I am reading the prologue of Michael Wombachers book:

11 Days At The Edge

The first chapter of this 500 p work is freely downloadable.

And it impresses me very much. Especially the passages about a silent retreat  with Andrew Cohen in Spain.

I did myself silent retreats within another teaching. And the conditions, Michael descibes here. are profoundly challenging . To act then, afterwards, in the circumstance of daily life, to integrate it and engage in the evolutiionary impulse to create and shape future and presence is the real social signifcance.

No speaking, only during teaching to Andrew, eating separately, and making no eye contact for full 11 days.

In fact, making no eye contact is absolutely demanding. As Sarte once said....Ego begins when perceived and perceiving another with the eye.

While direct eye contact has value in other contexts, to break the spell of referencing constantly to another is one of the most demanding exerises. With the potential to drive one crazy.

And on the other side of this void to enter the absolute.  The freedom.

Have ordered the book and will write about my complete reading experience later.
I am curioud too about Appendix 5 which adresses:

On beeing German - Reflections on Facing Everything and Avoiding Nothing

Michael grew up in Germany the first 10 years and now lives in US. So these reflections have certainly their own value...

 

This is a Blog Entry from Steve McIntosh. author of the book "Integral Consciousness". Its from March but it adds to what the 10 international pundits were saying in my previous post. Published at Newsweek. It adds the subversive integral approach. it adds a minimum of perspectives which are necessary for shifts of all kinds...
 
Integral Advice for the Next President

Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:50 PM



On Friday, What Is Enlightenment? Magazine is interviewing me on the topic of "integral advice for the next president." So now that I've had a chance to think this through, it seems like a good subject for a blog entry. But before I offer this advice, I have to say that no matter who is elected, this person will be a "tool of the system" to a large degree. So while I do hope that the next president can help us make progress, I'm not pinning all my hopes on the American federal government to provide the important political leadership we are going to need in the years ahead. Those who have achieved integral consciousness will also be needed to help move America's cultural center of gravity forward in history by building the social structures of the integral worldview.

Obviously, the next president will need to resolve some basic issues, such as achieving a positive resolution to the war in Iraq, providing for a better healthcare system, and a fairer immigration policy, as well as reducing the deficit and propping up the dollar. However, from an integral perspective, I think there are three main areas where the next president can provide the kind of visionary leadership that will improve the human condition worldwide. These are:

1. Launch a major campaign to shift the American economy away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

2. Inaugurate a new kind of foreign policy that recognizes how every problem in the world is a problem of consciousness.

3. Provide integrally informed leadership in the areas of education and economic development.

I'll discuss each of these proposals in turn, starting with the first and most important: the issue of energy.

By weaning the American economy off its reliance on fossil fuels, we can solve multiple problems at once: global warming can be ameliorated; air pollution can be reduced; the corrupting influence of oil wealth on developing countries can be lessened; the significance of dysfunctional Islam can be reduced; the U.S. economy can be stimulated; and the eventual globalization of the new energy technology can provide a way for China and India to industrialize without destroying the environment. Moreover, through such an initiative America can fulfill its duty as the leader of global modernism and restore its moral reputation in the world. Indeed, America's dependence on foreign oil is really our biggest long-term threat, so there is a strong argument that we should use a portion of our defense budget to pay for the kind of "defense" we really need.

From an external perspective, creating an alternative energy economy requires two kinds of solutions: an engineering solution and then an economic systems change solution. The engineering solution involves finding the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels. And to achieve this goal writers like Thomas Freidman have called for a new Manhattan Project, like the program that came up with the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Through this kind of intensive national effort we could identify and develop the most effective form of alternative energy.

Then once we have come up with the best alternative to fossil fuels, the next phase of the solution involves a systems level change that will convert our economy from one that's based on oil to one that can be run on this new technology. However, this systemic transformation of our economy is something that the free market won't be able to do by itself, the government will have to get involved to help us through the transition. Then, once the American economy has created the alternative technology and made the transition from fossil fuels, it will be much easier for the rest of the world to follow suit.

However, notice that the biggest hurdle to implementing both the engineering solution and economic solution is the tremendous problem of generating the prerequisite political will. It took the concentrated threat of World War II to generate the political will for the original Manhattan project, and it seems like short of World War III, America's political will for alternative energy may not be adequate until it's too late.

Thus, the heart of the challenge is not the external engineering or systems change problems, it is the internal challenge of generating the requisite political agreement to undertake the sacrifices that will be necessary. And this is where the integral worldview's new understanding of the internal universe can be of great assistance.

Just as Kennedy inaugurated America's decade long mission to the moon, our next president needs to inaugurate a similar kind of "moon shot" for alternative energy. And he or she will find that "integral technology" can be an indispensable asset in this critical initiative by helping to overcome the primary challenge of building the political will required for such an undertaking.

The next president can also make major progress by initiating a new kind of foreign policy. For example, it's important to see how war in the 21st century is being fought primarily in the internal universe. The conflicts turn not so much on the actual military engagements, but rather on the results of the battle for hearts and minds. And it's also important to see how wars are often fought with the tactics and technology of the previous era, resulting in costly losses and bad mistakes. So as we might expect, history is repeating itself in the war on terror-we're fighting it with the tactics of World War II and the Cold War, wherein torture, secret prisons, and unjustified covert operations by the CIA and others are making us less moral overall. Thus, any gains in the external universe produced by these tactics are more than offset by the losses they create in the internal universe.

