by Kay Sandberg
Before she died of cancer, the comedian Gilda Radner remarked that the only real tragedy in life is to allow our glorious uniqueness to die, not to fully express who we are as individuals. About our level of civilization, Mahatma Gandhi said, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization.”
One principle we play with in Avatar is “energy follows attention”. We pay attention to whatever is proof of what we are looking for, and what we aren’t looking for often goes unnoticed. What we focus on is also where our efforts go. Last year I took my attention off certain aspects of my work, and they declined while the new areas I attended to thrived.
As we approach the millennium, diversity is one issue on which the collective attention of the American public has focused. In my view, the focus has been more on separateness than on unity within diversity. The result has been greater divisiveness in our communities and schools.
Gandhi’s challenge is not unique to the United States. We see evidence of the struggle to find unity in diversity all over the world. The rise of tribalism, the strengthening of ethnic boundaries in the former Soviet Union, and the conflicts plaguing Africa toward the end of this century are all a reflection of this tension—the desire to preserve the uniqueness of a particular group while fostering a national agenda.
Many US companies’ definition of diversity includes differences according to race, gender, religion, culture, age, sexual orientation, communication style, and other labels of people by looks, background or personality. Corporate diversity programs have focused on honoring or protecting the rights of various groups and individuals to the exclusion of celebrating the common threads of human beings. The result can be lower productivity and teamwork, as well as wasted money and time.
On the other hand, attention to common goals and unity can have a big impact on corporate investment of time, money, and other resources, not to mention the improved quality of work life for employees. The solution is to honor differences by recognizing the reality of discrimination and the pain it causes, while moving beyond this legacy to embrace common bonds forged by the experience of being human.
The first time I attended an Avatar Master Course I was a bit skeptical that tools developed by Harry Palmer, a Caucasian man with an American background, would work equally well with my Italian, Korean, German, or Japanese friends in the room. What a wonderful surprise—not only did they work, but we could do the exercises together without speaking a common language. Then I noticed that we did have a language in common albeit a nonverbal one—experiencing ourselves individually and collectively as Source of our own experiences. This is equally useful to us all, regardless of linguistic, cultural, religious, gender, or age differences.
Besides a common language, another benefit of Avatar is a set of simple tools to train our attention*. We can choose to focus on what we want rather than what we don’t want. The exercises are seamlessly interwoven to take off judgments or labels and to allow us to directly experience, to feel the common threads that bind us together. The results are greater acceptance of ourselves and others, enhanced creativity and flexible thinking, and greater success in personal and professional pursuits.
Imagine for a moment a world where unity and diversity are in balance, and everyone has tools to understand and respectfully communicate across any boundary. In my view, this is the vision Avatar holds for us all. Avatar gives us the opportunity both to polish our glorious uniqueness and to remember our oneness with others. This makes it a joy to be alive!* ReSurfacing: Techniques for Exploring Consciousness contains several chapters and exercises dedicated to the recovery and deliberate control of attention.Kay Sandberg, California
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All content copyright 2008, Star’s Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.