Animal Nature

“We are first and foremost animals, sharing more in common than not with our animal relatives.

More than anything we long to experience and explore our animal nature … to luxuriate in the freedom of it … like a cat stretching fully, lying in a puddle of sun, confident that her next meal will soon wander by unbidden.”

There’s a joke of sorts that the comedian C.K. Louis tells (I think … but someone will correct me if it’s someone else …). The gist of the joke is that G-d is talking to him and they get into a discussion of why he has to work. He says something like, “I have to work to earn money.” G-d asks him, “Why … what do you need money for?” The response that follows is predictable, “Well to buy stuff … like food to feed my family.”

At this point G-d freaks out … basically yelling, “What do you mean you have to work to earn money to buy food???!!!??? I left it on the ground for you!!!”

This is the reality we live in when we allow ourselves to experience it that way … the food is basically laying on the ground waiting for us to pick it up. Maybe, if we want meat, we have to hunt or fish to get it … but it’s still there waiting for us to grab it when it comes by.

I know that most folks aren’t living this lifestyle, hunter/gatherer, and neither do I … I’m imagining that anyone reading this post on a blog isn’t a hunter/gatherer by trade … call me crazy!

What remains though are two aspects that we need to take into account if we want to live the life that’s available to us as our birthright …

 

Essential Human Nature

The first point is that we are indeed suited biologically to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. Hell, the emergence and popularity of “Cross-Fit” training speaks to the appeal (and value) of functional fitness. This is exactly what a hunter/gatherer lifestyle would provide by virtue of “picking up the food lying around” and/or doing what it takes to find it, carry it and prepare it. The same would be true of the activities required for native, primative hunting … natural cross-fit training.

I remember loving training scenes inthe Rocky movie where Slyvester Stallone fights Dolph Lundgren, i.e.: Ivan Drago (I think it was Rocky #207).

Drago is training under the most sophisticated regimen imaginable … with super advanced equipment, monitoring and scientists at his beck and call. The results are impressive. At one point he punches a pressure pad and the power is off the scales!

Then we have the scenes where Rocky is training (in the film the fight is to take place in Russia, and Rocky is give a dacha in the woods to do his training … in the heart of winter). Rocky is chopping wood, pulling sleds, carrying logs, running through knee deep snow … “cross-fit functional training … and the movement replicates anything Drago can accomplish with all his fancy equipment. Of course Rocky gets as fit and strong as Drago … and the rest is history as they say.

The second thing we want to account for is that we are ideally suited to life in this world, in this Universe. The Universe spawned us, and then we began shaping the world, and shaping ourselves (the human species … from homo sapiens to homo sapiens sapiens).

We can still organize ourselves to operate in a “natural” way, such that life comes to us and provides us for what we need and want. To live this way we’d need to learn how to notice for the opportunities that are available to us, and to be prepared to take advantage of the ones that show up. What I call noticing for the “Signals in the System.”

We would also have to begin to let go … we’d need to allow ourselves to accept what shows up and move along the path of least resistance. This is not lollygagging. We still need to organize and focus on acting to maximize the opportunities that show up for us.

A cat does not lay in the sun where it’s unlikely to find suitable prey when it’s hungry, nor does it lay in such a way that the food it’s seeking avoids it. A cat knows better … it doesn’t feel entitled to eat … it works for it.

A cat begins by learning the basic rules of hunting (and hunger) from it’s time as a kitten under the direction of it’s mother. When it makes mistakes it gets wacked and goes hungry. Unlike the players under Mike Rice who weren’t supposed to be “abused” verbally and physically by the 44 year old coach … who didn’t walk off when he did these things by the way. The kitten is tougher … and probably smarter too.

So life shows up and teaches us if we let it … and when we let it we get stronger and smarter as a result (see: “Anti-Fragile” by Nassim Taleb). This is true for everyone, applicable for anyone who is an employer or employee (see: “Political Savvy” by Joel R. DeLuca), and especially true for entrepreneurs (see anything by Seth Godin, e.g.: “Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?” or “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell.

