Religious discussion here LO15088

jon (jon_jenkins_imaginal_training@pi.net)
Tue, 23 Sep 97 07:03:50 PDT

Replying to LO15072 --

Dear Colleagues

Several things have been written over the past few weeks about spirit and
religion have troubled me. The two that have been most troubling have had
to do with sterotypes and who you speak for, yourself or your group.

It may be that I don't understand what is meant by sterotype but I find
that they are necessary. I have images that are relatively fixed about
people, relationships and places. These images can and do change but with
difficulty. I am glad about that difficulty. I am also glad that they
change. I do not think that I could function without them being fixed and
I could not learn if they did not change. I expect my mental models to
enable me to act in the world. When I see an organization operate with
rules as its fundamental operating principle, I call it bureaucratic.
This title enables me to respond toward it. I know that I may discover I
am wrong in understanding it as bureaucratic and I may be wrong in my
response to bureaucratic organizations. When I make a discovery like this
I change my image or my actions but, in my experience, I am reluctant to
make these changes when there is a small disrelationship between my image
and what I observe. I believe that living in this paradox between being
open and being closed requires some depth of spirit.

As a foreigner, while I can say I only speak for myself, in fact, what
people hear is American, is male, is my religion, is my company, is etc.
I can deny the validity of their perceptions. Denial is not taking them
seriously. Again I find a paradox. The only thing I can speak for is
myself and I am heard as a whole complex of sterotypes. I feel I am
resposible, in part, for what is heard. If I am loud, arrogant,
politically naive then I reenforce the sterotypes about Americans. I
believe that living in this paradox requires some depth of spirit.

A third thread that I had difficulty with is "the enemy is not out there".
I asked if this is true why do we have police forces. I may have been a
little to quick and not as funny as I intended. I firmly believe that
this is another of those paradoxes.

These paradoxes are simliar to the paradox of personal mastery. What I
remember is the tension between a personal vision of the future, an honest
assessment of present reality and dealing with doubts. My personal vision
of the future is neither a blue print nor a fantasy it is my sincere
hopes. I lie to myself about the present and so I constantly struggle
with ways of seeing the present more clearly while at the same time I know
the eyes I see through are a social/individual construction. I can deny
or fall prey to my doubts. I struggle to recognize them and work with
them.

I enjoy/hate my struggles in these areas and it is easy to fall to one
side of the paradox or the other side.

With concern

Jon C. Jenkins
Imaginal Training
Groningen, The Netherlands
www.noord.bart.nl/~imaginal/

Name: Jon C. Jenkins
E-mail: imaginal@pop.pi.net (Jon C. Jenkins)

-- 

jon <jon_jenkins_imaginal_training@pi.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>