Preparing document for printing, ee‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 add value judgement — and in our opinion, an invalid judgement. That is, we think that we are ‘superior’ to plankton This leads us to assume that we are somehow better and more important in some way. This is our first incorrect conception — an erroneous idea born out of the feelings and thinking of our lower ego. In order to neutralize this thinking in ourselves, let us instead use here the terms ‘senior’ and ‘junior’ rather than the more misunderstood ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ Let us now consider another example from Nature that is very familiar to us, As we have said, hierarchy exists throughout Nature and if we look around us we can certainly find many examples of it. One example particularly close to home is our own body. It should come as no surprise that if we make a study of our own body we will also discover plenty of examples of hierarchy at work. At the same time, we will also gain further and additional insights into how hierarchy functions both at our own physical level, but through analogy, how it is working on the spiritual level Taking an overall or a synthetic view, the first thing we can say about the human body is that itis a unified assembly of various distinct parts. Yet, in spite of being such an assembly of parts, the body nevertheless manages to express a coherent whole or a unity which has its own purpose and scope. Thus, within this assembly we can distinguish a number of distinct parts or dissimilarities that are all work together for a common purpose: bones, muscles, tendons, organs, blood circulation, nerves and various homeostatic systems that are controlling things like body temperature, metabolic level, blood sugar levels and so on One such bodily system, is the control of the water levels in our body. This is a very complex system that includes the scavenging of water from the material that is transitioning our colon, which is replacing the loss of water through our skin, respiration and bladder. It includes the interplay between our blood, kidneys, bladder so that a healthy water balance maintained. Many factors are at work here to maintain ‘Water Homeostasis’ in our body. As we can see, this one system alone is exceedingly complicated. Indeed, it would take page upon page of explanation to give a full exposition of the working of this system in our body. So what do we actually experience with respect to different levels of water in our body? For the most part, since we usually automatically drink sufficient water and also get water from the food we eat, we do not necessarily notice the workings of this homeostatic system. We are ‘unconscious of its activity. But | have no doubt that you have all noticed the sensation of being thirsty. When thirsty, our eyes and mouth feels dry. This is, we can say, a side effects that is produced when the body attempts to 20f8‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 maintain sufficient water levels in the critical organs of our body. In extreme cases, when suffering heat stroke for instance, the ‘signals’ become even more extreme and will include symptoms such as dizziness, muscular weakness, nausea and even seizures. Luckily most of us will respond to the dry mouth signal and our natural instincts will kick in and make us go and fetch a glass of water to drink. In most cases this craving for water, or feeling thirst, is generated from a central processing part of the brain based on various signals gathered from signals produced across the body: these include our blood pressure, osmolites (salts) concentrations, nervous signals from various organs due to osmotic pressure. As we have said. It is a complex and intricate system Thus one way of speaking about hierarchy is to view it as a means of passing information (or signals) from one level to another whether that be from the junior to the senior or the senior to junior. And we should not forget that there is a degree of integration of that information within and relevant to the level in question. The job then of each level is to respond appropriately to the information it is receiving either from above or from below. So, to return to our water processing example, as the quantity of water drops in our body, we eventually notice that we are thirsty and are obliged to act upon it. Notice here that there are multiple parallel or different hierarchies or organisations at work. One, for example, is the monitoring while the other is pushing us to drink some water. The former is also controlling water level and not just monitoring Based on this we can clearly say that hierarchy has a number of innate properties. First we can say that there is a collaboration between the parts within any given level — a working together in harmony. This is true unless of course there is a pathological problem in the body. Excluding that situation, we can deduce, for instance, that the cells within the kidney are working together for a particular purpose and not contrary ‘one to the other. Another point is that this system has a ‘negative feedback’. An example of a positive feedback is when we place a microphone too close to a speaker and a positive feedback is produced. We hear the characteristic high pitch squeal which obliges us to turn the volume down rather quickly. In our example of thirst, negative feedback dampens down our desire to continue drinking water. So after a period of time, we stop drinking liquid because our thirst is assuaged To that observation we might also argue that the kidney cells are unconscious or genetically programmed to carry out such works, but this is a rather superficial comment as for sure, these cells integrally respond to their surroundings, react to the various environmental information they are receiving, and are fully aware how they need to respond. We should not mix up Man's possibility to go against the natural laws and the degree of consciousness that we imagine might exist in the cells of our body. 30f8‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 Thus studying Water Homeostasis, we see that there is a vast array of cells, organs, hormones, nerves and brain centres that are involved in keeping the bodily water levels between normal bounds. Various systems are providing the necessary information, sensations and signals and they act as the ‘junior’ partner by providing the necessary and essential information to trigger the ‘senior’ partner (the mind) to be aware that we need to seek out water. Clearly, for the most part, these ‘junior’ balancing processes and elements are completely unconscious to us as they are to our ‘senior’ mental state. And, from a strictly informational point of view, the ‘junior’ simply becomes ‘noticed’ by the ‘senior’ because our mouth is dry. So the junior elements are providing the sensations needed for the ‘senior’ elements to respond appropriately. Of course, at the same time, these ‘junior’ elements continue to carry out all the second- by-second activities of which we are wholly ignorant of, There are many different ways for us to interpret how hierarchy is applied and is working in Nature. We can appreciate that itis quite useful to find as many different ways as possible of looking at hierarchy - in the realisation that each will enhance our understanding a little further. Now for the most part, we rarely remark about our seeking out water because it just happens without us needing to pay attention. It is so natural and familiar that we do not give it much thought or assign it any particular importance. And, there are many such examples of similar bodily processes that go unremarked. We