 

Resetting the System

HOWEVER …

 

“Most folks are too scared and set in their ways to remain open to what life is offering them … they always begin from something, hoping to get to something, acting so they can get something … and most of the time they are disappointed when they get it, or too busy running off to the next thing to appreciate what they have … so instead of getting what’s available, experiencing the magic and magnificence of being alive and fully human, they settle for what’s familiar and comfortable.”

 

There’s really a deep lesson here … beyond cognitive dissonance, which is surely present … or cognitive inertia, which is also at play.

If you’re always beginning from SOMETHING … you never get to experience the freedom and joy contained in NOTHING.

It’s been an argument of mine for a long time now that in order to get/have the life that is waiting for us we have to give up the one we have (not my quote BTW … I got this one from Joseph Campbell … try: “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living” by Diane Osbon (Editor) – and get the hardcover edition, with the ribbon and beautiful torn edge pages.) You have to get to NOTHING to become free of what constrains you, limits you and you think IS you (HINT: that’s NOT you).

What’s fantastic … is that under the veneer of SOMETHING … you’ll expose NOTHING, and find your Animal Nature … waiting patiently (all animals know how to wait patiently … even when they are actively waiting).

Your Animal Nature only knows NOTHING. Therefore when you are in touch with your Animal Nature you’ll be ready and able to do anything.

From NOTHING, there’s literally nothing in your way … nothing stopping you … nothing you have to fix, get over or make better.

From NOTHING everything is just pure learning … and the next NOTHING begins from an entirely different place … maybe another Universe entirely … with another you waiting for you to find out who you are … patiently waiting … vaya con Dios.

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.

Princeton, NJ

 

 

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication – Professional Certification Training

Langebaek, Denmark 29 July – 9 August

(You just might get NOTHING … if you pay attention, keep your sole in the room, and you’re lucky …)

 

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication
Program Details

All Words Are Incantations, Casting A Spell On All Who Speak And Hear Them

 

Every “system I’ve ever come across has jargon it uses that marks out what’s most special within it.

In NLP (neurolinguistic programming) there is the magic of “WHY?” … that which should not be spoken.

In General Semantics the word “IS“ becomes the evil to be avoided … freezing the world into perpetual slumber.

Gurdjieff’s 4th Way and “The Work” locked onto “I“ … pointing to the ego and the need to find the true “I“ hidden within.

Zen priests and practioners often speak of “Not-Doing“ … and in doing that achieving Satori or Enlightenment.

There are many other systems I could be pointing to that recognize and use the power of words, or magical phrases to both unlock the mystery, awe and wonder of the Universe for their followers … and in doing so lock them into the system.

But this cannot be helped until the system fulfills the role of unleashing what is hidden in plain sight … the simplicity of Being and Doing, i.e.: Being and Becoming who you already are … and letting the Universe be what it is,including all the other folks milling around in it.

‘Course this could all get very philosophical, or worst start sounding all spiritual … but,

 

This ain’t That!

 

 

The MythoSelf Process & Soma-Semantics

 

In the system I’ve been architecting for years now I too have stumbled upon Magical Phrases … if you were to ask a few students I’ve worked with along the way I’m sure you’d come across a bunch of ’em.

I do however want to revisit a particular Magical Phrase that I think of as a core concept in the model I’ve been designing and building out.
 
 

“ENOUGH“

 
 
I’ve been writing a lot about “NOTHING“ recently, and for now I’m going to leave that Magical Phrase alone.

I haven’t written much about “ENOUGH“ recently … and I think it’s time to reconsider how important it is for getting the essential benefit the MythoSelf Process model has to offer.

“ENOUGH“ may be the most misunderstood word in modernity, because for most folks it doesn’t exist.

“ENOUGH“ is like a ghost … something you think may exist, and may even believe you’ve glimpsed from time to time, but not something you can really nail down and come to terms with.

