Dearest Practitioners:
In this turning point of the year, the day of the highest point of light, we are writing to you to thank you for your letters expressing your views, feelings and questions regarding the recently posted bulletin(s) on the Cleargreen web page. We are deeply touched and grateful for all the individual emails and phone calls we have been receiving with expressions of affection, support and concern.
Your collective letters, signed by so many of you and representing many others, have not fallen on deaf ears. The events that have unfolded over the last couple of months have had a profound effect on all of us. We have taken this time to look inside, to examine and embrace all of our feelings and questions, and from a better place today we write to you.
We feel it is important to address your questions regarding which were the differences that seemed not to allow us to work together, so what follows is our understanding of the situation and our perceptions of the apparent differences.
There is indeed for us a lingering sadness that our colleagues have chosen to separate from us. Carlos Castaneda trained and passed on the knowledge of this lineage to a large number of individuals. We feel we are ALL guardians and protectors of this work. It has become our life’s purpose to live and share it with impeccability and humbleness, so it is important for us to clarify that we are not departing from Cleargeen, from teaching Tensegrity, nor from the community. There is no way to depart from what we are.
For a while some of us at Cleargreen had felt the need for a change towards more integration, openness and sharing, and we couldn’t find common ground. Then, last February, we received a letter signed by a group of seasoned practitioners, who had been working closely with us for many years. The practitioners felt something was not right and asked us to be honest and to share with them what was happening. They also expressed that they wanted to participate in a more responsible and inclusive way. We, Aerin and Miles, agreed with their view but, unfortunately, our colleagues did not. Our colleagues informed us that they viewed our differences as an “internal affair.” They declared that, as a corporation, these differences were not to be made public (even though they already were public). We feel that the very nature of our community cannot be defined by corporate rules of conduct, since this is an evolving shared dream.
We were in the midst of communicating and working out our different views, when the decision to cut ties with us was suddenly announced to everyone. Despite one of our premises, as taught in workshops, that individuals work together to solve discrepancies and find common ground, this action effectively stopped any efforts to integrate those differences.
For us, community relationships have been an important priority and commitment. At the core of what we believe and trust is the willingness to engage in a shared decision making process, with ALL elements of the Tensegrity structure involved. We recognize the role of practitioners in carrying this work forward and in encouraging and inviting them with shared responsibilities, to continue to share with others the knowledge and passion we all feel for this work.
Carlos Castaneda expressed his wish to create self-organized practice groups and his respect for practitioners. He wrote:
As time passed, the nature of leadership and authority among them became evident [Don Juan] was surprised and somehow delighted to realize that no one was better or higher than another. Some of them performed functions of which the others were incapable, but that did not make them superior. It simply made them different. - The Power of Silence
Buckminster Fuller, who inspired Carlos Castaneda to utilize the concept of Tensegrity to describe magical passes and the legacy of the practitioners he was dreaming of, wrote a short and beautiful poem that we read at a workshop; it describes how we are choosing to live as we go forward:
Love is omni-inclusive,
Progressively exquisite,
Understanding and tender
And compassionately attuned
To other than self.
In this spirit we continue practicing, intending our assemblage points to a place of unconditional affection and love. We see this moment as a great opportunity to really find out who we are: a community that is dreaming and stalking a dream of freedom of perception, a path with heart, collaborating to create something new, something inclusive and self organizing, and sharing in a way that exudes a contagious enthusiasm. As one of you stated in your letters, we “seek to be a part of a Tensegrity community that explores, researches, and disseminates knowledge for the benefit of all.”
After all that has happened, what remains for us is our deep affection and respect for ALL our colleagues. We are dreaming forward, and our vision is a dream where there is room for all; families and friends, teachers and students, all dancing to mother Earth under the Sun. Can we create a structure where all these different possibilities find their place?
We are part of the Tensegrity community and we will continue to share with you what the nagual taught us in whatever way is suitable. We are open to hear from you what you need from us, or whatever you want to share. If you want to reach us, find our email addresses below.
Living forward, joyfully and with purpose, guided by the Spirit and the lineage of don Juan and the seers of ancient Mexico, and all the teachers that come our way.
With all our affection,
Miles Reid and Aerin Alexander
milesreid@tilomedical.com; aerin@tilomedical.com