The Big Picture
Having moved our focus to the body, – a more healthy form of being “out of our heads” – we can engage our deeper Self through the heart, and shift to any one or combination of the five so-called Sage Powers: Compassion (Empathise), Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate. Each of these is a manifestation of one of the many facets of love. Compassion is the love of connection. Explore is the love of discovery. Innovate is the love of creativity. Navigate is the love of values and purpose. Finally, Activate is the love of making a difference, of converting ideas and intention into actions…
Encouragement
In the Positive Intelligence (PQ) Mental Fitness modality, we postulate that the fear-driven Saboteurs (Judge, Controller, Pleaser, Hyper-Vigilant, etc.) reside in the left hemisphere, and that the love-propelled Sage Powers (Compassion, Exploration, Navigation, etc.) are located in the right hemisphere. A neural shift is required if we are to move from Saboteur to Sage. This shift is enabled by the Mind Command muscle, which is activated and strengthened by daily on-going short bursts of somatic and imaginative exercises, many no longer than two minutes each. These so-called “PQ Reps” represent a circuit-breaker of our incessant thinking. Called “Stinking Thinking” in some quarters, this habit keeps us either in the past or the future, or alternating continuously between the two…
Mind The Gap!
My general observations lead me to conclude that we are either in autopilot and react in line with the coping mechanisms and survival strategies we developed before our fourth birthday (approximately) or, having developed sufficient awareness, mindfulness, and mental fitness, we learn to pause before responding to whatever stimuli cross our paths in a conscious, loving manner – beneficial to the healing, growth, and joy of all concerned. The term “autopilot” may be considered charitable. Some would call it “sleepwalking through life” (Dr Allen Berger) or even refer to a “Zombie” existence. And of course, this is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon…
Dis-illusion
Then there is the case of Deepak Chopra whom I have admired as a spiritual teacher and a person who has not only achieved heightened states of awareness but has also been very effective in helping those who have embarked on a similar quest. What alarms me is the documented propinquity, familiarity, and absence of scruples between this powerful spiritual figure and a man (Epstein) whose crimes against children and young women were not only widely known but had already led to criminal prosecution. When someone claims moral authority, association itself becomes evidence of lack of discernment. When Chopra positioned himself as a global moral authority, and spoke endlessly about consciousness, healing, and enlightenment, while simultaneously maintaining close relationship and correspondence with one of the most documented child sex traffickers in modern history, no further “evidence” of his spiritual bankruptcy is needed.
Slave Patrols
I have been living in Germany for many decades now. My arrival was preceded by the NBC mini-series on the Holocaust which had been broadcast on German TV over four consecutive nights in January 1979 and coincided with public interest in the third instalment of the Majdanek trials, the longest Nazi war crimes trial in history, spanning over 30 years. Members of the main government party, the Social Democrats, had seen the original — English language — NBC series some months earlier and urged its broadcast in Germany, dubbed in German, of course. Broadcast on WDR State TV, the viewership was estimated to have comprised up to 15 million households or 20 million people, approximately 50% of West Germany’s entire adult population….
Leading Meditation
I like the story about Mother Teresa being once asked by a young journalist to describe her daily prayer and meditation practice.
“I simply sit in silence and pray”, she answered with clarity.
“What do you say?”, asked the journalist, intrigued.
“Oh, I say nothing. I simply listen to God.” she replied.
“And what does God say? ” asked the journalist, sniffing a sensation…
“God doesn’t say anything, either,” responded the old nun with a smile. “God simply listens also.”
“If you have never had the experience, nobody can explain it to you,” she then finished, bowed courteously, and went on her way…
Shyness
Whenever I find myself alone among strangers in a dance class for couples to learn something like foxtrot, a feeling of distress begins to arise, with accelerated heartbeat, increased sweating, and light nausea, such that I generally leave before the real action begins. I console myself with the thoughts of how much I like dancing solo in a crowd, and even with fantasies that, one fine day, a beautiful partner will have sufficient patience and loving kindness to be able and willing to bear with me as I gradually master the moves, the rhythm, and the coordinated steps…
Aloneness
The abused become the abuser. An inability to identify and grieve the losses of our early lives leads to the immense pent-up energies coming out sideways, almost always with destructive consequences. The generational chain is ancient, powerful, and has embedded itself in every cell of our bodies. Thankfully, we are now developing a consciousness and associated healing modalities which is helping us in breaking this chain, for the good of humanity as a whole. For more on this, the Twelve Step Programme of ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics – designed for anybody wishing to recover from growing up in a dysfunctional family) is highly recommended…
DisAbilities
Inclusion is one of the main threads in the fabric of this story, as is the acceptance of the purity of the soul of each and every person, regardless of any damage the vessel of this soul may have suffered. In the end we are all “born that way”; this is the conclusion of the film when it comes to physical and intellectual disabilities. I like the fact that Patrick points out that the word “disability” contains the word “ability”. We all have abilities in our own unique way. When we look at the spectrum of autism, for example, I can see strong traces of that in my own personality, from an intense interest in patterns unseen by others, to an uncanny agility in numerical acrobatics, to a social awkwardness which I circumvented for decades by getting intoxicated (high) which helped me feel at ease in social settings.
Inner Power
Insight does not always lead to integrity. Charisma does not usually mean honesty. Even respected philosophers or spiritual guides can struggle with the ordinary demands of daily life — relationships, parenthood, commitment, and even basic truthfulness. Sometimes people can be disingenuous in a very charismatic fashion. As Shirzad Chamine, the founder of Positive Intelligence (PQ) and developer of the PQ Mental Fitness modality points out, transformation is made up of 20% insight and 80% practice. We must walk the talk if we are to heal, grow, and thrive…
