M3: Spreading (09)
“The map of the self” integrates in a single framework “the 5 levels of the self” plus “the skeleton of the self”. This conceptual framework builds order and meaning to the evolution of the self through meditation practice in a three-movement process that we call “the path to consciousness”.
The third movement, which we call M3, aggregates, expands and spreads consciousness into conscious communities. This movement is often forgotten in meditation practices.
The self scales up through “communities” or “collectives”. We human beings group into sets of individuals for all kind of reasons: biological, cultural, economic, or political.
The collective has many sizes and forms. From a size perspective, it goes from a collective of two (a couple) to a collective of 8 billion (global). From a form perspective, the collective packs under all kind of names like family, business, government, or global organizations. Some are ruled, some others are informally negotiated. Some are hierarchical, some others are horizontal. Sometimes we participate as leaders, some others as followers. In our framework, we group the undefined set of collectives into three levels: micro, macro, and mundo.
The “micro collective” has such a size and form that we individuals have direct, close access to whatever the situations are. We individuals fully participate with our own self. There is no intermediation but other individuals.
Examples of micro collectives are family, friends, team, department, business, NGO, cultural association, school, hospital, university, political party, or local government. We call them also “institutions”.
The “macro collective” has such a size and form that we individuals only have indirect, distant access to whatever the situations are. We individuals have a limited participation through specific actions (or maybe inter-actions) of engagement, like voting, watching, working or buying. There is always the intermediation of an institution. Actually, the macro collective is the playing field of institutions. From a macro perspective, we individuals are faceless and receive names like customers, voters, citizens, employees, audience, or stakeholders.
Examples of macro collectives are the big organizations (including multinational corporations and the like) which conform the political system, the economic system, mass media, social media, or religions. We also call them “systems” and together they create a “society”.
The “mundo collective” is so big that we don’t have any access at all to whatever the situations are. Eventually, we individuals can participate through very specific actions (or maybe inter-actions) of engagement, like large demonstrations or wars. However, there is always the intermediation of layers and layers of institutions. The mundo collective is the playing field of systems and societies. We can also call it “humanity”. When including all sentient beings, we call it “planet earth”.
Examples of mundo collectives are United Nations, the World Economic Forum, or the International Monetary Forum.
It is important to notice that a small minority of individuals perform actions on behalf of institutions, societies and humanity through very specific roles. These individuals are commonly referred to as “leadership elites” and it seems that their roles have phagocytized their condition as individuals.
But what is it that scales up? It is “the skeleton of the self” scaling up when there is collective (the micro, the macro, and the mundo). Each collective has its own skeleton composed of attention, intention, attitude, action and impact.
For the sake of simplicity, our framework considers only three levels: the nano/self level, the micro/institutional level, and the macro/society level. And we will name them “the skeleton of the self”, “the skeleton of the institution” and “the skeleton of society”.
Aggregation
From the nano perspective, the collective happens by aggregation (or addition) of the skeletons of the self of all individual participants in the collective.
Each individual brings to the collective the skeleton of the self with all its qualities as represented by the superscripts. We call the superscripts as “the quality of the self”. However, we will use arrows (instead of superscripts) to draw the aggregation of qualities by matching these two unpacking of “the wholeness”:
With these arrows, we redraw the aggregation of the skeletons of self to illustrate them as mechanical forces. Qualities can be added, subtracted or neutralized in a process that determines the quality of the skeleton of the collective. Although these different forces happen also in attention and intention, we will draw them on impact.
From the perspective of forces, this drawing captures the building of the collective:
When a scenario like this occurs and a collective builds with individuals with different qualities, conflict easily happens at the collective level. Any movement is slow, difficult and fraught with resistance. The final direction depends on the struggle of forces. The more individuals, the more complexity and the more unpredictable is the collective.
The challenge is to align forces to avoid resistance, conflict and unpredictability. Thus, the movement at the collective level will be fast, easy and plenty of virtuous circles.
Somehow, when two individuals (or more) meet and discover that they enjoy the same qualities of the self, a magnetic synchronization occurs. Expressions such as “soul mates” or “love at first sight” try to capture this attraction that is experienced as magical, like a very deep and intimate “trust”.
Of course, this can occasionally happen between an individual and a collective, although it is not so common. On the other hand, “leadership elites” strongly play their roles to build this magnetic synchronization at a mass level. When they succeed, top down we call it “populism” and bottom up we call it “fanatism”.
