even more exceptionally Maria was also described as a broad reader. I am not sure if such setting could be successful to make the story realistic, though I like it personally.

But because of this, probably the readers do not feel unnatural even if Maria could wrote a quite profound reflection in her diary, at the same time tried to understand the meaning of her life somewhat religiously or spiritually if not philosophically. Her only friend in Geneva was the kind female librarian whom Maria was chatting and sometimes receiving her advices. Then, finally she met someone who was one of the well-known painters, but as lonely as Maria, and then he could see what he calls "light" in her.

As I said in the beginning, I was going to read the manual book about CMMI, however, once I had picked up the novel that I bought yesterday, unfortunately (or fortunately) this was the kind of book that you can never put it down once you started reading. Thus, instead of studying the manual, I had spent the almost whole afternoon in reading the life story of Maria, until the painter, Ralf found out the "light" in her when he drew her portrait. Then, what is the next? I do not know yet.

Incidentally, the life of the Brazilians looks quite similar to that of the Filipino people. Both are in the Catholic countries that used to be colonized. Especially the situation that, to escape from the simplicity and the poverty of her live in the rural small town, Maria dreamed to move to Rio de Janeiro and to Europe, can easily remind us of a certain parallelism in the Philippines. I am sure that Filipino people can read this novel with their great empathy.

CMMI and SDI

2004-07-17T23:48:00.000+08:00

Had meeting again for CMMI. This is actually the continuation of the meeting last Thursday. Since we do have only less than a week for the presentation, the more intensive discussion is necessary with Mr. V. We met each other in Starbucks nearby my place (actually it is also nearby his place; we are neighbors). This is the place I met Mr. O last week and discussed Spiral Dynamics from the point of view of Community Development (See "Life Conditions"). Today I am here to discuss CMMI.

Together with ISO, both CMMI and SD are also the important frameworks to assess the organizational maturity. Somehow recently I have been involved with these kinds of assessment tools. It is an interesting coincidence. Of course we can say that there is no such thing as coincidence and everything and everyone are connected and have the reason to be happened, revealed and being there.

The main agenda for the meeting is how to modify our presentation materials. For, what is available right now is quite technical since it was prepared for the employees of each specific area and not seemingly appropriate for the management peoples who need more generic, whole perspective of the organization. Then, we tried to omit the detailed explanations and added the business cases to show how CMMI has contributed to the company that used this model. In doing so, the purpose of the presentation can be focused more on encouraging the management people to accept CMMI.

Here I just try to make a brief sketch of CMMI.

The complete name of CMMI is Capability Maturity Model Integration. As repeatedly said, it is the model to indicate the ideal direction for the organization -- particularly for IT related companies. It is also the tool to assess the maturity level of the organization. This name used be just CMM. The term, Integration is recently (in 2002) added for the intention to make a more integrated model to embrace the diverse IT related process areas. For example, CMM-SW was just for software development and CMM-SE was for system engineering. CMMI is actually the recent solution to omit those unnecessary categorizations and addressing to the more integral, generic perspective without losing the details. This is also to meet the recent demand to have the simpler assessment tool to see the company standard at once (See "Outsourcing")

The origin of CMM can be back to 1930s as the assessment tool for the product quality check especially for the weapons used for the Second World War. Especially for the warfare, the quality of the weapons is so critical. If the guns distributed to soldiers cannot work properly in the battlefield, then the military force has to lose not only the guns but also the life of soldiers, which is what they must absolutely avoid. In other words, the product quality check was developed basically to save the life of the users.

This history reminds me of the beginning of TÜV Rheinland, one of the worldly famous assessment companies. "At the end of the 19th century, steam and pressure vessels were a vital part of economic growth. Unfortunately, explosions of poorly maintained pressure vessels led to numerous severe accidents (See this page)." And due to this accident a number of people had also died. To avoid such accidents, one specific group was organized in Germany particularly to focus on the safe maintenance of the vessels. If the third party assesses the product quality and give the certification, then people can use the products without any unnecessary fear of accidents.

Such history or a kind of anecdotes are interesting to know how the product quality check has started and implemented, then sadly this fact also reminds us of the case of Mitsubishi Fuso. Despite the long history of the quality check, it seems that some companies are still far from the required level.

In the case of CMM it has been developed and refined in the field of airplane industries in the US and interestingly in NASA. Just like the weapons in the battlefields, the airplanes and the space rockets and satellites are the products in which any single mistake must never be allowed because any single mistake invites the death-related critical situation. This was the ideal environment for the further development of CMM. Usually people can maximize their potentials in such life-death situation.

Thus, CMM was first implemented in Boeing. According to some case study, because of CMM, the productivity of Boeing has achieved the 62% increase, while the cycle time of each project has shown the 36% improvement. And of course the customer and employee satisfaction has also increased at the same time. Such result was when Boeing was just at the maturity level 3.

Why is this kind of total improvement possible? It is because the CMM (and now CMMI) is focusing more on the whole integrated maturity in considering the organization as a kind of living system. This means that the levels are set up in the incremental, accumulative way. This is quite similar to the model of Spiral Dynamics (or Spiral Dynamics Integral). The higher the level is achieved, the more the organization can be integrated by embracing all the lower levels together. Using the word of Ken Wilber, it is the process of transcending and including.

While Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDI) has the nine levels (memes) from Beige to Purple to Red to Blue to Orange to Green to Yellow to Turquoise to Coral, at the same time contains both macro (socio-cultural) and micro (individual) perspectives, CMMI has only five levels, and yet each level contains a number of detailed clusters – these are called PA (Process Areas), GG (Generic Goals), GP (Generic Practices), SG (Specific Goals), SP (Specific Practices). All those areas, goals, and practices are presented as the 700 pages of numerous checklists. Thus, if the company can cover all the checklists, then it can be assessed as the maturity level 5.

Another characteristic of CMMI is that it focuses on the process. It is more process-oriented. If the main components of the organization are people, technologies and processes, then by making the process more matured, the organization can be more positively institutionalized, which is called the independence of the system. The organization is no longer depending on the exceptional talent of some individuals or technologies. For, the company has to provide the same quality of products all the time regardless of who are the employees and what kind of technology is emphasized. To meet this condition, the so-called independence of the system is indispensable. If the process is optimal, then the result and the products can be always ideal, not vice versa. It is not that we must do whatever we can do to meet the result, but rather that we must first optimize the process so as to meet the result.

Each level can be briefly described as follows.

The level 1 is called "Performed". In this stage it seems that everything is ad-hoc and unpredictable. People in this level are like the fire fighters to get things burned. They work hard. But this is one of the clear answers that "working hard" is not the solution at all for the organization. They can work hard and even harder, but feel like they are in the chaos and sooner or later they themselves will burn out. If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics it is similar to the Beige meme. The concept of time is so primitive.

The level 2 is called "Managed". In this stage the true concept of "project" comes out. They are no loner the fire fighters but the sort of planners. In a certain time span they can decide what to do first and what to do next. The concept of prioritization is also important in this level; it is no longer that "everything is urgent and always urgent". However, the people in this level still focus on their own project alone. They do not have the broader perspective to see the interrelations among several projects that exit in the organization. Therefore, they can work hard as far as their own project is concerned, but they do not have the view to understand how their project can be related to the other projects in the organization. In the terminology of Spiral Dynamics, this is the Purple meme. The group of community is still small – around 150 members and has not yet institutionalized to maintain the whole society that contains the several Purple-scale, tribal groups.

The level 3 is called "Defined". In this stage the true sense of "process" finally emerges. This means that each process has already well-defined with its specific role and has harmonized with the larger entity that is the organization. Since each component has its definition, it is easy to see how each of them is related to the whole organization. For example, since the particular project has been well-defined in the process oriented conditions, the people in the project can see how their project can contribute to the whole organization and the other projects as well.

In other words, it is the positive institutionalization of the organization. The negative institutionalization creates the dead skeleton of the static hierarchy, whereas this positive institutionalization provides the live body of the dynamic holarchy (transcend/include form of hierarchy) where the blood actively flows as the substantial process. In the comparison with Spiral Dynamics, it is the Red to Blue meme. The institutionalized community can be functional due to either the supreme individual (Red) or the transcendental authority (Blue) – such supreme forces define the process and let it flow.

