TRIAD and Virtues
|
There are many lists of virtues. A good exercise for any higher level
TRIAD is to prioritize a list of virtues that each of the individuals
wish to work on. Say that each individual list three at a time that
they are wishing to work on. That way, a total of nine should be enough
for any TRIAD or there may be overlap and the whole of the TRIAD may
narrow it down to one, two or three.
While the development of virtues may be the primary goal of the TRIAD,
it may not be the primary activity. The virtue list may just sit there
in the background, its presence recognized, but only referenced
occasionally during objective appraisal or other interchange as the
TRIAD participants wrestle with other day to day problems or simply
provide support to each other in day to day living. TRIADing style will depend upon the TRIADers. It is something to develop and grow into, although each member should be continuously monitoring and encouraging an improvement in style between the other two members. Empathy and tolerance are two basic virtues within TRIADs that are always necessary to develop. There are others, such as truthfulness and reliability, but I can make no list of priorities. An important function of the TRIAD is to candidly identify its goals and needs. We are now swimming in the deep end of the pool and, to survive here, members of a TRIAD must develop a deep interpersonal relationship, one that only comes about through the bonding process. Each one may have hoped for this goal initially but it more likely comes about by having tackled and accomplished a task or project together. In the exercise of pulling together to finish something, team work and a trust in one's workmates begins to develop, and the completion of the project gives each member some level of satisfaction that only the others who they worked with really understand. This can be as simple as painting a fence or building a bookcase together -- something they can sit back and admire and remember at a later date. As a group, they now have something tangible they can look back on, talk about and joke about, and hence the bond. It is this bond that makes it possible to share other personal thoughts with each other. Initial goals of a TRIAD are often assigned by some external organization or arise because of some circumstance of life, such as a health or family challenge. It may be as serious as being life critical or innocuous as a hobby. For whatever reason we find ourselves in a life situation in which it is beneficial to have support, then it is well to look around and find those with whom you can form a TRIAD. It may very well be that the very individuals with whom you need to form a TRIAD are individuals outside of an organization where you are facing a challenge. There can be many reasons for this. The outside individuals may be able to give a more objective perspective and/or experience not available from within the organization. It could be that it is the limitations of the organization itself that are causing the problems and what is needed is an outside view that can analyze the problems and suggest solutions. Most all problems in this world arise because of lack of a virtue or because of some distorted view of a virtue. Once again we have come full circle to the matter of selecting and analyzing virtues and back to determining the ones to which we should assign our priorities. You have already begun the process if you have followed the counsel in the previous chapter in having a commitment to work together in spite of differences of opinion. Your growth will come automatically from working through these differences. As the next step, you can make growth a direct focus of your TRIAD. Members must encourage each other to move past comfort zones, intellectually, psychologically, emotionally or spiritually. Choose your own, but the virtue that I call you to is heroism, to the battle for men's minds. The battles of the past are passé. The ancient weapons of war are obsolete; they cannot win the present cause. The old wars of Europe and Asia were land wars of great mounted armies moving great amounts of material. Then came the sea wars when Britannia mounted the waves and circled the globe. From land to sea to air and now to space. But all that will soon climax and be past. They were battles that raged in the microcosm and the macrocosm but the new battle is now joined in the metacosm and the old tools will no longer do. The weapon of our/your war is patience. Its enemy is anger. Time, space, matter are no longer the restraints; we have leapt over their boundaries. The plain that lies disclosed before us is the social consciousness of humanity. As the fog dispels and the mist rises from the battlefield the sore vexed leaders of the ancient tribes shall lament before a humanity no longer divided. The clarion call for universal justice has been sounded. The Trumpet shouts for peace. The Bugle announces the victory. The deaf and deadened ears of the past will hear it not, nor see the light showering upon the plain. But no difference, the child of humanity knows the Day to which it awakens. I would write of it but I am without words to enter into that realm. Makes no difference because it is written upon the hearts of men by the Pen that moves beyond time and space. In the world of electrons the messages move from display to display but in the world of the Spirit they move from heart to heart. Just as ideas form in our thoughts, carried by the individual synapses of the brain from node to interconnecting node, so shall the TRIADs network together the whole social fabric of humanity. Let the idea and the ideal begin with YOU. Look at the drawing of the TRIAD network drawn on a single sheet of paper, and now in your mind's eye or on sheets of Plexiglas place one replicated layer above the other in your reach to innumerable others, because you can be part of many TRIADS in different interconnecting networks and those making innumerable connections from layer to layer, not in some mystical meaning but rather in actual and specific connections. Some astronomers and physicists think the universe finite but it is infinite, a concept that can't really fit into their math and formulations. In man's expanding awareness he has thought his planet at the center of the universe, or his galaxy or from wherever he observes. There is no edge, no beginning, no in or out. These are finite terms and finite concepts used by finite minds. Even in the Bible the phrase, "In the Beginning ..." is more accurately translated, "In the Only ..." Your reach and your connexion is truly infinite. Even in this small world, you to them and them to you, in one global conscience and consciousness no longer divided by the old prejudices that caused division and anger and set brother against brother. The network is forming, not in some abstract but in reality. The network is beginning to function. What is missing is the Message. The anger is the absence of vision but the vision will come from virtue. The anger is simply the uncentered energy randomly and explosively rioting without reason. The anger and energy undirected towards undetermined goals can achieve naught but destruction. Patience -- patience centered in the individual nodes, to be discovered in your node, your TRIAD. A message not to be shouted from the housetops but rather whispered heart to heart from node to node, patience is long suffering but not defeated. Patience requires courage, has its purpose and is not distracted by the emotion of anger. Patience is not passivity or resignation. TRIADic patience requires trust in the 4th dimension. With the rapidity of thought from neuron to neuron, the goals and virtues can spread from node to node. In the face of such unity the ancient forces of divide and conquer will instantly come to naught. No matter how immense the darkness, the light of unity will instantly dispel it. Before now, in all the failed experiments of humanity, there has been no social organization to spread that unity. But now we shall see the triumph of the TRIAD. As you examine popular lists of virtues you will discover many values that overlap. Some lists of virtues in Christianity have listed the four Cardinal Virtues and others the Seven Deadly Sins, which in turn are balanced by seven virtues. I won't go into such details but you can seek them out if you wish. There is a Muslim story that relates that there are a hundred Names of God, which in fact are virtues. It is said that man knows ninety-nine of these names but the reason the camel is so haughty is because it knows the hundredth. On the Internet you can find the following two sources which I consider to be particularly excellent for lists of virtues and discussion about them:
|
No comments:
Post a Comment