It can be like prison - clanging cell bars, mundane routines, endless years spent in isolation. The sun rises, the sun sets. Life is a shadowy blur, indistinct, without purpose.

When problems are piling up on us, and stress and depression are strangling our energy, we can easily cave in to the consequences of feeling overwhelmed. Floundering, perhaps lost in hopelessness or cynicism, we can become physically ill. Not only does our body become out of balance, but so can our emotions, our thinking and even our spirit. Our voice can take on the ring of defeat, even mocking our own ideals. Alone in a crowd, we drift in a state of solitary confinement, each prisoner peering through their own bars at the next.

Withdrawing into a cell may not necessarily be a bad thing; our private worlds may be helping us learn a greater lesson. But in this state we can be uninspiring to ourselves, and quite possibly to others. And our behaviors, however isolated, can create their own causes and effects. For those effects, on ourselves and others, we are responsible.

There was once a young cook who helped prepare meals for the military garrison in his town. One day, after a great deal of thought, he decided to visit the local monastery. Upon arriving, he requested an audience with the bishop and declared his desire to become a monk. Several interviews with his potential superiors were arranged, which gave the young man’s family and friends time to assess his motivations. It was determined by both family and clerics that he was not being foolhardy, but was thoughtful and deliberate. Strictly voluntary, this particular monastery was known for its practices of isolation, contemplation and mediation. Once the cook was accepted into the order, his life became one of withdrawal. When not attending to the monastery’s gardening needs and chores, he spent most of his time in his cell. In later years, he withdrew from the monastery and found a cave, where he spent the rest of his life.

It can be similar when we withdraw into depression, fear, anxiety and stress. Like the young monk, we are making a ‘free will choice’ to enter these cells. Sometimes these journeys are contemplative, but there are times where we sentence ourselves to jail.

It is not unusual to feel smothered in the dark grip of these solitary, inner chambers. We don’t remember that we are masters of intention and creation. We overlook that when the cell door closes behind us each night, it is never locked. There are no prison guards or wardens. We are able to leave our self-imposed exile at anytime, just like the monk.

Sometimes, after many years, the monks, much like prisoners, can become reluctant to leave the security that the routine of a cloistered and guarded life offers. Withdrawal can become deeply ingrained, a way of living, a security blanket of perceived protection, cutting off integration from the greater world by making integration something to be feared. This can make it difficult to see the fruits and rewards of certain types of withdrawal. It can also make it difficult to stand up and let the inner light shine through – we have become too used to our familiar friend, the dark.

Pacing the floors of our cells of despair, we ignore the ringing sound of the prison door keys, rattling and jangling at our waist. Whether tossing and turning on the hard bench of self incrimination, or squatting and pounding on the cold stone floor of surrender and self-pity, we forget who it is that is making the choice.

But outside, the sun rises and sets every day. Perched forever in a higher perspective, the sun sees who is living in shadowed withdrawal, and who is living more openly, nakedly exposed on treeless plains. Neither approach has an effect on the sun; it just sees choices being made. And for all who live in its kingdom, the sun shines and glows without bias, forever giving its light and life.

A solitary sunflower stands in a field, straining through the earth and beginning to grow. Surrounded and infused by sunlight, it grows tall because it finds its purpose and peace by being nothing more or less than what it is – a sunflower. And it grows and provides life-giving seeds in the simplest of ways - by letting the sun shine in.

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They may not admit it, but I have never met anyone who doesn’t know THAT feeling. It is an inner thing, like a gulp - the same kind of gulp that forms a lump in the throat when we’ve been found out. But this lump usually forms deeper than the throat, felt instead in the chest, the solar plexus or the gut.

It usually creates anxiety, and it happens when we are challenged. Sometimes the challenge is not all that deep, but inevitably, if you keep going deeper and deeper inward, you are going to encounter it. Got a tough change or improvement to make? It’s always there. Getting bit by the same thing over and over? It will easily defeat you. And typically, when it flares up and exposes itself, the recoil occurs. “I’m outta here,” we say. Placed there like a traffic barrier, its presence detours us from going further down the inner road.