So my advice to the next president is to act on the understanding that a more moral foreign policy is actually a critical part of a comprehensive and effective national defense. And by embracing this understanding will see where we need to change our tactics. For instance, we can put an immediate end to all forms of rendition and torture, and we can carefully articulate a more transparent and accountable role for our intelligence services. We can announce this change in direction and the reasons for it, and then we can do some things to help heal the history that is continuing to hurt us today. For example, we could pay for a memorial in downtown Tehran that memorializes our shame at the CIA's political manipulation of the Iranian government in the 1950s. We could symbolically atone for those sins, help heal that little bit of history, and thereby become more moral ourselves.

We can also strengthen Islamic traditional consciousness by using integral technology to help empower the more moderate voices of Islam. For instance, we could endow a prestigious prize like the Nobel or Pulitzer called "The Qur'an Prize" that could be given annually to the writer in Arabic, Persian, or Turkish, who best demonstrates that Islam is a religion of peace, and that violence is un-Islamic.

However, this is not to suggest that we should simply go soft on terrorism or adopt a predominantly left-wing foreign policy. We can't ignore the very real threats posed by all the unhealthy forms of traditional consciousness in the world. The integral approach to the war on terror thus involves using the solutions of every level simultaneously. For example, we can use a traditional approach by keeping the Navy in the Persian Gulf, we can use an modernist approach by continuing with the diplomacy of economic carrots and sticks. We can use a postmodern approach by apologizing and making amends for some of our past actions, and we can use an integral approach by becoming better at changing hearts and minds through the application of the kinds of integral technology I have discussed.

We can also make our foreign policy "more moral" by insisting that all our foreign aid be focused on the central task of raising consciousness and thereby providing permanent solutions to problems of hunger, poverty, and disease. Moreover, America can articulate a new standard of justice for the way it will treat all foreign nationals-a basic set of rights that everyone is entitled to regardless of their citizenship. America cannot shirk its duties of leadership in the world, and the articulation of a global standard of justice that we are willing to abide by will go a long way toward restoring our moral fragrance and the world's good will.

Finally, my advice for the next president must include the use of integral technology to improve our public education system and appropriately stimulate our economy. It is in these areas that the integral perspective can help us make major progress in the ongoing development from warrior consciousness to traditional consciousness, and from traditional consciousness to modernist consciousness. Moving America's center of gravity forward in history must begin with these initiatives to "strengthen the base".

So ultimately, my advice to the next president is that he or she needs to become fully integrally informed and to surround him or herself with a cadre of integral advisers, including some at the Cabinet level. In the final analysis, politics is always about persuasion, and in this task the integral understanding of consciousness and culture can be used as a new kind of secret weapon, somewhat akin to "remote viewing" into the internal universe.

This is a Newsweek Special with an article of Fareed Zakaria, reflecting his impressions and view from his interview with Barack Obama . I agree with Fareed nearly completely. And I see signs in Baracks language, global views and appearences that a basic understanding of stratified democracy is emerging in him.

And--....his best advisors are still to come later....

INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC

What the World Thinks

A survey of world citizens' opinion of John McCain vs. Barack Obama and a look at the major issues in the countries being visited by the Democratic candidate. Plus: Match the international pundit with what he said about Obama in an interactive game.

 Obama Abroad.
 
An Emerging World View. Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that in the realm of foreign policy, Barack Obama has been made out to be a softheaded idealist. John McCain and his campaign, conservative columnists and right-wing bloggers all paint a picture of a liberal dreamer who wishes away the world's dangers. Zakaria disagrees. "Over the course of the campaign ... Obama has elaborated more and more the ideas that would undergird his foreign policy as president," he writes.
 
"What emerges is a world view that is far from that of a typical liberal, much closer to that of a traditional realist. It is interesting to note that, at least in terms of the historical schools of foreign policy, Obama seems to be the cool conservative and McCain the exuberant idealist." Zakaria adds that McCain is a pessimist about the world, "seeing it as a dark, dangerous place where, without the constant and vigorous application of American force, evil will triumph." To Obama "countries like Iran and North Korea are holdouts against the tide of history. America's job is to push these progressive forces forward, using soft power more than hard, and to try to get the world's major powers to solve the world's major problems."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147763

As part of the cover package, ten international writers, professors and government officials contributed essays on how their country would view an Obama presidency.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147678
-
- Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, writes that the good news from Britain is that they're all Obamamaniacs now. But enthusiasm for Obama is "equaled by skepticism about his country. That means there's a lot of ground for him to make up."

-- Dominique Moisi, senior adviser to the French Institute of International Relations, writes that Obama should know how much he is loved in France. (85 percent of Frenchmen would vote for him, according to one poll). "You not only incarnate the best of America but give us hope for the full integration of our own black and Arab citizens."

-- Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Hamburg, writes that Obama can change the tune of U.S. foreign policy. "But he can't get rid of the brass and the kettledrums, so when he visits, he might gently prepare Berlin for the dissonances to come."

-- Tom Segev, Israeli historian and a columnist for Haaretz writes, that when Obama arrives in Israel, he'll find Israelis are as eager for change as his supporters at home. And that most Israelis "feel deeply dependent on America and will not risk major policy differences with the United States. That means Obama may find them open to a new, more rational approach to the Middle East conflicts."

-- Marwan Muasher, the former foreign minister of Jordan and author of "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation," writes that Obama, while in the Middle East, should begin a candid dialogue and to learn about the area's aspirations. "As you rightly articulated, the United States' approach to the Middle East needs to be reoriented."
-
- Ali Alawi, Iraq's minister of Finance from 2005-06 and author of "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace," writes, "Obama should realize that the picture of Iraq he'll get from meetings with military commanders, U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi leaders will be incomplete, offering him only a glimpse of the country's true conditions."

