Letter Five
Dear Michael,
Michael, hearing how you see Western Engineering serving the common good is heartening.
What you and your team are achieving is a testimony to your vision and understanding of what is possible: for individuals, businesses, governments, and organisations of all types – for humanity in all its diversity.
When we last met, you again raised the concept of ‘sustainable design’.
What follows addresses that concept.
In making a case for sustainable design, I contrast what our conditioned mind tells us ‘works and matters’ (our state of impossibility) with what really works and really matters when influenced by Possibility.
WHAT REALLY WORKS AND REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE
We all hold beliefs, opinions, judgements and knowledge about what ‘works and matters’ in relationships, health, the environment, politics, sex, religion, business, the economy, work, family, and community.
Equally, we all have ideas on what ‘works and matters’ in sustaining and maintaining a good quality of life.
And who hasn’t conferred, debated and argued for what ‘works and matters’ to us, our family, friends, community, and even the rest of humankind?
And given the mess humanity appears to be in, three questions arise:
- Is there another reality a priori to all the ideas that inhabit our minds – before our culture, nationality, beliefs, scientific facts, knowledge or religious commandments from which to explore what will actually work and actually matter?
- If discovered and experienced, does seeing from that reality provide us with the fitness for creating ‘sustainable design’ and thus sustainable relationships – with all humanity and the natural world?
- In experiencing that reality, would it not also ensure that individual, corporate and government decisions serve the common good?
THREE MORE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Does a reality exist that considers itself?
Would seeing into that Realm of Possibility lead to wiser, more common-sense decisions in world parliaments – breakthroughs that would provide a kinder, more understanding approach to life and a fair go for all?
What if seeing Possibility ended all hostilities and created economic, environmental, community and humanitarian sustainability?
And consider what it might mean if we stopped being ‘right’ and making others ‘wrong’!
Also, reflect on what it would mean if enough of us accessed that deeper reality and discovered the universal remedy for healing, growing and sustaining our relationships with partners, family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, and the ever-increasing billions of us!
From that vantage point, ponder the miraculous possibilities if each of us was in service to healing our minds and bodies and were the wise custodians of the planet.
Michael, in seeing Possibility, what if we ended the struggle over whose way is correct and whose values are right?
Even with the complexity we’ve created, there remains a simple yet profound answer to what really works and what really matters for all humanity.
As you have experienced, this is not a simplistic pipe dream.
It is a single, sustainable answer to achieving ‘sustainable design’ that exists within our minds – yours, mine, and all of humanity’s.
What each of us thinks works will work when given birth and put into practice from that awake state of mind.
And what we think matters will matter if it, too, is given life from that same state of awareness.
Without being in that state, what we design ultimately ‘won’t work, won’t matter’, and never will.
When lacking self-awareness, what we believe will ‘work’ or ‘matter’ will fail sooner or later.
So, what might be the way forward in creating the human constructs we put in place to solve problems?
SOLVING THE SEEMINGLY UNSOLVABLE – AUSTRALIA’S SHAME
To paraphrase Robert Burns, we witness the failure of the ‘best-laid plans of mice and men’ as some of our finest intellects and most influential leaders do what they ‘think works and matters’ – but doing so without understanding what really works and really matters.
An example on our doorsteps is the dire state of thousands of First Nations people.
And why?
With sufficient capable people of all ethnicities holding good intentions around what they think ‘works and matters’ and billions of dollars deployed annually, the present state for many of our First Nations people is arguably as bad as ever.
The reason is that we see the problems and solutions through the distortions of our conditioning.
We must see beyond them to the single cause and solution to the problems facing First Nations people in each of the five problem-solving levels.
In achieving that, we simultaneously see humanity’s issues in its entirety. Both are identical.
THE FIVE LEVELS IN REDRESSING THE PROBLEMS FACING IMPOVERISHED FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE
Level one: Understanding the primary source of the problems – the existing state.
Level two: The individuals who plan the solutions – a part of the way forward.
Level three: Those given the job of implementing the plan – a part of the way forward.
Level four: Those responsible for the ongoing operation and maintenance of the plan’s outcome – a part of the way forward.
Level five: The recipients of the time, effort and money expended in achieving the outcome for them – the desired state.
A TIPPING POINT
Without reaching a ‘tipping point’ in the number of individuals influenced by Possibility at each of the five levels, the ground of being at each level is not sufficiently fertile to achieve sustainable outcomes.
Moving from the existing state to the desired state and sustaining the new level of functioning will only occur if a state of Possibility influences enough of those involved in each of the five stages – with no exception.
And it’s not that excellent individual contributions have not been made to the challenges facing so many First Nations People. Many have.
However, without a critical mass of those involved at each level, seeing and being influenced by Possibility, our alternative state of mind – impossibility – leads, at best, to the status quo prevailing.
At worst, and as history tells us, this is most likely:
- The initiators (level one) who identified the problem move on to the next issue.
- The design creators (level two), those given the task of solving the problem, give up and move on when they see their plan is not working.
- The implementors (level three), those putting the plan in place, may try another approach that fails for the same reason or leaves the project feeling burnt out.