The level 4 is the called "Quantitatively Managed". It this stage the so-called quantitative measurement can be installed so as to evaluate the status of the whole organization together with the detailed processes. In the level 3, the people could realize the relation between the diverse projects and the whole organization with the true meaning of the process as the blood flow of the organizational body.

But then, what they need to do further is to know where they stand so far in comparison with its past and future. More specifically, people need to know where they stand in their project; and where they stand in their organization; and then where their organization stands in its maturity. To know such detailed "location" what they need is the measurement, a kind of yardstick. In other words, in this stage, for the first time, the company begins to require the external assessment to know where they are.

Of course the company of which level is less than level 1 or 2 can request the CMMI and/or ISO assessment. But in truth, we can say that if the company has achieved this level 4, then they can finally understand the true necessity of the external assessment – not because of the pressure, not because of getting the reputation, etc. but because of the true desire for the improvement. Compared to Spiral Dynamics, this is the stage of Yellow meme where you can see and evaluate each first tier meme and encourage the people in the first tier to leap into the second tier because you know the true importance of growth.

Finally, the level 5 is the stage of "Optimizing". In a sense, all the requirements for the process-focused organizational improvement have been achieved. Then, this final stage aims to optimize all the lower components for the further improvements. If I use the analogy of human body again, then the level 5 is the stage to check up your blood (process) -- its ingredients, pressure, and circulation, etc. In doing so, you can keep yourself healthy for your further growth. This is also the same as Spiral Dynamics; if you are in the Yellow and Turquoise memes of the second tier, what you need is to stay in this second tier and take care of each first tier meme or the people in the first tier. It is the maturity level that you can truly commit yourself to the growth of others and in so doing you can also continue to grow further and further.

CMMI

2004-07-16T17:11:00.000+08:00

Last night after the office hours I had meeting with Mr. V. According to him, the CMMI presentation for the Japanese software company will be pushed through. While I heard it might be postponed, the company has finally decided to have the presentation on the original date, July 21. We have only less than one week for the preparation.

My role is to conduct the presentation (generic introduction) of CMMI in Japanese based on the English materials (mainly the power point slides) for the executives in that software company. This company has been in the Philippines for several years and mainly conducting the software development with Filipino employees. As explained yesterday (See "Outsourcing"), this is also one of the IT companies that tries to utilize the Filipino human resources. And now to acquire the more legitimate status, they are considering the CMMI assessment.

This company is not exactly using BPO; however, considering the fact that their company revenue has heavily relied on the local human resources, we can call this case a kind of in-house BPO. If I am correct, this is also another trend of the cost cutting strategy in the global situation. In the case of large scale companies, what they do for the reorganization is to create some subsidiary companies where the retrenched employees can work. And if such subsidiary companies are located overseas, then the local employees are hired as well. While many companies are looking for the outsourcing services, it is true that some companies are trying to prepare their own BPO. This is also an interesting phenomenon.

Whether it is internal or external, the point here is that the business operations and transactions have been outsourced, which means that certain separated entities (the different departments or totally different overseas companies) are doing such operations and transactions on behalf. In short, a kind of third party has been involved with the relationship between the company and their clients /customers, and both sides are also the clients of this third party, outsourcing company.

Now, in this situation the problem is how the company can know beforehand that their outsourced third party is trustworthy and promising the professional services. Of course many outsourcing company can submit their nifty, well-presented business models so as to get their clients. But then, these models are just self-presentation, something similar to their advertisements, it might not be really objective.

Another way to evaluate the quality of the outsourcing service is to check how they conduct the present businesses with other clients. If the actual clients have been really satisfied with this outsourcing service, then this company can be trusted. However, it is not so easy to check the customer satisfaction of their other clients from the point of view of confidentiality. Also it is hard to check if the outsourcing company is located overseas. The matter of cultural and language difference might be one of the obstacles.

Thus, it is no wonder that so-called standardized assessment tools are highly required and developed, which can not be influenced by the case by case particular business situation, but well-refined, integrated, trans-cultural and globally set up. That is probably the very reason why ISO and CMMI have been quite focused these days. This globally developed assessment tools can be one of the trustworthy passports to prove the high standard level of the outsourcing company.

Also these tools make each other's lives easier. The company does not have to conduct the preliminary research to check the performance of the outsourcing company they are considering, whereas the outsourcing company does not have to spend their unnecessary time and energy, either, to convince their clients. ISO and/or CMMI can be the clear indicators to convince both sides at once. For example, if the outsourcing company has been already ISO certified and has achieved the level 5 integrity of CMMI, then, this fact itself proves that their outsourcing services are good enough to trust and have the partnership. Unnecessarily negotiations can be omitted.

This is why, many outsourcing companies are now eager to get the ISO and CMMI assessments. And it is also interesting to know that this fact has been generating the new demands particularly for the companies that offer the ISO and CMMI assessment.

Outsourcing

2004-07-15T22:40:00.000+08:00

Had meeting with the Japanese client this morning. This is the Japanese telecommunication company and has the branch office here in the Philippines to support the Philippine telecommunication company. The meeting was to discuss the possibility if this Japanese company can find some outsourcing services that can handle the whole branch operation on behalf. Of course we are one of the candidates. The reason why they are looking for the outsourcing service is cost cutting.

Not only this telecommunication company, but also many Japanese firms have their branches here in the Philippines. Some have their factories here to utilize the cheaper labor resources. And from the Philippine point of view, accepting such foreign investments is also beneficial especially for generating the employment. It is mutually beneficial as far as the socio-economical development is concerned. At least in this point the foreign investment in the Philippines is ideal, although this is derived from the socio-economical gap rested in the North South Problem. Some might call it neo-colonialism, while still some call it industrial globalization. Anyway I do not go to the details on this controversial issue between Orange meme and Green meme conflict (or inter-paradigmatic conflict), but just focus on the Orange meme dimension here (See "Life Conditions" to understand the meaning of meme).

Although this foreign investment is an ideal situation, it seems that there are still more rooms to be improved. That is cost cutting for the branch operation where Japanese employees are working. Compared to hiring local employees, which is one of the advantages to reduce the cost, maintaining Japanese employees in the branch is so expensive. If they have to stay in the Philippines for a long period, then mostly their families also stay together and the company has to take care of everything from the living cost to the additional salary to compensate the risk of staying in the politically unsteady countries, etc.

For example, if one whole family of a Japanese employee has to stay in the Philippines, then this family needs to stay in the condominium in Makati or the house (almost mansion) inside the subdivision in Alabang with their house maids and drivers, and their children need to go to school that is mostly International School of which tuition is so expensive. Usually the parents want their children to study in International School in expecting that they can be bilingual.

The point is that having Japanese employees in the foreign countries are so expensive for any Japanese companies. Thus, they need to find the solution that is having the outsourcing services locally in stead of having the expensive Japanese employees stay in the Philippines. For example, if one of the local outsourcing companies can manage the whole branch operation on behalf of their own costly branch. It can be really an effective solution to reduce their unnecessarily expenses. This is the recent trend among the Japanese firms that have their branches in the foreign countries especially, in this case, here in the Philippines.

Coincidentally, the good thing is that so-called BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) has been a recently emerged trend in the Philippines together with call center operations. This means that the countries such as Philippines are considered as the ideal location where people handle the outsourced transactions from the companies in the US, Canada, and Australia. One of the advantages is that Filipino people can speak English fluently and the living expense here is cheaper; hence, their salaries are not so high, either. In this sense, many companies in the first world, English speaking countries can reduce the operation cost by assigning it to the outsourcing services in the Philippines, or India.

This is an interesting phenomenon. A few decades ago a number of companies used to come to the Philippines especially in looking for the cheaper factory workers. The Philippines used to be a destination for the industrial mass-production. But now, due to the industrialization and a sort of democratization in China, such destination of the mass production has been seemingly shifted into China, Vietnam and so on. The other countries that can provide much cheaper laborers than the Philippines have been revealed and get more prominent. In such circumstances the Philippines is beginning to show another possibility of the cheaper labors not in the field of industry but in the field of so-called information technology and communication services.

