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INTRODUCTION

A MANIFESTO OF AWAKENING, HOPE, AND ABUNDANCE FOR ALL

“The things to do are the things that need doing that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done”—Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller

THIS BOOK IS SOMETHING THAT I SAW NEEDED TO BE DONE for you the reader as well as for future generations, and no one else seemed to notice the need. I watched and waited for many years as I studied Buckminster Fuller’s vast archive while teaching and using what I learned throughout my life. Eventually, I realized that even though people continued to reference Bucky’s wisdom, nobody was stepping forward to do the job of interpreting his vision and bringing it to the next generations. So, I followed Bucky’s mandate and acted when the “perfect storm” conditions occurred that facilitated the final writing and publication of this material.

A Fuller View is a manifesto of awakening, transformation, and abundance not focused on Bucky but on you. I hope that it supports you in also following his mandate to do the things that need doing that you see need to be done. It’s about what you can do to find and share your gifts and to have others support you. It’s about the fact that there is now enough to support all life on Earth. And it’s about each of us having the courage to follow in the footsteps of this great man while doing what he suggested we all do—create and follow your own path based on your personal experience regardless of what others say.

My path working with Fuller and the two Fuller books I have completed thus far did not begin with such lofty aspirations because no one had done the task of distilling Bucky’s wisdom down to an essence. My journey began on Laguna Beach, CA in 1981.

I had just devoted a year of my life to a very draining but rewarding job, and I needed to replenish my depleted energy and spirit. Years before, I had been inspired by Bucky’s vision and passion, and in 1981 I took my copy of his latest book, Critical Path, to the beach every day for three months.

In that pristine setting, I studied every page and learned as best I could. Then, I discovered that at the age of eighty-six Bucky was still active and lecturing and had a home in Southern California. I also found out that his grandson had started the “Friends of Buckminster Fuller Foundation” not far from where I was living.

On that beach I also initiated my own “experiment” to determine how many of Bucky’s ideas and life strategies resonated with my personal experience and were useful to me. My experiment has now continued for over thirty years, and it has provided me with some amazing insights that I share with you throughout these pages.

I offer these insights as a tribute to Buckminster Fuller and what I have found to be true. Only after I had validated them as spot on and useful was I willing to share them with others. The fact that this book contains only insights and ideas I have found to be valid, viable, and practical is because of my personal experiment to determine and document the most vital aspects of Bucky’s life and teachings.

That, however, is no reason for you to accept or believe anything written by me or our guest commentators. Do as Bucky did and check them out against your personal experience. See if they fit for you. If something works, use it. If it doesn’t, let it go and move on. This is the advice Bucky constantly gave his audiences, and I feel that he qualifies as a sage elder worthy of consideration and respect. That’s the path I have chosen, and I invite you to consider joining me on this exploration to create Bucky’s vision of “a world that works for everyone.”

People living today know Buckminster Fuller as a wise elder, but the wisdom of our elders is missing in the majority of “modern, developed” cultures. In 1995, after studying and teaching about Bucky’s ideas for more than a decade, I realized that few elders were being recognized and admired as role models. Bucky Fuller was one of several such men and women who had served as role models and teachers for myself and many people, but I was concerned that my children did not have popular public archetypical elder leaders and mentors.

When I saw Bucky speak to thousands of people (mostly under the age of thirty) at the World Symposium on Humanity in 1979, he was eighty-three, and he exemplified my concept of a wise visionary elder. His vision rocked my reality, and I soon realized that he was not some pie-in-the-sky, optimistic intellectual.

Sitting alone on stage was an eighty-plus-year-old prophet who claimed he was simply “an average healthy human being doing what he saw needed to be done on behalf of all of humanity.” He had, however, done his research and comprehensive thinking so that he could create solutions to problems he knew would confront society fifty to one hundred years in the future. We are the beneficiaries of those efforts. He also had the foresight to take his ideas one step farther by designing and building inventions that solved many of those yet unnoticed or undefined problems.

Bucky labeled himself a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist” who offered us the opportunity to choose utopia at this critical juncture in our evolution, which he described in his book Utopia or Oblivion. He was the wise elder that I had wanted to study with, but he died before my wish came to fruition.

Fortunately, Bucky was constantly reminding us that he was not “yesterday’s breakfast.” In other words, he was not his physical body, and the fact that the body we called R. Buckminster Fuller no longer exists in physical reality on Spaceship Earth does not mean that he is gone.

We still have his massive archive of wisdom in many forms including writings, recordings, inventions, and the numerous people who have studied his work and continue to champion his vision. This book contains insightful commentaries from some of the people who carry on his legacy. Many of us consider ourselves to be some form of comprehensive anticipatory designers / scientists / artists / businesspeople / teachers / parents / writers / etc. because we know that the world needs visionaries in all areas of life if “we the people” are to survive and thrive as a species.

