CHAPTER 1

VIEW
UNIVERSAL
PERSPECTIVE

1.1 “I look for what needs to be done and then try to work out how to do it best. After all, that’s how Universe designs itself.”

DOING WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE WHILE ADHERING TO Nature’s principles was the strategy that Buckminster Fuller used to support the creation of his vision of “a world that works for everyone.” By employing trial and error experimentation and making lots of “mistakes” (i.e. learning experiences), he was able to achieve a great deal, and even today nearly thirty years after his death, his legacy continues to make a difference in the lives of millions of people.

If each of us would adopt even a tiny fraction of what Bucky learned and shared throughout the eighty-eight years of his lifetime on Spaceship Earth, then our world would be a much better place to live. If we can simply begin to notice how Universe / Nature / God / Higher Power / Great Spirit / Allah designs itself and follow just a small portion of that design, we will markedly transform ourselves as individuals and as a global society.

This is the primary cause that Bucky championed throughout his “56-Year Experiment” in which he himself was “Guinea Pig B,” the subject of the experiment to discover and document what difference the “average little man” could make on behalf of the most people. He used the classic trial-and-error method of discovery so that we no longer have to go down that ineffective path in doing our part to make a difference on Spaceship Earth. He allowed himself to be subjected to some severe ridicule in order to discover and display how Universe designs itself and what needs to be done to create a sustainable environment for future generations and ourselves.

He also planned and completed his initiatives so that he could do the most with the least amount of resources using the natural principle he labeled “trimtab” to be as effective and efficient as possible. Thus, everything he did appeared nearly effortless, beautiful, and in harmony with all life. The key to his success was discovering how Universe/Nature responded to an idea or action, and then he would follow Nature’s template rather than follow the path put forth by most “leaders.”

Today, we are blessed with having his ideas and experiences as a guide for our actions. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Following in his footsteps and deciding from our personal experience what works, each of us can do what needs to be done in the most effective, efficient way possible. We can function with complete integrity knowing that Universe always supports what needs to be done so that if our actions and projects are in harmony with the sustainability of all life we will succeed just as Bucky was able to do.

1.2 “Start with Universe.”

By David McConville

GUEST COMMENTATOR

Throughout history, human civilizations have been guided by interpretations of the cosmic order. Our ancestors observed patterns in nature that profoundly influenced their beliefs and behaviors, enabling them to anticipate and synchronize with the cycles of life. By paying close attention to the world around them, countless generations developed reciprocal relationships with environments that enabled them to survive and thrive.

Today, modern technologies enable us to manipulate our surroundings in extraordinary ways. Yet they also isolate us, encouraging us to take the life-sustaining systems of our home planet for granted as endlessly exploitable resources and economic externalities. As specialized sciences increasingly seek to reduce existence to its component parts, the universe has seemingly been diminished to little more than physical properties, isolated interactions, and mathematical laws.

This materialist cosmology has effectively separated facts from value, imparting the overwhelming sense that Earth is a mediocre pale blue dot aimlessly wandering around within the infinite void of space. Though the interconnected challenges facing humanity are growing ever more complex and urgent, there seems to be little guidance or meaning to be found by paying attention to this larger context.

Referring to humanity as “local-Universe information gatherers and problem-solvers,” he strove to demonstrate how we are capable of comprehending the “relationship of eternal principles” and applying them “in support of the integrity of eternally regenerative Universe.” Today this approach is recognizable within the field of biomimicry, though he set his sights even higher by exploring the possibilities of what could be called cosmomimicry.

Buckminster Fuller challenged this limited perspective over fifty years ago, asserting that it is both incomplete and obsolete. He insisted that the sense of separation from nature is a dangerous illusion resulting from reductionism and overspecialization and that humanity’s evolutionary success is dependent on our willingness to learn from the emergent behaviors of whole systems. This led him to question how we envision the context of our existence, re-imagining a big picture in which our species is situated within the full continuum of creation. In Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth he asks,

“Can we think of, and state adequately and incisively, what we mean by universe? For universe is, inferentially, the biggest system. If we could start with universe, we would automatically avoid leaving out any strategically critical variables. We find no record as yet of man having successfully defined the universe—scientifically and comprehensively—to include the nonsimultaneous and only partially overlapping, micro-macro, always and everywhere transforming, physical and metaphysical, omni-complementary but nonidentical events.”

Never one to shy away from a daunting task, Fuller redefined “Universe” (eventually differentiating it through capitalization and dropping the definite article “the”) to include both the specialized insights of science and our metaphysical capacities and experiences. Yet he insisted that Universe is far more than simply mind plus matter, contending that the whole is always more than the sum of its reduced parts. He summarized this perspective with the pithy generalization U=MP, proposing that Universe is the synergistic result of the metaphysical multiplied by the physical (Synergetics 162.00).

This was far more than an intellectual exercise, as he sought to apply “macro-inclusive” and “micro-incisive” insights to the design of human-scale physical artifacts through what he called “Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science.” By spending much of his life starting with consideration of the biggest system, anticipating future trends and needs, and combining the aesthetics and intuition of design with the empirical and intellectual rigor of science, he took it upon himself to attempt to solve some of the greatest challenges he predicted would soon be facing humanity.

In the twenty-first century, this synergistic, systems-oriented approach is more critical than ever. At the Buckminster Fuller Institute, we are celebrating his legacy by connecting a global network of design science practitioners actively applying these principles in their own work. We are seeking out and cultivating integrated strategies designed to address Fuller’s challenge to “make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.”

