meetup

“I think the ideal life is at least to try to live up to one’s ideal. But in order to have an ideal one must waken to ideal. Not everyone possesses an ideal; many people do not know of it. It is no exaggeration to say that the wars and disasters we have gone through and all this unrest that all feel and the disagreement among people which is sometimes seen and sometimes not seen, it all is caused by one thing, and that is the lack of ideal. We are progressing commercially, industrially. But the progress in all walks of life will be one day or the other hindered if ideal is destroyed.” - Inayat Khan

“I see in the fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of the history man, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives, we've been all raised by television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't and we're slowly learning that fact. and we're very very pissed off.” - Fight Club (film)

During our first meetup (January 2021), we touched on the essence of what these meetups are about:

  We all feel an imbalance somewhere, in the way we work, learn, live, in fact in almost all aspects of our lives! Let us explore what we can do about this together and in an active form.

“Man's universe is badly unbalanced. That is why it is disunited and transient. That is why it must repeatedly fall.” - Walter Russell

- source

We talked about the imbalance that exists in human development. This sounds like a very abstract thing, but as individuals we all experience this imbalance very intensely. This imbalance can be depicted in many different ways, but one of them is the left-right hemisphere modes of the brain.

The intellect (dominantly the left hemisphere) has developed at lightning speed over the past two thousand years, and with that we have gained momentum in technology. Compare eg. the world of the Romans with that of today in most of the world. Prosperity has increased enormously. Now that the basic needs have been amply realized, at least in part of the world, the potential is there to realize higher needs. (see also: Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

This is about well-being. However, not much seems to have improved in terms of the emotional and spiritual development, for the population as a whole. Some believe that we will soon develop with regards to this aspect, or that this trend is already underway. This could be either a lengthy evolutionary process or a great leap forward achieved by external influences. The latter direction can be found in, for example, the New Age movement, according to which theory we astrologically entered the Aquarius era, which will automatically lead to a higher consciousness. However, that which one does not know or has not experienced yet, is difficult to describe or foresee.

To explore ways to achieve a better balance in our lives (emotionally, physically, mentally, soulfully, socially) and to have fun doing that.

Here are some ideas related to that goal:

1. Get to know other people sharing many of the same ideals, either in an online meetup or an offline meetup. In the beginning the most important thing we can do, is to simply meet and get to know each other. You are not alone!
   
   
2. Teaching each other about life knowledge and life skills, relevant to our personal balance and health. If possible, we practice those skills together and/or independently.
   
   
3. Make an effort to have a loving attitude towards others. Respect your peers and allow them the freedom to choose their own path. Try not to fight, struggle and worry - find another way or leave it. Never be dogmatic and always try to work with humor and joy!
   
   
4. Find ways to support and empower each other in our life's mission, whatever that may be. Each one of us has the potential for developing unique and inspiring gifts, that can be shared with others. Give back when you can and stay humble!

Some ideas beyond the online meetups (feel free to add your own ideas here):

• make excursions to interesting places (natural and cultural)
• collaborative projects: give a workshop / presentation, topic research, add / improve pages on wikischool (send an email to get an account), making music / other art.
• experience shamanic traditions and technology (emotional therapy, meditation, body-energy practices, entheogens, …)
• perhaps long term: create an “University of Life” using the meetup network and their works and wisdom, the wisdom-library on this site, the conze.pt encyclopedia and the many other online and offline approaches to human balance, enlightenment and joy.
• …