Posts from the ‘Introduction’ Category

Becoming Free and Empowered To Fulfill Our Best Possibilities

Throughout the years of my search for the truth, I did not feel shame when I asked dumb questions, as long as I uttered them with humility.  I may have been naïve and did not know what I did not know, but at least I would try to pursue knowledge without my ego driving the process and without illusion being its cornerstone. Occasionally, I would be called “too idealistic.”  I eventually found that amusing. I began perceiving others who were content with the status quo, as being lazy, fearful, or simply unable to imagine a better alternative.  It wasn’t that I needed them to agree with me.  Instead, I wished they would enter the debate, think more critically and holistically, and strive to realize what is possible and noble for us and for our society.

During my life’s journey, I did not realize that being able to see the social process from both sides of the looking glass would give me an advantage in my personal life, in business, and what was to become a transcendent journey through the “the mazeway.”

I define “the mazeway” as you, me, and everyone else, functioning within the social process on this planet, situated in an infinite universe – a puzzle within a puzzle within a puzzle. No maps or instruction manuals come with the puzzles. Instead, we are surrounded by many individuals and institutions that offer their perspective about how the world works or ought to work, and how we should model our lives. Unfortunately, those perspectives have largely failed their promise and have led to humankind’s highly problematic existence.

That is, as societies, we are challenged by a wide range of serious problems, including but not limited to: antiquated systems of education, environmental degradation, dysfunctional systems of government, corruption, inadequate healthcare programs, social injustice, poverty, disease, war, terrorism, overpopulation, and cultural lag. 

The problems confronting us are so pervasive that it made me wonder about the future of humankind. That is, will we survive the test of time or become just another failed civilization? 

That wondering led me to a profound insight regarding how we can begin to deal with humankind’s highly problematic existence, and increase the chances of becoming free and empowered to fulfill our best possibilities as individuals, as societies, and as a species.

Welcome to The Mazeway Project. My name is Tony Parrotto. This initiative is based on my book, NAVIGATING THE MAZEWAY: Fulfilling Our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society.

S U G G E S T E D  N E X T : The Basic Cause of Humankind’s Highly Problematic Existence

How We Can Transcend Conceptual Imprisonment

As I mentioned earlier, the programs advanced by prevailing institutions have led and continue to lead to illusions, prejudices, self-limiting ideologies, and other forms of conceptual imprisonment that diminish us as individuals, separate us into warring camps, and perpetuate the endless cycle of misadventures, destruction, and despair that humankind endures.   

The combination of our conceptual imprisonment and the egocentricity of our institutions suggests that the challenge humankind faces is systemic. As such, a fundamental shift in our consciousness is required, rather than tactical efforts to patch this or that part of the system.

I believe the shift in our consciousness should begin with an emphasis on empowering us as individuals to function as whole, critically-thinking, creative participants of the social process, rather than remaining imprisoned within a twilight zone of awareness in which we delude ourselves we are oriented and free in the mazaway. Accordingly, I do not think we should depend solely on our institutions to bring about a shift in our consciousness.

As such, we as individuals should be accepted as the true and authentic carriers of reality, not our institutions. Institutions do not generate new ideas and visions. They incorporate the new ideas and visions that individuals conceive and more often than not, fail to fulfill the promise of those ideas and visions. It is we who think, feel, intuit, imagine, create, and who possess a moral compass that enables us to navigate the mazeway. It is institutions that perpetuate prejudices, illusions, and self-limiting ideologies by programing each new generation to follow their prescriptions and proscriptions. The flaws within those prescriptions and proscriptions are not inherent within our being; they are taught to us.

When we understand that we are a reflection of our institutions and they are a reflection of us, we realize that our lack of an overview and of participation in the social process allows institutions to bureaucratize senselessly, consolidate power and control, and ultimately ossify, while we remain fragmented, alienated, and polarized. Once we gain this perspective and escape our conceptual imprisonment, we become more hopeful because we know that some combination of us has the wherewithal to generate an overarching vision of how we can move forward together more constructively.

What will enable us to gain an overarching vision of how we can move forward together more constructively is an Awakened Mind: an awareness of our habits of thinking which allows us to develop an orientation that seeks to question and challenge our conceptual imprisonment. In this way, we can pursue coherent, moral, and universal premises that encourage human flourishing both individually and collectively.

The state of humankind’s condition led me to: (a) formulate simple but powerful insights dedicated to discovering the basic cause of humankind’s highly problematic existence, (b) transcend conceptual imprisonment, and (c) how we can fulfill our best possibilities as individuals, as societies, and as a species. That framework encompasses three important subjects/courses: Life Mapping, Social Mapping and MetaVisioning.

Life Mapping is a process that frees and empowers us to direct our life’s journey from our own point of view, rather than thoughtlessly follow the prescriptions and proscriptions of prevailing institutions. 

Social Mapping  builds upon the clarity we gained about our self through the Life Mapping process by encouraging us to assemble a map of our opinions about great issues of our time. 

MetaVisioning is an illuminating process that broadens our perspective further by encouraging us to resolve coherent, moral, and universal premises upon which to build a coherent, moral, and universal vision of how humankind can move forward together meaningfully, joyfully and peacefully.

I believe, if we are to transcend the challenge of conceptual imprisonment and fulfill our best possibilities, we must add to systems of education processes dedicated to enlightening us to become (a) comprehensive, critical thinking, self-directed individuals, (b) free of illusions, prejudices, self-limiting ideologies, and other forms of conceptual imprisonment, and (c) oriented in a manner that is coherent, moral, and universal. The Life Mapping, Social Mapping and MetaVisioning courses were designed to do that.

S U G G E S T E D  N E X T : Life Mapping: Gaining Clarity About Our Identity