Instead of defining a particular problem to be solved, we encourage participants to explore how the behavior of whole systems can inform the design of approaches that address multiple interconnected issues simultaneously. We never know what to expect, but we continue to be amazed and delighted at the extraordinary capacity humans seem to possess for applying the principles of nature to improve our world. Like Fuller, we anticipate that by paying ever-closer attention to Universe, our collective journey just might have a few more surprises in store:

“I didn’t set out to design a house that hung from a pole, or to manufacture a new type of automobile, invent a new system of map projection, develop geodesic domes, or Energetic-Synergetic geometry. I started with the Universe—as an organization of energy systems of which all our experiences and possible experiences are only local instances. I could have ended up with a pair of flying slippers”

DAVID MCCONVILLE is creative director of the Worldviews Network (www.worldviews.net), a collaboration of scientists, artists, and educators re-imagining the big picture of humanity’s home in the cosmos. Using immersive environments and interactive scientific visualizations, they are facilitating community dialogues across the U.S. about how our collective actions are shaping humanity’s future. David is also President of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (www.bfi.org) and co-founder of The Elumenati (www.elumenati.com), a design and engineering firm specializing in the creation of immersive learning environments.

THIS SEEMINGLY SIMPLE STATEMENT REPRESENTS THE essence of nearly every one of Buckminster Fuller’s initiatives, and it is key to the success he was able to achieve. He always did his best to mindfully begin from a perspective of the whole or, in other words, with Universe (which is more clearly defined later in this book).

By working at the very onset of an initiative within a context of the whole of reality (both physical and metaphysical), Bucky was able to create projects and artifacts that were far more valuable and viable than what most other people were doing. And in that initial aspiration of starting with Universe, he eliminated the often-used motivation that so many of us begin with—making money or making a living for ourselves and our families.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with that intention, but rather that when coming from this narrow context, a person often misses the opportunity to really make a difference and succeed well beyond what she initially imagined. That shift in perspective can be seen in Bucky’s famous statement, “You can make money or you can make sense, the two are mutually exclusive.” (Explained later in this book.)

On the surface, “start with Universe” appears at odds with another often-quoted statement that is not attributed to Bucky—“start with gratitude.” Do we begin with the whole of Universe or with gratitude?

This is not an “either/or” question, but rather a “both/ and” situation. We need to consider the whole of reality at the onset of an initiative (or at every moment of our lives), and we need to do it with the often-cited “attitude of gratitude.” This is important because when a person considers the whole of Universe he can’t help but feel gratitude regardless of external circumstances.

How can an individual not be grateful when she recognizes the vast abundance of Universe and the precious nature of human life? How can a person be ungrateful for any situation when he realizes that every set of circumstances—no matter how seemingly difficult or exciting—provides yet another opportunity for growth and learning? And how can anyone not be grateful when she “gets” the grand glory of the whole of Universe that has been provided as our experiential playground?

These are just a few of the inquiries that Bucky employed, and those of us who respect and utilize his grand strategy of life also use them to make a difference with our lives while enjoying every moment. If we do our best to observe and be in harmony with the whole of Universe with gratitude, we may just find ourselves living in a Universe of love, peace, joy, and freedom.

1.3 “Integrity is the essence of everything successful.”

By Jim Reger and David Irvine

GUEST COMMENTATORS

Working with organizational cultures, the single most common request we get is how to build more trust and respect in the workplace. It is our experience that this is achieved through personal accountability—the ability to be counted on—which is the basis for personal integrity. Personal integrity leads to self-respect, respect for others who demonstrate integrity, and ultimately a respectful workplace. So in our view, personal integrity is the essence of building a successful culture of trust and respect.

As an engineer and inventor, Buckminster Fuller understood the importance of strength within a design. Engineers are accountable for designing structures capable of handling conditions up to a certain limit. In the engineering world, the margin between safety and disaster is known as “structural integrity.” Similarly, our success as accountable people depends on our personal structural integrity. As the engineers of our own existence, our choices affect not only our own lives but also the lives of the people who rely on us.

By standing behind our promises and assuming a position of accountability, we begin to design a life of personal structural integrity. With this integrity as our foundation, our work and service in our families, organizations, and communities will be rock solid. However, just as you could never design and build a structure to handle any condition, personal structural integrity will always have its limits. Because integrity is not rigid, but instead strong and flexible and adaptable to life’s changing circumstances, personal structural integrity can meet almost any test.

Integrity comes from the word “integer,” which means wholeness, integration, and completeness. Being integrated is a necessary condition for self-respect, and self-respect is the basis for creating a respectful environment. Integrity means having clear, explicit principles and doing what you say you’re going to do. It’s about being honest with yourself and others. Integrity is deeply personal and, therefore, deeply applicable to all areas of life.

Integrity has everything to do with your success as a leader. Leadership—the capacity to elicit the commitment of others—is about presence, not position. Now more than ever, power, purpose, and privilege no longer reside at the top of an organization; they potentially live at every level. Great leadership cannot be reduced to techniques or tools or titles. While you may be promoted to being a boss, you don’t get promoted to being a leader.

You have to earn the right to be called a leader. Great leadership comes from the identity and integrity of the leader. Authentic leadership is achieved through the power of presence, which comes from being an integrated human being, a person of integrity. Integrity is, indeed, the essence of everything successful.

DAVID IRVINE and JIM REGER co-founded the Newport Institute for Authentic Living, whose focus is on building authentic and accountable cultures of trust and respect that inspire and unleash greatness. They have co-authored two books on authentic leadership: The Authentic Leader, It’s About PRESENCE, Not Position, and Bridges of Trust, Making Accountability Authentic.

DAVID IRVINE is one of Canada’s most respected voices on leadership and organizational culture and his work has contributed to the building of accountable, vital, and engaged organizations across North America. David can be reached at: www.davidirvine.com.

JIM REGER’S passion and commitment for facilitating powerful and effective change is evident in his work, which is focused on assisting entrepreneurial leaders in creating and building authentic lives and cultures. Jim can be reached at: www.regergroup.com.

