Life Lessons I’ve Learned From Brilliant and Creative People I’ve Met

I talked one-on-one with R. Buckminster Fuller

by accident, but also definitely by synchronicity.

“Richard Buckminster Fuller (/ˈfʊlər/; July 12, 1895 — July 1, 1983)[1] was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more than 30 books and coining or popularizing such terms as “Spaceship Earth”, “Dymaxion” (e.g., Dymaxion house, Dymaxion car, Dymaxion map), “ephemeralization”, “synergetics”, and “tensegrity”.”

He spoke one bright, Spring morning at Texas Wesleyan University where I worked. The University president introduced him by telling the story of a man from another country who sat on a panel with “Bucky” and who had tears in his eyes after Bucky spoke. Another panelist asked later what he enjoyed the most from Bucky’s speech. He answered, “I don’t know. I don’t speak English. But I could hear the brilliance in his voice.” Even knowing English, R. Buckminster Fuller’s thoughts and ideas were challenging to absorb.

Bucky invented the geodesic dome, basing it on the strongest shape in nature — the triangle. He was a one of the visionaries in the development of the electric car, creating his own prototype, the Dymaxion car.

After he spoke, I was asked to take him to the airport.

When I arrived to pick him up in my car, a Mustang, we couldn’t fit his luggage, his diminutive self, me, and a large model of a geodesic dome he carried with him for lectures. I have no idea how he got it on the airplane. Maybe he purchased a seat for it.

While we waited for another car and driver to arrive to take him, I was able to absorb some of his wisdom and joyful energy. I remember the elf-like sparkling of his eyes. I was enamored, and can’t remember the specific conversation we had, but this report by another, explains the rare experience I had of a one-on-one conversation with him.

“Buckminster Fuller himself was fond of stating that what seems to be happening at the moment is never the full story of what is really going on. He liked to point out that for the honey bee, it is the honey that is important. But the bee is at the same time nature’s vehicle for carrying out cross-pollination of the flowers. Interconnectedness is a fundamental principle of nature. Nothing is isolated. Each event connects with others.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

He showed equanimity in our dilemma of fitting the dome into my unaccommodating car, and the subsequent wait. I was relieved of embarrassment by his prevailing attitude.

“We were deliberately designed to learn only by trial and error. We’re brought up, unfortunately, to think that nobody should make mistakes. Most children get de-geniused by the love and fear of their parents — that they might make a mistake. But all my advances were made by mistakes. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn’t.” ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

The Religion Professor Paul Wassenach, who could write Greek and Hebrew simultaneously on the board, told us,

“I take a different route to and from work every day. Always take different routes and focus on what’s around you.”

He only lived a few blocks from his job at the TCY. Even if he took five different routes a week and then repeated them in reverse the following week, that’s still a lot of routes in a few short blocks.

He told us, “Varying your routines keeps your brain sharp.” When we entered class, he required us to sit in a different seat each time.

Varying routines obviously kept his brain sharp enough to stand at the board writing Greek with his left hand and Hebrew with his right. At the same time.

I can’t do that, but when I take walks, I take different routes each time, and have done so since college. I also sat in different seats each class time through graduate school when possible.

While I can’t write or read either Greek or Hebrew, much less both, I keep my brain on its toes while I walk. Walking different routes allows me to mindfully focus on my surroundings and stay in the present. And always be reminded of Dr. Wassenach.

An adult artist friend told me when I was a child,

“Look at the spaces between the leaves of the tree, not at the leaves,” she said one day while she was driving me back from camp. I did and the world opened in a new way to both my vision and my experience.

Try it and you’ll understand how this perspective changes your way of seeing and also of being mindful. When we look beyond details, our vision broadens to see movement, background, and the whole of the tree.

Our brains are trained to label what we see. It’s a categorization process we learned for survival. The faster we determine what something is, the faster we know whether to fight, flee, or freeze.

However, seeing threats all around us, while useful to our ancestors, has made our brains complacent when we see objects and even people we think we already know.

By looking at the leaves, experiencing only our concrete concept of tree, instead of looking at the spaces between the leaves, we miss activating the creative part of our brains. We never see beyond the obvious. We aren’t being mindful.

Richard Moss, M.D. more fully opened my awareness,

by showing me how to experience what he calls The I that is We.

I was in a weeklong seminar with Richard Moss, M.D. It had been a dream of mine since I read his first book, “The I That Is We.”

I was thrilled to meet, much less study with, Richard Moss. He had left a medical practice after experiencing a raising of his vibrational level to allow him to heal himself and teach others to heal in spiritual and psychological ways.

From Richard Moss’ website:

“His goal is that you don’t just follow his or anyone’s work, but that you learn to become your own teacher. He is renowned for the experiential richness of his programs. Participants learn directly to experience their multi-dimensional consciousness and how to recognize and free themselves from limiting beliefs. He teaches an awareness approach to threatening feelings, particularly fear in all its guises, so that you learn to meet these darker spaces in creative, liberating ways.”

Recently, I relieved my own fear of dying using Richard’s technique of full acceptance. I lay still and allowed my self to think, “There is nothing after death”, which was the root of my fear. As I sank deeply into the thought and feeling, I felt peace and rest instead. If there were nothing after, I could now accept it.

Even though I actively believe the spirit, as energy, does live on, which is an aspect of connectedness to all energy, I no longer fear the opposite.

I fully experienced being in the Now during the seminar and after. I also had a vivid experience during mediation led by Richard, that the “I” is indeed the “We.” I felt my energy combine with the other people in the room, and felt free and empowered.

Quantum Physics is now showing that we are all connected to one another on an energetic level. Because of Richard Moss, I know it on a personal level as well.

I incorporate Richard’s teaching and practices in my own work with people, as a therapist and as a seminar leader. In particular I use techniques from his book, “The Mandala of Being.”

The ideas of Mindfulness, awareness, connection to all living beings, and acceptance of present circumstances, are, and always have been, shown consistently to me by people I meet, both famous and not.

Even when we don’t meet people in person, books, writing, and recorded lectures are open to us all. We can prime ourselves to listen to others who, sometimes unexpectedly, offer lessons from the Universe. A teacher, a thinker, an artist, even a child. Who have you learned from?

Even when we don’t physically meet the guru on the road, we can still profit from their wisdom on the way to developing our own.

I have created a seminar on “The Psychology of Writing — Getting to Flow State” using the principles I’ve learned and practice. Please comment below or private message me your email address if interested in more information.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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