-- Ashraf Ghani, the former Finance minister of Afghanistan and current chairman of the Institute of State Effectiveness, writes that Washington and Obama should recognize that Afghanis are "frustrated by the waste and lack of transparency in the international aid system ... Growing violence, especially civilian casualties (many inflicted by international forces) are making us feel less secure. So are rising food prices and a youth-unemployment rate of 40 to 60 percent."

-- Michael Anti, a Chinese political blogger and Nieman Fellow at Harvard, writes that the one key fact Obama should remember is "trade is now central to the U.S.-Chinese relationship. China needs more trade-not just for its economy or its government, but for the sake of its civil society as well."
--
Shekar Gupta, editor in chief of The Indian Express, writes that the first thing Obama needs to know about India is that he doesn't need to fix America's battered image there-and it is a big reason he should have included India in his travel plans.
-
- Luis Fernando Verissimo, a Brazilian journalist and author, writes that if Obama came to Brazil-and he should-they would impress him with their bigness in everything. "We might even cause him to ponder just what all this bigness and ambition means for the United States."

Mediterranean Bridge Building. Special Correspondent Eric Pape reports on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent actions between France and Israel. Until very recently, France and Israel have had bitterly difficult relations. But Sarkozy has changed all that by very publicly embracing the Jewish state. He takes every opportunity to reassure Israel, whether on Iran's nuclear ambitions or by calling talk of a politique arabe "nonsense," as he did in his 2006 political book "Testimony." Last month Sarkozy lauded the universal values of Judaism in a speech before the Israeli Knesset. Sarkozy used the occasion to tell Israel: "The French people will always be [there] when your existence is threatened."

This is about the book "What does China think?" from Mark Leonard.


What does China think?

11.02.08 - Mark Leonard

We know all about the statistics of China's rise - dizzying growth rates, vast currency reserves, new cities built every week - but we have heard very little about China as a powerhouse of ideas about politics, economics and world order. In my latest book, to be published by Fourth Estate on 18 February, I will look at the Chinese model of globalisation which I argue could re-shape the face of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. I am trying to show how experiments with focus groups and opinion polls are changing China from a traditional authoritarian state to a new 'deliberative dictatorship', and reveal how Beijing hopes to use a "China Dream" to challenge the US' military power. 

The book charts the development of a new Chinese world view and identifies the following different factions battling for influence:


The "New Left" who want a gentler form of capitalism with a social safety net that could reduce inequality and protect the environment;
The "New Right" who think that freedom will only come when the public sector is dismantled and sold off, and a new, politically active "propertied class" emerges;
The "Neo-Comms", cousins of American neo-cons, want to use military modernisation, cultural diplomacy and international law to assert China's power in the world. I argue that in the future, the West willl be just as interested in the Chinese "Neo-Comms" plans for Asia as it is now in the "Neo-Cons" attempts to reshape the Middle East. Soon, the political struggle in the Communist Party will be seen as vital as the battle between the US presidential contenders; and protesters outside the World Bank will complain as much about the "Beijing Consensus" as they do about the "Washington Consensus".

And this is a video conversation of Harry Kresiler with Mark. Its about the theme of the book and gives some personal impressions about background of Mark Leonard too.


Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Mark Leonard, Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, for a discussion of the ideas that are influencing the domestic and foreign policy debates in China. Through a careful examination of what Chinese intellectuals have to say on topics such as democracy, economy, and international relations, Leonard finds distinctive Chinese worldviews. The West must understand the contours of these debates to effectively address China's rise because they offer important insights into how China will use its enormous power to shape world order in the twenty-first century.

Conversations With History - Mark Leonard

Mark Leonard, Executive Director of European Council on Foreign Relations, considers in an article, originally written for the Spectator, the Wetern ambivalence and imsecurity about the Chinese behavior around Olympics 2008.

Big Brother versus YouTube



17.07.08 - Mark Leonard

This article was published in the Spectator on 16 July, 2008.

‘For years we couldn't wait for the Olympics to start. Now we can't wait for them to be over.' That is how a Chinese friend described the horrible limbo in Beijing as a control-freak state tries to anticipate and eliminate any possible challenges to its glorious coming-out party on the 8th of the 8th, 2008. It is clear to any visitor to the Chinese capital that while China hopes to clean up the medals tables, the sporting contest is at best a sideshow to the real Olympic competition - the battle to define how China is seen by its citizens and the world outside

.For the Chinese people the Olympics are the final proof that China has reclaimed its rightful place in the global premier league; putting behind it two centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreign invaders. For the world outside, the Games are meant to embody an official narrative of China as a ‘harmonious society'. The organisers had promised the trin-ity of a ‘green Olympics', a ‘high-tech Olympics' and a ‘people-centred Olympics', designed to show off China as a beacon of economic prowess and modernity that has traded pariah status for global respectability. But as China ricochets from one PR disaster to the next - with stories about sweatshops combining with Tibet and Beijing's choking pollution - the authorities are now trying to manage expectations downwards with a focus on the more modest goal of a ‘safe Olympics', flooding the city and its environs with security forces primed to thwart potential terrorist attacks.

Read More.

Olympic Games 2008 will start soon, next week in Beijing.

Michael Buerk  from BBC chairs a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories: combative, provocative and engaging. The Panel can be listened to.

The Moral Maze

When the Olympic flame is lit in Beijing on August the 8th, the focus will be on much more than the sport. China is now judged to be the world's 4th largest economy and is predicted to be the largest by 2050. But what has been the price of this economic boom?

