Zigzag Idiot

Great question! First off I think the west is tilted more into the pathological masculine and are more cut off from their feelings and subtle intuition. It seems to me western culture really encourages men to repress their feelings more. Especially in the past. The west is too neurotic, thinking dominated. Mostly shallow thinking and too much glibness.

In my inquiry I've noticed that complaining just perpetuates itself. I used to be a world class complainer until I realized how much 'good' it did. Complaint just perpetuates negative emotion. My endocrine type (adrenal-mars) are people who see the glass half empty. But there is a difference in that and expressing negative emotion. Adrenal types are often people who can't sit still for long especially if they are moving centered,,,,, oops that's adding in another typology. It was touched on in the 5 Fools YouTube though. When I first started doing Fourth Way self observation, I typed myself as an Intellectual type. But further down the road when the emotional pendulum was really gettin it, I thought I must really be a person with a center of gravity in the emotional center. We all have a psychological blind spot. Be horrified,,, it's true. My blind spot kept me from seeing that my center of gravity was in the instinctive center as it's called in 'The Work'. The instinctive center is subdivided into physical instinctive-sexual-moving (how we move;coordination ) Fouth way work involves a lot of sucky information like psychological blind spots. People get offended when you point out evidence of their own spiritual sleep. Being able to refer to oneself as an idiot or a fool is a way of working on self importance. Being self important wastes a lot of energy. Most everyone reading this already knows that. Complaining is a form of self importance.

You say the hill's too steep to climb Chiding! You say you'd like to see me try Climbing! You pick the place and I'll choose the time And I'll climb The hill in my own way just wait a while, for the right day And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds I look down hear the sound of the things you said today Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round, frowning and who's the fool who wears the crown Go down in your own way And everyday is the right day And as you rise above the fear lines in his brow You look down Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd You'll never walk alone,,,,,

It is safe if both parties are striving Fools. Those who are working on themselves. A perfect Idiot is a Realized Idiot. Realized Idiot has awakened Conscience and is not concerned with appearances of being self contradictory. A striving fool or a Perfect Idiot will walk into the street and point at a sign and say, "That sign is crooked."

Martin Butler began his Corporeal Fantasy channel anonymously but revealed his identity a few months ago. Here is a little more of is foolishness.

Through self observation and inquiry becoming aware of deep and life long semi- or unconscious defense mechanisms of a schizoid splitting off as well as adoption of different forms of Grandiosity to compensate for insecurities. Both are very common though. The schizoid splitting off is that -stick your head in the sand like and ostrich- tendency. As well as the -pretend it didn't happen- kind of behavior. Grandiosity beginning in early childhood with adopting the Persona of Movie Heroes or Protagonists. Default return to pretending I was Captain Kirk or Spock from about age 6 onward. Star Wars came out when I was 10. Lots of mileage from it,,, Luke, Hans and yoda. I enjoyed pretending that I was Grady from Sanford and Sons also, for some reason,,, It was painful and humiliating to integrate and process how far into adulthood these unconscious mechanisms went.

@tsuki Thanks! I,m listening to and enjoying the Alan Watts YouTube.

A few centuries ago, the Greek word idiotes referred to a simple or private man and derived from the word idios which means to be "of one's own" or particular or special. "To be declared an Idiot is a compliment of the highest degree - it means that one is not sharing the common illusions which sedate us all but rather has found his or her private, unique individuality." - From Bruno Martin. The word fool has also been used interchangeably by a few attempting this path since Gurdjieffs death. link to fragments about Science of Idiotism and a little about Gurdjieff https://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/quotes/science-of-idiotism.htm Will Mesa's contribution to this Idiocy,,,, https://willmesa.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/on-idiocy-and-idiots/

Ok, I made a couple of wrong assumptions. I understand better, thanks.

I like Adyashanti on YouTube. Haven't read any of his books yet. Two very readable 'spiritual classics', Robert deRopp's THE MASTER GAME https://www.amazon.com/Master-Game-Pathways-Consciousness-Classics/dp/0895561506 Chogum Trungpa's Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Through-Spiritual-Materialism-Chogyam/dp/1570629579/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545284975&sr=1-5&keywords=chogyam+trungpa

Coleman Barks reads 12th century Persian mystical poet Rumi "Where did I come from?" "What am I supposed to be doing?" "What is the soul?" "If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks."