THE LAST PUBLIC STATEMENT BUCKMINSTER FULLER MADE was “hold on to your personal integrity.” He made that declaration in response to a question asking what (after all these years of awards, famous inventions, books, accolades and other achievements) was the most important thing to him. His response followed his often-quoted remark, “only integrity is going to count.”

Bucky was so certain that integrity was the key to everything, that he named his beloved sailing schooner (the one seemingly extravagant material possession that he allowed himself) Integrity. He also made certain that his personal integrity was intact regardless of what other people thought or believed.

Bucky’s definition of integrity is structural. Anything that has integrity holds its shape regardless of external circumstances. Success demands such a rigorous accountability. First, one must determine her or his “shape.”

You need to know who you are, to have core values and to work at maintaining your internal and external integrity as much as possible. Then, like Bucky, you will have a life that you experience as genuinely successful.

You will also find yourself living your dream, making numerous contributions to others and feeling genuinely fulfilled. You will also find your “shape”/integrity challenged by external conditions and other people. Success will require that you do your best to maintain your shape just as Bucky and all the great teachers and leaders have done and are continuing to do.

And your success may not look like others would have it. You may be perfectly content living a simple, sustainable life rather than pursuing the “American Dream.” You may appreciate walking and using public transportation rather than owning an automobile. And you may prefer spending your time with family and friends rather than chasing after the next big career promotion.

We all have to make such life decisions, but they are easier when you come from the context of maintaining your personal integrity—knowing that you are “holding your shape.” Then, success is something that you choose rather than something that is imposed upon you by society, governments, parents, friends, or corporations.

1.4 “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me ‘Trim Tab.’”

By Werner Erhard

GUEST COMMENTATOR

What Bucky says here stands out for me because Bucky’s words speak powerfully to something basic in all of us—the desire to make a difference, to have our lives matter. Bucky refused to be limited by the conventional wisdom that there is nothing one little individual can do to make a big difference. This notion led to a resignation that became a frame for living for many people. Yet Bucky came to see that in fact each person is capable of making a profound difference in their own life and in the lives of others. He saw and spoke that the individual, any individual, has the power to take a stand, and live from the stand that who they are and what they do can make a difference, and that by doing so they become a trim tab literally capable of turning the ship of life.

Thanks to his grandson, Jaime Snyder (who had taken the est Training), I had the opportunity to meet Bucky. At the time, Jaime was 20, I was 40, and Bucky was 80—Bucky liked the symmetry. As Bucky and I got to know each other, I heard what could inspire people. We invited Bucky to meet with graduates of the est Training and their friends and families, and between 1976 and 1979 somewhere close to 100,000 people came to hear Bucky in seven cities across the United States. One thing I’ve learned from having the privilege of interacting intimately with tens of thousands of people is that the hunger to make a difference and contribute is fundamental for us human beings. People are willing to take great risks when presented with an opportunity to make a difference. In a moment of crisis, Bucky discovered that in himself, and he found a way to speak words that allowed other people to get in touch with that passion for themselves. I watched people when Bucky spoke, and people heard him and were deeply moved and inspired to action by his words.

In 1979 a group of UCLA scientists published a study of graduates of the est Training, “Separate Realities: A Comparative Study of Estians, Psychoanalysands, and the Untreated.” The study concluded that est graduates had a high degree of concern for others (higher than the two comparative groups in the study). In the events Bucky did for est graduates he spoke to that higher degree of concern for others, profoundly validating each person who heard him. The analogy of the trim tab to shift the course of a giant ocean liner was met with enthusiasm. Participants adopted it and immediately began applying it for themselves, choosing the difference they could personally make for themselves and for their communities. We founded The Hunger Project (committed to the end of hunger) with Bucky’s participation based on these same principles that the individual makes the difference.

Sam Daley-Harris and Jeff Bridges are well-known individuals who have demonstrated Bucky’s principles. When Sam attended a Hunger Project event in 1977 he was a music teacher in Florida. Sam was deeply moved by the idea that “the little individual” could make a difference; he declared that he would create his “own form of participation in ending hunger,” and in doing so created what has become his lifetime commitment to ending global hunger. Sam founded Results, which became the largest and most effective grass roots lobbying organization in the United States for the end of global hunger. In the late 1980s Sam met Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, and worked in partnership with him using the network he had established with The Hunger Project to get the Grameen Bank established throughout developing nations. In 2006 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.” Sam continues his work as Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign.

Jeff Bridges is best known worldwide as an actor. In the early 1980s, he brought together entertainment industry leaders and Hunger Project volunteers to found the End Hunger Network with a commitment to bringing Americans together to end hunger in the United States. And he didn’t stop there. In 2010, Jeff became the national spokesperson for the No Kid Hungry Campaign, dedicated to eradicating childhood hunger in America by 2015.

These are only examples of individuals whose names you may recognize, but there are many thousands of individuals whose names you would likely not recognize who have embraced Bucky’s words and live their lives as Trim Tabs.

Bucky made it clear and accessible that every human being can make a difference. I honor him for his humanity, for his friendship, and for the legacy of possibility he leaves with us. I honor Bucky for having created in himself the humanity that let him say “Call me Trim Tab” in a way that every individual can continue to take actions that make a difference, putting their own feet out to turn the great ship.

WERNER ERHARD is an original thinker whose ideas have transformed the effectiveness and quality of life for millions of people and thousands of organizations. While popularly known for the est Training and the Forum, his models have been the source of new perspectives by thinkers and practitioners in fields as diverse as philosophy, business, education, psychotherapy, third world development, medicine, conflict resolution, and community building. He lectures widely, and has served as consultant to various corporations, foundations, and governmental agencies. Erhard was acknowledged in Forbes Magazine's 40th Anniversary issue as one of the major contributors to modern management thinking, and is a recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award. www.wernererhard.net.

