The Prime Directive: Nurture and Struggle

The third element of the Prime Directive is to nurture life and struggle against death for the welfare of the planet and the coexistence of all living things.  For decades there has been much talk involving the key (buzz) word sustainability.  The Prime Directive puts this talk to the test and so can you.  Can you have infinite growth in a finite or limited system?  The answer is clearly, No!  Ask yourself what proportion of our national and global resources go into projects that nurture life (education of children, sustainable use of energy resources, protection of our fresh and salt water resources, etc.) and how much of our national and global resources go into projects that undermine life and facilitate death (poor industrial waste management, counterproductive food production and contamination management systems, research and development of chemical, biological, nuclear, and electronic tools of war, etc.).  In the Handbook the Mysterious Dr. M. states that peace does not descend down from governments and powerful organizations and corporations.  Peaceful Space, the kind of Peace that emanates from your heart and emerges from a new perspective on life, that peace comes about through your and my individual choices.

How did you nurture life this week?  Planting a flower is nice but how about the life of the many people with whom you had contact this week?  Were you conscious of nurturing the life force within them?  And what about how you treated yourself this week?  Were you kind to yourself, self-encouraging?  Did you treat your body well?  Did you feed your spirit?  How can you call Peaceful Space into the world if you can't make it emerge within yourself?  We all die over time!  A little bit at a time!  Sometimes the death is so subtle that those around you miss the signs.  And sometimes they miss the signs because they simply aren't paying attention.  And sometimes, even you can miss the signs of your gradual and piecemeal death.  Can you relate?

The Prime Directive is about mindfulness - about being present in each of the moments when your choices can be of profound affect.  This world is a place of struggle.  Life and death enter this world together and it is up to you to orchestrate the battle that takes place between them on all three planes, mental, physical, and spiritual.  How are you doing with that struggle?  How wonderful it would be if you and your family and friends decided to adopt the Prime Directive as a guide for your choices in 2010, and if each of your chose to Create Peaceful Space.

May you be in Peaceful Space in the New Year and Decade!

The Prime Directive: Transformative Conduct

Think of how your life experiences would have been different if everyone around you, if everyone in your world was seeking pleasure and avoiding pain for themselves and others.  The Mysterious Dr. M. talks about the many people who reach out in their dreams because of the pain they are experiencing in their everyday lives.  Think back into your own childhood or youth and ask if the Prime Directive could have made a difference in your actions or someone's actions towards you. Now imagine how different your world would be if everyone had internalized the second element of the Prime Directive - to transform negative energy into positive energy through your conduct in the world.  The key words here, the key reference is your conduct.  Do you still suffer from hurts that were never given the treatment they needed to heal?  And how many others are suffering today because of your attitudes and behaviors in the past?  Life is simply too complex for us to imagine a world where there are no slights, no mistakes, no mishaps, no offenses to others, no insults or rebuffs.  But you can imagine a world where wrongs are righted and where mistakes, mishaps, offenses, insults, and rebuffs are acknowledged and genuine efforts and practical steps are immediately taken to heal the hurts before they fester into wounds from which chaos can emerge.  According to Dr. M. it would be a world in which every individual would understand the nature and power of the Quantum Entities that emerge from our social interactions. 

The directive of practicing transformative conduct applies to all aspects of your existence, that is, your relation to the earth, to the other life forms that share this planet with you, to the ecosystem that supports your existence, and to the many individuals to whom you are directly and indirectly connected.  Can you live up to the expectations of the Prime Directive?  Do you have a heart big enough to care for a world? 

Seek and Avoid: Imagine a World

The first element of the Prime Directive is to seek pleasure and avoid pain for yourself and others.  In the Handbook On Being Human, vol. I the Mysterious Dr. M. says that we (humans) have the capacity for Self-Determined Evolution.  That is, we can write our cultural and biological histories in advance.  We do this through the power of our aggregated choices.  But how can we exercise that capacity without  imagination?  Imagine the world three or four generations from now.  A world where every adult and child has been raised by instruction and by example to seek pleasure and avoid pain for themselves and others.  Now think of the many problems that you and I face and hear about everyday that would no longer exist.  As children some of us take pleasure in bullying others.  As teenagers some of us take pleasure in harassing, rejecting, and isolating others.  And as adults some of us take pleasure in dominating, obstructing, and discouraging others.  Human instincts and drives, emotions and desires as described in the Handbook can often push someone to become narcissistic in the pursuit of their personal pleasures.  Often those pleasures are hurtful and damaging to others.  But the Prime Directive states that if those pleasures cause any pain to others then their pursuit is a violation of the Directive.  If in this future world the Prime Directive has been internalized by succeeding generations of our yet to be born then our efforts today will Create Peaceful Space for our children in the future. 

Dr. M. emphasizes the fact the it is about you.  It is your choice that makes the difference.  The collective will emerges from the aggregate of individual choices.  Industrial and technological planning, scientific methods, economic and political models are developed by people, groups of individuals.  Conflicts and wars emerge from the imbalanced pursuit of personal pleasure and 'strategic interests' without regard to the pain caused to others.  Imagine how these institutions would change as succeeding generations of our descendants moved into their time, having been nurtured on this first element of the Prime Directive.  You can start today with the young minds that surround you.  What do you think?

Seek and Avoid

The first part of the Prime Directive states that as members of the human species it is in our nature and to our benefit to seek pleasure and avoid pain for ourselves and others.  To seek means to attempt or desire to obtain or achieve something.  Throughout the Handbook, Dr. M. encourages U to strive to be in Peaceful Space and to Create Peaceful Space with others.  To seek implies some kind of mental or physical effort, so Dr. M. also outlines the benefits to U and to others who make that effort. 

To avoid means to keep away from or stop oneself from doing something.  In the Letters to U, Dr. M. describes the Unpredictable Negative Consequences that are generated in the Ojiji Aiye (the Shadow World) by our negative thoughts and actions, and he explains how those negative forces take form and work their way back into the Pataki Aiye (the Material World).  Don't you see and feel the unnecessary pain that people inflict on each other everyday?  Does it feel like simple civility is losing in its battle against disrespect, rudeness, and outright disregard?  What do you think?

Welcome

The non-profit Peaceful Space Project is a U.S. based Global Leadership and Community Development Program.  The focus of PSP is the education and development of youth and the mitigation of conflict through a heightened sense of community.  This blog is dedicated to discussions about the Prime Directive of the Human Species and the underlying and obvious messages in the Letters to U: From the Mysterious Dr. M - The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I - 10 Selfish and Unselfish Reasons For You To Create Peaceful Space.  This blog invites you to share your comments, thoughts, reactions, suggestions, and other positive contributions to a productive and purposeful discussion.  You can preview the Prime Directive and The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I (here).

A good place to start our discussion may be with your comments on the Prime Directive. As a unifying and guiding philosophy for the human species, the language of the Prime Directive must promote the concepts of interconnectedness, interrelatedness, and interdependence. The language must call humanity to rise above our national, ethnic, racial, political, and other cultural divisions to address the needs of all humanity and the welfare of the planet. The language also needs to speak to the matter of individual responsibility and choice. What do you think? Can you agree with or accept the Prime Directive as written?