The intercultural management approach is successively enhanced by the transcultural and the quantum cultual approach which are in turn embedded in an innovative CROSS-cultural approach which looks at global cultural and issues of human civilisation through the prism of the metaphor of creation which is provided by the cross in its Christian interpretation.It connects the rationale of creation, civilisation and culture to state-of-the-art intercultural management.
Table of Contents
1. Cross-Cultural Observations
2. The Enigma of the Cross
3. The Roots of Civilisation and the Tree of Life
4. The Application of the Metaphor of Metaphors to World Cultures and their Integration
5. Conquest and Ownership of and Leadership from The Innermost Centre
6. The Quantum-Cultural Motive in Creation
7. Third Millennium Axiology
8. CROSS-CULTURAL Management
9. Cosmic Love
10. The Civilisation of Love
11. Praxology: From Interculturalism towards Transculturalism. A Synopsis of Intercultural Interfacing Instruments and Strategies for Professionals
12. Bilingual English-German Inter- and Transcultural Management Reference Dictionary. Bilinguales Englisch-Deutsches Inter- und Transkulturelles Management Referenz-Fachwörterbuch
Bibliography
1. Cross-Cultural Observations
When one crosses national cultural borders in the academic world one notices that at leading centers of education across Europe there is a strong explicit or implicit reference to the Christian tradition. The names of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge for example sound like a church litany. You can name them and add “pray for us” to compose a complete and wonderful prayer that invokes the spiritual help and guidance from many saints. It is a permanent All Saints’ experience. Maybe that was one of the reasons, in addition to the hope for world-leading academic excellence, why I was attracted to it in 2004, when I participated on an Intercultural Management Programme offered by Cambridge University.
A year or so after its end a one-day workshop was organized to update all the participants from diverse cultural backgrounds. Significantly it was held at Jesus College of the Distant Fen (Cambridge). Unfortunately I could not attend but now this more or less conscious move by the organizers could, apart from the availability of a suitable venue for the gathering of the culturally diverse flock, be interpreted in the light of the Christian metaphor – which of course is a fact to Christians – as a purposeful integrative stratagem by Western cultural standards that embraced the entire world: Truly a magnificent cherry on the cake for the alumni of an intercultural management programme.
Upon crossing the Channel and reaching the destination of another educational highlight in Europe one reaches a location many scholars have sought and whose lists of alumni reminds one of a “Who is Who” of the world: The Sorbonne in Paris which similarly to Cambridge has nearly a millennium of scholarly tradition. Through the revolution France has become a secular country as far as its institutions are concerned. But this is only the surface of French culture. The names of Parisian universities - contrary to the Cambridge Colleges - follow a numerical logic starting with Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne, followed by II, III, IV etc. as far as the old Sorbonne is concerned. After the counter-cultural revolution of the sixties new universities have been created and added to further complete the numerical logic in line with official French secularism and Cartesianism which stands for rationalism. This may be a compromise by the academic and other institutional environments to accommodate the notion of freedom - la liberté - which in addition to égalité and fraternité is celebrated and highly valued by this culture. After all France offered the symbol of freedom of the Statue of Liberty to the United States and France has historically been a country of refuge for all those people across the world whose freedom was suppressed.
I personally have a physical experience of this: When I was a student in Paris I offered shelter to an Iranian student who had studied psychology in the UK. He could not stay in that country. France offered him refuge, although with some difficulties. My hospitality seemed to displease the director of the German Heinrich Heine Foundation, where I lived at that time. Of course Germany and this representative of the German culture cannot boast the unconditional adherence to this supreme value to the same extent as French culture. As for London, where the refugee came from, one does not seek religious references in vain in spite of the historical English separation from Roman tradition as is evident in names like St. Pancras or St. George - among others - who is the patron saint of the country. The latter, known as the Dragon Slayer seems to have been successfully protecting the Christian legacy. After 500 years of separation of the Anglican Church from Rome, there now is a sense of reintegration documented by the present Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral visit to the UK in September 2010 and a large scale return of Anglican Bishops with their flocks to the universal Roman Catholic Mother Church.
But let us return to the Sorbonne for a moment. Although religion, one might say, has been moved extra muros of the university formally to underline institutional secularism at the surface to the extent that due to complete separation of church and state one can hardly study theology at this world leading university, although spiritual giants like Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order among countless other spiritual luminaries were teaching and learning at this place in its heyday centuries ago. But the present impression may be misleading for the streets of Paris - similar to the Cambridge Colleges - are an even more extensive universal litany that involves a multiple of names of saints compared to Cambridge. The prefix Saint (St.) is carried by hundreds of names of streets and plazas in which hundreds of churches, chapels and institutions in turn carry the names of saints. So, it was not possible to extirpate religious tradition form French society but revolutionary repression rather caused it to universalize across the urban landscape. The social religious undercurrent could not be tamed. Its high concentration at the Sorbonne being no longer possible it diffused across the entire metropolis with its extensive suburbs and beyond into the entire country which has been called the elder sister of the Catholic world due to its centuries and millennia of Christian tradition.
If one moves further South to Madrid one notices that the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the historically leading Spanish university and one of the oldest European universities has like the Sorbonne and Cambridge, entirely Christian, more specifically Catholic Christian roots. It has grown from diverse monastic roots such as Franciscan roots form Alcalá de Henares and Dominican roots from today’s city center of San Bernardo near the Plaza de España, known to many visitors of Madrid. 150 years ago the latter root institutions of the University of Madrid have become a twin college, i. e. Colegio Cardenal Cisneros and Colegio San Isidro. Among its illustrious alumni is the present King of Spain Juan Carlos II. And the dictum of the late General and former Head of State who united Spain and was in power for ca. 35 years, Francisco Franco: “I was born as a catholic, I wanted to live as a catholic and I want to die as a catholic.” aptly sums up the prevailing attitude of the country in spite of many diverse ideological currents in this nation that shook off 800 years of Muslim domination. Similar to Paris and to the Cambridge colleges, here again the historical religious tradition is evident in the names of Madrid’s institutions and countless streets. Still today the Madrilenian urban map highlights thousands of names of Saints and religious symbols.
The same obviously applies to Rome and the Vatican with their numerous churches, Roman Catholic universities and institutions and their prevailing millenary, in particular Catholic Christian tradition and heritage.
Over more than a decade I had the privilege of attending most of the mentioned places of learning, in particular those in Paris, Madrid and London, some of them, like Paris, over years, others like Cambridge, Zürich and Rome for the intensive post-graduate intercultural management programme referred to. In Castelgandolfo our workshop was hosted by a leading corporate university a few minutes from the Pope’s summer residence, a millennia old highlight of Roman Catholicism that also played a major role as a place of refuge from persecution for Jews during WWII.
From this brief review of European places of learning and scholarliness one can see that the Christian tradition is, more overtly or covertly, present in the actual DNA of these cultures and due to this it could not be neither be extirpated by revolutions, nor anarchism, nor tyrannies or dictatorships that wanted to reverse and reengineer this religious DNA towards worldly values in their interest. But rather than succeeding in this attempt the DNA or fundamental Christian value system universalized and increasingly dominated the entire environment to the extent that is has become a subconscious determinant of social and individual life in these cultures. Many a visitor might be unaware of it as urban landscapes are converging driven by technology and economy while the very deep undercurrent nonetheless still shapes and forms these cultures at a deeper level.
All these places of academic and worldly achievement have exclusively religious and more specifically Roman Catholic roots and these roots live on in the collective consciousness, so that they produce a rootedness in continuity over many hundreds and even thousands of years. This deep rootedness can provide a solid foundation in the face of waves upon waves of more superficial scientific, technical and industrial revolutions. In fact it provides an anchor for man that can neutralize the impact of change with regard to its environmental and human price. It therefore is a stabilizing factor that enables smooth evolution and change management.
When one turns one’s eyes to the country in which I am writing, to the city where the automobile was co-invented 125 years ago in 1886 one notices on the other hand that there is hardly any reference to a religious tradition comparable to the European metropoles referred to, neither at the universities nor in the city. There is virtually no religious reference whatsoever. The religious has been banned to the churches and the residues of Christianity in schools in the form of religious instruction, where its key symbols like the cross are about to be relativized and put aside or even forbidden, while Muslim symbols appear unmistakably in the urban skylines to fill the general spiritual void in spite of the architectural evidence to the contrary in the shape of domes, churches and cathedrals. A similar diagnostic may be applicable to the German capital of Berlin, in whose Western part I lived before I started my international experience. No wonder parts of the city seem to be submerged today in a dismaying socio-cultural deluge. How can the former socialist-communist part be inculturated and thereby reintegrated if, in Christian metaphor, the salt of the earth goes stale. But that does not necessarily mean that one has to throw the baby with the water, for if one can use the metaphor of civilizations – which you will learn more about during in this exposé – as navigation tool one can possibly navigate critical eras and environments. Ancient Babylonia was destroyed due to human presumptuousness that caused the language confusion and the diffusion of man across the face of the earth. The big Biblical town of Nineveh which one needed three days to walk through constitutes a unique historical precedent of a cultural environment that also deviated from its route to the extent that it was destined for destruction. It repented and God had compassion with it and saved it. But we neither want to be gloom and doom philosophers nor promote a cloud-cuckoo-land mindset but rather proceed with a diagnostic based on evidence as much as possible. The referred to navigation tool may sometimes indicate the need to return - to the roots - and to correct one’s course in order to proceed in the right direction.
One does not have to be surprised to experience a country that lacks cultural identity and has a high level of social stress due to this mental uprooting in the academic as well as in the public milieu. Major symbols of Christendom date back to the pre-reformation era. Starting with Reformation at the beginning of the 16th century – “inaugurated” in 1517 by the Augustinian monk and professor of theology Martin Luther in Wittenberg in the eastern part of the country - which became a good humus for post WWII communist ideology - subsequent ideologies in the shape of Marxism, Fascism and the counter cultural revolution of the 60ies of the past century were trying to change the meaning or axe away the symbol of the Cross, in diverse degrees, from German life and consciousness which resulted in the most dreadful disasters of human history that were probably more or less caused by these spiritual or rather unspiritual currents which tried to put cultural demons in its place that devoured their authors and their descendents in the course of time.
