Spent the last few days in deep conversations with my lover about creating empty space in relationships (or as she calls it - negative space). Empty space to frame the beauty of our presence. In the East, the use of space to set off the object of admiration is widespread, - in ikebana, in painting, in zen garden, in feng shui, … martial artists are taught to observe space around opponents, music is formed by sequencing pauses with notes, - the object is defined by its boundary, - by what it’s not, - and boundary is created by space. So,

what if the concept of “empty space” is applied to a relationship in the service of creating wholeness and beauty. What specifically does that mean, and where does that take us? …

removing clutter: unnecessary relationships, unnecessary parts of a relationship, pairing down to reveal the wholeform inside the white noise

and what does it mean to create empty space in the relationship to Self? who must “I” be to stand tall the weight of all that empty space?

As I am fleshing out the strategy for a dating 2.0 web experience, I’ve been thinking about what I call a “natural” business model.

A “natural” business model is when the customer demands to pay for the product. This happens when money becomes a differentiator, a resource to balance demand and supply. Consider an analogy: if you’re into mountain climbing, then you appreciate and want the climb to be strenuous. Because if it weren’t, then the mountain top would be filled with couch potatoes admiring the vistas, and you wouldn’t be able to experience the top of the world in all of its lonely beauty. Here, the pain of the climb serves as a resource to balance demand and supply. (Of course, there is also the transformational value of the pain).

Back in business, high priced luxuries have a “natural” business model. Those who wear Armani suits wouldn’t want to pay less for them, because that would devalue the exclusivity of their purchase. Speaking spiral dynamics, we’re in the orange land. But, there is more to it.

We’re basically speaking about exchanging resources (money in our case, but could as easily be intellect or generosity) for access. Auctions are the most efficient mechanism for such exchanges.

The point of all of this is that most businesses have to cajole their customers to pay for their products. BUT, if you can create a “natural” business model, the customers will be lining up to pay for the privilege of experiencing your product.

… is the belief in eternity. It is a business expression of the desire to live forever = of fear of death. A total lack of ecological and systemic perspective, a lack of a most fundamental recognition that our universe is cyclical, with every-”thing” having a birth, maturation and death.

The sacrifice of the body to the beauty, the covering up of old age, the denial of death in personal life translates into search for timeless values, pride in 200 year old corporations, cutthroat need to survive regardless of ecological and systemic damage (witness corporate scandals of Enron, Nortel, etc) in business life.

There is nothing noble about a 200 year old corporation that had to “re-invent” itself dozens of times, just like there is nothing noble about an 80 year old who has mutilated her body to look like a 20 year old.

In the organism, cells that grow without regard to the encompassing body are called cancer. Business that grows and is then unwilling to shrink and disappear is cancer.

Reading Carl Jung now, - rich ground, - how spectacularly clear and deep his writing is…

I judge in others only that which I judge in myself; I judge in myself only that which I refuse to accept, repressing parts of Self into shadow. The more I judge, the less of me is conscious [aware], the smaller I am. The presence of non-judgement is felt like the sun that warms and nourishes body, soul and spirit. Emotional outbreak followed by a judgement is a compass pointing your way to the next evolution of yourself.

That leads me to mention paradox therapy. Don’t know if it already exists, but it ought to. Conceptually simple: it is the realization of equal validity of an opposite. Practically, I imagine this effect can be acieved through psychosomatic integration (a beefed up version of anchor integration).

I once heard a Teacher,
a world famous guru,
give beating to Passion,
call her names, call her “dirty”.

I left him heartbroken.
For what is my Passion?
She is the movement
towards heavingly union.

i’ve discovered something insane about myself -

- i’ve discovered that i hide most, ALMOST ALL of my power in my Shadow. Afraid of reaching for it, afraid of becoming TOO MUCH, burning too bright. Too much for whom? Too bright for what? And what has stripped me of the power TO BE?

If only I was in hiding alone, but i look around and see human outlines everywhere, outlines made with white chalk…

I would like to take a moment to connect a Shadow self to dualities:

A Shadow self is the repressed and rejected aspect of self that lives in the unconscious.

A duality is a tool human beings use to make sense of the world.

Every duality creates a Shadow self, that can be integrated only by opening up as both aspects of the duality.

The most profound dualities (hence Shadow selves) are space and time.

We’re going multimedia at Holographic University. Enjoy our first masterpiece “Precious Time” flash movie.