Right View, Right Intention, Right Action
I experience so many people, including myself, who have good intentions. The best of intentions! Yet their actions and words have such a cost, that it invalidates the intention. We see this time and time again. Similarly, I see people who take the right or good actions, and again, the ripple effect of their actions causes unforeseen damage. Right intention on its own is not enough. It is like a stool that has only one leg. It will not stand. At minimum the stool needs triangulation, forming in the process a tetrahedron. This is the minimum system in Universe, according to
Buckminster Fuller.
But what does this mean? Firstly, we must be sure we have the highest altitude perspective available. If I am in the valley, my view is only of the valley. If I am half way up the hill of the valley, my view is different. If I am on top of the hill I can see my valley and what is on the other side. If I am in helicopter, I see the terrain on both sides of the valley. If I am in a space ship, I see something else entirely. Which view is more right? They are all right, and at the same time the view from the space ship allows me the potential to have all views on the steps towards the spaceship. But if I only have the view from the valley I am not able to access the view from the space ship. As Bucky would say, we simply must start with Universe first...the highest possible view. Integral Theory covers many of the possible views we will have at different stages of development. But how do I get to the place where I can see Universe first? There is a story about how the Indians of South America could not see the ships of the Spanish Conquerors. They simply did not have a reference point for an object that size that arrived over the ocean. Seems incredible, yet a few weeks ago in Brazil I had a similar experience where I could not see the drug dealers working the streets in the Favela’s. My eyes where not trained to see what a slum dweller could see with great obviousness. Sure with some practice I would be able to see. Just as the Indians did learn to see. In order to have the right view, we have to be at a stage of development that allows us to see. To achieve this we have to have done work in multiple domains, including our cognitive, emotional, moral and spiritual development. And we need to continue our development as a daily practice. For our view of the world changes as we evolve and change. How we see the world as a child is not how we see the world as a teenager, is not how we see the world as an adult. (Well most of the time! I do know people who don’t seem to grow up from their teen years!) At the same time as practicing our own interior development, we need to be developing in the social and cultural contexts and in the systems or structural contexts. When I was 17, I read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and I was completely blown away and convinced that her version of the world was the right view. Thank goodness I do not think this today. Which raises the point that right view is not a fixed view. It is an emergent view. As we evolve and develop, so does our view. Therefore the paradox is that there is no “right” right view. There is only the highest altitude view available today. The only way I know to really reach the place of the “right” right view, is to have several conditions in place. 1. My continuing commitment to my own development as a practice. 2. Working with the smartest and wisest people I know who triangulate at minimum my right view, adding their perspective to my view, challenging my view and their own, asking questions that demand the highest view currently available. This literally means that there is an imperative to work in a collaborative fashion with others who bring a diversity of perspectives to the table. While I have stated smartest and wisest people, this could also include children, artists, elders, indigenous, etc. 3. Building a process into my view that demands I look at it from multiple perspectives, including perspectives about the present, the future and the past, plus the effects, or “field effects” as David Martin suggest, of the outcomes of taking this view and implementing any action. For example, if I am to create an experiential workshop that allows participants a full and embodied understanding of how our current economic and money system works, then I also must be exquisitely mindful of what this will do. For some people, they will leave this event and get really mad at the system we have. They may move to violence of action or speech. For other people, they may become even more disillusioned and filled with despair. Some may rub their hands in glee...seeing infinite opportunities to create things, or become wealthy....My responsibility is to anticipate these possible outcomes before the workshop is delivered and factor into the design the outcome we most want. For people to increase their resourcefulness and to see opportunity. Right view as part of the triad of right view, right intention, right action, is not to be taken lightly. It has a level of complexity to it that goes beyond the scope of this article. It is a practice many Positive Deviants incorporate into their life by default. Hopefully, this article has given you an insight into the richness that inhabits right view, and the imperative to keep doing your own inner work to grow your own view ability, plus to engage people around you, coaches, mentors and teachers, who will synergistically add to your view, plus to practice a process to challenge the view from multiple domains. Only when we have taken the time to get our “right” right view, do we then move to right intention, followed by right action. Hmm...this stuff is harder that we thought... I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject..which I will continue to flesh out as my view changes... To Return from Right View to Leadership Development
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