Episode 1: Get e-mail from Jodee Bock saying that she has been invited by the host (a mutual friend) to attend a closed workshop on genius in Minneapolis. Cool! Remember a first reaction to the title of Jodee’s blog, You Already Know This Stuff, was to wonder, “OK. Why read it?” (I do read it, but more about that later in this post)
Episode 2: Lunch with a twenty-something friend. He raves about the film, What The Bleep Do We Know?! Calls it amazing and surprising. Says it has been a big undergound hit with college students. Add it to the NetFlix queue. Watch it lend scientific credibility to the paradigm that mystics, meditators, and people of high consciousness have embraced for ages. Bored. Think, “What’s the big deal? The confluence of science and ancient sacred wisdom is news? This is amazing and surprising? Why should this be amazing and surprising?” Wonder why all those kids didn’t “get it” in high school or maybe from their parents.
Think it was naive to imagine that The Tao of Physics might be required reading by now. It was published way back in 1976!
Episode 3: Write this post and wonder what the hell it is supposed to be about (and why it insists on this strange syntax, almost devoid of “I”). Think that it might be about the enormous challenge of changing a single mind, let alone the mindset of a group, nation or planet. Feel grateful to Jodee for her reminders; they are needed to turn knowing into Knowing.
Sometimes I know something but don’t really Know it, and here I am expecting that a whole nation or planet ought to Know something just because some of them Have Known for centuries.
Patience is not my strong suit.
Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 10:06 am
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◊ Technorati tags: Jodee Bock | genius | tao | physics | knowing | Fritjof Capra
October 27th, 2006 at 6:24 am
Charlie Jones said in the book “Life is Tremendous” that a person should not refer to having learned something, but rather that he is learning that thing. For example, according to Mr. Jones’ philosophy, I should not say “I have learned to persevere” but rather “I am learning to persevere.”
October 27th, 2006 at 7:26 am
James - thanks for the reminder that “knowing” is a verb.
October 27th, 2006 at 7:56 am
Actively evolving over time. We are reaching a tipping point with this idea that It (God, Consciousness, Spirit) is within us. It is us and we are it. All the while It is yearning to express through us.
We are at a point, especially in the US, where we have gotten all the stuff and exhausted the search outside ourselves. We are delving deeper and deeper within.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
That is so beautifully said Nneka. There is so much joy in the thought - almost like the droplet identifying with the sea- in one instance we go from tiny and insignificant, to all permeating and interconnected to one another.
As always- a thought provoking post!
October 28th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Something’s Calling Me…
This post is part of the Season of Gratitude Series. You can participate by sharing your gratitude moment, reading about others, or commenting. Click here for details.
Dick Richard’s of On Genius asked:
“[At] Lunch with a twenty-something …
October 31st, 2006 at 5:30 am
Dick:
You always provoke new thought for me - and I’m certain for millions of others out there you’ll never even know about. I love the distinction between knowing and Knowing … and the comments posted here reminding us that knowing is a verb.
There is so much out there that I’m just now realizing I’ve already known … and I become more interested - almost daily - in why I named my blog what I did when I started it more than 2 years ago. What I know - oops Know - now is that my job during my lifetime is to work on remembering all those things I Knew but have forgotten over my lifetime.
I always think about the fact that a newborn baby has within it the capacity to speak any language ever spoken … the baby just happens to be born into a family that will teach it one of the thousands available. What happens to that Knowledge that baby had when it was born? It’s still there somewhere. That’s the job of remembering during our lives.
Rarely now is there an episode which is in some way significant in my life which doesn’t just seem like it fits so well into who I know myself to be. That’s what I call remembering, because it leads me to who I Know I’m supposed to be being, if that makes any sense.
Anyway … thank you so much for mentioning our apparent “coincidental” meeting. Can’t wait to meet you in person in December!!!
October 31st, 2006 at 7:45 am
Jodee,
About “my job during my lifetime is to work on remembering all those things I Knew but have forgotten over my lifetime.”
Plato wrote that when a soul re-enters what he termed the “earth school” it receives from the goddesses of Fate a “pattern of life.” The soul then chooses a genius to accompany it and help it fulfill the pattern. The genius then leads the soul across the river of forgetting where everything that has happened to it is forgotten. Some version of this story exists within all spiritual traditions of which I am aware. In Buddhism it is Old Lady Meng who ladles out the Broth of Oblivion. In Christian and Jewish thought Adam and Eve are given the “gift of forgetting” as they leave the Garden of Eden.
Remembering is thus an intrinsic part of fulfilling our lives.
October 31st, 2006 at 9:29 am
Awesome post and comments! I believe that the more we focus inward and get to Know ourselves - our core selves - the more we can remember and Know. Also, as we cultivate that relationship with our core Self, we feel more fulfilled and satisfied.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:21 am
Thanks Kirsten. A major aspect of what you call “core self” is what I call “genius.” Before I understood it as a spiritual intermediary and guide, I saw it as our “core process” — the thing that, from our center, we can’t stop doing without major effort. So recognizing our individual and unique genius is crucial to our relationship with our core self.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:30 am
Dick - I too believe that remembering and honoring our genius is a big step toward connecting with our core self. And, as you know, it is through that connection that we can achieve our full potential. In our core self or genius we have everything that we need to achieve success. Thanks for writing, coaching, and consulting to help people make this connection and claim their genius. I am loving the great content on your blog!
Kirsten
November 1st, 2006 at 1:00 pm
I’m reminded, in re-reading this post, about your comment: “Patience is not my strong suit” … it seems Lisa Haneberg is working on the same issue. Check out her October 30 post.
Seems patience is a virtue many of us are still perfecting!
November 1st, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Thanks Jodee. Lisa and I are often on parallel paths and I missed this one.