Archive for the ‘Chance’ Category
The Human Heart Always Believes
Monday, November 2nd, 2009Mercurious
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Mercurious stands guard
at the cross-roads of Chance.
Offer him a token
of thanks and respect.
He is the god
of travelers like yourself:
confronted with important choices.
Seek the right road
through this haunted crossing
and ask for the protection
of Mercurious.
It is said
he has some influence
with Destiny.
From the forthcoming book A Hundred Chances: Short Meditations on Opportunity, Risk and Probability, by Patrick O’Neill
© Patrick O’Neill 2008. All rights reserved.
Insight: Unfoldment
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009The second portal of insight is unfoldment.
The Visioinmaker is always tracking what is unfolding within and around them. This means one is paying attention to the “Implicate Order,” a term coined by quantum physicist, David Bohm. Bohm writes:
“The word ‘implicate’ means to enfold–in Latin, to fold inward. In the implicate order everything is enfolded into everything.”
In Visionmaking, the path of heart and meaning is enfolded in the heart. It is the Visionmaker’s responsibility “to pay attention to what has heart and meaning” in order to unfold one’s Destiny through purposeful action.
At the same time, we must remain aware that the personal and collective journey unfold mutually, inextricably woven together in the fabric of Destiny’s greater plan.
Insight is gathered by recognizing the patterns that are unfolding within us and around us. Curiosity and inquiry are the means by which a Visionmaker gathers such insight. You can use these questions to examine what you are sensing:
• “What am I experiencing or seeing?”
• “What events or occurrences appear to be giving rise to what I am experiencing or seeing?”
• “What else might this be connected to?”
• “What are the impacts and implications of what is unfolding?”
• “What actions can I take to follow my heart?”
Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved
Insight: Body Wisdom
Friday, September 25th, 2009“Behead yourself! Dissolve your whole body into Vision.
Become seeing, seeing, seeing!”
-Rumi
I have been in Seattle all week working with the terrific folks at the Boeing Company. We had a great two days on advanced collaboration practices in support of the company’s continued commitment to “Working Together.”
Last time, I outlined the seven distinctions of Insight. This time, I will focus on the first distinction, body wisdom.
The body is the vehicle that has been given to each of us to pursue meaning and experience life directly. It is the principle agency of manifestation: whatever we do, whatever we produce, is done through the body.
The body, known as the Cradle of Manifestation in Visionmaking, has a wisdom that is instinctual and sensual, and is far older than our capacity to reason.
Body wisdom has protected humanity on its journey from the primordial soup to modern times. It is assembled in the gut, and attuned to the heart. It provides the Visionmaker with sensate knowing. As the Latin proverb instructs: “Nothing reaches the intellect before making its appearance in the senses.”
The body has been endowed with five known senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. The body is always honest and direct about what it wants, needs and experiences. Today, though, most people are so sedated by the status quo or the excesses of comfortable living that their capacity to access body wisdom is diminished.
Or they have been taught to mistrust what they feel if it is not logical.There is far more to life than logic.
When the Four-Chambered Heart (the subject of many previous posts) is aligned with the intellect and will, the five known senses are sharpened to a sensitivity that allows for heightened awareness.
This is the domain of the martial artist, the poet, the mystic. It is as if the whole body is wide- awake and aware of even the subtlest stimuli-a hummingbird at the window ledge, an action about to happen, the mood of a stranger, the atmosphere of a place.
The Visionmaker is always deeply respectful of the body, of the wisdom that is available there, and of the great gift of leading a purposeful life that it supports.
©
Chance and Folly
Friday, September 18th, 2009The Value of Monotony
Thursday, September 10th, 2009A Glimpse of Chance
Friday, September 4th, 2009Chance comes
when your back
is against the wall,
when you have nothing
to lose.
Chance comes
when you place yourself on the
line,
when you take a stand for something
that matters.
Chance comes
when you have immersed yourself so
deeply in something that you
forget you are
you.
Chance was always there anyway.
It just takes full
commitment
to catch a
glimpse
of the obvious.
© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved
The Opportunity of Uncertainty
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009“Where nothing is sure, everything is possible.” -Margaret Drabble
We are living in a period of great uncertainty and volatility economically, socially and politically. Although world markets appear to be recovering, most “experts” concede that they remain unpredictable. Industries have been shaken, people have lost their jobs, and governments are seeking to stabilize the marketplace through stimulus spending initiatives.
Most people seek simply to survive such conditions of uncertainty. Visionmakers see uncertainty with different eyes.
Uncertainty is a condition where there is a lack of knowledge, experience, precedent, or assurance about current conditions and what may emerge in future. That implies a high degree of risk…it also implies an abundance of opportunities.
Uncertainty is a condition that exists in the Field of Possibility. In Visionmaking, this field contains all the creative thoughts, feelings and actions available to everyone and anyone as they pursue a journey of heart and meaning.
Possibility is limitless, despite what conventional thinking dictates. There is always far more available within the Field of Possibility than the imagination can apprehend.
Visionmakers recognize that uncertainty carries with it risk. But to one who hears uncertainty as a call to adventure, the benefits of venturing into unknown territory is far more compelling than to remain on the shoreline of convention.
Calling on the gift of foresight, and trusting the careful preparation that he or she has made to enter uncertainty, a Visionmaker sets forth connected to personal power and trusting the heart’s guidance. He or she enters uncertainty with respect, discernment and excitement.
Rather than be afraid of the conditions of uncertainty, the Visionmaker’s intention is to hold the creative tension that comes with the emerging future. Creative tension, the atmosphere of uncertainty, is the perceptual stretching required to stay open to new possibilities rather than overwhelmed by them.
This demands equanimity. Equanimity is the ability to maintain buoyancy and composure in the face of a challenge. Put another way, equanimity is the ability to meet a disturbance without disturbance.
In the Field of Possibility, and in the atmosphere of creative tension, a Visionmaker seeks to explore all the potential opportunities and actions that further the journey of meaning. In this new territory of uncertainty, if one is agile, it is possible to pluck the future from the fingers of Chance.
© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.
Chance 3
Monday, June 1st, 2009• The present and the future live side by side in this moment. We have been taught to see them as contiguous. They are in fact concurrent. Chance is the spark that occurs when the present and the future touch.
• Chance confronts us every day. This confrontation reveals three things: the work that we have done to fund our generative powers, the work that we have not done, and the work we need to do.
• Chance comes when your back is against the wall, when you have nothing to lose. Chance comes when you place yourself on the line, when you take a stand for something that matters. Chance comes when you have immersed yourself so deeply in something that you forget you are you. Chance was always there anyway. It just takes full commitment to catch a glimpse of the obvious.
• Our certainties limit Chance. Chance cannot penetrate a closed mind. Perhaps it is the only place it cannot go. Open your mind and improve your Chances.
• The eyes and ears are the receptors of Chance. Chance is empirical. It likes to be seen and heard.
• Anticipation is required to capitalize on Chance. What is anticipation? It is the partnership of optimism and readiness.
• Synchronicity is Chance’s calling card. When events converge in remarkable ways, we know that Chance is trying to get our attention. But why, we ask? What is the mystery that is unfolding in front of our eyes? The only way to find out is to follow the clues.
• Second Chances come to us through positive changes that resulted from first Chances. That’s called continuous improvement.
• Living is an experiment. It’s full of opportunities and challenges. Outcomes are derived from our attitude during the experiment. If we are open, positive and excited to be alive, Chances are that our outcomes will support our outlook. If we are closed, negative and resentful about living, Chances are that our outcomes will support our outlook. The good news is we get to choose.
© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.
