Pretext R*OI4

A little bit of tiny context, which is I'm about to turn 50 in about 8 weeks, and I'm basically reached a point of synthesis in my journey to some degree. I think it's like the last leg of the hero's journey when you bring the elixir back home to the community. So I'm nowhere near done, but I'm definitely coming in the homestretch of some kind. I hope it's another 50 or 150 years, but, uh, I have this sense of synthesis and bringing together years of work and innovation and research and development and inner work and technology and my philanthropy mission and all the writing I do. And I want to also say I use the word gift a lot, gift consciousness, gift economy. So I want to just say it's almost like an early birthday present and you've all given me a gift by being here. And I hope you'll receive kind of some value and a gift too as part of that. The invitation is a really— a mentor of mine has a saying, which is, some people have a gift and some people are a gift. So the invitation today is to be the gift. And I want you all to know that, you know, that's really how I see people and see life, as a gift. I want to let you guys know this isn't a presentation. It's not a pitch. I thought I was going to do something like that, but I— And we're going to create a space basically for some discovery and connection between us. And I'm hoping this is really a good opportunity to kind of dive deep into our individual dreams and how those dreams could weave or do weave or might weave, potentially weave. For the past 13 years, almost to the month, I've been living a dream. I don't actually have a dream like Martin Luther King. I've been living a dream. And this dream I've been living started out being called spiritual philanthropy. Over the years, it's evolved to what I call evolutionary and spiritual philanthropy. And as part of that, I redefine ROI for myself, um, as R to the power and degree of I, in which case the I stands for your true self, your deepest self. What the non-dualists would call Atman and Brahman, or what some people will call your higher self, your true self. That's the fundamental framework for evolutionary and spiritual philanthropy at the base level. In terms of bringing it into a process of what I call true co-creation with people to be together. I use 4 specific instances of I. So in this case, we're talking about realization to the power and degree of imagination, to the power and degree of intention, to the power and degree of integral investment. And this is the gift I want most to bring to the world at scale. I'm not necessarily inviting everyone today to do much or be part of anything. I'm inviting you to be aware of this little short framework that is very powerful and what kind of seed it could be in the world and how we might live as a humanity if we were to have this as a worldview in some shape or form. Basically, we're just going to go through a quick journey of 4 dimensions. That's the 4 different I's. Each question is going to build on the previous one, and I want everyone to take time and reflect and respond authentically as you can. We're going to take 5 minutes per question. You can write something down, you can think about it, you can draw a picture, or any way that you can connect. And The first question is not something you haven't heard before, but it's important as a fundamental first question, and that's the realization to the power and degree of imagination, or inspiration is another beautiful I. So I would like you to reflect on what kind of world are you wanting to live in and creating now? I want you to describe it without limits or boundaries. There can be flying cars, the end of poverty, superheroes, whatever it is. I would like to know in your imagination what the most beautiful, liberating, flourishing world is for your own self, as well as how you might see it for your children and your children's children. And just try to think a little bit about what it feels like or looks like or even tastes like. So we're just going to do 5 minutes on this. There's no holds barred here. You, you are boundless and preposterous. It's better than science fiction. The second topic, which is the realization to the power and degree of intention. So now you've set out a world, something you want to experience that not— that's not something that one person could really create. The essence of a shared reality, of a shared planet, obviously takes all of our genius and all of our parts and souls are required. Whatever your spiritual or religious beliefs or philosophical, there's some sense of togetherness. Collaboration, co-creation, harmony, unity, community, communion that we all understand intuitively as a social species. So I'm going to ask you to reflect on what specific contributions would you love to make towards that overall vision? You can have multiple answers. You're not in a box here where you only do one thing with the rest of your life, all of you creative neurodiverse beings. Why we're using intention is we're drawing down to a little bit more specificity. So, for example, someone like me has a vision of a world, but I'm not going to necessarily be saving all the animals or maybe even raising a family. I don't know if I'll be working on waste management or legal, legal upleveling. I specifically want to make media. And I want to bring new philanthropy, and I want to be acting and working on physics. So these are more specific things. So Tune into that world picture you have and tune into your zones of genius and your passions on a much more personal level, and think about 1, 2, 3, 4, whatever it is, different ways, different types of contributions. These can be simple as love, time, and attention. We're gonna get to those questions, but think outside the box as much as you need to. You got 5 minutes. So the last section is a 2-parter. We're going to take them one by one. This is realization to the power and degree of integral investment. I came across a term several years ago called integral wealth by a group called Village Lab, where they were very specific to talk about the many streams of wealth and how they all work, and money being one of them, not to be ignored, but one among many. And they had a project where they had something called currencies, S-E-E-S, the flow of value, the currencies. And it changed my life and is integrated into how I think and feel about philanthropy and flow of value. So they, they termed integral wealth, and that's part of my, my ethos. So the first question is, in potential— so you're not making a commitment here— what gifts do you have available now To give unconditionally to something like a commons, knowing that those gifts would flow around to all of your community members and geniuses so that they would have what they desired and required in order to fulfill their intentions and be part of the puzzle. So when I ask what gifts might you have in theory, in potential, you can say things like I've got a lot of time on my hands. I've got a bunch of guitars in my basement that I don't use. I've got a home I can share. I've got $1 million in the bank. I own a property. So all— and I have love. I have experience in the finance industry for 30 years. Please try to think in all those different ways that you might be able to contribute to a mother fund, as my friend Mona says, if we were all going to put something in the stone soup. And then flow that value around so that each one of us may nonlinearly receive what we need to be part of the answer. We'll move to the last question. I find it interesting because I could have, I could have done this differently. I could have first asked, like, what do you need? our want to feel completely free and overflowing. So you're able to do that. But actually, there's a reason why we started there. Because one of the principles of evolutionary spiritual philanthropy, which is a universal principle, not mine, is to give is to receive. And I mean that very literally. Some people ask me, well, doesn't that mean to receive is to give? And I say, no, not exactly. Because in the giving is the receiving. However, I don't want people to think that means we've got half of an equation. So the second question is, what gifts— remember, that means any type of gift. We're using that word very broadly to mean inner and outer resources. What gifts would you love to receive? Not what you need, not what you want. What would you love to receive that would help you thrive in your life right here and now, in your— in serving your intentions, so that you could actually feel excited and super abundant to continue gifting forward your own self, right? So what would you love to receive? Inner and outer. It doesn't necessarily have to be to attain, like, I need money to make a film. It could be, I, I would like a home and a beautiful home to live in with my children. And I want— like, what would you love to receive to be your whole self so that you are so super abundant with your cup overflowing that it's never a question for you that you cannot continue gifting forward like a Taurus, never-ending, no scarcity? No Maslovian restrictions. And we got about 4 or 5 minutes for this one. Open your minds and hearts and give it a whirl. I'm leaving with gratitude and deep satisfaction and joy and thankfulness for everyone taking the time today and being a part of the dream that I'm living in, in the small way that you have been by, by being a part of this. And Feeling really great that this is something, a gift I can offer that has nothing else to it. Like, it is what it is and is who I am. So thank you.