Putting on a happy face on the outside, but life’s not quite right on the inside? This inner recoil is one of the greatest problems we face. And we nearly always deny we are recoiling.

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I certainly understand the frustration with blogging and the compulsion to give it up. I gave it up for seven months, resumed with renewed vigor for several months, and lately have been very sporadic. However, I am not ready to give up on blogging. I still believe blogging has potential, although not in its current form.

Understanding the limitations, less then a week ago my teacher made some comments about blogging. He had previously commented that it seems everyone is very eager to state their understanding, and often state it as if it is THE understanding. His more recent comment was a continuation of his earlier observations. “What I see happening is something I see everyone doing. ”

“First, some people will come on and state that they do not understand the issue being discussed. Then, after saying that, they will give their opinion, but the opinion is stated in a tone of being factual. Now, I do not have a problem with someone saying they don’t understand; nor do I have a problem with someone saying they don’t understand, and then giving an opinion from the perspective of being someone who does not understand. But, I do have a problem with someone who doesn’t understand, who then gives an opinion as though they do understand.”

“Second, sometimes someone will be right on the point, but then they lose it, or it drifts away, with no one picking up on it. People will connect to the point for a moment, and then they will drift off course.”

Maybe we don’t see the problem this way, but my teacher’s insights suggest that discouragement with the medium is because we either don’t know what the point is, or we don’t recognize it when we see it, or we lose it once we have it. Of course, it is very easy to apply this to our own lives and frustrations with how to make a deeper connection, the one we are yearning to make. So why all the frustration? It is because we don’t understand the next step.

The reason we are having a problem is because we are cutting into the unknown. Last night I heard a teacher describe the door into understanding as being very tiny. He said it is the teacher’s job to show us that tiny, little door.

Two nights ago I personally met a fellow blogger for the first time, Jon Zuck. I have known Jon for a couple of years and it was great to finally meet him. After a night of getting acquainted face to face over dinner, we agreed to get together the next night so that I could attend a class with Jon’s teacher. This master is dedicated to the Way; it is his profession and life’s work. Born in 1948, Kitabu Roshi is an author, teacher and martial arts master. He recently started a new website. After the evening class, in which he discussed the importance of a teacher and the importance of learning how to ‘get out of the way’ and let the ‘One’ come through, there were refreshments and informal chats. Among other things, we briefly discussed the web as a teaching medium. While I sensed in Roshi a hopeful optimism, he also sees its limitations.

E.R. Spruiell and Kitabu Roshi

As bloggers we are touching people, but we are sometimes hitting barriers within our blogging and within ourselves. Spiritual blogs and websites can help and inform us, but words only take us so far. Using our intellect only gets us to a certain point and then we start regressing or at best doing lateral development. Essential to deeper development is the need for actual deeper experiences. How is the web going to get us to the next point? How is the web going to give us deeper experiences? We don’t know the answer to that.

If we want to open up, in a truly meaningful and substantial way, we need a teacher (in whatever form that takes) to guide us through the unknown. Yet, we are often way too quick to define what the unknown thing looks and feels like.

With respect to a person as a teacher, many people resist the notion of a spiritual teacher. They don’t want to give up their personal power, or they have been taught that everything is already in them. Everything is in us, but if we glibly dismiss the need for a teacher because ‘everything is already in me,’ we are denying our salvation. If everything is already in us, then why don’t we demonstrate and live the ‘everything’? This is one of those many paradoxes that can confound us when we are on the outside of the door looking in. Actually, we are not looking in the door, because we don’t even know what the door looks like. We wouldn’t recognize it if it was staring us right in the face.

Teacher’s who are genuinely capable of being a guide along the inner path are hard to find. But they are much easier to find than the point inside of us that we find to be so elusive. Meanwhile, the teacher stands patiently, ignored as he continuously, 24/7, points to the tiny, little door.