Good and very relevant question! A. H. Almaas's Diamond Approach was born partly out of his very intense early Gurdjieff group work. He describes 'basic trust' as a crucial element in one's realization of Being. From his online Glossary I picked out one of his book excerpts on basic trust and pasted below. The Innate Sense that Life is Fundamentally Benevolent The presence of basic trust indicates that you have the innate sense that life is fundamentally benevolent, and that benevolence exists independent of you and your actions. You will have this sense to the extent that your grounding in the universe has not been disturbed. The relative presence or absence of basic trust is a belly quality, something one’s whole being is either grounded in or not. The disturbance of basic trust is a significant factor in ego development because the perspective of ego is diametrically opposed to the sense of basic trust. The ego’s perspective arises out of a lack of this trust. It is based on distrust, on paranoia, on fear, on the conviction that you're not going to be adequately taken care of and that the universe is not there to hold and take care of you in the ways that you need. This conviction causes you to believe that you have to engage in all kinds of manipulations and games to get your needs met and to make things work out. Facets of Unity, pg. 25 From Almaas's Glossary page of his book excerpts about Basic Trust https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/basic-trust

I like this song. Reminds me to let go and see through the eyes of my inner child.

I've received some good help through a self study of the Diamond Approach in regards to shame. The book excerpt I share below may seem harsh but shame which comes mostly from super-ego attacks is dealt with head on. Dealing with shame as one of the first things in work on self frees up a lot of energy that can then be applied to further horizontal and vertical growth. Working with Shame Let's suppose a man feels ashamed every time he feels tenderness toward another person. The superego attacks him with shame and belittling, according to the judgment that tenderness in a man means he is weak and feminine. To begin work on his superego, first the man needs to be aware of the attack, its content, and the content of the judgment. Then he needs to understand the judgment psychodynamically. For instance, he might remember that his father had the attitude that men should be tough, that tenderness belongs to girls and women. Here he understands that he introjected his father's attitude and made it part of his superego. He usually responds to this attitude, which is an attack on himself, with shame and repression. Now, in applying this method, he envisions his father and tells him, in his mind: "Daddy, go to hell! Who cares what you think of me?" Here he is dealing with his superego in a way he could not have dealt with his father in his childhood. He was not able to defend against his father because he believed him, was scared of him, and needed him. This method might not work the first time, but if it is done repeatedly, it will bring out the man's aggression, and he will be able to assert himself and separate from his father's attitude. The defense needs to be intelligent to be effective. For instance, if the man responds with: "Father, it's not true I am feminine and weak. Tenderness is good and does not mean weakness or femininity," then he is being reasonable with a superego that is not really rational. Also, he probably has tried this response many times but without success because in this response the man is on the defensive; he is trying to justify his feeling and to account to somebody else for its being okay. Any justification already implies some guilt, and so it won't work. The response of "Daddy, go to hell" is effective because there is no attempt at explanation or justification and thus no implication of unconscious guilt. The man just throws back the attack and refuses to listen to its content. He completely disengages from the superego and does not give it any power over him. Essence with the Elixir of Enlightenment, pg. 138 More excerpts about shame from A H Almaas Glossary https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/shame Getting more to the heart of it, excerpts about superego https://www.diamondapproach.org/glossary/refinery_phrases/superego I just recently discovered Leo's good work. I'm betting he's got a video related to this (super ego attacks) that I don't know about,,,,,

Me too. I'm a counterphobic type 6. These folks have described the enneatypes with each level of Spiral Dynamics. Type Six: The Questioner/The Trusting Self. In the Yellow level of consciousness, Type Six, the Questioner, is able to trust himself for the first time. The Trusting Self transforms rigidity and inconsistency into solidity as faith is embodied. From an understanding of the need for adaptive, flexible systems, the Trusting Self can operate under external authority when needed, or can serve as the authority. “Authority can be authorities because I’m the authority too, and I trust myself” (Ooten, Unpublished; Ooten, 2010). From: http://www.consciousdynamicsllc.com/home/levels_of_consciousness.html Connected with one's dominant endocrine gland and the enneagram are essence (body) types. I'm a Solar Saturn-Mars. http://destinyclemens.com/Destinyclemens/Body_Types.html

