Rev. Alia Zara Aurami-Sou, Ph.D.
Head Minister, “Amplifying Divine Light in All” Church
As usual, the purpose of this blog entry is to stimulate conversation and provoke thought, not to present what I believe to be correct.
Could there be a “DNA” for human culture which can “express”
itself from “beast to Buddha” stages of human evolution? If so, can we “map”
that DNA and can we encourage its most beneficent expressions? Let's explore this possibility:
“The Master Code”
Take care of
yourself.
Take care of each
other.
Take care of this
place.
Sounds too simple to be profound or widely useful. But like
the simple components of DNA, it can express in a surprising complexity of
human evolution.
There are roots of this Master Code which go to the most
primary and primitive levels of our individual psyche and culture, and there
are leaves which reach higher than almost anyone has evolved to yet.
STAGE ONE
We might say that even on levels we share with
many other living creatures “Take care of yourself” expressed itself in
humanity’s most primitive beginnings as the simple carrying out of life-sustaining
functions: eat, sleep, eliminate, seek adequate warmth or coolness. This is a
stage in which the first tenet of the Master Code might be said to take
precedence over the others, but there really is are strongly expressed and
nearly automatic and universal behaviors in which individuals act for the
welfare of others and their group.
“Take care of each other” expresses itself even in bands of
our evolutionary neighbors, the great apes, as mutual grooming, mutual
protection, care of the young, even playfulness.
“Take care of this place” expresses itself as not fouling
one’s nest, and moving around to find food, and to some extent, keeping one’s
immediate habitat conducive to life: creating sleeping nests, etc.
The healthy expression of this DNA carried forward into more
mature stages of human culture might include healthy families, healthy forms of
physical touching and affection, mutual protection, care of the young,
playfulness, and being in ecological balance with one’s “place,” keeping it
conducive to human life and all life.
STAGE TWO
As life conditions catalyzed a growth in consciousness,
“Take care of yourself” might have expressed itself primarily in terms of “Take
care of each other” in tribal life for much of humanity. There isn’t much sense
of a “self” as distinct from one’s role in the tribe. “Each other” included
family and tribe.
“This place” is “the land on which our tribe lives,” (at the
moment, if nomadic) and that “place” was taken care of as the source of
“spirits” who were either conducive or inimical to survival of each other and
oneself. This often did include human and animal sacrifices to “the gods” so
that some elements of the Master Code were, from our point of view, working
against each other.
The healthy expression of this DNA carried forward into more
mature stages of human culture might include taking care of self through a
sense of belonging, and the beginnings of a life relating to something natural
yet immaterial. “Taking care of each other” might express itself through contribution
to the life of “one’s people,” as well as awareness of roles and natural
division of labor.
“Taking care of this place” might evolve from honoring and
placating the nature spirits via irrelevant and superstitious means such as
sacrifices, to a real sensing into the life-energy of the land and its features,
a sense of kinship with all of that.
STAGE THREE
At a more mature stage of humanity’s evolution when life
conditions have promoted a more expanded awareness, there is very much of a
sense of a ‘self” to focus care on. “Take care of yourself” might take on an
additional flavor of “and don’t worry too much about the other person,” so we
get feudal societies and “might makes right.” Then, “Take care of each other”
included “others” who were either subjugated, or loyal, or one’s rulers.
“Place” was a sometimes quite territory to be defended or conquered and
acquired. “Care” for it was often to work it for supporting the life of oneself
and one’s neighbors and circle of loyalty or rule, and if necessary to destroy
the ability of enemy land to support enemy life.
This too is a stage in which the first tenet of the Master
Code might be said to take precedence over the others.
The healthy expression of this DNA carried forward into
later stages of human evolution include a new sense of ‘self’ as more
autonomous than merely a cog in a tribal system, and a new sense of
self-assertiveness available for ‘taking care of’ that self.
The “others” to
take care of became a circle far larger than one’s immediate tribe or village,
and “take care of this place” carried forward in a healthy way might express
itself as more knowledge of what it takes for a place to support a people, a
more cognitive-based approach to “taking care of place” – even the beginnings
of caring about the esthetics of one’s “place.”
STAGE FOUR
In a stage of consciousness available to humanity centered
around a guiding touchstone for individual and cultural life as something
“beyond” humanity itself, something which sets all the rules and guidelines for
us, “take care of oneself” becomes a way of serving that greater Something, and
“take care of each other” expands to include a circle of all those who serve
that same Something and lived by the same rules and guidelines.
