a situation at work has proved challenging but, in the end, educational.
having had my attention turned to my own "buttons," i went back to the castaneda material, which has always served me well.
the "predators" alluded to here fit, i think, with the Petty Tyrant dynamic.
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from a conversation between Don Juan Matus and Castaneda:
"Sorcerers understand discipline as the capacity to face with serenity odds that are not included in our expectations. For sorcerers, discipline is an art; the art of facing infinity without flinching; not because they are strong and tough, but because they are filled with awe."
"In what way would the sorcerers' discipline be a deterrent to the flyers?" I asked.
Don Juan scrutinized my face as if to discover any signs of my disbelief. He said,"Sorcerers say that discipline makes the glowing coat of awareness unpalatable to the flyer.
"The result is that the predators become bewildered. An inedible glowing coat of awareness is not part of their cognition, I suppose. After being bewildered, they don't have any recourse other than refraining from continuing their nefarious [* nefarious- extremely wicked] task.
He continued, saying, "If the predators don't eat our glowing coat of awareness for a while, it will keep on growing. Simplifying this matter to the extreme, I can say that sorcerers, by means of their discipline, push the predators away long enough to allow their glowing coat of awareness to grow beyond the level of the toes. Once it goes beyond the level of the toes, it grows back to its natural size.
"The sorcerers of ancient Mexico used to say that the glowing coat of awareness is like a tree. If it is not pruned, it grows to its natural size and volume. As awareness reaches levels higher than the toes, tremendous maneuvers of perception become a matter of course.
"The grand trick of those sorcerers of ancient times," don Juan continued, "was to burden the flyers' mind with discipline.
"Sorcerers found out that if they taxed the flyers' mind with inner silence, the foreign installation would flee, and give any one of the practitioners involved in this maneuver the total certainty of the mind's foreign origin.
"The foreign installation comes back, I assure you, but not as strong; and a process begins in which the fleeing of the flyers' mind becomes routine until one day it flees permanently.
"That's the day when you have to rely on your own devices which are nearly zero. A sad day indeed! There's no one to tell you what to do. There's no mind of foreign origin to dictate the imbecilities you're accustomed to.
"My teacher, the nagual Julian, used to warn all his disciples," don Juan continued,"that this was the toughest day in a sorcerer's life for the real mind that belongs to us.
"The sum total of our experience after a lifetime of domination has been rendered shy, insecure, and shifty.
"Personally, I would say that the real battle of sorcerers begins at that moment. The rest is merely preparation."
I became genuinely agitated. I wanted to know more, and yet a strange feeling in me clamored for me to stop. It alluded to dark results and punishment, something like the wrath of God descending on me for tampering with something veiled by God himself. I made a supreme effort to allow my curiosity to win.
I heard myself say, "What-what-what do you mean, by taxing the flyers' mind?"
"Discipline taxes the foreign mind no end," he replied. "So, through their discipline, sorcerers vanquish the foreign installation."
having had my attention turned to my own "buttons," i went back to the castaneda material, which has always served me well.
the "predators" alluded to here fit, i think, with the Petty Tyrant dynamic.
_______________________________
from a conversation between Don Juan Matus and Castaneda:
"Sorcerers understand discipline as the capacity to face with serenity odds that are not included in our expectations. For sorcerers, discipline is an art; the art of facing infinity without flinching; not because they are strong and tough, but because they are filled with awe."
"In what way would the sorcerers' discipline be a deterrent to the flyers?" I asked.
Don Juan scrutinized my face as if to discover any signs of my disbelief. He said,"Sorcerers say that discipline makes the glowing coat of awareness unpalatable to the flyer.
"The result is that the predators become bewildered. An inedible glowing coat of awareness is not part of their cognition, I suppose. After being bewildered, they don't have any recourse other than refraining from continuing their nefarious [* nefarious- extremely wicked] task.
He continued, saying, "If the predators don't eat our glowing coat of awareness for a while, it will keep on growing. Simplifying this matter to the extreme, I can say that sorcerers, by means of their discipline, push the predators away long enough to allow their glowing coat of awareness to grow beyond the level of the toes. Once it goes beyond the level of the toes, it grows back to its natural size.
"The sorcerers of ancient Mexico used to say that the glowing coat of awareness is like a tree. If it is not pruned, it grows to its natural size and volume. As awareness reaches levels higher than the toes, tremendous maneuvers of perception become a matter of course.
"The grand trick of those sorcerers of ancient times," don Juan continued, "was to burden the flyers' mind with discipline.
"Sorcerers found out that if they taxed the flyers' mind with inner silence, the foreign installation would flee, and give any one of the practitioners involved in this maneuver the total certainty of the mind's foreign origin.
"The foreign installation comes back, I assure you, but not as strong; and a process begins in which the fleeing of the flyers' mind becomes routine until one day it flees permanently.
"That's the day when you have to rely on your own devices which are nearly zero. A sad day indeed! There's no one to tell you what to do. There's no mind of foreign origin to dictate the imbecilities you're accustomed to.
"My teacher, the nagual Julian, used to warn all his disciples," don Juan continued,"that this was the toughest day in a sorcerer's life for the real mind that belongs to us.
"The sum total of our experience after a lifetime of domination has been rendered shy, insecure, and shifty.
"Personally, I would say that the real battle of sorcerers begins at that moment. The rest is merely preparation."
I became genuinely agitated. I wanted to know more, and yet a strange feeling in me clamored for me to stop. It alluded to dark results and punishment, something like the wrath of God descending on me for tampering with something veiled by God himself. I made a supreme effort to allow my curiosity to win.