- The operators (level four), those responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of the project, become discouraged and, like the implementors, feel burnt out and surrender to the dysfunction.
- The disillusioned recipients, those for whom creating the project was the whole purpose (level five), sink further into the abyss of hopelessness.
And the rest of us, looking on, bury our heads in the quicksand of our beliefs, opinions, judgments and knowledge and say: ‘There is no answer’; or ‘We need more money’; or today, ‘We need a Voice To Parliament’. And tomorrow, ‘a Treaty’.
More, better, or different makes no sustainable difference to a mind committed to living in a past of hurt. We who do are addicted to drinking from the chalice of grievance.
The efficacy per se of any program for any purpose is contingent upon the state of mind in which its need is: one – identified; two – the plan created; three – implemented; four – operated; and five – lived.
No matter our role in life, in one state of mind, Influenced by Possibility, we do what really works and really matters.
And in a state of impossibility, ‘nothing works, or what we do, matters little’.
And, Michael, as you have discovered, the quality of every outcome – win, lose or draw – is determined by how we play the game of Life and living: influenced by either Possibility or impossibility.
SOLVING THE IMAGINED UNSOLVABLE – HUMANITY’S GLOBAL SHAME
Whether we realise it or not, each of us is a leader.
What sort of leader depends on our state of mind – as said ad nauseam, one of Possibility or impossibility.
A global illustration of this truism is the war in Ukraine.
Putin and the Russians do what they think ‘works and matters’.
Putin nor sufficient numbers of Russians are in a state of mind that experiences what really works and really matters.
Nor is Zelensky or sufficient numbers of Ukrainians experiencing what really works and really matters.
Putin can’t see that his mission is doomed to be a monumental human catastrophe that will metastasise, costing hundreds of thousands or millions of lives as it runs its inevitable, destructive course.
Nor can Zelensky.
Those who saw the obvious at the outset are following the predictable events unfolding, knowing that death and destruction will continue until someone or something prevails, bringing this monumental human state of impossibility-created tragedy to a close.
Maybe World War Three?
Likewise, the never-ending problems in other parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are tragic examples of unsustainable design!
The state of chaos in the United States is another.
‘Sustainable design’, in every nook and cranny of human endeavour, comes from the convergence of ‘doing what works with doing what matters’ in a specific state of mind, the home of Possibility and the ground of being for doing what really works and really matters.
That state of mind – the core nature of you and me, pointed to throughout the ages by every saint, sage and mystic – is a state of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense.
Each of these innate human qualities, at the ‘core’ of each of us, is essential for arriving at equity, practicality and, thus, sustainability.
WHAT IF?
What might happen if our parliamentary representatives governed our country from a state of Possibility?
What if they listened to each other from that same state?
What enlightened legislation would they create?
Would we need parties, factions or an opposition?
Would we need to be led at all?
What might our relationships be if we cherished that state of mind?
How might our children grow up?
Might the relationship between employer and employee transform when unconditional goodwill (kindness), respect (understanding), insight (wisdom) and rational thinking (common sense) are the foundation for creating and building the organisation with the common good foremost in mind?
Would Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Agnostics or Atheists still have reason and energy for disagreement?
Would the need for religion still exist when true friendship (love), appreciation (understanding), perceptiveness (wisdom) and soundness (common sense) become the shared meeting ground for humanity?
Would certain corporations continue to disadvantage employees, communities, and the environment when benevolence (kindness), compassion (understanding), prudence (wisdom) and good judgment (common sense) guide their deliberations, decisions and actions?
Would ideologies such as capitalism, socialism, communism or any other ‘ism’ still exist?
Would not all of us work with the common good in mind?
Would the many tribes of the world transform their relationships into reciprocal respect (love and understanding) and creative hand-in-hand solutions (wisdom and common sense) and be embraced by all?
Would tribes continue to exist?
Would we insist others do what ‘we think works and what we believe matters’?
Or would we cherish and foster what is inherent in each of us – clarity of mind (understanding, wisdom and common sense) within the context of a beautiful feeling (kindness) and ultimately within a state of what really works and really matters?
Might we finally wake up to that deeper reality where we realise that the end sought never justifies the means used, but instead, see that the means used is always the end realised?
When experiencing the enormity and power of the love and wisdom within us, the answer is clear: our decisions are made not from ideology, creed, or dogma but from The Realm of Possibility.
IS THIS A PIPEDREAM?
When in a state of kindness, understanding, wisdom and common sense – The Realm of Possibility – life looks, feels, and is different from when ruled by concretised beliefs, opinions, judgements and knowledge.
Our contributions to others and the planet, however miniscule, do work and do matter.
Our moment-to-moment challenge (and the challenge for anyone that this makes sense to) is to commit to that state of being.
As perfectly flawed human beings, we don’t always maintain that state. However, we sustain an unwavering commitment once we see deeply enough into The Realm of Possibility.
Noticing the feeling of kindness missing from our hearts, we look to return to that natural state with a sense of purpose that surpasses all others.
It’s that simple; it’s that profound.
Our primary job is to create, relate, live, work and play influenced by that state of mind – The Realm of Possibility.
What flows from that state is ‘sustainable design’ in every aspect of human endeavour.
Warmly … John