PHILOSOPHY
Paradiso Perduto is a non-religious organisation with a reverential view on life in all its forms and dimensions.
It follows its own distinct logic and value system, which has been - and will continue to be - consistently applied all across its operations, its policies and programs.
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
Leitmotif within Paradiso Perduto is its profound wholeness.
It follows the logic of inclusion and thinks in dimensions rather than in opposites.
In this kaleidoscopic perspective, emphasis is simply placed on one aspect or another – or focus shifts from one dimension to another - without ever losing sight of the whole.
It has a non-linear approach to problem solving in which no sharp differentiation is made between goals and means.
For example, at Paradiso Perduto, retreatants do not just attend the programme, they form an elemental part of it. They themselves build the community and create the sense of belonging that is so essential to their recovery. We provide the tools and techniques, so that retreatants themselves can tap into their own ability to heal.
The structure of the organisation has the same fundamental indivisibility.
Our non-profit business model is inter-relational rather than transactional. In our approach, there are no buyers or sellers, no patients or doctors, there is no rendering of a service against a price.
Paradiso Perduto is a collaborative venture that, much like an ecosystem, consists of various positive feedback loops between all those that partake in it. Everyone – in whatever role or position - contributes to the program and reaps its fruits.
CORE VALUES
Our organisational values originate from a deep respect for all that is and follow our solemn commitment to serve that sacred whole.
- RESPECT
- RESPONSIBILITY
- INTEGRITY
- INCLUSIVENESS
- INTERDEPENDENCE
We hold the view that each species - and each individual within their species - has intrinsic value as well as specific abilities, perfectly fitting their life’s purpose.
In other words, we each have a responsibility to contribute our special part to the great web of life, as all life is interdependent on other life.
To truly fulfil our purpose as human beings – and thus give our lives meaning – we must learn to take care of ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, and take full responsibility for our actions, regardless of circumstance. This is what it means to adhere to the principles of integrity and inclusiveness.
METHODOLOGY
We live in a time of great turmoil.
Most people realise that things cannot continue as they are. Most of us know that something big needs to change. However, there does not seem to be much clarity – let alone agreement – on what such a systemic change should look like, nor on how to bring it about.
As Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Instead of continuing to run around, frantically trying to fix things that are clearly beyond repair, let us stop and question our assumptions and expectations.
Let us take a huge step back and humbly ask:
Who am I? What am I? And what am I here for?
Let us ditch our modern arrogance for a moment and make room in our minds for the possibility that our current thinking could be flawed. Let us at least consider the possibility that we may have made some wrong assumptions, and that we may be confusing these assumptions with actual facts.
Let us examine ourselves. Let us look deeper and ask what led us here, to this moment - before we start fighting over the correct solution, clashing opinions, choosing sides.
Instead, let the answers come to us, by making room for them, as we open our hearts as well as our minds.
COINCIDENCE MANAGEMENT
How do we allow true answers to come to us? How do we make room for something new? How do we open our often hardened and disillusioned hearts?
At Paradiso Perduto, we apply coincidence management. It is the opposite of change management. It aims to optimise processes, rather than achieve predetermined outcomes.
It forms aspirations, rather than expectations. It seeks to harmonise being and doing.
It all starts with the acknowledgement that transformational processes – micro and macro, individual and collective - are far too complicated and fickle to be controlled.
Instead of trying to make something happen, our approach is one of expertly creating the right conditions, providing a conducive environment for renewal – and then allowing change to enter.
Simply put, coincidence management is aimed at maximizing the likelihood for constructive change to spontaneously occur.
EMBRACING WITHOUT DISTINCTION
To allow for spontaneous change to occur, we must learn to embrace without judgement, thus providing a safe space for things to transform and grow.
Judgement inevitably leads to rejection and exclusion of those bits of ourselves and others that are deemed undesirable or too painful.
Contrary to what may seem, these rejected parts don’t actually go away. They simply go underground, and, if we leave them there too long, they get sick, they become monsters.
Our method is aimed at allowing these neglected parts to come up naturally by giving up resistance to them. And as we learn to gently embrace our monsters, they turn out to be messengers that hold the keys that can unlock our lives. This process is the true meaning of taking care of oneself.
This may go against all that we have been taught and all that we have been fighting for in our result-oriented, manufactured and anthropocentric lives.
However, if we succeed in freeing ourselves temporarily - or more permanently - from our constructs and preconceived notions, we will start to see a different world, one that has always been here, right under our very noses.
A world full of wonder and possibility, one that has many layers and viewpoints, not just a human one. A world in which we not only truly belong, but a world that desperately needs us. It is urging us to rediscover what it means to be human.
If we find the courage and humility to take this inner journey and allow ourselves to be transformed, then maybe, just maybe, another future is possible.
And hope will be reborn.