Today we seem to be in a fifth phase of despiritualization and secularization that runs the risk of repeating the cause effect-phenomenon induced by the axe of the human mind in order to pursue other paths of salvation than the one that is programmed in its roots, in line with the adage of Prussian King Frederic the Great, according to whom everybody should work out his salvation by his own standards and preferences.
The increasing absence of the Christian metaphor and symbol par excellence forebodes nothing good in the light of the reiterated German and other historical experiences. The urban landscapes referred to above contributes to providing a more or less conscious umbrella against the most extreme perversions of the roots of civilization through the constant reference to cultural core values that implicitly and explicitly shape the spirit of a culture of interpersonal humaneness based on the Christian core value of the dignity of the individual. In its absence mass consciousness phenomena like Nazism and communism and other collective phenomena can easily infest a society which lacks the implicit umbrella protection. When it is not there only materialism and a general spirit of “grab as much as you can” with its unhealthy impact on interpersonal relations remains. Certain migrants are attracted by such a culture for the wrong reasons and additionally aggravate problems.
And with the prevailing value system the host-country experiences additional difficulties in sustainably managing intracultural intercultural matters. The cultural humus of the host-country therefore requires a restoration and rehabilitation and strengthening of its cultural roots in a healthy way that can, comparable to an ocean, absorb waves of diverse inputs without major disturbance. The millennia old roots of civilization can provide this rock-solid condition. They can lead to a strong tree, in communion with the world community that shares this civilization’s core values, incarnated in its supreme symbol, which can grow strong branches for the nesting of birds from far and wide without breaking.
Finally, the psychological and the topographical landscapes seem to be correlated. The psychological cultural profile is engraved in its artifacts and conditions the cultural value system that forms the hidden determinant of attitudes, behaviours, assumptions and beliefs; a cultural conduct that is humanely based and civilized if the roots of its heritage are healthy. Otherwise anti-social dysfunctionalities infest the social organism that becomes increasingly inhumane, materialistic and self-centered individually and collectively resulting in an overall questionable climate with regard to its sustainability and quality of life. So, it is pertinent to create awareness of cultures’ roots in civilization that condition their overall viability and predictability internally and externally. Societies that appear as a strong tree with healthy roots and uncorrupted growth over time seem to be the most lasting ones in spite of deficits and setbacks. That can be seen from the older cultures which are emerging in our time. And if civilizations are grounded in a high quality value system as the Christian tradition is it should apply all the more in many ways if it is not undermined internally or externally.
2. The Enigma of the Cross
Contrary to some expectations and due to breaking news from Japan about the seaquake in the Pacific that caused a tsunami which flooded large parts of the country and created a critical nuclear situation I think of the late I. Tsuda and Sensei Morihei Ueshiba - who both stand for the Samurai tradition, the former by lineage, the latter by achievement - with regard to the symbol of the cross: Tsuda started his aikido exercises, I used to attend when I was a student in Paris, by bowing to the four orientations, while his own teacher and creator of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, had a crucifix in his personal sanctuary, although he was not a Christian formally. Yet his disciple Tsuda reported, that Ueshiba identified himself with the Creator. Tsuda literally: “il s’identifiait au Créateur”. He probably was a Shintoist as he wanted to be a “good Japanese” and a “good citizen of the world”. Upon reaching a more cosmic dimension Ueshiba also said that “neither space nor time existed”. As a budo champion who transmuted the antagonistic logic of fight in a synergistic logic of fusion which is the meaning of the term ai (harmony) – ki (energy) – do (path) and in the Samurai tradition he said he saw any attempted attack at him in advance in the shape of a white ball flying at him which he could therefore simply avoid. Upon reaching a time-space transcending dimension the equally cosmic dimension of the cross becomes more evident. And the cosmic optic leads to the Creator behind the creation per se. Although culturally a Japanese he had an awareness of the meaning of “the metaphor of creation”.
As for Itsuo Tsuda who integrated a number of traditional Japanese disciplines like Noh, Seitai and Aikido and acted as a bridge between East and West, he was aware of the cardinal cross that connected East and West, North and South and promoted intrapersonal and intercultural integration. In a way he reconciles spatiotemporal diversity physically and psychologically. His greeting of the four orientations, which is part of various paths, emphasized the need of harmony with the universe by the individual at the center. It positions man in the environment and the eternal present. It translates the core meaning of the anthropological concept of culture onto a cosmic plane in the sense that it relates man to himself, the physical and metaphysical environment and the metaphysical plane in and milieu. I do not know his position with regard to Christ but if his Master did not ignore Him he has probably not ignored Him either. And he settled in France and not elsewhere – in spite of or precisely because of the rationalist Cartesian and nearly two millennia of Catholic Christian tradition – where his “prerational-based philosophy of action” fell on a fertile ground and promised intercivilization synergies.
The notion of infinite interconnectedness of man symbolized in this aikido branch’s starting ritual of harmonization and synchronization with the universe in the quiet of the dawning day while most people are still asleep provides evidence of a cosmic awareness. Here man assumes his position as the quintessential convergence point of the cardinal directions that point to infinity: the cross centered (in Christ!) The Aikido founder’s aikido therefore was an “an exercise of gravitation through love”. And from India we also know what is known as the “turning of the elephant” which is, in culturally diverse terminology and metaphor, a similar ritual of saluting and paying homage to the four cardinal directions.
So, various cultures use the matrix of the cross as a way of relating to the universe and the whole of creation. It mediates and positions man in infinity between the infinitely big and the infinitely small as the French philosopher and mathematician Pascal might say. In the Christian world, Christ obviously is at the heart and core of the cross mediating between the visible and the invisible universe. Non-Christians have probably greater difficulties in realizing the unity and oneness and harmony of the world. Form classical China we therefore hear accordingly that the ideal man is a saint, whereas the west tends to assume that the hero is the accomplished man. The hero excels in one or a limited number of domains, whereas the saint is supposed to excel across domains.
In the 5000 millennia old Chinese tradition man is positioned at the interface between, symbolically speaking, involving heavenly yang forces and evolving earthly yin forces. It is another culture-cosmological perception of man’s existence which impacts classical Chinese worldview and medicine to this day. The enigma of the cross can integrate most diverse and for many people unbridgeable cultures and cosmologies which I have modeled in the following Sino-western culture and cosmology model. Here follows a description and the model from my book Transcultural Management – Transkulturelles Management:
“Phenomena and cultural phenomena more specifically can be represented as upward and downward spiralling continua from infinity to infinity, from eternity to eternity, from Alpha to Omega. There is a positive spiral of evolution and a negative spiral of involution, which represent the whole picture, which can be summed up in the Chinese pictogramme of a cross framed at the top by an upward pointing semi-arc and at the bottom by a downward pointing semi-arc, which I would like to call Chinese Culture and Cosmology Model and in which the total picture of life is captured; the picture that encompasses the widest frame and the nearest and most intimate centre of the “human heart”, the matrix of the highest existential synergy and harmony. Incidentally the picture allows a Western Christian Civilization reading and parallelly an East Asian reading, while it wonderfully illustrates the two aspects of the root meaning of culture, with the lower arc pointing to the plane of nature (tilling the soil) the source of evolution, while the top arc points to the plane of heaven (cult, the connection to the metaphysical), the source of involution. Both, heaven and earth are reconciled and converge in the three, in Man at the Centre (Ren in Chinese). The heaven-earth dichotomy, symbolized by the two semi-arcs, is reconciled and synergized in the triad 'Heaven-Earth-Man'. Here the forces of involution and evolution are synchronized by the involution and evolution spirals at the absolute centre C, the cosmic dimension of man, so to say, at the interface between the celestial yang forces and the terrestrial yin forces. The Christian reading of the East-West cross matrix is, that here, Jesus Christ or God in man is the mediating centre between heaven and earth. The ultimate act of balancing between the sum total of interfacing cosmic forces again is in the absolute centre C (XR for Christos in Greek). Both systems are endowed with a transpersonal dimension that does the ultimate reconciliation between the two worlds. The Western cultural and cosmological model is Christcentric and personal, the Eastern is both anthropocentric and more impersonal. This is plausible if one considers the Christcentric Western civilisation and the Eastern Taoist tradition that consecrates nature, so to say. Position and mission of man as the carrier of culture in the picture as a whole, is clearly assigned in both civilisations. And it becomes even more plausible when we consider the dual nature of God who took the garb of man to become the ultimate of God-Man. And if we connect the horizontal arms of the EAST-WEST Cross, we can think in terms of an EAST-WEST continuum, an EAST-WEST MATRIX to be reconciled.
The synergy is a middle Cross, the heart centre of man and the heart centre of the Mediator (the motive behind this transcendental mediation was pure love of man by his Creator). The heart of hearts. The heart of GOD-MAN. The ultimate reconciler and reconciliation. A sustainable perspective of the perennial East-West dichotomy at the highest and best of the players and a healthy premise for the 21st century integration of the old centre of the world (economically, historically) and an emerging new Eastern centre of the world: a supercentre that manages and integrates the millennium antagonism, peacefully leveraging the combined capabilities of the Eastern and Western World, the more inner Eastern and the more outer Western Hemispheres: a unified East-West inner-outer space continuum. A superpole which allies through its moral superiority the emerging southern hemisphere to become the third millennium planetary super system that can not only deal with the global environmental survival issues but can face responsibly the cosmic dimension, the destiny of the blue planet in its cosmic context.
Diagram Sino-western Culture and Cosmology - and their Integration
illustration not visible in this excerpt
It should be understood that Christ is the master model of mediation of all times. In him converge time and eternity, the Alpha and the Omega. As cultural problems arise and subsist only in time they can only be resolved in eternity. And this can only be accomplished by Him. Ultimately there is no other lasting mediation except that by who is the mediator incarnate. As soon as man resolves to refer to this mediator, cultural and other problems cease by the degree of the internalization of this ultimate time-transcendent mediation principle. It is man’s task to realize this principle for his sake and that of humanity.
