ELDERS & THE INFINITY LOOP
ELDERS & THE INFINITY LOOP
The infinity symbol, or infinity loop, remains one of the most legendary symbols in mathematics. However, it now exists in many other domains, as witnessed on car bumpers, tattoos, and diamond fashion necklaces.
Initially created 400 years ago as a mathematical representation of an infinite number, the infinity symbol has been adopted far outside mathematics.
Its likeness to the number 8 has given the infinity symbol a religious and spiritual significance. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity all believe the number 8 possesses a holy message.
The sideways eight associated with infinity was created in the world of mathematics in 1655 by the mathematician John Wallis, who decided to use a sideways eight to represent infinity. The buzz is he got the idea from the Roman numeral for 1.000, CIƆ, which looks very similar to the infinity symbol.
Even though the infinity symbol has expanded its presence outside of mathematics, the idea of infinity remains the basic concept behind the image in every domain applied. Infinity is the state or quality of being infinite - limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate.
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE INFINITY LOOP
Coherence:
The two circles unite, representing two opposing people or forces coming together in harmony and balance. It can also be interpreted as an interconnectedness between all things.
Renewal:
On a spiritual and metaphysical level, the infinity symbol means regeneration and eternal life after death.
Uniting Nature:
In Hinduism, it represents the duality and unifying nature of males and females.
Christianity:
For Christians, the infinity symbol indicates God's eternal nature. It also reflects the everlasting promises God has made to his people.
Yoga:
Yoga practitioners see the eternity symbol to indicate the unceasing existence of the universe. There is no beginning or end, just an endless cycle of destruction and creation.
Buddhism:
The infinity symbol indicates the eternal nature of energy and the never-ending interchange between matter and energy. Their foundation for the concept of impermanence.
Judaism:
The Kabbalah describes God as Ein Sof, which in Hebrew means "without end." Infinity in the Hebrew translation is "without borders" or "without parameters." That is why God in Judaism has "no name." The name would make God finite.
Computer Programming:
In computer programming, an infinite loop or endless loop is a sequence of instructions that, as written, will continue endlessly unless an external intervention occurs ("pull the plug"). The intervention may be intentional or generated by an external input.
Contemporary Elders:
Contemporary Elders realize that much of life operates in infinity loops, with its continuous reinforcing mechanisms. These reinforcing mechanisms exist externally and internally, keeping issues, circumstances, and relationships in a continuous, unbreakable loop.
Contemporary elders apply the infinity loop model when appropriate to situations where disagreements, conflict, or righteousness exist. Reinforcing mechanisms are recognized and extracted from the loop, allowing the loop to unfurl.
An elder recognizes and removes the reinforcing mechanism that keeps the infinity loop unbroken. So often, the reinforcing mechanism is someplace where people are stuck in being right. Right about their view. Right about the situation. Right about the other person or persons. Right about their motives. They are right about being right.
But this being right is not doing right. These two are opposites. Doing right is about recognizing the needs of a situation above the needs of your own. It includes you, but it is not about you.
On the contrary, being right is making a situation about yourself, showing or proving to others that what you think and know is right. It limits possibilities and restricts participation and contributions. It's like closing a door versus opening a door. Being right keeps the infinity loop going.
An elder knows that being right displaces responsibility. Being right is spoken in the language of blame, fault, condemnation, criticism, or complaint. An elder hears these conversations and knows where and how to shift the conversation from being right to being responsible. Being responsible is the chisel that cracks open the infinity loop.
Elders provide a condition, a presence, and higher wisdom that isolates and eliminates the reinforcing mechanisms of an infinity loop. Elders provide the appropriate interventions that allow the loop to unfold into a straight line, a line leading to a new future.
WARNING
Currently, our civilization's infinity loop is leading directly to its destruction. Furthermore, destructive forces are accelerating, gaining in mass and volume, increasing in intensity.
The reinforcing mechanisms are evident in every dimension – social, political, and business; local, regional, national and global. As a result, this accelerating destructive infinity loop is becoming glaringly evident – increasing devasting climate disasters, more aggressive physical destruction of our environment, more irrational and grasp-for-power politics, and greater and greater human deprivation and starvation.
I believe and have made the focus of our eldering work to address reinforcing mechanisms in destructive infinity loops.
Norm Chomsky has been one of my oldest and most meaningful teachers for decades, particularly in my work on language and thinking. So much so that his teachings are entrenched throughout my working models.
Much of my being an elder has been directly impacted by holding Chomsky as an avatar, an incarnation, an embodiment of what it means to be an elder.
For me and many others, Norm Chomsky is higher wisdom speaking. A direct experience of a true elder.
In this short video, Norm describes the infinity loop the world is currently in and gives us some hard questions to ponder to address the reinforcing mechanisms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIv-glBvrrc
