FMBR Editorial: Aug, 2013
Synerview, a Proposed New Concept
Jerry Gin
In our April, 2013 Newsletter, Judy Kitt and Bill Gough wrote an editorial about what is needed to achieve sustainability for the planet:
"Society really requires a new narrative for these times. A narrative of sustainability for planet earth must be a narrative of interrelatedness and synergy. We need to approach the dire challenges that we are facing within a narrative that states "All of creation, visible and invisible, is connected. And it is possible to create systems that allow all of life to thrive, in balance, on the Earth."
As we each progress on our spiritual journey of mind, heart and higher being, we come to realize that we are all interconnected and with all of existence (environment, flora, fauna, people). We come to realize that any actions we take, whether it be individually or as a group, should take into consideration the interconnection of all elements. We propose a new term for this concept: synerview.
This term combines the word "synergy" (various parts working together to produce an enhanced result) with "view". The term implies taking a "synergistic viewpoint" of any situation. When actions based upon synerview are taken, they will impact humanity and all the inhabitants of our planet and the planet itself. For sustainability of the planet and all life on it, FMBR (Foundation for Mind Being Research) proposes that issues be looked at with the "synerview" position in mind.
Synerview is an underlying principle upon which the decision was made to form FMBR. In any situation, ranging from politics, disputes between groups, organization, nations, to decisions that affect our environment, our food, the plants and oceans, animals of the planet, and the earth itself, there is a need to look at it from the synerview perspective. One goal of FMBR is to encourage each individual and group of individuals to take the synerview approach to the issues that confront us.
Bill Gough has eloquently stated the underlying principle upon which FMBR was formed:
- All of life is interconnected and constantly interacting with a space-less and timeless domain of unbounded potential. Unconditional love constitutes this underlying field out of which all matter and consciousness arise. Our individual and collective actions affect others as well as all of nature and the planet.
- We are stewards of humanity and the planet. Our primary charge is to do no harm to the Earth or its inhabitants (human, plant and animal). But our higher call is to reverse the damage that has been done on Earth over the last 200 years, and to create and implement new systems and institutions that reflect a worldview in which we recognize that "we are all in this together."
- Honoring the intrinsic goodness, the dignity and the unique expression of each individual creates a robust and diverse society that is inherently creative, nurturing and egalitarian.
We are all connected to each other and to everything on the planet. We often think we are separate -- and that is the basis of problems. If we do not take the "synerview" as individuals, groups, or nations, the decisions we make will have consequences. The consequences of not taking the synerview include quarrels and distrust among individuals to wars among groups and nations to destruction of ecosystems affecting life and the planet.
The synerview concept encompasses "doing no harm" to the planet and its inhabitants; instead, it focuses on the benefits resulting from that viewpoint. An example of the importance of Synerview is in issues involving common resources (the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land that supplies our food, etc.). In viewing common resources, one encounters The Law of Commons1. Examples of abuses of Commons would be dumping of pesticides that make their way into the water that we drink and harming the fish and other life; another example would be creating emissions that accelerate warming of the planet and raising the sea level. If we abuse the Law of Commons, the result is the "Tragedy of the Commons"2. The Tragedy of the Commons is often the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to the group's long-term best interests. It is only when synerview becomes the dominant action principle can we avoid the Tragedy of Commons.
Through understanding, by each of us, of our "oneness" with all of creation, and with the "oneness" of Consciousness, synerview becomes the natural viewpoint for all situations to avoid undesirable consequences by individuals, groups, or nations.
1 LawOfTheCommonsGP.pdf (link now unknown) by Steven Reisler, in Guild Practitioner, "Teaching the Commons", Vol 65, No. 1, p19, (2008)
2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy of the Commons
Jerry Gin, Chair, FMBR