If the culturally diverse worldviews of diverge civilization in east and west north and south have revealed or experiential and intuitive awareness of man’s cosmic dimension how more should we then have an awareness of the more limited planetary dimension of man in our technologically integrated global village. And what should be the consequence of such awareness with regard to Japan which on account of the referred to cosmological and planetary view of the world is our neighbour – not more not less. And among neighbours one has the moral duty of providing all possible assistance to the neighbour in need with the best of one’ abilities. The entire world is therefore Japans neighbour and its moral duty would be to proactively muster up the combined strength of the world community, in particular that of those who have expertise required in this highly critical moment and to provide the help the material and psychological assistance required rather than considering it a distant media event. Due to the world’s physical and spiritual interconnectedness that is even the world’s self-interest. Inspiring oneself by the worldview inherent in the cross it is but the fulfillment of the commandment of love of the neighbour.
The predominantly Christian West as well as Asia and the indigenous peoples of the southern and the northern hemispheres have, as one can see, an acute analytical or revealed, experiential or intuitive awareness of cosmic interconnectedness which they display in their cultural assumptions and rituals. Why has this not led to world wide solidary preventative measures before to encounter what is a high statistical probability and only a matter of when rather than if it occurs. The sense of interconnectedness also implies solidary accountability with regard to the environment. That however involves the ethical dimension with culturally diverse interpretations. The evolution towards global solidarity and commitment to the implications of universal accountability is charted in the Transcultural Profiler Levels D 4 Ethics and D 5 Evolution 1-12 in the next but one chapter. The Transcultural Profiler is a 12 D architectural metaphor of the psychological infrastructure of the transcultural manager in the transcultural management context, where the superior levels D 1 Cosmics and D 2 Noetics (transcultural) correspond to the mediation capability incarnated by Christ and symbolized by the cross metaphor. Its operationalization mediates and integrates the totality of the subjacent mental, socio-cultural edifice with its overall environmental connection based on solid physiological and psychological principles.
The preceding circumstantially determined topical reference was not intended to dilute the unique Christian notion of the cross whose mystery has many facets, for in the Christian tradition it clearly refers to the one and only unrepeatable cosmic fact of Christ and His sacrifice on behalf of the Father; an act of unfathomable love motivated by love of and compassion with mankind. See corresponding entries in the reference dictionary at the end. Christ’s passion is an act of compassion. That love has integrative power per se as it mediates the bond between Creator and creation. The interface of its horizontal and vertical axes provides a focal point that can explain the totality of creation with all is processes from its beginning to its end. It is not so much the archetypal geometry of its two beams and its millions of replications in culturally diverse shapes and forms that matter but rather what it symbolizes and what is underlined by the Son of God crucified. Thus it appears as a medium for the full realization of creation. It mediates between the old man and the new man. The new man, established in the Mediator, becomes a natural mediator by cosmic standards, who can access a time-transcendent mediation capability. And the Christian Cross symbolizes this potentiality. This is an extraordinary assumption based on the manifestation of man’s (potential) likeness of his Creator.
And even to a disbeliever it can function as a superordinate construct of his mind and consciousness that can help overcome barriers of culture, civilizations and ideologies etc. because it is integrative of time with all its mental artifacts that have emerged in time and which tend to cease if one transcends the temporal towards the time-transcending level of consciousness. So, it can also be understood as a less metaphysical device for problem resolution of cultures and civilizations. But it might lack the unique gift and charisma associated with the whole truth of Christ.
This two millennia old symbol of Western and Universal Christian Civilization, in other words, the figure of Christ, cannot be extirpated form our collective and individual DNA. If it is attempted, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, it is followed by catastrophes, which is testified by history. There seems to be evidence for a cause-effect relationship and one should be aware of it. It is an intelligible phenomenon. If one attempts to eliminate the roots of man he/she is uprooted and destabilized. In the attempt to provide the necessary restabilization one tries to use ersatz religions - interestingly a German word - that, however, cannot provide the same timeless security and stability.
Let us close the circle be connecting the aforesaid to the culture-comparative perspective introduced in the previous chapter: Again, not surprisingly, in Germany’s cultural profile the motive of certainty ranks pretty high, which may be due to the iteration of psychological destabilization processes that have left their marks. One seeks order and stability in worldly affairs without however achieving the deep harmony required for healthy and harmonious non-neurotic societies which results in a lower level of collective stress and leads to solidary societies with a higher quality of life and more satisfactory social communication patterns that do not sacrifice the relational to the task in the attempt to achieve reliability. The German cultural profile can be read as a large scale ersatz for an authentic religious tradition. In the absence of a constructive rootedness in timeless Christian values the cultural profile provides the sought for quality of life by cultural detours. This applies not only to this culture.
One is aware of it to the extent that the two major religions are highly organized and even constitute a political issue in the sense the church tax is collected by the state. The interpenetration of the secular and the religious environment is omnipresent. Parties clearly identify themselves as religious and use this motive as a strategic instrument for their power-driven interests. But the outer social spiritual order does not necessarily imply the deep-rooted connection to the spiritual roots of Christian Civilization. The centrifugal tendencies away from Rome and the allied jeopardy of the deeper roots are evident in the sequence of events that has started with the reformation and escalated over time to result in a major severing of the roots in the forms of communism and fascism with its universal collateral damages.
Can a German Pope remedy that form the other side by working from the roots of the Roman Catholic Civilization? It is a historical opportunity for the healing of the schism between the German and the Roman world that was a cause of the referred to series of historical social dysfunctionalities with intercultural implications. A reintegration could foster a new spirit on a new basis with a consolidated identity that is based on its roots and does not need to seek all sorts of ideological ersatz religions that cannot provide what man needs to flourish and to display harmonious and orderly conduct. The future is sometimes facilitated by a return to the true roots.
3. The Roots of Civilisation and the Tree of Life
The roots of man are in Creation, for which the cross is the transcendent-immanent symbol and therefore in God. That perception dawns when on follows the roots of any living organism, plant or man. If one follows life of organisms upstream one reaches their source which is their ultimate cause. It is the totality of creation from its beginning to its end and behind it the Creator - if you are fortunate enough to be graced with the gift of belief. So ultimately we are rooted in the primal cause. The awareness of this fundamental reality occurs at the top of the Transcultural Profiler visualized in the next chapter that integrates psychological culture and physical culture manifest as the stream of life from the cause manifests in the diversity of creation of nature whose characteristic it is to be diverse and interrelated; interrelated due to the common source and the common destination. The entire process is of teleological nature; its finality is contained in its source. The seed contains the complete tree of life. From a quantum metaphorical standpoint the seed and the tree are two complementary aspects of the same reality. When one is aware of the totality of evolution matters appear in their right perspective and order follows. The complete perception creates order in consciousness because consciousness carries the information of this creation and therefore its order. Truth in the sense of a congruence of the fact and its mirror image in consciousness occurs. Peace lights up, because the truth of life has been approached and additionally it is redeemed by Christ for Christians. It is fulfillment, fulfillment by the truth of life. And all this information on the totality of information on life from Alpha Omega can be said to be contained in the metaphor of the authentic Christian Cross, which has nothing to do with fetishism of any kind nor is it an overworking of the symbol. It is a matter of optic that sees it in its entirety.
When one inquires into the roots of civilization which are a milestone of the foundation of the tree of life one has to trace the phenomena of life to the source which are their cause. They are found to have assumed diverse and complementary aspects for the sake of their ennoblement of the whole which has been there potentially at the beginning and remains there “mystically” in the process of evolution right to its finality. It is a simple matter of optic of recognition of the game of the one with itself, its kaleidoscopes of reconfiguration for the sake of its steady higher evolution. Human consciousness can choose to look at different phases of the totality of the process of creation. This may be called a metaphorical quantum optical consciousness. If it is aware of its conscious choice and can connect it to the entire picture diversity issues, which are a phenomenon of passage inherent in the evolution of the one, are ordered in the light of the whole that is order per se, the order of life – which is the truth and the right way. And the metaphor of creation symbolizes it. It says “I am the truth, the way and life”. The cross is a means of connection and communication with the source, the cause and therefore a compass for life, as the cause and the finality are diverse stages of creation enabled by the salvation process. Therefore the personality of Christ appears as the absolute center and cause of creation and all its processes.
There is no doubt that the roots of any organism determine its growth. That applies to biological phenomena in general. The growth of plants like that of a tree for example, its resistance to climatic variations, the growth of its shape and form will be determined by its genetic information and by its roots. Whatever the DNA, if the roots are not in good order the life of the tree may be impaired, because it cannot draw proper nourishment from the humus of the soil and generate a healthy interface with the environment that provides further nourishment like light. In the case of animals the interconnection with the entire ecosystem may be considered their roots along with their DNA. As man is part of nature similar principles apply. His DNA determines his potential and whether and to what extend it will be actualized is relativized by his roots as well which are not only of physical but additionally of spiritual nature. Man can starve in either domain. Many people are materially overfed while they starve spiritually. The right input is required to form a complete and harmonious man. Underfeeding or overfeeding and improper nourishment are equally noxious. Man is a complex organism and requires a delicate balancing and proper rootedness in his overall material-spiritual – for he partakes in both natures – foundation, as well as their harmonious interconnection. The severing of the roots means the end of the organism. The cutting of the roots of the tree and the animal’s deprivation of its ecosystem tend to terminate or seriously impair the life of the organisms. If man is severed from his physical, cultural and spiritual roots his life will be similarly affected. The overall environment and in particular the roots of organisms form an interdependent whole. They determine the shape and form as well as the biography of organisms.
Man has a twofold dual nature, material and immaterial, individual and social, which require proper balancing if the tree of life is to bear rich fruit rather than vegetating or even withering away.
To spiritual and social roots particular attention has to be paid. They impact his physical roots and vice versa. The complex interconnectedness of many variables has to be considered. While self-regulating ereismatic systems like the extrapyramidal system support the voluntary dimension of man with regard to the normalization of the physiologic terrain and neurophysiologic and biological laws govern its structural and functional coordination and integration, his spiritual nature requires additional attendance in view of the overall health and integration of his being.
