The New Paradigm
vol. I, Number Nine

Dear Friends,

Today we have a response from Rupert Wontner to a piece by Sue Fowler published in The New Paradigm #6; and our discussion continues to unfold at a steady pace in what may be developing into a many-layered, partially overlapping, multi-faceted conversation. This seems to me entirely appropriate to the large "territory" we have staked out in discussing the "new paradigm." As I've mentioned before, we're not dealing in five-second sound bytes here. If our discussion is at all meaningful, it will take some time and focused attention to digest; and I want to again remind readers of The New Paradigm that article submissions are welcome, including responses like Rupert's to anything appearing in this or any prior issue. We are not attempting to maintain a "theaded conversation" here: our chosen topic is too vast and varied for that.

Accordingly, I'll remind you again that I am maintaining an archive of all issues of The New Paradigm at http://www.olypen.com/harmon/tnpv1.htm#index which you may wish to bookmark for ready access to the entire collection. Gradually, we may be fleshing out in words and conscious concepts what the "new paradigm" means to us. Again, I welcome your contributions to this process: the wider variety of inputs we have, the richer becomes our discussion, as ideas expressed by one bounce of other minds and stimulate further ideas in response, in an accelerating cascade of provocative thought. [H.]

Dear Harmon,

I wish to follow up Sue Fowler's excellent article - SOME THOUGHTS ON DUALITY - and your pithy analysis afterwards - with words of my own - Universal though their origins are.

The terms Sue employs are very useful for people of a less philosophical turn of mind - to help them understand the journey they and others are taking on their path back to Source: "misguided child," "altered ego," "selfish ego," "selfless ego." The terms I use are less scientific and merely philosophical: "personality" for the selfish ego, and "higher Mind / cosmic Mind" for the selfless Ego. There is that duality between the lower ego and the higher Ego which is Spirit indivisible from the Absolute.

So, most people on Earth are living in Duality, and are coming out of it into Unity only when they realize their connection to all things and begin to adopt a compassionate stance. All progress stems from that moment. Sue's terms - "misguided child," "altered ego," "selfish ego" - represent that "deluded lower ego" which follows that LOWER path of greed, self-aggrandizement, competition, and intolerance. FORTUNA ALLIANCE is a very potent vehicle showing the planet's citizenry that there is that HIGHER path of cooperation, service, sharing, and caring that will obscure the darker LOWER path first mentioned. The "misguided child" Sue talks about, does have an "inner child of Light" that has always known what has been going on, and has, indeed, chosen to experience gross materiality over many incarnations. The most advanced of the human race, the most evolved "altered ego" or "misguided child" - so to speak - became "saturated" over many lives with (quoting Sue) "false identity" - and character of "selfish ego" that they came out of their shell of "duality" and put on the "shining armour" of Unity consciousness, and led the Race forward.

Put another way, their state of saturation became a state of ABSORPTION of the Light. A prime example - for many of us today - of one who did just that was/is Gautama Buddha - the most celebrated of all Buddhas (unless one of you out there reading this claim more advanced characteristics of Buddhahood!!) He "let go and let God," as Sue said. Each of you, in standing by FORTUNA, are letting go and letting God - so to speak - act in you - by adopting the "HIGHER" path, and by gradual process, are blotting out/weakening the "LOWER" path. That "energy of ego," as Sue says, is not to be denied, and is..."to be understood and forgiven and integrated as a misguided child that had a mistaken confused idea of reality." We in FORTUNA follow the example, laid down by Gautama - identification with the other person - caring and compassionate - so much so that the Will aspect of the Godhead in any person - becomes active, and "moves on the face of the waters" and becomes Love-Action - a Living Christ. All this is within each of you - blossoming in varying degrees, beyond religion and personality.

