Activation

It is easy to have a list of things you want done, and quite another thing to actually achieve them. Years ago, I use to accomplish lots of things, each day was full, but I was neurotically driven. Each day would start at 5:30 am with a five mile run, and then I would shower and head out to work. Neurotic tension can be a wonderful driving force that pushes you to accomplishments. Then, as time passed, the rigidity at the center of my being started to soften. My job of software programming on Navy radar systems always bothered my conscience, and I slowly gained a recognition of my dissatisfaction. I went to a few more Enlightenment Intensives, and I lost my nervous "me-first" drive. My life slipped into neutral, and I started a long happy slide into light exercise and relaxation. I quit my job, and started to live off my savings. I bought more chess books, and started to learn new chess opening strategies. I became very self-indulgent. I knew I had taken a step forward, less driven, more relaxed, and less compulsive, but was I ever going to get anything done?

My keeping lists of things "to do" had reached a dead end. In a sense, my will-power to want things done was not able to write a check on my body’s bank account. I decided I would try a new approach. I would just follow my bliss, as Joseph Campbell suggests, and thereby become active. Later, I would learn to plan my actions. It became more important for me to just keep moving than it was to cross off items on my "to do" list. This, of course, was an act of desperation, to find activity as an explorer, and then comprehend how it works. Each day, I did only what I wanted to do. I let almost everything slide. On the positive side, I did write this book, and I did work on new educational software. I was getting done some of the long-term goals I had really wanted to do, but at the same time I was failing to do the simple maintenance-type activities; for one thing, I was not a good house-keeper.

As I watched a roach walk slowly across my kitchen table, I decided things had to change. I was in the process of becoming dysfunctional and irrelevant. If my life was to be important to me and to others I had to learn not only how to become active, but also how to plan that activity. I didn’t want to go back into the illusion of needing to do this and needing to do that. I was not going back into blaming others for my actions. This was the way I was years earlier, and I would or could not go back. Still, how was I to achieve planned activity? I had plans, but they were not getting done.

I thought about the problem. The three day Enlightenment Intensive did not address the needs of long term personal activation. As Alfred North Whitehead said, "We think in generalities, we live in details." Like the mind, this one may be bigger than "self-help". I may need another person to help me work through this crisis. I decided what I needed was a "Weekly reality check meeting". This would be a safe way to explore reality and planning as an ongoing process. I found a friend from the chess club, who had read an early version of this guide, and wanted more. I had a loose definition of what I wanted to do each week, and asked him if he was interested, and he was. On our first weekly meeting, I presented him with a three-ring binder workbook with the outline on the next page as a foundation for future meetings.

I also had the following (in the box) spread out to just fit on a full page, and I gave him six copies. We filled out one each week.

Weekly reality check meetings

1. Whatever is said during the meeting proper will be strictly confidential.
2. We will not give our opinions of the other person’s situation unless we are asked specifically by the other person.
3. We will not attack the other person when we are in difficulty ourselves.
4. We will end each meeting by thanking the other person for coming and being there for us.
5. We will call the other on the phone the day before the meeting to confirm the date, time, and place for the meeting. We will be flexible about how and when we will meet. If we are unable to have a face-to-face meeting any week, we may instead provide a letter with the information on it.

1. How did you do last week?
2. What have you learned that you would like to share with us?
3. What are your goals for next week?

The process of activation is still ongoing, so at this time I can only present you with some tentative information. We can start with a look at the whole concept of activation. To be activated means at least three things:

1. Doubt of your action is minimum; you believe in what you are doing.
2. Your body can be in motion as directed by you.
3. You are not opposed; other people encourage you.

If we ignore for the time being, any interpersonal causative agents and concentrate on number two, the body and getting it active, what is the problem of activation? In a real sense, it was simply easier to sit down than to go mow the lawn. Treating it Intellectually, I did not see the challenge in the process of "mow the lawn". If pain and sweat were arbitrary, to mow the lawn would be certainly more interesting than sitting down and doing nothing. The problem of activating my body seems in part due to fixedness I presumed in advance of any actions. I imagine how I would feel if I mowed the lawn, and this "feeling" required resolve to overcome by force of will. Now, my will was just not as strong and automatic as it once was, so I sat and waited for the neighbors to complain about my lawn.