Biological man has stored the phylogenetic information of millions of years of evolution and optimized biological life processes and thereby adaptation and survival. That is the premise and condition for life. So biological information stored in connection to the roots of life govern biological life that supports life as a whole. Complementary more immaterial information of man’s root and nature (which is a cultural assumption) complement this information to provide its complete map or DNA in modern metaphorical language. It is of cultural and spiritual nature. So, two types of interconnected information form the roots of man’s tree of life, while that which forms the deeper basis of both, the enigma of life itself, remains a cryptic reality inaccessible to analytical description of sciences which set in at a later point of the stream or force of life as its manifests downstream from its source.
The German mystic Hildegard von Bingen has called this force "viriditas" or greening power. Asian specialists assume that one can coordinate and put man in a condition so as to enhance the conditions for life to best do its work. But even to them the mystery as such is ultimately inaccessible. So it is to science and all sorts of approaches form alchemy to bioengineering. Man remains faced with an insoluble mystery and takes it for granted. When he enquires into it he encounters the mystery of creation and the Creator. That is awe-inspiring. But He will reveal His secret only to those he deems fit to receive such charisma of knowing first and last things.
The one life that underpins all living phenomena seems to bifurcate in the case of man as biological and spiritual information. The impairment of either type of the fundamental information impairs his holistic psychosomatic organism. The two are integrated in a third dimension for which there are different words and which are but aspects of a whole governed by one life. Nature likes to diversify and to integrate at a higher level of enhancement of itself. That seems to be the case with the seeming material-immaterial dichotomy of man that serves the end of developing and advancing the whole. But if the complementary part of the dichotomy is not active or incomplete that process cannot take place in the best possible way. Therefore man requires special attendance to his spiritual information for evolution to take place. It is the complementary part of his physical nature.
Maybe we can use our supposed master metaphor to illustrate the interactivity that ensures the viability of the complete human DNA, physical and spiritual and its integration – the complete informational mapping of man – in the sign of the cross. Here the horizontal dimension represents the physical information of the DNA, metaphorically speaking, while the vertical dimension represents its spiritual counterpart. Their integration at the center where the horizontal and the vertical dimension’s information converge, life, creativity and growth can manifest as a consequence of the diversification integration principle. In that sense the symbol of the cross is a metaphor for evolution from one phylogenetic stage to the next.
The vertical dimension - concomitantly with the physical dimension - also needs founding and grounding in its roots in order to provide its specific and complete information for the evolution process to take place. And the nature of this information is the totality of the ultimate message of the cross, about man’s origin, life and destination as a spiritual and physical being. So the foot of the cross also needs – in human terms – similar to the root of the tree a proper rooting, so that it can bear fruit for man to harvest as growth and evolution with its rich, diverse creative output.
A secular world runs the risk of severing the spiritual roots. The lack of a complementary set of information in the genetic map being unavailable evolution cannot take place. The integration is not a mechanical juxtaposition of information of physical and metaphysical nature. They have to be viewed form a third perspective, that of life manifesting as love – the message of the cross – which is the aspect of life experientially, physically, emotionally and spiritually accessible to man. Jesus on the Cross means redemption form spiritual and irreversible physical death through dying, the integration and transcendence of life and death in as single act of Salvation. That salvation is an act of love. And therefore love is the key to life for without it transcendence of death and real life are impossible. Therefore love and life are two aspects of the same.
The information contained in the cross is the complete DNA of man with complete roots. The complete information brings us closer to the mystery of life as a whole. Without that wholeness life cannot flourish and the tree of life remains limited in its growth as in heathen days. The introduction of the complementary spiritual information 2000 year ago provided unlimited growth potential on the basis of the interactivity and creativity of the integration of the complete information on man. By adding the additional roots the tree of life experienced a boost for unlimited growth made possible by additional information on the nature of the human being
It is up to man to always refer to the interface of the two axes of the cross and to remind himself of its vital relevance for all his affairs. To draw on sustainable life he will have to find that integrative and creative focal point in which life and death the temporal and the atemporal as well as all his seeming dilemmas are integrated and transcended.
This focal point lifts him onto a plane where the conditioning of the horizontal dimension cannot constrain him. He transcends it and therefore things are possible that seem impossible in the horizontal dimension. The better he can integrate the two forms of logic with their information and their complementary value systems the more he will approach the mystery of creative life per se, whose source can be captured form the mystery of life which is the message of the “metaphor” of the cross enabled through love.
So love and life form the two complementary aspects of the metaphor’s message that points to the ultimate truth behind creation: Christ, the incarnation of the Logos through which everything has been made. He is that life and therefore holds all keys to it. He expresses Himself through that symbol which is life in its totality. It is therefore a compass of life and for life. The entire truth can hardly be captured by man. The mediation through the suffering and sacrifice on a cross and the child in Bethlehem are the language of the Absolute that man understands.
The metaphor epitomizes God. Without it creation remains as sealed book. On reopening that book of life vital phenomena become intelligible and thereby the law of love and life can unfold and heal the world. The cross is the key to life in all its manifestations from Alpha to Omega. Therefore it is the master metaphor based on rock-solid fact for everything created.
Rootedness in the cross means rootedness in God and therefore in life. - The true love and life it symbolizes constitute the vital humus, where man can find a home on earth and flourish as a unique branch on the tree of life: a good condition for the sustainable management of an increasingly diverse global third millennium. - May that be the case for the destiny of the world’s civilizations. Their take-off as well as their rise and fall go hand in hand with it. Christian civilization has been in the forefront of development in many spheres of life and - in spite of its human deficits - it can ignite other cultures’ and civilizations’ development as we have seen in the emergent shift of the world’s overall economic and political equilibria. Whether they are sustainable will be determined by their adherence to values in line with the master model of civilizations, separate from which they might not flourish in the same way. There seems to be some evidence of it.
4. The Application of the Metaphor of Metaphors to World Cultures and their Integration
The archetypal metaphor of metaphors is a master model of creation, for its understanding as well as for the solution of its problems:
There are profound reasons why Christ on behalf of God Father had to do His work of redemption of Creation bay passing through the matrix of the cross. The order provided by the interfacing axes symbolizes the very act of creation in the sense of the Creator’s dividing of the chaos that reigned at the beginning into night and day, land and sea etc. and their integration in an ordered way.
The Holy Cross is the mediation principle between the visible, tangible and the invisible intangible world mediated by Christ. It can be read as symbolizing the overall dualistic structure of man integrated by a superordinate integrative spiritual dimension which is the Holy Spirit or the Lord himself manifested as Christ. It’s ho
It is the integrative spirit of all, as all comes from this creative source and everything can be resolved in it again, whether it be the dualistic structure of man himself or his dualistic mental artifacts. Among these artifacts are the values themselves that require not only horizontal integration but additionally an integration with and through the vertical dimension to become sustainable. The value systems and cultures can be similarity reconciled as the values continua by this archetypal metaphor of metaphor which is a model of life in all its forms from beginning to end. The very beginning and the end of life, cultures and creation is subsumed in this alpha and omega of creation. He represents both as well as their integration and transcendence; the sum total of the spatiotemporal universe from beginning to end with all its transformations.
Whatever perspective we may adopt of whatever aspect of life it becomes sustainably manageable only through the recourse to the principle of principles symbolized in the cross which is the diversification – integration axiomatic through the mediation of the spirit of the cross written in the Holy Blood of Christ for all times to come. That Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Creator of everything and in whom therefore all phenomena created ultimately find their natural integration. The spatiotemporal diversification is temporal appearance. Beyond the sequentiality of time at the atemporal level diversification remains integrated into the one single creation. Its diversification-based reconfiguration for the sake of its ennoblement is the phenomenal appearance whose perception is privileged by man’s spatiotemporal relative perception. By adjusting the view with the aid of the cross metaphor all diversity remains one in the hands of the One.
The issue of diversity is due to human astigmatism from the vantage point of the cross metaphor. Through the lens of the logic of the cross cultural diversity is an incomplete perception. When the lens of the cross is adopted their complementary aspects of diversity and integrity appears through the intervention of the Holy Spirit that provided the dynamism for their diversification and reintegration for God’s Glory and the ennoblement of His own work.
If one adopts the model of the Cross, which represents the order of creation, one looks at phenomena with the eyes of the rationale of creation and there everything is order whatever transformations it may undergo. The time transcendent view reveals their true nature beyond the present moment which may appear unintelligible to a one-dimensional reading through the lens of the horizontal axis only. By adopting the lens of the cross one takes the Creator and Mediator of all Creation aboard the ship of the human mind to navigate the rocks and cliffs of the dialectics of limited human insight. It is the first and the last step in any process. Nothing needs to be abstracted nor added. All is all and cannot be improved on or tampered with from any angle and for any purpose: The wholeness of the holy. It is that which millennia old cultures have been seeking in holy forests, caves and mountains and their own unfathomable and inscrutable and ultimately unintelligible abysses. It has been given free out of love by God in the symbol of the divine model of creation that represents the most profound enigma of creation which defies and shatters horizontally-based human intelligence alone. All phenomena including all cultural or values or seemingly irreconcilable phenomena of life as well as life transcendent ones can be illumined and resolved through the insightful use of the divine master model or metaphor of creation because it incarnates the creative force itself which is beyond dychotomistic appearances of energy in physics and cosmologies which are only manifestations thereof revealing functional aspects of diversification. But the Creator in whom all phenomena originate and converge is, however, a different category.
The topic of culture has appeared historically only as a consequence of a perceptual shortcoming of man that has occurred with the secularization and the allied disassociations of the vertical and the horizontal axes of the cross’s perception; a holistic perception through the Holy Cross as a metaphor of creation as a whole. The adjustment of perception by means of the all-integrative master metaphor reveals that the cultural diversity discourse is resolved in an optic or perception that integrates the two axes of the mediation principle. The solution therefore seems to mainly reside in the adjustment of the vision to a form of a quantum optically-based or CROSS-based metaphorical perception. The “quantum-optical metaphor” refers to complementary perceptual capabilities that provide a more complete understanding based on Bohr’s complementarity principle which has been discovered 100 years ago.