By Justine Willis Toms

GUEST COMMENTATOR

In the 1970s when my husband Michael and I were in the early years of our broadcasting work, we had the enormous pleasure of spending many hours with R. Buckminster Fuller. Even though he was quite small in stature, his dynamic energy would fill a room. He would call everyone, men and women, “darling,” and insist they call him Bucky.

I was too shy to attend the first interview New Dimensions had with Bucky, so the first time I met him was at a reception in his honor, hosted by artist Ruth Asawa, in San Francisco. In those days, when entering new surroundings filled with strangers, it was my strategy to find a corner in which to hide.

I was in my corner when Michael and Bucky, who were talking together on the other side of the room, turned to face me. Then to my astonishment and panic, Bucky proceeded to navigate around tables, chairs, and couches, unmistakably heading in my direction. Arriving in front of me, he put out his hand and said, “I’m Bucky Fuller.”

I remember thinking how he needed no introduction; after all, everyone in the room knew who he was. But I was soon to learn how unassuming and humble he was. It was obvious he was not puffed up by his fame.

Then he made an extraordinary statement. He said that sitting down with Michael for the radio interview was an evolutionary event. I was amazed by this acknowledgement. It was my first inkling of the potential of our work to make a contribution to others. Fuller was concerned about sustainability and human survival and was optimistic about humanity’s future. Now, he was finding a new generation to join him in this most worthy endeavor. It was at that point he became a mentor for us and our work.

Since then I’ve spent many hours transcribing the numerous radio dialogues we’ve had with him. I was also privileged to participate in the weekend events called “Being with Bucky,” cosponsored by his grandson, Jaime Snyder, and New Dimensions.

During those events it was sometimes difficult to follow his explanations. He talked at the clip of a racehorse going for the finish line. When he got into the complexity of the math that made up his Synergetics, I would feel lost. But that didn’t matter because he was a transmitter. By virtue of his energy and enthusiasm, and his utter confidence in my ability to grasp what he was talking about, he could bypass my overwhelmed mind, and pour understanding and hope directly into my heart.

One concept of Bucky’s that has remained a touchstone for me over the years is that we can all be “trimtabs,”—that is we can play a role in changing the course of things. A trimtab is a small device that is part of the rudder mechanism, which plays a crucial role in controlling the direction of a ship or an airplane. The metaphor was so important to him that, “Call Me Trimtab,” serves as the epitaph on his gravestone.

In an interview with Barry Farrell published in Playboy in February 1972, Bucky said:

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary; the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab.

It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trimtab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trimtab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that, and the whole big ship of state is going to go.”

Farrell also quoted him as having said at the Buckminster Fuller Institute,

“When I thought about steering the course of the ‘Spaceship Earth’ and all of humanity, I saw most people trying to turn the boat by pushing the bow around. I saw that by being all the way at the tail of the ship, by just kicking my foot to one side or the other, I could create the ‘low pressure’ which would turn the whole ship.”

To understand this phenomenon, imagine a large ocean-going ship. To turn this enormous vessel in a new direction one must first adjust the trimtab, a miniscule rudder that runs the length of the larger rudder; once the trimtab is turned, the larger rudder follows. In fact, there are no mechanics yet devised that could turn the large rudder against the momentum of such a massive vessel without it breaking off. Only by first applying pressure to the trimtab will the larger rudder even begin to move, thereby changing the direction of the ship.

We might think of the planet Earth as a vessel moving through stormy seas. Each of us can be a trimtab by acting on our commitment to serve the greater good with our gifts, talents, experience, and confidence that we do make a difference.

Bucky was all about doing more with less. In the face of all that needs doing, I remind myself that I don’t need to do everything; however, I do need to do something. So, I apply the trimtab factor to find what I can do that takes the least amount of effort, which will give me the most leverage. It is the way nature works: the way rivers flow; the way the wind blows. I don’t have to feel overwhelmed by pushing against the momentum of my own life or even that of society. I need to find the trimtab that is mine, apply it and trust the difference it makes to the whole.

Whenever Bucky began a conversation with a new acquaintance, or even a group of people, he’d have to set the context from which all else would flow. This would include the entire history of civilization, and could take several hours or even several days. The last time we sat down with Bucky for our radio series, the format had been squeezed from four hours to one hour.

We were a bit worried how this conversation would go, knowing that Bucky would, no doubt, be setting the context. Bucky’s book Critical Path was just off the press, and sure enough he launched into the history of civilization. After about forty minutes, he finished and there was a back and forth dialogue between him and Michael covering many other subjects. After the interview Bucky smiled, put a fatherly hand on Michael’s shoulder, and said, “Michael, I got it down to forty minutes just for you.”

It was our deepest pleasure knowing and being with Bucky through those last years of his life. His ideas and hope for humanity and his confidence that each of us is a trimtab for good lives on.

JUSTINE WILLIS TOMS is co-founder, host, and managing producer of New Dimensions Radio/Media, which has been broadcasting continuously since 1973, producing and distributing life-affirming, socially significant, and spiritually relevant programming throughout the world. She is the author of Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World. Learn more about her work at www.newdimensions.org.

“CALL ME TRIMTAB” IS THE INSCRIPTION BUCKMINSTER Fuller instructed be carved on the headstone of his grave, and these three words encapsulate how he was able to achieve so much in one short lifetime. The trimtab is a small rudder that changes the course of a ship with very little effort, and it served Bucky as a symbol of what “the little man” can accomplish.

Some cultures call this phenomenon leverage. The Buddhists refer to it as skillful means. It’s the process of doing more with less that Bucky championed throughout his “56-Year Experiment” to determine and document what one individual could accomplish.

