Try #8 at what Unitarian Universalists seek.

Tags

Evolution of beauty, Evolution of behavior, Evolution of belief, Evolution of friendliness, Evolution of happiness, Evolution of helpfulness, Evolution of ideas, Evolution of liberty, Evolution of life, Evolution of opportunity, Evolution of policy, Evolution of trust

I have been trying to write a general world view for the Unitarian Universalists, and thus for myself too, and have gone through many versions before I began publishing what I thought were final drafts on this blog. Attempt #7 seen below appeared close to what I was seeking and yet today in an outside group meeting, where I was talking about my spiritual decision-making in the past, some people stated, not personally to me as that would be out of form for our group, that our group had taken a negative turn that made them feel uncomfortable. They wanted to be happy and this wasn’t even neutral. So, applying those thoughts to the statement below, let me see if I can make it into a more enthusiastic document that would itself bring pleasure and happiness. See below for Strikeout with lines through them and new inserted words in italics

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Attempt #7 is written in a final form

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe, so we may be in a more sustainable beautiful relationship harmony with all of the beautiful options it offers to us.
2. —minimize the all suffering of all living things and to enhance enable human happiness, health, and wisdom. wisdom, health, and happiness.
3. —create and maintain a well-balanced perfectly balanced society so everyone may live within an appealing delightful and sustainable world.
4. —acknowledge recognize our unique personal limitations abilities and choose to develop use them to help our positive responses to other’s beings’ needs. live healthier, happier lives.
5. —acknowledge that we as an interacting group of people individuals expressing positive but divergent diverse views are more likely to discover mutually beneficial opportunities than we will find as solitary individuals.
6. —make a deliberate effort to strengthen every person’s moral personality understanding and affection for others to thrive. and help it to become a part of their daily lives.
7. —make a voluntary decision to help each of us to grow in understanding and affection for one another.

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Attempt #8 is written in a final form

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe, so we may be in a beautiful relationship with all of the beautiful options it offers us.
2. —minimize the suffering of all living things and to enable human wisdom, health, and happiness.
3. —create and maintain a perfectly balanced society so everyone may live within a delightful and sustainable world.
4. —recognize our unique personal abilities and choose to use them to help others live healthier and happier lives.
5. —acknowledge that we as a group of individuals expressing positive but diverse views are more likely to discover mutually beneficial opportunities than we will find as solitary individuals.
6. —make a voluntary decision to help each of us to grow in understanding and affection for one another.

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This is getting better to my way of thinking, but what will tomorrow bring?

Suggestions are welcome.

Another try at what UU’s seek.

Tags

Evolution of behavior, Evolution of belief, Evolution of happiness, Evolution of ideas, Evolution of liberty, Evolution of life, Evolution of opportunity, Evolution of policy, Evolution of trust

Each day what has been written to answer the question of what UU’s seek seems good, and yet when I read it the next day it isn’t quite right. So I rewrite the whole thing. The fourth item has been a problem because it seeks to acknowledge the limits of our own self-observation, but it is too complex and negative and needs a total revision.

To help me track my own thoughts and changes to the text I have been putting (brackets) around the changes, with strikethroughs for deleted words followed by a more desirable word, usually within the brackets. Below is yesterday’s final version, … which it clearly isn’t because it isn’t clear enough. Below that is a newer effort and below that is clear copy of the changes.

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Attempt #6

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe so we may be in greater harmony with what it offers us.
2. —minimize all suffering and to enhance human health and abundance.
3. —create and maintain a well-balanced society so everyone may live within a sustainable world.
4. —acknowledge that we as individuals are too removed from our own invisible thinking processes to ever fully understand our own convictions and reasons.
5. —acknowledge that we as a group of involved, informed people with conflicting views are more likely to find solutions to conflicts than an isolated individual.
6. —make a deliberate effort to strengthen every individual’s understanding of the highest values of which they can become aware of and make real.

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Attempt #7 which is a rewrite of the previous attempt.

