The Pattern Integrity that is Uniquely You
Part 1. Introduction
Tie a knot in a rope and you have a pattern of a knot. If you tie the same knot in any material it will produce the same pattern. The pattern is not dependent on the material…rope, shoe lace, fishing line, cooked noodles. The pattern of the knot is made visible by the medium. A loop in a rope has no pattern integrity because the loop will quickly disappear at the slightest provocation.
Dropping a stone into water produces ripples of waves. Dropping anything of mass into liquid will produce the same ripples, whether that liquid is water, wine, milk, oil… Pattern Integrity.
According to Buckminster Fuller, every human being is a unique pattern integrity, temporarily given shape by flesh, just as the knot was given shape by the rope. All the materials in the cells of your body are completely replaced at least every 7 years, somehow showing up with the same arrangement, colour and function, regardless of whether you ate meat and potatoes or banana’s. Quite amazing really. Who ‘we’ are is not the body. We are, life is…metaphysical, and is expressed in the pattern integrity of the body.
“So what?” you may ask. “So everything”…I say..
Taking this theme of Bucky’sto the next level, there is an integrity in our design, and being. We are a particular and unique ‘knot’. Part of this is beyond our control. I can’t argue with being 5’1”. Or having blue eyes. Being good at maths, bad at spelling, bad at hand eye co-ordination. I could train myself to be better at spelling, but my brain does funny things with letters, so it would be something I would have to work at. Whereas you may find spelling a breeze. Or ball games.
These aspects of our pattern integrity are built into the design. But what about how we express our pattern integrity? Here is where things get interesting.
Everyone not only has a physical pattern integrity, we also have a metaphysical pattern integrity. We have a unique voice that needs to be spoken, a unique essence, a unique self.
Our Pattern Integrity is archetypal. We all know people who are natural clowns. Or natural gamblers. Or the archetypal mother. The entrepreneur. You can no more remove the ‘clown’ from the person who was born ‘clown’ as you could remove water from the ocean.
To make it more complex, our pattern integrity has multiple archetypes. You may have the clown, the lover and the magical child all embodied within you. Different aspects of self appear at different times. And each aspect has the shadow and the light. We have the clown who makes people happy, and the clown who creates chaos and mayhem, or can be malicious in their clowning.
Our core pattern integrity is pure. It has no contamination. It is the aspect of self that is ageless and timeless. Our other patterns, such as the clown, are more superficial manifestations of this core essence. Our core essence, or core pattern integrity is the quiet, all knowing, all wise aspect of self. And yet at the same time, this essence is individual to us, resonating at a particular frequency, portraying a particular personality.
You know who your core pattern integrity is. Bold statement. But true. She or he has been present from the beginning, and will continue on after our bodies are done. As Bucky said, we are metaphysical. There are many paths to reaching her or him. What I experience is that the Pattern Integrity speaks with a voice that is absent drama. Calm, steady, unhurried, persistent. Below the usual mess of voices in our heads, this voice is available, if we but still our minds long enough.
Our task, as humans, is to stay connected to our pattern integrity as much as we are able. To be essence. Every other form of expression is some form of contamination, some form of static to the signal that is uniquely us. I recall the first Star Wars movies, where Princess Leia was delivering a message in a holographic form via the robot R2D2. Towards the end of the message, the signal was disrupted and her image became static. This is what happens when we lose connection to our pattern integrity. Our essence distorts. People cannot receive us clearly. Or at all. This is how people can go unnoticed/invisible for long periods of time.Or can be so savagely mis-understood. The path from essence to delivery is distorted. We have to look to ourselves, we have to do the inner work to clean the signal delivery.
In all of my years of holding integrity as the essence…I have been vigilant to the times when my signals are off. In plain English, when what I say is not what I do, and who I am is not what is true. When there is an incongruence. Aligning the signal with the essence has been my inner work. It has also been the work I have done with clients. There is tremendous liberation and ease in maintaining our pattern integrity. Unfortunately, we have all become masters at incongruence, at giving off distortions in our signals, for many and various reasons.
Rare are the people and companies who choose with consciousness to live and work through the fullest expression of their pattern integrity. This is not about perfection, but rather the commitment to choosing pattern integrity as a conscious act. The people I know who are on this path are very few. It is not an easy path. We have to be willing to stand in the fire of all that distorts. We have to surround ourselves with people who hold us to our integrity. We have to be able to take the feedback. To listen. To bow in humility. To adjust, modify, and stand up again.
I contend that connecting with and expressing our unique Pattern Integrity is humanities greatest yearning. And our deepest absence.
In Part 2, I will look at building a personal relationship with your pattern integrity. Give her or him or it a name. Bring your essence into dialogue. Learn to listen to the clear signals she gives.
In Part 3,I will extend this to the pattern integrity of your business and your relationships to others, for there is a unique essence to all dynamics and relationships in Universe. We can learn to tune in, to listento the pattern integrity of our business, of our marriage, of our relationship with our children, with the tree’s, with Earth. All available to us…if we but listen.
