Explorer’s Circle—Learning Over Lunch with Julian Gresser/Sponsored by the University Club of Santa Barbara June 12, 2014—An Outline of the Presentation

I am delighted to spend this time together with you today and thank the University Club and Barbara Gaughen for taking the initiative. I view our meeting as an “Explorer’s Circle.”

In today’s discussion I will: 1. Set the context of my work by a mini-autobiographical note 2.Introduce my book, Piloting Through Chaos—The Explorer’s Mind (PTC/EM) 3.Illustrate the Explorer’s Mind with three current cases and 4.Show you how to apply two of many arrows in our quiver practically in your personal life.

I. Autobiographical Note

* Since childhood I have wanted to be an explorer and this dream was followed since my teens to be a samurai! I fancy now that I have just turned seventy-one it is never too late to have a happy childhood.

* PTC/EM comprises two books in one: the first introduces a complete system of negotiation. It offers a fresh way of thinking about negotiation because: a. it views the practical field of negotiation as a navigational process (ie. negotiate a river or a mountain range, etc.), essentially an exploratory and discovery process, and b. it introduces a way of coping effectively with the shadow forces in the world (ie. greed, conceit, treachery, cruelty, etc.). The core algorithm is the principle of integrity, meaning “integral, whole, connected, and adaptively alive.” In the Chinese and Japanese languages integrity (德) is viewed as a dynamic state where intelligence (mind), hand, and heart work coherently together. I will return to this definition as it provides insight into how and why we are so terribly wounding each other and the planet, and also how we might begin to heal our wounds.

* The second book introduces a fresh way of seeing and observing the world that I call the “Explorer’s Mind.” And it is where I want to focus our discussion today.
 
II. Explorer’s Mind

* The cluster of insights in my book derive from dedicated practice in a number of disciplines over many years, most prominently zen and martial arts, EEG biofeedback, and qigong, inspiration from classical literature, music, and art to which I was exposed as a child, and also by simply being dazzled and re-created in the beauty of the natural world.

* I think of Explorer’s Mind as a distinct state of consciousness, which the University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmalhy refers to as a state of flow, of forgetting yourself and being OK with not knowing, what Einstein called an appreciation of the mystery and a sense of wonder, what the Taoists call “returning to original nature or innocence,” and as I am learning every day from my practice of qigong with Master Li Junfeng,-- of Big Heart. Explorer’s Mind I believe is the core teaching of the world’s great spiritual and wisdom traditions. I have tried to find a neutral and evocative common ground to express it.

* In this state I began to discover what for me are surprising connections between widely diverse domains of knowledge; and so I borrowed the idea of the Buddhist Eight Noble Truths to create an Eight Realm Explorer’s Wheel to serve as a guide and framework for the Explorer on her or his journey. Along the way I began to see that I had invented a new field I call “innovation integration” which perceives there is innovator’s “gold” embedded at the intersection of conventional, professionally silos and bodies of knowledge.

III. Illustrations –Three Current Innovation Integration Projects

* Fukushima—The challenge and a proposed solution

* Lighter than water concrete: Open Letter to Prime Minister Abe

* Deeper scientific/technological breakthrough: Multi-precursor model for earthquake prediction in light of the NRC letter to the nuclear plant operators

* California-China Solar Partnership—

* Breakthrough Value Proposition: 1 million roof tops in 5 years, or 1.5%-->15% Installation; alignment of trade and industrial policies

* Means: Smart Collaborative Innovation Network (S-COIN) for solar explorers and innovators/Solar Bank based on California/Chinese Strategic Alliance

* One Minute Demonstration of “Smart” Technology: PTC/EM as the world’s first smart book

* Breaking the Voice Recognition Sound Barrier between English and Chinese and its Implications

* A new “coopetive,”networked, regenerative model

IV. Personal Applications: Creating Your Own Luck ™

* How to use the Explorer’s Wheel

* How to use the Graphs and have fun exploring inner/outer alignment and synchronicity

 

©Copyright Julian Gresser, June 2014, All Rights Reserved.