The Biggest Subsystems
A human being, as a personality, is a biological, psychological and social entity. Those three components compose our most basic subsystems.
So, according to the OBM what underlies the big picture of other critical systems?
In the family:
The counterpart to the biological structure is reproduction and the other biological needs to be safely satisfied through economic activity.
The counterpart to the psychological structure is love and affection.
The counterpart to the social structure is relations with extended family members, other families, and neighbors.
In a firm,
The biological structure is replaced by production and services and structures related to these.
The psychological structure is replaced by human relations and administrative structures regulating them.
The relationship between a firm and society at large work in the domains of marketing and sales.
In society,
The counterpart to the biological structure is economics. The securing of biological needs happens through the economic system.
The counterpart to the psychological structure are primarily religion, but also other areas of study such as philosophy, art, science that address men’s search for meaning.
The counterpart to the social structure is culture. Politics too works to organize the social system.
The process of change, development, and coming into balance works through these dynamics be if for the individual, families, or institutions or civilizations.
The history of humanity tells this story …
And, in reality, they are the reflection of the same story at different layers.
Mastery lies in bringing these structures to a goal oriented, functional and integrated/sustainable form and holding them there …
And we will not be able to achieve happiness as long as we do not balance those three structures.
22 November 2016
—
Being Open
For humans;
is it difficult to open their eyes?
their mind?
their heart?
their wallet?
their lap?
their emotions?
When we were kids …
None of those were difficult …
We shut our eyes to run away from realities.
Our mind … to run away from change.
Our hears … to run away from heartbreak.
Our wallets … to run away from being cheated.
Our lap … to run away from attachment.
And we shut down our emotions out of fear of getting belittled.
But, human beings need to selectively open themselves …
Then life opens itself back o them …
When we open our eyes we come to accept truths.
When we open our mind, we find it easier to be in harmony with change.
When we open our hearts, we rediscover the “we”
When we open our wallets, correctly, we begin to understand materiality
When we open our laps, we find the courage to be in touch again.
When we open our emotions, we begin to correctly direct our emotions.
How much do we open ourselves?
How much are you yourself open?
November 12, 2016
—
Thoughts on Time and Infinity…
I remember when the idea of thresholds becoming clear to me. I was in the USA, in the Grand Canyon. You can see the world from layer to layer there. In a canyon about a mile deep, you could see the Colorado river stream. In its own ecology it was a whole but at the same time those layers allowed you to go back in time for millions of years. And they were all of different times and allowed us to witness infinity here on earth.
Our mind keeps traveling in time …
Some things allow us to stay here and now …
The things we see, the things we hear, and everything we sense through our five senses …
They join with emotions …
But emotions take us back to the past …
And sometimes to the future …
To dreams or anxieties of the future ….
And outside all of these and containing them is infinity …. If you could ask the ocean, sitting at its edge … What can you tell me about infinity? What have you learned? Your emotions? The things you have witnessed about human beings? What would she tell us?
The earth, the seas, trees, burial grounds, monuments, old books, a grain of sand, a pebble …
I guess they’d all say …
Live in the moment, know of infinity, balance yesterday and tomorrow in today …
31 October 2016
What People With Awareness Seek
Life has so many faces. Sometimes we don’t know which one to handle…
Biological issues, relationships, parenting, politics, social relations, making money, other requirements …
And then there are parts about these related to who we are. Like our emotions, meanings, needs, priorities, and habits …
The right place is for the person to start with themselves. But, people either live never coming to that awareness or they are lost in the struggle of life and can’t seem to ever get there …
For a group of people such a seeking comes around age 40. Work comes to a certain level, the kids grow up and they start saying “there has got to be more to life” …
Some of them start going after what they missed as kids, others rekindle dreams they had as youth …
Some of them go the path of spirituality, some philosophy, others art, others through seeking pleasure …
At the end, they get to a couple places.
Some endlessly amuse themselves with distractors. These are the people who keep busy in order not to face themselves. Usually through watching sports, computer games shopping, etc.
Some get stuck in addictions. They go after pleasure, excitement or flow. They get lost trying to balance out either the fear and anger or the emptiness and lack of meaning in their lives.