Science and religion in turn permit complementary readings of the same reality. And if any dilemmas should remain on the basis of that religious-scientific reading of diversity issues they can be successfully reconciled and integrated by the use of the superordinate wisdom of the allied quantum-spiritual consciousness that perceives the wholeness through the holistic matrix of the Holy Cross which creation offers as a window of perception of its own enigma. The grace glory order and beauty of the Creator’s work is such that it reveals itself to the one who really desires to know it and makes the required effort scientifically and spiritually as well as to the humble and meek and virtuous who does not bar his view by the constructs of his one-dimensional horizontally-based dialectical understanding.
I have designed 3 models which incorporate the vertical and the horizontal complementary approaches to enhance horizontally-based one-dimensional perception of cultural diversity matters so as to also incorporate the vertical axis of perception and their integration in a 360° Transcultural Synergy Model. It is clear that the vertical axis cannot be completely conceptualized which due to the ultimate human limitation in knowing first and last things which has in turn an impact on the horizontal dimension’s conceptualizations. Nonetheless the models represent an enhanced approach in which the concomitant diversely-integrated nature of cultural and other phenomena appears as a result of the perceptual angle of the observer. The two axes and their integration have been modeled by me in diverse forms for diverse prioritizations:
1. The Transcultural Profiler for the structural-functional integration of the transcultural managerial psychological architecture in the global management context
2. A Holistic Human Intelligence Model for the quest of transcultural intelligence
3. 360° Transcultural Synergy for the quest of transcultural synergy
These models integrate and upgrade the intercultural through the transcultural approach and are integratable in turn by the master metaphor of the Holy Cross in the reading which I have detailed in the present writing: as CROSS-CULUTRAL MANAGEMENT enabled by the OPERATIONALIZATION of the TRANSCULTRAL/NOETIC and COSMIC Levels of the following Transcultural Profiler.
THE TRANSCULTURAL PROFILER
OR
DOME 12 D TRANSCULTURAL MANAGEMENT MODEL
OR
12 OCTAVES TRANSCULTURAL MANAGEMENT MODEL
illustration not visible in this excerpt
LEGEND OF THE TRANSCULTRAL PROFILER
D1
Cosmics: The Cosmic environment interconnection. The biological and mental roots of life.
D2
Noetics: The highest psychological control, subordination and integration function.
D3
Operationalization: (Potentialization) – Actualization process
D4
Ethics: Altruistic-allocentric, sustainable approach that thinks and acts in terms of each players long-term interests.
D5
Evolution: Phylogenetic development stages 1-6/Intercultural Development stages 7-12
1 sensory level: human developmental stage of perception
2 active level: human developmental stage of action
3 affective level: human developmental stage of affection
4 analytic intellectual level: human developmental stage of the intellect
5 synthetic intellectual level: human developmental stage of the Ego and the social group
6 universal level: human developmental stage that goes beyond Ego and synthesis
7 stage 1 denial: unable to identify cultural differences
8 stage 2 defence: recognition of cultural differences but tendency to evaluate other cultures negatively to one’s own
9 stage 3 minimization: recognition of superficial differences (objective culture) such as customs and habits, while holding the view that all cultures are essentially the same
10 stage 4 acceptance: Recognition and appreciation of cultural differences in behavior and values; considering them as logical and coherent solutions in different contexts.
11 stage 5 adaptation: development of communicationskills that facilitate intercultural communication; cybernetic thinking
12 stage 6 integration: internalization of abicultural or multicultural perspective; intercultural facilitator. (section based on Milton Bennett and Dr. Thérèse Brosse).
D6
ICP The Individual culture profile: Individualization of one's mental software by these variables
1 family
2 religion
3 education
4 language
5 profession
6 class
7 gender
8 race
9 generation
10 neighbours
11 friends
12 region.
D7
NCP National Culture Profile: Acquired through primary, secondary and tertiary socialization
1 Power distance: indicates the extent to which a society accepts the unequal distribution of power in institutions and organization
2 Uncertainty avoidance: refers to a society's discomfort with uncertainty, preferring predictability and stability
3 Individualism/collectivism: reflects the extent to which people prefer to take care of themselves and their immediate families, remaining emotionally independent from groups, organizations and other collectives.
4 Masculinity/femininity: reveals the bias towards either masculine values of assertiveness, competitiveness, and materialism, or towards feminine values of nurturing and the quality of life and relationships
5 Long-term orientation: refers to the extent to which past, present or future oriented attitudes, thought patterns, bahaviours and values are preferred' (Hofstede 5D-model, source: Bartlett, Ghoshal and Birkinshaw, Transnational Management 2003)
6 Universalism-particularism: seeks to discover one's prime allegiance to rules and rule-bound classifications or to the exceptional, unique circumstances and relationships
7 Individualism-communitarianism: measures the extent to which managers see the individual employee and shareholder as paramount, their development, enrichment, and fulfillment; or to what extent the corporation, customers and the wider community should be the beneficiaries of all personal allegiances
8 Specific-diffuse: measures the tendency to analyze, reduce and break down the field of experience or to synthesize, augment, and construct patterns of experience
9 Neutral versus affective: this concern the legitimacy to show emotions while at work
10 Inner-directed - outer-directed: concerns the 'locus of control.' Is it inside each of us, or outside in our environments to which we must adapt?
11 Achieved-ascribed status: refers to whether status is conferred to people on the basis of what they have achieved or because of what they are
12 Sequential-synchronous time: has to do with whether one sees time as passing in a sequence or coming round again and again' (THT 7D-model, source: Trompenaars, Hampden-Turner, Managing People Across Cultures 2005).
D8
Communication styles profile
1 High context-low context: is information in the explicit code or is it implicit in the person?
2 Controlled-free information flow: must be informed versus are already informed
3 Monochronic-polychronic: one thing at a time versus many things at a time
4 Private space-public space: privacy and territoriality versus open space, supportive of networking
5 Concise-elaborate: not talkative versus loquacious
6 Context-centered – person-centered: relevance of speaker and role relations between the parties versus relevance of speaker and the bridging of the communication gap
7 Direct-indirect: cooperativeness. Say briefly and clearly what is true, relevant and needed versus indirectness and circumlocutions
8 Affective-neutral: appropriateness versus inappropriateness of expressing emotions in a professional context
9 Abstract-concrete: refers to how concrete one can be in communicating one's ideas
10 Private-public information space: how healthy is it to give access to personal information in building business contacts?
11 Linear-circular: how linear can you be in conveying your point?
12 Intellectual-relational: the intellectual style can confront ideas but deals with relationships delicately, whereas the relational style deals with relational issues directly, and ideas more indirectly. (Based on Hall and Hall and N. Ewington, TCO London and Univ. of Cambridge).
D9
Corporate Management Profile: further conditions the national and individual culture profile
1 Specialist job: different functional environments condition different perceptions and attitudes
2 Level of hierarchy: attitudes and bahaviours differ on the board compared to the shop floor
3 Training: the professional ethos of an engineer and a business manager differ
4 Orgnizational culture: either Hofstede's UAI-PDI matrix based classification of implicit organization models as tribe/family, pyramid, machine and market: Alternatively THT's classification as Guided Missile, Eiffel Tower, Family and Incubator organizational patterns based on the dimensions equality-hierarchy and person-task
5 Operating field: depending on the availability of resources and supplies companies may be more or less centralized and controlled
6 Scale of operations: big companies tend to be more formalized than smaller ones
7 Institutional environment: In different societies ownership is either personal or by impersonal, shifting shareholders (1-7 are based on Hickson and Pugh, International Management 2001)
8 Leadership style: exploitative autocratic, benevolent autocratic, participative, democratic (Hodgetts and Luthan, International Management) alternatively, situational-contingent leadership: directing, influencing, collaborating, delegating based on the task-relationship orientation matrix (Hersey, Blanchard, Situational Leadership)
9 Management style: factual, intuitive, analytic, and normative
10 Motivation: based on Hofstede's UAI-MAS matrix this typology exists: Achievement of self or group and esteem, achievement and belongingness, security and esteem, and security and belongingness
11 Stages of corporate development: N. Adler's multinational, global, international, transnational stages, alt. Ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and geocentric
12 Cultural distance: CAGE analysis: cultural, administrative, geographic, economic distance.
D10
Intercultural management competencies (3-12 based entirely on International Profiler, WorldWork LTD, London 2001)
1 Altruism: altruistic behaviour as a source of creativity and integration of dilemma
2 Transcultural mindset: holistic perspective of culture and the mind
3 Openness: new thinking, welcoming strangers, acceptance
4 Flexibility: flexible behaviour, flexible judgement, learning languages
5 Personal autonomy: Inner purpose, focus on goals
6 Emotional strength: resilience, coping, spirit of adventure
7 Perceptiveness: attuned, reflected awareness
8 Listening orientation: active listening
9 Transparency: clarity of communication, exposing intentions
10 Cultural knowledge: information gathering, valuing difference
11 Influencing: rapport, range of style, sensitivity to context
12 Synergy: creating new alternatives.
D11
Trust: is the foundation of relationships in general and across cultures in particular, particularly in GBTs (Based on WorldWork Ltd, London and Univ. of Cambridge course materials)
1 Competence: trust based on the perception that team members are competent
2 Compatibility: based on common background, values, approaches, interests and objectives
3 Benevolence: based on the belief that other team members are concerned about one's welfare
4 Integrity: based on keeping promises and a moral behaviour code
5 Predictability: based on consistency over time of team members' behaviour
6 Security: absence of fear
7 Inclusion: partners are team-oriented and integrative
8 Open with information: willingness to share relevant information
9 Accessible: communication at a personal level
10 Reciprocal: mutual trust and cooperation
11 Moral responsibility: assuming responsibility for one's behaviours
12 Good intentions: ethical motivations
D12
Globalism. Planetary environment interconnection diagnostic: global compatibility check.