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Take a jump over to Transforming Communication where James Souttar applies the concepts and principles of The Art of Giving to the process of communication, discussed in his post Communication and Giving.

We have been discussing these principles here for the last month or so. The best way to learn deeper principles is to both study them and to also apply them to our everyday life situations. The principles discussed on this site are universal principles that have enormous power to transform lives and life. The more ways we find to apply and integrate principles, the quicker we learn and the deeper and more comprehensively we can become aligned to their power. Application is the key.

The Art of Giving Series

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James Souttar is a communications consultant and designer based in Great Britain. For over twenty years he has worked with organisations ranging from government departments to entrepreneurial start-ups, banks to charities, universities to trades unions, integrating new thinking from the sciences as well as ideas from traditional psychologies.

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Following my last post. I had a series of lessons with my teacher. There are several things I have harvested out of those lessons, including:

- when we return a portion of the appreciated value to the source, the loop keeps running, but more importantly it has an opportunity to grow in value;

- it is wise to find and give back to a source that can return compound value, because an accelerated effect can occur;

- having someone truly appreciate your value, and do that over and over and over, can become very uncomfortable, because we are not used to unconditional giving; unconditional giving eventually forces us to confront our selfishness, biases and insecurities;

- there is an aspect of going back to the source that can give us a feeling of admonishment when we approach and interact with the source, but that is because of our biases and our position of not being centered in the moment.

This post began as a draft post, which I asked my teacher to review. Following his review, there were several other lessons that took place before I finally felt ready to make a final pass at the post.

Note: This is a publicly posted lesson between student and teacher, a continuation of lessons on a series called The Art of Giving.

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About a week ago, Gretchen and I were with Sensei for a few hours. We had just left a community meeting, in which a lot of negativity was being thrown about. Negativity has powerful effects on our thinking, on how we interact with each other and with our problems, and on our personal growth. It can also distort and affect the messages and instructions from a teacher, because it grounds out the circuit of conductivity by introducing a greater amount of resistance due to the prominence we give to our personal biases. We can see this in our lives very easily, for example, when one negative person can often ground out an entire group of people.

During the lesson, we were talking about how using the Principles of Giving in that negative meeting had brought about improved results. As our lesson continued, Sensei kept building the source value so that I could better understand how gratitude should be working. There were many other elements to that lesson, and I came out of it with a determination to write a post. This time, however, after I wrote my draft post I asked my teacher to review it.

When his written comments came back, there were some things I saw as valuable, there were also some inner reactions I had, and there were some other things that weren’t apparent. Those unapparent things came out in further discussions and also when a few nights later we discussed the same concepts with a group of Great River Jiu Jitsu students following an evening marital arts class. The more often we met or talked, the deeper the insights I received into how to effectively return a portion of the appreciated value back to the source.

This brings out an important point: we tend to read or hear deeper lessons and go, “Okay, I get it.” I do this too often. But the fact is we don’t get it, because we are typically in too big a hurry to show that we are ‘getting it’, or we are too caught up in our biases to realize there is something beyond our biases.

In the first instance, we like to demonstrate all we know, or we enjoy talking about our understandings on the topic, instead of shutting up and listening. Even when we shut up and listen, and actually harvest a piece of deeper value, we sometimes make that piece the quintessential point. That can often be a good thing, but many times we walk away with our new piece of information, never realizing that the teacher had a far deeper point for us to obtain. Fortunately, I have a teacher who understands this, and he graciously keeps plugging away, giving students ample opportunities to learn.

