Can You Please Help?
I would like some help. It is multi-part, so any thoughts you have on any part of it would be welcome. My thoughts on this are incomplete, and bouncing ideas helps sort them out.
The first piece is that, for decades, I've considered the Hero's Journey is a fine way to look at the path that all human beings travel to accomplish any transformative goal.
The Chakras, on the other hand, are the map of human growth in an ideal environment. Survival, sex, power, love, communication, intellect, and spirit. Roughly in that order for much of humanity. See someone with a major digression from that path, and you can often identify the wound that sent them off in the wrong direction.
The Three Centers are a simplification of the Chakras, and perfectly useful, even more useful in some important ways.
The Three Gates are a complete ethical life system in a box. A suggestion on how to navigate the Hero’s Journey with power and integrity.
I want to more deeply investigate the question of "what happens if these two are intertwined?" If people adhere to both as a standard of behavior: anchoring in the body, opening the heart, elevating the mind---IN THAT ORDER. And seeking to be honest, kind, and efficient/effective.
Many people have expressed disbelief that the Three Gates are practical. This is strange to me, because "efficient/effective" (useful, necessary) is built right into the system. And certainly plenty of very smart people neglect their bodies and believe logic more important than emotions. So…what is true?
People have said: "well, what happens if someone FAKES following the Three Gates." Well…first it would take a stupendous amount of energy to "fake" being honest, kind, effective, with a healthy body a loving family and/or attitude, and making a good living doing something you'd do for free. Because THAT would be the outcome of following both…yes?
Could YOU fake all of that?
If violence stems largely from anger, and anger from fear, then a person who is secure in their physical domain, loved, and successful…ummm….what exactly are they afraid of? Where does that fear come from, and what is it if it doesn’t affect their behavior in the physical, emotional, or mental realm?
Hypothesis: that a serious load of fear or anger would manifest in one of these three arenas. If it doesn't…just how damaging can it be? If you are healthy, vibrant, loving, loved, and successful….excuse me, but isn't that the very definition of a healthy human being? And if they are also honest, kind, and effective…isn't that someone you'd want to know? I mean seriously?
HYPOTHESIS: Most bad actions are the result of fear.
But there are also predators. Pure, nasty, inhuman things that pretend to be human. In essence, Werewolves. Was this the result of programming? Or were they born that way? There is no way to come to ultimate conclusions about that: it has been debated as long as humanity has debated existence.
5%? 3%? Personally I think PURE predators are less than 2% of humanity. I’m going to say 1%. And these "people" really could be athletic, have families, and be quite successful WHILE faking being honest and kind.
Yes. There are such monsters. They are frightening. They hurt other people not for self protection, or sense of lack, or fear or anger but BECAUSE THEY LIKE IT. It feels good.
And brothers and sisters, when you encounter one of these, whether their soul came into this world as monsters or they were made that way by childhood neglect and abuse…you had better have your game together. And I suggest that these two patterns, the Three Gates and the Three Centers, is your best protection. WHEN YOU COMMIT TO THEM, you become intimately aware of the way your behavior connects to your beliefs and values.
What does that mean? It means that you become more and more capable of detecting divergences from the healthy path. You start seeing anger, dishonesty, lack of clarity and other things as emotional responses to fear and pain. You become a human lie detector.
And with MOST people, who really are functioning out of pain rather than simply "evil", if you can interrupt their patterns, you can help them to course-correct.
And the very best way to interrupt someone's pattern is with a STRONGER pattern, one at a higher level of integration. Like smaller tuning forks entraining to a larger one. You can be a leader. A healer.
And if you run into that 1% pure predator? You are more capable of understanding what they are, how their behaviors satisfy their needs, and most importantly have the survival instinct and higher intuition to DEAL WITH THEM. The self-love to sink into that core survival place that you would enter if protecting a helpless child.
And I can tell you, brothers and sisters: I would rather fight a black belt than a woman protecting her child. Why? BECAUSE SHE WILL NOT PLAY BY THE RULES. She is in a pure survival place, without concern for how she looks, what anyone thinks, or even what the consequences of lethal action might be. HER CHILD MUST SURVIVE. Mommy Tiger.
THAT is the warrior self: total survival drive connected to an emotionally open heart that combines fear and love into the pure form of "emotion". (remember in Enter The Dragon where Bruce talks about "real emotional content…NOT ANGER"?) and the pure problem-solving intellect of a human being operating at 100% clarity?
Would YOU want to fight that person? I would not. And neither does a predator. Predators want you to be oblivious, trusting, frightened sheep. With no protective rams to fight them off. They want to be able to amble in and take what they want.
The last thing in the world a predator wants is to face the attitude: "I'm ready to die, and I'm ready to take you with me." And THAT is the place a parent protecting their child is coming from. BEWARE OF ANYONE WHO TRIES TO GASLIGHT YOU AWAY FROM CONTACT WITH THE KILLER APE IN YOUR ANCESTRY.
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So…Just laying some foundational thought. That we are, on one level, that killer ape. And on the other level, the loving heart. And the thinking mind. And the aspiring soul. All in the same evolving human being. And the hypothesis is that the Three Gates and Three Centers, if BOTH engages, create not just a healthy human being capable of participating in a healthy society but also the best preparation to detect and engage with dangerous people, with the intuition to know if they can be healed, and the instinct and mental/physical capacity to defend. Considering that a knife is one of the most basic human tools, and compensates for great imbalance in strength or skill, the imprecation "you're a primate. Use a tool" is just such practical wisdom it is hard to even express.
So…I would love it if people would look at what I just said, and tell me where they think I am wrong. I need to workshop this a little. Most basically:
How or why do you think that specifically aspiring to balance the Three Centers and use the Three Gates is impractical or non-optimal? Can you think of a situation where you believe it is non-optimal to desire this connection? Where it would be contrary to survival?
Note: a warrior strives to do what they do without hatred or fear. Emotion, yes. Perception, yes. Action, yes.
But if the major human archetype of the protective/defensive/aggressive human being is the Warrior, and the greatest philosophers and martial scientists have a congruence of opinion about the highest and most effective state being one beyond the anger most average human beings use to motivate themselves against injustice, would it not be wise to consider that perhaps, just perhaps, the part of us that says we need the negative emotions, cannot survive without them…might be our egoes rather than our deep selves?
Could it be that there is a place where the spiritual teachers and warriors agree about the basic nature of humanity, and that except for that 1% "pure predator" most of what causes evil in the world is human fear…that you must remove fear, and anger, from your own heart to see other human beings clearly? That the evil we see in others is just a mirror for the evil within ourselves?
Like I said…I can SENSE where these things connect, my instinct and intuition and sense of existential geometry (just made that term up!) grasp it…but my intellect can't, quite. I'm not smart enough or have a wide enough vision with the ability to zoom in on any component part.
But it FEELS RIGHT.
So what I ask, sincerely--if you see what you think is a flaw, or have any questions, PLEASE challenge me. Because if I'm right, this is major. The human mind can hold "seven plus or minus two" things at a time. This is just six. SIX. That means that the average person could actually drill this to unconscious competence within a year.
I need you to ask me questions, ask about implementation…something. We will be investigating this tomorrow on the FIREDANCE show. You can offer your thoughts here, or show up LIVE tomorrow to ask them in person!
This might be huge.
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Steven Barnes is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Firedance Recurring
Time: Jan 13, 2023 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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