1 International Law
2 Biodiversity
3 Sustainability
4 Climate change impact
5 International political equilibrium
6 International economic equilibrium
7 International cultural equilibrium
8 Strategic balance
9 Genetic heritage integrity
10 Cultural ethics. Intercultural ethics. Global code of ethics.
11 Environmental compatibility
12 Resources impact
GENERAL EXPLANATION OF THE TRANSCULTURAL PROFILER LEGEND
On the whole the Profiler is a holistic diagnostic, analytical and profiling instrument for working across cultures.
It represents the totality of the field of consciousness of the interconnected inner-outer culture consciousness space of the global player in his management context.
Due to the interconnected continuum of the field of culture consciousness the inner stance of the culture observing consciousness can contribute to shaping outer culture. Culture management tends to become consciousness management. Vertically the following levels of consciousness are present in the structure of the Profiler which functionally integrates it hierarchically:
1 The superquantic consciousness level which presides over the quantic consciousness level
2 The quantic consciousness level which presides over the
2a transcultural consciousness and the
2b intercultural consciousness
3 physical culture consciousnesses
The totality of the profiler structure is subordinated and integrated by the top three dimensions. The quantum cultural effect allows to adopt the integrative transcultural or an intercultural stance alternatively or a combination of both. Quantum cultural consciousness is integrated by superquantic (culture) consciousness.
The entire edifice can be viewed metaphorically, in quantum cultural terms, as waves or as particles: The wave concept is supported by the fact that the profiler consists of twelve octaves which in turn translate as value preferences along with associated behavioural patterns. The more registers a cultural player can "instrumentalize" (the twelve octaves cover the totality of the human culture and consciousness "music") the better his cultural performance will be, the ability to resonate and to enable resonance. The complementary particle concept also allows a reading as cultural particulars of players. That is what traditional aggregate models of cultures provide.
The twelve times twelve dimensional edifice suggests completeness ², the space-time of culture consciousness grounded in the HIC et NUNC. The vertical axis is an evolution-involution cybernetic circuit towards higher forms of culture consciousness and managerial cultural effectiveness. As one evolves within and towards the higher dimensions one can increasingly manifest the higher dimensional potentialities.
The cosmic, noetic and the various cultural levels of the profiler form a hierarchy based on the neurophysiologic analogical principle of anatomic integration and functional subordination, according to which superior neurophysiologic structures subordinate and integrate subjacent ones into a hierarchical unity. It is a logic of control and integration. Therefore it is necessary to identify the superordinate level that can govern the subordinate; culturally speaking, a cultural metalevel which can not only control specific cultural characteristics but one that can govern the entire mental cultural repository with the sum total of its conditioning. The Western dualistic psychosomatic assumption of man’s constitution does not provide – except for the neurophysiologic analogy and the Christian tradition – the third governing level of the holistic threefold noetic-psychosomatic hierarchical structure of man which can be distilled across time, space and cultures and which has the potential to integrate the totality of the psychological architecture. The third level of the constitutional hierarchy of man could therefore be considered as a third millennium key to the management of culture. It is completely free and can set man free.
The DOME TRANSCULTURAL MANAGEMENT MODEL or PROFILER is a metaphorical visualization of the hierarchically integrated global managerial psychological architecture in a transcultural management context.
A MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE
TRANSCULTURAL PROFILER LEGEND
D1 Cosmics
The absolute of consciousness silences all cultural relativities. It is the superquantic dimension of the source - timeless, nameless, and absolute; beyond the mind and the diverse aspects of matter and energy. It integrates the aspects of the real in a transcendent reality.
The unitary structure of the lantern in the DOME architectural metaphor symbolizes that singular unity; the highest level of integration.
D2 Noetics
Is the transcultural level that presides over the quantum optical consciousness and has three major characteristics:
It integrates the totality of the subjacent edifice.
It can alternatively work with intercultural consciousness which deals with the diversity of cultures and it can work with transcultural consciousness, i.e. diversity transcending unity.
In the cupola (and lantern) the twelve arcs of the DOME architectural modeling of the psychological edifice converge. Here the intercultural diversity and transcultural unity are bridged.
D3 Operationalization
Translates the superquantic and the quantic culture consciousness into the cultural dimensions of the edifice rather than sufficing itself in its transcendence and remaining aloof. In physical terms it can be considered as an energetic potentialization-actualization dynamism leading to the cycle: Consciousness- energy-waves-values-behaviors.
D4 Ethics
Ethics is a stepping stone that enables access to the consciousness of the superordinate dimensions. Personal egoism corresponds to cultural ethnocentrism. Both need to be managed for growth into the transcultural dimension. The relative particle must become aware of its being part of a dynamic of an interdependent field and become committed to and accountable for it. Ethics is a cardinal dimension on which any further evolution hinges. They are interdependent, and ethical attitudes and behaviors in the sense of the unconditional respect of any culture member are the sine qua non of viable interpersonal and intergroup relations. Love of God and fellow man is the fulfillment of ethics, of the entire law according to the Christian optic. It can unlock all doors and remove all barriers on the way to all encompassing consciousness. The absence of this dimensional virtue is the negation of human culture and civilization in the original sense and poisons all relationships interindividual, intergroup and intercultural.
D5 Evolution
Diagnoses the phylogenic and the inter-/transcultural evolution of the cultural players. They are progressive enablers of superordinate cultural capabilities. As the cultural player masters the two sets of evolution completely transcultural as opposed to intercultural consciousness unfolds. Upon reaching the universal stage of phylogenetic evolution the threshold to the superior dimension can be crossed.
D6 ICP Individual Culture profile
The specification of the cultural players’ individual cultural profile impacts the potential for the achievement of higher dimensions of culture consciousness. The various affiliations/layers can pave the way or impede (culture) consciousness evolution.
D7 NCP National Culture Profile
The aggregate models of culture consist of 12 dualistic dimensions and illustrate the dialectics of the cultural mind. It is the realm of dualistic culture consciousness: the domain of time, mind, conditioning and antagonism; of cultural strife. The dialectics of its structural duality can be sustainably redeemed by the non-dualistic levels of consciousness, which merge the cultural waves into their source or the destination of the ocean and form but a circle. The intercultural optic of the quantum cultural optic is only aware of the momentary manifestation of consciousness without contextualizing it in the totality of the field of consciousness which redeems the wave of culture in the ocean of consciousness with its integrative and renewing dynamic; its creativity.
D8 Communications Profile
While the previous 2 dimensions are important structural elements, which is insinuated by the architectural term “shoulders” - they provide structural information about a person or/and an edifice -, the communication styles dimension can structurally be connected to walls and windows, which allow us to build up barriers or to create relationships and permeability with regard to the environment. Cultural diversity of communication styles is culture consciousness in inter(action). According to Hall culture is communication. Here we additionally conceptualize it, based on the quantum cultural optic as waves which translate as the music of consciousness resulting behaviorally as communication styles preferences.
D9 Corporate Management Profile
The organizational cultural environment grounds management in a combination of physical and psychological culture imperatives which determine horizons of managerial and HR consciousness in addition to the three other more general cultural profiles. They determine corporate consciousness, corporate culture consciousness. Corporate culture consciousness, societal culture consciousness, individual culture consciousness and transcultural consciousness will have to result in a powerful accord in musical terms and need to be based on a good foundation, if the company is to perform well; a blending of the organizational cultural, the intercultural and the transcultural, integrated by the latter.
D10 Intercultural management competencies
As an individual professional intercultural profile they complete the individual and other culture profiles and contribute to enhancing the accord between diverse cultural players in terms of business interests.
D11 Trust
Trust being the basis of all human relations it is as critical a dimension as the ethics dimension, intraindividually and interindividually. It can harmoniously tune relationships between diverse cultural players and foster a spirit of cooperation.
D12 Planetary interface
Physical culture and global governance variables constitute the interface with the global environment. The various levels of global consciousness evolution will impact choices.
The one consciousness is a continuous field of various levels of consciousness evolution and involution whose variables are integrated and governed by the higher noetic/transcultural or quantic dimension D2 and the cosmic or superquantic dimension D1. They are the ultimate destination of the culture journey, where the roadmap, the compass and the cultural traveler merge.
Now I would like to correlate the Profiler hierarchy to the levels of consciousness hierarchy and to the levels of intelligence hierarchy and point out their diverse capabilities in the international diversity management process.
CORRELATION OF TRANSCULTURAL PROFILER LEVELS TO CULTURE
CONSCIOUSNESS LEVELS AND CULTURAL INTELLIGNCE LEVELS
Profiler level Consciousness level Cultural Intelligence
D1 Cosmic level Superquantic culture Superquantic/supreme consciousness cultural intelligence
D2/3 Transcultural/Noetic level Quantic culture consciousness Transcultural, noetic or
quantum cultural intelligence
D4/5 Transitional levels Transitional consciousness Transitional cultural
intelligence
D6-11 Intercultural level Inter-culture consciousness Cultural intelligence
D12 Physical (planetary level) Varies according to consciousness Varies according to
evolution intelligence evolution
Physical (personal level) Physical culture consciousness Physical intelligence
(has an ereismatic or support function for higher (cultural) consciousness and cultural intelligence evolution).
As one rises in the culture consciousness and intelligence hierarchy more integrative capabilities of culture are released. The superior level, based on the neurophysiologic analogy of functional subordination and structural integration, has the power to integrate the subordinate level.
D1 (Cosmic Interface) is the ultimate integration and transcendence of the entire profiler edifice; Accomplished cultural masters’ supreme cultural intelligence.
D2/3 (Transculturalism and its operationalization) have the switching specificity between cultural and transcultural modes of perceptions of the cultural reality; D2 is transcultural, noetic or quantum cultural intelligence that - if operationalized - complements and integrates the cultural intelligence level characterized by cybernetic thinking.
D4/5 (Ethics and Evolution) Cultural consciousness and intelligence are expanding, passing progressively form cultural to transcultural intelligence and consciousness.
D6-D11 (Interculturalism) Display only cultural intelligence unless superordinate levels are involved.
D12 (Planetary Interface) may by impacted by any level of cultural consciousness and intelligence evolution.
Cultural performance and capability depend on which of the three levels of evolution of culture consciousness and therefore cultural intelligence operates.