Regardless of the label, trimtab is how every person’s action can make the most difference. It’s also how “we the people” will redirect the path of human evolution from our current state in which we are dominated by war, competition, scarcity, and fear to our natural state of peace, cooperation, abundance, and love. And it’s a tool that anyone can use to create the life they desire and “a world that works for everyone.”

If you want to use the trimtab principle to create success with the least effort and resources, all you need to do is discover how to achieve more with less. And as you increase your “more with lessing,” your project (and probably you) becomes more of a trimtab on many levels.

For example, I could (and often do) talk about Bucky with friends, family associates, and strangers, and I am more than willing to share what I understand with anyone who is interested and wants to learn. These one-on-one encounters are usually productive and enjoyable, but they’re not very efficient. When I make similar presentations to groups of people, the event is more of a trimtab because I am achieving more with the same amount of effort. A group is also a trimtab for results because each person brings unique experience and insights to share. And the larger the group the greater the effect and the greater the trimtab factor.

Taking this analogy one step farther, by writing this book I again increase the effect as the book can reach many more people than I can in my personal engagements. I can continue that trimtab effect by recording my presentations and sharing those recordings on the Internet as well as in hard copy DVDs or mp3s. Further increasing the trimtab effect, these artifacts will continue to be of use to others long after I have died.

So, I say to you—“Call me Trimtab.” And I challenge you to look for ways that you can be a trimtab for positive change in your life and on behalf of all sentient beings. That’s the only way we humans are going to survive and thrive as a species and as individuals.

This is also true on a global scale. Most people believe that governments, corporations and other organizations can successfully steer the great ship that Buckminster Fuller named Spaceship Earth, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Our planet currently has hundreds of government, corporate, and religious leaders trying to do that, and they are failing because their actions are akin to people all trying to push a huge ocean liner from different places along its hull. Very few people understand that as Bucky explained, “We need one captain, and that captain must have as much timely data as possible in order to make the most effective decisions regarding the course of our ship (global society).” No single human or group of people can perform this duty because it is simply too enormous and no person can act from a completely unbiased perspective. No matter how noble our intentions, we all have prejudices.

Bucky often pointed out that only an impartial computer system can make the most effective, efficient decisions on behalf of all life. Once the computer makes these decisions, they can be implemented by a single captain or group of appointed officials who are chosen to do that job because they have excellent administrative skills in a particular area.

Such “leaders” are exceptional administrators who work in a position because of their skill and not as a result of the money they used to win an election. In other words, they are paid administrators not the elected politicians that got us into our current mess and who are in fact obsolete players working in an obsolete system called politics.

Bucky spent most of his adult life advocating that each of us follow what he had learned and become trimtabs for the causes and solutions that will create his vision of “a world that works for everyone.” It was his final message to us, and it remains carved in stone as a reminder to us all.

1.5 “We now have the resources, technology and knowhow to make of this world a 100% physical success.”

By Barbara Marx Hubbard

GUEST COMMENTATOR

Buckminster Fuller evolved my life in so many ways. The first was when I read his book Utopia or Oblivion in the 1960s. I was on a search for answers to two questions that arose in my mind after the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. “What is the meaning of all our new powers that is good? What are positive images of the future equal to these powers?”

In my search I read through religion, philosophy, and technology. I found this quote from Utopia or Oblivion, and it changed my life and gave me the clue to the answer to my question. Bucky offered his Design Science Revolution as an answer. He had probed deeply into the way nature works. He said, “Humanity is undergoing a viability test …” At that time he told us we had fifty years to demonstrate our viability … or fail.

This is exactly what is happening. It’s about fifty years since I read it. His insights galvanized me to try to understand how we could work with nature to transform the world.

I formed the Committee for the Future in Washington, and in 1971 we held the first conference called “Mankind in the Universe” at Southern Illinois University. Bucky was Scholar in Residence at that time. The conference was about our ability to develop a positive Earth/Space Human Development process.

I was speaking on the platform to discontented students dressed in costumes of protest. When I spoke of our potential to become a universal species, one of the students stood up and said: “Why would you want to send this disease— humanity—into the universe?”

I felt I had to defend humanity! An anger came over me. I said fiercely: “You, stand up now! How dare you criticize the whole human race that got you from caves to the moon? What are you doing that’s good?”

He sat down!

The next day Tom Turner, Bucky’s director of special projects came up to me and said that Bucky had an announcement to make. We were on the stage together. Everyone was attentive. Tom read from a note: “Dr. Fuller recommends that Barbara Marx Hubbard run for president of the United States. It’s about time that we have women carrying the positive options for the future into politics.”

We were stunned. The audience stood up and cheered and signed a petition that I do this. Bucky felt that the idea of conscious evolution—our capacity to solve our problems and become a viable universal species—was right.

I didn’t run then, but in 1983 he urged me again. I undertook an idea campaign to be selected as the vice presidential nominee by whomever would be nominated for president on the Democratic ticket. It was Walter Mondale. I was the other woman nominated along with Geraldine Ferraro.

I had had an appointment to see Bucky. I had been studying his Critical Path. I called him and said I wanted to know exactly what he felt were the most important issues for me to run on. “Were there any of his students I should talk with,” I asked?

“No, darling,” he said, “You must see me.”

He died just before I could get to see him.

I did my best to put his ideas forward during the campaign. The key idea was that we need a new social function in the White House. At the time, I called it an Office for the Future and a “Peace Room” to be as sophisticated as the war room. Its purpose is to scan for, map, connect, and communicate what is working in the world to mobilize for coherent action. I felt that this would enhance the Design Science Revolution. It is about to be built now as Internet technology has advanced to the stage of being able to do just this.