Some are after enlarging their egos. They are stuck in proving to themselves and others how big and important they are.
Some idealize all meaning to those closest to them. Their lover, family or one or two close friends.
Some go inward and try to find inner peace in spiritual pursuits.
Some just want to be left alone. They are tired of people and their conflicts …
Some look for the solution in others. To give and share, to find happiness over a sense of we. Some of these want to share what they have learned, others want to protect the rights of the oppressed.
Others connect with nature. They have learned to be happy with their gardens and cats.
Others look through consciously. Philosophy, science, intellectualism is their path.
Others like to lose themselves. Art and creativity are the only paths that satisfy those.
And all the other ways ….
All of these paths are choices for people who reach a certain level of awareness and look for solutions. And the masses have not yet got here …
As you see just as there are many types of issues, there are many types of solutions …
To be human is to take some of these paths. And there is much to be learned from all of them …
The OBM suggests that you try these paths, and you experience them to find the combinations that work for you.
To live in accordance with your values, with intelligence, labor and love, you can creat your own meanings and find your own optimum balance … that’s what the OBM suggests.
And that path comes to pass through knowing, doing and being …
October 13, 2016
—
About Carrying and Letting Go…
It is sometimes hard to change certain things …
There is a balance that has been reached in years. Each piece is related to the other, and the entirety keeps each in place. If you want to change one, the others object …
And the excuses are ever ready …
Life is hard …
Because I’ve got kids …
Who is guaranteeing that the new will be any better?
I knew all of this already.
…
Right! You’ll have to think, face, there’ll be an adjustment period, you’ll have to labor a bit, conflicts, letting go of defense mechanisms, and your ego will feel discredited …
When you could just act as if … and pretend.
Take things easy
To save the day with cunning
Whereas those ties that bind us are nothing but past learnings ….
As we protect our most intimate values, what remains are things we no longer use and will likely never ever need and think part of ourselves, as essential parts of our maps, our filters, our habits … what do we think we’ll loose if we let them go?
To allow for new parts of you to emerge, as others stay the same, and yet others die …
To remain in the flow and without blurring, or hardening, continue to refresh and renew …
Letting go of unnecessary baggage, and just taking with us what is most necessary …
Let’s say:
This month I will not side with the most mighty, I will side with what is most right.
This month I chose to be a drop in the ocean, and the ocean in the drop
This month I chose to smile more
This month I chose not to eat any pizza
This month I chose not to be lazy
This month I will not be a cocky or arrogant once
This month I will not intentionally break any hearts
This month I’ll spend time with old friends
This month I won’t lie to myself …
This month ….
And all the objections arising within …
Not all of them, maybe chose one or two …
Are you saying you will give up after a day or two?
That’s why it’s hard to be human and to remain human …
To make new choices everyday, to make the right choices, and to question old ones ….
And to commit to and sustain our choices …
Whereas it is actually harder to drag around our old baggage …
For people, families, organizations, societies, for humanity too …
Consider your choices again …
September 30, 2016
—
Birth and Death are a Part of Life
Each new identity is a new birthing …
This could be with a new person, a job, a new location, or even a new hobby.
But if you don’t give that identity it’s due, it could be a weight on you. You have to form its map accurately and fill it with competencies.
Balance, awareness, and optimization come to play here.
What you want, what you can carry, how you can coordinate, and what and when you have to let go of … all have to be good choices for you.
And the fading of each identity is like a little death …
Sometimes we do it to open space for what’s to come …
Other time because we have nothing to hold on to.
Whatever the reason, birth and death are life itself.
Whether at the level of the cell, or the level of identity or even socially …
It’s enough for the process to show development, learning and maturity …
Being in India makes one write things like this.
September 13, 2016
The 4 Elements
Before positivist science, people observed nature and came to conclusions. The oldest among these (and what some people still use) was the 4 Elements method. You can find it in philosophy, medicine, and attempts to understand human nature. Even today, methods that go back hundreds of years, such as acupuncture and ayurveda, still continue to use the 4 elements.
