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Browse published articles attributed to Barry Lipscomb, with full-archive search.
Everything is energy. And our intention is the force that influences and sets this energy into form. We co-create within the un-manifested potential through our intentions. When we are conscious of this, it is simply a matter of moving this energy, shifting it into the forms we desire.
Since we are all one, connected within the greater energy field, we affect each other through our thoughts, beliefs and intentions. This affecting and influencing occurs whether we are aware of it or not. However, when we let go of our own will and allow the divine, organizing intelligence of the universe guide the process we create the opportunity for significant and transformative change to occur.
There are really just a few things we could do in order to begin living sustainably, but they require the huge first step of honoring our place in the world and finding harmony with our environment – a significant and profound shift in how we live. It’s more than a green movement of conserving and recycling. We need the significant shift of a blue movement. The basic institutions of the modern world are no longer working.
While the tops down approach of rewilding our governments and corporations (see last week’s blog) is a necessary step on the path to achieving a sustainable existence. It is not enough. We also need individual actions. We must actively participate if the change we desire is to manifest.
Every condition is the result of a thought and everything we think contributes to our success – or lacking. When we consciously choose to let old thoughts go, we open ourselves to new possibilities. In this means we are able to spontaneously change our reality when we change our thoughts, beliefs, intentions and perceptions. Every event is always neutral – any reaction is coming from the memory of a past experience, charging this present moment so that it is no longer neutral.
Many eastern sages and traditions tell us that all things are one thing. And if all things are one thing, then we must each be that one thing. We have the illusion of being an individual only because we are looking at the world through the eyes of that individual. It’s like Russian nesting dolls with the smallest doll fitting within the next largest and then those two dolls fitting inside an even larger doll. And so on.
Rewilding is a concept in Conservation Biology whereby reintroducing keystone predatory species into a particular environment, resilience of the ecosystem is restored, and even maximized. This theory recognizes our ecosystems are delicately balanced and can easily get thrown into disarray. Rewilding has the potential of restoring balance, from the top down, enabling the greater ecosystem to flourish once again.
We have reached a point if we look honestly and fully we will see that the way we live today is not sustainable. We consume too much, work too hard, creating too much trash and rapidly depleting the earth’s non-renewable resources. In short, we do not respect and live within the natural flow and order of things. The world economic crisis that began in the fall of 2008 is no accident when you consider the way we have lived, worked and consumed. Economists describe it as a correction. The economy had gotten out of sorts so it naturally begins to correct itself.
Few people would disagree when I say that our current business model is no longer working – and may, in fact, be broken. The debate begins, though, with trying to diagnose and then fix it. I propose there are three unconscious practices in business today that, if reversed, would result in a more productive, sustainable and efficient way of doing business. Consciousness, on the other hand, with its timeless and formless nonattachment is counter to the very principles of capitalism as we currently know it. And it is in that difference that we may find the solution.
I often look about the world and see a vast discrepancy in the distribution of resources – those who have more than they could ever possibly consume and other places where just a portion of those resources would make a tremendous difference in people’s lives and well being. It seems we have confused abundance with prosperity. Let’s look at that a bit deeper and from a more conscious perspective.
There is something within us that wants to be whole and when we give it just a bit of attention it multiplies. That is Grace. The un-manifested potential has an organizing intelligence if we give up our own will, letting go into the flow of life.
The present moment is all there ever is – everything else is only thought, memories of the past and visions of the future. There is a constant dialogue with the past and the future here in the present, with the unfolding future informing what occurs each moment and our ever changing perception of the past affecting our experience of the present moment – all occurring at the same time yet ever changing.
A spiritual awakening is simply the awareness that we are more than just a physical body, with a thinking mind. We have a spiritual nature too, that many traditions speak of as a light. Yet lots of us no longer have access to that light. Addicts and Alcoholics have used drugs and alcohol until it‘s covered up. And for others, the stress and demands of a fast-paced, modern world drive us to escape through the compulsions of shopping, television, internet, sex and other things, rather than retreat to the light of this spiritual nature.