China is accused of mercilessly plundering Africa in its vast appetite for natural resources and to turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in regimes such as Iran and Burma in favour of its business interests. So is China growing too fast turning it into to a 21st century global superpower with ruthless economic colonialist tendencies? And if so what are our moral obligations to stop them? Or has China bashing become a new Olympic sport - a modern day manifestation of the 1950's "Yellow Peril"? And is the panic being driven by our own fears about the declining power of the West alongside an irrational fear of an Eastern culture who's traditions and moral norms we little understand?

PANEL: Michael Buerk (Chair), Melanie Philips, Clifford Longley, Claire Fox, Michael Portillo.

My own take on this complex isssue is we need new forms of journalism and public communication in these global value spheres. Communities like the WELL did it .

BUT:

New global realities , large scale systems change, geopolitcal shifts and the emerging new multi-polar worlds needs new voices and lenses which seldom come together : neither in the bloggosphere and other virtual deevlopments nor in conventional journalism and media orbits.
 
I am adding some excerpt of a post of me to  the SDi related learning forum.

 " I see it as big challenge to communicate...without watering down spiral and integral standards - the whole complexity of such events in the public spheres.   Journalists as Roger Cohen, Fareed Zakaria, Parag Khanna, Mark leonard, Gabor Steingart et al. have begun at least to adress again and again the global nexus and putting it into the light of emerging futures.  

US Strategy guy Thomas PM Barnett -known as afficionado of Sino American Joint ventures - see here: 

  Recasting the Long War of Joint Sino-American Venture  

drops this short notice in his blog: 

Beijing and masking-up for the Games
   
  A bit cynical? Not necessarily. However, as always lots of qualified explanation needed...A new journalism, how to be  defined exactly - is needed.   And he comments about Fareed Zakaria`s work this way:  

Zakaria: a serious style emerges

  Of course announcing already his own 2009 book:   GREAT POWERS: AMERICA AND THE WORLD AFTER BUSH 

  My strong wish for completely new chapters in development of Spiral Dynamics Integral is to create new venues for transformative media and these emerging public spheres of geopolitical realities and global strata. "

An ECFR Newsflash about the European Defense Situation -as part of global security architecture - points to most interesting issues for me . Great networks of nations, corporations, persons, i communities,intitiatives--in short of all kinds of smaller or bigger holons demand :

1. Core Groups

No P2P system in itself will do crucial decisions.

2. Security and defense are spirally aligned to the blue Vmeme.

Expanding and growing global holons need a healthy blue conveyor belt. I showed it in lots of examples from last months here. Global Brain processes, Global Mindshift, Global Conectivity.....Gaia Consciousness itself cannot be reduced to bright green in spiral tems or airy fairy sescond tier endevors . As the basic split in the world is virtually as Alan Tonkin from Global Values Network reminds again and again:

"The basic split in the world is that around 70% of the world population cover the spectrum Purple/Red/Blue with the other 30% covering Blue Order, Orange Enterprise and Green Environmental issues. If the UN was based on a Security Council based on one man one vote it would become a Red/Blue organisation. Until there is a fundamental shift in values the developed world is going to battle to get Western style democracy to work however much they might like to think it will work. In terms of our findings with the Global Values Monitor (GVM) there are minimal percentages in Yellow Integral with almost no Turquoise to speak of."

3. Motto of EU is:

In varietate Concordia

United in Diversity

However the vertical proportions and dimensions in ALL layers has not be defined yet.
So its a great opportunity to do so.

Dr. Don Beck -Spiral Dynamics Integral -will speak this October in the town of Munich in Germany about:

"Germany and Europe in the 21st Century: A Case Study in Large-Scale Systems Design and Transformation"

This will be one of the most exciting seminars this year for me. It touches virtually all topics of European Integration and I hope lots of leaders from German speaking countries and its neighbours can make it to this event.

So heres to the Newsflash:

"The Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty has cast doubt over institutional reform within the European Union, but EU governments cannot afford to move at the speed of the slowest on defence, and should push for a 'multi-speed' Europe - according to a new report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). 

Author Nick Witney, who is Senior Policy fellow at ECFR and former Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, issues a stark warning about the state of European defence, arguing that "inertia and resistance in the defence machinery" are thwarting the European Union's declared aim to make a real contribution to global security. 

The report argues that Europeans will punch their weight - and be worthwhile partners for the US - only if they pool their resources and cooperate more closely. Reviewing the widely differing performances of the Member States (on defence spending, investment per soldier, participation record in operations), the report urges the formation of "pioneer groups" of the most willing and able. 

The idea could be operationalised within the European Defence Agency through the creation of a number of overlapping pioneer groups, which each specialize in areas such as research and technology, armaments cooperation, defence industry cooperation, and the pooling of civilian and military capabilities.  

The countries most active in various pioneer groups would constitute a European "core group" on defence - similarly to the "permanent structured cooperation" mechanism, envisaged by the Lisbon Treaty. Countries that do not meet some basic qualifying criteria (such as a minimum 1% of GDP spending on defence, and a 1% minimum level of personnel deployments in operations) should either commit to catch up, or leave the Agency altogether.  "

Link to full report: http://ecfr.eu/page/m/5734fa687b7981a0/Gs6AX0/VEsH/ 

European defence: Noises off

29.07.08 - Nick Witney

How gratifying for Europeans listening to Barack Obama's speech in Berlin's Tiergarten to hear him affirm that "America has no better partner than Europe", and to talk of how allies must "listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other".And how unsettling to hear him talk also of the need for "shared sacrifice", and to assert that "the Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban, and al Qaeda". The next American President, whether Democrat or Republican, will be politer to Europeans than the current incumbent; but he will also be more demanding - and harder to fob off.

For the EU's new French Presidency, with their priority of boosting ‘l'Europe de la Defense', these ‘noises off' can only be encouraging. And they will need all the encouragement they can get. For the European defence enterprise, launched at the famous Franco-British summit at St Malo nearly ten years ago, has in truth made depressingly little progress.