rarely notice our breathing, for instance, but imagine if we had to mentally monitor and control our breathing for every second of the day. We would quickly end up forgetting to breath So we can appreciate more fully now how important these ‘junior’ colleagues are. Without them we would be unable to maintain our life. Conversely, if our ‘senior’ faculties do not assert themselves sufficiently on the ‘junior faculties then we can end in difficulties. Using another straightforward example, if we are not careful how much we eat we might end up devouring too much or too little. This will eventually put our life at risk as many eating disorders have demonstrated. So each level of the hierarchy is important — the senior and junior, the inferior and the superior. The important factor here is the harmonious balance between them. From an initiatic point of view, we can consider the human body to be comprised of a temmary hierarchy: the head, the chest and the abdomen. These are analogically a reflection of our spirit, soul and body or we can say, the part that thinks, the part that allows us emotions and the part that provides us with sensations. We can also add to this analogy that the head or spirit corresponds to our nervous system, the circulatory system or hormones to our chest or soul and the digestive system or chemical energy (ATP) to the abdomen. 4of8‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 ‘As we have said before, we cannot do without any of the three. Therefore, to speak of the spirit as ‘superior’ is trite. Indeed, we only have to see how even a minor ‘dysfunction in our digestive system or hormones, or metabolic ATP, for it to be catastrophically crippling to the rest of our being. For instance, the nerves cells in our body need oxygen to work. This oxygen is delivered by the blood that is circulating between the lungs and the brain. And all these organs are dependent upon the delivery of energy that is extracted by the digestive system from the food that we eat. Again the delivery of this energy, ATP, is delivered via the circulatory system. So our head — the brain, needs the chest — the lungs and blood circulation, which both are dependent on the abdomen — the digestive system for its chemical energy. Now we instinctively know that the brain, which is located in our head, is the centre of our awareness. We would not put our awareness in our belly although what is in our head can certainly become aware of our stomach. And because of that, we can say that the head is ‘senior’ to our heart and to our belly. But with such a position of seniority, there comes an associated responsibility. For example, if we let our stomach govern our eating habits we may very well end up with an inappropriately sized abdomen and more than likely, a rather over stressed heart due to the accumulation of fats in and around the heart. In such a situation, we would expect the ‘head’ of the person to assert its responsibility and seek to moderate the demands of the belly. We can look at this as an appropriate and reasonable application of hierarchy. In contrast, we should keep in mind that it is also perfectly possible for the mind to impose itself inappropriately on its ‘junior’ members. For instance, our mind might become so drunk with its power and its will to control our food intake, that it then starts to impose all sorts of unhealthy diets upon the body. Of course, some dieting can be helpful for a certain period of time, but if this becomes excessive or the norm, we might unwittingly also end up starving our body of essential minerals, vitamins and proteins. This is not an appropriate and reasonable understanding and application of hierarchy. So what is the responsibility of the mind or senior member here? ‘An obvious answer and one which respects roles on all the various levels, junior to senior, is to provide as broad but as moderate a diet as we can. We do this in the perfect knowledge that the abdomen, as represented by the digestive system, is wise enough to extract out the essential elements, vitamin and proteins necessary for the perfect running and maintenance of our body. So how does this change our view of how should hierarchy be expressed correctly in humanity? We can use symbolism to express various aspects of hierarchy. Normally hierarchy is drawn as an equilateral triangle: 5of8‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 In such a structure we would say that the most senior person is located at the top of the triangle whilst the junior individuals would be located further down towards the base. This then is the typical representation of the hierarchy of authority or the hierarchy of power or the hierarchy of how work actually gets done the hierarchy of work, But what then for responsibility? For this, we might use the following symbol Here we have the hierarchy of responsibility. That is, the width of the triangle at different levels shows the degree of responsibility required at that level. The wider the triangle, the greater the responsibility. In other words, the further up the hierarchy we find ourselves, the greater our responsibilities will be. Or, to put it another way, the more senior the level, the greater the degree of responsibility towards those in or under our care. Itis unfortunate that this simple idea seems so little respected today in human life and whether we are speaking of collectives such as companies or indeed general interactions between individuals and couples. Avoidance of proper responsibilty is the source of many dysfunctions in relationships and a cause of many a problem. We might also assign to this symbol the degree of information or the hierarchy of information. Combining these two symbols we get: 6of8‘Study of Hierarchy ~ part |- 04 Of course, this symbol has had many meanings associated with it over the years, but in relation to what we have been considering here, we can reframe its symbolism to mean that the higher up the hierarchy we find ourselves, the more ‘senior’ we are and greater the degree of responsibility’ is required from us. That is, the higher up the hierarchy, the greater is our responsibility to help and look after our juniors under our care. ‘And yet another way of considering the issue is to rotate this triangle on its side thus: This reframes the concept of hierarchy from a ‘top-down’ structure to the idea of a ‘supply-line’ structure. On the left we have the directing principle and on the right we have all the people carrying out the work flowing from the directing principle. In the army this would be the general on the left and the front line soldiers on the right. In a commercial company it would be the managing director on the left and the people who are carrying out the work for the customer on the right. In both examples, the intermediate layers have two goals: 1) to ensure that the level immediately to the right in our diagram, is provided with the ‘tools’ necessary to do its work and 2) to transmit to the directing level to the left all the necessary information regarding issues or problems that require attention. That is, the intermediate block is there to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted running of the whole... We can draw a direct parallel from the example of the circulatory system delivering the ATP energy from the abdomen to the head. In this way, the whole system can function as an integral unit and avoid and disruptions that will cause a suffering of the whole 70f8‘Study of hierarchy - part |- 04 The question now arises — how should a proper understanding of hierarchy be applied to life and in particular our spiritual life and growth? (to be continued) KePu i March 2015 80f8