Rather than simulate - or think about - mowing the lawn, perhaps I could actually explore it? Perhaps in-activity was just a bunch of little mistakes and inaccuracies. The "Reality Check" meeting is helping me to identify some of the ideas and choices that prevent me from being fully activated. The subject of activation, like any other subject, can be studied and known to any degree necessary.

I know currently at least the following about activity in general:

1. Focus on one concept, item, or one approach each week. If you do only one thing, you either do it, or you fail, and you then have learned something. You always have time for one. When one item is done, it is done and can be crossed off your list. If it is a concept, then you can build it into your life-style, and then watch to see if it can continue on its own, while you concentrate on something else next week.
2. Activation must start with organization, or your actions will be blocked, because you cannot find things you need to continue.
3. Use it or lose it. (I either get off the sofa, or I will get fat..)
4. It helps to explore physical work, and see it in a new way. Just as fixed mental attitudes caused the mind to form, fixed attitudes about physical work can cause great harm and inaction in the body.
5. Set up a buddy system, to monitor progress. Reality is not something you can do by yourself (you cannot self-help your way out of your mind), so setting up a weekly meeting will facilitate permanent physical changes. (Since I find it easier to do things for others than to do them for myself, it is easier for me to work with other people who have a similar activation goal.)
6. Turn off the TV and radio; limit my inputs to expand my outputs. This is the direct, scale-the-wall approach. It may work, but it requires pure will-power. There is not much shareable technology in pure will power, you either have it or you don't.
7. Keep a list of short term actions, to allow my attention to wander; thereby, less stress.
8. Use the morning time wisely. To do this you must go to sleep early, and to do that you can set an alarm to go off one hour before you plan on going to sleep. When the alarm goes off, turn off many of the lights. Make where you are dark. It may take a week or two to get you into the grove. If necessary to help you wake up in the morning, use a lamp on a timer to make the bedroom light a few minutes before your alarm is set to wake you up.
9. Keep a list of accomplishments. Allow observations to be more objective, or viewed from another point of view. It can cheer you up to see all that you have accomplished.
10. Sometimes, inaction comes from wanting it both ways. To have clear action, you must not unconsciously fear the outcome your actions are designed to accomplish. This may require some mind-clearing.
11. You must avoid falling into a games-condition. You will be active, but your activities will not be satisfying. The easiest time to break a games-condition is just after a "win" and before you re-commit yourself to more effort.
12. If you find yourself unable to get objective data, have your buddy call you on the phone and perform a random spot-check. For example, we have not been able to keep a log of our activities. It was just too hard to keep at it. We believed that watching too much TV was a problem we needed help with. We set up a "safe time" to watch TV and a time when watching TV would be a real problem. Next, we picked a day each week when we would avoid watching TV, and we had the other person call us on the phone sometime during the day, outside of the safe time, and ask us what we were doing. Sometimes we were caught, but usually just the possibility of being caught kept us away from the TV.
13. Organize your input processing so that you only handle new items once. For example, as you open each new item of mail, as you find bills that have to be paid, circle the due date and the amount to be paid. Now figure the last date to process the bill, and still have time for postal delays, and write that date on the outside. Next place all the stuff back into the opened envelope with the date you just wrote, and place the envelope sorting by date with all your other bills. Now check the dates on all the other bills, and pay and mail those that are due. With this system, you always know that bills are paid on time, and you don't have to remember much, because it is easy, and it works.

This is my current list of things that help me to become more active. Unfortunately, progress was and still is very slow. Last week I made some long term cognitive progress. I became aware of how much of my past life was spent in a 'trance'. I was in a groove, script, or programmed state. It was a process that let me sleep while pretending to be awake. The many Enlightenment Intensives I have attended have allowed me to drop many of my trance like states. I then came up to the real problem; I found I could not get anything done!! Yes, to get something done you need to operate independently without contact with others, and this requires inertia. The trance state had inertia. So I found without a trance state I was always finding myself being distracted! I would start to do something, the phone would ring, and I would never get back. One event would suggest another, and off on a tangent I would go. A trance state is really just a wall against distractions!

