Die 5 Disziplinen des Denkens
0 (0 Likes / 0 Dislikes)
I've been asked repeatedly over the past few days
so how is it to be here like this and
to simply be here?
It has been so wonderful
and now it's really beautiful to be up here again too.
And a part of what I want to share with you today is
what it's like to be standing up here
and I want to use this as an example
to reveal
how I perceive the process
of spirit turning into matter.
And I believe that this process
today is really important for us to grasp
because as humanity we are finding ourselves at such a critical point
where we all know that if it all goes on
along those lines
the whole thing is not going to end well.
At the same time something else exists
which is being born right now,
and which moves us from a totally different direction
and what many still cannot really grasp
and yet allow it to turn their whole life around
and I mean every single one of you
and I want to talk to you about this phenomenon.
I want to start by
bringing perhaps an unusual thought into this space.
It has been a recurrent theme in the last few days
that after the lecture the speakers didn't want to hear
if they were any good,
but rather wanted to hear what had reached you
what happened.
Well and if someone gives a lecture
or does a performance
that's very strongly in the space
- Am I good? Is that good?
this evaluation
and also the audience's expectation towards the speaker
right now I want to turn this around a little
and share a observation with you
maybe even a hypothesis:
that the quality of the lecture
depends less on the speaker
than on the quality of listening in the space
on the quality of presence in the space
and I'm noticing, just as I said that
the quality in the space has changed.
Did you notice it too?
Everyone went like
- HUH?
It's me!
And this is great!
It's like a light has turned on.
And the reason I share this thought with you
is because I've been exploring this phenomenon for many many years
and I've found that it's really how it is
that your presence
your listening
your tuning in
your inner opening, asking and wondering
opens a space in which something can show itself.
And I would like to take this as a metaphor
so your presence creates a space
creates a container of presence
that allows the person standing up here
to know things,
to speak things, as you've revealed so beautifully yesterday...
that they couldn't speak or know without this presence,
which can then show themselves.
And I want to take this as a metaphor
for what can happen within ourselves
a space can also emerge inside us
a space of presence, of being
within which knowledge, insight and impulse,
the new can unfold.
For what now wants to come into the world can show itself.
And I experience this inner space of presence or of being
really like the space we have in this tent right now.
Where your attention, your being here, generates a field
and where then something can show itself.
And what I observe in our culture
is that often this inner space isn't given.
This means there is so space within us where feeling happens
and there is no space in us where thinking happens.
This leads to us being occupied by our feeling and thinking
and the whole thing usually works like this
and we feel incredibly dizzy in ourselves
and often we are very disoriented.
That's how I often perceive us.
Does that make sense?
And today I want to speak with you about
is a topic I've been dealing with for a long time
and it's also a book I am working on
and certainly it's going to take another few years
and that is the first time that I'm speaking about it
and for me that's...
the fife disciplines of thought
fife disciplines of thought
François already hinted in his speech
that new disciplines or new ways of thinking want to develop
and this is a central research topic for me.
They need this space first to develop,
secondly to be able to fully unfold
and then to be able to work together optimally.
Because these different disciplines of thought
have completely distinct qualities - I'll go through them,
you'll recognise some of it for sure
and what I want to shed light on, is the process
of how they interact.
Because what I am increasingly aware of is
that the world we live in,
is so fast and so complex
that we can only navigate,
if we develop the skill,
to develop our thinking to this new level.
It takes this inner space
where this can happen
for it not to tangle up
for it not to get wedged,
for it not to clog up
and whatever else always happens.
Before I get to the fife disciplines of thought,
I would like to take up something more on presence and being.
This too is a topic that has surfaced repeatedly in these days
We've heard
how there's a pull, taking us away from presence too,
we've heard that it's about developing a culture of presence
and we've also heard that there's a wisdom that
we are partly not present or that parts of us are numb
or disconnected.
And here I want to add something,
an observation from my own life that is very precious to me
and gives me hope for us as humanity.