We do not utilize such a method in the OBM, but when we look at the vertical axis and inset the the 4 elements what would emerge I wondered. After all, the vertical axis of the OBM defines the level of disorder and the 4 elements could be used to define that as well.
I guess the very bottom would be the earth element that symbolizes stability. This would be where the roots of the tree lie. The water element would be the trunk of the tree and would be the source of life and would cause its internal flow. The branches would be more flexible and be the equivalent of the fire element. The parts with most movement would be the leaves and be related to the air element.
In Taoism there is a 5th element. The wood/tree element that connects all 4.
I guess we are as strong as our roots.
We can stand as tall as our trunk.
We are as flexible as our branches.
And we can move to the capacity of our leaves.
But we are all of it at once. And we become ourselves only when it all comes together.
And nature continues to teach us.
August 31, 2016.
—
Optimum Balance, Again.
We sacrifice ….
today in the name of the future
truth in the name of what’s convenient
things to be done in the name of our comfort
morality in the name of religion
our conscience in the name our ego …
And then we wonder , why did our wonderful country/world become such a place, and defense mechanisms come to play (accuse, neglect, etc).
Defense mechanisms take us nowhere …
And politicians, it seems, have no desire to save us ..
The solution lies with us, and in our spheres of influence … with our families (especially with our kids) and what we form there …
Today can’t be sustained with a future goal …
Any organizing system will fall apart if it doesn’t fit reality …
You can’t setup anything without adequate labor …
Without morality at its root, religion won’t stand.
And without conscience, personality can’t develop.
And we keep returning to the same place …
Mind,
Labor,
Heart and
Balance.
August 18, 2016
—
After the July 15th Attempted Coup in Turkey…
Let me try to explain what we are going through in the language of OBM.
Right now the circumstances are chaotic. This is a complex and disorderly system. In situations like this, more than 2 steps ahead cannot be calculated. So strategic thinking will not work. Those who think instinctively or strategically only make things work. Analyses won’t work. What’s required is either an incredibly good understanding of the natural system, or wisdom ..
In plain speak: Right now no body really understand what happened and again no body really knows what to do …
This is a multilayered structure. At the very top is international politics. Secret services, global playmakers, NGOs and colossal multinational corporations are at play. In the mid layer exist our political, economic, religious, media and public institution dynamics. Then there is the Kurdish problem and the DEASH issue. At the very bottom lies ordinary people, in short us. In multilayered structures there are hierarchical relationships and vertical and horizontal integration problems. These can be manifest in problems in goals, coordination functionality and communication.
In plain speak: Don’t work hard at convincing anyone. We are not even pieces in this chess game. You could very well turn out to be the scape goat.
Right now, we’ve gone past the old tresholds and structures have changed. Old habits and rules will not work. New organising systems will come into play. But, for them to be formed there will be a lot of adjustments, negotiations, new coalitions, etc. These kinds of rebalanceing processes take 6 months to 2 years. Add to that opportunists and the extra large egos that are going to be involved and that time frame will be extended. The worst is the chance of out of control oscilations.
In plain speak: The waves will not settle so easy and everybody’s compass will go haywire. The Turkey we are used to does not exist anymore. Ataturkism, democracy, secularism, and the rule of law are the most trustworth anchors we know to return too. (Then, we may go back to resume where we left off and bickering at eachother, but right now is not the time for that.
-Systems are structures that have a goal, are formed of modules, and are integrated. Right now, many powers want to take over the state apparatus. Be it with terror, infiltrating the public sphere, or taking advantage of the weeknesses of the democratic system. They use horizontal and vertical alliances easily to their ends. And then there are others who want to divide and conquer. When this is the goal, modular structure attributes such as functionality, efficency, and sustainability have been moved to the background. Integration is alltogether out of the picture because there is an atmosphere of insecurity and mistrust.
In plain speak: The system is far from optimum balance. Instead of being politicized, listen to your common sense and act with your conscience.
Above I only talk about 4 of them, but as you may know there are 25 system features. Were we to go through all of them with the alacrity they deserve, this analysis would take a book. I am working hard not to get the OBM involved with politics, but we are going through such a period that we need to see our social interactions as a system.
