Can Our Nation Be Saved? Part 3
We are sustained by the circles of the universe—the sun and the planets, the cycles of nature, the basic form of mathematics. Within the circle are lines. A line that "just touches" the circle as it passes by is called a Tangent. A line that cuts the circle at two points is called a Secant. A line segment that goes from one point to another on the circle's circumference is called a Chord. If it passes through the center it is called a Diameter. Mathematics describes 40+ relationships between lines and circles.
Man’s development until now has been linear, constant forward movement toward the development of societies that assure our survival and provide things that take us beyond survival to comfort and pleasure. The inevitable end of the development of mankind has always been the evolution of lines into a circle. Multiple lines of progress are now joined together to form a global community—a circular form. Why is this important?
Mutual Guarantee: A requirement for survival in a global community
Mutual guarantee means that I act according to how I understand and feel my relationship towards others, my interconnection and interdependence with them within a single system where we are like organs in a body. It is the ultimate expression of the Golden Rule. We are totally dependent on each other for our survival, so it is imperative that we take care of each other.
We all want the same things—safety, happiness and health. Security is a fundamental element that defines our attitude toward life. Happiness defines our independence with regard to the rest of the world, without anyone being able to bring us down or up. The same goes for health; it all depends on us. All we need to do is keep within our nation the condition, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
In this life we have to experience what we don’t want in order to know what we do want. We are being shown how hate and separation fragment our world so that we will have such a deep yearning for the opposite we’ll figure out how to attain love and connection. Can you imagine a world living in mutual guarantee? If you can imagine it and want it deep within yourself, you can realize it.
How Do We Get from Here to There?
It is known in the wisdom of geometry that there is none so even an image as the image of the circle.
Michael Laitman, PhD
We must take on the shape of the nature within which we exist, where the form of the circle dominates—the sun and the planets, the cycles of the seasons, the ceaseless, reciprocal expressions of giving and receiving. It begins with small circles among contemporaries and the force created flows outward.
A group of people sit together in a circle, sometimes called a round table. A question is asked or a problem is presented for solution. A few simple rules for discussion are followed.
- All are equal; no one is lower or higher
- Everyone speaks about the topic
- Everyone listens carefully to each speaker, knowing there is some truth in every opinion
- There is no correction or criticism
- Each speaker adds to what has been said before
- Each speaks in turn, going around the circle. A “talking stick” is sometimes a good idea
I know what you’re thinking: I’ve sat in circles before, what’s different here? It is the quality of the rules, the intention with which participants enter the circle, and the guarantee that, by using these guidelines, something new will be created.
The simple rules for the workshop allow participants to freely express themselves, to take inside themselves what each other person avows, and to do so with no judgement, criticism or disagreement. A key factor is that each speaker adds to what others have said. As the talking stick moves around the circle, the tendency to create a response in the mind to give when a person’s turn comes around evaporates. Listening and internalizing what is heard from the others make this impossible. The emotional bond that is created has to be experienced to fully understand.
When we sit at a round table it is like a family, where first and foremost, we treat each other with love, and bring everyone under the umbrella of mutual guarantee, where we are all one. We must make our decisions like a family: one needs housing, another needs some money, another’s health is poor, and another one is old, and so on. As in a family, after the conversation at the round table everyone will understand what we need to do in order to change the situation. Everyone will also feel satisfaction in being the one who made concessions, who was big-hearted.
When the workshop is over, then what?
In upstate New York is a teacher who works at a vocational high school. In one of her classes, bullying was so severe that it was interfering with learning. She conducted a circle with the topic of bullying, and… the bullying stopped. Other teachers saw her results and requested connection circles in their classrooms. Over a short period of time, the school was transformed into one where respect, cooperation and care for one another replaced the culture of bullying.
A group of people in NYC began going to parks and inviting people to circles. The questions posed were about current events, relationship issues, and other pertinent topics. The word spread. More and more people came to the park to join. Some problems were solved and some answers found in these circles. But what participants wanted to talk about was the sense of unity they felt, that they all actually wanted the same thing--connection
The virtual group of which I am a member utilizes this circle method every time we meet. The connection and closeness we have developed helps us raise the importance of our purpose and to advance toward it. We are from all over the country and had never met before joining together toward a specific goal. We feel ourselves as being closer and more connected to each other than in many of our other friendships.
The Circles method is very versatile, easily adaptable to many different venues —the family, business and the corporate world, in one’s community, in education, with boards of directors. In some settings, there is sometimes initial resistance to this format because people are used to arguing for their opinion above that of all others. If the group agrees to use the method for just two or three meetings, its power can be experienced.
From Shattered to Whole
When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.
Margaret Wheatley
The magnitude of the separations among us that we are creating is hard to express in words. How is it that we have become a nation so filled with hate, greed and meanness? It is because the collective ego has grown to grotesque proportions. The present state in which we find ourselves has grown to the level of crisis. The means for restoring the integrity of our nation must be something that has more force than the crisis itself, that is the opposite of it, and that fulfills the yearning we all have for peace.
All sorts of actions are being executed with the purpose of changing things from what they are into what we want them to be. The problem is these actions, no matter how noble, are aimed at the symptoms, not at the real cause of the crisis. For example, we watch political candidates using their time in the media attacking their opponent’s positions with no understanding that they are adding to the malignant separation that is bringing us down.
The Round Table offers a solution because the power of connection generated there is from deep within each person, and when many meet together, a force akin to gravity begins to pull others toward it. It is the force of purposefully directed positive thought that begins to neutralize the negative energies. It is the force of the great law of nature called unity. It is the force that can heal the world.
Here are some resources to find support for implementing this method.
“Completing the Circle” by Michael Laitman, PhD
Mutual Responsibility/Education
http://www.mutualresponsibility.org/category/education
The Circular Dialogue—Dr. Benzion Giertz
Circles Agency
