Changing our Paradigm

R. Buckminister Fuller said that in order to change a paradigm, we must create a new one.  That is what this episode is about.

Here are the steps to changing our paradigm, which are detailed in the podcast:

Talk, journal, pay attention to yourself, get spiritual and pray.

Quote from the podcast: "We need to know ourselves in order to know god."

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Transcript

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Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of Fearlessly Feral Living. This is Reverend Karen coming at you, and today I want to talk about changing our paradigm. And I want to open with this quote by R. Bug Mr. Fuller. He said, in order to change an existing paradigm, you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. So that's what I'm going to talk about today. So first I'm going to do the intro because they say I got to do the intro in every episode. I don't know who they are, by the way. I'm just going with the flow here. Gotta do the intro. What if it's someone listening to this for the very first time? They gotta know where I'm coming from and what I'm doing. So this is Fearlessly Fair A Living, broadcasting to you from the Woogie Ranch out here in the back 40 of northwestern Nevada, where I'm a half an hour away from the nearest gas station and the nearest grocery store. This is a podcast devoted to using new thought principles to ensure sex successful creative living. Fearlessly Feral is a focused ministry of Centers for Spiritual Living. And we are devoted to the vision of a world in which everyone lives fearlessly feral. In other words, wild and free. Now, in the introduction, I read you this quote, and I want to read the quote again because it's it's powerful stuff. Our buck, Mr. Fuller, said in order to change an existing paradigm, you do not try to change the problematic model. In other words, he's saying don't try to change what is. It's fruitless, futile. It doesn't work. As one of my mentors used to tell me, it's like trying to teach a pig to fly. It doesn't work and it just frustrates the pig. We cannot change what is. But what we can do is create a new model, thus making the old one obsolete. And I really believe that that is possible. However, we have to do a little bit of work first. So changing our paradigm, the paradigm, the strictest definition of the word is that it's about groups. A paradigm is about groups of people thinking and acting and believing in a certain way, not individuals. But in this teaching called Science of Mine, everything begins within. We have to go within first, or we can't do anything outside of ourselves. We must go within first. So we've got to take a look at ourselves. So this podcast is going to be kind of twofold. And I want to start with a little story about a couple of groups that I had the pleasure of working with during COVID. In the first group, they had to change their paradigm when shelter in place was put into effect. And in the second group, they had to change it again when shelter in place was rescinded. But the common paradigm with both of these groups was that they both wanted things to go back to the way they used to be. See, they didn't really change their paradigm. They just said, oh, we're going to do this for a little while because we have to, but then we're going to go back to the way things used to be. And I encouraged them to explore a new way of showing up in the world, a new way of being and doing things. And they did that fairly successfully, both groups. And today, you know, when I check into those groups, they're doing well. So they did manage to change their paradigm. They both managed to include all the new technology that is available to us that they weren't including before. They didn't exclude the technology and go back to only in-person things. And I love that. I love that. Obviously, I'm a fan of online technology and getting the word out in this format. So their paradigm was originally that they wanted to go back to the past. And I told them that's just not going to work. And we did some work around that, and yes, they were successful at it. So here's the deal about paradigms. If we don't create new models for how we do everything, we're doomed to failure. Doomed. The churches are failing because they refuse to create new ways of doing things. This country is going to hell in a houndbasket because we're not creating new ways of doing things. Our very lives become never-ending cycles of simply surviving unless we figure out new paradigms for ourselves. We need new paradigms. We need new paradigms in our churches, we need new paradigms in our country, and we need new paradigms in ourselves. Trying to go back to the past has never ever worked, and it won't work now, folks. And I know there's a ton of folks out there who want to go back to the past. I see it almost every single day. A while back, there was a meme floating around. It was a photo of a crowded beach. And it had all these happy, healthy, young, trim young people on this very crowded beach, and they were all in their bathing suits and they were all smiling and laughing and having a good time. And the era was in the late 1960s, and I looked at that photo and I, and you know, the meme, the the words on the photo, which is what made it a meme, said something about how wonderful it would be if we could go back to that place in time. And I looked at that and I shook my head and I went, oh shit, no, really? Come on, guys. No. That wasn't a happy time, people. All those women in that photo, they could not get a credit card in their own name. Nor could they own property in their own name. They had to have either a father or a husband own it for them. There were no faces of color in that photo. Now integration had been legislated in and slavery legislated out. So we weren't blatantly racist, although I question that too. But we were overtly racist and we still are. Thirdly, back then, if you dared to be different in any way, shape, or form, I don't care if you wore your clothes different, whatever. You were shamed and ridiculed and you couldn't get a job and people talked about you behind your back, and it was horrible, absolutely horrible. Inclusivity was not on people's radar back then, guys. It was not a good time. And then the other day I went to a picnic and I'm sitting there chatting with a man who was probably in his 80s, and we were having the most wonderful conversation. And I was quite proud of myself because I know who this guy voted for, by the way. I was quite proud of myself. He was wearing a hat that said, I wish it could go back to the way it was in my childhood. And I'm thinking, oh you poor thing. First of all, we're sitting there, and part of what made our conversation beautiful is that we're sharing photos on our cell phones. We wouldn't have been able to do that had we been back in that time he wants to go back to. Secondly, we would have never had that conversation in the first place because part of our conversation consisted of talking about a hobby of mine that women simply didn't do back then. Thirdly, you know, this guy's married, I know his wife, and back then, those kinds of conversations between genders, they didn't happen. It just didn't happen. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm, you know, on the one hand, I'm kind of proud of myself because I'm having a wonderful productive conversation with someone who thinks radically different than I do. And I've really been working at that one, guys. I'm trying to change my paradigm. And on the other hand, I'm feeling sorry for him because he wants to go back to the way it was. He doesn't see how beautiful it can be to change our paradigm. And so, and it can be beautiful. It can be beautiful. So there's a spiritual law at work here. I'm making up a name for this. I call it the law of forward movement. You heard it here first, folks. I don't know that that's a law, but it is now because I said it. This law says if you aren't moving forward, you're moving backward. It also says that if you're standing still, you're moving backward. Now, balance notwithstanding, sometimes we have to rest. I mean, even God rested one day a week. So we do have to rest, but that is so there's balance here. But generally we need to be moving forward, we need to be open to new ideas, we need to be humble. We need and humble means we are open to new ideas. So if you aren't moving forward, you're moving backward. If you're standing still, you're moving backward. This it's because of this law that I'm always striving for more. This is because of this law that I'm always saying, but wait, there's more. Not because what happened previously was bad. In fact, it's just the opposite. What happened previously was exactly what was supposed to happen to get us to where we are today. Which, in spite of the problems and the need to change our paradigm, is a pretty good place. I have this thing, this piece of paper hanging on my fridge. It's a joke. It's kind of a long joke. It's an eight by ten sheet of paper and it's titled Comparative Analysis of Religions. And then the subtitle is If shit happens. And it goes through about 20 or 30 different faith traditions and talks about if shit happens, you deserved it. If shit happens, it was meant to be, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, the analysis for science of mind says, if shit happens, it is good in disguise. And I can tell you, I actually believe that. And I believe it because I have the experience to back it up. Every single thing that has happened in my life may not have seemed good at the time, but it was good in disguise. Of course, I didn't know that, you know, until later, but I wouldn't be here where I'm at today unless I had gone there before. So everything that's happening is good in disguise. And if we can hang on to that right now, folks, with all the shit that's coming down, if we can know without doubt that it is good in disguise, we'll be a step ahead. We'll be a step ahead. So what do we do when shit happens? I mean, regardless of whether or not we believe it's good in disguise, we've got to do something. What do we do? How do we change the paradigm? Because if shit happens, that's a that's a call, it's a catalyst, it's a it's a wake up, it's a a push, a nudge, a poke. When shit happens, it's a message telling us, honey, time to change your paradigm. That's all that is. It's just something within us and outside of us saying, This needs to change. And so here you go. I'm gonna throw some opportunities at you, which may not seem good at the time, but they're good in disguise. And when this happens, you know, we go into grief and despair and pain and sadness and anger and frustration and all that stuff, and the temptation is to want to stuff it all and ignore it and not feel it. And that isn't the way to do things. The way out is through, not around. We have to look at that stuff if we're gonna get the gift from it. We have to look at that stuff if we're going to get the good from it. So here's how we do that. I've got it divvied up into some steps. Five steps. First of all, talk about it with others. Share what you're feeling, share it with a mentor or a sponsor or prayer partner or a friend who is not codependent, by the way. You don't want them trying to fix you. You just want them to listen and maybe share some of their own experiences in return. That's one. Two, journal about it. Now, there's almost as many ways to journal as there are people. I have some favorites, maybe you do too, but I love to begin with what Julia Campbell calls the morning pages in her book, The Artist Way. Stream of consciousness writing. In other words, sit down and just write out what comes. Don't worry about punctuation, don't worry about spelling, don't even worry if it's legible because you're never going to go back and read it again. Just get it out on paper. And while I'm a proponent of doing things digitally and electronically to save paper, this part should be done the old-fashioned way with pen and paper. There's something about sitting down and putting pen to paper and get letting that stuff flow out of you, out of your brain, out of that busy mind, and into the pen in your hand and out onto the paper that it does something. It's it's almost like magic. If you do that for a few days in a row, you'll notice changes happening within you. But the other ways you can begin to journal, you know, write down what you're feeling, but follow it up with writing down what you would like to feel instead. This is the beginning of being able to change the paradigm. Because remember, we're not trying to fix the old paradigm, we're creating something new. So we write down what we want to feel instead. Now, once we focus on what we want to feel instead, here's another law. What we focus on expands. Oh, and by the way, what we resist persists. So what we focus on expands. So if you think about what you would like to be feeling instead of all that despair and sadness and anger and grief and all that yucky stuff, focus on what you do want to feel instead. Then you've created an opening for creativity to get in there and start providing you with some ideas about precisely how to get to that place that you are envisioning. So that's step two journal. So step one's talk, step two is write. Step three is pay attention to yourself. These times are great for being able to discern what your beliefs and values are. We have to know what our beliefs