1. Cultural intelligence is dialectical, unstable, reversible
2. Transcultural intelligence is metastable, integrative; can be reversible unless fully developed
3. Superquantic intelligence is integrative, transcendent, stable, and relatively irreversible.
If one assumes one all encompassing consciousness and one underlying energy
to phenomena the reading of this analytical division of things - which are one -
may be helped and the importance of the activity of consciousness as a
determinant of cultural issues is therefore underlined.
As one evolves from cultural intelligence via transcultural or quantum cultural
intelligence towards superquantic cultural intelligence one achieves Supreme
Cultural Intelligence which is the hallmark of true MASTERS OF CULTURE. That is the destination of cultural evolution which can usher in authentic intercultural cooperation and peace in our multicultural era, not only in the world of global business and geopolitics but in all spheres of life.
5. Conquest and Ownership of and Leadership from The Innermost Centre
In the following I would like to explore how the body and the mind can be attuned in an optimum way. It is really not enough to focus on values and behaviours alone, for our human body which has been given to us along with a most definite and definitive design or genetic programming with regard to structures and functions of each atom of the whole is contained in each one of billions of cells. This human body is the primary screen and vehicle through which we interact with our diverse environments and encounter cultural diversity. The body is our primary vehicle of experience and expression, the material support of life. Therefore it is life itself. It is most directly exposed to the outside world, to the struggle with other, sometimes competing forms of life, to the power games, we play, exacerbated by cultural diversity and human ignorance, 'avidya' as the Vedic sages termed it already thousands of years ago summarily. This struggle for survival affects the physical integrity, our structural edifice. And due to the organic interconnectedness of the human biological system as a whole, the energetic and mental structures are affected in turn. Therefore, interferences at one level have repercussions on all other levels. The games between cultures, groups and individuals can undermine and attempt to deprive the other(s) from their legitimate rights, appropriate 'otherness' instead of respecting it, owning it but not legitimately possessing it. A form of neo-cannibalism! This predator instinct is obviously neither ethical nor legal. Interference with others' legitimate rights, the extreme form of which is cannibalism, more modern forms may be mobbing or more subtle symbolical, implicit attempts, to wield power over others to one's advantage. This is a universal issue. Culture simple provides more fuel and exacerbates the universal problem. In Eastern psychology, the mind is material. So, mind and body are a continuum governed by similar laws. In that sense the notion of mental software makes no sense, because it is a limited concept, a fragment of the whole which as a fragment cannot account for the whole. An interaction is a total interaction, whose impact we are obviously trying to contain if it negatively affects our structural identity, impacting all systems, soma, energy and psyche. The corruption of their interconnected integrity is actually the real problem, no matter in what subsystem of the body it starts. So, we really have to look at all the biological systems in their integrity. The assumption that some mental software runs the human hardware is extremely culture-contingent and of the beginning of the computer age one-dimensionality. While we respectfully acknowledge the pioneering work, we now have to take further steps.
We have to look at the entire continuum of man, one pole being the angel, the other the ape, as the poet would frame it, in order to reconcile and transcend this metaphor of the overall human condition. In an intercultural overlap situation cultural patterns tend to assert and reinforce themselves through cultural networking and agenda-contingent alliances (le jeu des alliances). Having the other interactants shoulder the load of the interfacing process requires less effort. When naturally evolved cultural patterns are imposed different rhythms, the individual or collective entities get out of tune, the 'structures-functions' fit equation is impaired. Stress occurs, and if corruption sets in survival reflexes appear, resulting in culture clash, which, unmanaged, can escalate. The recognition and the respect of the difference are the first sensible steps to prevent this process. Gradual adaptation should set in leading to forms of reconciliation, thus preserving the various identities involved. Identity, continuity and stability - highlighted by the capacity to adapt, the capability of neutralizing disturbances from within or without, and of maintaining the organism's overall integrity - are an imperative of life. Integrity and non-integrity cannot be reconciled, being or not being is not a dilemma, no continuum, with no perspective of reconciliation. Talking about stability, integrity and enhanced performance I would like to contrast and integrate an Eastern physiological approach with a Western psychological approach and show how they can be reconciled:
Let's start with the HUMAN PYRAMID, the ideal human configuration in East Asia, notably in Japan, while we keep in mind that it is a metaphor. Symbolisms should not be taken literally and the literal should not be taken symbolically. What does this human pyramid look like in the Asian tradition in particular. It forms a triangle, sitting on a reliable, stable, broad base and pointing upward vertically. It symbolizes the human architecture, grounded on the best possible basis. It does not only refer to the outer structure, the anatomy and physiology, outer structures and functions, but also to what is largely neglected in Western approaches, namely the inner structure, the energetic structure. While Japan has championed this ideal man, it finds its corollary across cultures, in the Siddhasana or Lotus position or the perfect posture of the Vedic and yogic traditions of South Asia, the kneeling in the Christian tradition and so forth. Coordinated sitting on chairs is displayed in Ancient cultures like Egypt. Differences in cultural values and anatomies lead to different approaches to the same quest. It requires some deeper awareness to discern what is beyond the form, to perceive the Gestalt, to use a Western term. The Japanese might conceptualize it in terms of taiheki (polarization of vital energy) or 'seitai' (physical coordination) on which this posture has a decisive influence. In both the East Asian Human Pyramid ideal as well as in the South Asian Lotus or Siddhasana (perfect posture) ideal there are inner and outer structures involved, anatomic and energetic structures, an energetic anatomy, so to speak. Laya Yoga and the Shakta Vedanta of the Indian Vedic tradition as well as Zazen in the Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition, Chang in the Chinese tradition deal with the issue more specifically.
However, it must be stated emphatically that any experimentation by non-experts is dangerous.
As a matter of fact all cultures and in particular the religions and more specifically their esoteric rather than their exoteric branches have raised the question of the conditioning of the physical terrain in view of mental deconditioning. For millennia cultures have been aware of the interconnectedness of the spiritual-psycho-somatic continuum of man as a whole and that the whole had to be accounted for rather than its fragments. For if we want to understand mental programmes we have to understand the mind and the latter can be understood more fully if we consider its entire biological context, the terrain as a whole. It is more complex than a specialist approach but it allows us to contextualize the search in a new way.
We want to ask, how the diverse members of the body, inner and outer, can be configured so as to reduce the weight of conditioning, including cultural conditioning, how the body, the heart and mind can be configured, so as to reduce conditioning and thereby open up a new chapter in the quest for cultural intelligence (CQ), which could be applied practically to leadership across cultures and leverage transcultural intelligence. It is yet another perspective on the mosaic of perceptions of culture in order to perceive the bigger picture.
Let's return to the Human Pyramid, an East Asian master model of man: any system should have a maximum stability, to assure its continuity and stability. Considering the three possible states of stability, namely, stability, metastability and instability, it is surely stability, which offers the optimum conditions for continuity and effectiveness. This highest possible integration and consolidation clearly satisfies a Japanese value preference of high level safety and reliability, an ideal terrain for sensing and intuition. While the Indian Siddhasana prepares the terrain ideally for the spiritual journey, which is an Indian metaphysical value preference, the Japanese ideal on the other hand translates a more physical value preference. And, with regard to both architectures, the inner and the outer, the energetic as well as the biological, to use a broader term, strive to align and reinforce their maximum stability and dynamism by themselves and synergize at the highest somato-energetic consolidation and integration. The two configurations, the Human Pyramid as well as the Perfect Posture of the two Asian traditions of India and Japan involve two triangle structures: a horizontal one that forms the base with the two knees and the buttocks. On this base triangle a vertical triangle is formed by the vertical axis of the backbone with the trunk, with the head on top, thus forming a pyramid, the Human Pyramid. The structure and dynamics involved in this posture consolidate the entire human edifice physiologically and energetically. While physiology and energy are coordinated and integrated, the mind is stilled and stabilized in turn, due to the mind-body interconnectedness. In this 'ventrocentric' approach the entire psychosomatic system is coordinated and stilled. The waves of the mind subside, tension goes. When the noise of the mind with all its conditionings is quiet, cultural conditioning is no more. It is in a state of potentiality. The cultural impact decreases proportionally to the increase of the stilling of the mind. Thus managing the mind in a bottom up approach, culture and cultural programming can be managed effectively. So, there is also a physiological approach to the management of culture.
As interculturalists, we want to see, whether we can transpose the model of maximum stability and efficiency to the mental level, where our cultural conditioning is supposed to be located. While the former approach to cultural deconditioning is an Eastern approach, starting with the body, technically the 'ventrocentric' approach, the mental approach privileging the neocortical circuits, starting with the mind, may be called a 'cerebrocentric'' approach corresponding to a more Western tradition.
Indeed, as by now we are used to thinking in triads, we can now construct, with or without the preparation and achievement of an integrated physiological terrain, which is a lifelong undertaking requiring one-pointed effort and Asian patience and perseverance. Western cultures evolve in smaller time horizons and will prefer shorter term, faster achievements. The following model might therefore be more appealing to the Western mind. Let's call it 'cerebrocentric' approach as opposed to 'ventrocentric' approach. Some Eastern approaches symbolically portray the Western approach as a reversed triangle with the base on top and the top at the base, to point out the comparatively lower degree of consolidation of the 'cerebrocentric' approaches, implying instability. As I design this model myself, for my part I would claim a correctly stabilized triangle with the base at the base and the top at the top. Indeed stabilization will be a key quest in this search.
At the psychological level we can identify and design a triangle with the conventional notions of IQ (intellect) at one pole of the base of the mental triangle and EQ (emotional intelligence) at the opposite pole. If the two poles are successfully reconciled, it results in a fairly balanced human being in Western culture terms. Yet, the 'dance' on this continuum is necessarily imperfect. It breeds terrorists, fanatics and dictators, as we know. Therefore it needs enhancing by a third corrective coordinate, which accounts for our relativity, which helps us not to commit grave faux pas in the 'dance of life', not to deviate and to become biased. In order to effectively use our mental and emotional potentialities, we need the third coordinate, CQ (cultural intelligence), to design the top of the triangle, which allows us to integrate, balance and objectify the various forms of intelligence as an IECQ enhanced intelligence model. While it provides a corrective for our cultural relativity and a compass whose needle always points to truth, objectivity and clear perception, it provides much needed structure, balance and direction.
