Bucky Group 13a - Ecological Patterns

This is the Sunday session of the Bucky Group, which is at MacRitchie Reservoir in Singapore. The Saturday sessions are held at Joo Hock's hair salon.

We continued our reading of Bucky's book, "Utopia or Oblivion". In today's page, it talked about man's travel patterns within his lifetime and that it has increased exponentially in recent years. This ecological pattern has to be noted as it implies an increase output of CO2 in the air, as most of our transport operates on fossil fuels.

There are some responsible individuals these days, who now take stock of their carbon footprint (the amount of CO2 emission they are responsible for) and buy carbon credits to offset their usage. Soon after some discussions about carbon credit and a short story from Joo Hock, the session ended.

This Sunday's discussion was very short. I don't know why. Maybe because everyone was feeling hungry. The Bucky Group tend to attract members who love food. Amid the discussion to decide where to go for our breakfast, I was fascinated that they were still using archaic and quaint terms like '4th Mile(stone)' or '7th Mile(stone)' to describe the locations!!! Milestones are literally stone markings established by the British surveyors to measure how far a place is away from the city of Singapore. That was long time ago and rarely anyone use these terms any more. So, I was witnessing oral history. :) Nowadays, common landmarks used are shopping centres and MRT (subway) stations.

Actually, the highlight of the day was a parable (totally unrelated to 'ecological patterns') told by Chao Loy. It went like this:

"Long ago in China, there was a man who left his wife to another city to work. Time flies and soon he worked for the boss for 20 years. Then, he decided that it is enough and wanted to return home to his wife. So, he told his boss that he will be going home for good. His boss agreed, but said that he has two options:

Option one is to take all his money and return home.

Option two is that he will not take his money but the boss will give him three advices.

The man thought for a while and bravely decided to take option 2 because his boss has taken good care of him for 20 years and that his three advices must surely be more valuable than his own savings.

The boss' three advices are:

1. Do not take short cuts

2. When you encounter commotions that does not affect you, mind your own business.

3. When you encounter a nasty incident, don't jump to conclusion, but leave it a day or two before approaching the person for an explanation.

Then before he left, the boss gave him a bread bun and told him to share eat it when he gets home.

So off he walked home to his village. Halfway, he met someone who told him of a short cut to his village. He was tempted to take it, but remembered the boss' advice and decided to take the long way. This saved him, as there were robbers along the short cut and he would have been mugged or killed.

Then as night falls, he checked into a hotel. Then in the middle of the night, he heard screams and was about to go out to find out what was happening, but remembered the boss' second advice and decided to mind his own business. The next morning, he realised that everyone was dead, as the hotelier's son went amok and chopped everyone dead with a chopper. Relieved, he moved on to continue his journey.

Soon, he reached home, but in a distance, he saw the wife with another man. This other man also stayed over for a night. The man was furious, but decided not to confront his wife as he remembered the boss' third advice. The next morning, the man was more calm and asked the wife who the other man was, and was relieved to know that that man is his son.

The man then remembered about the bread that the boss gave and took it out to eat it together with his wife and son. Then as he break the bread into pieces, he realised, hidden in the bread was his money that he had chosen to leave behind in exchange for the three good advices."

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What do you think is the moral of the story here?

We had lots of debates over it!!!

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Bucky Group 13 - Ecological Design

This week, we started our documentary review and discussion with a movie on "Ecological Design". Basically, it chronicles humankind starting with living with nature, to one that exploits nature and tries to control it. The movie highlighted the steps that some 'outlaw designers' are creating structures and dwellings that allow a partnership with nature, such that the dwelling is ecologically sustainable.

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The idea is to live in harmony with nature, technology and humanity; and how we apply them to the modern day large scale city.

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The movie mentioned about Bucky's own geometry and synergetics that allows nature's own way of doing things. That means, "We can't put it together, it is already together."