It has to do with the observation
that there are actually two ways out of suffering.
Osho once said the human suffers because he's half conscious
If the human were unconscious, he wouldn't suffer
and if he were conscious, fully conscious, he also wouldn't suffer.
This means that we repeatedly have this pull into the unconscious
into rush, into getting wasted
into our addictions into anything that will switch us off
because this is where we experience relief from our suffering.
And there are moments - or times - in life
or maybe it's also a development, I'm still researching
where this switching off also becomes painful
or the price gets too high.
It's not just the hangover after a night out,
but for me it was getting more and more delicate,
even when I watched a movie to get away
the feeling after was already like...
You know that feeling? Yes?
We're intoxicating ourself in a way, when we do that
even if just mentally.
And there are times in life, where this isn't working anymore
or the price gets too high
and the only remaining escape from suffering
is to become conscious, to go into presence
and this point where we become so present
with the pain, with the unbearable
with the darkness, with the very thing we cannot bear,
that there is no more gap between us and the thing
where suffering could happen.
Where there's simply, only intensity left
when I become fully present with pain, pain is intensity.
Have you experienced this?
And I for myself have found out that in the darkest moments of my life
and in the most painful moments
this was the only thing that helped.
The only thing that saved me.
And not by carrying me away
or by alleviating the pain
but by simply no longer leaving space
between me and the unbearable,
where suffering could happen.
And when I look at what is happening in the world
I see a big chance that right now we are collectively
creating the darkness
making it inevitable for every single one
to come into this presence!
The question is, how much darkness do we need to create
to take this step?
This is what I observe.
And it gives me hope.
Paradoxically, it gives me hope.
It gives me hope
that exactly what makes us despair right now
will lead us to making that step
into that presence, the being here, the connection,
the consciousness.
Because the pain of absence will get greater eventually
or the suffering it contains.
I'd like to pause for a moment
when we receive a few sounds
For a moment you can close your eyes if you want
or at least you can lead your attention within
if you want you can put your hand over your heart and on your belly
that's a gesture I like to do, maybe you have other gestures...
or you simply want to sense
then I'd like to ask you to take a deep breath
and to find out what is alive in you right now
What was touched in you? What was touched in you?
Where are the moments of suffering, of darkness and of pain
in your life
that might be calling you?
That are calling you into this moment,
that call you to your waking state
call you into your presence.
Where are you following this call?
And where are you repeatedly trying to silence it?
How would your life change,
if you dared to reverse this consistently?
That as a way out of suffering
you choose the step towards life
instead of stepping away
What would happen?
Who would you be?
What would your life look like?
How would the world change?
Through you.
How much courage would it take?
New at every moment.
How much gentleness?
Now I'd like to invite you, in your own rhythm
in your own time,
connect with a person close to you
in some way.
Through touch,
through looking at each other
or purely through presence.
by feeling each other.
And then I'd like to invite you to take some time with each other
and to share what s right now
and again it can be through words, it can be in silence
what is important to me is that you perceive each other.
That each one of you is being perceived,
that can show and perceive.
And I'm giving a signal when the time is up.
I just now have the impulse to catch one or two
of your voices
Does any of you have the impulse
to speak something into the big space
of what you experienced
of what has been touched in you
where you are right now?
No impulse
there's an impulse
two, ok. Let's start here it's closer
I have to admit I'm still with that statement
I've heard for the first time.
Vivian's statement
'The only time we won't suffer
is when we're either unconscious or fully conscious'
I've never heard anything like that.
And I have to say my presence was
to think about this sentence for the whole time.
Thank you.
Yes, I'd like to pick up there
this has just been 'the container'
in which a lot takes place in us
like the stage
where a great deal happens within us.
In fact, when we learn to perceive this stage
to stand on it and to perceive it as a stage
then our relationship with
what is happening on that stage changes.
