Conscious Evolution Boston
www.consciousevolutionboston.org
info@consciousevolutionboston.org
(203) 405-3276
- Embodying and Serving a Transcendent Purpose
- Co-Creating in Heart Resonance with Others
a Free, Peaceful, Healthy, Just, Collaborative, Regenerative World where we All Thrive in Harmony.
A Home of: Birth 2012 Boston
THE BETTER WORLD WE KNOW IN OUR HEARTS IS POSSIBLE
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
- Buckminster Fuller
Summary
Introduction: The world is as we dream it; our thoughts, intentions, and actions affect our experience of reality and the world at large. Our level of consciousness plays a vital role in determining our dreams and creations; our experience of reality and the state of our world. As within, so without. Either we create unconsciously by chance or consciously by choice. The question of the universe then is: What is the level of our consciousness? And what are we choosing to dream and create?
"The Better World" (TBW) team has conceived the following dream, stated in its purpose, vision, and mission as follows:
Purpose: The purpose of TBW team is to create The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible; a peaceful, healthy, just, sustainable/regenerative, and thriving world.
Vision: TBW team envisions integrated individuals within synergistic communities in the form of Common Good Communities and Jeffersonian Ward Republics:
- providing and performing the functions of governance to and for one another; governance of, by, and for
the people;
- deciding together, through dynamic governance, what would be good and of value for the community,
- issuing money, through a community-supported credit system known as Common Good, to fund it.
As individuals, we receive the money we need to live as our right to the equitable distribution of the wealth we all create together. And we have a right to the capital our capacities warrant so that we may:
- pursue our transcendent purpose
- bring our service and contribution to expression
- make a meaningful difference in our communities and the world
- create the conditions in which we want to live; The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible; a
free, peaceful, healthy, just, collaborative, sustainable/regenerative world where we all thrive in harmony.
Mission: TBW team’s mission is to:
1. Actualize the ideals of FREEDOM, JUSTICE, and COMMUNITY by:
- Implementing the “Threefold Social Order” so as to properly align the three ideals of Freedom,
Justice, and Cooperation/Collaboration with the three domains of Culture, Governance,
and Economics, namely Freedom in Culture, Equality/Rights/Justice in Governance, and
Cooperation/Collaboration in Economics. We do so by:
- Establishing Common Good Communities and Jeffersonian Ward Republics in which:
- the people in communities or wards know one another and personally provide and perform the
functions of governance to and for one another; governance of, by, and for the people;
- the people decide together what would be good and of value for the community and issue money
to fund it.
- Using the social technologies of Dynamic Governance known as Sociocracy, Non-violent
Communication (NVC) and Restorative Justice, and a community created credit system known
as Common Good, and thereby reliably establish healthy social structures and pathways for
creating together The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible.
Ultimately, our sense of justice, which arises from our common humanity, will determine what would
best serve our communities.
2. Foster Individual Integration and Universal Synergy, which involves understanding "The Gap",
practicing The Golden Rule, practicing Communication Protocols such as “non-violent
communication” and “dynamic governance”, and engaging other general practices that foster
"right relations", "right livelihood", self-actualization, synergy and harmony.
The following elaborates on the above, providing more detailed information for further review and exploration, including an understanding of the problems of our existing culture as well as a vision of a new culture, a new paradigm, based on the ideals further addressed below.
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The Problems of Our Existing Culture:
1. Our current cultural paradigm distorts the three ideals of:
- Freedom - Culture
- Equality/Justice - Governance
- Cooperation/Collaboration - Economics
as follows:
Culture –
Instead of our culture being free, it is unduly influenced by special interests, government influences, and whatever is profitable.
Examples:
- Scientific research and discovery and wholesome solutions are often curbed and thwarted if they in any way present a challenge to
the big pharma-military-industrial complex and its ability to generate profits. (Examples: Alternative health solutions challenge the
medical establishment and big pharma; alternative and free energy solutions challenge the fossil fuel industry; peaceful conflict
resolution solutions challenge the military establishment; local, organic, and sustainable farming solutions challenge the industrialized
agriculture and factory farming industry.)
- Mainstream media is controlled by a multi billion-dollar franchise.
- Our public education institutions are subject to conformity, compliance, and controls thus limiting the creative impulse and imaginative
expression of our teachers and youth.
