Bodily organs. Organic. Organism. Organization. So many etymological roots running deep here. Leading me to wonder.

If A body has organs--each of which serves a vital role for the health and well-being of that specific body...

 Then...

...does this mean that humanity's Social Body is also made up of organs (our various organizations) and that each of these are intended to serve a vital role for the overall welfare of that Greater Body.

Could it be that our various organizations are like the Brains of the Global Body, the Heart of Humanity, the Liver of the Living Body of Buddha-Beings? Is it possible that are 'groups' are somewhat like collections of cells that in sum 'transcend and include' their token individuality in order to serve a much larger purpose in a much greater and vastly more complex Entity? 

And... might our organizations be more harmonious if they are in keeping with there proper and fitting role--i.e., the Brain does not try to be the Heart and the Heart does not try to fulfill the role of the Kidneys?

Someone writes a book, that book becomes 'gospel.' That 'gospel' becomes catechism, dogma, doctrine. That dogma and doctrine ends up being handed down through generations. That's the Monological Rule Of Law: One way; One Truth; One Voice... One. Just one. Only one.

Take a predominantly 'oral-based' culture, with little concrete evidence for the practice of freezing Truth into words. Take an Indigenous people, like the Ojibwa several hundred years ago. There was no written Law. Truth was not frozen in symbols. For instance, if there was an issue within the Tribe as to how to deal with a specific dilemma they did not go to their DSM-IV. They did not go and look in a 'holy book' and attempt to read what God had suggested the People do when faced with this problem in the past. There was no fully 'Abstract, Dis-embodied, Mono-logical Rule Of Law.'

Rule of Law was arrived at through a process of Poly-logic. There was a cross-fertilization and cross-pollenation of Logic by bringing the various Clans together (Clans that were representative of the intrinsic differences amongst the Tribespeople) in order to allow the different perspectives on the issue/problem. There was not one person making the decisions. There was not one book referred to. There was not even one God prayed too. There was diversity and difference and... dare I f*&in' say... an integrally-informed practice that few if any in the Integral Community, ala Ken Wilber, have yet to embody in a substantial way (so much for those backward Injuns, huh?).

What we have in the present Integral Community is the authourity of a single person seeking to co-opt and own, claim and posess what is and was already a deeply embedded form of social practice amongst many Indigenous Peoples. The danger risked at present is if this 'leading player' does not say it, write it, practice it... then it must not be TRUE.

And if want to deny that this is indeed the case then go ahead and make my argument for me. Tell me how often Ken has deferred to someone else when a big decision has to be made. Tell me how 'Integrally-informed' Ken Wilber is at the crucial moment when a tough decision needs to be made. when an institutional problem is being addressed, when the matter of the Culture of the Integral is being brought to the table. Tell me how often he has played the role of consensus-maker vs. 'this is my baby, and I am going to have the last word.'

Why would the Ojibwa gather the various clans together to make a decision. Is it because they lacked a strong leader? Is it because they were 'un-integral' and 'partial but true?' Was it because they didn't have a Ken Wilber in their day to tell them 'the last word' on damn near everything?

Perhaps it was because there was an inherent understanding of the differences amongst people and that any monological approach to problem-solving was bound to fail. Perhaps they understood that only by bringing people together with different skill-sets, talents, biases, perspectives, would they be capable of arriving at the best possible solution given the circumstances. In other words,  as a Social Body, a Culture, they spoke from the Heart, the Head, the Feet, the Genitals, the Stomach, and the Warrior's Muscled Arms.

 To me, and I don't know about you, that sounds awfully Integral.

Why do we look outside of ourselves for meaning, for purpose, for signifigance... for guidance even? Are we that empty? Are we that devoid of a sense of direction? Are we that crippled after 10,000 years of Civiliuzational subjugation to the priests and the politicians, the teachers and the taunters, the popes and the mullahs? Is this all we have left: we are just so many objects to be manipulated by those whom we mark as exemplary in some way; those who we surrender and sacrifice all our authourity to... so that we have none any longer?

