Selected Extracts from Total Reset: Insights into Aboriginal Wisdom
I never realised Lulu was teaching me. Invariably, he made me feel better and more capable than was apparent. There was no such thing as inadequacy or failure. Ample space was given to make mistakes, learn and grow.
After cutting the boomerang branch from the tree, we returned to our day-camp and while I boiled some billy tea on the white ash-covered coals of a still smouldering jigal wood fire, Lulu opened his little sack and removed two hatchets.
Taking one, he cut the ends of the irrgil branch so that it was about the right length for a boomerang. Then, carefully splitting it down the middle, he handed me one half along with the other hatchet.
“For you, bubba. Make karli now. Ah, boomerang you fellas call ‘im. Big thing, this one. You proper bushman now so gotta have this one, you know, for singin’.”
I was surprised. “For singing? Not for throwing?”
“Yair, you can throw ‘im alright an’ he come back too. But this fella, we use ‘im for singin’.”
Leaning over, he pulled two boomerangs from the mysterious sack he always carried whenever we went bush and started tapping them together, specifically their tips. “You know, this way.”
A steady rhythmical sound echoed through the bush, clear and resonant, soon accompanied by a line of song then another, repeated over and over.
All became quiet. The birds stopped singing. Cicadas ceased chirping. The wind disappeared. Everything slowed to a halt as if about to melt away. Then with a rapid tapping of the boomerangs finishing with a loud ‘whah’ the song came to an end and everything switched on again as if nothing had happened.
“We sing ‘em. You know, makin’. That how he begin. Gotta make that sound, that’s right. From Bugarrigarra this one. What you call ‘im?”
I had no idea what he was talking about and shook my head.
“Ah, what them whitefellas tell me? That’s right, Dreamtime, one fella say. Other fella, he say Dreamin’. That what you fellas call ‘im. I dunno if them the right words but we call ‘im Bugarrigarra. Bottom of everythin’.”
It was weeks before I realised Lulu was talking about the non-material fabric of our spatial-temporal reality, the ever-present, energetic, intelligent ground of all; the bottom of everything.
p.158-59
Given that the secret-sacred knowledge of the First Peoples was unchanging in its essence, carried by them intact for thousands of generations, it is fair to say we are looking back into the deepest reaches of human time at the resultant socio-economic arrangements embraced by their many different societies. The appreciation and application of those commonalities is quite possibly crucial to sapiens’ continuing existence.
p.188
Though the societies of the First Australians were distinctive all operated in a manner where every element of their world – animate and inanimate, kin and community, material and non-material – was recognised as an integral part of a single system. Awareness of that oneness reality, the Dreaming, was the bedrock of their culture.
Appreciation of all elements of the whole as equally sacred, each with its purpose and place, none more important than any other, is the key governing principle of holistic communities. It is the centre of coherence, the glue binding everything together. Rather than focusing on short-term gain, people in holistic societies gear towards creative continuity. Ever aware of their inherent oneness with all life, their society’s workings fully reflect that appreciation. It is why they are referred to in Total Reset as ‘holistic’ or ‘relational’ societies.
As the blueprint for our species appears to contain default settings for the formation of such societies it is not surprising their fruit is so delicious, representing a laudable threefold vision for humanity:
Non-engagement in wars of conquest and control.
A non-disruptive balanced relationship with the natural world.
People empowered to lead autonomous, dignified and meaning
p.xvii
The solution for a viable future lies not in the quicksand of a techno-transhumanist Great Reset, dichotomous settings remaining in place, the R2R [Right-to-Rule] virus globalised, it is found in recognition of humanity’s holistic blueprint for living and implementing a total reset to align with it. Holistic living is not a new state of affairs or way of being, it is our original birthright, has long guided our function and purpose and is why our species has remained extant for hundreds of thousands of years.
p.22
Among the wisest of all sapiens were those who lived with the ethos of giving instead of taking. And why would it not be so when everything was understood to be given by ancestral creator beings who performed wondrous deeds to bring the world into existence? As in the mythologies of other cultures the First Peoples’ stories are of ancestors who accomplished wondrous feats, loved, fought, cherished and betrayed, and sometimes performed foul deeds, paying the price. And from the stories, people understood what to do and not do. They learned of the way, the proper way, the eternal Law.