This argument brings me back to the core of the article, and the HIGHER path absorbing the LOWER path - the "misguided child" becoming the "selfless Ego." This "misguided child" is none other than the personality - the "deluded lower ego," grabbing, intolerant and predatory. The "selfless ego" is none other than the Higher Mind / Cosmic Mind - living in service, co-operation, sharing and caring. So, FORTUNA - indubitably - is, as Sue says, that "vehicle of awakening" (as far as we are concerned - in the here and now) to the realization that the HIGHER path is the real path of Love, and not the lower path of delusion - the path of Fear which is grabbing, predatory and intolerant.

Quoting the instigator of this article again: "There are no mistakes in the Universe...all is one, and if we are to embrace ONENESS as good, then EVERYTHING has a positive intention, and moves towards enlightenment. If God is purity, and all there is, then an opposing force cannot exist. It is an illusion of mind, as there can be no existence of anything outside the Absolute. I cannot judge one to be evil, and take away his God, because if evil exists, God is not."

We are as One. All Life is a Unity. The Law of One reigns supreme, and as you say, Harmon, the FORTUNA ALLIANCE experience "helps us to evade the ego traps, and strengthen our sense of interdependent identity with one another and with all Things."

At this juncture, it is apposite that I bring in part of a short article that I wrote to Augie some twelve months ago on the subject of a possible motto for FORTUNA: "A razor's edge is hard to cross." This sentence was taken from Vedic scripture, and was to run concurrently with the motto: "In serving each other we become free." ...The latter motto was taken from famem@ixnet.net.com e-mail communications. Quoting from this letter that I wrote to Augie - though out of date in terms of suggesting a double motto for FORTUNA - still has relevance in that it will add weight and balance to Sue's earlier article, and back up what I have been saying in this article. The quotation reads as follows:

"------'A razor's edge is hard to cross'...symbolizes the transition FROM mortal desire mind (kama manasa) - the personality - the greed/selfishness self-centredness of individual man working and caring only for himself/herself - TO higher mind(buddhi manasa) where the individual man becomes group conscious and aware of his commitment to serve others in Love and Light on the Universal level of his Being. (The word MAN derives from the Sanskrit word 'manasa' - mind.) This all dovetails neatly with the FORTUNA ALLIANCE vision and philosophy.... 'A razor's edge' is, by its very nature, very narrow - so - in a sense - it represents that essential PARADOX of great wealth creation bringing about a longing - in any one particular individual - to achieve more than just the catering for his physical/social needs, and seek  higher fulfillment through SERVICE and SHARING by easily coming back across that 'razor's edge' - as it were. Again, the FORTUNA vision merges and blends smoothly with this.

"Elaborating the point a little further: quite often I'm challenged when people say....'but you don't have to do anything in FORTUNA! FORTUNA says they will work the system for you...!' There again - the motto 'A RAZOR'S EDGE IS HARD TO CROSS' is relevant as it is because the ordinary member is NOT coerced by the system. He wants to help. He - in effect - crosses over the RAZOR'S EDGE into the world of SERVICE and GIVING - the realm of DIVINE MIND. This is FORTUNA pure and proper."

At long last, I have come to the end of the article that I wanted to write. I trust it sheds further light on the words ...the "new paradigm." And the nature of "duality"...and what people understand by it. Soon, it will become the norm, and articles such as mine will become otiose to requirement. I look forward to that day in many ways. Let us, therefore, implement (quoting Sue) our (FORTUNA) plan aligned and as One. I wish you, Harmon, and all members of FORTUNA - and indeed everybody everywhere - health, happiness and the prosperity they deserve through FORTUNA - the "vehicle of awakening" - in 1998 and beyond.

With sincere regards, Rupert.

Thank You, Rupert. Your article touches several points of interest. If I may make bold to comment, I'll venture first to note that one of the most appealing features of Buddhism, as I understand it, is the image of a ferry to carry Buddhists across the water to the shore of enlightenment and elevated spirit. Gautama Buddha was a ferryman at a river crossing, was he not? And his religion was likened to a vessel for carrying passengers from the familiar shore, we might say, of the worldly concerns of the self-centered ego personality, to a further shore inhabited by beings of "higher Mind / cosmic Mind," as you put it, or of "selfless Ego." The religion, Buddhism, was seen as a vehicle for facilitating this transformation of spirit, which I imagine to be much like the very "paradigm shift" we are discussing in this forum.