Think about the fear that sends so many to the psychics and fortune-tellers. Think about the anxiety because we have lost a sense of direction within ourselves to the point that we are running over to Madame Sue's little drapery-lined porch to have our palm read--to have here tell us who we are and what we are supposed to be doing!!

Think how sad that is?

Add to the list the Buddha and Jesus and the Dalai Lama, Ken Wilber, Adi Da, and Andrew Cohen. Add to that list George W. Bush and Rush Limbaugh, the neo-con loudmouth Ann Coulter or the neo-liberal loudmouth Al Franken. Add to the list your Momma and your Poppa. Add to that list all those who have wittingly or unwittingly served to dis-empower you to the point were you have no capacity for trusting that there is even an inkling of Light or Illumination within you. Thank Civilization and the 10,000 years of subservience to a System (Communist, Capitalist... Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Persian, Chinese, or Japanese... what is the difference, really... tell me...).

And then reflect on those who break-away from the System of External Authourization For Your Own Existence---for your own good... for your own well-being, we are told. What is their fate? What does the System do to them? It kills them, right. It eliminates them. It extinguishes the flame and the fire of Radical Independence before it spreads to others... before it brings the whole collusive enterprise down in a heap of smoldering ash.

And if they are not outright killed--if the System for The External Authourization For The Right To Be doesn't snuff them out then it will lock 'em up and call 'em 'crazy.' Anything to diminish that sort of Freedom that stems from the Inherent Principle---and not that Freedom that comes from getting Authourization from soneone else.

But I'll tell you what. Even when I look around here at Zaadz I see a lot of well-meaning people looking to others for the permission to be who they are--to be their 'Self'--to be the Self... to be free. That, to me, tells me just how far we have either a) fallen... or b) have yet to go in order to truly resuscitate Spirit. Because the truth of the matter is that if you are looking to Ken Wilber or Rush Limbaugh, Al Gore or Al Sharpton for guidance and direction--for a sense of mission and purpose, for meaning and significance--then each of those is just a difference mask covering up a Systemic Illness that is leading humanity over that cliff... again and again... .like Wiley Coyote... into a cloud of dust.

The other truth of the matter is that you, in all honesty, do not need anyone else's validation or authourity to be. You ARE! THAT IS THAT! Yes, you may need someone to disclose to you just how much you try to lean on someone else. You may be drawn to an exemplary model or teacher--and if they are worth a shit, mark my words, then they will throw you back on your Self each and everytime you try and lean on them, or refer to them, or be guided by them.

Please... remember this. GOD LIVES IN YOU. The TAO IS INHERENT in your every cell, no different than the Dalai Lama or Ken Wilber. You don't need to justify your existence. You don't need a permit. You don't need anyone or anything else to confirm what is always already the case. YOU ARE THAT. And the only way you can ever help the situation right now, here on Earth, in this Galaxy, in this always-crucial nexus of THIS... is to trust that the Left-Hand and Right-Hand of God are upon your shoulders, too. And don't ever be seduced into thinking that someone else knows your direction. For the only thing they can refer you to is their direction... making of you a virtual mockery of your own existence.

So please... please... have Faith in the Power that carried you here. That Power is still with you. It is not in Ken Wilber or Deepak Chopra.... or any of their books. It is you. You are the Power. You are the only one who can BE that POWER!  

(Please forgive me... as I am going to get all Spiral Dynamics on ya in this post... I promise to make it as painless as possible--if not also a little entertaining)  ; o )

I was eavesdropping on a conversation last night. A turn in the discussion, after catching a few key terms, had me listening intently. I heard the following (or what I can remember the gist of):

"Green has to be anti-development because it is anti-hierarchy. Green cannot see higher or lower, more complex and less complex. Green is totally lost in a sea of sameness. We are all equal to Green. Nothing is better or worse than anything else. Green, therefore, will be found ranting against authourity. You can hear Green, and notice it in how others speak about authourity. Green has 'authourity issues.' They will seek to deny it--authourity--at the expense of the Spiral. For Green the issue is to separate from authourity, vanquish authourity, kill authourity, demean it. Like I said, always at the expense of the well-being of the Spiral."