Though such feats are spoken of as happening long ago, from the First Peoples’ perspective, the ancestors did not depart, part of them becoming the wonder, beauty and drama of our world of apparent physicality, including incarnations able to experience it. As sapiens, they hold the knowledge and means to look after the balance of all life. They are us.
p.338-39
Far superior to 7.9 billion people being ruled in 195 nation-states, is a worldwide web of millions of autonomous holistic societies, largely self-sufficient, interdependently connected with other societies, their political, economic and social constructs shaped by oneness awareness. It is a long-term vision of fully empowered people living in dignity and freedom, free of wars of conquest, with respect for one another and for the balance of all life on Earth.
p.532
Autonomous Holistic Region (AHR) is the term used in Total Reset for a region within the sovereignty of a nation-state or dependency in which two or more neighbouring societies function holistically or aspire to do so.
In an AHR, each society is envisaged as autonomous (not beholden to the laws of its sovereign), interdependently connected with the other(s) in the AHR, all committed to functioning in alignment with their oneness-based blueprint for living and with strategies for doing so. Such regions are likely to be occupied (not necessarily exclusively) by Indigenous peoples who maintain their sacred traditions, language and elements of their traditional culture.
p.544
If we want our society and all others to prosper, the requisite structure is not one of sovereign nation-states ever competing for diminishing finite resources doing deals and failing that making war. Nor is it the elimination and replacement of those dynamics with a dehumanised, commoditised, digitalised world run by an oligarchic-techno-scientific elite, nation-states merely the infrastructure for global control of AI-managed humans. Rather, it is through the re-emergence of non-hierarchical, self-organising, interdependent locally autonomous societies, its members imbued with true feeling and with genuine respect for one another, the natural world and the non-material realm.
p.259-60
Whereas the economies of relational societies were expressions of a holistic way of living, the new for-profit societies came to have a life of their own driven by numbers embodied as money with beliefs enforced by rulers and the sword. The sacred fabric of life honoured by relational societies was torn apart. Our species’ role as keeper of the balance of all life was abandoned in favour of exploiting the natural world (including humans) for material gain. Sustainable economies became unsustainable. It was the breaking of our Law.
p.321
The primary driver of relational societies such as those of the First Peoples was not self-interest and the desire for more. Societies in which people could spend four months of the year in ceremony and celebration – singing, dancing and engaging in a range of social activities and exchanges – clearly did not prioritise material pursuits. The notion of wealth was cultural, relational, ecological and spiritual. Material economies were aligned with and serving those interests, not the other way around.
p.341
The time is long overdue to bring the issue of the nature, place and value of holistic societies to the forefront of discussion and debate, the UN’s full weight thrown behind initiatives to support people living in such societies. By giving tangible expression to the meaning of self-determination it is possible for the finely worded principles in the UN Charter’s preamble to be realised.
Without such commitment wars will continue to erupt, military juntas will continue to slaughter their people, resources will continue to be plundered, ecosystems destroyed, the Earth polluted, inequality, injustice and disadvantage prevailing. Veiling those actualities will be the latest wonder drugs for an ailing world through initiatives such as the new ‘Green Economy,’ the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and The Great Reset.
Those who believe all will end well because the world is switching to a ‘Green Economy’ are suffering a grand delusion. Sustainable societies require economies that are circular with all outputs recycled as inputs. That necessity is absent from the envisaged Green Economy.
p.541
Long before the written word, when people lived in oneness awareness, there was no dichotomy between words and actions. All knowledge was passed on at different stages of life via the oral tradition, including by way of rites and rituals and the full range of creative expression. As well, knowledge was gained by revelation in dreams, in meditative ‘sleep’ and by first-hand experience as people continuously interacted with the natural world. Awareness of the oneness reality infused consciousness.
Accordingly, people did not think one thing and say another or say one thing and do another. The potential for a sociopathic mindset was neutered. It was a time when people spoke truly, their mind and heart one with true feeling. Knowledge was not confined to the mind and intellect; it flowed from deep intuitive knowing.
From that wellspring arose the appreciation that when connected with the whole we have no need to rule or be ruled. That is how it was in Australia for tens of thousands of years. The many societies of the First Peoples endured because people lived in accord with underlying unity principles. Though each society had its own socio-economic systems, structures and ways of living, all were aligned with humanity’s holistic blueprint for living, known by them as the Law of the Dreaming.
p.58-59
As laudable as it is to engage directly with environmental and social issues as they arise or to seek to unseat corrupt, unjust or cruel leaders or to expose corporate or government malfeasance, the duality-infected software algos effortlessly learn and adapt as their system relentlessly grinds everything to dust. Meanwhile, the duality hardware – the socio-economic settings of dichotomous societies – remains untouched. The time has long passed to continue focusing on symptoms of the disease; the software. It is the root cause that must be addressed; the hardware. That necessarily calls for its replacement by systems of governance respectful of all life; holistic governance. The challenge of survival, of evolutionary progress, is not technological, it is cultural, social and spiritual.
p.477
As we have seen, the [global] trends in data measuring environmental and social well-being point irrefutably to continuing degradation, decline and suffering.