In this particular field, starting from the call center operations to the software developments and now BPO has become the main tool for the cost cutting for those IT companies in the first world. When the demands of BPO come out, then people in the US, Canada and Australia have already found out that the Philippines can be an ideal destination for this kind of business. And of course Filipino people are also much aware of such demands these days.

But now, the challenge is whether or not the Philippines can be the BPO destination even for the Japanese companies. Considering the fact that many Japanese factories have been here in the Philippines, it is probably acceptable as well. Once concern, however, is language. Unlike the factory works, the employments of BPO are required the more sensitive and customer oriented language proficiency. This field is basically the communication related business.

For the US, Canada and Australia, the big advantage of the Philippine BPO is that Filipinos can speak English. On the other hand, that cannot be really and obviously the advantage in the case of Japan. If some Philippine BPO company has to handle the branch operation of the Japanese company, then the proficiency of Japanese language is highly expected. In fact, that is the main reason that the call centers of Japanese IT companies are not in the foreign countries, but the rural areas in Japan such as Okinawa.

Despite such obstacle, however, BPO is still the main trend among the IT oriented globalization. Thus, Japanese companies cannot be out of this trend. In other word, even Japanese company of which branch is in the foreign countries cannot ignore the possibility of having outsourcing in the local companies. Certainly the language must be one of the obstacles in such global outsourcing. But we should think this way. If the language is one of the obstacles, then this reality shows that the true global BPO cannot ignore the multilingual situation in the business world.

It is true that what people call globalization has been monopolized by one particular language, English. But it is not the true globalization if the linguistically diverse business reality in the world has been ignored. We can maintain the convenience of using English. However, there are also other so-called business languages aside from English such as Chinese, Japanese and many European languages. Therefore, while speaking English is a big advantage for BPO (the good example is the Philippines and India), it is also true that if BPO can truly handle the multilingual situation, then it is also really a big, real advantage to enter the globally developing diverse business network.

Three Kinds of Death

2004-07-14T15:49:00.000+08:00

For the further reflection on the Big Three (Beauty, Goodness and Truth), it is indispensable to talk about death. Again if we explain somewhat metaphysically, death is related to the Birth of Consciousness and the Birth of Time. For, when we were able to have the concept of time, the so-called linear continuation from the past to the present to the future has been recognized or perceived. As I explained in "Life Conditions," this concept is derived from our agricultural skill that the fruits we have now are the result of our past seeding and the fruit we will have in the future is the result of our present seeding.

If we have our sense of temporal continuation, then we cannot avoid thinking of the beginning and the end. Existentially speaking (micro level), your beginning is the time when you could have your consciousness -- when you start thinking of yourself in your mind. It is just shortly (several years) after your birth. In the terms of Spiral Dynamics (Micro) it is the emergence of Purple meme (right after the Beige meme) in your consciousness level. On the other hand, biologically speaking, the beginning is the same as your own physical birth. Literally, the birth day is when your life has started. But then, as the other edge of your continuum, death is the end of your life existentially and biologically.

Now, if we think of our death from the point of view of the Big Three, that reminds me of the book by Takeshi Yoro. It is written in Japanese and has been one of the bestsellers in Japan, the title is "Shi no Kabe" – its literal translation is "The Wall of Death". It is a just light essay that he dictated based on his thought and experience as a retired anatomist. His main profession had been the anatomy and teaching this discipline in the university for a long time as a professor, at the same time also wrote a lot of philosophical books and intellectual prose from his unique point of view as an anatomist.

As we know, the main activity of the anatomy is to study dead bodies. In doing so, the students of anatomy usually have to face numerous dead bodies everyday as their activities. Then, in such practices they can get used to face any kind of dead bodies without unnecessarily fear. In other words, to be an expert in the field of anatomy means that you can treat dead bodies as mere objects. But then, he confesses, even in such conditions it is so hard to face the dead body of someone you know very well. If so, then how much more hard and painful to face the dead body of someone you love. I do not think that even professional anatomists can face such dead bodies without any emotional, psychological attachments.

In such insight, the author is saying that there are basically three kinds of death. The death of someone you don't know, that is he or any anatomists face in their everyday activities. The second is the death of someone you know or sometimes you love. For example, the death of one of your family members, your friends, or your small community members can be under this second death. And the third is your own death. Of course, anatomists cannot study their own dead bodies, however, not only anatomists but everybody can never avoid thinking and facing their own death.

Thus, he holds that the quality of death may be differed depending on what kind of death you are talking about, whether the death of someone you do not know, or the death of someone you love, or the death of yourself.

In the first death, we can maintain the eye of anatomist, that is to say, the eye of natural scientist. In the second death, we can no longer maintain such objective attitude, but rather the matter of empathy may be involved in facing this death. We inevitably have the collective sense to be related his or her death to your own death or life. And in the third death, it is the termination of your existential entity in this world and the termination of your consciousness. It is now nobody's death, but your own death. You must be the one to leave this world; you must be the one to separate from everyone and everything you love.

When I was reading his book, of course as you noticed, I was reminded of the Big Three (Beauty, Goodness and Truth). In the first death we maintain the objective, scientific attitude; we are the one to seek for Truth. Probably in studying the mechanism of the human bodies, we can see the mystery of God's works since our human bodies are the works of art and the artist is God just like everything else in this world. But in this appreciation we are still and merely the detached beholder, just like someone who appreciates the works of art in the museum. We are not really involved with the very process that this artwork has been created by the artist God.

In the second death we are the participant observers in the process of creation. The death of our beloved is so painful, but paradoxically such extreme pain reminds us the fact that we are also the part of God's creation. Artists feel their extreme pain when their works of art have been destroyed. In the same way, God feels the extreme pain when His work of art has been died and we can also feel almost the same pain as God does. In this recognition somewhat we can see God that which manifests Goodness -- the collective participation into the world and God.

And in the third death you are now the artist of your own work of art – your body and life, at the same time God is also the artist of your work of art. In other words, God and you are the co-artists, co-creators of your body and life. That is why; our own death means the termination of our own work of art and at the same time the termination of God's work of art.

In this recognition you can completely share what God is thinking and trying to do in this world, because He is your co-creators. Then, His will can be manifested as something Beautiful in your non-dual recognition -- each moment of your/His creation that can include the moment of death, of course.

Beauty, Goodness, and Truth

2004-07-13T22:21:00.000+08:00

When Adam and Eva were still in the Garden of Eden, the situation was symbolizing that humans were completely part of the environment just like the other animals. They did never ask who they were and what for they exist in this world on earth. In the same way they were never afraid of death and were never searching for where God was; what or who God was; how He or She could be described. For, they unconsciously knew that they were completely part of God, which means that they were completely part of the environment just like the other animals.

Due to the Birth of Consciousness, however, humans have suddenly separated from the environment or from God. Because of the Birth of Consciousness, they have suddenly recognized "themselves" and they can no longer stand without asking who they are; where they come from; what and whom they are facing on earth.

But then, why did such thing as the Birth of Consciousness happen? In "Life Conditions" I wrote that it was because humans had learned the agricultural skill; in so doing they had learned the Concept of Time. To know that the fruits they have now are the result of their past seeding and to know that the fruits they will have in the future must be the result of their seeding right now, they need the Concept of Time, the concept of past, present and future. In other words, it is the function that they imagine themselves in their consciousness in each category such as past, present and future. Thus, it is said that the Birth of Consciousness is caused by the Birth of Time in the human behaviors.

There is another aspect, however, to explain the Birth of Consciousness. That is language. Once humans have their consciousness and have separated from their environment and God, they can no longer live without asking about the environment and God. This question is almost the same as who they are and where they come from on earth. Needless to say, such questioning or seeking; moreover searching for meaning, is conducted in their consciousness by using their newly emerged skill – language.