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe so we may be in (greater a more sustainable) harmony with (the options what it offers to) us.
2. —minimize all suffering and to enhance human (happiness,) health and (abundance wisdom).
3. —create and maintain a well-balanced society so everyone may live within a(n appealing, and) sustainable world.
4. —acknowledge that we as individuals are too removed from our own invisible thinking processes to ever fully understand our own convictions and reasons. (acknowledge our personal limitations and choose to develop our positive responses to other beings’ needs.)
5. —acknowledge that we as an interacting group of (involved, informed) people with (conflicting different) views are more likely to find (solutions to conflicts mutually beneficial opportunities) than we will as (a isolated solitary) individuals.
6. —make a deliberate effort to strengthen every individual’s (moral personality understanding of the highest values of which they can become aware of and help it to become a part of their daily lives.)

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Attempt #7 is written in a final form

We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe, so we may be in a more sustainable harmony with the options it offers to us.
2. —minimize all suffering and to enhance human happiness, health, and wisdom.
3. —create and maintain a well-balanced society so everyone may live within an appealing and sustainable world.
4. —acknowledge our personal limitations and choose to develop our positive responses to other beings’ needs.
5. —acknowledge that we as an interacting group of people with different views are more likely to discover mutually beneficial opportunities than we will find as solitary individuals.
6. —make a deliberate effort to strengthen every person’s moral personality and help it to become a part of their daily lives.

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This is getting better to my way of thinking, but what will tomorrow bring?

Suggestions are welcome.

What is “Freedom”?

Tags

Evolution of behavior, Evolution of belief, Evolution of happiness, Evolution of ideas, Evolution of liberty, Evolution of life, Evolution of opportunity, Evolution of policy, Evolution of trust

To write a proposal for a change of direction for a religious institution requires courage and a willingness to risk one’s life. That has been tested and proven true many times historically, so why would I be so audacious as to attempt such a task? Personally, I don’t feel any hostility to the current UU principles, in fact, I like them very much. However, Unitarians, back in 1936 in Unitarians Face A New Age, wrote that we as individuals must think for ourselves, and that thinking includes analyzing Universal principles of human aspiration and behavior.

For those people to be granting me the right and liberty of thinking with my own mind is the greatest trust that can be given. Furthermore, it is offering help to me in the most profound possible way, because only a person living their own life can know what life is about. Their helping me is the essence of love. Love is expressed by intentionally helping another being to fulfill their life, liberty, and opportunities. Love is helping a living being to flourish in their mind, body, and actions.

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We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. (6)—discover the orderly nature of the Universe so we may be in greater harmony with (its behaviors. what it offers (to ) us.)
2. (4)—minimize all suffering and to enhance human health and abundance.
3. (3)—create and maintain (an ideal a well-balanced) society so (we may all everyone) may live within a sustainable world.
4. (2)—acknowledge that (we as) individuals are too removed from (their our) own invisible thinking processes to ever (clearly fully) understand (their our) own convictions and reasons.
5. (1)—acknowledge that (we as) a group of involved, informed people with conflicting views are more likely to find solutions to conflicts than an isolated individual.
6. (5)—make a deliberate effort to strengthen every individual’s understanding of the highest values of which that they can become aware (of and make real).

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We Unitarian Universalists seek to:

1. —discover the orderly nature of the Universe so we may be in greater harmony with what it offers us.
2. —minimize all suffering and to enhance human health and abundance.
3. —create and maintain a well-balanced society so everyone may live within a sustainable world.
4. —acknowledge that we as individuals are too removed from our own invisible thinking processes to ever fully understand our own convictions and reasons.
5. —acknowledge that we as a group of involved, informed people with conflicting views are more likely to find solutions to conflicts than an isolated individual.
6. —make a deliberate effort to strengthen every individual’s understanding of the highest values that they can become aware of and make real.
   

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   Suggestions are welcome.

My challenge to invent something every day stumbled

Tags

A spillproof box., Accepting stupid challenges, Evolution of a box, Inventing new stuff, Thinking about boxes

For three weeks I have been successful in coming up with an invention every day. I was challenged with inventing something every day by my Monday afternoon book discussion group. I immediately refused to accept, saying that even Thomas Edison wouldn’t accept such a monstrous challenge. But they wouldn’t relent. I was bullied into it after three refusals. The only way such a challenge could be sustained for very long was to solve some of the really tiny problems that are ubiquitous.

One of the ones I brought in for their viewing last Monday was a small box used in restaurants for leftovers.  The box I had been given the day before had a tendency to pop open, so I worked on that problem for a while and cut out of the cardboard lid a little hook that would catch the side of the slot opening. It worked better than the original box and didn’t accidentally pop open as easily.

