Lines of Thinking (cont.)
Behavior of People in Systems
The behavior of people in systems is another significant influence (e.g., Barry Oshry, Seeing Systems). From his books and workshop, I learned that the typical behavior of Buddhist teachers is not due to their personalities but to their position in a system, a system that, ironically, reinforces a sense of self in its teachers while teaching ways to dismantle a sense of self. From his description of the different worlds of tops, middles, and bottoms, I came to see that the best way to create the conditions for individual growth is to encourage people at all levels to take responsibility for many aspects of training that are, traditionally, assigned to the teacher.
Reading on the formation of vital communities (e.g., Robert Putnam, Better Together) identified three factors that are essential for vital energetic communities: face-to-face meetings, opportunities for community members to move into leadership roles, and an ethic that encourages members to contribute to the community rather than relying on the community to do things for them.
A somewhat related influence was reading on complex adaptive systems and chaos theory (e.g., Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, The Collapse of Chaos), which revealed the extraordinary power of setting the right conditions and letting things evolve.
When I looked beyond Nasrudin into the writings of Idries Shah (e.g., Learning How to Learn), I discovered a way of looking at teaching and developing students that put into words what I had been struggling towards intuitively. Many of the Sufi teaching principles felt completely natural given the combination of my interest in growth processes (over manufacturing) and ways to avoid the projections that inevitably arise in institutions.
The difference between traditional and modern cultures (e.g., Karen Armstrong, The Battle For God) is another topic I’ve found helpful to consider. In a traditional culture, there is one truth and you find it by emulating past examples of perfection (Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, etc.). In a modern culture, there is one truth, and you find it through personal exploration and reason (scientific methods, the purpose-driven life, etc.). The post-modern twist is that truth is only a function of power, an outlook that inevitably leads to anarchism and cynicism. One can argue that Buddhism was the first modern religion. Because it spread in traditional societies, however, it took on many of those traits. Nevertheless, teachers found a way to use those traditional forms for spiritual development (e.g., guru yoga in the Tibetan tradition).
