Are we really ready to learn new ways?... Weekend from the Heart(h) series
We talk about unlearning - decolonising - releasing - unravelling whatever you want to frame it as ... but are we really ready to lean in and learn what is required to come next?
We need new Health care, new Education, new Economies … we need new systems.
We all know this. It is loud and clear that our systems are failing. Not only visible as we see ecological systems collapse, it is painfully clear, when we look at our finances, when we look to be employed, when we look to find a home - to buy or rent - or simply look to the future …. that what we have has had its time.
Whatever it is it is no longer working. It is no longer whats needed. It is no longer our way forward.
Loudly we hear the call to unlearn and decolonise. These frameworks and words have been foremost in the minds and ways of the forward thinking businesses, communities and individuals. We are writing about it, drawing diagrams to express it… we want it. We want this moment to not only be a catalyst going forward - but one that offers - actually demands - us to let go / cleanse / release the past.
So let the old ways crumble and fall for we are here to begin a new.
One of Humanities greatest flaws is its rigidity. That we have held these institutions and systems for as long as we have is a clear marker that we are outside that of Life’s Natural Laws. That which we have made is now outdated, for nothing is the same. Not the people or the place. Yet we uphold these systems as if it all is the same. This not only prevents all things remaining fluid and forever capable of growth, it holds it to the captive hands of that which governs it and those hands are holding us for one reason - their own benefit. Their own growth, their own wealth.
As we have become a predator to the natural world, using extraction for our own benefit, we have allowed these systems to uphold this. Manipulated them continually not for our growth or oneness amongst nature but for the ability to continue the extractions of Life sources.
Life, Nature, Universal Law … you may even choose the word God/dess .. however you see the Well of creation, was only ever going to let this slide for so long. Now, forced to uphold her own needs, her push back is obvious. What we see as climate change, as natural disasters, is Life saying ‘ I will take the helm here, thank you ‘ ... for the needs of Life to continue and recreate will never be outdone by Humans.
The process of this is FOREVER.
As a part of the aligned unity of Life, there is a subtle force that runs through all creation. This force IS creation and we are in its forever existence.
The process of forever is a process of experiencing, and moving on, and in alignment with Life it is fast, fluid and flexible to maintaining the harmony of Life itself. For us, for our minds perception of this, we are in all ways called to experience, to let go, and to move on and it cycles forever. The Living System highlights this continually. Its capacity to be fluid and flexible comes with its instinct to live moment by moment. We will be forever unlearning, (letting go) in order to have the lightest load imaginable to travel with.
Letting go is not simply about our ‘lightness of being’ in all that we carry mentally and physically burdened with the past … it is also our ‘lightness of being’ as an empty vessel ready to take in the new.
As is called for by Life, in its readiness to live as is required. Not shackled to one way, or one direction, Life never holds itself captive to only one solution rather it is inspired moment by moment by serving the good of all, in order to keep itself functional and relevant to its own becoming.
As is called for by Life, the willingness to live moment by moment and relationship by relationship asking for the understanding that every relationship calls for a fresh accepting heart and willingness to listen. As does every experience call us to be open and able to experience unencumbered with ‘what was’.
As is called for by Life in forward flow, there is a lot of bull shit that we have been fed that just needs to be cleansed - possibly only by a great deal of time purging our intelligence - if not giving full body enemas from the lies we are told about the past.
The Living System reveals our foreverness in the process of unlearning through the lemniscate - that we rise and rise again - is our process to BE, our process of returning to our true state of oneness. Called to peel masks and skins of layered colonised ways from our being is what we walk into and hopefully out of in our lifetime. The quicker the better. The earlier the better.
This process highlighted here is on repeat for as long as we live. For living IS THE ACT of learning.
Unlearning is a form of learning
If we focus on the words unlearn - it means release - let go - decolonise - cleanse - remove what isn’t true, what taints, covers, shades us into all that we aren’t. For many the thought of unlearning brings rise to fear of reliving old wounds, dredging up old memories, or just simply wastefully reliving old days. It can seem heavy, tiresome and unappealing.
And so as a reframe the act of unlearning is a form of learning.