Building and nurturing a healthy relationship with “ENOUGH seems to be something that only the very old and the very wise seem to be able to do.

So here’s the simple question for ‘ya …
 
 

How much is ENOUGH?

 

• -How much is enough money?
• -How much is enough fame?
• -How much is enough love?
• -How much is enough autonomy?
• -How much is enough power?
• -How much is enough influence?
• -How much is enough recognition?

 

• -How much … how much … how much …

 

Most people cannot answer even one of these questions for themselves. That’s the power of “ENOUGH“ in their lives … it’s overwhelming!

You may be thinking, “Hey wait a second Joseph … you’re really writing about ‘NOT ENOUGH’ here!” … but it’s really the lack of getting “ENOUGH“ that I’m on about.
 
 
 

Resetting the “ENOUGH” Switch

 

Let’s begin again …

 

STEP ONE:

What if you conceded for argument’s sake that whatever you now have is “ENOUGH … regardless of how much or how little that is right now.

Think about it …

Run through the first question above … and come up with an answer regarding what you now have … in the very moment, as you’re reading this … and decide (just for now) that it is “ENOUGH“ … and let that sink in … then move onto the next question and repeat the process until you’ve completed my list.

(NOTE: When you get to: -How much … how much … how much … … just put in THIS … THIS … THIS …“ referencing what is immediately present in the moment to you.)

How’s that feel? (You really have to take the 90 seconds it takes to do the mental exercise to know.)

When you can instantiate how much is ENOUGH with a concrete example from your life … even if you’re just playing along … does it change how you feel about how much “ENOUGH is for you?

(By the way … if you should get stuck on any of the particulars as you’re answering the question/s think about how come that particular thing/concept catches you.)

 

STEP TWO:

Okay now do the mental exercise and change the questions to read in your mind “How much is MORE THAN ENOUGH?” … and put in the same answers as before.

How does it feel to know you have “MORE THAN ENOUGH“ – maybe for the very first time?

If you really did the exercise in your mind … projecting the expereince all the way into your body … you would have already had some shift in the Soma-Semantic response to what is “ENOUGH.”

So if you haven’t run through it all quickly again … this time noticing for the shift in your felt experience (that’s in your body) … and notice how that shift impacts how you think about the word (i.e.: “ENOUGH“).

This is the way you being taking control of the “Magical Phrases“ in your life (believe me there are others … try these on for size:

• -Fairness
• -Justice
• -Respect
• -Honor
• -Honesty
• -Loyalty
• -Fidelity

there that should get you starting thinking again …)

 

STEP THREE:

Okay … we’re almost done for the day …

Just one last thing … start at “NOTHING“ then ask yourself all the questions about How much …” again.

I’m betting the answer/s will be interesting.
 
 
 

MORE?

 
 
A society/culture that doesn’t have a grasp of the concept of “ENOUGH“ will be unlikely to ever be able to satisfy itself … creating the need for an unending stream of “MORE“ … and the will to take (read: “steal”) what they desire from others, leaving them without.

We live and have lived in the state of “NOT ENOUGH“ for all of modernity … and probably for long before that too. It is difficult to find an example of an entire society or culture that has attained and absorbed the concept of “ENOUGH.”

So, we live with war, famine, genocide … the horrors of the human condition … and we choose to do nothing about them … often feeling powerless in the face of “MORE … MORE … MORE …“ and the brutal competitiveness that demands of us all.

Learning the Hobbesian way … that “(the) life (of man) is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. leading ultimately to a “war of all against all“ (“bellum omnium contra omnes“).

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes sought a politically-based solution, based in government and central control.

However, what I’m proposing is a bit different … instead of trying to change or alter an entire society or culture, beginning with just one person … yourself … and beginning with and from “NOTHING” … such a “Magical Phrase“ that one.

 

All the best,

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.