And as you know, I've been delving into the topic of feeling
what is playing out on this stage
and today I want to start
sharing my insights on the topic of thinking on this stage.
It's is a topic I've been exploring for much longer
than feeling
and it's even more attuned and subtle in my perception.
and what has already become apparent here,
is that we have a tendency in our thinking
to firstly reproduce in a linear way
what already existed.
Coming from the past
what Otto Scharmer calls 'downloading'
simply thinking ahead in the conventions and patterns
that have always existed
and then weave this into the future.
The new disciplines of thought
have a different quality
and they aren't really new
what's new is that today we are challenged to a much greater extent
to develop them.
And these qualities have a very different direction.
Maybe I'll first give you a short overview
on the fife disciplines of thought, how I name them
and then we go through them one by one.
That's, for one thing, what we know best: The rational mind
it's what is most developed in our culture
and what is considered highly important
and in my opinion, too important,
because it's just become dominant
and it's displaced everything else - the other forms of thought
and also displaced feeling
and a lot of our intelligence.
And then there's the phenomenon
where a staggering stupidity is formed within the rational mind.
You know what I mean?
In itself, it's all perfectly logical
but when you step back you realise
it's total nonsense
and I find this phenomenon quite striking.
It's how we can get lost in our ratio
and I also experience this in people
when they have a strong process and run off into their rational mind.
It always goes like this...
and you can follow these spirals
and those stories all make sense
but it's not connected and therefore it's total chaos.
You probably know that too, right?
And that's a good indication
that somewhere else, something doesn't want to be felt.
And then we get lost in this maze.
Yet the rational mind is very precious.
I don't want to fall into the trap by saying
the rational mind is complete nonsense, we should throw it overboard.
The rational mind is unbelievably precious
and a very very important instrument
as long as it's in healthy relationship
with the other disciplines of thought
and embedded in our being.
That's where it's serving us.
It's serving us incredibly well to adjust things,
to link things, to check implementability,
it's also strong in connecting us to the linearity of time,
is this thing that's coming to me even logistically possible?
Does it make sense? How is it interconnected?
So there's so so much the rational mind can do for us
but it's a serving function, something like a calculator.
A calculator is amazing when I type in the right information
then it's incredibly helpful to spit something out
but now I can't ask the calculator for advice...
it's amazing at thinking but I need to give the right input
and then pick up the result
and then I have to see how I'll integrate that.
You know what I mean?
Because we do that a lot that we ask the calculator:
- So... what should I do now?
- No idea what you should do now!
That's how it is with the rational mind
- Yep, so I'll just think of something...
- 75!
- but it might be 25...
That's how it is with the rational mind,
because the rational mind can then argue everything endlessly
and justify and say
- Yes, this makes sense because...
- and that makes sense because...
- and everything is disconnected
- and therefore everything makes sense and no sense.
Anyone who has ever tried to make a rational decision knows.
So that's the rational mind
and across from that I see
in this orientation, it's a compass too...
I see intention.
Intention is an ability to align ourselves
and to take a certain direction.
And I'll come to this in a moment
I want to give an overview first.
I just got a bit lost in the rational mind...
so basically, here are the two more linearly based thinking qualities
rational mind and intention
and then there are the more vertically based thinking qualities
there's a thinking quality coming from the body,
from earth.
The famous 'gut feeling'
I also like to call it intuition
that is perceived in the body
where certain impulses come up
where resistance appears, where dissonance is perceived,
where a there's a clear 'yes' or a 'no'.
And then there is a vertical thinking quality that comes from above
which is insight or inspiration
and it has a whole different quality
and a different function than intuition.
Before I dive into this,
I want to briefly talk about this vertical orientation
and briefly enter an experiential space with you
versus linearity.
Yes, it's coming
exactly...
the fifth is still coming
We go through it several times
it's important to me, that first
you understand the quality of linear versus vertical.
The vertical is the dimension that opens up to us through presence.