20 EU crisis-management operations to date sounds like a lot. But three-quarters of them have involved deployment of policemen or legal experts, not troops; half have comprised less than 100 personnel; and four of the five main military interventions, in Macedonia, Congo (twice) and Bosnia, have ridden on the coat-tails of either UN or NATO peace-keepers.

Meanwhile, efforts to make Europe's militaries fit for purpose - the purpose in today's world being expeditionary, multinational operations, not stopping invaders at the national frontier - have been even less productive. The original vision of a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force has been quietly shelved, in favour of 1,500-man ‘battlegroups'. 70% of Europe's land forces simply cannot operate outside national territory. Europe's 10,000 main battle tanks would be fine for a re-run of the battle of Kursk, but are little use in Chad or Afghanistan. Figures such as these highlight the extent to which Europeans' combined annual defence spending in Europe of some 200 billion euros is simply money down the drain.

Read More...

I read this wonderful, illuminating text first 25 years ago when I was practicing Ki, Aikido and Wing Tsun and some Initiatische Therapie with German Teacher Karlfried Graf Dürkheim and one of his master students. Takeharu Teramoto was Zen teacher of Dürkheim and Admiral AD and Professor at Naval Academy in Tokio.

For all who have ears to hear...and listen deeply...

Only today, 25 years later , I understand it in my heart.......

 The Marvelous Cat Translated by Takeharu Teramoto and Fumio Hashimoto

From Zen Master Ito Tenzaa Chuya

Takeharu Teramoto was an Admiral and Professor at the Naval Academy in Tokyo. His form of practice was sword fighting (Gyo). His own Master had been the last Master of a school of combat in which the story of five cats had been handed down from Master to Master since the beginning of the seventeenth century as a form of instruction, and had finally reached Teramoto through his own Master.


ONCE UPON A TIME there was a Master of combat called Shoken. His house was plagued by a big rat. It ran about even in broad daylight. One day Shoken shut the room door and gave the household cat an opportunity to catch the rat. But the rat flew at the cat's face and gave it such a sharp bite that it ran off screeching. Evidently the creature couldn't be got rid of so easily. So the master of the house collected together a number of cats that had won a fair reputation in the neighborhood and let them into the room. The rat hunched itself up in a corner. As soon as a cat approached it, it bit the cat and scared it off.

The rat looked so nasty that none of the cats dared to take it on a second time. That put Shoken into a perfect rage. He went after the rat himself, determined to kill it. But the wily beast escaped every blow and feint from the experienced Master; he just couldn't wear it down. In his attempts to do so, he split doors, shojis, karakamis, and so forth. But the rat flashed through the air like lightning, jumped up at his face, and bit the Master. At last, running with sweat, he called out to his servants: "They say that six to seven cho from here there is the toughest and cleverest cat in the world. Bring it here!

The servant brought the cat. It didn't look so very different from the other cats. It didn't look particularly sharp or bright. So Shoken didn't expect anything special from it. But he thought he would try it all the same, so he opened the door and let it into the room. The cat entered very softly and slowly as if it was expecting nothing out of the ordinary. But the rat recoiled and stayed motionless. So the cat approached it slowly and deliberately and carried it out in its mouth.

That evening the defeated cats met in Shoken's house, respectfully accorded the old cat the place of honor, paid it homage and said humbly: "We are all supposed to be highly efficient. We have all practiced and sharpened our claws in order to defeat all kinds of rats, and even weasels and otters. We had never suspected that there could be a rat as strong as that one. But tell us, what art did you use to vanquish it so easily? Do not keep your art a secret. Let us into the mystery." The old cat laughed and said: "You young cats are indeed efficient. But you don't know the right way to go about things. And so when something unexpected happens, you're unsuccessful. But first tell me how you have practiced."

A black cat came out to the front and said: "I come from a line of celebrated rat catchers. I too decided to become one. I can jump over screens two meters high; I can force myself through a tiny hole that only rats can negotiate. From the time I was a kitten I have practiced all the acrobatic arts. Even when I wake up and I still haven't quite come to, and I see a rat scampering across the balcony, I get it straightway. But that rat today was stronger and I suffered the most frightful defeat that I have ever experienced in my whole life. I have been put to shame."

Then the old cat said: "What you have practiced is only technique (shosa), sheer physical skill. But your spirit is preoccupied with the question: 'How am I going to win?' And that problem is still consuming you when you reach the target. When the ancient Masters taught 'technique', they did so in order to show their pupils a 'means of the way' (michisuyi). Their technique was simple yet contained the highest truth. But posterity has been preoccupied with technique and technique alone. In that way much has been discovered according to the rule: if you do this or that, then this will happen. But what does happen? No more than dexterity-skill pure and simple. The traditional way has been abandoned; much ingenuity has been applied to an exhaustive pitting of technique against technique, until we have indeed reached the point of exhaustion. We can go no further. That always happens when people think of technique and success and put no more than ingenuity into play. Ingenuity-cleverness is however a function of the spirit, if it is not based on the Way and aims at perfect skill, then it falls victim to error and what has been achieved is lost. Think about this and practice from now on in the right spirit."

At that a big tabby-cat came forward and said: "In the art of fighting it is a matter of the spirit, and it must always be so. Therefore I have always practiced strength of spirit (ki wo neru). As far as I am concerned, my spirit always seems as hard as steel and free and charged with the presence of the Spirit that fills heaven and earth (Mencius). As soon as I can see an enemy, he is already vanquished; no sooner do I see him than he is thrall to that mighty Spirit and I have already won the battle in advance! I do so quite instinctively, as the situation demands. I move according the feel of my opponent; I take the rat from the right or the left as I wish and I anticipate my adversary's every move. I never worry about technique as such. It happens of its own accord. If a rat runs across the balcony, I have only to stare at it for it to fall into my clutches. But the rat of which we are speaking comes without shape or form and goes without leaving any trace. What does that mean? I cannot say."

