Zaadz: The Interior's Answer to an Exterior Advancement

So important Matthew!  It definately is a struggle to create a community on-line using high levels of LR technology when the LL is well…still quite a mess to deal with.  All of our worldviews, lines, colors, and subpersonalities(-: attempting to get a voice on the open space.  Its really difficult to manage all those pockets and create a site that is both inclusive of all views yet clear on its purpose and focus to pursue the most beneficial LL development for all.  My support is with you for this difficult task(-:  Thanks for taking it on.
V. 

Very nice analysis here Matthew. It’s very cool to be part of this self-aware manifestation of the times. I also love the way you put that last line: “the mission that zaadz has challeneged us to participate it!” That is so true. It’s so awesome that there is such a call here on zaadz, to rise beyond our own interests and even what we have imagined. We are called to our higher selves and that includes being impacted and contributing as opportunties arise. We are all asked to take something on. It’s pretty remarkable.

Know what?  I’m feeling sort of stupid for something I did.  Maybe I shouldn’t, but I’m kinda still processing it.  Last week, I was searching around the internet for ways to invest in Zaadz.. mostly of the financial persuasion.. but I came across some random person’s blog that had a very upset post in it!   To sum it up, I think the guy was just upset that his account was deleted when Zaadz did some “house-cleaning.”  Who knows why it was deleted.  Anyway, I sent a feedback message to the Zaadz staff asking about it (and haven’t gotten a response), mostly because I was concerned that there was something icky going on with that guy’s post and his removal from the community - and I was questioning whether I wanted to be part of a selective community.  My intent was not to whine about Zaadz’s policy and actions, but to examine what happens with a community dynamic when that community is (for lack of a better term) streamlined.

I don’t need the universe to feel good, but I certainly want to feel good about the things I’m a part of.. which in turn will lead to universal goodness, you know?  For people who may not be familiar with AQAL and Spiral Dynamics, here’s a little imagery for you: I had a slip down the rainbow slide there for a second.  I will certainly be exploring my issues with “feel-good” syndrome in more depth.  If you are familiar with the Integral Naked forums, perhaps you can connect my concern for Zaadz with some of the less sparkling moments our IN community experienced from those lurking Red pockets.

..yours in Striving for Community Flow,

Beth

Hi Matthew:

Thanks for this one too. When I hear that talk between Ken and Andrew, it really hit home for me. I had just finished reading Ray Kurzweil’s new and excellent book “The Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever” I am totally on board with the idea of living 100 years, or even 500 years if it becomes technically possible in my life time. I’m also not afraid of Kurzweil’s vision of the combining of biology and technology. Heck, walking around with my iPod in my ears, my cell phone in my jacket’s sleeve pocket, my PDA in my bag and my laptop in my backpack makes me think that integrating all these things into little chips embedded into my brain would be just fine!

But the issue of the left side of the quadrants catching up to the right side (in both the upper and the lower) is the big bugaboo. What will we do with the amazing, exponential advances in technology? Zaadz is a great example of putting them to good use (and isn’t it great to know that doing the right thing can be fun too?!)

So for me, that’s one of the imperatives for doing ILP (and maybe especially, meditation.) I’d better be as far along in as many developmental lines as I can be in order to handle the Tsunami of technology whose advance waves are now washing up on our cultural shores.

Your point about the red/green issues is well taken too. It really points up Ken’s stress on the pre/trans fallacy. So much of what is pre-conventional is glorified in the name of post-conventional (and then the mean green meme insists on the right of the red folks to stomp their feet and get aggressive in the name of inclusivity.)

This is where heirarchy and ranking are vital if we really want to move forward into yellow and beyond. Red can be honored in the sense that it is and improvement from beige and purple, but it just ain’t as good for our shrinking global culture as yellow and turquoise.

So sometimes those ideals have to be upheld and maybe even “enforced” in a community such as this.

There’s my two cents. :-)

R

Yeah, its up to all of us to do all that we can, starting in our own back yards. Ken’s other point that its probably most important to help people be the most healthy possible expression of whatever stage they are at is really helpful too.

In some ways I’ve seen this in the Tibetan tradition that I follow. I’ve met some pretty highly advanced Tibetans who culturally, are probably still somewhat on the ethnocentric side. They will always see their particular Tibetan expression of Buddhism as THE best version. And be a bit suspicious that Westerners could ever attain as full an enlightenment as their Tibetan heros. But, having said that, their training in compassion, bodhicitta, tonglen gives them non-aggressive, non-colonializing expression of their nationalistic pride. So that aspect is softened, regardless of whether or not they really ever embrace a more world-centric view.

It seems to me that this is the first line of “attack” in terms of the middle-eastern conflict, for example. Let people still think their nation, or culture is the best. Let them love it and glory in it. Just help them to see that pulling out guns and annihilating everyone else is not an appropriate expression of that passion.

R

I suppose we could create a sub culture here at Zaadz where the AQAL ‘sheriff’ kept watch over posts and relegated all ‘reds’ and below to a special pocket - we could call it the ‘jail’.  And then ‘blue’ could stay with the rest of us ( because there’s hope for them, still).  Then ‘reds could have ‘test’ day and if they could answer all the questions correctly, we could graduate ‘em!!
~  But I won’t be talkin much anymore (unless I get to be the ‘sheriff’) hee hee, ha ha , haw, haw, haw ; -)))))

Sorry for making light of an  apparently real threat.  I’m not too experienced with social websites.  Mea Culpa hon