Embedment
At the different levels, there is a permanent interaction among the nano, the micro and the macro in such a way that they influence each other in an attempt to aggregate and, eventually, synchronize. We receive the qualities of the collective and then we give back our own qualities. This interaction is so strong that we can illustrated it as if they embed one inside the other like Russian dolls. We call it “the embedded self”.
This two-way interaction, or influence, can be appreciated nicely when we observe childhood and adulthood. As children, it is an “outside-in influence” as we receive and build everything from institutions like family, school, media, and friends. When adults, we supposedly have grown up enough as to exercise our “free-will”, reverse to “inside-out influence” and extend back over the institutions and, through them, to others. Hopefully, we adults give back an improved version of what we received as children.
However, may it because the patriarchal tradition in families, may it because “the teacher speaks and the student listens” approach in schools, may it because the hierarchical organization of most institutions, may it because the mass media (including the so called “attention economy”), may surely be it because a mix of them all, reality is that we grow distracted adults, unaware of the self and behaving in automatic pilot.
In our framework, this would be a better drawing for the type of two-way interaction that describes how is “the embedded self” in automatic pilot mode, in a situation where we repeat once and again what we received in perpetual cycles. In Otto Scharmer’s words, this is the “same old, same old, same old” process.
In plain words, our attention is where the institutions and society say it should be (i.e., watch the news, know the rules); our intention is what the institutions and society say it should be (i.e., make money, be financially independent); our action is a reaction packed by the institutions and society (i.e., work there, consume this, and vote me); our impact is what institutions and society look for (i.e., grow the economy and never mind anything else); and our attitude is how institutions and society trained it to be (i.e., competitive, mechanical and aggressive).
Somehow, we are pushed into a life in automatic pilot that looks like “a rat race” more than a fully human life. And by behaving like that, we hold the institutions and the society that is permanently pushing us in “a vicious cycle” that strengthens their low-quality skeletons. We support the collective that mistreats us.
When we choose different, as we are doing through the path to consciousness, we need to change the mechanics of the embedded self. In our framework’s drawings, this is a three-step movement: reversion, expansion, and spreading.
Mindfulness practice in general, as well as any other form of meditation, help a lot to reconnect with your new self when there is conflict with any collective and recover the quality. At this stage, practicing feels like coming back home but the inner home, the safe cave, or the temple inside. Specific practices like the self-compassion practice, the resilience practice, the loving kindness practice, the compassion practice, and the gratitude practice can help a lot also at these steps. Joining a “group of practitioners”, on the other hand, is of great help to recover the quality of the self.
Reversion
The reversion step happens when “the new conscious self” confronts “the skeleton of institutions” and “the skeleton of society” and stays alive, fully aware and rooted as we described in M2.
Initially, this happens as we practice in isolation and we make small, safe incursions into the collective. Then, when we fully come back, we enter the realm of “putting limits” on everything that arrives to us and is against our free choice. It is about saying “no, thank you” when the collectives negatively threaten us and saying “yes, thank you” when they positively feed us. The advice is to let the collective as it was or to improve it, but never contribute to it for the worse.
Everything we listen about “screening what penetrates” the self or living a “rightful and conscious life” is about making this step and holding our new place. Another way that we can understand this is the common “walk your talk” approach. Of course, a key ability here is also “managing conflict” wisely.
Expansion and spreading
These next steps come together as spreading will depend on how successful we are regarding expansion. “Expansion” happens at the institutional level while “spreading” will happen at the society level, the playing field of institutions.
The movement we look forward to is moving from attention, intention, attitude, action, and impact towards “shared attention”, “shared intention”, “shared attitude”, “shared action”, and “shared impact”. Somehow, we look forward to building “the shared skeleton” which will become “the skeleton of the institution” and “the skeleton of society”.
Expansion is to freely “join collectives and communities” which are aligned with the new conscious self. It is about aggregating your own skeleton of the self with others, so you are not alone and strengthening happens at all levels of the self. My best approach at this step is “to feed what we want to grow and to stop feeding what we do not want to grow”.
· Usually, this is about “exchanging” collectives. For each new collective that we join, an old collective needs to be abandoned. This can be as easy as to exchange the food supermarket or as difficult as to exchange job, the group of friends or the community where we live. Conceptually, it is about renewing our box outside and making it as friendly and supportive as possible for the new conscious self.
· Alternatively, this could also be about actively “creating” new institutions and embedding them with our own skeleton of the self, so it grows into the skeleton of the institution. Then, we recruit and welcome others who are aligned with us.
