Vision Quest Café- Book Club for a More Beautiful World discussion

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible

There are so many topics and chapters in the book that it is impossible to have a thread for all of them! But have you read any of them and thought ´oh yeh I totally see that!´?

Which parts have really stood out for you or resonated strongly?

Hi everyone :)

So I´m just reading the chapter called ´´Morhegensis´´.

There´s one particular part that really spoke to me. Page 66, where he is talking about how often we can feel that our day to day life, ´mundane´ activities can seem to get in the way of our bigger goals and that often we overlook the importance of these smaller actions.

This is so pertinent to my life right now! Obviously, I have started the blog and have all these grand plans and goals and it all seems so important. But I have come up against some moments over the last few months where I´ve had to put it all down and devote myself to the people I live with or even to nurturing my own self.

I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to bring this dream, blog, community, project to life but sometimes I forget that it´s equally important to take the time to cook a nice meal for my partner or call a friend I haven´t spoken to for ages.

´´I did not understand that in those moments when I gave in to my situation, put down my writing and fully engaged with my children has just as powerful an effect on the universe as any book I could ever write´´.

Or in my case, any blog post/Facebook post/Instagram post i could ever write!

Choices of ´´connection, love and service´´- love those words.

So just felt inspired to share that with you! feels good to share too- yay for having a book club! :)

<3 Beautiful, Olivia.

So true.
Whenever we're doing something that is good for the whole, nurturing and not harming, we feel good.
We hear a lot the idea of "wasting time" and I'm trying to get to the root of what that sensation really means. What activities do we see as wasting time? What stops us from feeling that we're wasting time?
Sometimes perhaps we're too focused on the BIG picture - our ultimate goals, that anything that doesn't seem to be directly contributing towards that seems wasted. But then like you mentioned, we could shift to seeing it as all part of it.


So I came here to check in and say I'm very committed to the book and to talking about it! Just my speed is low because of other activities. But every time I open it and start to read, it resonates so much.

Really, he's written so well so many of my beliefs and ideas. I'm only on chapter 3 - and just want to leave this segment here, which I just love. I think so much about "distractions" and the negative effect of them - how if we weren't SO distracted we might take more action because we'd have more time to consider all the effects of the lifestyle choices we make, and start making choices that didn't hurt the whole so much. But that line of reasoning falls short of explaining WHY we continue to be so distracted - I guess I often put it down to addiction, we are addicted to the things that so distract us, and our senses have been numbed such that we continuously crave things that manage to awaken our senses. So here Eisenstein well posits why it is we continue to seek these distractions - to numb the pain and the hurt (I'm reading online so don't have page number but here's the excerpt):

"Many of you might doubt that we live in a “sea of pain.” I feel pretty good right now myself. But I also carry a memory of a far more profound state of well-being, connectedness, and intensity of awareness that felt, at the time, like my birthright. Which state is normal? Could it be that we are bravely making the best of things?

How much of our dysfunctional, consumptive behavior is simply a futile attempt to run away from a pain that is in fact everywhere? Running from one purchase to another, one addictive fix to the next, a new car, a new cause, a new spiritual idea, a new self-help book, a bigger number in the bank account, the next news story, we gain each time a brief respite from feeling pain. The wound at its source never vanishes though. In the absence of distraction—those moments of what we call “boredom”—we can feel its discomfort."

Aurélie wrote: "<3 Beautiful, Olivia.

So true.
Whenever we're doing something that is good for the whole, nurturing and not harming, we feel good.
We hear a lot the idea of "wasting time" and I'm trying to get ..."

Hi Aurélie!

Yes I know, there is so much in this book that it warrents going slowly so we can absorb it all! I find I read a few chapters and then need a break so I can really chew over it. It feels like there is something is almost every paragraph that has me saying ´yes! that´s so true!´.

About the distractions- yes I totally agree with you. I am not really one for going out so much and spend a lot of time just being in nature, but with this lockdown, I´ve realised how distracted I have been! Even just being out on the street- it´s amazing how much our outer senses distract us from going inside and seeing what´s actually going on, or from focusing ourselves on our priorities. Maybe this is one of the blessings in disguise with this lockdown-but the real test maybe when we can finally go out again. old habits die hard! :)

Glad that you are committed to the book! Me too! :) Let´s keep sharing when we feel inspired to do so. It really is so nice having people to share it with!