Eminent minds in global and national institutions and oligarchs of great wealth and power appear incapable of decisive action to humanely and equitably reverse current trends. Instead, they seem set on full-spectrum control of compliant transhumans in a cashless, AI-dominated Big Brother world. As there is no evident intention to disassemble the governance systems that are bringing humanity to the precipice, it leaves little choice for those with a sense of what is at stake to make their move now.
Just as life on our planet is built from the bottom up (for example, unicellular organisms become multicellular, not the reverse), so are viable human societies. The building blocks for a sustainable world are locally autonomous communities, interdependently connected. The solution to our world’s predicament is not globalisation, it is localisation.
p.535
Just as the natural laws of physics were not created by human beings, neither are those for sapiens. The laws for our species’ balanced existence are forever intertwined with those of the material universe and its non-material substructure. The gift of freewill exists to function within those parameters, not to override them. Humanity prospers by working with the primal energies-forces-powers at the bottom of everything, not by living in denial or ignorance of them.
p.162
Cultivating that [oneness} awareness is a simple matter. When the mind’s chatter ceases inner silence prevails. When the ego’s desires and fears evaporate inner stillness prevails. When silence and stillness prevail, the coverings of the oneness reality are no more and we are whole, we are real. To become real, we must let go of what is not.
p.118
I was about to mention Lulu’s ‘telephone’ but still blown away by the dynamics of the meeting, asked, “How come the old man never said a word during the meeting? After all it was his tree that everyone came to sit under.”
“No need to, bro’. He can work on anyone with his liyan, pretty well have ‘em say or do anything. Inspire ‘em, block ‘em, pull ‘em down, build ‘em up, you know, whatever. He can see right through you. Shift your perceptions around, your feeling, your mind, anything. Strong power. Everyone heard what Lulu had to say without him saying a word. And he wasn’t the only one there like that.”
“I’ve attended plenty of high-level meetings in my life but that was unlike any I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Yair, well you were fortunate, bro’. Lulu must have wanted you to have that experience. Normally no outsiders. Nothing unusual about that meeting.”
Frans said nothing further until we passed the overseas telecommunications tower on the highway out of town when he remarked, “If you want to know about amazing meetings, I remember one with McAlpine near here.”
“What happened?”
“Part of McAlpine’s dreaming was to complement the tourist attraction of his Cable Beach Club and its adjacent small zoo with an open-range zoo, bringing in some of the big animals from Africa. He saw Buckley’s Plain as an ideal location and engaged a fencing contractor.
I came across an article about it in the local newspaper and let Lulu know. He suggested meeting with McAlpine at Julirri to discuss it.”
“Julirri?”
“Yair, it’s over there to our left, in the heart of Buckley’s Plain, a traditional big meeting place where tribes gather for business.
Beautiful space, Buckley’s, miles of open ground and grasses. Julirri is the public area for meetings, not far from the Law grounds. It’s like an oasis, an elevated sandhill surrounded by big gumbur trees, those freshwater paperbarks. Good fresh water right there, jila.”
“Did McAlpine agree to meet?”
“Yair, no problem. He came and collected Lulu from under the tamarind tree and the three of us drove out here.
When we arrived, the old man decided to have a bit of a walk telling McAlpine about the place and talking about different things; the trees, birdlife, jila. Then we sat in the shade of a gumbur tree looking out over the plain.
We must have been under that tree for 20, 30 minutes without a single word spoken, you know, just being there listening to the honeysuckle birds, observing the brolgas wandering around, yair, different things. McAlpine seemed very much at peace, absorbed in the feeling.
Finally, Lulu broke the silence and asked McAlpine, ‘What do you want to do with this place?’
McAlpine responded, ‘Nothing. It’s perfect as it is.’
Later, the newspaper reported he had shelved the idea of an open-range zoo. First time I’ve been at a meeting where agreement on the right course action was reached without any discussion.”
p.359-60