In the case of our biases, we can get the whole ‘deer in the headlights’ look when we are brought to a certain tripping point. We can too easily get stuck in our conditioned behavior, sometimes to the point where everyone else can see an obvious thing about us, but viewed through the constant lenses of our biases nothing appears abnormal whatsoever. But that is not always the case. There are times when we are able to ovecome our biases and transcend our normal lives as we center and immerse ourselves inside the field of superconductivity. That’s when things can really sizzle. Read the rest of this entry »

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“If we are to become more consciously aware of our reason for living, through the process of breathing, we have to have some way of recognizing what the incoming value is and compare it to the outgoing. In other words, our in-breath has a reason and purpose behind it, which is something we have to know and realize if we expect to extend that purpose and reason through ourselves and into our world as we breathe out. We are the factor that distorts or enhances that reason as it moves through us to enter into our world. Our giving, in the sense of our study, is about becoming more aware of this process. In order to become more aware, we have to become more cognizant of what lies upstream and compare it to what we are breathing out.”

- Sensei, Giving and its Principles

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Running ‘the loop’

As I begin to re-read Sensei’s lesson, Giving and its Principles, I cannot go further than this point above, found in the opening 4th and 5th paragraphs: I don’t have sufficient clarity on what lies upstream.

There is a Value being stated here. One Value I find is in the actual question being asked: what is the reason and purpose behind my in breaths? If I can better understand that, and better understand what lies upstream of my in breath, then it is apparent I will have a better understanding of what is powering my body and my reason for being here.

So, I am going to stop and Respect that I don’t have sufficient clarity about that Value. I also recognize and respect that what comes out of me, exemplified by my out breath (and my life), has a lot of distortion when it comes to living and communicating deep Divine clarity and eternal awareness.

Having done that, I move to the next principle: Appreciation. How can I appreciate this; how can I find a way to increase the Value that I am respecting? First, by being even more honest: there is no question that I don’t have a good understanding of what is powering my body and my reason for being here. It would be easy to blow by these few sentences of my teacher, justifying that I do have some understanding. But justification is not going to improve me, and certainly not going to take me to toward an improved understanding and application of these principles.

Therefore, as a measure of my Appreciation, I am going to say that I not only want to have a good understanding of what is powering my body and my reason for being here, but I want to have an excellent understanding. Why? For a variety of reasons, but foremost is that I want to minimize the amount of distortion occurring between my in and my out breath. Why? Because I want to live and be a Divine Giver, and in the process of doing that I want to do everything I can to ensure that what is coming through me has a minimum of bias and a maximum of clarity.

I have now Appreciated a Value that I have Respected.

So, how do I show my Gratitude? One way is by stating that I am happy to be reminded that simply stopping and running this ‘loop’ of principles, that comprise the Art of Giving, that act is already beginning to give me a more centered and informed point of focus.

How do I return at least a portion of that Gratitude to source, which is in this case my teacher? One way is by saying, “Wow, take a look at how effective this formula is! Take a look at how just a few words into this article, appreciated value is already being formed.”

Just stopping for a few moments on a couple of lines, that I’d normally speed bump right over, is already giving me better clarity. Not only that, I know from past experience that I am now better aligning myself to the next thing my teacher is going to say.

Note: the four principles of the Art of Giving are capitalized for clarity.

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Background

Following is a lesson from my teacher, based on questions I submitted from a series of posts on the Art of Giving. Normally, this is a private dialogue between teacher and student, however I am making his lesson to me transparent on my blog.

In his response, Sensei is not answering any questions that have to do with blogging itself. Rather, he is laying some groundwork and focusing on what some would consider to be a subtle nuance: the order in which I listed, and was applying, the four principles of Giving. He is also addressing the issue of giving back to the source.

I have been studying these principles with him for years, and upon seeing that I had reversed the order of two of them, he said, “This is a problem because source is not being honored. This mis-order causes many things in life to malfunction.”

You may find, I as do, that his teaching has a certain flow to it that makes it very easy and natural to read and follow. Do not be lulled into complacency by this; there is a depth occurring that can be quite difficult to understand. This one lesson has years of study available in it.

If you find auditing this lesson to be interesting or valuable, I recommend you spend some time, as I shall, studying. Perhaps you will end up coming up with a good question or two.

