The two Photos I posted this morning, one of a painting I did in 2000 (I'll discuss below) and the other a celebration collage of images in support and admiration for the women political and spiritual leader in Burma (now Myanmar) Aung San Suu Kyi and her gesture (mudra) of fearlessness (also see below), are seeds for further Forum discussion here on the FMning. All in all, to summarize, both images are meant to be taken in as images and not a lot of text and explanation. As an artist, I am very interest in the image in the process of communication, shifting imaginaries and bringing about transformation. I know those are a lot of big terms and they are problematic when used without nuance. However, I'll refrain from more definition here unless required in further discussions. If there is anything in these photos worthy, it is has to do for me with the reminder that "fearlessness" is not some individual achievement, personal growth endeavor or goal... let me elaborate what I mean.
For 26 yrs. since founding the In Search of Fearlessness Project, there has been a battle in distinguishing the individualist stream of energies and intentions for people to achieve "fearlessness" as some kind of personal success or even liberation AND the communal (and historical and evolutionary) stream of the development of truly the highest level of leaders (and leadership) as groups, organizations, institutes, communities, societies, or movements. "Fearlessness" is thus, not a set of behaviors only, it is a 'sign'... and that's where virtually everyone I have met gets confused, or more accurately, they have been so conditioned in the W. ideology of individualism that they miss entirely the other 50% of the meaning and aim of "fearlessness." I'll use the two photos I posted as a brief (albeit, inadequate) guide to understanding this problem (battle of I vs. We)...
Photo 1. On the back of this painting is the title of the painting, "Fearlessness"--which I got initially from the Indigenous writing at the time where in the West (of their Medicine Wheel, at least in some tribes) the Grizzly Bear was the 'symbol' (or 'sign') for "Fearlessness" (the border of the painting has a silver and turquoise image of a bear's paw, from the natives of the S.W. in America--this was given to me in a neck tie by Charles Nabors, one of the ISOF members back in the 1990s). I took that 'sign' very seriously in the gift that Charles gave me and I wanted to pass it on to the next generation through my eldest daughter Leah on her gr. 12 graduation--I gave her this gift, a painting which is still hanging on her wall in her son's room above his bed (Rowan, age 5, my grandson now has this image looming over his bed each night). As I lay in this bedroom, where Barbara and I sleep when we visit Leah, it occurs to me "I wonder what this painting means to them?" The next generations have no real deeply connected 'sign' of fearlessness, and I think that is a grave historical and evolutionary problem. The 'Fear' Project takes its lead and all its symbols and signs and ends up by default as the dominating forms of guidance for humans.
Photo 2. I won't track out the long history of Aung San Suu Kyi (she is all over the internet, e.g., Wikipedia)... a fascinating story, a rare leader of fearlessness. I say that very seriously and would not say that of any other leader I know today, other than I would have assigned it to Mahatma Gandhi for sure. That said, the rarity of such leaders of fearlessness in the worldly and political domain is not to be underestimated or trivialized. Maybe one out of hundreds of millions ever achieve this historically. The fearlessness mudra (hand gesture) is an ancient yogic posture from the Sanskrit meaning of abhaya... I have also taken this path of embodiment of a 'sign' seriously and will on occasion use this abhaya mudra when addressing people--as part of the gift of fearlessness culture in the ancient East. Again, I won't articulate all that background here except to say that it does my heart well to see Kyi and people who support her battle to lead democracy using this 'sign' of fearlessness. Note, it may or may not have its use based on any one individual achieving the skill of fearlessness, the virtue of fearlessness, the success of fearlessness, the compassion and enlightenment of fearlessness--no not necessarily. The East has not been swamped (traditionally) by ideological individualism and personal status gain and success.
So, if "fearlessness" is all these things, including individual attainment and behavioral outcomes, it is only 50% of the picture (in integral theory we'd call that the upper quadrants only). The deeper foundations of the communal, historical and evolutionary contexts for "fearlessness" are all of what makes up the other 50% of understanding what "fearlessness" is all about. The latter, unfortunately, I have found nearly impossible to teach to Westerners steeped (addicted) by the 'self' growth conditioning for the past 60 years at least.... in this sense, I posted the photos to remind the FMning to not fall into only the upper quadrants reality when understanding fearlessness as a path. To be more precise, right from the early years of ISOF (in contrast to the then very popular In Search of Excellence movement in business and society at large, a al Tom Peters et al.)-- I knew that 1/2 of the work of ISOF was to prepare the ground for that rare leader, like an Aung San Suu Kyi. I theorized the role of the Sacred Warrior in ISOF as a group of individuals who were inspired at the soul level by the 'sign' of fearlessness (whatever that might be: a grizzly bear in a painting like my own given to my daughter, or a abhaya mudra, or another sign from the past or newly emerging... the options are endless)--and the following of a 'sign' is the great archetypal commitment that only the Sacred Warrior (stage of development) can truly know and understand--and that leads to the creating ground for an emergent Royal Leader (the stature of an Aung San Suu Kyi)... that is the communal historical evolutionary goal of Fearlessness (e.g., via the Fearlessness Movement).
Replies
I am with great zeal returning to my home city, Calgary, AB, where I founded the In Search of Fearlessness Project in late 1989. It was 19 years ago that I left Calgary to pursue graduate education at UBC in Vancouver, and then from there, left for the USA following my life-partner's career path. But as always, I have worked steadily to keep the In Search of Fearlessness agenda alive and now, am calling it the Fearlessness Movement. So, in only 10 weeks from today, I'll be loading up the truck and heading north, back into Canada... and, it feels so great. I look forward to contacting old friends and colleagues and making new ones as this is a "return" that I take very seriously in applying philosophy of fearism, fearanalysis, and all the other skills and tools I have built since I left Calgary in 1998.