Made with FlowPaper - Flipbook Maker
HOW THE LEOPARD CHANGED ITS SPOTS Evolutionary Values for an Age in Crisis Julian Gresser Published by Evolutionary Heart Press ™ Copyright © 2023 Julian Gresser All rights reserved. ISBN: 979-8-218-14104-2 3 Early Reviews This magisterial book made me “stop-look-go”. It promotes desirable ingenuity rather than innovation. It weaves together wiser, overlapping futures. Gresser is a world expert in the “hard” humanities. The hard humanities is an attempt to redefine and focus classical wisdom to solve social problems in a complex system of 8 billion humans. Gresser applies Einstein’s dictum by offering a new way to think about planetary challenges. He has changed my thinking, favorably, and often, in the half century I have known him. Roger Malina, PhD, Professor of Art and Technology, Professor of Physics, University of Texas, Houston; Executive Director Emeritus, Leonardo Thank you for this valedictory address to your life, and to life itself. The ‘evolutionary values’ you explore and articulate so masterfully, is a kind of Dharma of its own accord. It's also—I sense—a love poem to your wise teachers of all faiths, the opportunities that have befallen and engaged you and to your beloved Angela (all part of your Sangha!). Those of us—your family heritage and friends- can only count the leopard spots, even as they continuously change. Randall Weingarten, MD Adjunct Clinical Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford Medical School Your beautiful and fascinating book is so beautifully written, thoughtful and inspiring, and we’re taking our time to digest and fully appreciate the wisdom and peacefulness which pervades the book. Doug Wood, Founder and Director Americans for Responsible Technology With the world undergoing massive social, political and climate changes, Julian Gresser's book provides an invaluable guide to the personal changes in our mindsets and hearts that we need to make to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Grounded in decades of deep study and professional practice, he explores Evolutionary Values as the lodestone to creating positive paths out of the dystopias plaguing us today. Both philosophical and practical, his Big Heart Intelligence (BHI) and Connectome (BHC) methodologies provide concrete ways to create 4 sustainable "Gaiapolis" cities and towns as open, loving and healthy grassroots communities. What is our future? It begins within each of us evolving rapidly to meet the challenges of our times. Sheridan Tatsuno, city planner, author of Technopolis Strategy (1986) and Gaiapolis Strategy (2022) 5 Dedication For Angela, my love 6 Table of Contents Handel Overture 1 Author’s Preface ...................................................12 BEGINNINGS .....................................................17 Prologue ..............................................................18 Chapter 1: My Journey ........................................27 Case # 1—Snake or Delusion? (Makyo) .........................29 Brief Coda—What Is Real? What Is Not Real? ..............30 Case # 2—Encounter with Brother David Steindl-Rast 30 Case # 3—Grand Epiphany—No Lifeguard on Duty ....32 Origins .................................................................................33 Youthful Exuberance .........................................................36 Japan Center for Human Environment Problems .........36 Palau Superport .................................................................38 Westinghouse Nuclear Reactor ........................................42 Japan Industrial Policy Group ..........................................44 Fast Forward .......................................................................48 Milestones ...........................................................................50 Chapter 2: Shadow ..............................................57 Tightly Coupled Systems ...................................................59 Going Behind the Mask ....................................................61 Rape of the Heavens ..........................................................65 Learning from the Shadow ...............................................66 7 ESSENTIALS .......................................................69 Chapter 3: Just Click! ...........................................70 Just Click!—A Simple Practice .........................................74 Chapter 4: Love ...................................................77 The Whole World is Medicine .........................................79 Self-Care ..............................................................................79 Enhanced Placebo ..............................................................80 Week Nine Update .............................................................83 Loving Our Life ..................................................................83 Chapter 5: Beauty ................................................86 Connecting to Nature ........................................................89 Forgetting Oneself .............................................................90 Compassion: A Blind Man’s Story ...................................90 Gratefulness ........................................................................91 Coda on Beauty ..................................................................92 Chapter 6: Vitality ...............................................94 Finding Your Power ...........................................................95 Creative Imagination .........................................................97 Harvesting Creative Genius in Music .............................99 Alive Inside .......................................................................100 Expanding the Inquiry ....................................................102 The Explorers Wheel .......................................................105 Resilience ..........................................................................108 Advanced Practice—Discovering Life Force ...............110 Chapter 7: Wisdom in Daily Life .......................116 Equanimity—When Present Reality Suddenly Breaks Through .............................................................................121 Gateless Gate Case 10 Alone and Poor .........................122 Mumonkan - Case 41: Bodhidharma ...........................123 8 Everyday Equanimity ......................................................124 Authenticity—The Passing of Yamada Koun Roshi ....124 Double-Bladed Sword .....................................................125 From Trevor Leggett—The Tiger’s Cave .......................127 The Shadow of Non-Attachment ...................................128 Big Heart Intelligence (BHI)—Seeing the Big Picture 130 Faten Amal Harby ...........................................................132 Conscience and Daimon ................................................134 Chapter 8: Wisdom in Business .........................137 What is the problem? ......................................................139 Tragic Choices and False Choices .................................145 Case # 1—Employee Safety v. Core Corporate Value .146 Case # 2—Fiber First Los Angeles .................................150 Case # 3—NIR Exposure of Military Personnel ..........153 Case # 4—Protecting Children’s Health .......................155 Special Challenges of Schools ........................................157 Coda—Blood on Our Hands .........................................160 Chapter 9: Synchronicity ...................................165 Coincidence, Synchronicity, Serendipity (CSS) ...........169 What is the Mechanism? .................................................170 Inner/Outer Alignment ..................................................172 The Great Koan Mu (無) .................................................173 Research ............................................................................175 Beyond Biofeedback—Coincidence Control ...............176 An Experiment with Time ..............................................176 Creative Reverie ...............................................................178 Graphing CSS Events ......................................................180 Timing (CSS) in Business and Law ...............................185 Meaning Making ..............................................................185 Delusion—A Tale of Bird and Kettle .............................188 9 Murmuration ....................................................................188 Re-enter the Shadow: Contrived Reality ......................189 Seeing the World as It Is .................................................191 Just Click! Revisited .........................................................192 Chapter 10: Humor and Resilience ....................193 The King’s Fool in Shakespeare ......................................195 Metamorphosis ................................................................196 Marriage ............................................................................197 Developing Personal Resilience .....................................199 21st Century Divine Comedy ........................................200 BIG HEART CONNECTOME ...........................203 Chapter 11: Roots of Crisis ................................204 The Rainmaker .................................................................206 Distortion of the “Free Market” .....................................207 Negative Externalities .....................................................209 Failure to “Price” Public Goods .....................................211 Cultural Creatives ............................................................212 Public Interest Service Providers ...................................212 Technology’s Undervalued Public Potential ................213 The Compounding Negative Multiplier .......................214 Concentration of Wealth ................................................214 Hyperpolarization ...........................................................214 Desacralization of Nature ...............................................215 Cynical Manipulation of Law .........................................215 Mainstream Media Blackout ..........................................217 Loss of Privacy, Disinformation, and Government Surveillance ......................................................................218 Addiction and Behavior Modification ..........................219 Political Polarization .......................................................219 Disdain for the Classics and the Humanities ...............220Next >