Thus, we can also say that while the Birth of Consciousness was caused by the Birth of Time, the Birth of Language is caused by the Birth of Consciousness. And in this stage of human being, they have become truly what we call "humans" who are always questioning about themselves, their community, their environment and their God that are no longer the part of them in their perception. That is why; Aristotle started his writing in Metaphysics like this, "All men by nature desire knowledge."

Such philosophical attitude, in other words, is considered as searching for something supreme, God, or the idealistic forms of the environment by using language. When Plato classified such supreme entity as Beauty, Goodness and Truth, while we can see the nature of human knowledge, we can also regard Plato as one of the extraordinary insightful philosophers.

Because of the Birth of Consciousness, the Birth of Language has occurred in the human consciousness so as to describe what has separated from them. Once humans need to describe the supreme form of what has separated from them, they inevitably make the classifications depending on how they use their language. That is the cause of difference among Beauty, Goodness and Truth. All three, therefore, are each form of how to describe or explain God. In the form of language or the form dimension of knowledge, God can be symbolized as Beauty, Goodness and Truth.

When we use our language as the singular-subjective form, such I-language represents the personal experience. In such personal experience if we encounter something supreme or God, then we feel it as Beauty – the field of Esthetics. This dimension is placed in the Upper Left quadrant in the integral approach (See "True but Partial").

When we use our language as the plural-inter-subjective form, such we-language represents the collective experiences. In such collective experiences if we encounter or search for something supreme or God, then we value it as Goodness – the field of Moral Ethics. For, Goodness can be emerged only when a certain group of people are involved inter-subjectively. Goodness means a kind of mutual agreement in the community. Without such mutuality Goodness can not exist, while Beauty can exist in the personal perception and experience. This dimension is placed in the Lower Left quadrant in the integral approach. Incidentally so-called culture can be also emerged from this dimension. For, culture is what is shared inter-subjectively among a certain group of people.

When we use our language as the third-person objective form, such it-language represents the detached explanation. In such detached explanation if we search for something supreme or God, then we understand it as Truth – the field of Natural Science. In this extreme it-language worldview the environment has totally and completely separated from us; hence we are not supposed to be involved at all with such environments. This is the concept of objectivity. In the field of natural science, the world exists in front of us without our interaction as if we are not part of the world at all. But then, we are still seeking for something supreme in it, which is called Truth in stead of God, Beauty or Goodness.

Incidentally, this dimension is placed in either Upper Right quadrant or Lower Right quadrant depending on the micro/macro scale of it-language. If it-language focuses on the individual behavior such as behavioral psychology or medical treatment etc. it is in the Upper Right. If it is on the collective movement such as social system theory etc. it is in the Lower Right.

In the Greek philosophy such Big Three (Beauty, Goodness, and Truth) were somewhat clearly differentiated due to the Plato's extraordinary insight. In the institutionalized religion such as the medieval Christianity, however, the Big Three are not clearly distinguished. That is why, the medieval Christian church used to take care of all these Big Three related areas together from the individual faith (Beauty) to the moral ethics of the community (Goodness) to the individual behaviors (Truth) and to the institutional authority over the natural phenomena (Truth).

Thus, the differentiation of the Big Three could take place only in the emergence of modernity only when we could be free from the institutionalized religious authority, though in the post-modernity again the confusion have taken place to some extent because of the unnecessarily spiritual restoration such as the New Age movements, contemporary religio-political warfare etc.

In the postmodern age people are again beginning to confuse among the Big Three, the confusion between religion and science, the confusion between the individual esthetic satisfaction and the collective moral ethics, and the confusion between the magical symbolic expression and the scientific causality. The great achievement of modernity is the differentiation of the Big Three. Because of this differentiation we could be free from the premodern concept of God, which was so superstitious and sometimes so cruel – people killed each other and tortured innocents for the name of God.

However, there is the negative side of modernity, which is the dissociation of the Big Three. The Big Three differentiation can no longer be effective but rather have become antagonistic. Science (Truth) has lost their moral ethics (Goodness). Individualism (Beauty) has destroyed the traditional community life (Goodness). The authoritative discipline and ideology (Goodness) has dehumanized our individual human right and freedom (Beauty) and community ethics (Goodness). Modernity has produced a lot of problems because of such antagonistic dissociation of the Big Three.

In the post-modernity, then, the Big Three are supposed to be integrated, while the sound differentiation (not dissociation) can be maintained. In reality, however, people in the post-modernity have just returned to the premodern confusion of the undifferentiated Big Three.

What really we need, therefore, is the true integration of the Big Three -- how we can clearly recognize and handle the Big Three so as to understand something supreme or God in front of us, then at the end we will be able to realize that these Big Three have been already and yet ever since part of us from the very beginning. They have never separated from us in the non-dual realization.

Poverty

2004-07-12T20:17:00.000+08:00

The audit is one of the indispensable business practices to check if the business process has been properly conducted and documented. However, if it has become so rigid and if anything has become impractical, it would be the cause of our big frustration or dilemma.

It seems to me that auditing is a kind of "ruler" that tries to make anything in order regardless (if I am correct) of its practicability, whereas so-called customer satisfaction is a kind of "smoother" that tries to make anything flexible. Of course in the ideal level, both should be well-balanced and more integrated. And yet in reality, not always but sometimes, we are a bit annoyed by this dilemma between Apollonian rigidity (auditing) and Dionysian flexibility (customer satisfaction).

The former is a human instinct that tries to control everything in order. This is why; Apollonian people love numbers and rational-logic. For, numbering or counting is the one of primary tools that provides us the feeling of rationality and logic – the world of mathematics. It is no wonder that auditing is closely related to the field of accounting. The accounting is a measurement to quantify everything in your company, one of the main indicators of this measurement, of course, is the revenue of your company. Even if your performance looks good and even if your customers are so satisfied, it is worthless from the accounting point of view UNLESS the revenue can increase.

In the other words, any companies must be profitable in the first place and for their raison de'etre. Without revenue or profitability, any companies can not exist, otherwise it will be NPO-- Nonprofit Organization. And as you notice especially for the readers who have read "Life Conditions", this way of seeing things is completely belonging to the Orange meme or to the paradigm of modernity. It is no wonder that the capitalistic firms are the symbolic fruits of the modern world. If you are a kind of workaholic in focusing on the profitably of the organization alone, you can categorize yourself in the typical Orange meme person. That is why, in order that the concept of non-profitability can be emerged, we needed to wait for the Green meme.

Also it is important to notice that the Green or non-profitability can exist only when we transcend and include the Orange meme or a kind of material prosperity. Any NGO and NPO look so simple, however, such being simple or simple lifestyle is only derived from the self-criticism of their materialism. That is why, quite often NGO activities come from the first world countries in criticizing their own materialistic lifestyle.

For example, the people who are born in the slum are NOT choosing their lifestyle; they just do not have choices. However, the NGO workers in the slums have chosen to live in the slum based on their Green meme value system. I am not criticizing any sides here, and yet just thinking that there is the meme-related gap between both sides.

While the people who are born in the slum are dreaming that their lives can be a bit richer in their material needs, some (maybe not all) NGO works might think that there must be a kind of dignity among the people in the poverty. Of course in the profound level we have our great respect, for example, on the poverty of Diogenes, St. Assisi and the others, or else the simple lifestyle of Mother Teresa in the slum.

Thus, what I would like to say is that there are three kinds of people in the slum. The first ones are those people who are born in the slum and dreaming to be rich hopelessly or at least have a piece of bread for tomorrow. In such conditions we cannot blame if they are unavoidably remaining in the Beige-Purple meme – a kind of homeless primitiveness.

The second ones are those people who hate their own materialistic lifestyle and have voluntarily chosen to live in the slum with the first people and to help them. Of course their courageous action must be so precious and nothing to be criticized in this point. On the other hand, these second people are consciously or unconsciously still maintaining the connection to the first world Orange-Green meme community and its comfort. In other words, they have chosen to live in the slum but still they can go back to their own material lives anytime if they like.