Princeton, NJ

 

PS –

LAST 48 HOURS …

 
 
There’s still about 48 hours left to take advantage of the heavy Early-Bird discounts for the summer training in Denmark … if nothing else you probably will not want to miss the CRAZY Discount for the entire 12 Day Video Package … (it’s less than $500 if you pre-order it before midnight tomorrow) …
 
 

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication
Professional Certification Training

Presented by ABTI | Princeton and Acuity World, DK

SPECIAL ONE WEEK ONLY OFFER
(expires 19 June 2013)

 

Opps … I made a BIG MISTAKE …

My partner Henrik Wenoe, at Acuity World has been on my case for weeks (months really) to announce this training program to my list … but I’ve simply been swamped.

The Early-Bird pricing “officially” ended on 15 May 2013 … and here we are almost a month later and I haven’t even let folks know about this powerful program we’re running this summer.

So I’m taking the blame and doing what I can to make it up to you …

For the next week you can still get the Early-Bird pricing for either attending the event live in-person, or via Live Internet Simulcast (there’s even an option to pre-purchase just the videos) … when you register directly using this link:

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication – Summer Intensive

You’ll SAVE $3000 from the Regular Investment for this 12-day Intensive program when you attend it live (BTW the investment includes room and board with three meals a day, snacks and coffee/tea/water all day long).

If you want to attend via the Live Internet Simulcast … now broadcast in HD via my private LiveSteam MythoSelf Channel … or pre-purchase the HD video recordings, you’ll be able to take advantage of the Early-Bird pricing as well.

BUT … you must act immediately to get the Early-Bird Pricing (there’s also a three-payment plan I’ve set up for you as well if you want to spread out your payments over three months) …

Here’s the link you need to use to register and get the Early-Bird pricing:

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication – Summer Intensive

 

 

[NOTE: The full program brochure is here: http://www.acuityworld.com/pictures_da/med_clips/Joseph%20Riggio_2013.pdf]

 

 

“Communication Rules The World … But Thankfully That Doesn’t Really Matter Too Much.” – J. Riggio

 

Most folks I know would agree that communication is one way we order our thinking.

Maybe they’d even agree that the way we order our thinking is the way we order our life.

Some might even go so far as to agree that the way we order our thinking is the way we construct “reality” as we know it, or experience it.

Those who would go so far as to agree that the way we order our thinking is the way we construct “reality” could be on track to agree that “reality” is a construct of our thinking … and nothing more than that.

However, this post isn’t about that particular philosophical discussion.

This post is about the relationship between communication and thought, and then thought and action – therefore the relationship between communication and action (a “hoc igitur quod” argument you could say).
 
 
 

Changelessness at the Start

 
 
In a previous post here on Blognostra, “The Nature of Change“ I wrote about change, changelessness and healing. I was even so bold as to refer to myself as Healer. I did qualify that boast about being a Healer as specifically related to the work I do as a Change Artist.

I pointed out in “The Nature of Change“ that my work as a Healer is predicated on leading individual or organizational clients to having an experience of “changelessness that I presume resides at the core of their being. More succinctly I could say that my work is about The Nature of Being” – which is beyond change, i.e.: changeless.

For me this is the essence of all healing … arriving at the point of changelessness. However, for most folks this becomes a semantic discussion. The discussion sinks to the level of the “idea or ideal of changelessness” … an intellectualization, or mental masturbation as I prefer to think of it.

There is another way to approach the discussion, i.e.: somatically. In this way we begin to experience the sensation of changelessness as a whole-form response. This is the aesthetic approach (as opposed to the intellectual approach, i.e.: ontological versus epistemological, sensation versus ideation).
 
 
 

Communication as Representation

 
 
Now maybe we’re onto something.

I want to propose that all communication is representation, i.e.: communication points to something other than itself.

It may be possible to communicate directly in a way that seems pre-representational, e.g.: facial expressions associated with emotional states that are other-than-conscious responses, or pre-conscious responses.