What will you resort to with the Integrated Resort? - Part 2

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He is doing it again! The landlord is asking for a higher rent. Last year, he asked for a 36% rise. We settled for 17%. This year he wants a whopping 81% rise on the new lease, from the already risen rent. Compounded from the two years, it is a 114% rise.
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This time, I have to move out. The agent claimed that she has not received my sms notice to her to extend the lease. I can't prove that I have sent the sms, and even if I could, I cannot prove that she has received it. So, this is futile. Besides, I cannot endure more of her persistent resort to the letter of contract saying that legally I must move out. He is now giving me about three weeks to move out. The alternative is eviction.
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I have just spoken directly to the landlord. He told me my lease has expired and that if I have no where to go, it is not his problem. He said that I knew my lease was ending and should have been proactive. But shouldn't the agent be proactive too as I am paying her to take care also of my interest? Apparently, both the landlord and her are turning a deaf ear to compassion and choose to take the legal route, which I have no grounds of winning. Even my appeal to extend for another two months so that I can find another flat to stay, on the current rent, was turned down.
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I will move out. My appeal has gone to uncaring ears. My landlord, an ex-Member of Parliament, probably knows his legal rights and moral wrongs better than I do.
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I wonder how many more people are experiencing this. There is no rent protection laws in Singapore. The Parliament has decided to leave it to market forces. But, what market forces? Property prices have risen, but surely not by 114% in the area where I live. So what justifies the phenomenal rent increase? It is still the same apartment I live in. In fact it has since aged by 4 years, with duller paint, squekier fixtures and the faded curtains.

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So, the property inflation is speculation. This will soon lead to a property bubble burst. We are accentuating the boom-bust cycles, which the majority will lose. (Watch the impending credit crunch that is coming up that will impact the market. See also, here.)
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This is the early effects of the announcement of the Integrated Resort (read casino). Speculations are rife. Apartment blocks as new as ten years old are torn down to build taller smaller units that sell for higher profits. Not very good for the environment as it is such a waste of resources. It's all about money!
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I have taken this as a calling. A calling that I will put up a blog post series documenting the effects of the integrated resorts. I believe more problems are coming. Already, we have family breakups due to the legalising of soccer bettings and their availability of doing that online. There will be more gambling related problems to come. Watch this space!

"The Buddhist Attitude to Sensuality" by Ajahn Brahm

Listen to a Buddhist monk speaking about sensuality, sex, addictions, vices and how to take stock, be mindful and be 'skilful'. Long video: 61 minutes.

What's at the End of the Line - Mike George

Clear thinking 28 October 2007 http://www.relax7.com/
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What's at THE END of the Line! by Mike George
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Have you ever noticed that when you are in a joyful and happy state, when you are having the 'time of your life', the one thing you are not conscious of is time passing. Which means that if you were in a continuously joyful and happy state you would spend your lifetime unaware of time…so to speak. But the reality is we are not joyous and happy all the time so we become acutely aware of time dragging. Some people are so miserable so much of the time that their lifetime feels more like a 'life sentence'!
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What seems to gradually make us more and more 'time conscious' is watching the gradual decay of our physical appearance each day in the bathroom mirror. This reflection plants and fertilizes the idea of aging and, even before the 'grey stuff' makes its first appearance, we are imagining the end. Our eventual demise is not just 'on the cards' as a possibility it seems to be 'in the cards' as a dead certainty…so to speak! Looking forward to times to come increasingly becomes reviewing times past.
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West and East have different ideas about aging. In the West, after retiring from work, we tend to potter about gently until its time to 'shuffle off our mortal coil'! In the East, old age is the time of wisdom and spiritual energy. With the family flown the nest, work responsibilities over, it is a period when we are most equipped to give to others the benefit of our experience. If we can absorb this lesson of the East it may help us to replace the all-too-common sense of gradual decline with a more accurate realization of the potential that remains to us still. Long after our physical powers have started to weaken we could be bringing to fruition the gathering of a lifetimes wisdom as a gift to all we meet. Our body may lose its lustre as we age, but experience can burnish our spirit to a gleam that is ever more radiant. Suddenly it's not a question of leaving a legacy after we go but of sharing it in a multitude of ways before we go.

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Yes, we do all have to face the reality of death but by the accounts of so many saints and sages down through the ages, the more we become spiritually aware the less significant this moment will seem. Have you noticed how elderly people seldom speak of death as fearful. Perhaps they have found an inner space called 'serene and mellow' or perhaps they are just tired and ready for what they believe will be a nice long rest. Perhaps after so many decades on the planet some spiritual awareness is absorbed into even the most materialistic of life's pilgrims.