In plain speak: The solution is a long term one and will be found through through mind-labour-heart and balance. The things to stay away from are being reactive, cunning, insatiableness, ego and laziness. The goal is to find and retain our own balance and to raise healthy kids in the long run.
Last words: I am sad about the people who passed away, particularly the policmen. We very much need to be in touch with our human side, and the humainity in eacother.
July 15th and Standing Against Societal Division
Hi to all. I follow what’s going on in the country even when I’m abroad.
When we left the country (the day of the assault on Ataturk airport) we were farewlled by bombs, and when we came back we were greeted by bombs.
I always take care not to bring politics onto these pages. Because, when tomorrow the dust settles, this civil war, the military and civil coups, this terror subsides we will still have to live together.
Not that we are really into it, but because we have no where else to go.
In ODM, we always strived not to make people feel foreign, feel like “other”. Trainings were attended by people of all sorts of beliefs and that’s the way it was meant to be …
Our only criterion were mind, labour, and heart. Not title, nor money, nor religion, nor religion, nor political preference …
Please remember this. There are only two identities that can submerge themselves into other spheres of life. Ego and spiritual indentity. Stay away from people who are attempting to use those two to manipulate your political identity …
Because these are the weakest parts of human nature …
Do not make religion your political identity and do not make the mistake of associating your political identity with your ego and looking at everything through this lense …
Those that want to do something (useful), focus on your sphere of influence. Your family and kids. Try and raise your kids as good and capable people.
Because the solution lies in the long term …
Again, thanks for not bringin divisiveness into these pages …
Love,
Tamer
July 19, 2016
The Havoc in Nice
We were in Nice in June. Watching the sea from the bench in front of the Negresco hotel. We’d been talking of humane thigns. Coming here 20 years ago, the doner kebap waiter on main street who had come here from Hatay (a city in South East Turkey) and was complaining of his situation, what time the Galery Lafayette closed that day … Those kinds of things …
We will remember Nice differently from now on ….
Just like the Ankara train station, the Ataturk airport, the Gezi park and the others we remember differently as well …
The gap of awareness between people has increased dramatically. It’s an abyss. And so is the gap not only in awareness, but in income, access to resources, and conscious thought …
As long as those on top do not attempt to pull those less fortunate, the ones below are going to continue to hate the better to do ones, and even try to pull them down …
That’s the game …
Nice was just the last stop of this game … yesterday.
Love. Tamer.
July 15, 2016
—
My Country’s People
The people of this country want:
to these their friends, when his favorite team wins …
to have Frinedly conversation …
to bitch and moan about mother in law …
to have their child go into a good school, and get a job when he graduates …
to have their income increase …
to always be right …
for traffic to lessen …
to be popular …
for the national football team to win …
to not have headaches …
to consume, a lot …
to spend more time with those s/he loves …
for vacations to be longer …
to have both success and peace …
But, the people of this country
does not want to work too much …
does not want competition …
does not want to be criticized ….
does not want to deal with problems …
does not want to start with themselves for creating solutions …
does not want to accept it when they are in the wrong …
does not want to think deeply about situations …
And the people of this country …
either express gratitude or profanity …
when they after a plunder, they are stooped by those more cunning then them …
does not understanding things outside their little maps …
prefers being right to being happy …
And the people of this country – actually like people from other countries -:
do not realize that all of this depend on greed, laziness, shallowness, and ego issues …
And unless the people of this country realize that the solutions lie on the path of mind, labor, heart and balance …
Their children will continue to be like them …
The solutions are neither in leader look a like cunning politicians …
Nor in owning an IPhone 17 S Plus …
Nor in the discovery in new petrol sources …
Nor in gurus with imaginary powers …
Nor in consuming more …
Solutions are in awareness, intention, courage in the face of dealing with reality, and in our individual and collective capability to cope …
Everything we discuss and complain about are just reflections of these …
Love, Tamer
April 22, 2016
—
Our Options
The conditions we find ourselves in our country keep getting worse unfortunately. Almost every day I get messages from people who get scattered. Some of them are in a hole of hopelessness … they keep struggling and churning, some have given even that up. I want to repeat something I say in trainings here.