I would push the arguement though that even pre-conscious facial expressions as communication are representational. My arguement is that as communication the facial expressions in question represent something other than themselves, i.e.: a sneer is a particular movement of specific facial muscles in combination, representing contempt for instance.

I would pursue the same tact in discussing any and all somatic response as communication … a “hoc igitur quod” argument, i.e.: as communcation somatic response is representational and no longer just the thing itself.

Anything as itself must by default be in space-time where it is, and visa-versa as communication somewhere else in space-time, even if only by virtue of the delay in translating the message, e.g.:

If in an interaction someone responds by sneering as a result of the contempt they experience by the time the sneer occurs the contempt has already been experienced, and as communication the sneer lags the experience by some distance. This is compounded by the time it takes for the communication to be received and translated by another (if that is included in the communcation equation).
 

All communication, “as communication,” is representative of something other than itself, and points to something in another space-time location than here and now.

 
 
 

Linking Communication, Action … and
Change/Changelessness

 
 

The way we communicate, verbally and non-verbally (i.e.: semantically and somatically), orders our thinking and determines the experience we have despite the actual reality of the thing itself!

 
 
If I bring this back to healing as an example we could consider two alternatives as they are ordered by how we communicate about healing.
 

A) Healing equals cure

-0r-

B) Healing equals acceptance

 
A) In the more typical modern medical view “to heal is a reference to cure or curing the symptoms experienced by the patient. In extreme cases the symptoms are considered to be indicators of impending death, e.g.:

In a simplified description severe septic infection (sepsis) creates a toxic environment in the whole organism overloading the immune system, creating massive inflammation, depriving bodily tissues of oxygen and nutrients, flooding the tissue with waste product, leading septic shock, organ failure and eventually death.

B) In some traditional societies healing is viewed outside of the framework of “cure“ or “curing … and is considered withing the framework of what the modern medical approach calls disease, e.g.:

Someone is diagnosed with some disease, or more simply they are experiencing the symptoms associated with disease as it would be diagnosed within the modern medical model. These symptoms indicate a dysfunction of the relationship of the individual to their environment, themselves or both and the healer seeks to realign the individual in a whole-form way re-establishing systemic balance and integration.

When the disease (i.e.: symptomology) is indicative of a chronic or terminal condition (i.e.: uncurable) the traditional healer seeks to re-establish systemic balance and integration within the framework of the symptoms as they are in the moment … accepting the immediacy of the changelessness of the individual.

The distinction between A) and B) (the modern medical model and the traditional healing model) is largely one of communication that dictates approach. In both systems there is an X/Y paradigm in play, i.e.: cause and effect/this is that.

In both systems the way the immediacy of the experience is communicated about determines what “IT” is for the individuals involved, i.e.:

A) “IT” is a chronic/terminal disease to be dealt with, and the primary outcome would be finding/attempting a cure (even when that’s clearly not an option, e.g.: incurable disease) … “I have “X” which means “Y” (about me and my condition/future) – I am an “X” patient/sufferer/survivor/etc.“

-or-

B) “IT” is a set of symptoms that the individual needs to accept as a part of their experience as they seek to balance and integrate themselves with what is happening … possibly changing the symptoms they experience or not, while remaining aware of themselves as NOT THE SYMPTOMS (OR THE DISEASE) … “I am experiencing “X” which means “Y” – but that is not who/what I am myself.“

While the communication distinctions are subtle, they are significant.

The most significant for our purposes here is the distinction of an ever-present core at the center of one’s being that remains changeless in the face of circumstance or situation (or symptoms), i.e.: WHO you are doesn’t change as a result of the experience you are having.’

If you know “WHO” you are in any given circumstance or situation, you can choose the action you take, and by virtue of choosing the action creating the experience you have as well.