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To many the idea of death itself not a major issue, it is the manner of its accomplishment! If there is fear then it is often a fear of the amount of pain that may have to be endured as we slip through 'exit door' at the end of the 'corridor of life'. But while the exact moment of our departure is never known in advance it seems we can choose our own moment of dying, exit the physical body painlessly at the end and go in peace. This possibility is encapsulated by the saying, "If you die before you die then when you die you don't die". Otherwise known as 'dying alive'. It simply means there can be a conscious choice to acknowledge and let go of everything to which we are attached. Death, in this strand of spiritual wisdom, is painful only when we cling to attachments while at the same time being wrenched away from them. Toys and children remind us of this grasping at the objects of life and the tears that easily flow when life asks for the toys to be returned.
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If we can learn to let go before we are forced to let go we may be able to re-vision the 'end of the line' as a gliding return to home – a gradual, inevitable, flawless movement, an easy and natural farewell, the spirit's ascent to its resting place, regardless of whatever is happening both within our body or around our body at that time.
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Unfortunately death is frequently depicted not as a homecoming but as a shadow, a bruise on our daylight. But imagine trying to run away from your shadow: you will never succeed in shaking off this persistent companion, however fast you run, and you will exhaust yourself in the process. However, as an alternative scenario, imagine yourself walking contentedly into the shade cast by a large tree. Your shadow will disappear, and your eyes will adjust to the reduced levels of light. You will be able to see no less clearly. Ultimately the fear of death, like fear of spiders or mice, comes not from the nature of things, but from that illusion that lodges persistently in the mind, the illusion of time itself and therefore the illusion of an ending.

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In modern life (and especially in working life), we are programmed to believe that time is precious in itself - one of the reasons why death can so easily come to be seen as a threat. We think of ourselves, misguidedly, as citadels under siege, knowing that we cannot hold out; that we must give up our treasures to the enemy. Hence the saying 'they fought to the death' applies not only to a heroes tale but to those who fight and struggle against the inevitable to the very bitter end. But it need not be made so difficult. How interesting and even comforting it is to hear from so many counselors and companions who are 'with' those during the dying process. They tell us of how there was a moment, just before the end, when they 'let go', when they seemed to make peace with themselves and with what was happening. They report on how a quiet and powerful serenity took the place of a painful struggle against the inevitable, against letting go.
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Misconceptions about time also explain why so many people are unprepared for retirement - the sudden change from 'time famine' to 'time abundance' is experienced as psychic shock. But in fact if we think of time as simply the medium in which we regain spiritual awareness, the road along which we travel for a while, then at journey's end we will not feel the loss of any commodity. And like any journey, including the one to work every day, we start out from home and eventually return home. Life's journey can be seen in a similar light and our return home is as inevitable as the setting sun. We are returning to the source, laden with spiritual riches in joyful abundance.
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It seems that the 'great teachers' who taught that 'death is an illusion' also taught that the realization of our spiritual identity brings with it an awareness of our eternity. You may have noticed that even in life there are no conclusions. Nothing 'real' ends. Objects, including our own bodies, do decay but the energy of our material costume just changes its form and reappears as some thing else!All events are only seen as isolated events because of our perception and that's because we have a need to deal with 'one thing at a time', otherwise it would appear that everything is one great big ALL that is happening at the same time so to speak! Conversations continue in minds long after mouths have stopped talking.
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The 'big match' may come to an end when the final whistle goes but the lives of the players doesn't. Deep down we sense there is only a continuous flow, a river of unending, infinite possibilities. If we can see our life as living in such a flowing light then the idea of a conclusion is seen for what it is, an illusion. Death then becomes a pause, just a coma, not in a life sentence but in one long, continuous, beautifully expressed, sentence that living is.
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It becomes just a brief transition, an interlude between chapters. This feeling of continuity then frees us from fear and our dignity and poise are restored. And besides if someone offered us the opportunity to live for five hundred years in our current body who would accept it? In that light death could be seen as a blessing. Combined with the reality of our eternity it becomes simply a moment to refresh ourselves and set of on a new adventure.
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From the spiritual point of view, when we choose to 'die alive', which simply means a life of non attachment, we can cheat the death that comes with physical decay. We have already let go before it is time to 'let go'. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust is just the stuff of our bodies returning to earth but we are not ash and dust.
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When we realise that spirit is what we are we are liberated in life and therefore liberated from death. This freedom is the only window through which the breeze of real happiness and joy can enter. Only then, when the time comes will we know the moment to move on to the next chapter, to that new adventure. Only then will we be able to move on as effortlessly as moving from our living room to our bedroom at the end of the day. In that moment we may know death as it really is, not the end of the line just a 'pause' on the line with no end. In the words (approx) of Williams Blakes 'ship on the horizon' metaphor for the dying process, those watching the ship sailing away over the horizon shout, "There she goes". While at the very same moment others or a far shore are shouting, "Here she comes".
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Question: What is your ides/concept of death?
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Reflection: Imagine you are offered the chance to live for 500 years, would you accept it? If not why not? If so why so?
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Action: Consciously identify those things/relationships to which you are most attached, which seem to 'give' you the will to live and visualise them dissolving into the background..
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Mike George is an author of several books. If you would like to subscribe (free) to his weekly Clear Thinking article send an email to mike@relax7.com or visit www.relax7.com