When we are present,
this gateway opens.
I didn't catch your name
although you've said it beautifully...
You've just beautifully described it.
That just now in presence, facing one another
suddenly other layers of being...
something else opened
and I'm sure that's something that everyone of you has experienced
when you become fully present, something else opens up.
How other layers of reality become accessible too
you know what I mean?
There's the phenomenon that time stops
or gets a different quality
or we go into a timeless space.
For me the space of last night was one of those timeless ones
the live dance, where it was just... that's eternity...
that's an hour and eternity at once.
A whole life can be experienced there.
Well, that's the space
where the other qualities become accessible at all
these other disciplines of thought
the discipline of insight, of inspiration and of intuition.
As long as we aren't present, we have no access
to these disciplines
and there are the linear ones.
We know them a bit better
where the ratio always jumps back and forth between
past to future, past to future...
which indeed is it's job
always looking
- Where do we come from?
- Where are we going?
- How that it fit together?
- What are we doing with that?
and intention gives us the direction
- Ah! That way!
Giving a direction.
And now we come to the fifth discipline,
where this flows together.
The mastery of thought happens when
we bring those two qualities
something we've now heard a few times during the festival
where these two directions come together.
Where the linear: The direction
the very grounded anchor through the rational mind,
and the vertical: Presence, inspiration, intuition
come together
and most ideally meet in the intelligence of the heart.
Where it gets tuned with my values
- Who do I want to be?
- What do I want to bring into the world?
- What am I standing for?
And in a way that... there's one more entity
checking.
checking.
Because, and that is the problem of the whole story
each of these entities is imperfect in itself
and incomplete
and prone for mistakes
and only if they weave together
and ultimately cooperate,
- Ah, ja!
arises over and over again
- And this!
- And this!
- And this!
- And this!
And the reason why it's so important to me to open this topic
is because I observe
that of course all of us are strongly searching and exploring
we know we need other options
to navigate this matrix
and at the same time, in this process of searching and exploring I see
an incredible amount of confusion
and then getting lost.
I'd like to give a small example:
Yesterday morning I had a very beautiful moment with my son.
I told him in the morning
- The procession is about to start
and he really flinched
To understand that, you have to know
that he plays in the (traditional) marching band in South Tyrol
and over there 'procession' is 'corpus christi procession'
or 'saint Kassian procession'
and that's just like...
while they're playing music of course
and he goes like
- Huh??
and me...
- Yes, here there's a procession from the internet café to the big tent.
And he says
- I bet at ZEGG everyone walks on their own terms!
That was a precious moment for me
beautiful, he was just so spot on.
and it worked me for the rest of the day
especially during the live dance.
Because I've also experimented a lot with people
in spaces that are about following your own impulses
and what I've observed again and again
is that many people don't know the difference
between following impulses and
- Now we're doing whatever
and that is a gigantic difference.
They're two universes.
And it was clearly visible yesterday
both were in the space.
There was the quality of
- Now we're just doing whatever
- Everybody walking on their own terms
and there also was the quality of
- What impulse now?
- And what impulse now and what impulse now...?
and this distinction is really central for me.
When we stop marching in a row
in our processions,
which I think is great that we stop,
then we need a new coordinating element
or an entity.
And this coordinating entity is no longer
the conductor that is walking ahead and doing this
but it's in every single one of us
It's the connection in each one
and this is much more demanding.
Much more demanding than
- Now we're doing whatever!
And it's also much more demanding than...
although that's not easy
and this is so important,
because right now globally we are in a situation,
where this no longer works or works less and less
and this means every single one is challenged
to connect with this entity, where the inner order shows itself.
while the outer order crumbles.
Every single one.
It is not irrelevant, what you do!
We're not doing whatever here!
Before we'll go into a short break,
I'd like to invite you into the experiential space,
that I mentioned earlier
and for that I need you all
to fully focus your attention into your inner space again,
ideally upright,
seated or standing.