 
 
 
 

Grabbing Hold of the Levers …
and Pushing Your Own Buttons

 
 

In the beginning there was the Word … and the Word became Flesh … – KJV Bible, John 1:1 & 1:14

 
 
Okay, you already know this isn’t a proclamation of theology or religious beliefs. My point is that, Words Become Things … whether those things are tanglible or intangible, they are manifest (one of the things to track for is how the intangible becomes tangible, i.e.: insubtantial non-material ideas that generate substantial material form … “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” – J. Robert Oppenheimer

When it comes to taking control of the choices in our lives that generate and organize the experience we have the best place, or at least one of the best places, to start is with your communication.

NOT YOUR LANGUAGE … which is only a fraction of your communication, but must be considered within the larger context of your communication as whole-form, i.e.
 
 

Behavioral Communication … the totality of the communication that generates the perceptions you have, the decisions you make, the actions you take … and the outcomes and experience you generate as a result.

 
 
There are at least three essential aspects to taking control of your choices with regard to your communication:

1. Intentionality

2. Somatic and Sensory Awareness

3. Language in Action (Pragmatics vs. Semantics)

When you take control of your choices you can heal what ails you … even if the symptomology remains “as is” … whether the condition is personal, professional or organizational (for convenience sake let’s consider all relationships organizational for now).
 
 

The key to the model I’m proposing is “Change.”

 
 
 
 
More specically learning how to organize and direct change.

My mentor, teacher and friend, Roye Fraser, liked to talk about directionality – the ability to choose the direction of action and outcome in your life.

I like to talk about cognitive inertia and logical chaining” in the same way … by revealing the internal codes you use to direct your perceptions, decisions, action-taking leading to the outcomes you create (on your own and with others) and experience you have (or not).

Regardless of the languaging you prefer … communication remains near and dear to the heart of change and choice (NOTE: if you cannot change at will you have no choice available to you).

I’ve made it my life’s quest to explore the domain of communication, change and choice … and it’s been an interesting journey.

Two final things for now …

1) One thing I can share with you is this … there are idiots and geniuses in this domain, and what differentiates them from one another has far more to do with learning and application than talent.

2) One thing I will recommend is that if you choose to begin, start with Somatic and Senosory Awareness … there’s some great stuff out there to help point the way, e.g.: “The Body of Life” by Thomas Hanna, any of the physical paths, e.g.: yoga, juggling or acting (especially something like mime), or one of the aesthetic paths, e.g.: photography, painting … (sculpture is particularly powerful as it bridges the visual and kinesthetic in a uniquely three dimensional way in the arts).

… and one more thing …
 
 

I am a HUGE fan of working with a Master myself …

 
 
 
 
Currently I am working with (Lt. Col.) Al Ridenhour, a 7th Degree Master of “Guided Chaos” (Ki Chuan Do – “Way of the Spirit Fist”).

The changes I’ve experienced in a few months of working with Al are remarkable!

There are a few principals in “Guided Chaos” …

• Looseness
• Balance
• Body Unity
• Adaptability

FWIW (I am an absolute rank beginner!) … for me it’s all about getting to Adaptability … and I recognize that I cannnot get there without, looseness, balance and body unity … so I’m learning to walk the path a step at a time.

The key is I’m learning really, really quickly under the guidance of a master of the form.

I did this when I learned how to do high-level protection training with dogs from Bob, I did it again when I learned how to do transformational change work with Roye … and now that I want to refine and polish my movement skills in a self-defense paradigm I’m doing it with Al.

To paraphrase Tom Cruise … “Sitting at the knee of a Master … there is no substitute.” … or doing whatever the heck he/she tells you to as you’re learning … wax on … wax off …
 
 

Or, to quote another master I once knew …
“Who love’s ‘ya baby?”

 
 
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
 
 

PS – Summer Intensive Training w/Dr. Joseph Riggio:

 

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication
Professional Certification Training

Presented by ABTI | Princeton and Acuity World, DK

SPECIAL ONE WEEK ONLY OFFER
(expires 19 June 2013)

 

Opps … I made a BIG MISTAKE …

My partner Henrik Wenoe, at Acuity World has been on my case for weeks (months really) to announce this training program to my list … but I’ve simply been swamped.

