How the Laughing Heart provides the tools, methods and context for advancing the six memes in the first tier toward the second Integral tier.
(q.v. “Spiral Dynamics” http://www.spiraldynamics.com/book/SDreview_Dinan.htm)
It seems that to consciously and actively participate in the evolutionary spiral, we’d want to advance each meme to its highest development and to assist it in transitioning to the next meme. (Meme = cultural matrix that has distinctive values, belief systems, ways of behaving that have evolved out of each other in an attempt to solve evolutionary problems. Each meme partially solves problems from the previous meme while generating new and different problems that in turn give birth to the next cultural matrix (meme).
While we need to honor and work with the evolutionary cycle/spiral, it is equally important to realize that we can interface with all memes in any given instant through accessing the still point that exists at the center of all this turning and spiraling that is always accessible… (“God exists at the still point at the center of our turning.”)
The Laughing Heart provides a system for aiding each meme to access that still point, while simultaneously offering a communication technology to support each meme in solving the challenges each faces and that all memes face collectively (war, disease, environmental degradation, injustice, etc). By participating in this process, each meme can evolve to its zenith and then on to the next meme and eventually to the next tier.
A big part of that process is to mitigate the toxic side/effects of the red meme to the degree it asserts itself harmfully in each of the other memes. We must necessarily examine what it would take to “assist” each meme to move along more efficiently so as to mitigate the harm that the shadow side of red in each meme is causing and to empower all memes to address and transition through the inevitable breakdown of the last evolutionary stage which has been dominated by and characterized by a commitment to duality.
One of challenges is to learn how to be with and navigate the generative side of the red meme while establishing ways for the shadow side to dissipate, thus reducing the wear and tear on our culture…in all four quadrants). By doing this we can also help to evolve the system to higher degrees of fulfilling the evolutionary imperative…liberating more and more creativity in dynamic balance with greater harmony.
We need to work the constants of eternality/infinity and the motionality of existence at the same time (or at least alternately) This is a dance that we must master…and quickly…if we are to make the inevitable difficult transition from a domination to a cooperative paradigm with as much grace and as little unnecessary pain and suffering as possible. Compassion, which should be stoked in every meme (and which comes from that still point) demands it, justice demands it, health and well being demand it, our freedom and our unity demand it.
That being said, the Laughing Heart system provides a blueprint for building the infrastructure of the emerging stage of evolution which, by its very nature and principles resonates with both the fundamental patterns of reality and the urge to ‘progress’.
If you’re reading this and can relate to it you are clearly one of those choosing ones who have heard the call to the Second Tier and are eager to make your (not insignificant) contribution.
The Laughing Heart provides the context for the meeting of the memes in ways that dissipate the tensions within them, between them and that can support individuals of all ages to relax their resistance to the evolutionary pull…whatever is the next inevitable condition that evolution is inviting them to engage with, transform and grow from. As these resistances are diminished, it is then possible to “install” a more progressive orientation that can help each meme evolve from where it is.
At The Laughing Heart we determine what helpful influences, knowledge, activities and practices will all the memes respond to while diffusing the natural resistance of the “dualistic mind” to perpetuate separation as a replacement for the unifying ground of being.
The Laughing Heart, through the use of theater, art, comedy and interactive processes, holds up a mirror to personal and collective awareness, so that toxic attitudes and behaviors, otherwise leaching into the whole system, can be recognized. Once recognized, it becomes possible to reveal creative choices and possibilities that are far more life enhancing.
In other words, “In order to get to where we’re going we have to start from where we are.” But if we don’t actually know where we are, and even more importantly, are out of touch with where we are…and where others are… no matter what meme we’re operating out of, or what combination of memes—which is more often the case—then it is almost impossible to recognize the creative alternative that can advance our status (move individuals and institutions to become more coherent…more aligned with the positive directionality of evolution. And the use of art, laughter and interactive processes enables us to accomplish this with the least amount of defensiveness and damage.
Tool one: Artful humor. All meme’s have the capacity for laughter…admittedly some more than others. Since the ego needs to defend and perpetuate its existence, it can take itself (and its position) very seriously (false pride). This, as is so obvious, is the stimulus for so much interpersonal and inter-group conflict that leads to wars obsessive focus on competition and just generally not getting along. In turn, many of our dreams and efforts to make life more livable and meaningful are sabotaged.
Our ability to laugh at ourselves and our perspective, is inversely proportional to the ego investment we have in our perspective and the degree to which our identity is tied up with our need to be right.
This is why the use of laughter, especially, helping people to release the attachment they may have to recalcitrant perspectives is so important to the process and why “The Laughing Heart” is about getting the heart laughing. A laughing heart is an open, flexible and vital heart, as opposed to a hardened heart where the doors of compassion are closed and the capacity to hold someone else’s interests as our own is abrogated [Love your neighbor as yourself].
Think on’t!
Next blogs…continuing how “The Laughing Heart” its principles and practices can facilitate individual and collective healing and growth.
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Errol Strider
(415) 459-4512
http://striderinnertainment.com
estrider@gmail.com