Remember that in all situations you have 9 choices as an individual. Four of these are related to the natural system:
– You can intervene in the natural system,
– You can remove yourself from the situation,
– You can accept it,
– Or you can close your boundaries and protect yourself for a while.
The other five options are related to the regulatory system. These you accomplish by changing
– Either your perception, meaning, state, capabilities, or behaviors.
And in so doing:
– First, you have to face the issue honestly.
– Then, you’ll need patience to understand the issue and develop options.
– Lastly, you have to gather yourself to learn the appropriate lesson and start over.
Defense mechanisms do not resolve problems …
We all need to learn this …
If not for ourselves, then for future generations …
Love, Tamer.
April 15, 2016
Looking at What’s Human…
It’s been a long time since I learned not to judge people for their beliefs, identities, or opinions … You can never know in what family, culture, or hardship that person grew up.
Look into people’s hearts. Is there conscience there? Is there courage? Is there joy of simply being alive? Is there love?
Look into people’s minds. Is s/he a person reacting on the basis of instinct? Is their mind adept enough to figure out what will happen based on how they act? Do they use this for their own self-interest, or for harmony? Or are they capable of looking deep enough into underlying dynamics to comprehend what’s going on? Even if they do not have knowledge, are they capable of doing so intuitively or with common sense?
Look into how people labor. Are they lazy? Do they abuse other people’s labor? Do they give of themselves freely?
If you are going to explore what’s human, explore these. Look at their humanity, not their political or religious opinion. All the things that happen that we do not want, arise because that’s not where we look, and that’s not how we are. What’s about to happen, will because we are not raising our children in this way …
I forgive people who have a clean conscience and good intentions. I do not look at which party they vote for. Even if the consequences harm me. But, I don’t forgive the crafty cunning types, those that insist on error, and those that are militants to charlatans.
It will take a long time for this country to recover again. With mind, labor, and heart. Or there will be charlatans with other names that emerge. With ignorance, cunning, ego, and laziness.
Those of us that have awareness, have the responsibility not to be like them. This has to be what sets us apart. Otherwise, blood for blood, violence for violence … gets us nowhere.
Love, Tamer.
September 8, 2015
—
Baby Aylan
We are in mourning … Will we be able to make meaning and settle this? I don’t think so at all … Either we’ll learn our lesson or our hearts will be heavier for the rest of our lives. The answer will come not from our minds but our conscience …
Love, Tamer
September 3, 2015
—
Success
What’s called success is setting up a (regulatory) system capable of regulating the natural system. But sometimes we can’t even control the regulatory system (our mind, our body, our identities, etc), let alone the natural system (our environment) … The purpose of our mind is control. The purpose of all regulatory and cybernetic systems is control. According to the OBM, the intersection of knowing and doing is success and that is control …
If success is control, anxiety is the worry of losing control, depression is losing control entirely … Peace is putting control aside and to flow in accordance with the natural system …
That’s why to know where to control and when to go with the flow is a most fundamental awareness.
It’s hard to control open systems. People, relationships, emotions are hard to control. Here and in your private life, learn to open up your thresholds and to go with the flow.
Work life is more appropriate for success and control. Especially if you are a manager, if your job is such that it won’t withstand error, or you have goals it’s better to hold the rains of control …
In short, the path to keep anxiety and depression at bay is to balance control …
And, again, in summary, our private/social lives are not to be successful but for peace.
Love, Tamer
July 30, 2015
Suruc
Turkish foreign policy used to be based on “peace at home, peace in the world” until recently. I remember Abdullah Gul made a pronouncement as the Secretary of State: “Turkey has interests over Iraq that remain from the Ottoman legacy.”
What happened a short while ago in Reyhali and today in Suruc … the seeds of those events were sown back then. Those that dragged Turkey into the swamp of the Middle East because of their greed started mechanisms that they don’t and probably will never understand.
And, unfortunately, it seems these events will not stop … The solution? To return to “peace at home, peace in the world.”
My condolences to the young, their families, and those of us that have not yet lost their humanity.