- The existing debt-based monetary system controls us; it distorts and thwarts our human nature by compelling us to work to generate
money as the priority instead of to necessarily meet the needs of our society and thereby fulfill our transcendent purpose.
- The private banking system renders "we the people" debt and wage slaves through usury.
Governance –
Instead of a government of, by, and for "we the people" based on equality and justice, it is a corporatocracy, bought and controlled by multi-national corporations. Whoever has the money rules us.
Economics –
Instead of our economic system being cooperative and collaborative, it is based on competition and the profit motive.
- The existing debt based monetary system results in economic inequality and the concentration of wealth,
unsustainable growth and consumption, and environmental destruction.
- A deceptive, corrupt, and usurious private banking system serves to benefit bank shareholders, usurps the public
prerogative of issuing the money, and renders "we the people" debt and wage slaves.
2. The extent to which we as individuals and communities are unconscious and fragmented affects the extent to which our culture is unconscious and fragmented, as summarized above. The extent to which we as individuals and communities are conscious and integrated affects the extent to which our culture is conscious and integrated. As within, so without. We are at a choice point, to unconsciously devolve to our eventual extinction and that of many other species, or to consciously evolve and thrive.
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A Vision of a New Culture, a New Paradigm:
"The Better World" (TBW) team is creating a new paradigm based on the following ideals:
1. Threefold Social Order
2. Individual Integration and Universal Synergy
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1. Threefold Social Order
Based on Rudolf Steiner's Threefold Social Order, we are properly aligning the three ideals of
Freedom, Equality/Justice, and Cooperation/Collaboration with the three domains of Culture,
Governance, and Economics as follows:
A. Freedom - in the domain of Culture
B. Equality/Justice - in the domain of Governance
C. Cooperation/Collaboration - in the domain of Economics
A. Freedom - Culture
Our culture needs to be FREE.
The following is what we mean by "free":
- By free, we mean the freedom to pursue what inspires us, what we are naturally good at, and what we would find ourselves doing
anyway if we were truly free, free from the demands of having to “earn” a living to pay for our living.
- By free, we mean a society that honors and supports our efforts to achieve personal fulfillment and self-actualization.
- By free, we mean a society that acknowledges the value of personal fulfillment to the community at large, and finds value in and funds our efforts.
- By free, we mean we are taught by teachers who value us as individuals and want each of us to discover who we are, how to think,
and what we want to do with our lives.
TBW team aims to co-create a culture that is based on freedom of expression, creativity, self-actualization, and personal fulfillment - all supported and funded by the community based on its collective wealth creation and values.
The domain of Culture consists of the realms:
- Science (the seeking of truth)
- Art (the creation of beauty)
- Education/Spirituality/Religion (the values and ideals of goodness out of which we live)
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness are what we are all striving for in the new paradigm.
B. Equality/Justice - Governance
Our Governance needs to be JUST.
We assure Equality and Justice through a dynamic system of self-governance of, by, and for the people within Common Good Communities and Jeffersonian Ward Republics based on a well-conceived organizational structure, operating system, and consent-based decision-making process among equal individuals, known as Sociocracy, which is clear, efficient, transparent, scalable, and doable. See https://www.sociocracy.info/what-is-sociocracy/ and https://www.Sociocracyforall.org.
In Common Good Communities and Jeffersonian Ward Republics, people in communities and wards know one another and personally provide and perform the functions of governance to and for one another. The people decide together what would be good and of value for the community and issue money to fund it.
Governance encompasses the Legislative (Funding), Executive (Implementation), and Judicial (Justice) functions.
The Community acting in the Legislative function decides what would be good and provides the appropriate funding. The Community acting in the Executive function selects the best people to implement what we agree would be good. The Community acting in the Judicial function evaluates the results and judges if it was good.
The roles for all functions are selected based on who is determined to be the best persons to accomplish them.
Non-violent communication (NVC) is an important communication tool in self-governance to help foster harmonious relations. Resources: https://www.nonviolentcommunication.com and https://www.cnvc.org
Restorative Justice is a transformational process for addressing and potentially redressing any grievances or harms. It involves the healing practices of atonement and forgiveness. Resource: http://restorativejustice.org/
C. Cooperation/Collaboration - Economics
Our Economy needs to be COLLABORATIVE.
