Oh man...I love it when Paul weighs in with PURPOSE. That's great stuff. For me, living in open space is about notincing the spots in everyday life where space is opening, like Tenneson says, and opening them a little more. I'm using a lot of "What if" questions these days to do that.
But I do think alot about this question, and my weblog is called "Parking Lot: Living in open space." I'd invite you to join me there sometime at http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot. For me it's an ongoing dialogue with what's real and emerging, seeing what needs to be born, issuing and responding to invitation and doing what needs taking care of. It's about passion bounded by responsibility and being where you are learning or contirbuting. I guess I see Harrison's book as a bit of an owner's manual to a good and rich life. And a good way to run a meeting. Chris On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:18:12 EST, everett...@aol.com <everett...@aol.com> wrote: > > In a message dated 1/20/05 2:03:11 PM, mccaffe...@inwind.it writes: > > > > To say it another way. Lots of time and mental effort has been spent on > wondering "What's the meaning of life?" as if 'life' was a thing capable of > holding meaning on its own. Well, 'existence' is a fact, whereas 'life' is > in my opinion a construct or process and so the 'meaning' or 'purpose' or > 'content' is really dependent on what the individual decides. > > By itself, life is neutral. We are born, we live, and when it's over, it's > over. What happens after that I don't know, ... and I don't have to know to > give my life meaning. I can just decide the meaning of my life. > > > Lex: > > These two paragraphs provoked a bit of 'interior discussion' that I thought > I might share with you and any others on the List who might have an interest > in somewhat esoteric philosophy. I (and Joelle) were fortunate enough to > have had a great teacher from South Africa, a white mining engineer turned > transformative-thinker (best I can say it). He taught a philosophy of life > as well as many other issues around making our lives (working, family, > personal) more whole, more human, more complete. He said that a human being > was an organism, not a stimulus-response mechanism as contended by some > folks at the time (BF Skinner). He also taught that logic is only > applicable to a very small slice of life, that intuition and wholeness > applied to the most of life. As part of that, some of us developed, with > him, the following, which may help in sorting out the above paragraphs: > > What is PURPOSE? > > Purpose is Meaning, Made Important, All Depending On You. > > What is Meaning? Meaning is Difference. The Difference some person or > some physical thing makes in any given situation by being there, being > present. Thus, we can intuit the meaning by noticing the difference. Our > teacher felt that if he had created anything unique in his life, it was this > single understanding, that Meaning is Difference. > > Made Important? How do you make something or someone important? By > focusing your attention on it or them. Hence, by focusing, (being a fully > aware, fully alive, fully functioning human being in the moment) you make > the moment important. It contains your most valuable asset, your life's > time. And thus, you make the person or persons important in your eyes (the > window to the Soul). > > All Depending On You? That is the inner feeling that the needed outcome of > the action or of the moment is all depending on you and you will be in such > a state as to be wholly focused on the requirements of the situation in > which you find yourself. Now, sometimes the situation is so overwhelming > that you are simply unable to cope, no matter how centered or focused. > Natural disasters such as the tsunami's or earthquakes are examples. > Man-made disasters such as war's are another. However, by being in that > state of personal responsibility for the outcome, you have a very much > better probablility of meeting the needs of the situation, and doing so > brilliantly, with 'savior faire' (I hope I got the French right). > > Therefore, we came to the understanding that a human being longs to be a > meaning-maker. One who can say 'I have made a difference'. And, thus, > organizations that strive to help that to happen will be uncommonly > successful because they will have created the needed "open space" for people > to make meaning by making a difference. Which is what I find so powerful > about Open Space, it provides the alchemist kettle, the area of bounded > instability, in which people are turned on by making meaning in the space > provided. > > That's what I think tonight. I sure am enjoying this thread. Thank you, > Doug, for the evocative question. > > Warmly, > > Paul Everett * * ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, > unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about > OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist -- ------------------------- CHRIS CORRIGAN Consultation - Facilitation Open Space Technology Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist