Replying to LO26927 --
Dear Organlearners,
Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl> writes:
>Maybe I should have changed again the title of the
>subjectheader. But I am afraid that than the slowly
>growing thread of this subject becoms broken. With
>your permissions, I like to switch slightly from the
>believe in Paradise to
>
>UNCONDITIONAL LOVE - AGAPE
Greetings dear Leo,
I think that "unconditional love" and "paradise" have much to do with each
other so that we can keep on using the same topic.
The word "paradise" is derived from the Greek word "paradeisos". It is a
word which, for example, Jesus used on the cross (Luk 23:43). But it is
only used on two other occasions in the New Testament -- by Paul in 2Col
12:4 and John in Rev 2:7. On the other hand, the word "ouranos"=heaven is
used several hundred times in the NT. So is paradise and heaven the same
thing?
The Greek word "paradeisos"=park. Its etymology is uncertain. Perhaps it
is "para-"=beyond and "deisos"=needs. In that case paradise will be the
place where all our needs can be left behind and our desires be fulfilled.
Is paradise not then a mental escape from the world in which we live in? I
do not think so.
When I leave Pretoria to live for a while in some desert, I definitely
escape "civilisation", but not the world. I seek a deeper relation with
nature through the 7Es like wholenes and openness. Yet the desert is
nobody's mate. The less a person takes the 7Es into consideration, the
easier it becomes to perish in the desert. For example, hundreds of
castaways from shripwrecks have died on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia --
hence its name. Yet the San (Bushmen) and Xhoi (Hottentot) peoples were
able to live on the Skeleton Coast if necessary. They could adapt
themselves to the Skeleton coast whereas the castaways could not.
Ever so often I developed this deep desire to escape "civilisation". It is
for me as if "civilisation" does not "heed its rules" like the deserts do.
These "rules" or "patterns" are for me nothing else than the 7Es. For
example, consider "wholeness" as a "rule". Trying to increase in wholeness
in a society which breaks wholeness around every corner is most tiring, if
not worse.
I would dare to describe the Direction to Paradise. It is the endless
increase in each of the 7Es.
Leo, as for unconditional love, you write:
>Until recently I had a good feeling with this subject.
>A feeling of understanding. But since the dialogue on
>the Paradise there was a slight uncertainty in the
>backyards of my mind. This uncertainty was triggered
>last weekend by a paper that my youngest son wrote
>for is university study in sociology. That paper described
>the drama/catastrophe of Jonestown (Guyana) where
>more than 100 adults and children were killed by suicide -
>the followed the advise of their leader. That happened
>november 1978.
(snip)
>The question is: 'does unconditional love sometimes leads
to a catastroph, a Hell?'
Yes, this collective suicide has happened hundreds of times all over the
world through many millennia. But I do not think it happened because the
followers loved their leader unconditionally. I think that these tragedies
happened because these pitiable followers allowed themselves to become
fooled by their leaders.
How will we ever know that our leaders are fooling us? Almost every day I
get bombarded by the belief that the practice of a democracy is our best
assurance against leaders fooling us. I do not belief it any more. I have
my reasons for believing in something better. But I also observe that many
others also do not believe it. They each have their own reasons. Whatever
the case, democratic or something else with its own reasons, it is leaders
turning people away from the Direction to Paradise to their own "paradise"
which eventually becomes Hell for many followers as well as all the
castouts.
I myself use my understanding of the 7Es to discern where any leader or
management team is taking the followers. For example, a leader walking a
path of decreasing wholeness is not leading the followers in the Direction
to Paradise. Should the Souh African electorate in 1948 decided against
"decreasing wholeness", the ideology of apartheid="broken wholeness" would
never have become official.
>Is there not a serious danger in *unconditional love*?
>Should there not be some conditions added to the
>*unconditional love*?