We cooperatively manage our resources and satisfy our material needs and desires by working together to create everything that we the people want, voluntarily as inspired. We distribute the profits equitably according to our sense of justice. We facilitate the exchange of goods and services by utilizing a community created credit system known as Common Good. See https://commongood.earth/
Economics encompasses Production (Nature), Distribution (Infrastructure), and Consumption (Needs). Production transforms nature into goods and services. Distribution involves a series of exchanges that benefit both parties (the seller and the buyer) to the exchange. And we consume to meet our needs and desires. The aim of production is consumption, i.e. satisfying the needs and desires of the people using the sustainable practices that our sense of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness lead us to implement. Production, Distribution, and Consumption is a result of the influence of the Culture and the Governance of the new paradigm.
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In sum, by using the available social technologies based on an understanding of our true nature as individual and social human beings, we can properly align the three ideals of Freedom, Justice, and
Cooperation/Collaboration with the three realms of Culture, Governance, and Economics, namely Freedom in Culture, Equality/Rights/Justice in Governance, and Cooperation/Collaboration in Economics. The social technologies we have identified so far that can do this reliably are Dynamic Governance known as Sociocracy, Non-violent Communication, and a Community Created Credit System known as Common Good. TBW Team believes that these social technologies will reliably establish healthy social structures and pathways for creating together The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible.
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More About The Threefold Social Order
“Three folding” maintains the healthy relationship between the domains of Culture, Governance, and Economics, thus ensuring a harmonious relationship between the ideals of freedom, equality/justice, and cooperation/collaboration, which may otherwise be in conflict with each other.
For example, equality and cooperation/collaboration in the domain of Culture could lead to mediocrity by, for example, preventing competition to sort out best placement, thwarting creativity, or creating a culture of conformity and compliance (in our educational system for example). Similarly, freedom in all matters could result in lawlessness, such as the social sanctioning of theft, breaching of contracts, the lack of appropriate rules and regulations (including financial and environmental), and an economic culture based on rampant consumerism and what is most profitable instead of based on cooperation and collaboration to satisfy expressed needs.
It is clear by the summary of the problems of our existing culture described above as well as important to recognize that our current paradigm distorts the ideals of Freedom in the domain of Culture, Justice in the domain of Governance, and Cooperation/Collaboration in the domain of Economics.
- Instead of our culture being free, it is unduly influenced by special interests, government influences and controls, and whatever is profitable, regardless of its effect on society or the environment.
- Instead of a government of, by, and for “we, the people” based on our common sense of justice, it is bought and controlled by whoever has the money; special interests.
- Instead of our economic system being cooperative and collaborative so as to responsibly manage our resources for the benefit of all, it is based on competition and the profit motive, which tends to externalize costs onto the society and the environment.
An important example of what does distinguish the ideals of equality/justice in the domain of Governance and freedom in the domain of Culture is - Governance being the domain that ensures the freedom of beliefs, ideally accompanied by the moral code of “do no harm”, and Culture being the domain of the beliefs themselves. Our U.S Constitution addresses this in the “Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment, which is characterized as “the separation of church and state”.
This does not preclude identifying the values, principles, morals, and ideals that appeal to our common sense of justice and goodness that unify us in the domain of Governance, for example the moral code of “do no harm". This is indeed consistent with the ideal of justice in the domain of Governance.
In sum, it is important to be conversant in the three potentially conflicting ideals of freedom, equality/justice, and cooperation/collaboration.
While, as exemplified above, each ideal of freedom, equality/justice, and cooperation/collaboration belongs in the three domains of Culture, Governance, and Economics, our common sense of justice, which arises from our common humanity, is what will determine what would best serve the community. For example, we could determine whether it is best to be cooperating or competing, ensuring equality or creating privilege and achieving excellence, having freedom of choice or being subject to what ensures equality and equal access (such as with private or universal health care). The new paradigm of the better world gives us the opportunity to cultivate our sense of justice, address the injustices we see, and choose the best course of action based on what we agree would be good as well as just.
Interestingly, the famous cry of the French Revolution: liberté, egalité, fraternité was a symptom of humanity’s unconscious longing for a threefold social organism later conceived by the famous philosopher and social reformer Rudolf Steiner. (See http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/Threefold_Social_Order.php)
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2. Individual Integration and Universal Synergy
The purpose of individual integration and universal synergy is to presence and foster conscious, integrated, intentional, and synergistic conduct and actions.