Then the old cat remarked: "What you have been concerned with is, of course, the effect of that great Power that fills heaven and earth. But what you have actually achieved is only a mental power and not that good power which serves the name of Good. The very fact that you are conscious of the power with which you intend to conquer prevents your victory. Your ego is in question. But what if your adversary's ego is stronger than your own? When you try to overcome the enemy with the superior force of your own power, he pits his own power against yours. Do you imagine that you alone can be as strong and that all others must be weak? The real question is how to behave when there is something that in spite of all one's willing one cannot defeat with the superior weight of one's own power. What you experience as 'free and tempered' and 'filling heaven and earth' within you is not the great Power itself (ki no sho) but only its reflection in you. It is your own spirit, and therefore but a shadow of the great Spirit. It appears to be the great power, but in reality it something quite different. The spirit of which Mencius speaks is strong because it is permanently illumined by great understanding. But your spirit obtains its power only under certain conditions. Your power and that of which Mencius speaks have different origins. They are as different from one another as the eternal flow of a river, for instance the Yangtse Kiang is from a sudden downpour one night. But what is the spirit that one should rely on when face with an enemy who cannot be conquered with any mere restricted mental power (kisei)? That is the real question! There is a proverb that says: 'A rat in the trap will even bite the cat.' The enemy is in the jaws of death he has no resources to depend on. He forgets his life: he forgets all need; he forgets himself; he is beyond victory and defeat. And thus his will tempered like steel. How could one conquer him with a spiritual power which one scribes to oneself alone?"

Then an aging gray cat came slowly forward and said: "Yes, it is indeed as you say. Mental power whatever its strength has a form (katachi) in itself. But whatever has form, however small it may be, can be grasped. Therefore I have for a long time trained my soul (kokoro, the power of the heart). I do not practice the power which overcomes others spiritually (sei), like the second cat. And I do not hit out around me (like the first cat). I reconcile myself with my opponent, get on to equal terms with him, and do not oppose him in any way. If the other is stronger than I am, then I will simply acknowledge that, and so to speak give into his will. My art is rather to gather the flying pebbles in a loose cloth. A rat tries to attack me may be as strong as you like, but it will find nothing to fly against, nothing to get to grips with. But today's rat simply didn't respond to my trick. It came and went as mysteriously as God Himself. I have never encountered one like it".

Then the old cat said: "What you call propitiation does not arise from being, from the Greatness of Nature. It is an artificial, botched-up reconciliation - a mere artifice. Your conscious intention is to elude the adversary's spirit of attack. But because you are thinking about it, however fleetingly, he realizes what your plan is. If you try to conciliate him, with a spirit thus composed, then your spirit (in so far as it concentrates on the attack) will be confused, mixed up, and your sharpness of perception and action will be considerably reduced. Whatever you do with fully conscious intent restricts the original pulsation of the Greatness of Nature as it takes effect from the depths of Mystery: it upsets the flow of your spontaneous movement. How then are you to put a miraculous power into practice? Only when you think of nothing, and do nothing, and in your movement surrender yourself to the pulsation of Being (shizen no ka), will you have lost all tangible form, and be so that nothing on earth can act as a counter-form; then there is no enemy left to resist you."

"I do not believe that everything that you have practiced is pointless. Everything can be a means of the Way. Technique and Tao can be one and the same, and then the great Spirit, the "governing Spirit", is already incorporated in you and is revealed in the action of your body. The power of the great Spirit (ki) serves the human person (ishi). He who has free access to (ki) can encounter everything within infinite freedom and in the right way. If his spirit is reconciled, it will not shatter ever on gold or rock, and need exert no special power in battle. Only one thing is necessary: that no trace of egotism of I-consciousness comes into play, lest everything should be lost. If you think about all that, however fleetingly, then all will be artificial. It will not arise from Being, from the original pulsation the body of the Way (do-tai). Then the adversary will not submit to you but resist in his own behalf. What sort of a way or art is to be used? Only when you are in that disposition which is free of all conscious of self, when you act without acting, without intention and stratagem, in unison with the Greatness of Nature, are you on the right Way. Abandon all intent, practice purposelessness and let it happen simply out of Being. This way is unending, inexhaustible."

And the old cat added something astounding: "You must not believe that what I have told you today is the highest of things. Not long ago a certain tom-cat was living in the next village to me. He slept the whole day long. No trace of anything resembling spiritual power was to be observed in him. He just lay there like a lump of wood. No one had ever seen him catch a rat . But wherever he was, there wasn't a rat to be seen! And wherever he popped up or laid himself down, no rat ever appeared. One day I looked up and asked what that meant. He did not answer me. I asked him another three times. He was silent. But that doesn't mean that he didn't want to reply. Instead he clearly didn't know what he should say. But that is how it is: "He who knows says nothing, and he who says it knows it not". The cat had forgotten about himself and everything roundabout him. He had become "nothing". He had reached the highest level of purposelessness. We can say that he had found the way of divine knighthood, which is to vanquish without killing. I am still a long way behind him".

Shoken heard all this as if in a dream, came by, greeted the old cat and said: "For a long time now I have been practicing the art of fighting, but I have not yet reached the end. I have absorbed your insights and I think that I have understood the true meaning of my way, but I ask you earnestly to tell me something more about your craft".