Introduction

As an introduction, I have selected the following quote from my teacher. Once you click on the (…more) button, you are reading his direct word-for-word teaching (not my notes). His lesson is called “Giving and its Principles”.

“Most people who tithe are giving out of duty or kindness. But they are not realizing an improved connection to source each time they give. The same thing happens to most musicians - when they play and have a moment of connection, they don’t know how to build it into a further one, where it just keeps getting better and better. It is the master musician who knows how to do that, and it is the master in life who knows how to do that. Mastering life should be certainly about doing that, otherwise we’re not even in tune with our reason for being. How can we master something, including our reason for being, if we are not even in tune with it. It is almost unbelievably embarrassing.”

__________________________________________________________ Read the rest of this entry »

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Update: Sunday, 29 Oct 2006 - I have been very busy over the weekend, and apologize for the delay. I hope to get with my teacher in the next day or so, and I am looking forward to the next post on Giving. Thanks for you patience.
Background:

Below are some questions being assembled from the previous post. These questions are, in part, the result of my teacher (Sensei) actively participating in my blog for the first time. So this may be a unique opportunity to ask a teacher some questions.

The questions below have evolved out of a series of recent posts on the Art of Giving. The Art of Giving is comprised of four principles that create a sequential circuit which, if you run it correctly, results in a constantly building or increasing value. Now, out of correct application and running of this ‘formula’ can emerge superconductive Giving - something I am wanting to learn more about.

Newcomers may want to read through those posts and comments to get some background. Sensei entered the discussion as a result of the first post, Giving:

Giving

Why Blogs Don’t Work

Giving Back to the Source

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Here are some questions gleaned from comments to the last post - some are over my head to answer, and I intend to present them to my teacher. Thank you so much for your great questions. Hopefully, this can turn into something fun, challenging and stimulating, and hopefully you will find value and benefit.

Questions:

1. - Is it really that complicated to give back to our source? Do I need to be told how and in what order? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?
2. - What are Sensei’s principles for giving back to the Source?
3. - I was going to ask if you had further thoughts on being careful with a giver. Can somebody take more than is given and hurt the giver?
4. - The write up on static principles versus their part in a dynamic process to connect deserves comment, but I don’t know if I can grasp it enough to ask one. Maybe try to explain the dynamic process and when a specific static principle is used in description, link to an old blog on that principle. Are these processes steady state? Or is it more biological with things happening at varying rates? Feel like I’m shooting in the dark here.
5. - I will add: Why is the order so important, and what is the nature of the overall sequence that creates superconductivity?

Feel free to add further questions or comments. Also, feel free to change or modify via comments (I will adjust the post accordingly).

Additional questions and comments:

1. - Clarity on some terms would be welcomed and differentiating between them would also be helpful. I too am interested in the order and why that is important in creating superconductivity. Further, I always think clarity is heightened when an example is provided, if possible.
2. - What is the potential of a fully functioning superconductive circuit?
3. - Can we create superconductive Giving through our blogs, and do it in the sense that we and others are inside an actual deeper experience and connection versus only mental or intellectual understandings?
4. - You’ve made some really important points, which are very useful for where I am at the moment. Sensei’s distinction between the ‘principles’ and the ‘machine’, in particular. As an aside, many years ago a long time student of these matters pointed out to me - in the casual, almost ‘throwaway’ manner of someone who has been with a real teacher - the importance of ‘priming the pump’. This is a different point, but it is connected with the art of giving, and I think with Sensei’s point of offering something back. The issue here is that if one wants to receive, one needs first to put the machine in motion by giving. My own master makes another point, related to this, which is that in order to make more money, we need to spend more. In fact this is really about all giving and receiving - if we want to channel more energy or to have more wisdom, we have to allow the ‘flow’ to become greater. Once again, a New Testament parable comes to mind - that of the ‘talents’. Keeping our money in the bank, not sharing our energy or applying our knowledge effectively inhibits the operation of the ‘pump’, and nothing flows.