Integration is based on an understanding that our state of being; our consciousness, our awareness of the world within us and around us - is primary, and gives rise to conscious, integrated, intentional, and synergistic conduct and actions.
Ideally, individuals and community members know how to integrate themselves, especially when experiencing fragmentation, which includes:
- With the individual, the individual is aware of any competing drives within, namely one’s sub-selves, and brings them
into consensus through eliciting and listening, the task of the “Transcendental I”.
- Within the community, the community brings individual community members into consensus through eliciting and
listening.
- Transcending egoic patterns
- Practicing being “whole and complete"
- Trusting and aligning with inner/higher guidance
- Aligning with a higher purpose, vision, and mission
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” - Albert Einstein
"If our inner work is great, our outer work will be great." - Meister Eckhart
The following are valuable resources:
Ten Syllables https://www.tensyllables.org
To foster integration, TBW team espouses the following Understandings, Protocols, and Practices:
- The Gap
- The Golden Rule; All is One
- Communication Protocols
- General Practices
The Gap
The Gap represents the cognitive space between the percept (an object of perception) and the concept. It is the “choice point” between an event or reality that we experience (an event or reality, which is ultimately unknowable, that we observe and perceive through our senses and even memory), and our interpretation/understanding of and response to what we experience, which affects who we are, what we choose, and therefore what we create.
We are responsible for our interpretations as creators. Understanding the Gap helps us take responsibility for our interpretations and choices. It helps us choose our interpretations of our experience of reality and our responses to our interpretations (vs. allow ourselves to be dictated by our interpretations).
This could include choosing to foster harmonious relations as we open up and listen to one another without undue bias. It could also include choosing our individual authority, our individual sovereignty (vs. accepting others’ authority and thereby not taking responsibility for our choices).
In taking pause in the Gap, we can be present, and intentional with our choices (vs. at the effect of our circumstances).
In resting in the Gap, we can be in "presence” as a state of being, allowing for an “evolutionary impulse” to inspire (in spirit) us into “awakened doing” (vs. "efforting"). (Eckhart Tolle)
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor E. Frankl
“What others do may be a stimulus of our feelings, but not the cause.” - Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD.
“You get to choose how you focus. Therefore, you get to choose how you feel.” - Abraham-Hicks
“In the creation of our experience, controlled thought is everything …It is the highest form of prayer…Therefore, see only perfection, express only gratefulness, and imagine only what manifestation of perfection we choose next…In this formula is found tranquility, in this process, peace, in this awareness, joy.” - Neale Donald Walsch
“Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." - Rumi
Resources:
The Work, by Byron Katie https://thework.com/instruction-the-work-byron-katie/
The Golden Rule; All is One
- The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would wish to be treated; “Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you.”
- The Golden Rule may be said to include the following characteristics:
- The Common Law, which is generally recognized as: Do no harm, or Cause no harm, injury, nor loss.
- Common courtesy, respect, and kindness
- Honoring the similarities that unite us as well as the differences that individuate us
- Appreciating one another for each other’s gifts
- Genuinely recognizing and respecting the differences - which is a practical expression of justice; is relational,
involves acknowledging others, the Gap, humility, awareness that we don't know what we don't know, accounting
for well-reasoned arguments and objections, respecting valid boundaries, appreciating others’ beliefs and
approaches, cultures, etc.; acknowledging that we are never one thing, agreeing to disagree, practicing non-
violent communication (NVC) and active listening. (Note: Respect is distinct from allow.)
- Having an appreciation for our profound interconnectedness; All is One (We are thy neighbor. Ubuntu: "I am
because we are."; “I am because you are. You are because I am.”)
The individual affects the community and the community affects the individual.
“A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and
when, in the whole community, the virtue of each one is living.” - Rudolf Steiner
Resources for learning about and understanding ourselves and others to help become integrated and foster harmonious relations:
The Enneagram https://www.enneagraminstitute.com
Myers Briggs https://www.myersbriggs.org
Kingdomality https://kingdomality.com and https://www.nd.gov/dhs/dvr/individual/modules/M7-Handout-Kingdomality-Types.pdf
Communication Protocols
Beginning with understanding the Gap (see above), and including the practices “Non-violent Communication” and “Dynamic Governance”, people learn to foster harmonious relations and effective decision-making.