I heard myself say, "What-what-what do you mean, by taxing the flyers' mind?"
"Discipline taxes the foreign mind no end," he replied. "So, through their discipline, sorcerers vanquish the foreign installation."
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Re: dealing with one's petty tyrants
Tue, June 19, 2007 - 7:37 AMThank yOu, that assisted me greatly in two valued spaces in my life. One, in my expressing of the different levels of the Toltec wisdom and how that has been *sinking in* over time as i think of those methods for listening and seeing, and re-seeing. Two, as i remain engaged to challenging seemingly benign thought, in this case to the introduction of trained specialists (who remain in such formal positions, in a way, i thinc, which is "more equal" than others in more ways than avidly meet the eyes).
So, yes, thanque yOu again!
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one more thing, re: petty tyrants
Tue, June 19, 2007 - 7:44 AMone more thing...um...i have to question the idea of the "petty tyrants" because that sounds all too much like Julie Cameron's "Crazy Maker" from that suddenly very much heard of book _The Artist's Way_ (even tho that big PR thing was a few years ago now).
What are you getting at?
Because it sounds like you are trying to focus on those of informal orientation, rather than, i thinc, those in more formal, or openly formal positions. Is there crucial value to shedding light upon "petty tyrants" (aka "predators") that i am not seeing?
i must say that i choose to look behind the symptomatic intensities of those who take advantage of their allegedly "higher" position of alienation over those allegedly in "lower" positions (a trick only of how each group sees); but i wish to get at the core of such contention...what are you seeking to get at? -
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"what are you seeking to get at?"
Tue, June 19, 2007 - 8:38 AMimpeccability?
i don't know the author or work you mention. i don't understand "informal/formal" orientation.
i'm trying to focus on dancing with what i'll call negativity (and hope that's mostly understood) with a brave spirit ( to face it) and creativity, like a river is creative around obstructions.
in many cases - certainly this one - the instigator seeks validation, almost like a food that is burnt for fuel, keeping the dark and heavy motor of it running. when one is confronted with another who is assuming an actively adversarial mode, one is in a sense forced into the dance. to be sure, this "dance" can seem and feel just as much like "combat."
the individual in my case - which prompted this thread, much more so than anything "scholarly" - sought, for some reason, to attack me. to, i think, in the end, upset my apple cart not so much to ruin the apples but, more, to see me upset and, i guess, as angry as him. i don't know. i didn't invest that much energy in that area of "discovery."
i knew, though, that i was under siege, psychically, mentally.
i suspected this (psychic) "predator" might in the end undo himself, as a heavyweight boxer throws too many wild punches, looking for the knockout, tiring, increasingly sloppy, vulnerable.
in the end - last week - he, in essence, hung himself with the rope he himself had fashioned from his own poison. i do not feel that i "won." i do know that he underestimated my resolve to remain on the high road, which eventually unhinged him and made him reckless.
"sitting still" served me well. sometimes dancing is taking a chair.
i don't know if this addresses your inquiry. i hope it lends context to the original post.
nice wings.
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Re: "what are you seeking to get at?"
Wed, June 27, 2007 - 3:26 PMAh, turns out your story is similar to my experiences with the heavy-handed. The thing i'm particularly thinking of and experienced was with an older man (tho shorter) who was bent on, i think, learning "my true colors", or at least, in intimidating me to a most intense end. So maybe this is similar to your experience?
Only, my orientation is not to label or otherwise categorize such persons, even when they threaten physical attack.
In my case, the guy threatened me with his big meaty fist in my face (after months of aggressive insinuations and false hysteria against me, his only open challenger), then walked out of the door telling me to come out and let him smash (expletives deleted) me. I sat in the chair (as you) and would not accept his hysteria/poison, letting him keep it (he wasn't about to smash up the place we were inside of, or lose major face).
But i would still refuse to categorize or label him as you seem so apt to do (and I'm saying that i think such that you're proposing is a trap).
I would rather focus on the idea that he may one day be a closer friend than most. And that his threatening behavior is his arting; a way he has learned in his life to trust over "being nice", i think. And as well, a way for him to illustrate the realities he has lived; which *may be* crucially inspiring if, at some time, our language-ing becomes less alienated.
(this is a general angle i wish to come at; a way of seeing others more deeply, and towards strategies of "protection by enrichment" rather than restriction, as i think you're promoting)
Why i sought to use "formal and informal" is beside the point, i now see. But what i was getting at was to bring light to the sublime or cammoflauged aggressions of professionals ("just doing their jobs" as they've been trained) getting past our critical awareness, while we are often led--by these same sublime aggressors--to think nothing of truly blocking out the language of others (the informals, non-professionals) by labeling and categorizing them into prisons of language (with absolutely no openings for them to be heard unless they play the meta wargame of "being nice"). You see what i'm getting at? -
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so what i'm saying is...
Wed, June 27, 2007 - 3:33 PM...i may be in disagreement with the Toltec method...here...by saying that instead of reducing those exhibiting the symptoms of "the petty tyrant" and all of the non-listening that that phrase seems to imply, i'm wanting to see their language-ing as a gift, an insight into their world, and a way that i's (who wish to escape the "niceness" game) may investigate and explore towards authentic bridgings---and mutually beneficial healing, no matter how intense.
...And the more intense, and challenging, the deeper our solutions go if successful in meaningful--and impeccable--ways!
Because maybe don Miguel Ruiz has some blindspots (oh NO not THAT!), OR perhaps he is alluding to something that truly needs more input and dialogue! (i wonder if his son is going to shed light on that perhaps?)
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