The Early-Bird pricing “officially” ended on 15 May 2013 … and here we are almost a month later and I haven’t even let folks know about this powerful program we’re running this summer.

So I’m taking the blame and doing what I can to make it up to you …

For the next week you can still get the Early-Bird pricing for either attending the event live in-person, or via Live Internet Simulcast (there’s even an option to pre-purchase just the videos) … when you register directly using this link:

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication – Summer Intensive

You’ll SAVE $3000 from the Regular Investment for this 12-day Intensive program when you attend it live (BTW the investment includes room and board with three meals a day, snacks and coffee/tea/water all day long).

If you want to attend via the Live Internet Simulcast … now broadcast in HD via my private LiveSteam MythoSelf Channel … or pre-purchase the HD video recordings, you’ll be able to take advantage of the Early-Bird pricing as well.

BUT … you must act immediately to get the Early-Bird Pricing (there’s also a three-payment plan I’ve set up for you as well if you want to spread out your payments over three months) …

Here’s the link you need to use to register and get the Early-Bird pricing:

MythoSelf Behavioral Communication – Summer Intensive

 

 

[NOTE: The full program brochure is here: http://www.acuityworld.com/pictures_da/med_clips/Joseph%20Riggio_2013.pdf]

 

 

 

“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”

William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

 

I’ve received a bag of mixed comments about my most recent postings … ranting on and on about, well … “NOTHING.”

Some folks seemed to like what I had written … others, not so much.

I could write a clever vignette about my own life experience and coming to nothing, and it would be good reading. That though is not for this posting.

NOTE: I am in the process of collecting some vignettes which I’ll release in book form I’ve tentatively entitled “Apprentice of Wonder” later this year, I hope.

However, I do want to share some more of my ideas about nothing and address one specific comment:

“If nothing is what you offer than what is the point ??? That’s where the confusion is.”

I think the confusion is semantic … in the understanding of what I mean when I say “NOTHING.”

 

 

NOTHING as I use it is a beginning point …
an orientation … a way of seeing the world.

 

 

NOTHING is to be free of the limitation of bias, assumption, presumption, prejudice, personal history … all the stuff that filters what we perceive to be “real.”

As humans I don’t think it’s possible to be free of the things I mention about, e.g.: bias, assumption, presumption … BUT, I do think it’s possible to be aware of them!!!

When we are aware of our bias, assumption, presumption, prejudice … and so on, we are at the beginning of freeing ourselves of the limitation they impose upon us.

NOTHING is the ability to stand in a position beyond the limitations of our personal history, with all the baggage that brings along.

NOTHING is the position of choice … the place where we become free to choose.

 

 

Choosing Well

Most folks never get to choice, because they are stuck in the limitations of their personal history. The world most people inhabit is the one they’ve already experienced and have projected before them.

In the movie he conceptualized, “After Earth,” Will Smith, playing Ranger General Cypher Raige, explains the idea of projection to his son Kitai (played in the film by his son Jaden Smith).

The movie script uses the singular emotive response of “fear” to illustrate the power of projection:

Cypher Raige: “Son this is not training. This is a class one quarantined planet, the threats we will be facing are real. Everything on this planet is evolved to kill humans. Every single decision we make will be life or death. But if we are going to survive this, you must realize that fear is not real, it is a product of thoughts you create. Now do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice.“ – After Earth

 

There is a subtle undercurrent in the movie about transcendence IMO (maybe some projection on my part).

Cypher Raige is a man without fear. He conquered his fear years before and became a hero as a result. This is half the battle of the Buddha in the attainment of enlightenment of course, i.e.: conquering fear.

Later in the movie we learn the story of how and when Cyhper conquered his fear. Simply told he believed he was about to die, and in that moment gave up being afraid. The moment of his perceived death released him entirely … in the moment there was NOTHING left for him, only a choice to be made and the action that followed.