The following are valuable communication tools and resources:
- Compassionate/Non-violent communication (NVC)
Resources:
- Compassionate/Non-violent Communication (NVC) - Overview
“When we hear the other person’s feelings and needs, we recognize our common humanity.” - Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD.
- Dynamic Governance/Sociocracy (based on sharing in the round, equivalence, and consent)
- Emphasize eliciting vs. asserting.
- Use “I” statements (i.e., I feel, I see, I perceive, I interpret, I believe, etc.)
- Honor valid interrupts (Not proceeding until each member is able to continue following the communication
thread.)
General Practices
We believe integration and synergy include:
Living in connection, balance, and harmony with all life, all our relations, including the natural world, through "right
relations" and "right livelihood".
The Hopi Elders' Prophecy of June 8, 2000, "We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For", communicated the following:
“You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered…
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.
...The time of the lonely wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
…All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
...We are the ones we’ve been waiting for."
- Examples of additional practices:
- An understanding of and connection to our “higher self”, the “Transcendental I”
- An awareness/experience of our Oneness/Interconnectedness
- Remembering we are love, and it is love that will set us free. Love unites. (Fear separates.)
- Meditation to center ourselves and practice present moment awareness.
- Individual and Collective “Presencing” which can inspire “awakened doing”.
Resources:
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth https://shop.eckharttolle.com/products/a-new-earth-awakening-to-your-lifes-purpose/
Collective Presencing https://www.collectivepresencing.org/collective-presencing-the-new-paradigm-3-of-4/
- Abiding in the Awakened and Loving Heart
Resources:
Brahma Viharas https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/articles/the-four-faces-of-love-the-brahma-viharas/
Heartmath https://www.heartmath.com/about/
Insight Seminars https://www.insightseminars.org
- Affirmations (Resource: https://www.louisehay.com/affirmations/) and Practicing Gratitude; (What we appreciate
appreciates.)
- Indigenous practices/Earth-centered spirituality (council process, medicine wheel, shamanic journeying, soul
retrieval, sweat lodge, etc.), honoring traditions and protocols.
- A primarily whole foods plant-based diet for the purpose of one’s health and well-being and the sustainability of the
environment.
- Holistic healing modalities
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Conclusion:
Problems are evolutionary drivers. With consciousness and conscious choice, we as a humanity could render obsolete the negative orientation of our institutions and society by being part of and investing in collaborative solutions that have enduring value.
"The Better World" (TBW) team envisions integrated individuals within synergistic communities in the form of Common Good Communities and Jeffersonian Ward Republics:
- providing and performing the functions of governance to and for one another; governance of, by, and for the people;
- deciding together what would be good and of value for the community; and
- issuing money (as the primary tool of the sovereign) to fund it.
As individuals, we receive the money we need to live as our right to the equitable distribution of the wealth we all create together. And we have a right to the capital our capacities warrant so that we may:
- pursue our transcendent purpose
- bring our service and contribution to expression
- make a meaningful difference in our communities and the world
- create the conditions in which we want to live; The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible; a free, peaceful, healthy, just, collaborative, sustainable/regenerative world where we all thrive in harmony.
This all requires a shift in consciousness, awareness, and understanding as well as the will to act in service to a high purpose and all that is possible in co-creating The Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible! The world is as we dream it! Let’s dream a better dream!
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“The dream is everything. The way we live is determined by the way we dream.” – Maria Quischpe, from John Perkins’ The World Is As You Dream It
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi
“Small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.”
- Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
“When you dream alone, it is only a dream. When you dream together, it is the beginning of reality.” - Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"We are here to be creators; We are here to infiltrate space with ideas and mansions of thought; We are here to make something of this life.” – Ramtha
“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said if we fail this time it will be a failure of imagination and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.” - Brian Andreas
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Invitation:
We invite you to:
a. Consciously choose the Better World We Know In Our Hearts Is Possible; A Butterfly Society; A Golden Civilization. The world is as we dream it!
b. Join us by:
1) Joining our team and attending meetings
2) Signing up for Common Good https://commongood.earth/, joining the Common Good community, and participating in Sociocratic meetings to decide together what would be good and what to fund
3) Inviting others
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