I approach actualization as a 3 centered being. The 'Hara' is a part of my Instinctual Center. The feeling center is concentrated in the heart area and the front side of the physical body. The Intellectual center is in the head brain of my Automaton. When my 3 centers are out of balance, I'm spiritually asleep, disconnected from Being. A common condition is when I just have 1 or 2 centers online. Usually for me it has meant being stuck in my head. Neurotic,,, non-stop internal dialogue. No inner quiet. Disconnected from the groundedness in my Instinctive (Belly) Center. Making my Automaton do Centering Prayer twice a day is key for me to stay balanced. Typologies I heard Ken Wilbur describe himself once as an cerebrotonic ectomorph so I went and investigated and determined that I was a somatotonic mesomorph. Of the endocrine typology, I'm an adrenal (mars) type. Or rather my body is that type. Im not my body though. I have a body. I refer to it sometimes as my Automaton. I have to take care of my Automaton. My Automaton has a Virgo filter software program running in it. I'm not my software though. I'm not my hardware and I'm not my software. Being is who/what I am. My being is partly comprised of my understanding.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might appeal to those in Orange. Maybe??? I think Power of Now is a much richer book, though.

"Conscience is the inner memory for those actions necessary to bring any given situation back in tune with Unity. Although this definition of Conscience is correct, it stays incomplete, because Conscience cannot be reasoned but must come into Being." From Higher Being Bodies, Ocke de Boer

Just to be the 'Devil's Advocate',,,, I keep thinking about the 2 Buddhists monks at the river crossing. The monk who did not touch or carry the woman across the river couldn't get her out of his mind the rest of the day. All these Catholic Priests getting twisted the way they do,,,,? Doesn't sexual repression divide one against themselves?

In the meantime, I can relate to having non-stop internal dialogue or as some call it, being 'stuck in the head'. A quick and simple exercise for this is -sensing the feet- By focusing attention on the physical sensation on the feet, with all of the nerve endings there, spaces of inner quiet can be brought about by this grounding into the body. Helps break the worry cycle,,, Puts us more into Being and less in narrative consciousness. Hope this helps.

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault of the Christian Contemplative tradition promotes two practices that work good for me. Centering Prayer - Has nothing to do with petitionary prayer. It's a 20 minute meditation. Recommended twice a day. Also, Welcoming Practice. This one is good to use on/for fear.

Typologies I heard Ken Wilbur describe himself once as an cerebrotonic ectomorph so I went and investigated and determined that I was a somatotonic mesomorph. Of the endocrine typology, I'm an adrenal (mars) type. Or rather my body is that type. Im not my body though. I have a body. I refer to it sometimes as my Automaton. I have to take care of my Automaton. My Automaton has a Virgo filter software program running in it. I'm not my software though. I'm not my hardware and I'm not my software. Being is who I am. My being is partly comprised of my understanding.

I experienced a lot of Kundalini phenomena 2001-2008. Experienced also what Jana Dixon in The Biology Of Kundalini called a die off and an exhaustion phase and for me connected with it were some 'Dark Night' experiences. Its good to have a heads up when it's a possibility,,,,, I found her book back then before she put up a website and it helped me understand some of the things that were going on. http://www.biologyofkundalini.com/index.html

I like the style of Inquiry in AH Almaas's Diamond Approach. Sitting with whatever comes up. If it becomes too painful and you drop it, that's ok. Just drop it and not bang your head against the wall. Just let it go. Later, I can return and sit with my shadow material as spontaneous as I dropped it. Over time, developing more of the capacity to sit with the feeling of deficient emptiness. What's it about? Become curious about my shame for instance, if possible. Not reaching conclusions about anything. No self criticism. Just sitting in the middle of all my messed-up-ness and giving it a good look all over,,,, whatever shows up In time, whatever we are 'sitting with' begins to transform.