Die 5 Disziplinen des Denkens

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...