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Acceptance and Free WillFrom: singing ocean
Subject: Practice
Date/Time 2009-08-14 03:48:21
Remote IP: 207.6.205.203
MessageSome reflections...
An alternate title could be "unity and individuation".
Acceptance is a reflection of our primordial nature...it has no judgments about life, the five shen are what assign the meaning. Acceptance is the unity of the whole, the five shen are the collective individuating out (to even have a collective implies that there must be parts within it that are individuated).
It has been helpful for me in the past, when happening to run across someone who really has serious issues (throwing contracted patterns onto you that run like a repeating tape loop), to remember that they are also part of the whole and must be accepted as a member of humanity.
Acceptance is the key. This is not to say though that we must only accept and not act. Everyone has their own free will so to impose one's will over others is violating their free will which is what I think the author meant by criticism of others. This is the dilemma...while accepting, how we act expresses our own free will, which may not be the will of others. This is the tension and the great life-giving opportunity for change between the one and the many.
Being a teacher, this issue has come up many times for me...when one person is preventing the group from being successful, how do you deal with it? Each person has the free will to do whatever they want, but when there is a group intention (meaning that each person presumably made a choice to be in the group), the dissenting voice is subject to the wills of all the others in the group. The leader of the group must act as a mediator, and from experience, it is very helpful to use the terminology "WE think/should do this..." instead of "I think YOU should do...". The phrase "I think YOU should..." does create a separation, whereas "WE should do..." is inclusive. Of course if the group does not agree, someone will likely speak out if they feel strongly enough about it. It is also helpful to have boundaries...if this boundary is crossed blah will happen, then there is no spiteful action by the mediator, just agreed upon rules. Also helpful is the idea that when a boundary is crossed, the person transgressing the boundary is given a chance to say if they have a valid reason or not for doing so.
In an ideal situation, there would be no rules, only a strong enough group intention that all dissension would be seen as creative tension to allow for transformation. Often, the will and intention of the group to achieve whatever goal is set is not strong enough (in an educational setting), and is also subject to issues such as time and efficiency which come back in a circle to the mediator having to remind the group of the original intention.
Acceptance is the unity of the whole. The five shen are the individuated expression of that:
Integration/Ideation(creation of intention)/Trust
Will/Wisdom/Certainty
Wuwei(alignment with change)/Spirit(impulse activating potential)/Propriety
Justice/Balance/Physical self-worth(expression of the body: shen-qi-jing)
Benevolence/Discernment/Transformation(evolution of the spirit: jing-qi-shen)
It is important to remember though that the heart (that reflects our primordial nature to the other jingshen by its alignment with the process of change) holds an exalted position among the five, which gives us the importance that acceptance has in relation to the other jingshen, but it cannot dominate them...all must have their own voice as part of the whole.
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