Yes! I have really just started the book but in chapter three where he speaks about judging others as we try to make the world a better place was such a welcome change to our current thinking. This compassionate stance really struck me. We have a lot of strife in the world and even people with whom we totally disagree deserve our compassion because they are just manifesting their pain. He says that to condemn what we see as selfish and greedy etc. is futile if we don’t address the underlying pain of separation. Really profound and deeply needed understanding of why we keep the machine humming when we know what we are doing is hurting us.

GwenB wrote: "Yes! I have really just started the book but in chapter three where he speaks about judging others as we try to make the world a better place was such a welcome change to our current thinking. This..."

Totally Gwen. It´s so easy to fall into judgement, especially nowadays with so much polarization in society. We are so quick to condemn and judge something or someone to be bad, which just adds to our own pain and does nothing to help heal ourselves or the world. It´s like having a ´things I like´ list and a ´´things I don´t like list´...which is just the epitome of separation itself! yet it is often to difficult not react and reject in the moment. Maybe if we could embrace our own shadow, we would be able to embrace the shadows in the world. Like that old expression, that we can only fully someones else when we fully love ourselves. Maybe the same is true for the world too! Only when we can fully love ourselves fully, warts and all, will we be able to love the world fully, warts and all i.e without judgement.

Thanks for the comment, responding to it had helped me see more clearly!

Yes I really agree. It's always worth delving into the things we don't like and why we don't like them, because surely we don't like something because it's causing some sort of discomfort. What is this discomfort? Why does this thing bother me so much and not that thing? Why are you so bothered by that thing and not me? The deep root causes are the same, even if our triggers are not - because these are related to our direct experience, when the root causes are of a much broader, societal - even universal - nature.

I believe so much in pausing before we react to something uncomfortable, and analysing the discomfort, and responding in a way that is not a defence of the ego. But this is a challenge in a fast-paced world!
I'm finding that as I'm becoming increasingly aware of the things that provoke discomfort, I'm also getting better at communicating my needs, and believing that it's not having needs met that causes conflict on so many levels. That's why I think one thing that could bring about a radical shift at societal level would be to be taught needs-based/non-violent communication from a very young age. This way we would learn to express when, how and why we feel wronged by another, before violence comes up. In all this we must also be taught to listen deeply.

I think also once we love ourselves truly, this opens up the space and time to dedicate to loving (i.e. helping) the world, since we're no longer held back by ego and fear.
But doesn't it seem so much easier to let go of judgment towards others than towards ourselves? That old cliché of being our own harshest critics!

Hi everyone,

It´s been a while since I last commented and I feel the inner critic telling me that I must be the worlds worst book club host ;)

I don´t know about you guys but this last week I have taken a break from reading. With everything going on in the world I felt like I couldn´t really absorb it. However this afternoon I have got back to it, and I must say how good it feels!

A few things that I have read have really rang true for me in the chapter of scarcity, doing, and non-doing.

The first is the part where he says ´´A story can only be upheld by a community´´. In the weeks that we have been creating this little online community, I have found it to be really supportive. Reading everyone's messages and comments, it feel so nutritious to me and in these last few months I feel like it has helped me stay ground in the ´new story´

Second, similar to what Aurélie said above about pausing before reacting. With everything going on in the world right now it has felt like the right time for me to step into the ´non-doing´ he talks about in the book. I can really see how much of my thoughts or behaviour is driven by the habit of scarcity of time, or trying to force too much, push myself even when I don´t really feel like it. Iit has felt like the right moment for me to put everything down and just take stock.

The other thing that just continues to strike me more and more as I read the book is how much it seems to have been written for these times! It feels like almost a handbook of how to navigate.

I love this part about there revolution ´´must go all the way to the bottom, all the way to our basic understanding of self and world´´. I feel like maybe in part what is happening right now with all the conversations that (quite rightly) going on around race...a possible theme for the next book maybe? I feeling quite pulled in that direction of exploring what it really means to be white and getting right down deep in there, exploring the murky depths of a lifetime of white supremacy conditioning. As you said Aurélie it could cause some discomfort but ultimately, we the book says, if we want to birth a new story, we need to heal the old story first. Any thoughts?