I've spent a great deal of time looking at life through many different lenses lately. I took a class in spiral dynamics a few years ago and its opened me up to how people can have different life values. What those values are, creates a lens on how they see and interpret the world. Spiral Dynamics creator Clare Graves color coded the values, so that they are easier to understand. I am seeing a lot of Blue, Orange, and Green these days...and right in my own neighborhood!
Briefly...a person at Blue will sacrifice self for the group, see things in "black and white" terms, and strive for salvation through obedience and faith. People at "blue" are likely to follow dogma in religion, like bureaucracy in government and work, and may have more traditional role marriages. The Orange people like to create better standards of living and social positions. They strive the achieve wealth and status. I spent many years in this category myself, climbing the corporate ladder...achieving honors and making all kinds of money. The Green people fascinate me the most today, probably because I am one. Suddenly, I'm not so concerned about money. What about Mother Earth? Have you noticed the environmental issues facing the world today? Green people also don't like bureaucracy and thrive on consensus voting. Those people at the green level celebrate the feminine, multiculturalism, and spiritual diversity. Do you have any friends at Green? I'd probably like to meet them!
There are higher spiral dynamics levels now, too, but these three seem to be most present in my world...and I have to admit...this sometime frustrates me! For instance, my husband and children are incredibly dedicated to Boy Scouts. Now, this is a fabulous organization, don't get me wrong, but if you have children in scouting...have you noticed how "blue" this is? There are uniforms to wear, a pledge to recite, and badges to earn. I think the boys even march in for every "Court of Honor" and post the American Flag. This is civic duty at its finest! While I celebrate the life skills my boys continue to learn (and am grateful to my husband for teaching this), I can't help but notice my...well, yawn...boredom with the whole program. OK, I am a women and that could be part of this, but did you know that Green people really don't appreciate much of anything that is Blue? There ARE mothers actively involved in scouting and guess what, they see the world as spiral Blue!
Since I started studying spiral dynamics, I understand how important this tool can be! Suddenly, I can "read" people in my community like never before. Any judgement I may start to have just falls away. I can now see the world through their lens. In my upper middle class neighborhood, there is a lot of Blue religion and Orange work ethic people. And, I am starting to see how best to interact with others through their value view of the world! Oh my...I'm excited now...that means I have a hit of Yellow in me, too!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Theological Snapshot
I believe that there is an energetic presence that unites the world. Many people may refer to this energy as God. That word doesn't really resonate with me, so I will all this masculine and feminine energy Spirit. Spirit has been here since the beginning of time and wishes to create through each of us. Teachers like Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha have all been human examples of what it means to connect with Spirit in all aspects of life. These teachers come from different religions, but the diversity doesn't really matter. There seems to be a common thread of love and compassion woven through all the highest spiritual teachings...it is all one Spirit or one God.
In Unity, we are also aware that our thoughts have the power to create. I know that when my thinking is aligned wit high spiritual principles, my life seems to flow from one moment to the next. The Fillmore's metaphysical interpretation of the Bible certainly brings this way of thinking to life. In the Bible...people, places, and things represent states of consciousness, providing a rather simple map of sense consciousness or Christ consciousness to study.
What a miracle birth is! I believe we are all brought into this world innocent, whole, and complete. Babies all shine with the spark of divinity and love. It would seem that those babies fortunate enough to grow up in a loving environment would have the greatest chance of becoming like Jesus or Buddha. But it doesn't always work that way. With free will, humans have the ability to choose a life devoted to Spirit, or to do something else. Sometimes humans "miss the mark" in their own growth process. This error or "sin", then usually leads to a life correction, perhaps putting the person back on the path to Spirit. Spirit wants each of us to grow and evolve and become the best version of ourselves we can be. In some strange way, Spirit always seems to know what each individual needs to grow.
Knowledge of transpersonal psychology has certainly changed my understanding of what it means to truly be one with Spirit. I now believe that each human being has their own psycho-spiritual process of evolution that begins with life in the womb. At the moment of conception new life begins. From birth, the child has many developmental steps it must go through to become a healthy adult. If any of those steps are missed, then the adult will have to go back and reclaim that aspect of self. This process of transcending the last stage of development and including it in to the new stage, must continue throughout life...to reach the highest stages of development and the transpersonal realms. Studies now show that the practice of daily mediation actually helps us in this "transcend and include" initiative, speeding up the process! At times, Jesus lived from the transpersonal and role-modeled that behavior. By following his example, each of us have an opportunity to evolve to our own highest level of Self...our God Self...and share that divinity with the world.
In Unity, we are also aware that our thoughts have the power to create. I know that when my thinking is aligned wit high spiritual principles, my life seems to flow from one moment to the next. The Fillmore's metaphysical interpretation of the Bible certainly brings this way of thinking to life. In the Bible...people, places, and things represent states of consciousness, providing a rather simple map of sense consciousness or Christ consciousness to study.
What a miracle birth is! I believe we are all brought into this world innocent, whole, and complete. Babies all shine with the spark of divinity and love. It would seem that those babies fortunate enough to grow up in a loving environment would have the greatest chance of becoming like Jesus or Buddha. But it doesn't always work that way. With free will, humans have the ability to choose a life devoted to Spirit, or to do something else. Sometimes humans "miss the mark" in their own growth process. This error or "sin", then usually leads to a life correction, perhaps putting the person back on the path to Spirit. Spirit wants each of us to grow and evolve and become the best version of ourselves we can be. In some strange way, Spirit always seems to know what each individual needs to grow.
Knowledge of transpersonal psychology has certainly changed my understanding of what it means to truly be one with Spirit. I now believe that each human being has their own psycho-spiritual process of evolution that begins with life in the womb. At the moment of conception new life begins. From birth, the child has many developmental steps it must go through to become a healthy adult. If any of those steps are missed, then the adult will have to go back and reclaim that aspect of self. This process of transcending the last stage of development and including it in to the new stage, must continue throughout life...to reach the highest stages of development and the transpersonal realms. Studies now show that the practice of daily mediation actually helps us in this "transcend and include" initiative, speeding up the process! At times, Jesus lived from the transpersonal and role-modeled that behavior. By following his example, each of us have an opportunity to evolve to our own highest level of Self...our God Self...and share that divinity with the world.
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