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What constitutes a good esoteric student? Good grades, burning desire, a nice smile or more problems than anyone else? To answer the question first requires understanding the qualifier ‘good’. Good, in this context, is about possessing the attributes that are going to make you successful and worthy of your teacher’s time.

The language of esotericism, like the languages of religion, is often filled with words and phrases that make little sense to anyone uninvolved in the particular discipline or ‘way’ being studied. Outside of the occasional Joseph Campbell, most people find it incomprehensible to cross relate the commonalities of spiritual traditions, much less the everyday vocabularies that exist within various esoteric paths. ‘Dharma’ is as foreign a term to a Native American as ‘born again’ is to a Hindu. Okay, so maybe ‘born again’ is not that foreign to a Hindu, but in the Hindu tradition of reincarnation it means something quite different than it does in the conservative Christian realm.

Esoteric students fall prey to casually throwing out unfamiliar terms and nuances, victims of the relaxed and commonplace ease that occurs once they are comfortably seated inside the doors of their training venues. What seem to be (and are) perfectly sensible terms and phrases become awkward and misplaced when used in everyday life, although this often goes unnoticed as long as the student or follower stays within the confines of their group.

The terms we use to describe the qualities of good esoteric studentship become critical for anyone wishing to contribute to a more open and inclusive dialogue that reaches across religious, philosophical or social boundaries. Since we don’t have a common planet-wide language, the job of effective communication becomes even more challenging.

Esoteric wordsmiths must learn to choose their language with care. When a speaker or writer desires to effectively communicate, particularly outside the boundaries of familiarity found within their local group, the use of similes, analogies and metaphors becomes critical. It barely takes a glance back in time to see many examples among great leaders and pioneers, who often used analogies and parables to make their point, points that, even today, make sense. Is there a language that is not so dependant on metaphors? You need one, once you step into the deep end of the esoteric river.

Ask seven esoteric students from seven different paths to describe what makes a good student, and discover what language emerges. Chances are it will be chaotic, particularly if you aren’t grounded in all seven traditions. The best esoteric language is built on universal principles. Principles are our common planet-wide language, a point we constantly miss.

Principles are like having a Star Trek translator: they make sense to anyone. My Sensei is a great believer in this; he is always using language that is accessible to anyone he greets or teaches. He does this with ease and great success, communicating deeply and effectively to a wide cross section of people from around the world, and from representative backgrounds and outlooks.

Check out the language of principles. How many people will argue that better balance is a bad thing? Balance is a universal principle, a concept well within the grasp of nearly anyone. What about the principle of respect? A widely understood term, even organized criminals embrace respect and can converse at length regarding its value.

Listen, it doesn’t really bother me if someone wears a robe or a business suit to a religious function; it’s no concern of mine if a person chants with incense and bells, prays while kneeling and facing Mecca or meditates watching the surf toss itself up on the beach. What upsets me are these communication walls we scurry behind, desperately clutching our warm and fuzzy security blankets. We need to change this.

Principles have been and continue to be widely misunderstood and vastly underestimated. A wise teacher once revealed the true nature of the deeper path:

“All through history the sages, masters and teachers of higher understanding have traveled this path that leads the individual human to and through higher understanding. It is not a well marked path. In fact, it has no marks on it, with the exceptions of principles. That’s all there is to mark the path – principles.

“So you can go read and learn all kinds of things, but if you don’t understand principles then you won’t travel the path of higher understanding, nor will you gain the higher understanding. Neither will you gain it in a way that you can apply it. Let me tell you: the application is worth more than the knowledge of it, because the application is the proof of understanding.”

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I find it really hard to do certain things that are very easy - so I call them difficult. It could be something simple like fixing a broken faucet, improving myself or becoming more deeply aware. One is no different than the other, because the mindset between them is consistent. Plainly stated, with my kind of thinking it is very easy for me to call many such things impossible; it is very easy to give up and just coast.

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