“Take care of
this place” could be expanded to taking care of “holy places,” and even honoring
and caring for “this place” as a Creation of that Something, and thus as “representing”
It. “This place” was much larger than for previous stages.
The very words “The Master Code” carry the flavor of this
stage of consciousness, in which rules and codes of conduct are important.
STAGE FIVE
In a stage of consciousness available to humanity in its
evolution, in which production, trade, material well-being, rationality,
science, and “human rights” become the most important aspects of individual and
cultural life, “take care of oneself” can express itself in a healthy way by
discovering one’s pleasures and one’s talents and engaging with others via
those in a way which is of mutual benefit.
“Take care of others” can be
expressed by a circle of care which increasingly includes more and more kinds
of humans for whom one wants the same benefits and quality of life one enjoys,
and caring about opportunities and freedom for others to take care of
themselves as they would like to.
“This place” becomes for most people in this scope of
consciousness, very large indeed, even larger than a nation. “Take care of this
place” can be expressed in extremely unhealthy ways, as we are all too well
aware. However, it can also be expressed in healthy ways, retained going forward
in evolution, by increasingly understanding scientifically what it takes for
“place” and “people” to be in mutually beneficial relationship.
This too is a stage in which the first tenet of the Master
Code might be said to take precedence over the others. However, at this point
it also can become increasingly clear that the three tenets of the Master Code:
Take care of yourself. Take care of others. Take care of this place – are
hardly separate, and not necessarily inimical to one another. They can seem to
be in conflict, but at root, they can be dimly sensed to amount to the same
injunction.
STAGE SIX
In another stage of the evolution of humanity’s individual
and cultural consciousness, that consciousness focuses on inter-relationships
and group processes, on a wider circle of empathy, caring, and equality, and on
feelings and emotions rather than just cognition, science, and rationality.
There can be a taking care of “self” in which that “self” is understood to have
many facets, so that “caring” for it is far more complex and requires far more
attention and understanding than ever realized before. Part of the complexity
is that “self” is relational in a new way , so taking care of self is inseparable from, and
sometimes subordinate to, taking care of others -- but not in the undifferentiated way of Stage Two.
There can be a “taking care of others” which is also far
more complex, multi-faceted, broad, and deep, than ever dreamed of before. And
“taking care of this place” also builds on both understanding and increased
empathy for all living things, becoming a strong focus for many people who
approach the expression of that caring in diverse ways. “This place” is
generally understood to include every “place” from my own home, through my
town, and expanding to include the entire planet.
STAGE SEVEN
In a human consciousness whose scope of understanding
includes a “zoomed-out” view of humanity’s history and place in the scheme of
things, and whose scope of concern includes all of that, “take care of
yourself” can include a deeper sense of wider “service” to a “system” of ever-developing
inter-connections, so that caring for oneself includes providing oneself with
the joy of that service.
“Take care of each other” takes on a new depth, as that of a
parent who can no longer restrict “other” to only those who are similar, but must
foster the well-being of dissimilar others throughout their growth and
maturational processes. And “take care of this place” is simply part and parcel
of taking care of oneself and others, as they are all parts of an extremely
fragile system of inter-dependence. It’s all related and connected both in
linear and non-linear ways.
Paradoxes and potential conflicts among the three tenets are
apparent, but resolved.
There are some expressions of this DNA of human culture
which can evolve even further than those just described, and I will briefly
outline them.
STAGE EIGHT
For people living with this worldview, their life, others,
and the whole planet are a living, dynamic, evolving expression of a Whole
which is conscious and we might say ‘alive.’ “Self” and its care, “others” and
their care, “place” and its care, are simply facets of that Whole, and caring
attention and actions to one or another of those facets is inextricably
attention to the Whole – not just long-term and via ordinary-world methods of
interaction, but instantaneously throughout the Whole as a dynamic field of
energy/information.
“Place” here is much larger than our planet, it is the whole
of the Kosmos, all of what exists.
These three are not just seen and regarded as connected and
related, but are sensed/felt/perceived as a Whole.
STAGE NINE
At an even more mature worldview available to humanity, even
the distinctions of “Whole” and self, other, and place, are absorbed into the
simple living of a human life, so that abiding by the Master Code is automatic,
and requires no particular attention.