Love, Tamer.
July 20, 2015
—
The Root of Problems
Despite being a graduate of politics, I cannot stomach it. But, if I were to look at it from the lens of the relation between individualism vs communitarianism …
The issue is not to tell people off. The issue is how did Turkey get here? Paralel states, ISID, attempts at authoritarianism, that the PKK terror could not be ended, plundering the state’s resources … As all our institutions collapse, the country and the economy is headed to oblivion, the politicos in battles of ego, the end of jurisprudence, the people divided, religion manipulated in the name of politics, the country accelerating stead-fast to division, what were we doing really? Other than just moan about the state of affairs …
That’s where the real issue is … Turkey is stuck between reactive people and cunning manipulative types. As the world moves closer to becoming one global system, technological developments accelerate logarithmically, individualism without skill growing around us, we need to prepare for this great transformation by protecting our primary values and teach our children to learn to balance ‘I’ and ‘we’.
Starting from ourselves … Where do you start? There are thousands of ways … Let me give one example. People have primarily 5 areas of interest. People, things, actions, information, and place. That is to say these are what motivates people, that’s what they spend their time and energy on. These are also thought patters or thought habits. One of the underlying dynamics of our behavior …
To describe by generalizing a bit, The Turkish people mostly behave with the people and things patterns. Western European are more inclined to things and action. They know they need to work to get things. Us, on the other hand, because of the prevalence of the people motivator are more concerned with relationships than work. In Americans, the emphasis is on things-action-information. They use information more. In the Japanese, people-action-information comes to the front. They are the closest society to mind-labor-heart. What would happen if they’d also add in balance – who knows?
Teach children to labor, to think strategically and systemically; teach them not to sell their humanity. The solution is in the middle term and the path is through education. Are you saying you are reactive or of the cunning variety – these solutions won’t suit me? Return to the first sentence … How did we get here really?
Love, Tamer
June 9, 2015
—
The Path Leading to Optimum
Only a realistic, capable, goal oriented, and flexible person can lead an adaptive life …
– A realistic person assings the right meanings to himself, others, and life. S/he recognizes threats, opportunities, and resources or herself and other people as they are. Neither too big, nor too small. Her meanings and perceptions have settled down.
– A capable person can develop the capacity and habits to deal with reality, s/he can find, access and take advantage of resources in the system or in herself …
– A system without a goal disbands, disolves, and is no longer what it was. A person with goals can create and enact behaviors and actions …
And if you can balance these, you reach sustainability.
Only when we can raise a child in this manner, can we change the world …
Only with optimum balance can we achieve this …
How close/far we are, would you say?
Love,
Tamer
May 26, 2015
Regrets
If you are satisfied with today and you are at peace with yourself, all your past, all the struggles you went through and the events that bothered you including the people that did so too – that means those were the right events and people.
If only one were different, you wouldn’t be who you are today. If you had not made those mistakes, you would not be who you are today …
And so will be the future … As long as we take stock, and we place the meanings of events in the right place …
November 27, 2014
—
Men and Women / Listening and Talking
Men and women approach a problem differently. Both will disassociate, but for the men this means taking a step back, to go inside, break up the issue into pieces and make sure they are ascribed to the right boxes. Men prefer silence in this process and in their everday encounters looks for hints to the solution …
Women use emotions instead of the mind when disassociating. They try to move the negative feelings they are having (inside) to the outside. And they do so by talking …
Men need to learn not to advise a woman who is talking about a problem (she is trying to comfort herself). And woman need to shut up to leave a man alone, if he is not talking about a problem.
Love, Tamer.
November 27, 2014
—
Understanding Relationships as Systems
What would you say to looking at your social relationships as a system?
A system has a goal, modular capabilities, and an internal structure of coordination. For your wife, child or for a friend … If this relationship was progressing towards a goal (possibly shared, to the benefit of most, and sustainable so, then enacting your capabilities as well as their, and if you were in cooperation with them too …
And to do this … if you could stop for a moment and understand their goals, capacities, and internal communication … hard isn’t it?
But, what if the solutions that work came from this perspective?
