9. Open Blind
Unknown
Hidden Land of
Serendipity
– Unit 17 –
The Land of
Serendipity Window
♣ To explore a living connection
with our own karma.
10. Known Not known
to self to self
Known
to Open Blind
others
Unknown
Not Land of
Hidden
known Serendipity
to others
♣ In the Open window can be ♣In the Blind window are things
seen all the things you know other people know about you but
about yourself that others also of which you are unaware.
know.
♣In the Unknown (Land of
♣In the Hidden window are the Serendipity) window is your
things you know about yourself motivation and potential future of
but choose not to reveal to which neither you or others are
others. aware. It waits, dormant, until
something causes it to be
revealed.
11. Known Not known
to self to self
Known
to Open Blind ♣ Anything you used to do that
others you don’t do (could do) now?
Unknown ♣ Do you under or over estimate
Not
Hidden Land of your abilities? Where do you look
known Serendipity
to others for encouragement?
♣In the Unknown (Land of Serendipity) ♣ Significant things you’ve learnt
window is your motivation and potential that you were unaware of before?
future of which neither you or others are
aware. It waits, dormant, until something ♣ Ever been surprised by your own
causes it to be revealed. ability?
“It's very good jam,” said the Queen.
“Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate.” ♣ Significant events– what I’m
[said Alice] doing today is a result of...?
“You couldn't have it if you did want it,” the
Queen said… “The rule is, jam to-morrow and ♣ What have you done recently
jam yesterday – but never jam to-day…It's jam that will affect the future?
every other day: to-day isn't any other day, you
♣ A chance meeting or event –
know.”„Through the Looking Glass‟ (Ch 5) Lewis Carroll
(In Latin, „jam‟ = alternative spelling what happened?
of „iam‟ = „now‟, ♣ Feelings of prescience?
in past, present or future tense.)
12. Serendipity
“They were always making discoveries,
by accident and sagacity,
of things they were not in quest of.”
From Horace Walpole‟s description of a 16th c fable,
The Three Princes of Serendip.
How to account for a relationship between
two apparently unconnected events?
Probability Theory? Cognitive Dissonance?
Too individual to be
We try to explain away a
repeated and verified
connection because it
makes us uncomfortable
13. “Synchronicity”? To realise who we are beyond what is
apparent to our everyday self image
– a process of what Jung called,
“individuation” – is at the heart of
Steiner‟s description of karma.
Attuning with the A little karmic whimsy…
(see Tickling Trout 22)
“collective
unconsciousness”? Suppose there are two people
walking through life…
Each has a number of experiences
apparently unconnected…
3
2
1
3
2
1
14. “Synchronicity”? To realise who we are beyond what is
apparent to our everyday self image
– a process of what Jung called,
“individuation” – is at the heart of
Steiner‟s description of karma.
Attuning with the A little karmic whimsy…
(see Tickling Trout 22)
“collective
unconsciousness”? Then one day, there‟s a meeting,
apparently by accident…
Connect each of the points, except
A „karmic line‟ results the numbered pairs…
3
– that is based on
relationships. 2
1
3
2
1
15. Everyday consciousness enduring As our “I” meets with our
arises from the “I” Formative stream our self
interaction of our image of who we are is
Formative and formed.
Inspirational body intuition
streams permeating the
physical body.
memory
past Formative body stream
Inspirational body stream future
‘deep
Our everyday self is yearning’
formed from the stream
of the past, aware of time But we‟re usually not aware
measured in seconds, of it – the moment we
hours and years. perceive some thing, our
The stream of our everyday thinking kicks in
enduring “I” lives in the and we leap for a thought-
ever-present. senses picture full of associations.
“He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity‟s sunrise” William Blake
16. As in an experience of the enduring Sometimes when we make a
„whole thing‟, the person‟s “I” discovery, the serendipity can
whole life appears before appear strange and „unreasoned‟
them as an ever-present because it‟s occurred when the
experience of their enduring intuition usual permeation of
“I” – “tableaux memory” our four body streams
is disrupted or loosened.
memory
past Formative body stream
Inspirational body stream future
‘deep
yearning’
At such times, we might
„catch the moment‟ We might remember
with an everyday something purely in its
“Aha!” feeling guise detached from
(To behold, dwell with and the memory picture –
be involved in that moment senses Déjà vu.
in full consciousness, without Or, „remember‟ a feeling for
„reaching for it‟, may emerge something from the future
with The Game in Part 3. stream – far-sight.
17. Thinking, Feeling & enduring
“I”
Willing work in a constant
state of flux affected by
the fluid motion of our intuition
body streams.
When we‟re unconscious
willing they separate altogether
memory
past Formative body stream
feeling
Inspirational body stream future
thinking ‘deep
yearning’
Our dream life is linked If their interplay
with this loosening – or re-permeation is
and consequently much severely disturbed,
is not remembered. we become ill.
senses
“Was it a vision or a waking dream?
Fled is that music – do I wake or sleep?
John Keats, Ode To A Nightingale.
18. The essence of soul activity enduring If a yearning were to stream in
is found in the interplay of “I” when the permeation of our
our Inspirational (yearning) body streams is loosened…
stream and the flow of A feeling of „prescience‟ may
intuitive „judging‟ or intuition echo – but not grasped with the
„adjudicating‟ of our clarity of thinking.
enduring “I”
memory
past Formative body stream
Inspirational body stream future
‘deep
yearning’
But if the flow of our “I” is What we feel depends on how the
„impeded‟ by its reflection in yearning is satisfied or resolved.
our Formative stream… E.G. If the yearning is very strong or
uncontrolled we don‟t hear any
…or confused by our
„adjudicating‟ – result: impatience.
senses stream
senses If balanced by the
…reception of our adjudicating „present-everness‟
“I” is weakened – of our enduring “I” –
result: doubt. impatience calms to hope
19. Play -
♣ The Ebb and Flow Game
Object of the Game:
To explore our soul activity while having
a bath (you don’t have to be in the bath…)
To approach our sympathies and antipathies,
desires and aversions, with equanimity.
20. Play -
♣ The Serendipity Game
Objects of the Game:
To explore those times when we experience
with utter perplexity why something happened
or turned out the way it did.
To experience a living connection with our own
karma.
21. Like the Three Princes of Serendip…
Serendipity
can make known
to us what
We can be sagacious – was unknown. We can be aware that what
develop a discerning, sage appears to happen by
like, wisdom of what threads accident can prompt choices
weave through our life. about the future.
The Matrix
3
2
1
3
2
1
22. Play -
♣ The Ageing Game (3) – The Matrix
Object of the Game:
To construct a matrix of life experiences
To then see through the matrix and seek
the interconnecting karmic threads.
.
23. What is past is past, it has been our fate,
the consequences of which we experience
in the here and now.
It is also the backdrop in front of which
we play out and determine our destiny or
karma.
“The future: time's excuse
to frighten us; too vast
a project, too large a morsel
for the heart's mouth.
Future, who won't wait for you?
Everyone is going there.
It suffices you to deepen
the absence that we are.”
The Future by Rainer Maria Rilke