If we now consider IECQ as the angles of a base triangle, we can erect the noetic vertical dimension at its centre with NQ (noetic intelligence) to result in transcultural intelligence: TCQ (Transcultural intelligence) based on its neurophysiologic integrative status is the absolute centre of integration and control of the various forms of intelligence, the mind.
While the former physiological or ventrocentric model is a quest for the optimum base for control and coordination, the latter psychological or 'cerebrocentric' model symbolizes the quest for the top for optimum integration, deconditioning and growth.
Now that we could integrate physiology and biology through V (ventrocentrism) and the mind through transcultural or noetic intelligence TCQ or NQ (cerebrocentrism) the question arises, whether the two centers, the two pyramids, can be aligned and synergized. Indeed, the psychological and the somatic structures, according to the neurophysiologic law of subordination and integration, referred to repeatedly, find their control level in the superordinate noetic function, which integrates and controls both the subjacent psychological and the somatic level as the holistic enhanced biological noetic-psycho-somatic structure of man which has been the tenor of various exposés. The noetic dimension allowed us to design a vertical triangle and to connect the IECQ (intellectual, emotional, cultural intelligence) base triangle to NQ (or noetic intelligence) resulting in a pyramid. And far from becoming hybrids, it is the solution of the East-West dilemma, the East-West integration in a third creative, scientifically sound way, that integrates and surpasses the potentialities of East and West by themselves alone, and opens up a new chapter of transculturalism, hitherto thought of as an insoluble dilemma.
The realization of the IENCQ (intellectual, emotional, cultural, transcultural or noetic intelligence) psychological pyramid allows us to integrate time (we live in the eternal present) and space (in the here and now), the finite and the infinite potentialities. Such a formula alone is worthy of the human race at the threshold of the third millennium. Why, how? Through the awareness of the time-conditioning axis in the psychological model you are aware of your entire socialization, biography and conditioning whose product you are in the here and now. This encompasses the finite world of the mind, while the noetic 'macro-dimension' transcends the finite world of time, culture and conditioning. It unlocks the infinite (potentialities) in a consolidated body.
This is the type of intelligence, that processes culture and conditioning correctly and effectively, using it or transcending it at will and as need may be. We can call it IECNQ enhanced intelligence model, a balanced intelligence with a superordinate control that integrates the psychological model and the physiological model in turn.
To simplify let's reduce the pyramids to triangles and the triangles to simple coordinates. As can be seen in the diagram below, the physical intelligence and the mental/emotional intelligence are synergized and integrated and enhanced by noetic intelligence. It constitutes a holistic human intelligence model. Thus the terrain, the psyche and the spirit are perfectly aligned with an absolute command and control function, to manage cultural conditioning at the national, corporate or individual level. You may use this pristine intelligence to manage culture or your spiritual quest alike.
A HOLISTIC HUMAN INTELLIGENCE MODEL
Noetic or transcultural intelligence (transcultural in the sense of transcending culture and therefore the mind) is that incorruptible centre that integrates the soma and the psyche while it provides the resources for transcultural management, the most powerful capabilities.
illustration not visible in this excerpt
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Correspondences between the Synergy model and the transcultural Profiler
360° Synergy model Transcultural Profiler model
D8 D1
D7 D2
D6 D4
Below this specifically transcultural perception of international diversity issues the intercultural logic prevails thematized by other authors.
The 360° Synergy Model is taken from my book Transcultural Management – Transkulturelles Management and shows how conventional approaches to intercultural synergy introduced by Ch. Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenars can be enhanced by including the transcultural dimensions of the (TP) and more specifically the CROSS-CULTURAL (neologism), which is a specification of the transcultural approach, represented by the divine metaphor of civilisations, highlighted in this book.
Diagram: „360° Transcultural Synergy Model“. Author: Gebhard Deissler
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6. The Quantum-Cultural Motive in Creation
The whole of creation starting with the seeming duality of Father and Son, One in the Holy Spirit, is cast in duality from the conventional human perceptual standpoint which, however, constitutes but one under diverse aspects. So, the very image of God himself can be said in modern jargon to be a quantum optical physical-metaphysical phenomenon. And as man is created in the image of the Creator, the same quantum-optical mirror image is present in man himself. That also applies to Creation as reported in Genesis that proceeded by division and integration (light-darkness, land water etc.)
When we look at man himself he embodies in turn, in addition to an integrated and made one mirror image of divine duality, a twofold duality: He partakes in a complementary physical-spiritual nature and he highlights an integration of the animus and anima principle psychologically, based on the genetic male – female complementary duality principle. His structure in turn is cast in duality – in particular his physiologic architecture seems to be cast in duality - which is accompanied by mental duality and dialectics and which results in dualistic psychological artifacts and constructs in turn. So the entire picture of Genesis seems to be cast in a quantum cultural logic from the human relative standpoint which is however, from a more holistic atemporal standpoint, but diverse complementary aspects of the One.
The threat of the metaphorical quantum perceptual motive also runs through the history of the salvation work of Christ. The cross can similarly be conceived of as a quantum-perceptual reality as can the Savior and the act of salvation themselves: There is the dual nature of the God-Man, whose criminal-like sacrifice by those He loves while they reject him and while He is the King of kings, to reconcile the duality of the physical-metaphysical nature of man. Quantum cultural complementarity and its integration which is the whole of reality is the thread that runs through creation from Alpha to Omega.
That makes the scandal and the glory of the quantum cultural metaphor of the cross intelligible. There is the duality of the God-Man (God incarnated as man) that mediates between God and man, heaven and earth, the dual nature of man. Salvation consists in the integration of the metaphorical quantum perceptual nature of man and his constructs. It is accomplished by one who personifies this integration and can therefore lead others in the integration process of their metaphorical quantum perceptual duality. And in this book we are using the horizontal - vertical quantum cultural complementarity in the gestalt of the cross metaphor as incorporating this mystery and enigma of creation and its logic, whereby similar quantic existential phenomena like that of the cultures, religions and civilizations can be solved by using that metaphor of metaphors as a template for problem solving and prevention.
As an inorganic symbolic artifact it obviously represents a vital reality only through the living Mediator of all mediation who is the actual protagonist. He is the One that is sacrificed by diversity starting with the trial of Christ. And he redeems that diversity through love and compassion for all times. It is important to understand this divine legacy and to use it for all problem solving and dilemma integration for all time; the solution is there in consciousness, the energetic record engraved in his memory and physiology, the archetypal model is there, the template is to be used – the spirit thereof is there latently.
What is requires is the application of the quantum cultural meaning of religion, which is the integration or reconnection of God and Man in One. That One is the problem solver and integrator of the temporal relative and the atemporal absolute. And the Holy Cross is the symbolic metaphor thereof. To be simple religion is the solution of the quantum cultural mystery; the cross its divine metaphor and material image; Christ the quantum optical solution.
A metaphor is an image and a symbol of a reality it points to. It serves as a template for understanding and describing reality. It is not an abstract construct but it is based on actual reality. That is the case of the cross we know of as a symbol which however is based on a concrete physical reality.
The Christian cross is based on the death of the supposed Son of the God, one with the Father through the Holy Spirit which is known as the Holy Trinity. Christ is a historical and transcendent reality that provides the solution to all insoluble questions of man, where all human endeavours have to capitulate. So, the cross can be said to be a model and a panacea without which man faces nothing but a black wall which leaves him in a state of despair the moment he starts thinking and inquiring.
In this panacea all human pain and all human emotions, sorrow as well as all joy and grandeur converge and are transmuted. Besides the panacea it is also the most incredible scandal of history, because that Lord of the whole of Creation has not come as a shining hero, who dealt with the forces of evil in a heroic way as an emperor and conqueror of the kind of a Caesar, Napoleon or Ashoka or Alexander Rather than dying heroically as a supreme commander of invincible forces in the timeless struggle between good and evil, he, on the contrary, seems to have made the greatest understatement of all times in the sense that he - as the Lord of Lords - came as a poor and outcast and died like a criminal on a cross with other criminals. But His Cross hides layers of complementary dual realities.
These circumstances require interpretation. He completely shatters human value systems and introduces radically new ones diagonally opposed to conventional human assumptions and expectations. He was tried and crucified by people who he in his spiritual unity with his Father created. He created them with the mind and the logic that decided their own Creator had to die in an abject way. This is too much to be taken by common sense logic and intellect. But he shatters human logic by introducing a complementary perception of life at every step of his life on earth from the stable in Bethlehem right to the cross via the resurrection and ascension with the eternal transcendent-immanent presence in the Holy Spirit.
He introduced a complementary dimension to human perception of reality that enabled a complete perception of life and thereby man’s salvation. It is not a revolution but just a complete perception of the existential reality of man. He complements man’s vision of time by introducing the atemporal and eternal, his material understanding of existence is complemented by the virtues of poverty, pride and presumptuousness by humility and so forth. The cardinal values introduce a complementary axis for the understanding of life, without which it cannot fully be made sense of and the doors of salvation not opened - through the most challenging metaphor of all times, the cross.
He provides the vertical axis of understanding to complement the horizontal axis for a full understanding of life. That is an interpretation of the rationale of crucifixion. The two axes of the Cross provide the quintessential and complete understanding of life in its entirety while he mediates the two through His sacrifice. The totality of values he teaches therefore differs from the values of the horizontal human dimension of understanding life as he introduces the complementary understanding provided by the perception through the vertical axis of existence. The perceptions and assumptions of the vertical and the horizontal axis are in stark contrast and seem to be irreconcilable. Redemption from the limitations of the horizontal axis’s values and logic cannot be achieved from the position of the horizontal axis. However the superordinate vertical axis’s logic can provide the mediation in Christ that can redeem the vertical axis’s condition.
[...]
- Citar trabajo
- D.E.A./UNIV. PARIS I Gebhard Deissler (Autor), 2011, The Divine Metaphor Of Creation, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/169072
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