· Eventually, this is also about actively “renewing” the skeleton of the institutions where we directly participate. This can happen one person at a time, or collectively from a leadership position.
Any path we choose, a key step will be “the exploration of the new” at the collective level to open your understanding of what others are doing. These are some examples from a leadership-business-economy point of view:
· from a leadership perspective, the new presents itself as human-centered leadership, compassionate leadership, servant leadership, or feminine leadership.
· from a business perspective, the new comes with names like social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, B-Corps, companies for the Common Good, or platform cooperatives.
· from institutional values perspective, the new comes as teal organizations, SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), IDGs (Inner Development Goals), or ESG (Environment, Social, Governance).
· from an economic system perspective, the new comes with names like common good economy, circular economy, true sharing economy, social economy, sacred economy, donuts economy, responsible consumerism, or impact investment.
This drawing illustrates the whole sequence with the previous three steps:
The key skills to facilitate these steps will depend on our role as a leader, a collaborator or a follower. Nevertheless, we summarize them as “the powers toolbox” which includes the following 6 specific categories:
1. the power of listening.- this is about deep listening which comes with names like mindful listening, empathetic listening, and generative listening. Group proposals like the circle of wisdom or coaching circles are also very helpful.
2. the power of communicating.- this is about communication with easiness in a respectful and inclusive manner. Conscious communication is key. Proposals like non-violent communication, neuro-linguistic programming, or loving communication become a must-have. We like a lot the “Four Agreements” approach by Dr. Miguel Ruiz.
3. the power of facilitating alignment.- this is about holding the space for the collective to meet and helping on the synchronization and crystallization of everything that is commonly shared. Channeling “creative tension” whenever it appears through any of the multiple techniques available is a must-have skill.
4. the power of utopias.- this is about adding up and updating the different dimensions that participants bring and facilitating a coherent, positive and inclusive vision of “the potentiality of the collective” and how the different individuals contribute to the collective.
5. the power of setting an example.- this is about passively being crystal clear about our experience, offering the self to others and holding any received “admiration” humbly.
6. the power of evangelizing.- this is about being knowledgeable of our experience and competences, and actively opening them to others in a way that we “talk our walk”.
The first 3 powers can be acquired with specific training and practice. The latest 3 only come when embodiment happens, as described in M2. Key at any collective is to build “psychological safety” as described by Amy C. Edmonson. Of course, faking the powers also can happen, both unconsciously and consciously.
We illustrate this powers toolbox as a skeleton of the self in continuous movement. We name it as “the dancing skeleton”. Part of the movement is upwards and downwards in order to open to receiving the new and close to crystalizing it. Part of the movement is backwards and forwards in order to retrieve what helps from the past and complement it with what comes from the potentiality of the future. Part of the movement is outwards and inwards in order to synchronize the skeletons of the self, the institution, and society.
At the individual level, mastering the toolbox could manifest as “the sacred office”: there is freely chosen “poverty” (serving “the small other” and “the big other” fully overlaps the self), “obedience” (serving the purpose rules behavior), and “celibacy” (no preference of one individual over another). Key thing here is the “freely chosen” attitude which is clean of sacrifice and plenty of joy.
At the collective level, mastering this toolbox manifest as “innovation management” (or the management of change). This is especially needed when the main focus is “the skeleton of the institution” and there is also the need to move or change the structures that surround it.
The structure of the relationships within the collective fully conditions the approach. When there is a hierarchical pyramid, “hierarchical leaders” invert the pyramid and choose to serve individuals at lower levels in a way that the organizational structures serve to that what is shared, the shared skeleton. When there is a network organization, “natural leaders” fully embody the shared skeleton and pack it, so it is always present in any interaction they perform. In both cases, the leadership function is “holding the space” for the embedded self to gain on quality.
All the work developed by Otto Scharmer and Presencing Institute around “Theory U” is priceless. Also, less well-known but also very practical proposals are “Dragon Dreaming” (John Croft and Vivienne Elanta), “TejeRedes” (Cristian Figueroa) or “The Art of Hosting”. The “teal organization” movement (Frederich Laroux) also offers a very interesting and complementary approach.
To highlight the importance of “the powers toolbox” and “the dancing skeleton”, we summarize the whole M3 movement like follows:
Next chapters coming soon: The Skeleton of Consciousness, Loving Attitude, and The Roadmap to Conscious Love