The old cat replied; "How is that possible? I am only an animal and the rat is my food. How should I know about human affairs. All I know is this: the meaning of the art of combat is not merely a matter of vanquishing one's opponent. It is rather an art by which at a given time one enters into the great clarity of the primal light of death and life (seishi wo akiraki ni suru). In the midst of all his technical practice a true Samurai should always practice the spiritual acquisition of that clarity of mind. For that purpose however he must plumb before all else the teaching of the ground of being of life and death (shi no ri). But only he acquires great clarity of mind who is free from everything which could lead him off that way (hen kyoku). When Being and encounter with Being (shin ki) are left undisturbed, to themselves, free from the ego and from all things, then whenever it is appropriate it can declare it's presence complete freedom. But if your heart even fleetingly attaches itself to something, then Being itself is attached and is turned into something arrested in itself . But if it becomes something arrested in itself, then there is something there that resists the I that is in itself . Then two entities face one another and fight one another for dominance."

"If that happens then the miraculous functions of being, even though used to all change, are restricted, the jaws of death gape close, and that clarity of perception proper to Being is lost. How then is it possible to meet the adversary in the right frame and peacefully contemplate "victory and defeat"? Even if you win, you win no more than blind victory that has nothing to do with the spirit of the true art of combat."

"Being free from all things does not of course mean an empty void. Being as such has no nature in itself. In and for myself it is beyond all form. It stores up nothing in itself. But if one grasps and remembers even fleetingly what it is and how fragile it is, the great Power will cling to it and it will contain the equilibrium of forces that flows from the Source. But if Being is even slightly subject to or imprisoned by something, it is no longer able to move freely and cannot pour forth in all its fullness. If the equilibrium that emanates from Being is disturbed, if its power is at all apparent it quickly overflows; but without power its balance is inadequate. Where it overflows, too much power breaks out and there is no holding it back. Where it is inadequate, the active spirit is weakened and wanting is never sufficient for the situation it is called on .

What I call freedom of things means only that if one does not lay up stores, one has nothing to rely on. Without secure provision there is no position to take up and nothing objective to have recourse to. There is neither an I nor an anti-I. When something comes along, one meets it as it were unawares, without any impact. In the I-Ching (the Book of Changes), it is written "Without thinking, without action, without movement; quite still. Only thus can one proclaim the nature and law of things from within, quite unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth. Whoever practices and understands the art of combat in that sense is close to the truth of the Way".

When Shoken heard this, he asked: "What does that mean, that neither a subject nor an object, neither an nor an anti-I is there"?

The cat answered: "If and because an I is there, there is an enemy there. If we do not present ourselves as an I, then there is no opponent there. What we call opponent, adversary, enemy, is merely another name for what means opposition or counterpart. In so far as things maintain a form, they also presuppose a counter-form. But wherever something is present as a something, it has a specific form. If my being is not constituted as a specific form, then there is no counter-form there."

"When there is no counterpart, no opposition, there is nothing which can come forth to oppose me. But that means that neither an I nor an anti-I is there. If one wholly abandons self and thus becomes free, from the foundations upwards and from everything, then one will be in harmony with the world and one with all things in the great universal oneness. Even when the enemy's form is extinguished one remains unconscious of it . That does not mean that one is wholly oblivious of it, but that one does not dwell on it, and the spirit continues free from all attachment and even in its actions responds simply and freely from the center of being. If the spirit is no longer by possessed by anything and is free from all obsession, then the world, just as it is wholly our world and one with us. That means that henceforth one apprehends it beyond good and evil, beyond sympathy or antipathy. One is no longer caught up in anything in the world. All oppositions which present themselves to us, profit and loss, good and evil, joy and suffering, have their origin us. Therefore in the whole spread of heaven and earth nothing is so worthy of discernment as our own being. "

"An ancient poet said: "A speck dust in one's eye and even the three worlds are still too narrow". If nothing matters to us any longer and is no longer of consequence to us, then the smallest bed is too wide for us. " In other words, if a speck of dust enters our eye, the eye will not open; for we can see clearly only if there is nothing within, but now the dust has penetrated to obstruct the vision within. Similarly with being that shines forth as light and illumination, and is essentially free of everything that is "something". When however something does present itself, the very presentation destroys its essence. Another writer put it this way: "If one is surrounded by foes, by a hundred thousand enemies, one's form is so to speak pulverized. But my being, my nature, is mine and remains my own, however strong my enemy may be . No adversary can penetrate my being my self". Confucius said: "You cannot steal the being of even a simple man". But if the spirit is confused, then being will turn against us."

"That is all that I can tell. Now return to yourselves and know yourselves. A master can only teach his pupil the lesson and try to justify it. But "I myself" have to realize the truth and take it as my own. That is called self-appropriation (jitoku). It is transferred from heart to heart (ishin denshin). It is a bestowal by extraordinary means, beyond instruction and erudition (kyogai betsuden) that does not mean that the Master's teaching is to be contradicted. All it means is that even a Master cannot pass on the truth itself. That is not only true of Zen."

"From the spiritual exercises of the ancients on the art of forming the soul right up to the arts proper, self appropriation is always the essence of the matter, and it is always transmitted from heart to heart, apart from tradition, from all teachings which are handed down. The meaning of all "teaching" is only to show what everyone possesses in himself without already knowing it, and then to make him aware of it. There is no secret that the master can "hand over" to the pupil. Teaching is easy. Listening is easy. But it is difficult to become aware of what one has in one's self, to mark it out and really to take possession of it. That is known as looking into one's own being. It is self perception, the self perception of being (ken-sei, kensho). If that happens to us then we have Satori. It is the great awakening out of the dream of errors. Awakening, looking into one's own being, perception of the self one really is - they are all one and the same thing".