As someone who has spent hours sitting listening to those seeking to unlearn their lies, abuse, abandonment, neglect or trauma … we listen, we allow it room to purge from us .. and the only way to actually unlearn it is not simply releasing it, thats really the first step - to move on from it - we begin again through building new pathways forward. We create new experiences and therefore we learn a new way to live.
It becomes a form of ‘all that once was is no longer’, and a constant repatterning of the brain happens. We build neural pathways by and through new experiences.
And we have to be willing to step into an empty vessel mindset, one that doesn’t spill over at the drop of ‘new’ from being so full, but one so empty that it waits for more to fill itself. The empty mindset that says I am completely open and seeking sustenance through this new way of being.
This empty mindset can be called Buddha mind by some, it is not a mindset ‘only for a few who dwell in the mountains’, it is available to us all. The Monk reveals parts of who we each are and the capacity we all own within.
Let’s not make it a ‘this is how to do it thing’. Life doesn’t work that way. Let’s make it all of our tasks and responsibilities to simply find what it is that will take us ON. Move us forward.
To learn, to lean in and begin is what is available to us at this time. it is a catalyst moment and we cannot spend it all looking at the problems, but also moving to solutions. We can see walls crumbling around us, systems falling and we can find no sense in despairing them, rather building the new. To build new we cannot build from our old frames and mindsets, that is why the unlearn to learn is so essential.
The learn, is to create new experiences.
As is the way of the Living system, there is no one way. Life doesn’t say this is how we do it, it is always curious and asks into all that is around, how do we do this? How do we move forward? As it is always seeking a way to balance for All things, it receives input from all that is around. Therefore leading with questions with a willingness to listen helps us to begin, writing lists of all that needs to be said to unravel, or done to release.
What is it that you know that you are willing to release?
What is it about unlearning that you can’t do? Or wont do?
What dark spaces of time aren’t yet ready to be released?
Because at the end of the day it is all going to be a type of education leading us forward. The answers lead us to learning something ... essentially LIVING new ways.
Are you ready to learn?
What do you want to learn?
What are we willing to learn together?
At the same time, it means being willing to learn from each other.
This cannot be said enough. Understanding we are both expression and experience of life. As mentioned in earlier posts, we are each not only an expression of Life - looking around at the marvellous creations and all the diversity - is one piece of our truth. We each are also experiences of Life. Every time we encounter each and all - humans - animals - plants ... we are in constant states of learning. Every moment of every day is a cycle of learning and unlearning. The sad part is Human mind and experience has held the capacity to withhold trauma and pain and prevent us from releasing moment by moment to step into the new.
Unlike the memory of animals in migration where honouring deep knowing enables survival and ritual, we have used memory to cage the pain within. This is in part a space now for the deepest release.
Are we willing to embrace new ways?
This is the leading question, for we talk a lot about utilising old ritual and Indigenous ways as spaces to move forward to, but are we truly willing to embrace them? This question and each our answer is the deep commitment and acknowledgement that is in and of itself the only way we can begin.
Consider some examples:
Are you ready to learn how to embrace a person who has done wrong - when you talk about utilising old traditional Indigenous ways - a village embraces a person who is in their wrong way - confused, possessed etc - they are embraced and held until they can find their way - are you ready to learn that? Those who have their spirit confused within and have what we term ‘mental health’ issues, are placed deep in the care of elders and the land around them to nurture them to their sound soul. Are you willing to embrace that?
Are you ready to learn how to listen with your body and feel into instinct utilising gut as a way finding wisdom tool? AND that this instinct calls you to see people and place as one when called to respond?
Are you ready to … let life lead?? Which ultimately calls for us to hold trust and allow love to be guide and mentor.
Are you ready to walk with the land as one, and in your own healing journey include place? Such that you honour history’s truth and seek to stand and give voice to the wrongs done to the people and place where you live?
Are WE ready to listen, observe, care - for the good of all - releasing ownership or excessive possession - that exacerbates greed, so that each and all can exist in a mutual relational capacity?
There is so much ahead and for us to allow this moment of time to mean anything it calls for each of us to ask ourselves not simply can we unlearn and decolonise our being but are we willing to learn and LIVE a new way forward.
Photo by Nguyen Thu Hoai on Unsplash