Honour this place of Not Knowing.
Bow before this bubbling mess of creativity.
Slow down. Breathe. Sink into wonderment.
Befriend the very place where you stand.
Answers will appear only when they are ready.
When the questions have been fully heard and digested.
Do not label this place `confusion´.
It is more alive than that.
It is a sacred ground, where possibilities grow.
There is courage in staying close.
There is such strength in not knowing…
Jeff Foster
Sin simply refers to all aspects of life where the reality of grace is not manifest and evil flourishes. It’s what happens when we’ve got the wrong story about reality in our heads. If we do not recognize grace, we latch onto lies about who we are. These lies are manifest in an endless variety of godless dispositions: hatred, violence, greed, injustice, pride, despair, isolation, self-loathing, unbridled arrogance, a hardened heart, a cold soul.
Serene Jones, US Theologian
Probably the most comprehensive understanding of the role of suffering in the transformation of trauma comes from the four noble truths of the Buddha.
The first truth is that suffering is part of the human condition. I mean you can try to deny it but it’s there.
The second truth is that we need to find out the source of our suffering. Why our suffering? I talked about that before, about how it gets locked in our bodies.
The third noble truth is that suffering can be transformed, that it’s inherently a transformable process.
Then the 4th noble truth is to find the right method…
Peter Levine
What would the river at my doorstep look like if it were cut off from its source? Certainly, its grace would disappear, the grace mediated by the beautiful, seemingly unbroken stream of waters, ever rising and falling in a symphony of rushing, then meandering, which was already in ancient flow when humans first laid their eyes on it many eons ago.
What do we, as individuals and, collectively, as a species, look like when we fall prey to the illusion that we are cut off from our Source? What happens when we get blocked off from the wellspring of life? The answer is to be seen in some of the destructive results of human behaviour currently evident in these turbulent times.
Whenever we lose sight of grace, we latch onto lies about who we are. When the dispositions of hatred, violence, greed, injustice, pride, despair, isolation, self-loathing, unbridled arrogance, hardened hearts, and cold souls manifest over time, they become calcified into behavioural norms, social systems, and cultural patterns which appear to reflect what it means to be human.
The wrong story about reality, such as the often cited `Dog eats dog´ narrative, then becomes accepted by many people. That’s just the way life is, they believe. This attitude is then used to justify more of the same destructive behaviours, the logic being that the ends (improving the state of the world, making any country `great again´, or attaining peace) justify such means.
Supporting an economic system that sees the very few get unimaginably rich while ever increasing millions live in material poverty is one example of the result of this skewed logic. Spending trillions of dollars on weapons to keep the peace, and then using them, is another.
Don Coyhis is a Native American leader and spiritual teacher who has been active in addiction recovery circles among the indigenous peoples of North America for many decades. He is highly regarded as the founder of the so-called Wellbriety Movement and its corresponding NGO entitled `White Bison´.
Don also sometimes works with corporate clients. On one such engagement he was holding a symposium for corporate executives on the topic of leadership. He began by asking those members of the audience who had grandchildren to raise their hands.
Most of the hands went up. He then asked them at exactly what point of the day they switched from being loving grandfathers (most were men) to being CEOs, incumbents of corporate power, who made largely rational, short-term yet wide-reaching decisions which ultimately undermine the future of our grandchildren and subsequent generations. The audience went silent for some time before it could begin to engage in a meaningful exchange on this disconnect.
This schizophrenia is not limited to CEOs, however. We are all caught in this bind. While innately kind, we humans can behave in very unkind ways, me included. We engage in unkind behaviour when we feel hurt or threatened, in our blind attempts to numb our inner discontentedness by engaging in addiction or mindless consumer behaviour, and in tolerating and even supporting an economic model which threatens the very basis of life on this planet.
The godless dispositions cited by Serene Jones are the products of our so-called Saboteurs, the fear-fuelled drives we first developed as coping mechanisms when, as children growing up in dysfunction and chaos, we experienced overwhelming fear in the absence of adequate support and protection by our caregivers.
The concept of childhood trauma (or Complex PTSD) is a relatively recent discovery on which much research is still taking place. The phenomenon is far more widespread that we would like to believe, as demonstrated by less than a human lifespan of on-going research by academics and clinical practitioners.
Furthermore, more and more of us who experienced the phenomenon of childhood trauma are waking up to and admitting that fact. We are gradually beginning to recognise our need for healing once, having had some form of life crisis (hitting bottom), we embrace the process of recovery. Thankfully healing communities have already been formed for precisely such reasons, some of them using the Twelve Steps, originally formulated in the 1930’s and applied since then, with great success, to heal the scourge of alcoholism.
Another recently developed modality which is proving very beneficial is the Positive Intelligence (PQ) approach to Mental Fitness. In this system, devised by Shirzad Chamin and his PQ team in San Francisco, the Judge is identified as the Universal Saboteur, the Über-Saboteur we all have in common.
It is the Inner Critic, the loudest voice of fear which haunts us all, dividing our perception of the world and its contents into `good´ and `bad´. Located, like all Saboteurs, in the left hemisphere brain, its origins lie in the dilemma of the small child, faced with the painful reality that our parents or caregivers were not up to the task of providing adequate levels of safety, warmth, and security we so badly needed.