What I just revealed is the essence of therapy, consulting and even leadership …
It’s also advised to be enacted with mind, labor and heart. Think again … Then again …
Love to All, Tamer
August 23, 2014
Our Childhood…
Our Childhood always teaches us something …
Sometimes how small we are,
Sometimes how precious we are,
Sometimes how far behind we’ve left our naivete …
Sometimes, too, that we have to recognize the value of our loved ones, while they are still with us …
Love, Tamer
June 22, 2014
—
A 35 Pound Kid
Whatever a person sees in their environment regularly, becomes what’s normal to them …
What have we come to accept in the last decade? Lies, corruption, thievery, divisiveness, charlatans speaking on behalf of religion, ego fights, just classless shabby acts …
A 35 pound kid reminded us of our conscience …
The only thing they couldn’t normalize was our conscience …
This tells me: there is still hope here …
Love to All, Tamer
March 12, 2014
—
Knowing and Doing
One of the most important functions of our mind is to know how to do. So actually OBM’s map is formed from axese of knowing and doing. Knowing and doing co-join a while later and become capabilities(being-able-to-do) and later they turn into being …
In this context, success is to know correctly, and to do correctly.
Anxiety is to know wrong and continuing to do.
Depression is to get that you know wrong and to give up but not putting anything else in it’s place.
Whereas happiness is to know correctly and to do as much as necessary and when it’s not stop.
Love, Tamer
October 24, 2013
Note: Passage is from the OBM book
Ergenekon…
(Ergenekon was a long lasting series of court cases in Turkey against a supposed organisation in deep inside the State apparatus. This piece was written when a higher court found high ranking army men guilty, essentially of treason. Many people in the country thought the army man had been retained and accused unjustly)
My reactive side says: I do not recognize this judicial system. Politics has overtaken their conscience, once again …
Strategic thinking says: this is beyond your sphere of influence. Some forces are just battling it out.
The part of me capable of systemic thinking says: this is a process: This is the attempt to pull a country trying to develop to a lower treshold, by exploiting the weeknesses of democracy (tyranny of the majority).
Wisdom says: Which court is capable to judge a man’s heart? If the people leading the Turkish judicial system have decided to destroy themselves, and start a process that will end by everybody losing, then the structure was flawed to begin with.
As Gibran says … You can remove the strings of the harp … But who can stop the farm bird from singing?
In the hearts of the people, those (army)men are innocent. Just like others before them in the past. Who could change that?
Love, Tamer.
September 10, 2013
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Adressing young people…
Thank God, we do not have much that’s lacking in the cunningness department as a people. In fact, we are experiencing issues because all those types have decided to come together. But, we need systemic thinking. Because strategic thinking works to maximize personal gain. Everybody tries to maximize their interests. Everyone in a struggle against everyone. Whereas, from the system thinking viewpoint we understand that only with cooperation and in the long run and by creating sustainability do systems remain successful. That is to say, success is not something that requires you to sell your soul. Do not do this for the money, money will not bring this to you. Nor will your ego. Because, people in our day have confused happiness with pleasure or ego – that’s where they search for it. Pleasure is not sustainabile beyond a point, nor is the ego. It leads to narcisistic or hystrionic personality disorders. Uncontrolled seeking of pleasure leads to addictions and, then, to depression. In our day, young people are unfortunately thinking they could get everything they want with money or ego, that’s the legacy of individualism. It is possible to reach strategically, but I have not met anybody who is happy because they have accomplished that feat. And I’ve worked with thousands of people. On the contrary, they either turn out addicted or depressed. Or they are constantly struggling with anxiety.
What’s sustainable? There is a system composed of 7 primary emotions. Success is one, but on the condition you give it up at a point. Another is joy of life. (Self-)confidence. Learning. Awareness. Love. Inner Peace. Systems built around those components are sustainable and optimal. And they contain all the necessary resources to deal with life.
Ego does not do this, money does not do this, pleasure will not accomplish this. For human nature to be in balance and be sustainable depends on its capacity to form a system around those fundamental values. We needs this, as individuals, as families, as societies.
From the 2015 Ankara Productivity Week Conference