And for a moment, I'd like to ask you
to fully lead your awareness into your body.
If you're not there already
and to feel this wonderful anchor,
your body is always now.
super handy, always now.
Maybe a 'thank you' for always being here now.
If it is not irrelevant what we do
and if we're not doing whatever,
the big question is, of course:
How do I know what's mine to do right now?
What wants to happen through me right now?
And well, that's one of the most important questions.
new again and again in life.
And one problem we have, which I've already mentioned
is that many of us simply do not know the difference
between following my impulses and doing whatever
and therefore I would like to take this opportunity
to look a little more closely
and I would also like to look at these fife disciplines of thought
to see what are the pitfalls?
Where do we get lost?
I've already explained it a bit with the rational mind
but there are also pitfalls in the other disciplines.
Places where we get lost
I'm going to start here, with gut intelligence
intuition.
This is often clouded by emotional charges
and here emotional charges
and the associated claims to absolutes
can show up very much like impulses.
There's this sense of urgency
- This has to now!
and it has a different quality
than a real impulse
and we can only learn to recognise this quality,
when we learn to feel into it really thoroughly,
to become ever finer in our perception.
Where is something coming out of a charge?
Often there's a sense of pressure and
- This has to now!
and a tight sense of urgency...
and where is an impulse that vibrates more freely?
It has more space to move
it comes more dynamically
and is then released.
That means, for example, if an inner voice tells you
- Now if you don't...
No idea... what's the voice usually saying?
- Now if you don't bet everything on 13 then...
This is when a part of us makes use of
this impulse. Dresses up as impulse.
And these are often voices of fear
somehow saying
- You have to do it now or something really bad will happen!
This is no impulse!
But often these voices come with great urgency
and this is the making use of that mechanism.
Do you know what I mean? Do you know this quality?
And again, a real impulse has something that sways more feely,
that is more agile,
that is in a way more tender and polite too.
- If you don't do it well you just don't do it.
Yes? Coming with clarity,
but doesn't have that drama.
- If you don't do ... something really bad will happen!
No impulse.
The impulse doesn't need that!
It simply arrives and says
- just go there... do this... say that...
and then you can follow that or not.
Do you know this quality?
It has simplicity!
And the beautiful thing really is
that it contains the freedom to do it or not.
So an impulse is not a dictation
an impulse is an impulse.
Not every impulse needs or wants to be carried out
and that's why the other entities are also totally interesting
because they help us synchronize.
- Uh, here comes the impulse
- How does this fit in with what I actually had planned for today?
- What do I see?
- And how does it fit with my direction?
- And what does my heart have to say?
Right? And then I get this
- Uh, these are my coordinates
and then it's a yes or a no.
That means an impulse is first of all, something that pops up
and then there's the area -
well, on the other side of the vertical is
the area of inspiration or insight.
I believe that everything new comes into the world like this.
also all great inventions or art...
ultimately, it all comes from this mystery
where something flies to people,
something comes.
And I can perceive that very clearly by now
as something that really comes in from outside,
I can almost feel it physically, like a breeze.
The condition for this is that it's open,
that it's wide.
This is prevented if everything here is full of concepts
when it's full of wanting to understand.
Wanting to understand is one of the biggest obstacles to insight
this is the phenomenon that when you're in the shower
or at the coffee machine
there it happens, this
-Uh...
You know, when you want to understand something like this
and then....
- I don't get it now!
-What does she mean?
And it's exactly this movement that prevents this
- Uh...
That means it has something to do with relaxation.
And there's a wonderful example
which I'm sure some of you will know
by Frederick Kekulé
who discovered the chemical formula for benzene in this way
in 1865
he was trying to work on it somehow
and realized that it didn't work out
he documented it very nicely,
then dozed off.
sitting by the fire he dozed off.
He then had a vision
(scientist!)
of the molecular structure of benzene
1865. It wasn't until 1980 that it was proven
what he dreamed was true.