However, one of the guys said that sometimes food leaked out the top corners when a box was tipped on its side even if it didn’t spring open. Tonight, when I should have been thinking about the new paradigms for the Unitarian Universalist fellowships, I was trying to solve the box problem. I was thinking inside of the box, when I should have been thinking outside of the box, and my thinking and writing time was used up. I stumbled upon a simple, obvious once you see it, solution to that problem.

Perhaps, someday you will get to use one of my new boxes in a restaurant.

Each day contradicts the earlier ones

Tags

Contradictions, My struggle with contradictions, UU Affirm and promote

One contradiction after another. Even the smallest insignificant things seem to require adjustment the next day. Yesterday, on my morning walk with Debbie, we saw a dandelion with 64 blossomed stalks and thought that was amazing and far beyond the bounds of normal reality. Today, primed to look at dandelions, we found one and counted 113 blossomed stalks. And, further along our path, there was a long stalked one that I picked, carried home, and tossed out onto my garden, so I’m going to break off this for a moment and go fetch it. … I’m back, and it measures 2 feet 3 inches. Some dandelions we saw in people’s lawns don’t appear to have any stalks. None!

I bring up this trivial measure of contradiction because I have been rewriting some documents of Unitarian Universalist favored beliefs. It is for my own pleasure, as I have absolutely no authority to be changing those things. My problem is easy to see if you have been following this blog for the last few days. What seems okay, even good, one day seems flawed the next day. What seemed like a clarification yesterday appears as fog today. The word pettifogger pops into my mind. That’s a term of derision applied to all of those unscrupulous lawyers representing the other side of a legal question with silly unrelated arguments. How many times must I rewrite my restatement of We affirm and promote, before I am willing to affirm and promote that short proclamation?

If even my simplest reality is changing every day, I will always be anxious, and that’s a worry, but I will also be entertained, and that’s a pleasure.

Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote …

Tags

Evolution of UU goals, Survival of humanity

I have been associated with the Unitarians since 1953 but I have often said to my friends that I was born a Unitarian in 1935 and didn’t discover until December 1953 that I was a Unitarian. Exactly what that meant to me was … to always treat people as well as I possibly could, and expect that they were telling me the truth as they saw it. The idea of what the truth was about various subjects is a point that generates considerable conversation; which I enjoyed, and still do. That’s about sixty-six years of daily bull-shit, or as some accused me of, because of my weight and volume of production, elephant-shit.

On a more serious note, after asserting my open-ended and light-hearted approach to creeds and religious dogma, I am approaching the subject of UU belief with hope for bringing it, and religion, and all humanity closer to my conception of what people might choose as guiding principles for how they might approach their personal reality. But first, let me begin with the current general handout that is given out before the more specific Sunday “Fresh-sheet” of information. The following picture of me  welcoming people to our church was unplanned, and unexpected by me,

That’s me offering a welcoming hand at the UUFCO

but when one opens the beautifully done brochure the first thing seen is:

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We affirm & promote

• • • The inherent worth and dignity of every person
    • Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations
    • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
    • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
    • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large
    • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
    • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

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  In 1936 the Unitarians published Unitarians Face A New Age – The Report of the Commission of Appraisal to the American Unitarian Association at 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. I purchased that eighty-three-year-old book and am reading it because I am planning to go to the UU conference in Spokane, Washington, next month and wanted a background in UU policy. On page 33 of that book I read that Unitarians are “stubborn only in the resolve to resist the temptation to become fixed and final.” The renditions above of our current inclinations are not indifferent, they are clear and concise statements of things to be valued by all people, but the language is different from the ideas presented by them and me in my post “Unitarians Agree” we need sparkle. That links to my rewrite of the 1936 generalized statements of Unitarian aspirations. Here are the current official Seven Principles. Below are my ideas for a current statement.

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  We affirm and promote 

  The Unitarian Universalist Principles

  • • Include the inherent worth, dignity, and need for love of every living being
    • We seek compassion in all of our relations with all beings.
    • We accept one another and encourage moral growth toward actions which help others.
    • We long for meaning based on evidence-based truth and responsible actions.
    • We support personal exploration combined with an open discussion with others to find a path to a sustainable future.
    • Our goal is a thriving world filled with life, liberty, and opportunities for everyone.
    • We choose to shape our lives as a meaningful part of the entire Universe.