The last thing I want to mention is the deepest. I had had a Christ experience in 1980. It had guided me to the New Testament. I was inspired by this Christ presence to write an Evolutionary Interpretation of the New Testament called the Book of Cocreation. It looked at the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation with evolutionary eyes, realizing that our generation was gaining the power to do exactly what Jesus said we would.

He was a universal human—ourselves in the future. We are gaining powers we used to attribute to our gods. I could see that if we can evolve our own Christ consciousness (love) to guide our Christ-like capacities and powers brought by technology we can heal, we can produce in abundance, we can travel the Earth with the speed of light as holograms, we can do virgin births, etc. Then, we can actually fulfill Bucky’s dream of “a world that works for everyone.”

Prior to his death, I sent Bucky a manuscript of the book I was writing. Later, I was scheduled to speak at the Annenberg Communication Center in Los Angeles with him, and he sent word down that he was “reading something” and that I was to speak to him alone. He wanted to see me afterward, in the Garden—alone.

He came down carrying my manuscript under his arms. We went into the Garden, and he closed the gate. He put his arms around me, touching his forehead to mine, saying, “Darlin’ there is only God, there is nothing but God.”

He proceeded to tell me that one day he had been walking down a street in Chicago when he felt a light lift him off the pavement, and he heard the words, “Bucky, you are to be a first mini-Christ on Earth. What you attest to is always true.”

He told me that he had gone to the New Testament and had written a document almost identical to my Book of Cocreation. Then, he hid it. “I could not use the words Christ or God,” he told me, “because I am an engineer.” He said he had hid the manuscript of his New Testament writings, but now he wanted to support my writings. When I asked for an endorsement he wrote:

“There is no doubt in my mind that Barbara Hubbard, who founded the Committee for the Future and helped introduce the concept of futurism to society, is the best informed human now alive regarding that movement and the foresights that it has produced.”

What he meant, I believe, is that both of us had a Christ experience that revealed to us the evolution of humanity from a self-centered, creature human to a whole-centered, spirit-centered universal human that is at one with the Processes of Creation and Nature.

When he put his forehead to mine I think he zapped me with the Design Science Revolution, as he did to so many others. He was and is a true light in our lives for the evolution of humanity.

BARBARA MARX HUBBARD is the founder of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. You can learn more about her work at her website www.evolve.org.

THIS SIMPLE STATEMENT REPRESENTS THE ESSENCE OF Buckminster Fuller’s most famous campaigns and is the hallmark of almost all of his work. He focused much of his life on educating people to this basic truth. And he was constantly crusading for the success of all people by reminding his audiences that such a feat was not just some pie-in-the-sky possibility but rather a necessity if humankind is to survive and thrive.

Bucky would often recount that comprehensive success is now the single option available for the survival of humankind, and that it had to be the success of everybody or nobody. This paradigm shift from “you or me” to “you and me” is essential to his message and the welfare of future generations.

Although he also worked in and talked about unseen metaphysical realms, Bucky is known for championing the fact that we now have the ability to support all people at a higher standard of living than anyone currently experiences. He was making this seemingly outlandish statement in the late 1970s, and it is as true today as it was then.

There is enough to go around, and we are fortunate that Bucky discovered that this unique paradigm shift would occur in his lifetime. During his 1930s stint at Fortune Magazine, he was able to access data on all global resources and to calculate 1976 as the year when technology would allow us to do so much more with fewer and fewer resources that there would be enough to support all life on Earth.

We now know that Bucky’s prediction was correct for food, but it was also true for all resources, both physical and metaphysical. Still, fifty thousand people die of starvation every day of the year while food goes to waste in many regions of the world. This is not the “you and me” culture that Bucky said was necessary, and we need to make a drastic shift very quickly if we are to survive and thrive.

We have the “resources, technology, and know-how,” but we need to rapidly shift our use of them from weaponry to what Bucky labeled livingry. The distinction is quite simple. Weaponry-focused resources support death and destruction while livingry-centered resources support sustainable evolution and life. Livingry includes things like food, shelter, clothing, education, clean water, pure air, an infrastructure that supports the welfare of all sentient beings, and other life supporting activities.

This is the simple strategy that Bucky proposed again and again in his presentations and writing, and it can be applied to both global and individual activities. If there truly are enough resources to support everyone, each of us needs to begin acting appropriately. Greed and hoarding need to end immediately. War is obsolete as there is no need to fight over abundant resources. And people no longer need to work for a living or as Bucky used to say “work to earn the right to live.”

We all have unique gifts that we can contribute to the whole of society and each other. In a world that is a “100% physical success,” we can each share our gifts freely with our neighbors be they across the street or on the other side of the planet.

1.6 “Love is metaphysical gravity.”

By Gary Zukav

GUEST COMMENTATOR

Bucky said, “Love is metaphysical gravity.” I agree. What else could it be? Without gravity you would float like an astronaut in a spacecraft. Up and down would mean nothing to you. Your slightest motion would send you tumbling head over feet or rolling uncontrollably. If you pushed hard against a wall, you would shoot backward fast until you hit another wall. If the lights in the spacecraft went out, you would have no way at all of orienting yourself.

Without love the same thing happens. Every experience of anger, jealousy, resentment, and fear sends you spinning out of control. You have no way of knowing up from down except what your anger shows you, and it always shows you that you are right and someone else is wrong, that you are a victim and someone else is a villain. The more you act in anger, jealousy, resentment, or fear, the more painful consequences you create. You careen helplessly, spinning, rolling, hitting walls you can’t avoid and colliding with others.

Love grounds you. It orients you. Love brings your awareness to others and yourself. Love opens your mind and heart to others and yourself. Love settles you and gives you balance. When you choose to become sensitive and caring instead of frightened and selfish, your anger turns to appreciation, your jealousy to gratitude, and your resentment to caring. You cannot loose your orientation: When your deeds harm others, you are in fear, and when you create harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life, you are in love. The ground beneath you is always solid.