It was known before that it was true
but only then you could really see with an electron microscope
exactly what he had described.
My suspicion is that this happens an awful lot
and most people don't talk about it
because it's a little naughty.
It's similar with feelings.
It's been a taboo subject for a long time too
nobody wanted to have anything to do with that
- We don't understand it.
- We don't want this...
And that's the way it is here too!
It's so much fancier that someone is a really smart person
and has thought about it incredibly well and worked it all out
because we can understand that.
It fits to our cultural narrative
But that the bottom line is
- Okay, today's not going to work!
he falls asleep and has this realization,
that doesn't fit with our understanding of
how knowledge comes into the world.
And I would like to hand this to you
because so often we try to solve something, to understand something,
to grasp something and exactly this movement prevents it.
Yes...
at this point I often find myself not able to explain
for example when I'm asked where the findings
in the feelings book come from.
The truth is we collected questions
we asked people:
- What do you want to know about feelings?
locked ourselves up for five days
and Chiara asked me these questions
and we checked if an answer came - and it came!
It is a strange process...
I believe we all need this
and I believe we all are able to do this.
I believe we are all built for this,
even in every moment.
To align and connect ourselves in a way
well that the insights and realisations,
the information that we need shows up
to bring forth what wants to come into the world through us.
And this is where intention enters the game.
Intention is the direction of what am I going for?
It's a strong tension that I'm building up as well
giving me a direction without knowing the way
without knowing what the exact steps are going to be.
And I also don't need to know it.
As for example, my intention for this life is to give a contribution
to the next evolutionary step that wants to happen now.
This is my intention.
Totally clear for me.
This is my direction.
How I'm doing that?
No idea!
And I also don't need to know it!
And I'm also not planning my next 5 years ahead for that
but it's my intention that directs me
it's like my compass!
And then it keeps showing up new... new again and again...
how it wants to show itself
how it wants to manifest itself
and what wants to come through me now.
And depending on what's your intention,
it opens a field
also for impulses and inspiration that you invite.
When your intention is
to sit out your 80 years here with as little damage as possible
yes, then these will be the impulses that come
Because that's the arc you draw and what you invite in.
Do you know what I mean?
And I don't want to judge that, I just want to make it conscious.
I just want to make conscious
- What is your intention?
- What's the arc you are drawing?
- What is it that you are inviting?
And what I'm observing a lot is that this space inside us is clogged
with all kinds of 'have tos' and 'shoulds' and enforcements and
it's all jammed up, so that what we're longing for
and I know that many many people are longing for this,
it can't come in at all
because everything is so full - here with emotions
and there with all duties and constraints
- And one has to...
- And I should...
which closes it all down.
yes... exactly
And this is a big intention for my life
and then of course there are many smaller intentions.
For this festival there was a very clear intention and direction.
And then I just want to make something transparent,
which was very magical for me at this festival,
that all of us who are speaking here have not coordinated much with each other,
to put it mildly...
and there has been a red thread
we couldn't have designed any better
because we are speaking from the same place
and I knew that. This was clear to me.
For me this is a dream that has become reality.
To work in a team, where I know
it fits!
It fits and still, things can happen like,
I don't know if Francois even knows
but your backpack over here, that's how I stood here two years ago.
If I had tried explaining this to you
- It'd be great if this came up again...
But that's what I mean by the inner order that shows itself.
And as I was listening it was like ticking off a list
with what had already been said, that I would've said otherwise
and this is so important to me because it is the only thing
that I see that can carry us forth as humanity.
No Messiah will somehow show up
and tell us which way to go
or who's gonna make it all right
but the only thing that I see
is really to strengthen this connection to the inner order
and to really find our expression of it
and then to see more and more
how well everything fits together
and that is the dream that I want to share with you
and where I'm inviting everyone once more to stand up
and to form a circle to deepen the connection
exactly with this phenomenon.
Just leave everything where it is...