THE PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF COLLECTIVE WISDOM

WHAT IS WISDOM?

Q: IS THERE ANYONE WISER THAN SOCRATES?

ORACLE: THERE IS NO ONE WISER. THE DELPHIC

ORACLE

KNOW THYSELF

SEEKING WISDOM FROM THE POLITICIAN, POET, AND ARTISAN, AND NOT FINDING IT,

SOCRATES SUGGESTS THE ORACLE CALLS HIM WISE BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE LIMITS OF HIS KNOWLEDGE.

HAVING HUMOR AND HUMILITY IN THE FACE OF ALL

WE DO NOT KNOW.

ZALMAN SCHACHTER SHALOMI, WORLD WISDOM CHAIR, NAROPA

UNIVERSITY

HOW THEN SHALL WE PURSUE WISDOM?

WHAT SOCRATES PRACTICED

•WISDOM IS DISCOVERED THROUGH INQUIRY AND BY CHALLENGING OUR CERTAINTY.

•WISDOM IS REVEALED IN DIALOGUE AND THE INTERACTION OF IDEAS.

•WISDOM IS FOUND IN THE SOUL’S MEMORY OF TRANSCENDENT IDEAS... SUCH AS BEAUTY, JUSTICE, AND TRUTH.

MAJOR INFLUENCES & BEGINNING ASSUMPTIONS

Leadership begins with a transformation from within, a shift deep within our own souls.

“Build, therefore,

your own world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

In man the perpetual progress is from the Individual to the Universal, from that which is human, to that

which is divine.

KEN WILBER’S 4 QUADRANTS

Collective Wisdom is an Awareness of the 4 Quadrants

COLLECTIVE EXTERIOR

COLLECTIVE INTERIOR

INDIVIDUAL INTERIOR

INDIVIDUAL EXTERIOR

WISDOM is an Appreciation for WHOLENESS AND INTERCONNECTEDNESS. AN ENCOUNTER WITH EDGAR MITCHELL

A COSMIC FIELD

EMERGENCEAN ABILITY TO SEE BEAUTY AND ORDER ARISING FROM WHAT MAY APPEAR, AT FIRST, AS CHAOTIC AND DISTURBING

SACRED SPACE

MOMENTS & SPACES WHERE TWO WORLDS FLOW INTO EACH OTHER, THE VISIBLE WITH THE INVISIBLE, THE FINITE WORLD TOUCHES THE INFINITE

DIALOGUEThe human capacity to make meaning depends on a suspension of any one individual having always to be right... a greater collective wisdom becomes possible

when ideas are no longer the possession of one person or subgroup, but are shared by those who

helped shape it together.

Collective Wisdom

involves the pursuit of Universal principles shared within the human community such as truth, beauty, justice, and compassion.  At a practical level, collective wisdom involves a deep understanding of groups resulting in good judgment, respect for others, and the objectivity to see what is needed in the moment.

THE POWER OF HUMAN CONNECTION

THE ABILITY TO FEEL CONNECTED IS WHAT GIVES US A SENSE OF MEANING AND PURPOSE

The fields of neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and even behavioral economics are beginning to reveal a convergence.

We Are Social Animals

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We are not individuals who

form relationships. We are social

animals, deeply interpenetrated

with one another, who emerge out of relationships.

David Brooks

WE ARE SOCIAL ANIMALS & SPIRITUAL BEINGS•Attunement - An ability to sense

one’s surroundings, and fall into rhythm

with others.

•Mindfullness - An ability to monitor one’s own thoughts and feelings with serenity. Expanded Attention & Focus.

•Metis - The ability to see patterns

and derive meaning from complex

situations.

•Empathy - the action of understanding and being with the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another; to be in suffering with another - em patheia.

Collective Wisdom: A World View that Joins SPIRIT WITH HUMAN ASPIRATION

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

MAHATMA GANDHI

HOWARD THURMAN

MARTIN LUTHER KING

NELSON MANDELA

Social Change requires a determination of the heart when all else tells you to

give up.

• DEEP LISTENING

• SUSPENDING CERTAINTY

• SEEING WHOLE SYSTEMS/ SEEKING DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

• RESPECT FOR OTHERS/ PRACTICING GROUP DISCERNMENT

• WELCOMING ALL THAT ARISING

• TRUST IN THE TRANSCENDENT

What Personal Actions and Commitments Enables Collective Wisdom to Arise?

Source: The Power of Collective Wisdom by Briskin, Erickson, Ott, Callanan

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that.  Because what the world needs is people

who have come alive.                                                            

Howard Thurman

TAFELMUSIK BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

THE FOUR SEASONS MOSAIC

There are moments when groups and larger collectives feel more alive, when members feel more connected to each other and to larger life forces, more vibrant and capable of extraordinary action.

COLLECTIVE WISDOM SHOWS UP IN EXPERIENCES OF DEEPENING CONNECTION:

WITH OTHERS

IN RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE, SPIRIT AND COSMOS.

IN MOMENTS of TRANSCENDENCE& SUFFERING