Brian’s Weblog

Just as Kanyini connects us to the Land, it also is our connection to Family.  As I learned early on in my journey, to the Aboriginals, Family takes a much wider definition than simply one´s parents, siblings, cousins and such.  Rather, the extended Family encompasses all that is.  As Bob Randall conveys this wisdom, “the purpose of Life is to be part of everything that is. We are connected to everything else and the proof of that is being alive.  Life connects you to every living thing around you.” 

Everything living is Family because everything is One Spirit. You are part of this Oneness, and this Oneness enables you to be free . . . spiritually, psychically, mentally and physically.  The Oneness that the Aboriginals speak of is even shared by the science community.  It´s called the Big Bang.  If everything originated from the Big Bang, everything has one source.  Everything has One Spirit.

With all of my belongings thrown into into storage in Amsterdam at two weeks notice, I had set off on a trip for what was supposed to be five weeks in Australia.  For the trip, I had no set plan. In fact, I didn´t even know  what the big red rock was on the cover of my Lonely Planet.  I only knew there was a lot bothering me, and a lot of questions I had about Life and the stuff that had started happening to me. 

It was my mate Fleech who suggested I start in the Outback – in the center of the continent.  I listened.  As he dropped me off at the Melbourne train station, he told me that the guy who played his brother on the Australian soap opera “Neighbors” had become a tour guide in the Northern Territory.  Considering the Northern territory is about twice the size of Texas and over one-million square kilometers, I didn´t give his comment much thought. 

As the train edged closer to the Alice, I slowly began to feel the magic of the desert.  Over the course of the next few days, I felt like layers were being peeled off of me, and an intense desire to sleep in the bush began to stir within me.  My first excursion outside of Alice Springs was a day trip to local watering holes with a bunch of other backpackers.  Our guide, Dan, seemed to be a very peaceful bloke who gave me my first introduction to the Aboriginals.  When he would ask the group what the body paint colors symbolized to the Aboriginals, I was the first to respond – and had the correct answer every time.  It was as if the answers were coming from deep within some place I had never known before. Then Dan told us about how an Aboriginal would bring back a kangaroo, and let his clan eat before him knowing there would be enough left.  As he told us this, I finally understood why I had done something “illogical” months before. 

After graduating business school, I turned down a job offer, then sold the company a consulting project.  For the team I would eventually take to Switzerland, I chose a non-European classmate who needed time to find a permanent job.  Around that time I heard a “voice” telling me to split the proceeeds equally, and to not take more.  Later, when we added another classmate to the team, I still did not take more.  Although that decision may not have been a logical one in our world, I had to follow this voice that had recently been getting louder.  

 Maybe it was the connectionI began feeling with Dan, or simply the energy of the Outback, but in any case, as he told us how the Aboriginals share, an incredible energy entered me, telling me this was why I did what I did.  It was to show me something.  Suddenly, it all made sense.  

Shortly thereafter, as the group climbed into the van for the next watering hole, an English girl suddenly blurted, “Hey Dan, were you ever on ´Neighbors´?”  And that was when I knew I was there for a reason.  That was when the desert spoke to me.  It was at this point I felt as if the world turned inside-out, and there in the Outback, the answers I was seeking to what had been happening to me were unveiled through the wisdom of the Aboriginals.

For most of us however, it is difficult to understand Oneness as we rush around getting stuff done, being bombarded with thousands of marketing messages a day, trying to fit in as much “Life” as possible.   If we only knew what the silence screams, we might just embrace it and let it guide us, rather than continuing to run around in circles.   In the modern world, we increasingly use gadgets sich as GPS to tell us where to go.  However the “primitive” Aboriginals have songlines and intuition as their GPS.  What we forget is we actually have GPS built in from birth. All we have to do is watch our thoughts, and then what we see and hear. 

If we let it, the world speaks to us.  It is our Family.  We are never lost, and never, ever alone.  On my second trip to Australia, I met a Maori in Coogee Bay who left me with something I will never forget.  He said, “In the white man´s culture, it about talking.  To the Maori, it´s about listening.  That´s the difference.” In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus speaks of the Kingdom being “within you, but also outside of you.” Is Jesus also speaking of a connection? When you are connected, the world speaks to you. Nothing is coincidence.

So much of our economy is built on selling people stuff they don´t need, and telling them that if they buy it, it will bring them happiness.  As the world has shifted from religion to consumerism, the ever elusive Salvation which the church offered sometime in the future, is now being offered by marketers. So we consume and consume. It seems this is what makes the world go around sometimes.  The result isn´t happiness, but rather people are increasingly broke, obese, stressed and overworked.  We are increasingly disconnected as western culture perpetuates the myth of individualism. 

Is it this myth of individualism which fosters greed?  Most people in the business world are out simply to make money, at whatever the cost. This isn´t new. In the 1970´s the Ford Motor Company decided to not fix a problem with the Pinto that could result in exploding gas tanks because it was cheaper to pay for the lawsuits resulting from deaths than to fix the problem. It is very much the same issue that caused the collapse of our financial system – business people looking out for themselves and making a quick buck without regard to long-term effects on others.

In short, much of the economic downturn can be blamed on “Bad Profits”, where companies, and the people behind those companies, focus on EXTRACTING as much value from their customers as possible. They were not focusing on “Good Profits”, or PROVIDING as much value as possible to their customers. If we are One Spirit, to take advantage of others is really only taking advantage of ourselves.

Is it time for us to understand that business should, above all else, focus on Good Profits? Is it time for is to shut up and listen to the silence?  And finally, if we were truly listening and connected, would Bernie Madoff have ever gotten away with stealing $50 billion?

After all, the future was written in his last name . . .

Is it time for us to discover Kanyini?

Keep Dreaming,
Brian