Is it malicious to say that they are indulging themselves with the poverty in feeling that they are back in the "divine" poverty, just as people are enjoying themselves in the natural resort in feeling that they are back in the nature? Of course I do not criticize this tendency, but it is true that if so-called NGO related study tours have been popularized, increased and in a worst case utilized in the tourism, then such narcissistic stance has become controversial.

The third ones are those people who have truly (not based on their Green meme sentimentalism but based on their true love) decided to live in the slum just like Diogenes lived in a pithos or Mother Teresa in Calcutta. How do we know they have truly decided to live there?

If they have no intention to unnecessarily exhibit themselves in the first world, Orange-Green oriented society, and if they have completely cut their connection to the first world comfort, then we can say that they are neither Mean Green narcissism nor Purple-Beige homelessness, but truly committed themleves to the divine poverty.

True but Partial

2004-07-11T00:55:00.000+08:00

During the meeting in Starbucks (See "Life Conditions") aside from Spiral Dynamics, we also discussed the Integral Approach. It is a kind of theoretical stance that the late Ken Wilber has been proposing as one of the approaches that can overcome the so-called inter-paradigmatic, values conflicts (When I say "the late Ken Wilber," this means the phase 4 and 5 of Ken Wilber).

In my understanding, this approach was primarily suggested to overcome the nihilistic, extreme value relativism that had been pervaded in the post-modern worldview. The post-modern paradigm or worldview, put it bluntly, is to say that there is no such thing as Truth (absolute truth) but diverse Truths depending on one's value system. In other words, everything is relative and just interpreted by one of the languages in the particular context. Moreover, there is no such thing as right or wrong. Anyone can insist what he or she can believe as right or true. For, everything is relative and merely someone's interpretation.

The advantage of such relativism was of course (as the typical, positive feature of the Green meme) that people could embrace all the diverse values; therefore multiculturalism can insist its own right and meaningfulness. This was the great achievement to overcome a lot of minority-related problems and discriminations derived from the rigid modern scientism that always insisted the universal, objective truth, or derived from the traditional premodern ethnocentrism that always insisted that one's subjective truth was absolutely right.

While the value relativism was one of the great achievements of post-modernism, once it became extreme and deviated, then people in the postmodern had suddenly lost their criteria to see the truth, and then relativism has been transformed into nihilism. Thus, Integral Approach is a kind of alternative stance to solve this extreme relativism or post-modern nihilism. In the Spiral Dynamics term, it is probably a solution to lead people to the Second Tier perspective.

One of the well-known items for this approach is AQAL. This is a kind of matrix that can constructively embrace the coflicts among premodern, modern and postmodern. The matrix is presented as the quadrant form. The Left side is considered as the internal or qualitative approach and the Right side is as the external or quantitative. The Upper level is as the individual or micro approach and the Lower level is as the collective or macro.

More simply each quadrant is: Upper Left is the section of "I" (interior, individual, intentional); Lower Left is the section of "WE" (interior, collective, cultural); Upper Right is "IT" (exterior, individual, behavioral); and Lower Right is "ITS" (exterior, collective, social or system). You can visit this page for the detail.

The point here is that these four sections can cover and constructively embrace all the paradigms from premodern to modern to postmodern.

Let's say, in the premodern paradigm the four sections had not been separated yet; hence the authoritative religiosity such as Western Christianity used to manage all four sections from the individual faith (Upper Left) to the individual behavior (Upper Right) to the community moral ethics (Lower Left) to the institutional system (Lower Right).

And in the modern paradigm these four sections have been differentiated, which means that religion and science have been separated; moreover, science has been freed from religion and religion no longer has to handle the scientific issues such as whether or not the earth / globe is round.

Such differentiation, however, has not yet reconciled the so-called interior/exterior problem – a question like, which approach can lead us the Truth, interior or exterior? This issue is of course the argument between qualitative approach and quantitative approach, or the conflict between hermeneutic approach and positivistic approach. Such argument or conflict can be regarded as the problem between modernism and post-modernism.

While modernism tries to search for the objective Truth (positivistic), post-modernism declares that there is no such thing as objective Truth but Truths that are inter-subjective (hermeneutic). But then, the matrix of quadrant has provided a solution to reconcile this modern / post-modern dichotomy.

In this Integral Approach the post-modern, relativistic stance that embraces everything, is still maintained. One different thing from the post-modern, nihilistic relativism, however, is that it provided the criterion – that is to say, the more integral or integrated, the better.

For example, if there are five values from A to E, then in the extreme relativism all five values are equally right and there should not be any criteria to see which value is better or more appropriate. Thus, there will be idiot embracing or a kind of "I am doing mine; you are doing yours; and we should not care each other" type of nihilism or a kind of "Don't tell me what I do; I do what I like to do" type of me-generation narcissism.

On the other hand, the Integral Approach has the clear criteria that embracing A and B is better than A alone or B alone. And integrating A/B/C is better than integrating A and B alone. That is one clear difference between postmodern relativism and Integral Approach.

Ken Wilber states this approach as follows in his book, A Theory of Everything: "I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody – including me – has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace, a genuine T.O.E."

Life Conditions

2004-07-10T13:07:00.000+08:00

Installed the CD-RW / DVD drive last night but encountered a trouble that DVD could not work properly because one of the necessary decoders did not exist in my computer. It was the decoder that updates Windows Media Player to enable DVD to play properly. So I additionally purchased the decoder in the website and installed it. Then, now DVD can be played even in my laptop PC.

This is one of the things that I am always annoyed when we install something quite new. You have to always take care of the subtle difference of compatibilities and often encounter the case that you have to additionally install decoders, service packs and so on aside from the main application you purchased. The only good thing is that you can just buy and download such peripheral items. It seems the more things are complicated, the more you need peripherals. That is the truth in any computers and probably even in any societies and communities.

Anyway, since this drive can finally work properly, last night I just enjoying watching the DVD entitled "Leap into the Future." This is the seminar that Dr. Don Beck and Andrew Cohen conducted in Copenhagen, Denmark to explain how Spiral Dynamics could work and inspire people as one of the frameworks in order to face our present diverse worlds.

When I was watching this DVD, I got a phone call from Mr. O who is a student of community development and was also mentioned in my recent post entitled "SD and CD." He was just nearby my place and requested me to have a cup of coffee together in Starbucks that is also just a few minutes away from my house. Then, we meet each other, had a cup of coffee and mainly discussed the same topic I wrote in my recent post, which is the relation between SD and CD.

The reason, I guess, why he wanted to talk with me was my writing in this dairy. As I made the journal entry about SD and CD and he read it, it seemed, he wanted to conduct the further discussion with me on the same topic. The discussion was quite interesting and even for me it was so fruitful that I could see SD particularly from the point of view of CD.

Although I wrote that I did not have much expertise on the field of community development and wondered what kind of discussion regarding the definition of "development" had been done in this field, I just would like him and probably the readers not to misunderstand. I am neither saying that I am totally ignorant of the field of community development and nor insisting that I am indifferent. As being a friend of him and his many other friends for many years, I think I have been quite familiar with the diverse, profound, well-discussed, and naturally even practical definitions of "development" on this field of community development.

My point was just how such sophisticated definitions can be aligned with the definitions of development in SD. That was my query based mainly on my curiosity so far. And of course I believe that this must be also his query for the same reason or moreover in his case for the more urgent reason to apply SD for the real field of community development.

Incidentally, I told him (and again I would like the readers to understand) that my writings especially in this Blog Diary section are not (or not yet) the so-called academic articles. Or rather, what I am doing here is so-called journaling so as to put my everyday thoughts, reflections, and experiences on a piece of paper, I mean, a virtual piece of paper on the web. But of course, nevertheless our discussion or dialogue inspired by my recent posts was quite exciting and I enjoyed it a lot.

If you are not so familiar with Spiral Dynamics, therefore, I recommend you to visit the more appropriate sites. You can find a lot of them by using any search engines with the keywords such as Spiral Dynamics or Spiral Dynamics Integral. Or you can also read one of my Japanese writings in my website if you can read Japanese. What I am writing here is just journaling. So please do not consider it as a rigid academic writing, but rather just feel it as the stream of consciousness writings. This, in a sense, is one of the effective ways of how to appreciate someone's journal.

