“quit the false good and leap to the true”
A paradigm shift can be a gradual and partial change in our beliefs, attitudes and values, or the more comprehensive “radical” shift that we advocate in The Simple Reality Project.
An example of a gradual shift comes from engineer and author Willis Harman who is convinced that the American culture is in crisis and that a change in consciousness is essential. “We are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history—a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. No economic, political, or military power can compare with the power of a change of mind. By deliberately changing their images of reality, people can and are changing the world.”[i]
The more comprehensive “radical” shift to Paradigm-A that we advocate in Simple Reality means simplifying our life, disconnecting from external pursuits of plenty, pleasure and power, and instead connecting with our inner wisdom. Of course, it’s only “radical” because we are so accustomed to the Paradigm-B world.
Insight # 6 comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) an iconoclast who gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs he had been taught—a paradigm shift. He was an essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. At the heart of Emerson’s teaching was the principle of Self-Reliance.
“Men [and women], such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money—the ‘spoils’ so called, ‘of office.’ And why not? For they aspire to the highest, and this, in their sleep-walking, they dream is highest. Wake them and they shall quit the false good and leap to the true and leave government to clerks and desks.”[ii]
__________
Additional Reading:
- Paradigm Shift, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
__________
[i] Harman, Willis. The 2007 Shift Report. Petaluma, California: Institute of Noetic Sciences, 2007, frontispiece.
[ii] Hibbard, Addison, and Horst Frenz. Writers of the Western World. New York: Houghton, 1954, p. 762.