It’s that time of year again when we look back to what we accomplished over the past year and forward to what we wish to do in the next twelve months. For many years this has been an important time of reflection and goal setting for me but this year I’m approaching it a bit differently – by first looking at the really big picture to envision the changes I would like to see in the world and then working back from that vision to imagine how I might participate in this evolving view.
The Conscious Business takes a broader perspective and with deeper perception, allowing it to act more intentionally. In this post, we look at the remaining conscious business practices – those that reflect how the organization acts. Shifting its focus from exte al behaviors to inner resources, the Conscious Business operates from its core where actions arise deliberately, authentically and often with greater purpose. Relating Consciouslyr
Deepak Chopra explains the nature of consciousness as a movie reel where there are multiple frames with a space between each … much like computer binary code … a series of “on” and “off” switches. I find this description quite inspiring and helpful in advancing the possibility for spontaneous evolutionary leaps within a generation. We have the tremendous opportunity in each of these “off” switches to shift our perception and dream an entirely different reality to impact our selves, and the greater world around us.
Many years ago the company I was working for at the time began to engage various culture shaping initiatives. As a “consciousness nerd” my curiosity was piqued as I looked forward to being exposed to new theories and perhaps a deeper understanding of my own nature. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. While I witnessed several attempts by different firms, all were focused on changing surface behaviors without shifting underlying beliefs – lots of tools but no foundation of principles. As a result, not much was integrated into individual behaviors and very little ever changed.
There are at least seven conscious business practices that emerge as the organization shifts its focus from exte al behaviors to inner resources. At a high level the organization broadens it perspective, deepens its perception as its actions become more intentional. This article looks at those practices that broaden the organizational perspective – first going deep within and then further beyond itself. Next, the organization’s field of vision deepens and changes the way it approaches normal, daily situations. Cultivate Curiosityr
I recently wrote that the Conscious Business operates from a place of deep wisdom that naturally gives rise to the conscious practices that generate sustainable results. It’s a paradox where the organization shifts its attention to inner resources and the seemingly exte al behaviors begin to naturally change. By working from the inside out, conscious business practices become an extension of who the organization and its leaders really are.
It is getting more and more difficult to plan ahead with any degree of accuracy and relevance as our ever-changing world continues to move more quickly and develop ever greater complexity. We need a new means of engaging that my mentor, Dr. Michael Picucci, describes as a creative and fluid movement of experience.
Most of us carry old habits, thoughts and beliefs from the limited perspective of our experience that have us locked in a cycle of the past repeating itself. However, when we release these old thoughts we open to the possibilities in the present moment. Likewise when we take responsibility in each moment, we no longer create karma to carry forward. In this manner we shift the direction we live, from the limited, conditioned thinking of our past and into a future emerging in the present.
Healing is simply coming into right relationship with everything in and around us – to be made whole. We have the ability to transform or heal anything within our own energy field as creation is always re-creating itself in each moment. It’s just a matter of changing the distortion of energy or information in our body.
All growth isn’t bigger and continuous growth isn’t sustainable. Across nature, there is a natural limit to growth. It’s about efficiency as well as the consumption and allocation of resources. By contrast, out of control growth is known as cancer – the uncontrolled growth of a tumorous mass. And unless the growth can be arrested and even reversed, the organism eventually dies.
Because I believe in the power of love, I first love myself; then seeing myself in every person I encounter, I love and experience them in a way that builds trust. Because I believe we are all connected, I honor that connection and recognize I am the source of everything I experience. Because I believe in truth, I deal honestly with myself and use integrity in my interactions with others. Because I value commitment, trust and honesty, I cultivate relationships grounded in respect, consideration and co-operation that enhances all our lives.
Our sustained existence calls for being in right relationship with the world, respecting our home in this planet while cohabitating with all aspects of life and nature – in harmony, not domination. It’s living from the inside out, with great conce for the future and those who will inhabit this planet after we are gone. We find harmony within our selves and then carry it out into the way we relate with the world – fully living our lives by enriching the experience and sustaining our existence. From this harmony, it is how we do things, who, and what we do those things with.
On the eve of his untimely death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke the prophetic words, “I've been to the mountaintop. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” Dr. King’s promised land was a vision that he held with determination regardless of whether it would be realized in his own lifetime.