That is why mystics say that only love is real. They also say that pursuing what is not real brings only pain. Now we are all becoming able to see for ourselves that we are parts of a larger fabric of Life and experience for ourselves what Bucky saw so clearly: Gravity calls you to the Earth. Love calls you to Life. And they always will.

GARY ZUKAV is author of The Seat of the Soul and Spiritual Partnership: The Journey to Authentic Power. His website is www.seatofthesoul.com.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER OFTEN SPOKE OF LOVE, BUT HIS definition was far from our romantic idea of the concept. For Bucky, love was all pervasive and inclusive of everyone and everything. Thus, the term “metaphysical gravity.”

As far as we know, gravity is a universal cosmic principle. It exists everywhere and cannot be escaped while operating in physical reality, and in the realm of the metaphysical (things that cannot be experienced by our physical senses), the same is true of love. It pervades everything. It is the cosmic glue that binds us into a universal oneness that is now reemerging as more needed and relevant than ever on Spaceship Earth.

Another of Bucky’s more poetic explanations of love is,

“Love is omni-inclusive,
Progressively exquisite,
Understanding and tender
And compassionately attuned
To other than self.”

Rather than saying all encompassing, the poetic and scientific Bucky coined the term “omni-inclusive” to describe the limitlessness of love. This fits nicely with his definition of love as “metaphysical gravity.” In both instances, Bucky reminds us that love is everywhere and infers that all we need to do is be present and feel to know true love in its purest form.

Bucky goes on to give voice to something beyond words when he says that love is “progressively exquisite.” In other words, as time passes, love becomes increasingly delicate and beautiful. This insight could only come from a person who has experienced love over many years or remembered lifetimes, and Bucky wrote this poetic verse late in his life. From personal experience he knew that true love expands out over time like a spider’s web.

He also recognized that true love is tender and founded on a compassion that can be experienced as a frequency attunement or focus on someone or something other than oneself. In other words, true love appears when a person’s attention is on the welfare of others in an egoless state. Generally, we experience such a state for only for short periods of time even though we strive to maintain it on a continuous basis.

Bucky was able to sustain this unique state more than most because he followed a discipline of looking for what needed to be done that was not being attended to and doing that. Such an unselfish attitude is fundamental to giving and receiving the love we all seek. By giving his gifts freely, Bucky became a living demonstration of love in action, and because of his public openness millions of people have modeled their lives after his.

1.7 “Nature always knows what to do when it takes over after humans have signed off. Nature never vacillates in its instantaneous decisions.”

By Jack Elias

GUEST COMMENTATOR

I love this Bucky quote because it points out a simple and profound truth that always goes tragically unexamined—nature is instantaneous in its function. If we contemplated this reality and let a felt sense of this reality arise in us, we would quickly be free. I learned to focus on this ‘nature of nature’ from my Buddhist teachers, Shunryo Suzuki Roshi and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The teaching is, ‘Let go and trust your Big Mind.’ So, I think of Bucky as a natural Buddhist.

Big Mind is all-inclusive—appreciating Big Mind and contemplating Big Mind means to recognize that we obviously arise from Nature, live in Nature, and our substance is of Nature, known and unknown, seen and unseen. It follows that our function is identical to Nature’s function—inseparable from it—and it makes sense to synchronize ourselves with our Nature Self.

This is where it gets interesting. We seem to be able to separate from that which cannot be separated from! How is this possible? It is possible only in dream, only in hallucination, only in trance.

I came upon hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) after studying and practicing Buddhism for fifteen years. I experienced what was valuable in hypnosis and NLP to be bits and pieces of Buddhist wisdom and technique. I developed a synthesis of hypnosis, NLP, and Buddhism I call Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP.

The view of this method is that we are in trance all the time—we think we live in the world but we live in our mind. Thinking this, hallucinating this, we overlook our actual activity and relationships. We can actually go in circles damaging ourselves and our environment and never recognize our mistakes and that we are creating own demise. We convincing (hypnotically) suggest to ourselves that it is someone else’s fault. And then we create conflict, making things even worse.

When the pain or exhaustion is great enough, people may seek out help. They come for help believing change is going to be “hard,” take a long time, and very likely that they are not up to it. I introduce what I consider to be a Bucky-Buddhist orientation to therapy. Change is effortless and instantaneous and we are full of all the robust resourcefulness we need—because our substance is Nature itself.

The only thing keeping us from experiencing effortless release from our problems is the hypnotic quality of language and of our thinking. It seems ‘hard to change’ when we think we have to battle our demons and our confusion. It is frustrating and fruitless because we are making mistaken effort in the wrong direction. Bucky also said,

“Everything in Universe is in motion, and everything in motion is always traveling in the direction of least resistance.”

We hypnotically ignore this quality of our own being to keep creating blockages, all the while telling ourselves we are trying to do better! Why do we suffer from these activities? Because the blockages we create in trying to make things better are blocking the spontaneous force of the universal energy moving through us in the direction of least resistance! The way to healing, clarity, and release from suffering is to stop fighting and grasping and to let go and let the flow of the universe wash us clean.

Buddha taught that the root of suffering is grasping based on the perception (hallucination) of self and other in threatening competition. Apparently he understood what Bucky understood—you can’t fight Mother Nature without causing yourself suffering. She moves through us, as us, in the direction of least resistance (felt as joy and enthusiasm). The blocks we create are created out of our own energy—we block ourselves, our flow, by creating a counter flow, a grasping, and that creates pain and confusion.

Hypnotic suggestion creates confirming hypnotic hallucination. Because we hypnotically suggest to ourselves that we are doing the right thing, when we feel the pain and confusion, we see ourselves doing the right thing and we invest more energy in the blocking activity and so the vicious cycle begins.