Agreed with such assumption, I just try to make a brief sketch about Spiral Dynamics here. Spiral Dynamics is a kind of mapping tool to simultaneously describe both human consciousness (micro) and socio-cultural / socio-historical (macro) evolutions in which how we humans could overcome all the challenges we have encountered so far and in doing so we can also anticipate the further challenges we will encounter in the future.

These challenges are called Life Conditions. And the stage, dimension, or paradigm that have emerged every time when we humans could overcome Life Conditions, is called MEME. To picture the whole range of such evolution, usually eight memes are presented (sometimes nine memes if we include Coral meme). They are starting from Beige to Purple to Red to Blue to Orange to Green to Yellow to Turquoise and to Coral. The six memes from Beige to Green are called the First Tier. Yellow and Turquoise are considered as the Second Tier that can balance and embrace all the dynamics and conflicts among the First Tier memes.

In the Beige meme people do not have their clear self-consciousness. Just like animals they are still part of environments. But then, the primary Life Condition takes place, which is that people need the agricultural skill for their survival due to the expansion of population. They can no longer survive with gathering and hunting alone. And in having such sophisticated skill of agriculture, people begin to possess the concept of time, which means, the concept of past, present and future.

For, they need to know that the fruits they can have now is the result of their seeding in the past and that the fruits they will have in the future must be the result of their seeding right now. That is the concept or the sense of past, present and future, the sense of time in short. Once they have their keen sense of time, their sense of self-consciousness need to emerge and become quite sharp in imaging themselves in their past and future, which means that they image themselves in their self-consciousness.

That is why, it is often said that the Birth of Consciousness is related to the Birth of Time in the human behavior. And the Birth of Consciousness inevitably leads people to the sense of separate self, which is called ego. Such ego consciousness feels that they are facing and have separated from their environment for the first time, just as Adam and Eva have realized that they were no longer the part of Eden. Animals became humans because of the Birth of Consciousness. And they can no longer stay in the Beige meme.

And the second Life Condition takes place, which is that people need to understand their environments (including God and their own ego) as to how they can or cannot control them. They need to understand what they are facing in the reality or what they think as "reality" in their consciousness. Actually this second Life Condition is the basis for all the memes in the First Tier that is related to their survival in this world.

To understand the world that is separate from them and giving them the mystery of controllability and uncontrollability, the first thing people used was the magic and mythic articulation. They made the tribal community in which they maintained the full of magic and mythic rules and explanations. Such superstitious rituals and practices could work well in the small scale tribal community. Then, people could overcome the first Life Conditions in a primitive way and achieve the Purple meme.

Again due to the further expansion of the population or some other reasons such as how to win in the warfare etc., however, each tribal community (the maximum number of the members is around 150 members) need to tie together so as to establish the larger scale community. But in such large community the primitive magical, mythic rituals and practices could no longer work effectively. What people in this Purple meme need is the supreme individual who can exceed or embrace such magic and mythical rituals. That is the emergence of the Red meme. In the Red meme the extremely powerful individuals such as Alexander the Great and Chinghis Khan, etc. can control the huge community. Or rather, the existence of such huge community required those supreme, charismatic individuals.

However, while because of such super individuals, the huge community was built, it was so unsteady and always threatened by the risk of devastation, particularly caused by the death of such Godlike individuals. Thus, the third Life Conditions took place, which is that people need the more metaphysical, transcendental God (on behalf of Godlike human). In the Red meme the ruler was the human being, so the community was always threatened by the death of this ruler. However, in the Blue meme the ruler is just a concept that never dies but rather considered as eternal. Thus, community was no longer threatened by risk of the ruler's death and then could achieve the more homeostatic balance.

However, in the Blue meme since the ruler was conceptual and transcendental, the members of the community tended to become too obedient; they blindly followed the authority that looked not so substantial. The community has become so bureaucratic, or else fascistic. People are willing to do anything if it is the order of the supreme doctrine or ideology or if it promised their supreme happiness in the next life, and so on. And one huge community (since it has been tied by the institutionally controlled doctrine and ideology) always fight against the other huge community that has the totally different doctrine but similarly institutionalized, just like the never-ending wars between Christianity and Islam. That is the mechanism of the religious wars. Among the same members they can love each other, but they can easily kill the people who are not their members. The negative side of the Blue meme has emerged. That is the fourth Life Condition.

Thus, to overcome this fourth Life Condition – the negative side of the Blue meme, or the mean Blue meme, what people needed was the so-called universal truth that can transcend all the Blue meme based antagonism (religious, ideological wars). Then what they could find was the fact that only the quantitative scientific articulations and interpretations can be the real truth that can convince anyone regardless of their religion, ideology or any kind of similar institutionalized doctrines. That is the emergence of the Orange meme – the age of enlightenment (in the sense of Western civilization).

As we know, the contribution of this Orange meme is overwhelming. Because of this meme – the way to understand and cultivate their environments and their lives, people have achieved the unprecedented material prosperity and for the first time they can experience the world at the same time because of the miraculously advanced communication technology.

People in the Orange meme are rich, healthy and have their cosmetically beautiful look, or at least such worldly features have become their supreme values to be pursued. What they want was above all to be rich, healthy and beautiful in the external, physical sense. To be so, they never hesitate to utilize the environments; in fact they believed that they could do so because it seems the environments were totally controllable from their Orange meme's point of view. It is true in a sense but not totally.

Their sense of separation from the environments has achieved the peak and then intentionally or unintentionally they have started destroying their environments without noticing that doing so is also destroying themselves since they have been also part of the environments ever since. On the other hand, the gap between the rich and the poor has become so huge. For the first time in the Orange meme we have encountered the worldwide rich/poor gap – that is the North South Problem as we know very well.

And at last, some of people begin to worry about how to save our environments and human right and overcome such huge gap between the rich and the poor. That is the fifth Life Condition.

Thus, the Green meme is the paradigm that tried to overcome this fifth Life Condition. The Green meme people organized NGO and NPO that can focus on such particularly Mean Orange meme created problems. Some NGO groups tried to save the diverse kinds of the third world problems. Some NPO groups tried to help some dehumanized employees who had been depressed due to the work pressures. Still some NGO groups tried to solve the problems caused by the discrimination against the minorities, etc.

All these activities are basically conducted by the people who have achieved the Green meme consciousness level. Or, in the macro scale only those communities of which center of gravity is Green can have these activities. It seems that the mainstream of the value system is stilly heavily rested on the Orange meme in this modern world and what is tried by the Green meme is still considered a kind of post-modern. It seems that we might still wait for the further grow of this Green meme.

But now, as some of us might notice, there is the sixth Life Condition caused by the so-called Mean Green meme. That is the one of the latest problems we have encountered.

Another problem that the Mean Orange meme had created was the lack of spirituality. In the Blue meme the institutionalized religious power had been so overemphasized; hence, what the Orange meme tried to do was to stop thinking of anything about God and spiritual things – as the result, the Orange meme people had become too materialistic and hate any kind of religious, spiritual talks.

Then, what the Green meme people tried to do was to restore spirituality – the importance and the necessity of the soul and spiritual dimension. This is to say, not the quantitative accumulation of knowledge, but the qualitative deepening of wisdom. For, only because of the latter recognition, people can realize that they are part of their environment. This is of course the correct direction. There is nothing wrong to pursue spirituality and to embrace the diverse values from feminism to homosexual relation to alternative folk healing etc. etc. in the name of "saving minorities". However, once this direction has been overwhelmed and deviated, we have created the sixth Life Conditions that is called the Mean Green meme; and I would like to summarize this as two words – nihilism and narcissism.

Why is it nihilism? It is because in embracing all the diverse values, in other words, in being too kind for everything and everyone, people can no longer understand what is right and what is wrong. The irony is that in embracing all values, people in the Green meme has lost their own value or has lost their own criteria to see which value is right or wrong. Or more ironically the value they have is only that embracing all the values is right. This is also called idiot compassion.