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  I as an individual choose to invite you personally to help create this new statement of goals in a way that would be more acceptable to Unitarian Universalists and all other humans.

A rehash of what Unitarians Agree

Tags

An attempt to state Universal goals, Evolution of an idea

This morning I read the Unitarians Agree statement that I posted last night to a group of independent thinkers. They didn’t like it and said that it felt like I was trying to manipulate them and tell them what to think. Personally, I felt that the Unitarians Agree statement was a serious attempt at an open-ended and non-manipulative aspiration, but I am now going to challenge it and rewrite that statement from a point of view that excludes all reference to any kind of individual control, even of one’s own thoughts and actions. Why? I don’t know, but I am taking it as a challenge.

Some people imagine

1. —the free exercise of a single human intelligence isn’t an ideal path to a secure future and a group of involved people with opposing world views are more likely to find better solutions to inevitable conflicts.
2. —that individuals are too removed from their own invisible thinking processes to ever understand their own convictions and reasons.
3. —that to create and maintain an optimal society with minimal suffering that idea needs to be stated as a clear goal that is publicly defined as the ideal.
4. —that there needs to be an organized declaration by an acknowledged group that affirms and struggles to minimize suffering.
5. —that a deliberate effort is needed to strengthen every individual’s understanding of the highest values of which he can become aware.
6. —there is an orderly nature in the Universe and support humanity’s efforts to better understand the natural order.

That statement is an interesting beginning but it is open to revision.

 

Unitarians Face A New Age

Tags

Evolution of UU goals, The pursuit of happiness, Unitarians Face A New Age

Unitarians Face A New Age – The Report of the Commission of Appraisal to the American Unitarian Association was published in 1936 at 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA. I purchased this eighty-three-year-old book and am reading it because I am planning to go to the UU conference in Spokane, Washington, next month. I have been a member of the Unitarian church since 1954, although at that time I was only a member of the Channing Club, which was the college-age discussion group that was associated with the official church. When I entered the US Air Force in 1958, soon after graduating from WSC in Pullman, Washington, I encountered a man issuing my official dog tags. A pair of those dog tags are worn around the neck, on a chain, by all US military personnel for bodily identification when they are living and when they die. They have one’s name, their official identification number, and a word of religious preference. The choice was Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or blank. I insisted that I was none of the above, that I was a Unitarian. He insisted that those were my choices, and I insisted that many of the founding fathers of our country, including Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, were Unitarians.

Our conversation went back and forth that way for a while and then he reluctantly pulled out a case of punch letters and letter by letter punched in UNITARIAN on both of my dog tags. A few years later when I departed the Air Force and went to Berkeley, California, I immediately fell in with the Unitarians there and even though I moved to Bend, Oregon, eight years ago, I still consider those friends of fifty-one years my primary social foundation.

I write this background essay because although I participate actively in UU events I have chosen never to take on official responsibilities. I hover around the edges of those kinds of commitments and frequently find things to do that need doing. Those things may be slightly outside of official sanctions, but if something needs to be done, I do it. I do it instantly. No authorization or committee needed. If it needs doing, I do it.

On page 15, “It would be impossible for anyone today to say more severe or drastic things about Unitarians than they have repeatedly said about themselves in the past: and, conversely, it would be impossible for anyone to set up a series of ideals and aims for the denomination today that would be more lofty or more inspiring than those which Unitarian pioneers and prophets have from time to time set forth.”

On page 33-4 of Unitarians Face A New Age, there is a challenge to every Unitarian; “Nobody, reading such a statement, will find himself satisfied with it; but every Unitarian will find himself challenged by it to change the general consensus of opinion in the direction he desires. Nobody will feel the slightest sense of constraint  on reading it, for it binds nobody; but every Unitarian will feel a sense of  determination to alter the picture so far as lies within his power so as to make it more nearly represent his own convictions.”