are. We have to know what our values are. I was talking to a lady the other day, and she said she didn't really care who people voted for or any of that other stuff. She comp she cared that they had good morals. And I found myself wondering, I wonder what she considers good morals. And I didn't ask her at the time because it wasn't the right time or place. One of these days I will. What does she consider good morals? And I'll bet you any amount of money it's different than what I consider good morals. We have to know what our morals are. We have to know what our own beliefs are, we have to know what our own values are. And they have to be beliefs and values that we installed ourselves, not what somebody else installed. Lately, I've been seeing a lot of conversations online about people who think that they have to go to church in order to find out or discover what beliefs and values they should have. And I find that kind of distressing and really, really sad. We get to figure this out for ourselves. Because guess what, guys? How we live our lives, what happens in our lives, and what shows up in our lives starts with our beliefs and our values. I have a quote for you. I don't know who originally said that, this quote. I researched it. Here's who this quotes quote has been attributed to over the years. Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chinese philosopher Latsu, supermarket magnet Frank Outlaw, spiritual teacher Guatama Buddha, and the father of Margaret Thatcher. All those people, this quote is attributed to them, and those are some different kinds of people there, folks. So that tells me there's some legitimacy to this quote. Here it is. Watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Watch your words, for they become your actions. Watch your actions, for they become your habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. So once again, we're being told it begins within each and every one of us. We've got to know what's going on inside of ourselves. We really do. It's okay to go within. And this brings me to my next step. So we have talk right, pay attention, and now we're gonna get spiritual. Because it's really the most important piece. I should put spiritual first, but no, talk right, pay attention, get spiritual. So here's the deal. If it's true that God is within us, and I believe it is, if it's true that a God that God is a part of us, and I believe it is, then going within is essential because how the hell are we gonna know God if we don't go in? How are we gonna know God in our lives if we don't go within and find it and connect with it and know it and be it? We got to know ourselves in order to know God. It is as simple as that. And guess what? If you don't want to go within because you think your mind is a dangerous neighborhood, guess what? If you know that God is within you, it cannot possibly be a dangerous neighborhood in there, unless you think God's a bad dude, and then you got some work to do. But trust me, oh my god, I'm feeling silly today, obviously, because this is not in my notes, guys. I'm I'm ad-libbing a lot here today, and I'm gonna go with it. I'm gonna I'm gonna publish this puppy. Anyway, go within. Inside of you is not a dangerous neighborhood. It is a beautiful, absolutely wondrous, delightful place when we recognize that God is a part of that within us. So, talk, write, pay attention, get spiritual, pray. Now, lots of different forms of prayer. Probably as many different forms of prayer as there are journaline. We pray in whatever way works for us. I don't care if you worship nature, I don't care if you beseech an outside God, I don't care with you can if you connect with the force, which is my favorite thing to do, I don't care if you light some candles and invoke the four directions in ritual. I just don't care. What I care is that you do it. Pray. Affirm clarity, right thinking, grace, dignity, gratitude, or any of those. Pray. Don't pray for stuff. Pray for right thinking. Pray for clarity. Pray for grace and dignity and gratitude. Any of all of those works very well. Once we have those in place, the answers come. So here we are. We're in a place of choice. We can stay stuck and move backward if we want. And that's not going to be fun. Or we can change the way we speak to each other and create a new paradigm. We begin by going within, but there's also some real simple things we can do. And I'll make this quick. Don't attack others. In other words, mostly verbally. It's happening everywhere these days. Don't make sarcastic remarks. Don't call people names. Just stop it. And yeah, I get it. Doing that kind of stuff provides a temporary feeling of superiority, but that feeling does not last. And it only perpetuates the current paradigm. Stop attacking, folks. And I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican. I don't care if you're liberal or conservative. I don't care if you're Christian or atheist or agnostic. Do not attack others. Period. It's pretty easy. Don't blame others. So here's another spiritual truth about blame. Did you know that every time you blame someone or something else for your circumstances, you are creating victimhood for yourself? This isn't about them guys. So I'll just leave it there. Don't blame others. Take personal responsibility instead. Don't judge others. Here's another spiritual truth for you. Anytime we're judging another person or another anything, it means one of two things. We're either projecting or denying. In the case of projecting, we're projecting something about ourselves that we don't like, and so we're seeing it in others. Or we're refusing to look at something within ourselves that really needs us to take a look at it. So it keeps appearing over and over and over again. So here's a recap. If we wish to create a new paradigm, we have to first go within and discover our true selves and heal any wounds. Then we must change the way we communicate with others. Then we must go out into the world and help spread this new paradigm. We have a journey ahead of us, but it begins here and now with each and every one of us. I hope you start here and I very much support you on your journey. And I am indeed knowing fearlessly feral living for me and for you. And before I close out, I just want to mention today is August the 28th, and in just a couple weeks, I will be speaking for you locals up at Lake Tahoe at Unity at the Lake. It's a Sunday. I'll be giving the talk that day. So if you're local, I'd love to see you. There are numerous links to support us, but basically, you can go to my website at fearlesslyferal.org to find all those leaks or check the show notes. So for today, I say goodbye, and I am knowing Fearlessly Feral Living for me and for you. Thank you for listening.