To avoid the confrontation with this unbearable proposition (for, until adolescence we are still fully dependent on our caregivers), we create the Judge who tells us that we are the reason we are not getting what we need. We let ourselves off the hook by letting our parents off the hook and become hooked, ourselves, in the process. We are simply not worthy of the love and affection after which we hanker, so the mantra of the Judge goes.
And to create a level playing field, so to say, so that we are not the only ones living in exile, we begin to judge others, – our siblings, classmates, peers, etc., and the circumstances in which we live our lives, the world at large.
The Judge has now firmly established itself. It will do all it can to self-perpetuate its power by convincing us that the ingredients of life at our disposal are insufficient for real happiness. It will continue to peddle its lies until such a time as we become willing, through grace or desperation, to question our core beliefs, our old ideas about life.
Not everybody reaches such a point. Some choose permanent oblivion while others seem graced with a high degree of connection to Source (Sage energy) which they successfully bring to bear on their relationships, vocation, and challenges.
Those who do go through a turning point usually experience some form of `crash and burn´ which results from trying to run our lives (and sometimes other people’s lives too) based on fear, in Saboteur mode.
The Judge does not operate alone. It is aided and abetted in its endeavours to hold us hostage to our fears by a selection of the remaining nine Saboteurs identified in PQ, as follows: Avoider, Controller, Hyper-Achiever, Hyper-Rational, Hyper-Vigilant, Pleaser, Restless, Stickler, and Victim. The varying strengths of each are determined by our unique personalities and our experiences in the formative years of childhood.
The alternative to Saboteur is called Sage. Residing in the right hemisphere brain, these Sage Powers can be described as follows: Compassion (Empathise), Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate. They are all driven by love: a love of life, of discovery, of making a difference, of creative expression, of sharing, of belonging, etc., and are applied in the Sage Perspective which recognises that every situation, no matter how dreadful it may appear, contains the seeds of gifts and opportunities.
The practice of PQ Mental Fitness involves the training of three mental capabilities: the interception of the Saboteurs, the self-regulation, through body-based exercises, which enable the shift to Sage, and the cultivation of the Sage Powers. It is a simple practice of training three mental muscles: The Saboteur Interceptor, the Mind Command Muscle, and the Sage Enhancer.
In three years of the daily PQ practice, I have come to recognise Compassion (Empathise Power) as being the most crucial in initiating the shift from Saboteur to Sage and the on-going maintenance of Mental Fitness.
The untrained mind instinctively tends to beat ourselves up when we discover that the Saboteurs are active once again or have even already succeeded in hijacking us. This is a key Saboteur trick which results only in even more destructive energy, keeping us stuck.
At such junctures, the Mind Command capability is decisive, enabling us to calm down, to self-regulate, and then shift to Sage. Explore would pose the questions: what is going on in my body and mind right now? What would help in finding and executing a conscious response of loving kindness? Compassion (Empathise Power) helps me be kind to myself, regardless of what answers emerge.
As if caring for my children when they were infants or ma most beloved friend or even pet, I engage in warm compassion with the intent of feeling the feelings in full while being fully present and motivated to help in overcoming challenges or transcending obstacles.
In simple words, it is the practice of being kind. Only when we are capable of being kind to ourselves, can we extend this gift to others and life’s circumstances. `Be kind!´ has gradually become the prevailing mantra in my life in recent years.
What is to be done when I slip once again and treat myself or others in an unkind fashion? Compassion, once again, for the fact that, due to the human condition, mistakes are bound to happen from time to time. After that initial step, it will be possible to apologise, make amends as best as possible, and seek forgiveness. These actions are possible only when the connection to the Source of Life, or Sage, has been restored.
The constant tension between Saboteur and Sage (grace) in our lived experience doesn’t mean that they are equal partners in determining our destiny. Because Sage is of The Source, it ultimately wins out, if awareness is devoted to this end. We can be forgiven and learn to grow from experience, whatever horrors we commit or are done to us.
We can return to Sage, again and again, however reprehensible our deeds and broken our lives, because Sage is the connection to Source. Sage is free; we don’t earn it nor are we required to deserve it. That’s what makes grace graceful. It comes to us all, as a free divine gift as soon as we open our hearts to it.
The practice of PQ helps us spend more and more of our lives in Sage energy, connected to the Source. Our level of PQ rises over time. A ratio of 3:1 (75%) is considered the pivotal threshold.
If we can have 3 moments in Sage for every moment of Saboteur, we will experience vitality and enthusiasm for the most part, and our energies will manifest in ease and flow. Our Sage energy becomes infectious which helps those we encounter move more in the direction of Sage themselves. We feed Sage energy into the collective consciousness of Creation.
Below this threshold, our energies are consumed with the inner conflict of the Saboteurs and life’s circumstances, as if driving with the handbrake engaged. In this mode we become an energy drain, spreading Saboteur contagion as we go through our days.
The practice of PQ, with `being kind´ at its core, therefore, helps release the hand brake and frees up vast amounts of energy, energy which can then be put into building Sage. It is the most efficient way of raising energy levels and bringing more love into the world, from which we all benefit.