I tend to label myself a “comprehensive, anticipatory designer in training” with an aspiration to contribute as much of what I have learned to as many people as possible. This book is one physical artifact in my modest campaign to share the bounty of Bucky’s wisdom and teachings with others. It also contains interpretations of Bucky’s words as they have continued to flow from the “pattern integrity” that has been labeled with several names including Buckminster Fuller.

Bucky taught that all wisdom and knowledge is constantly available to every person if we tune into it. Sometime between my first contact with Bucky Fuller in physical form and his death in 1983, I began adjusting my “receiver / tuning device” to more clearly pick up and record the pattern integrity frequencies being broadcast by and through Bucky. This put me in the odd position of being someone who did not agree with the commonly accepted view that an extremely important loss happened on July 1, 1983 when the person known as Buckminster Fuller consciously left his body for the last time.

On that day, Bucky experienced a significant transformation, but he was far from gone. He has not left us, and he continues to influence much of our reality today. After July 1, his staff and family packed up the massive physical artifacts he had accumulated. They believed that the experiment he had initiated in 1927—to determine and document what one individual could achieve that could not be accomplished by any institution no matter how large or powerful—was complete.

I felt that the next phase of Bucky’s experiment had just begun, but few people were interested. Remembering Bucky’s admonition that “you can make money or you can make sense” (covered in Chapter 3), I decided to follow in his footsteps, and I formulated the intention of making sense in the exploration and sharing of Bucky Fuller. That intention resulted in the writing of Buckminster Fuller’s Universe, which was first published in 1988; the writing of A Fuller View and the future volumes currently being produced; and my sharing Bucky’s wisdom in live and recorded presentations.

One factor that influenced me in this somewhat intimidating decision was Bucky’s teaching that humans are part of Nature and Nature always supports what is supposed to be. Following that logic, I decided that if this work was destined to be shared with others, it would be supported. With that insight as my foundation, in 1984, I embarked on another phase of Bucky’s grand experiment, and I began an extensive examination of the data he had amassed. I also continued to refine my ability to tune into the frequency of the pattern integrity that had inhabited a physical body between 1895 and 1983 and been known as Bucky Fuller.

For me, an experiment is not over once the data has been compiled. That data needs to be examined and evaluated so that it can be purposefully applied in the future. In the instance of Bucky’s “56 Year Experiment,” I have found an enormous number of simple solutions to all types of problems. His experiment covered everything from dealing with daily life issues to solving all humankind’s physical problems while attempting to be as conscious and as cooperative as possible. All this and more is available through the wisdom of this wise elder who did everything that he could to support abundance and success for all.

A Fuller View was written to open new doors and awarenesses for anyone who reads even a small section. It will support us in remembering that we have come here at this moment in time to be transformational agents creating sustainable solutions as we steward our beloved Mother Earth on behalf of all beings.

I took on this task because lives are transformed in Bucky’s presence because of the questions he asked and the intention he kept at the forefront of all his work. He formalized the great cosmic question that fueled his vision one last time just months before his death when he wrote,

“Human integrity is the uncompromising courage of self determining whether or not to take initiatives, support or cooperate with others in accord with ‘all the truth and nothing but the truth’ as it is conceived by the divine mind always available in each individual.

Whether humanity is to continue and comprehensively prosper on Spaceship Earth depends entirely on the integrity of the human individuals and not on the political and economic systems.

The cosmic question has been asked — ARE HUMANS A WORTHWHILE TO UNIVERSE INVENTION?”

February 14, 1983 — Penang, Malaysia. St Valentine’s Day and the Chinese New Year

On that auspicious Valentine’s Day at the beginning of another New Year, he reminded us where we are in Universe, and it is my aspiration that this quote is the foundation of everything that follows. Here Bucky repeats the cosmic question I posted on my bathroom mirror, “Are humans a worthwhile to Universe invention?” More important to each of us is the inquiry, “Am I a worthwhile to Universe invention?”

Forever the questioning optimist, Bucky constantly inquires about the things we all need to ask ourselves as often as possible. Am I living my life in harmony

–with Universe

–with the true abundance now available to all people

–with “the truth and nothing but the truth as is conceived by the divine mind always available in each individual?"

And how do you answer the other important questions:

• Are you doing what you see that needs to be done and is not being attended to?

• Are you a global citizen cooperating with others and Nature to further create a sustainable environment that supports all life?

• Are you willing to have an abundant life free of violent conflict and weaponry?

• And are you committed to leaving a legacy of a more sustainable, cooperative planet for future generations?

My response to these and the issues advanced throughout A Fuller View by the many global visionaries who so generously contributed to this book is that I am doing my very best. And that’s what we can each do—our very best as mindfully and compassionately as possible. These are not easy questions, but we have chosen to live at a time when they are at the forefront of our survival. My aspiration is that the following pages will support you and all readers to answer these questions with a resounding “YES!”

“Friend to all the Universe” is one phrase used to describe Bucky in song and verse. May each of us be a friend to all the Universe so that we experience Bucky’s vision of “a world that works for everyone” in our lifetime.

L. Steven Sieden

Seattle, Washington, Earth

July 1, 2011— 28 years after Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller’s death on July 1, 1983