Yesterday there was an overhwelming resonance and enthusisam for senator Barack Obama in Berlin. More than 200.000 people, the greatest perhaps ever crowd to whom Barack Obama spoke live. Sure, mixed feeelings , but after 8 years o frozen interim time in transatlantic realtions this was clearly an ice breaker.

Here are some quickshots from SPIEGEL ONLINE.

OBAMA'S BERLIN SPEECH

 

People of the World, Look at Me

The people of Berlin experienced the full range of Barack Obama's charisma on Thursday evening. At times he was reserved, at others engaging. Sometimes combative, and also demanding. Ultimately, though, the message he delivered at the Siegesäule was meant for audiences back home. By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Berlin more... [ Video ]

• SPIEGEL TV: Highlights of Obama's Speech 
• Opinion: No. 44 Has Spoken
• Obama Live Ticker: 'America Has no Better Partner than Europe'
• Obama's Berlin Speech: 'A World that Stands as One'
• Obama in Berlin: Huge Crowds Left with Mixed Feelings
• The Campaign Comes to Berlin: Obama Calls for Greater European Role in War on Terror
• Photo Gallery: Obama Charms the German Capital

OPINION

No. 44 Has Spoken

Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world. By Gerhard Spörl more...

• SPIEGEL TV: Highlights of Obama's Speech 

GERMAN POLITICIANS REACT TO OBAMA'S SPEECH

'A Strong and Gutsy Message'

"The speech of a global citizen," "perfect performance," an "homage to Berlin" -- After Thursday's big Obama show at Berlin's Siegessäule, German politicians seem quite impressed by the US candidate's performance. "This will strengthen the trans-Atlantic bridge," said veteran politician Edmund Stoiber. more...

• Obama in Berlin: Huge Crowds Left with Mixed Feelings
• Obama's Berlin Speech: 'A World that Stands as One'
• Photo Gallery: Obama Charms the German Capital

This is from the new issue of WIE:

"Constructing the New Man
Perspectives on Masculinity in the 21st Century
Continuing the inquiry that began with last summer’s widely discussed issue on women, WIE presents an in-depth look at the twenty-first-century man. What is authentic masculinity today? How has the move toward gender equality changed society’s rules—and roles—for men? Is there a “new man” emerging on the horizon, ready and willing to reshape our culture in the coming decades? Approaching these questions and others through a multidimensional lens, WIE delivers one of our most culturally provocative issues yet. Featuring: Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, Ani DiFranco, Harvey Mansfield, Jean Houston, Jenny Wade, Erwin McManus, Rebecca Walker, and more."

I can only welcome-once again- the WIE endevor to pull some most important challenges into the spotlight of attention. Since many years -30 years - these provocative issues were part of my own life too. The book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover from Moore and Gilette picked up some aspects earlier.

 
A new dynamics of masculine feminine and male female energies is emerging. I found deep resonance especially in conversations with very strong, intelligent and conscious , female women in the last years. As much with men of this new consciousness. However this communication at the edge is seldom seeing the light of a broader public up to now!

New agy stereotypes of men and their supposed androgyny dominated the post Johnn Wayne time for a long time. Now the time has come to manifest something radicaly new.
Thx to Andrew and the WIE Team a new round of discussions will be initiated.


 
Editorial

by Andrew Cohen


What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a man at the beginning of the twenty-first century in a post-traditional, postmodern world? Who are our exemplars, and to whom can we look for mentorship as it relates to gender identity in our own time? If we look backward for indications of how to be men in the new world that we're all creating together, we're unlikely to find what we need. Why? Because the world that we're living in is changing at a faster rate than it ever has before. Cultural evolution, which has progressed through history from traditional to modern to postmodern values, is very much in a state of flux, transition, and to put it bluntly, existential confusion. The truth is, these days most sophisticated men and women aren't very clear about what it's supposed to mean to be male or female. I know in my own case, being a late-blooming boomer from a liberal, progressive family, the subject of what it means to be a man literally never came up. (Although I must admit, Superman was my favorite superhero when I was a kid!)

In order to address this enormous void in our evolving culture, we at What Is Enlightenment? have put together what we believe is a very compelling collection of articles, interviews, and dialogues that, I must admit, raise more questions than give answers. But that's what we felt we needed to do: Get the conversation going! I, for one, am pleased with the result. This has been an educational journey for all of us here and one that we feel will hopefully bring a little bit of light and energy to an important dimension of our collective lives that needs to be illuminated.

In our special feature, "Constructing the New Man," we present four perspectives on manliness in the twenty-first century from men with very different backgrounds, ages, and viewpoints. In "What Ever Happened to the Vikings?" senior editor Elizabeth Debold presents a provocative and hard-hitting exposé of the predicament in which men find themselves in some of the most progressive countries on our small planet. In "Speaking of Men," we ask nineteen powerful, influential, thoughtful, and accomplished women to describe their vision of what the next step for men might be. In "Confessions of a Formerly Sensitive New Age Man," my colleague Ross Robertson describes in excruciating detail what it was like to grow up in the 1970s in Northern California, guided carefully into manhood by an adoring psychotherapist who happened to be his mother. Finally, in my "Guru and Pandit" dialogue with philosopher Ken Wilber, we endeavor to embrace this entire topic in the biggest context we can.

I'm sure you will enjoy this heady brew!

On another note, we're all thrilled to announce that with the next issue, we're changing the name of our publication from What Is Enlightenment? to EnlightenNext. Turn to page 4 for an explanation of why that is and what other exciting changes there are to look forward to.

Thank you for your interest, enthusiasm, and support!