I accept that challenge, and have rewritten their eighty-three-year-old document of suggestions printed on page 33. My rendering is:

Unitarians Agree

1. —in affirming the primacy of the free exercise of intelligence, believing that in the long run, the safest guide into a more secure future is human intelligence.
2. —in affirming the paramount importance for the individual of his own moral convictions and purposes.
3. —in affirming that the social implications of religion are crucial to its vitality and validity, as expressed in terms of concern for social conditions and the struggle to create and maintain a just social order.
4. —in affirming the importance of the UU church as the organized expression of a profound religion.
5. —in affirming the necessity for a deliberate effort to strengthen the individual’s grasp of the highest values of which he can become aware.
6. —in affirming the orderly nature of the universe.

Jefferson stated our UU goal well, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” I think for him and I know for me that finding new ideas to pursue is the essence of happiness.

Artists, Yaxchilan, invent four things

Tags

Carolyn E. Tate - Mayanist, Gardening in Bend Oregon, Richard Cork artist

After sprinkling and irrigating my garden for most of an hour I went to the Commons coffee shop, took several photos of Mirror Pond and then talked to Richard Cork. We usually talk about art, and I showed him too many pictures that I had taken these last few days, far too many. A couple of pictures on a particular theme is better for conversation than a whole batch of stuff on scattered ideas that I’ve been exploring. We walked over to the Red Chair art gallery and talked to the two women there for a half an hour, about what else … art and artists.

Richard went home and so did I, and there I gave the whole garden another dose of sprinkled water and reflowed the irrigation water ditches. The goal is to get the soil saturated beneath the raised rows that I created with the forty-eight wheelbarrow loads of topsoil that I wheeled in from the front driveway where it was dumped. All the seeds are now in and the overnight temperatures don’t go beneath 42° F. We have a short growing season here in Bend, Oregon, so it’s important to get the seeds planted as soon as the frost is gone.

I am still making little improvements on my Snowshoo snow removal system and am ready to make a working model. Of course, there won’t be any more snow until next winter; perhaps it would be an excuse to go to South Island, New Zealand, this summer/winter to remove snow from those people’s roofs.

I made four new micro-inventions for my Monday group meeting challenge. They didn’t believe that I could invent something every day. I’ve already done eight since Monday and it’s only Wednesday. I like the idea of doing micro-inventions because there are so many little things that can have little improvements. That idea is a spin-off of doing lots of tiny good deeds rather than trying to do something wonderful. Big good deeds are hard to come by, and so are big good inventions, and no doubt big good ideas. So, I’m concentrating on the little things.

I began reading the book Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City by Carolyn E. Tate. She is a UU member and gave a lecture last week that I really enjoyed. It was like being back in Berkeley. I really miss going to great lectures by people creating the science they are talking about.

It was another fine day and I had a Purple Carrot dinner prepared by Debbie.

21 Lessons by Yuval Harari – Some thoughts

Tags

Book review - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Homo Deus, Meditation, Personal survival strategy, Sapiens, Yuval Harari

 

Like Harari’s other books, Sapiens and Homo Deus, this book 21 Lessons has the feeling of easy first draft writing, but the ideas are turtles all the way down into his depths. He claims he writes from his experiences developed from his two hours per day of meditation and that none of these three books would exist without his meditations.

The science of brain exploration is progressing well, that is, an understanding of chemistry, electricity, synapses and such, but that isn’t the mind; it is just mechanistic functioning of the brain. It is like examining the mechanical operation of a car and thinking you understand cars. Whereas, for a human, the mind is more like using the car and having living experiences that are created by that car and in combination with the car’s unique qualities. The mind is not chemistry, it is the felt emotion in response to something internal to the body. There may be an external input of some kind that goes through the mechanism of the body and into the brain, but it is the mind that is experiencing the emotions and mediating what is to be learned from the experience. Probably there is another level within the mind that should have a separately defined state within this hierarchy. That is, the mind performs its functions, but it isn’t until the individual attends to these available ideas as a conscious interaction with other things that they become available for useful action. There may be reflexive reactions that occur as brain responses instantly to a threat stimulus, and mental responses that are slower emotionally driven actions, but when there is an interplay of a few ideas that are conscious they can become new and useful ideas never before encountered by humanity.

21 Lessons is ultimately about self-observation and Harari’s form of it is called Vipassana meditation, which may go back to the Buddha. I’ve been meditating for twenty minutes per day, but my mind is still a wild thing. It’s like watching squirrels chasing one another in the spring mating season. Harari says there are many forms of meditation and he has explored many of them in an attempt to understand his mind.

Following that idea into deeper meditations seems like a good idea to me.