Holistic growth needs gentle rain over time

We will shortly start a life-transforming training program - to help us ‘navigate the edge of chaos’ - it's entitled:

‘Cultivating Holistic Worldview and Practice - an applied awareness program for?personal empowerment in a world in fundamental transition.’?

Here is the link to register for the free introductory webinar on 1st March:

https://holos-earth.org/event/holos-taster-training-program-with-dr-claudius-van-wyk-cultivating-holistic-worldview-practice-an-applied-awareness-program-for-personal-empowerment-in-a-world-in-fundamental-transition/

I have offered that this will a synthesis of my life experience working with complexity approaches to address whole-dynamical system complex issues. At its essence will be creating the shared space to take the quantum leap in self-transcendent perspective and practice to true holism. ?We will explore how to compassionately embrace of the 'is-ness' of human evolution and allow the deeper purposeful nature of 'Being' to inform our vision of possibility.

Now, as we face the challenges of a world in transition, as part of my life experience, I'm sharing certain holistic insights from my experience of the change process in South Africa.

A new spring

?‘Lente’ is the Afrikaans word for ‘spring’. It is also the name of an Afrikaans woman, the late Lente-Louise Louw, who was deeply involved in real transformation work in apartheid South Africa. She introduced me to Nelson Mandela shortly after his release from prison in 1990. She helped me to experience first-hand the real application of the holistic perspective and practice in a bold transformative initiative.?

Under the apartheid regime African education was designed to secure scientific and technical employment opportunities for whites.?But in 1982 a not-for-profit organisation, Protec, was established to address that tragic legacy.

With his much-anticipated Rubicon speech of 1985, South African President, P. W Botha back-tracked in the last moment from announcing much-anticipated fundamental reforms. Well-intentioned ‘whites’, including Afrikaners, realised that real change was unlikely to come from the government.?Lente was one of those.?

The organisation Protec, (pro-technical advancement) aimed to address the backlog of technological knowledge, experience and opportunity of black young people. Lente took on the leadership of that movement and applied the holistic perspective and practice.

Principled pragmatism

One of the core holistic themes is principled pragmatism. This means embracing the present reality and moving forward from there. It was apparently the renowned family therapist, Virginia Satir, who said: “Life is not what it ought to be - life is what it is.” It’s about embracing the ‘is-ness’ of life.

At that time I was working in a development agency in one of the black homelands. I had left?opposition politics in 1984, realising that conventional white parliamentary opposition had a limited future role to play. I wanted to learn to work in an African political and administrative environment. Despite the adverse propaganda, the nominally independent homeland, Bophuthatswana, did attempt to pursue progressive policies with a bill of human rights and a particular focus on worker benefits.?

This is where Lente saw the opportunity to further the reach of the Protec initiative. With some financial support from our organisation, SEBO, we helped get the initiative going. Despite being a black ‘apartheid’ homeland, something real and practical could be done to advance the development of black learners - offering the opportunity to be fast-tracked into a brighter technological future. And so a deeper level of human capacity could be unlocked for society. That's why it's good to remember President Teddy Roosevelt’s oft-quoted saying: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you’ve got.”

Whole-person, whole context

My paper, ‘Holism and Ethics’, which drew Lente’s attention, would later become part of my groundwork for a dissertation in a master’s degree in philosophy - applied ethics.?In discussing the practicalities of applied holism, she offered four key lessons from her Protec implementation strategy.

·?????It set out to identify high school students in form 10 with an aptitude for mathematics and science and reasonable proficiency in English. They would have the necessary capacities to benefit most from the enrichment program.

·?????Students would be nurtured through their remaining school years, their tertiary scientific/technological education, and into the workplace. It was intended as a holistic evolutionary development process including early exposure to workplace situations with site-visits and holiday employment offerings, etc.

·?????Student’s home environment, where study and preparation would need to take place over and above to their normal school curriculum requirements, would be evaluated and, if required, and where possible, alternative enabling study spaces identified.???

·?????Above all fixed assets, such as buildings and technical resources, were not especially required. What was sought was opportunity for engagement, for space being made available with its existing resources, with willing persons engaging in sharing their expertise and experience. It was not about ‘stuff’ - it was about space for ‘action’. ???

Time

But Lente shared the most important lesson - time. Learning and growth, she stressed, could hardly occur with a rush of down-loaded knowledge and experience. In a thunderstorm water could not soak into the ground where it was needed - it would inevitably just run off. What was required was gentle soaking rain - over time.?Holistic nurturing required time.

Training program?

And that is why in this training program, like gentle rain, our engagement will be 16 two-hour sessions - one per per week - with sufficient breaks for integration and application.

Nevertheless the program is grounded in well-researched applied holistic science, complexity theory, and quantum neuroscience.??

Participation will help unlock the innate capacity to take the quantum leap to the critical ‘process’ perspective - enabling better navigation of the super-wicked ‘edge of chaos' problems-spaces ?as we enter the ‘Great Transition’.

For further details email: [email protected]

Free introductory session - 1st March, 2022

In this webinar we will:

·?????Position the program in a holistic cosmology sweeping creative evolution through the articulation of a fundamental energetic pattern into perceptible phenomena

·?????Explore Hegel’s dialectical creative process for its relevance to holistic evolution

·?????Take a brief overview of Smuts proffered stages of evolution through time

·?????Review?the emergence of consciousness itself, as experienced in human perception, as an evolutionary process through the lens of the bio-psychosocial model of human values evolution.

Register here: https://holos-earth.org/event/holos-taster-training-program-with-dr-claudius-van-wyk-cultivating-holistic-worldview-practice-an-applied-awareness-program-for-personal-empowerment-in-a-world-in-fundamental-transition/

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