Walk a Sacred Path #1 of 8 - Becoming comfortable in uncertainty
7th Oct 2024
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
Oscar Wilde
In the classic C.S. Lewis story ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ the four Pevensie siblings – Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter are evacuated from London in 1940 to escape the bombing blitz. They are sent to stay with Professor Digory Kirke at a large house in the English countryside and whilst playing hide and seek one day, the youngest child Lucy, hides in a wardrobe. Fearing she will be found, Lucy goes deeper into the wardrobe and to her surprise ends up in a mystical land called Narnia where animals speak and a battle between the evil White Witch and Aslan the Lion unfolds.
Books like ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, the Tolkien books ‘The Hobbit’ and the ‘The Lord of the Rings’, and all of the films like ‘Star Wars’ that have come since talk to us about worlds where there is more to life than what we experience with our five senses. There is a battle between Good and Evil, there are unseen forces that shape destiny and there is a quest that must be undertaken.
Mystical teachings of many different faiths speak to such a world where there is more to life than the mundane – so what is the essence of these teachings and what can we practically apply in our lives in our quest to live a good and happy life? For the next 8 post I will explore some of these concepts and consider how their application.
In this post I’d like to establish a framework – if you’ve been following these posts you may recall that I’ve been considering these issues from the perspective of Existential Philosophy see this intro video:
Existential Philosophy is primarily concerned with the nature of Existence and how we are creating our reality – the key relationship is between Being and Time.
If you consider the model above you will see that there is a distinction between the Constructed Being – or the Personality Self which only knows itself through experience and interpretation – and the Aspirational Self. Also note that from an Existential perspective time flows from the Future and into the Present – the Present of course then becomes the Past.
So, the constructed self knows itself through the Past – but in the beginning it is essentially blank – note here that if you believe in Destiny then of course it is not blank – in any case the blank self – or baby – then has experiences and is taught what is right and wrong and develops a fixed view of the World incorporating two key stories – who they are – so this is essence or beginnings of the Self Identity story Richard Boyatzis refers to in his Ideal Self concept ( see ‘Dynamics of the Ideal Self’ https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMD-09-2021-0247/full/html ) - and the second story – how the world works – so this is the Epistemology – the framework for understanding of the World.
The Constructed or Personality Self is then reactive to events as they occur – and uses this fixed view of the world as an interpretive lens. See below:
So back to the point of this article - in Mysticism the Epistemology – or the answer to the question of how the world works is – the world is a Mystery that cannot be fully comprehended by us mere mortals and that there is a whole lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes other than what we can experience with our basic senses.
One might consider this to be in contrast to Cartesian philosophy which proposes that the mind is separate from the corporeal body, and sensation and the perception of reality are the source of untruth and illusions. The only reliable truths are to be had in the existence of a metaphysical mind – hence – ‘Cognito ergo sum’ - ‘I think therefore I am’.
In our present age many of us are suffering from disillusion with the current state of the World and the lack of some deeper meaning in life – the term Existential Angst has become more commonly used and I would propose many are searching for more – so it is here at this junction point that we can explore the epistemology that is mysticism and the practical application of some of the key concepts to our lives now.
The first point is that mysticism proposes that the world is a mystery that we are not capable of understanding – there are various versions of this adage throughout religious and spiritual teachings – whether it be the notion that we cannot comprehend the hand of God in action or surrendering to the notion of ‘Great Spirit’ or ‘Pachamama’ – the Earth spirit.
Similarly, we could dive into the weird and wonderful world of Quantum Physics where the most likely explanation for how the world works is String Theory which proposes an inter-related multi-dimensional reality – and this is before we start taking about Schrodinger’s Cat and whether the hypothetical cat could actually be alive and dead at the same time…
Additionally we might consider Complexity Theory ( see the previous post on Complexity and Change https://acping.substack.com/p/the-self-mastery-challenge-week-2?r=15zae ) and the idea that in Complexity we cannot accurately predict the future so we need to find ways of living in an environment characterised by volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity.
The point?
Let’s apply some of the concepts from the epistemology of Mysticism – the aim is to be able to Walk a Sacred Path through life – a path that honours our Self, other beings, the earth and whatever energy flows through all things – whether this be the Quantum field, spirit, the Force or God.
Recognising that we cannot comprehend and make sense of the World and reality as it occurs – but only as it passes into the Past – our first task is to find ways of becoming comfortable in this uncertainty. Remembering here that the brain desires to understand the world – the brain wants to be able to make sense of things – hence a world of complexity, chaos and change will inherently create internal stress, anxiety and worry.
Does this ring any bells for you?
But yes the challenge obviously is how to actually do this?
The first task is to recognise and accept that you are not going to be able to completely comprehend what is going on – surrender to flow. Now, interestingly part of this requires some level of faith – not necessarily religious or spiritual faith but faith as in belief in something where there is no direct evidence of it – and that there is some deeper meaning in life. See how we are back to the mysticism epistemology?
From a complexity theory perspective we then need to accept that we are unable to accurately predict what will happen next and/or fully comprehend the cause and effect relationship of what is happening now. We need to shift our mind out of the desire to try and understand the World from a fixed mindset – set and forget perspective. The World is not static it is dynamic.
So let’s be intentional – what do we actually want? Well how about to feel peaceful and live a happy life? Pretty simple? – Let’s then step into Intentional Change Theory – and the question of how we might go about creating this. Richard Boyatzis talks about dynamic and complex systems within systems and the flow from equilibrium to disequilibrium. The beginning point when starting to create intentional change is to make peace with where you are at right now – whatever has brought you here is all good – no mater how bad you might think it has been ( ha ha!) – in other words release the Past and make peace with the Present.
How to?
Adopt a dynamic system to address the dynamic environment.
Boyatzis says that the way to make our systems dynamic is to embed circular feedback loops. We know also from neuro-science that the brain finds comfort in routines – remember that our default is to pattern match and that the neurons that fire together wire together so as soon as we begin going down a habitual path the brain effectively shuts down and follows the past path. The trick here is to embed routines and rituals that are supportive to the aim of peace and happiness in life.
So again how to?
Define the aspirational emotional attractors that pull the system towards them using ideals such as freedom, peace, happiness, honour etc. This enables you to be Intentional – this is what you are trying to create – the BEING state first not the DOING function first – get it?
Is the BEING state to be stressed out? Well hopefully NOT!!!
Hopefully the BEING state is to be happy, peaceful, playful, joyous – FUN
So we need some circular feedback loops to stop us dropping into reactive burnout mode.
#1 Daily practice – 3 elements – in the morning – what’s your routine that gets you ready for the day – could be meditate, walk, yoga, breathe, cold exposure etc – then set Intention for the day – how do you want to BE today? Part 2 – middle of the day – check in – how’s your Intention going? If off track gently reset. Part 3 – end of the day – two questions – what did you do right today? what are you grateful for? (see the Posts on Self Mastery for more depth on this).
#2 Weekly Reflection – end of the week – take your pick Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Sunday – 3 questions – what’s working? what challenges are you facing? What ideas have you got to experiment with to move it forwards?
#3 Longer cycles – see all of these previous posts – we are working through the 13 moon cycle journey around the Sun with check in points at the two Equinoxes for Vision and the Solstices for progress – current state is we are heading to the December Solstice.
When you have this structure in place then remember to let go and surrender – our aim is to find comfort in uncertainty.
Next bit is to release the Past.
“This is the miracle: behind every condition, person, or situation that appears ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ lies concealed a deeper good. That deeper good reveals itself to you – both within and without – through inner acceptance of what is.”
Eckhart Tolle, ‘Stillness Speaks’
In peace and love always.
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