We can turn this hypnotic grasping thinking around. We can end the false hallucination of warring self and other. As Bucky said,

“Humanity is taking its final examination. We have come to an extraordinary moment when it doesn’t have to be you or me. There is enough for all. We need not operate competitively any longer. If we succeed, it will be because of youth, truth and love.”

JACK ELIAS (jack@FindingTrueMagic.com) is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, and contributing author to If I Were Your Daddy, This Is What You’d Learn. He is the director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning (http://FindingTrueMagic.com). Through on-site and distance learning programs, Jack teaches a unique synthesis of Eastern and Western perspectives on the nature of consciousness and communication to an international student body. In counseling and coaching (http://findingtruemagic.com/lucid -heart-therapy/), he presents simple yet powerful techniques for achieving one’s highest personal and professional goals.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER NEVER CLAIMED THAT HE INVENTED anything new. Instead, he asserted that he was just observing Nature and following her lead. His famous geodesic dome is a perfect example of that strategy. It is an exact replica of the shell of viruses and other structures that occur naturally throughout our physical environment.

He also noted that Nature has and will continue to take over when humans have given up, been overwhelmed, or not known what to do. We only need look at the remnants of “lost” civilizations that have “disappeared” to see this principle in action.

In every part of the world we find the remains of cultures that have disappeared, and in every case Nature has taken over and returned the land to its natural state. Nature is relentless and persistent. She follows Winston Churchill’s mandate to the British people during World War II when he chided them to “never, never, never, never give up.”

Nature, however, does not need a reminder to never give up. She simply continues doing what needs to be done to maintain a sustainable balance and to support all life on Earth.

Unlike humans, she does not stop to hold a committee meeting when a crisis arises. She does not seek the expertise of anything or anyone other than what Bucky labeled “the divine mind always available in each individual.” Nature takes immediate action in support of balance and sustainability, and her actions are always exactly what is needed—never using too many or too few resources.

Nature is the perfect administrator of all activities, and we humans would be wise to follow Bucky Fuller’s strategy of continually mirroring Nature in all our activities and creations. That was how he came up with Synergetic Math. That system is based on the integrity of Nature’s construction and triangulation rather than the manmade concept of math and construction based on unstable right angles. Nature builds with triangulated structures because they balance tension and compression internally.

Bucky recognized that we humans, like everything on Earth and throughout the cosmos, are part of Nature. He did his best to learn the laws Nature imposes on all things so that he could work within those laws rather than the laws made by men. He also respected the enormous power of Nature, and her innate desire to have everything (including humans) succeed. This is evident in his statement,

“Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but Nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment.”

He understood that a perfectly balanced, sustainable system such as Nature would never depend on a single entity or site to solve a critical problem or fulfill a critical need. This is evident when we consider something as obvious as the human body. Nature designed all our important systems with a back up. We are designed with two eyes, two ears, and even two kidneys.

When Nature sets out to solve a problem or get a job done, she always has at least one back up in her design. She also moves quickly as is evident when grass and flowers quickly start springing up between the cracks of manmade pavement. And she never gives up in supporting the sustainable success of all creation. Accordingly, we would be wise to follow Bucky’s lead and mirror Nature in all our activities.

UNIVERSAL PERSPECTIVE OF GRATITUDE AND EQUANIMITY

CHAPTER CONCLUSION

1.8 “I don’t have any favorite places or people. I love the whole show. A large number of beautiful people have taught me a great deal, and I am deeply indebted to them for their support.”

DAILY LIFE ON EARTH IS A “TEAM SPORT,” AND IT WORKS best if we are on a “team” of people we love. After decades of looking to see what worked and what didn’t, Buckminster Fuller realized that he (like all of us) was on a global team—the crew of the planet he named Spaceship Earth. He also came to understand that the “whole show” is an amazing series of relationship experiences, and that everybody living on Earth is, in fact, a player in the team sport “whole show.”

After he attained this perspective, Bucky felt and often expressed great gratitude toward everybody and everything. Even in the last years of his eighty-eight year life when he was still busy writing, speaking and inventing, many people would be surprised to receive a personal response from him to a letter or phone call. He truly loved all people and was grateful for what they had taught him and contributed to his life, and he realized that he had a responsibility to do the same for others. This was particularly true of children who regarded him as the wise old grandfather and for whom he would do his best to make time.

Not one to ignore the “little individual,” Bucky was supportive of many people and initiatives, and he did his best to love everyone equally. In the later years of his life, he said that he had no favorites because he had learned that we are all One, and his daily life reflected that creed.

In almost all his thoughts and actions Bucky was keenly aware and appreciative of the beauty and significance of every person, place, and thing. So, he really did not have favorites, and he treated all people and sentient beings with equal respect and admiration.

Eventually he began to inspire his fellow crewmembers on board Spaceship Earth by continually reminding us that he was simply an average individual doing what he saw needed to be done that was not being attended to. He would follow that statement with his conviction that those listening to him were capable of much more in their lives than he had ever achieved. By telling people that “learning experiences” (a.k.a. mistakes) are necessary to our evolution and growth, he would remind his audiences that the reason he was standing in front of the room speaking was that he had made more mistakes than anyone in attendance.

Life was an ongoing learning experience for Bucky, who was considered a failure for much of his life. Still, he was continually grateful for every experience that came his way and every person who helped him on his path even if that “help” appeared as a challenge.

His ongoing equanimity and eternal gratitude are two of the practices that led to his success as well as to the love and respect that was showered upon him during the last decades of his life. He accepted and was appreciative of everyone he encountered, and that view led to his being fondly called “Grandfather of the Universe” by thousands of his fellow Spaceship Earth crewmembers.