Immediately after hearing that I was overwhelmed with reflection: Is that true? Is someone speaking out and about authourity automatically designated as Green? Is that a litmus test for determing who is and is not Green? Or is it more complex an issue that that?

What I came to consider as worthy of further contemplation are the following:

1) If Green is anti-hierarchy--against development--then yes, Green will tend to dismiss and deny the virtues of authourity.

However,

2) The criticisms of authourity that Green provides lead the way into Yellow.

This is a subtlety that I feel is often overlooked: that you can be Yellow and criticize authourity, because as you go Yellow you take with you the most vital and trenchant critiques of authourity that have been made at Green. This means that a critique against a particular instance or use of authourity is not itself a litmus test to determine the presence of Green. Yes, it may be. But it is not necessarily the case that someone critical of a specific instance of authouritarianism is Green by fiat.

Much of the virtue of Green is overwhelmed by the rush to get to Yellow in... er... uhm... some select circles. The result is that there may be this abortion of a capacity to skillfully separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to authourity and development. For instance, there is a big difference between someone whose authourity is to make us subservient to their dreams (all in the guise of helping us) and someone whose authourity is to assist us in actualizing our deepest potential. There is a big difference between authourity being used coercively and authourity being this force of attraction that draws us on to some unknown Omega Point of Our own Greater Unfolding. And there is definitely a huge difference between the authourity that comes in the guise of our wanting someone else (some Great Other) to give us all the answers, set all of our direction, define our purpose... grant us our significance... and our trusting that inherent Authourity that we might as well say is synonymous with the Self. Big difference indeed.

TAKE TWO 

I am not sure why this is, but amongst Ken Wilber and certain of his compadres there is a tendency to castigate Green to the point that I feel the greatest gift of Green is vanquished on the Yellow Brick Road of Integral Longings. Maybe it is because Ken Wilber and... er... uhm... Andrew Cohen... and er.... uhm... the other .... so-called Zen Masters and Buddhist Lamas who run unnamed spiritual and meditation centers across America... are themselves in positions of authourity. So maybe there is amongst them a tendency to want to kill what I would call the Green Gift To The Spiral. What is the Green Gift to the Spiral? The ability to finally see through the transparent illusions of authourity and hierarchy (the Queen takes a dump too, ya know... and yes... her shit stinks.... and your Buddhist lama was masturbating to a picture of the recently slimmed-down Anna Nicole Smith this morning before sesshin----ooppppss... sorry, wasn't supposed to say that!).

Now, does Green go too far---way too far in some cases--in its tenacious dismantling and deconstruction of authourity. Hell yes!! Just as Blue and Organe and Red have gone way to f*&in far when an Emergent Gift has been realized. I mean, shit, you get a new toy of consciousness and development and you wear that mother-f'er out, if you know what I mean. of course Green gets extreme. But if you are going to insinuate that because Green is extreme in its 'leveling' tendencies to the point that the Green Gift To the Spiral is completely thrown out, then you, I dare say Mr.? are missing the point.

The point is that Green is supposed to be hyper-critical and hyper-vigilant when it comes to authourity. That is Green's role. That will always be Green's role. And the reason so many 'rights' have been won by Green is because Green has been so god-blasted infurious and persistent in the face of those authourities whose time has come. Green is Mean. Hell yes. And God Bless Green for being so Mean! For because of that tenacity of Spirit that Green is an emergent expression of millions have rights and freedoms that they would not otherwise have.

And finally, if you or anyone else thinks that that same tenacity of spirit is not taken on to Yellow then you don't know Yellow. For Green will always ask "Is authourity in this case serving the Spiral?" If not, then Green is going to go all Mean Green Meme on that particular authourity's ass!!

Perhaps that is why those in positions of authourity need to crush the Green Gift To The Spirial--so that the capacity for critical awareness doesn't grow in their sphere of influence, thereby threatening a position and status that they, themselves--as authourity figures--have perhaps begun to cling to a bit too much.

A friend sent me this pic from a gig I played last night. Yeah, that's right, I took the good name of Zaadz right into the heart of Red-Neck Country--where Busch Beer, NASCAR, and shotguns rule the world!!

Now that's changin' the world folks!!   ; o  )