The adjective "unconditional" brings love onder the scope of logic because
of the prefix "un-". This makes the description "unconditional love"
tautologous. For example, adding no conditions to love is in itself adding
a condition to love. Even worse, this adjective reduces all the qualities
of the "character of love" into the quality true. Thus by losing its
character, "unconditional love" becomes easily deformed into something
causing tragic destructions.
Can we use any adjective effectively to describe love-agape closely. I do
not think so because in languages in English, Dutch and Afrikaans there is
the tendency to reduce the noun to its attribute. I do not think this is
the way in which these languages operate, but rather that it is a way in
which they have become misused to serve the Mental Model of reductionism.
>All these questions remind me too on a
>discussion on this list long ago. That dialogue
>was about *faith*. I hope that you, dear readers
>and learners, could refresh and refill my thoughts
>on these topics. Topics that are very close to
>'paradisic dreams'.
Leo, I myself are acutely aware that the once tacit harmony in most humans
between creativity, knowledge, faith and love has become immensely
disturbed. In other words, the "ecology of the spirit" has become
disrupted, in some countries less and in other countries more. More Hell
is made around every corner by decreasing some of the 7Es rather that
following the Direction to Paradise. Metanoia have become something of the
past. This morning I had been to a funeral in which the sermon was exactly
the following. As hell is increasing in our beloved country, death seems
to be the only certainty. Is God, love, paradise, faith and knowledge
still certainties for Christians?
I firmly believe that the LO is the best way to restore this "ecology of
the spirit". Senge described in the Appendix to the Fifth Discipline the
11 essences of a LO. Many moons ago I showed how these 11 essences of a LO
correspond to the 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity). A LO provides
the nourishing environment for constructive creativity. It does so for
both its "members" on its inside and its "associates" on its outside. For
us to retain each on our own this "ecology of the spirit" is fast becoming
an impossible task.
By writing that I firmly believe the LO is the best way to restore this
"ecology of the spirit", I am placing myself in a contencious position
with my own past. I have grown up in the apartheid society. Its leaders on
all walks of life claimed that apartheid was the ultimate outcome of
organising a country in Africa according to Christian and Western
principles. While others fought for or against apartheid, both using
"christian western principles" to rectify their struggle, I rather tried
to find out from both sides what these "christian western principles" are.
To my own dismay, I discovered that in the far majority of cases this
"christian western principles" was nothing else than a catch word to get
people under the influence of some or other organisation and ultimately
its leaders. These leaders wanted slaves serving their own whims which
they disguised as "christian western principles". Those who did try to
question these "christian western principles" as well as articulate their
own understanding, were quickly ostracised.
Since I have learned to read the New Testament in its original Greek, I
have discovered many instances how these "christian western principles"
were used to read messages into the Greek which were not there! I have
spent much time on all the viewpoints how the Bible has to be interpreted
and also how it has to be translated into another language. But without
wanting to, I have also discovered that despite these viewpoints,
believers tend to avoid entropic forces (clearly depicted in the Greek) by
their own interpretations and translations.
Now entropic forces together with their complementary entropic fluxes are
necessary to produce entropy while entropy production is necessary to
change organisation. Avoiding such entropic forces in interpretations and
translations made me wonder -- are we serious about organisational changes
and do we have the guts ("free energy") for such changes?
The fact that others could so easily mistake the messages of the Bible has
made me very wary that I can also do the same. By not speaking out I
condone and perpetuate such mistakes. But by speaking out I may easily
judge rather than be leaded by love. This is why I often stress --
question my thoughts endlessly rather than following them like a sleep
walker. Personal Mastery has to be complemented by Team Learning so as to
acheive authentic learning.
Leo, I admire your brave questioning of love, faith, paradise, etc. which
most other people nowadays avoid. Likewise I admire every other brave
fellow learner questioning these things important to the "ecology of the
spirit". It is not easy to do so because it is like the claim in
Anderson's story "The king [leader] has no clothes on". By questioning we
create and fit clothes which will protect us from a spiritual environment
which is becoming increasingly hostile.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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