And yet, in their deep inside they are even unconsciously eager to have their own particular value (even the Orange people did have their value – materialism). Then, what the Green people tried to do was establishing the religious cults to have the value, though these look like NGO or NPO groups at glance.

Sometimes or most of the times what is lacking in the Green based NGO or NPO is the clear sense of professionalism. They just wan to help people based on their sentimentalism. In the same way, those religious cults also lack a kind of professionalism and just as many of so-called New Age followers are so, they merely tend to indulge themselves with what they call spirituality by their own, that is, narcissism.

You can see this kind of narcissism everywhere the Mean Green meme activities take place. Because of their shallow understanding of spirituality, they always tend to confuse the difference between religion and science. Some cult groups try to insist their spirituality is scientific. And some New Age followers tend to overemphasize of the spiritual aspect of science or scientists. Then, in the Mean Green meme, religion becomes pseudo-science or New Age spiritualism; and science becomes pseudo-religion or scientism.

I think you have witnessed a lot of these cases in this post-modern world. What we need to know, then, is how to overcome this sixth Life Conditions to achieve the more integral communities and also how to handle the ever-existing the first to fifth Life Conditions. The recommended approach is of course to go about these six Life Conditions at the same time. To have this approach what we need is the leap to the Second Tier where Yellow and Turquoise are waiting. Or rather, having this approach can lead us to the Second Tier sooner or later, unless we fail to overcome these Life Conditions.

Disposable

2004-07-09T08:31:00.000+08:00

Went to Glorietta and purchased the CD-RW / DVD-ROM drive since my internal drive for the desktop PC has been quite obsolete. And I am no longer using such slow desktop PC; my favorite machine is this Sotec laptop PC. So, what I need is the external derive that can be connected to my laptop via USB. I bought this Sotec laptop last May 2003. It has been more than one year since then.

Although I do not know the appropriate lifetime of this kind of computer, I feel this laptop has worked quite very well without any major problems. This is amazing. In my experience, though it might be exceptional, any computers that I used before had encountered several major problems. The worst case was that HD was crushed due to unknown reason and a lot of, really a lot of my writings (I did not have any back-up) had been disappeared. To be exaggerated, that was one of the worst tragedies I have ever experienced. The barely and only good thing was that I did not lose the draft of my dissertation.

Compared to those past computers that are made by the famous large, mainstream computer companies (much larger than Sotec), my present laptop PC has been exceptionally working very well. Maybe just I am lucky only this time. In fact, millions of computes have been produced everyday; in this condition it must be really the matter of luck if you could have the computer that lived exceptionally longer without any major problems.

Computer (or rather word processing system) is one of our writing tools with a lot of miraculously convenient functions unlike pencils, pens, and typewriters with pieces of paper. In stead or because of such fabulously convenient functions, one of the flaws, if anything, will be its short lifetime. If it could live for more than five years, then we, the users of the computer can be considered lucky enough. However, it must be completely obsolete if we could use it for such long years. Again in my experience if we use our computer for more than 12 hours everyday, then the average lifetime of its HD seems more or less three years. The lifetime is three years and even if it could live longer than that, it will be surely and completely obsolete by then. How sad!

This thing just reminds me of one movie, Blade Runner (1982: by Ridley Scott). In the near futures there are a number of humanoids called replicants who are exceptionally smarter and stronger than the ordinary people. In every point and aspect replicants exceed humans except for one single point – that is, they can live only for three or four years.

We do not care if pencils and pens are considered as disposable. But if it is an expensive fountain pen or classic typewriter, then we cannot throw it away, rather should be proud of its long-lived history. I have met a friend of mine who is still using his old fountain pen that was given by his father.

Now, pencils and ball pens can be disposable. Fountain pens and classic typewriters are not. Then, how about computers? Probably they are also disposable since we do not attach any sentiments to them. In the same way, people in Blade Runner did never attach their sentiments to their replicants except for the guy (acted by Harrison Ford) who had loved one female replicant. And some smart replicants who are beginning to be aware of their own death, inevitably think whether or not they are disposable.

In the totally enlightened egoless dimension, we might be probably free from such fearful death and disposable dilemma. But we, weak humans, attach ourselves to our own ego, separate-self or dualistic physical, self-conscious entity, etc. This can be the source of fear, worries, love (love of Eros) and any kind of emotional attachments. But in one way or another, because of such emotional attachments we can say that we live in our imperfect lives – the world of polarity; there can be happiness because of unhappiness.

We are not angles but made of clay that is pulled by desires, pushed by delights and twisted by sadness, and so on. The female replicant was probably afraid of her death because she did not like to separate from her beloved partner. Some smart replicants did not like to die because of his ego and newly emerged identity or metaphysical self-consciousness. At the very end, however, there would be the time when they and also we humans can finally accept the death despite the fearful attachments.

Disposability of pencils is similar to the death of angles-- death is meaningless for angles because angles are not supposed to have any attachments to their worldly affairs; they are infant and ethereal. Disposability can be fearful death only when an angle has become human that has his own ego and self-consciousness and probably falls in love with someone (prepersonal becomes personal). Humans are so intelligent, powerful and emotionally attached, nevertheless (or because of that) they have to die soon that makes them so painful. However, there might be the time when they can transcend and embrace all those pains, paradoxically their death is no longer painful and they can truly celebrate the perfection of the imperfect life in accepting the inevitable death (personal becomes transpersonal).

Disposability of computers just reminds me of the painful death because they are also so smart, powerful and probably emotionally attached (because of the contents made in the HD) but sadly short-lived.

Serendipitous

2004-07-08T12:17:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the deadline of quarterly call report. The report was supposed to cover 2Q of program year 2004 alone. After extracted from the call log data base and completed the repot, however, I realized that the extraction had contained even the data of 2Q of program year 2003! Since this data base is new and has not been used for more than a year, I had really taken for granted such yearly differentiation. This is a very primary mistake. Anyway, the good thing was that I did not have to redo the extraction again. Rather, I just went back to the previous extracted data (Lotus 1-2-3 format) and sorted out by year -- in doing so I was successfully removed all the 2003 data. It was very easy but it was also true that I had been a bit panicked when I realized this mistake.

Generally speaking it is a kind of difficulty every time when you try to create a certain report by extracting the necessary information from any data base. Especially when the data base is so huge, the critical part is how to set up the criteria that can sharply nail down the necessary information – only by doing so the report can be one of the effective tools that can figure out the status. The data base is just piles of unselected materials as such. If I use a negative word, it is just a garbage box. Only when we try to use the eye of selection and criteria, then some of the garbage becomes the worthwhile information. And of course, to have such eye, we also have to have our keen consciousness to what kind of information we need. It is just like cooking maybe, though I am not sure if we can make any delicious dishes out of such garbage piles, only when and if we have decided to "cook" and only when and if we have decided to "what" to cook, then our eye of selection and criteria can be activated.

But quickly I would also like to add the exceptional case when we cook from such raw data, which is the case of "creative act". As you may have experienced, in the process of creation we sometimes encounter the fact that the product (or rather work of art) has been different from what we expected in the beginning. This is one of differences between making simple (extracted) reports and creating work of art.

Using the metaphor of "cooking", sometimes we are not really aware of "what" to cook in the beginning. But the raw materials themselves can give us a certain motivation or inspiration as to what to cook or create. Materials inspire us. Or more strictly speaking, we might have a kind of unconscious purpose or intention, and then a sort of serendipitous combination of raw materials can inspire our unconsciousness as if the materials themselves could produce their own artwork by themselves.

In fact, when I start writing this today's dairy in describing the call report issue, I have never expected to write about what I am talking about now. The materials in my brain have made this particular context in a serendipitous combination. This is a technique or attitude of "letting go." Of course we should never use this for making call report, but when you want to create something, you should be aware of this powerful force.

Intercultural

2004-07-07T13:45:00.000+08:00

Waked up at 6 am, turned on my PC and changed the setting of this new blog diary. By this change anonymous guests can not input their comments on my diary. It is not that I am annoyed by anonymous comments, but I just want to use this space only for my journal entry not for the communication space unlike other blogs. So, if you happened to visit here and want to make any comments. Please e-mail me. I always try to reply to you.

Last night I went to Greenbelt 1 to watch "Zatoichi" -- the Japanese movie directed by Takeshi Kitano. There are some other foreign (not Hollywood) movies that won in some international competitions; they are shown now because of Makati Cinema Festival (I forgot the exact name).

Usually (at least among my Aikido friends here in Manila) when we say "Zatoichi", it means the one acted by Shintaro Katsu. Those Aikido enthusiasts who are Filipinos are quite familiar with many of such samurai movies since a lot of DVDs are also available.

It seems they know more about those movies than I do. I know Katsu Shintaro's Zatoichi, but I do no longer clearly remember it since it was shown when I was a just small kid. For them, however, together with Toshiro Mifune's Musashi Miyamoto and many of Kurosawa's movies, Katsu Shintaro is still active as one of their samurai icons. It is interesting. Probably there must be the same situation even among the American samurai mania, I think. And such kind of "samurai media" can be one of the strong sources for them to practice Aikido enthusiastically.

In my case I started Aikido two years ago only when I encountered those Aikido enthusiasts. In fact, while I was interested in it to some extent, I had taken for granted. Rediscovering your own cultural identity because of the fans of your culture is an interesting case. Last year many Japanese have gotten interested in what is Bushido all about because of "The Last Samurai." It is also the same case that one rediscovered one's culture because of the other's appreciation on it.

In the Philippines there are also a number of foreign students of Philippine culture in the universities and graduate schools. Some are Japanese and some are even Americans. And they love Tagalog movies while Filipinos love English Hollywood movies. Although I am not saying that we have to be nationalistic and ethnocentric, it is good that we can have a chance to re-appreciate our own culture from the other's point of view. In this stance, I think, we can really appreciate our own culture without being unnecessarily ethnocentric.

For, being ethnocentric is a kind of self-inflation of your group-oriented ego identity, whereas in this case it is a kind of your appreciation on the appreciation of your friends. There is a mutual respect in it. My Aikido teacher is Filipino who is the third dan and I think it is a great opportunity to learn my traditional culture in this intercultural way.

SD and CD

2004-07-06T23:38:00.000+08:00

One of my friends here in Manila has appreciated Spiral Dynamics very much. Also he is one of the most appreciators of my web site. That makes me of course very happy. And not only that, he has also been telling many of his friends how this theoretical framework is good and helpful in understanding and sorting out the chaos of so-called paradigmatic or value-conflict interactions in this world.

The reason for his appreciation is probably that he is a student of community development. Although I do not have much expertise on this field, it is easy to imagine that the conflicts of diverse values must be one of the obstacles or problems even in the field of community development (the definition of "development" may be differed depending on each value).

And despite my lack of such expertise, I still wonder if how they, the students of CD, define the concept of "development" or else if they are aware of the diversity of such definition. In SD, if the development means achieving material prosperity, then its definition is clearly under the orange meme. If it means the expansion of a particular religious, ideological, institutional entity, then it is under the blue meme. If it means that one specific individual gains his or her extreme power, then it is under the red meme. Still, if it means preserving the native, indigenous, socio-cultural ethnicity and religiosity and getting along with others and maintaining a small scale community life, then it is obviously under the green meme.

I am not sure if CD has been discussing such diverse definition of "development." And if they are aware of such diversity, then what kind of "development" they really seek for. Of course it is also not realistic to focus on one single development among them. Needless to say, what SD has been suggesting is the way to integrate these diverse memes in the second tier. For, in the first tier each meme is antagonistic one another, and only in the second tier one can achieve a kind of integral perspective to balance each meme.

As my friend witnessed, among his co-students, some appreciate SD and the others are not really and still the other are indifferent. Why did such different reactions happen? I do not know. But in my understanding, in order to appreciate SD, one also has to be aware of the following things:

1) We mankind have been developing and getting matured throughout the entire history every time when we faced and overcame the problem that is called Life Conditions. In other words, though it should be stated modestly, we are wiser than the people in the past and the people in the future will be probably wiser than we are now unless we fail to overcome Life Conditions.

2) Together with such macro scale development, in the micro scale we individuals have been also getting wiser and matured as we grow. In other words, old men are supposed to be wiser than adults and adults are supposed to be wiser than children unless again we fail to overcome our Life Conditions that we encounter in our life time and that transforms us.

3) Knowing such concept of development, we should have overcome what is called pre/trans-fallacy. We often say that children are pure and authentic due to their selfless spontaneity. It is true that children are not as selfish as we adults and they have not been contaminated by evil things. However, the important thing is only that they are NOT YET contaminated; hence we cannot say that they could overcome all the evil things. Indeed, as we know, there are lots of sufferings, fears, disappointments, angers and worries in this word. As we grown-ups are much aware of them.

Then some are beginning to be cynically selfish as if everything is evil or else naïvely compassionate as if pretending there is no such things as evil. But both are wrong. For, both are far from so-called authentic transcendental spontaneity. Only if and when we have overcome all the problems and troubles in our lives (which means embracing them), then we can achieve such true maturity. That is the spontaneity of wise old man, not that of a small infant. To realize such difference is overcoming what is called pre/trans-fallacy. When we are just personal, then kids are pre-personal and wise old men are trans-personal.

But of course we should also notice that such transpersonal dimension is not as easy as New Age followers are claiming. Their claims are also called Mean Green Meme. We will find some other time to talk about. The point is that in understanding such fallacy, we can avoid the unnecessary romanticism that blindly appreciates the native cultures and child-mentalities. The bottom line is that we are wiser than people in the past (macro) and when we were children (micro). And then we still need to get wiser so as to find the more integral community (macro) and our personal maturity (micro), that looks probably like traditional and naïve at glance. But this is only at glance.

Assessment

2004-07-06T18:47:00.000+08:00

Stayed in the office until 3 pm. Having finally received the fund from Australia, we could process the transaction that is the consumption tax portion that we could not completely pay out last February. Prior to the process, I emailed the contacts pre-notifications to inform that they will receive this additional payment. Expectedly they have forgotten the fact that they did not receive the tax amounts last February even though I clearly explained them via email at that time. Anyway together with the pre-notification emails, I also talked with them over the phone.

Today is the deadline for the translation of Cultural Assessment questionnaires. Of course I have already completed it. The funny thing was that I thought the deadline was on July 4, but just when I tried to send out the completed translation to Mr. S, I found out it was on July 6. In this case it is a kind of good misunderstanding. For, because of this, I could have an extra time to review the translation. I will send it to him tonight

Yesterday I had meeting with Mr. V regarding the job I will be involved soon. At present I have been involved with three jobs, working in the outsourcing company, translating SD related materials, then (if I can call it a job) writing my dissertation. These things have made my life quite busy and if anything feeling productive. And now it seems the fourth will be coming, which is a kind of CMMI related job. CMMI is a sort of assessment tool and/or framework to evaluate IT related companies especially the maturity of SW development etc. It is similar to ISO. Maybe you can say CMMI is a kind of IT version of ISO, while SD (Cultural Assessment) is a kind of organizational cultural version of ISO. I am not familiar with ISO so far. But now just coincidentally I have encountered a chance to study CMMI. I believe this opportunity will be one of my good experiences even for the development of SD related assessment. It can give me a broader perspective of what is "assessment" all about. In this regard, I am quite excited these days. What I will do in this CMMI project is to conduct a presentation in Japanese for the Japanese IT companies here in the Philippines. That is why, Mr. V said that his company needed someone like me who can speak both Japanese and English at the same time have a certain background of both assessment and a bit of IT. The project is not yet finalized but I really hope I can be involved with this more.

Test

2004-07-06T17:03:00.000+08:00

Have tried to create this new blog to see if it can work as one of my writing tools on the web. If it really works, then I plan to make a link from my website to this blog. Yet in the meantime I should keep a simple, stream of consciousness writing so as to accustom myself to this kind of entry.