Synchronicity

Strange! Many things seem well lined up in the last few days.

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Last week, a friend explained to me what jatropha is and on the next day, another friend contacted me out of the blue to tell me that he knows of people growing the crop and that they may need help in looking for funds.

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The day after in a party, another friend introduced to me her two friends - one of them a trained environmental engineer, which fits in well with my environmental technology business and the other, a lady from Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The next day, I was introduced to a businessman from Chengdu, by another friend.

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In last weekend's Personal Planet workshop, we ended crafting plans for social enterprises. A fortnight before, the facilitator of another workshop identified that I will be going into the creation of social enterprises.

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Distilling it all, the keywords for me to watch out for seems to be 'Environment', 'Chengdu', 'Social enterprise' and 'Jatropha'. We will see what comes out next.

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Do you have such experiences before?

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Bucky Group 13 - Personal Planet

Just came back from a gruelling 21 hour Personal Planet workshop organised by the Bucky Group and facilitated by Mr Medard Gabel at the Singapore Management University on the 3 and 4 November 2007. I was exhausted at the end of the workshop. There was so much cramped into the two-day seminar plus lots of documents to take home to read in a CD-ROM.
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Medard Gabel is a noted author and speaker who co-founded World Game Institute with Buckminster Fuller. Medard also co-founded Osearth and is founder and CEO of BigPictureSmallWorld. In conjunction with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Medard created the Design Science lab which is a workshop for developing strategies to address the United Nations Millenium Development Goals. For more information, click here

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What I got out from this workshop is that "Perspective is More important than Knowledge". For that Medard took us to the key statistics of the world to show how disproportionate resources are alocated in the world and how so many in developing countries are suffering.

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We went on a universal view that we are living in a world of abundance where the universe is continuously re-generating, since energy is neither created or destroyed. Then we went also on a personal view of who we are and where we would like to go to. The exercises in the workshop oscillates from the individual's perspectives to universal perspectives and vice versa. It thus led us to reflect on the Big Picture and also the individual aspirations in this Small World. A world made small as it gets more and more wired by telecommunications and air travel.

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I find that it is in this pulsation between individual and universal views that we put our plans into perspective to change the world and serve humanity much as Bucky did. Bucky is able to articulate the energy flows in the Universe and is also able to go into monumental detail of designing various life supporting inventions, like the geodesic dome.

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As the workshop moved on, the activities became more and more interactive and experiential. We all were expected to think of a global or local problem and create a business plan to change the world.

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I have envisioned a self-contained ecologically sustainable housing product, other participants dwell on education, organic products, recycling, renewable energies and products for autistic children - all to change the world and make it a better place. I think all aspiring entrepreneurs should attend this workshop to understand the individual's perspective in the world and its prevailing problems and then design enterprises to solve them. That way, there will be more creation of life supporting wealth to serve humanity.

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