The thing about Buddhism which I find so appealing is the idea that, once the further shore has been reached, the passengers are expected to disembark from the ferry and venture forth into the hinterland, so to speak, leaving the ferry that brought them far behind. This strikes me as the hallmark of an "honest religion," as opposed to many which jealously guard their constituencies in a fatal misidentity of the vehicle with the destination. There are many possible ways to get across the river: you can swim; find a ford and wade across; perhaps swing across on vines from the overarching trees.... Or of course you can have the ferryman pilot you across. The important point is to get across one way or another, not how you get across.

Similarly, when we have found, say, a ferryman who appears to us to have the means of helping us across the river, it is always tempting to worship, adore, and even Deify such an individual: place shim upon a pedestal, or elevate shim in our minds as someone standing apart from and above all "ordinary people" or "mere mortals." It is an easy mistake to make, for these unique individuals are highly admirable in many striking ways, and they attract "seekers of the Light" like a candle attracts moths.

It is a fatal error, however, to hold such individuals apart from ourselves, as occupying an unattainable position of "holiness," "saintliness" or "perfect enlightenment;" for by so doing we are declaring to ourselves that the further shore to which our ferryman is assisting us cannot be reached. "My Teacher," we are saying, "is made of different stuff than I am. Shim can walk on water, or fly through the air, or respond to any situation with perfect love and poise; but I am not worthy to tie shim's sandals, and never can be." Fatal error: for it prohibits us from mastering the very lessons our Teacher came to teach. With a reception like that, shim may as well have stayed in Paradise and enjoyed shimself; for shim will never pilot any with such a belief to the further shore we all seek.

On the contrary, Your Teacher is a mirror reflecting what You already are. The proper attitude to have toward any inspiring Teacher, I believe, is determined aspiration to be like Shim, in Your own unique way; and even better, higher, finer. Aim to surpass Your Teacher, and when You do, seek a higher Teacher, and aim to surpass Shim as well. The only limits You face are those You impose upon Yourself.

The crucial point (if there can be said to be one crucial point) for negotiating the shift to the "new paradigm" has been declared a blasphemous heresy by innumerable priesthoods throughout history, and it is simply this: "Thou art 'That'" [substitute here your preferred label for All-Inclusive Deity]. This is heresy because it seems to obviate the need for the priesthood; and the priesthood always know (or think they know) which side their bread is buttered on. Once people start discovering Who We really Are ...what need will We have for priesthoods? Exactly. Once the Passengers have crossed the river, what further have We to do with the Ferryman?

But the honest Ferryman is not dismayed, for Shim knows that there are many others where the disembarking Passengers came from; and an honest Priesthood, whose mission is truly to facilitate the shift from the self-centered ego to the "selfless Ego," or if You prefer, from "hell" to "heaven," can confidently welcome their congregation from all walks of conventional life; and just as confidently welcome Our departure once Our lessons have been learned.

Fortuna AllianceŽ II has undertaken a commercial approach to "crossing the river," "crossing the razor," or as we have been saying, "shifting paradigms." Evidently Fortuna AllianceŽ II is something more, however, than "just another commercial venture;" or we would not be engrossed in such conversations as these. By doing so, We make it so; for as Augie has said, "You are the leaders of Fortuna AllianceŽ II." Fortuna is whatever We make of Her; and what We make of Her will be a reflection of whatever We make of Ourselves.

Well, as usual, I could just go on and on; but I think I'd best save it for another time. Thank you again, Rupert, for enriching our conversation with your thought-provoking article.

Love & Light,

-- Harmon
J. Harmon Grahn