Thus, beginning at this stage, the Master Code becomes
regarded as three re-statements of the same idea, because “me,” “you/them,” and
“this place” are the same identity,
not just a Whole. It’s the same
identity albeit manifested in various physical objects including my own
embodiment and groups I belong to, and other embodiments such as land, trees,
etc. All “me” and yet distinct, with distinctly different natures and
requirements for well-being and thriving.
STAGE TEN
Perhaps this can evolve further into The Master Code as not
an object of awareness or any kind of guide, but a simple aspect of simply
universal Being and Becoming as they arise. All the words in all three
statements could be reduced to “Be and Become” -- universals and particulars and
everything in between. Of course at this stage all statements could be reduced to the same two words. All the universality
and particularity one is aware of in Stage Nine, are still in play, but usually
in the background of awareness.
Self, other, place, existence, non-existence, are
expressions of Being and Becoming as the essence of Everything/Nothing.
SUMMARY
Each of these possible expressions in human individual and
cultural life of the DNA of the Master Code transcends and includes one
another, in the developmental sequence described above.
Even knowing such a sequence is possible, can stimulate our
seeking of a healthier expression of anything we recognize as ourselves as this
time. And that is the best and only basis for healthy growth. And those are the
purposes of this blog.
The Master Code is not just to be admired as sentiments, but
to be used to influence how we show up in the world. As Anna
Betz says, it “requires as well as gives rise to and helps to grow new
practices and institutions.
Among those useful practices might be a daily beginning-of-the-day
meditation on the three statements, as articulated by George
Por:
Since I first heard it from Marilyn, it kept working on me and inspired me to make it a navigational device of my life.
Of course, the three principles are something that most of us honor anyway, but naming them, and naming them as the Master Code of our evolutionary intelligence, gives access to a new depth of relating to them.
To me the Code became a meditation object; I enjoy holding it in my consciousness, at least once a day, as a question: how do I live into it today, what is that each of the three principles asking from me to do and be, today?
Living into the Code starts with not seeking answers to those questions with my left brain, my planning and scheming mind, but gently yet passionately holding and contemplating them till clear answers emerge from my soul's direction. That is also the beginning of taking care of myself, for the day.
Then that solo practice begets a new question: with whom can I share it so that the practice can get deeper and stronger by it? That's why I ended my blog, by saying: "It is that simple, the DNA of the next stage of our evolution, based on just three principles, nothing else. I started practicing them. Do you want to join me?"
Asking that question is part of my contribution to taking care of each other. Then comes my connecting with the nested hierarchy of "these places" of commoning, the instances of the "we" from us to all of us, from my home to the town I live to our beloved planet. What is my desire calling me to do for each instance, today?
I've just realized that my sharing all this may inspire you and others to share the experience of living into the Master Code, out from which even a new community of practice may emerge, who knows.
[1] The
origins of this Code are uncertain. George Por’s
research says he found Meg Wheatley mentioning it in her beautiful essay on The Promise and Paradox of Community, which then on the
research trail led to the students of the Olympic
Heights School in
Calgary. (Maybe it was the
New Zealand exchange teacher, Campbell Till, who brought it to Canada, but it's
the Canadian students who gave life to it.)
Marilyn Hamilton, a visionary activist of our emerging
Planet of Cities, elevated those guidelines to be the Master Code for our “Evolutionary
Intelligence” to foster more conscious, healthier cities, in her 2008 book Integral
City and explored further in the Integral
City 2.0 Conference.
[2]
This Spectrum is based on the Spiral Dynamics
work of Clare Graves as elaborated by
Don Beck and Christopher Cowan. The unnamed stages are: One:Beige, Two:Purple,
Three:Red, Four:Blue, Five:Orange, Six:Green, Seven:Yellow, Eight:Turquoise, Nine:Coral,
and Ten:Teal. I have used only my own interpretation of the characteristics of
these stages, which sometimes differs from or goes far beyond, the “official”
descriptions.
by Rev. Alia Aurami, Ph.D., Head Minister, Amplifying Divine Light in All Church
"Amplifying Divine Light in All" is a completely independent church fostering empowerment of people to co-create loving, thriving God-realized lives, and wellbeing for everyone, on a clean, peaceful Earth.
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