The NEW Game of Spirituality
**** Special Birthday Eve Teleconference****
Wednesday, December 1, 2004 at 8pm Eastern
The NEW Game of Spirituality… Enrich Your Life,
Enliven Your Livelihood, Enhance Your Standard of Living!
Phone Number: 858-300-3030
Access Code: 12254# (remember the # sign).
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I hope you had a Happy Thanks and Giving.
There is much for which to give thanks, and many who need giving.
May I break a little bread with you today?
Lately there has been a firestorm around the topic of values. It is a highly charged subject, and may cut a little too close to the turkey bone for a joyful Thanksgiving dinner.
With Thanksgiving safely stuffed in the trunk, let me share something that is not being discussed about values.
Not my values, or your values.
Not religious values or family values.
Not blue state or red state values.
Not Western or Eastern values.
Spiritual values.
Human values!
A vital component missing from the conversation around values is the distinction between value and values. This distinction is made clear by the science of Axiology, the study of human value.
Axiology offers a model that can measure and distinguish what is important, what is more important, and what is most important.
The current discussion about values is at best, a two-legged stool. Missing the third leg, it cannot stand on its own.
The third leg is the dimension that completes the stool.
The first leg is thinking; it is important.
The second leg is doing; it is more important.
The third leg is being; it is most important.
The human value stool needs all three legs to stand.
Dr. Robert Hartman was the pioneer in the field of Axiology and the world’s leading authority on values. He proved that three different dimensions of value exist in the universe. He used Axiology, the science of value logic, to measure these dimensions of value objectively and accurately.
This three-dimensional model of human value combines the precision of science with philosophy and spirituality. It gives us a clear distinction between value and values.
Hartman’s life work was dedicated to giving us a model and a tool called the Value Profile to understand these distinctions, and to make better choices for ourselves individually, and for the world, collectively.
His work got him nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1973. Sadly, he died the same year. Dr. Hartman’s legacy is Axiology. He left us a navigational system to guide us to make better moral choices.
It’s proven. It’s mathematical. It’s scientific.
It’s intuitive. It’s global. It’s spiritual.
The NEW Game…
We teach our children the three “R’s” and the “A–B-C’s” in school.
We don’t teach them the three dimensions of human value.
We don’t school them in the “A–B-C’s” of making healthy value choices:
Attention, Balance and Clarity!
Paying attention, finding balance and gaining clarity are as important to a life well lived as knowing 1 + 1 and A, B, C!
Along with the “A–B-C’s” of the Alphabet, we would do well to teach the “A–B-C’s” of value — whether from inside or outside the educational system.
In a country as rich as America, too many people don’t learn the basics. Why?
It’s as simple as A, B, C!
We are distracted when we need to be Attentive.
We put having more ahead of having Balance.
We seek knowledge above Clarity.
Too often, we elevate doing above being. We choose being right over being happy. We complain about moral decay, and usually blame it on things outside of us. We say it’s “them” who are at fault, not us.
I am responsible for my children; it’s not the community’s job to raise them and teach them. Although I cannot control everything my children see, hear and experience in the world, it’s my role to teach them to be moral citizens and make good choices. That’s my most important job.
I want to do as good a job of parenting as I do in my job at work. I don’t blame anyone or anything outside of me. I can’t scream about how society is screwed up, and I won’t rail against all the bad influences out there. I look squarely in the mirror and take responsibility for what’s in here. Before I criticize others, I will improve my own performance.
A moral world is built upon individual response-ability, the first and most important step on the path of spirituality.
Axiology Enriches the Value’s Conversation!
Dr. Hartman’s nomination for the Nobel Prize was the culmination of a life committed to crack the code of human value. And crack the code he did.
He discovered that each of the three dimensions of value has its own properties, distinct characteristics and even a different mathematical symbol. Axiology integrates the best of science with the higher powers of Metaphysics (above the physical), and forms a three-dimensional moral philosophy that transcends what is commonly known as “values” (beliefs, ideals, two-dimensional right/wrong thinking).
Dr. Hartman proved these three dimensions are not equal in value. There is a hierarchy; from two-dimensional value (systemic thinking), to multi- dimensional value (extrinsic doing), to infinitely dimensional value (intrinsic being).
What we commonly call “values” exist in the systemic dimension, and are the least valuable of the three.
Using Axiology we can measure the distinctions of important, more important and most important. It transforms the way we hold what is valuable, more valuable and most valuable.
Dr. Hartman left us a working model of human value that can guide us in living a more fulfilling life and building a more peaceful world. Before we can teach our children, we must learn how to define and distinguish the three dimensions of value, separate value from values, and integrate this model into daily life.
We will reverse the moral inversion when a critical mass of people value humanity above vanity and ideology. Axiology can take us a long way towards achieving two of our highest human aspirations:
Personal fulfillment, and a peaceful planet.
I had the good fortune to discover Axiology in 1991. It continues to inspire me, and sharing it has enriched thousands of others. A compelling force pulls me forth to share these distinctions with everyone I can, and have them share with others, to create a critical mass of us who “Play it Forward.”
Before he died in 1973, Dr. Hartman spoke extensively about how important Axiology is to humankind. He warned how the global community could descend into darkness if we weren’t vigilant in preserving the hierarchy of human value.
He was prophetic. There is a great sense of global urgency to restore the natural order of things, to reverse the value’s inversion that grips our planet.
We cannot co-exist in fear, nor can we create a peaceful world through force alone. We must find a way to rise above ideology and materialism, and value each other first as human beings.
We channel so much energy into doing and having, going and getting, we have little energy left for being.
How can so many, with so much, be so unhappy and unfulfilled?
No amount of doing and having can fill a void in being.
No matter how high you pile the cash, it cannot buy happiness and joy.
Happy is a place to come from, not a place to go to.
You can’t do or have happy. You can only BE happy.
And you can be happy whatever is going on outside.
Happiness is the way of The NEW Game of Spirituality.
Thanksgiving reminds us to be happy, and to give thanks.
I am happy to be alive and well. I give thanks for everything, and more thanks for everyone in my life.
That includes you. Thank you for giving me the gift of sharing my life with you.
Mitch
**** Don’t Miss This Special Birthday Eve Teleconference ****
You’re Invited: December 1, 2004 at 8pm Eastern US Time
The NEW Game of Spirituality… Enrich Your Life,
Enliven Your Livelihood and Enhance Your Standard of Living
Phone number: 858-300-3030
Access Code 12254# (remember the # sign).
Join me for a 90-minute birthday eve telephone conversation about values, Axiology and how to enrich the quality of your life, livelihood and living.
We will distinguish the three dimensions of value, how you can tap into and release more of your talent, how to apply Axiology to every day decisions, and how to make choices that will enrich your life, enliven your livelihood and enjoy a more prosperous standard of living.
We will discuss ways to elevate how we value ourselves, relate to one another, and value what matters most.
This may be the most important call I have ever done.
It can be a turning point for you as it will be for me.
I would love to share my birthday eve with you.
Feel free to share this message and join our call.
*** Join us on December 1 at 8pm Eastern U.S. time. ***
Phone number: 858-300-3030 Pin: 12254# ***
I look forward to sharing my birthday eve with you.
If you have something to share, I invite you to weigh in.
Join our call. If you would like, feel free to email me:
values@thenewgame.com