When there is NOTHING we are free to act … there is no resistance, no friction in the system … only clarity and movement. I would call this the the moment of choice the instant in which we are free to act beyond the limitations of our personal history.

The power in the moment of choice in altering the course of one’s life is enormous. In that moment, and only in that moment are we free to express ourselves completely without remorse or regard for consequence beyond meeting the moment as it is …

 

In the “moment of choice” we experience ourselves as we are, beyond the imposition of our past or the concern for our future … we are free to act potently and powerfully in a life affirming way … we regain our humanity.

 

 

If that is not enough to make NOTHING worth pursuing than I am at a loss to offer you more value in what I am attempting to present.

 

Beyond Choice … Poo-Pooing the “Non-Dual”

There is another consideration attached to the concept of NOTHING as I approach and employ it.

If you are of the spiritual ilk of non-dualism you are probably aware of the offer held out that suggests there is a position beyond self-identifying, an all encomposing awareness beyond the egoic position of being.

NOTHING as I am referring to it sees non-dualism as just another booby prize … the treat or candy held out as a reward to the infantile mind that seeks transcendence or enlightenment as they understand it from a non-transcendent or unenlightened position.

Non-duality is the grand awareness of pure being, consciousness.

Non-dualism, or non-duality, as it is often presented and discussed in mostly Western spiritualism is offered as a position without subject or object, or beyond subject of object.

In the Advaita tradition only Brahman is real, the empirical, manifest world is nothing, or non-existant, i.e.: only a projection of consciousness, unreal. This path is common to the spiritual traditions influenced by Hinduism and Vedantic philosophy.

In the Advaya tradition there is no difference of distinction between the absolute and the relative, all things are the same essentially … simply understood at different levels of awareness. This is consideration is present in Buddhism, as well as in the Vedantic paths.

 

 

There is a misconception in the non-dual traditions (according to me) about something to be attained, i.e.: non-dual consciousness, the experience of pure being, or pure consciousness without subject or object.

 

 

The Advaita and Advaya traditions suggest that in the moment of transcendence or enlightenment the egoic identification of “self” or “I” is lost completely, i.e.: there is no longer anyone there/here … only primordial beingness or consciousness.

 

In the model I am holding out the only thing to be gained is truly NOTHING … simply the experience of being as you are incarnate in this manifest form we occupy…

and … if you continue beyond NOTHING, to occupy the incarnate form and the access to wonder and awe it offers fully and completely for as long as you are able.

 

 

The “trick” to gaining NOTHING however is first letting go of everything else.

This is kind of submission, but a submission only to the moment and yourself. To become completely aware of this moment, and only this moment as the starting point. Then to act …

 

 

In acting all things become present, eternity and infinity are complete, and what is real are the clarity and movement of the moment … life is held in that dynamic sphere of acting and there is nothing else.

 

 

If I’ve learned one thing, or maybe more accurately stated, come to believe one thing, in my many years of living now is that, life is dynamic, i.e. it will not stand still or wait. Life demands that we show up for it fully and completely, or it will pass us by.

Most people remain ever waiting, thinking that “waiting” is a passive act. A warrior understands that “waiting” is active and does so only when there is no action that is needed. Yet, when the waiting is full a warrior acts without hesitation blending fully in the warp and weft of the moment in a whirling blur.

Like the Dervish, the warrior acts, becoming one with the One, while devotionally remembering themselves in the “I” that is all.

 

REMEMBER, there is literally NOTHING to do …

just be … what you have is already “IT.”

 

 

NOTHING to it, really.

 

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, N.J.

 

P.S. – This is the basis of my Foolish Wisdom dialogues in the workshops I run. If you want to experience a live event or program with me you can either in person or via our Live Internet Simulcasts, now broadcast in HD on our private MythoSelf LiveStream channel (http://www.livestream.com/private/mythoself).