OK So, I am back almost full circle; except now I am actively trying to create trance states to get things done! The trick, if there is a trick, is to only enter the trance states that you yourself create!

In hindsight, the crisis in my life, that of activation, can be understood as a process I needed to go through in order to grow. Growth is a process of becoming sane and can be broken down into two parts. The first part is a separation. This cleans up boundaries. It increases self-reliance and reduces the use of blame. In my case, separation was initiated through many Enlightenment Intensives and it resulted in inaction. The second part was a joining together. For me this required a 'Weekly Reality Check' and the help of others who would listen and not lay trips. First, I grew to understand what I really wanted to do, rather than what I thought I wanted to do. This was an application of tool number three, "In order to have something, you must be willing to give it up." My neurotic activity had to be given up in order for me to reclaim responsibility and then become self-directedly active. Second, I gained detailed knowledge of the many tricks I could use to get things done, like pulling the plug on my TV set. Third, it required me to create trance like states to get things done. Of course, I still have much to learn about others, myself, and the process we are engaged in.

Activation is an important subject, because without it one cannot get to the real ground-state of your life. In tool number five, we introduced the concept of ground-state. That is the recognition that the other person does not really "need" you. Activation is necessary, since without it you feel that you "need" others. Without you solving the problem of your activation, you will not be willing to let others become activated, as always improving your skills at living allows others to be recognized for the skills they already have.

What I leave for the reader is the general concept of how one might approach the problem of activation. First, recognize that this was a crisis that I really wanted to be in. It is not something sad that I got stuck with. It was an opportunity for me to grow and to gain more insight and have some Direct-experience of my own life and the people around me. Second, recognize that many of these problems are bigger than what one person can do by themselves, so look for someone who will help you, and work out the ground-rules of that needed help. Thirdly, recognize that Enlightenment Intensives may get you to need another process, such as my "Weekly Reality Check." Last, remember that you are free to create what-ever you really need to live life fully and to be successful.

After most Enlightenment Intensives I am full of energy. I have spent three days in a reality of shared love. For a few days I would get up at 4:30 am then in a week I would be getting up at 5 am. Within three weeks - I am having a hard time getting up at 6 am when my alarm goes off. I don't quite know why - but I just don't seem to have the energy that comes from being in a reality of shared love. I still have blame issues, and find it difficult to be one hand clapping. (stay open while others are closed off) I know the answer can be found in each moment - and getting the quality of each moment higher. I have lots of good theory - You get a lot in this book - but today - like an alcoholic - I have a hang over - lower energy levels - a bit lazy and a bit unfocused. I only wake up when others look my way. I am still blaming others for how I feel and find myself in some form of avoidance. If I stay with it - and pay attention - I will get it and be free to be more in love. If I don't get through this - I will be forced to attend Enlightenment Intensive after Enlightenment Intensive. That is not a bad fate - but it just seems that I can do better. I want to worship relationships in my everyday life - ordinary magic - to shared with all who bless my life.

I think in a way - it is a smearing of relationships - at a three day Enlightenment Intensive I have deep shared respect - that helps me to be aware. Outside of an Intensive others just seem to be asleep. They don't know who they are - they complain all the time - they are just marking time until they die. These people seem to be strangers. Experiencing these attitudes - I don't want to be aware. I am smearing my "good" relationship with my "bad" relationships. Of course the experience of a "bad" relationship is just an illusion - they are doing battle with "group think" and trying to struggle free. I am not open enough to get to the real person within them. I get their "garbage" and without more attention - I "believe" them. Now I am with "group think" and not with the real person right in front of me. I am less aware than I could be. It is in fact enough that I get who they really are right then in that moment. That would create a shared experience of them and me together. They don't really have to change. This process would allow me to be that "one-hand-clapping" and that would keep the level of reality deep even without being at an Enlightenment Intensive. It is time for me to stop blaming others for my state of awareness. I can start by not smearing my relationships. Let go of this desire to interchange relationships - to smear and hold "good" relationships rather than face strangers. I think key - to this clutching and resisting of change is for me to face my death.

I don't want to be so focused on Death - but it just seems to come up everywhere and all the time. In each moment we face both life and death. If we avoid the possiblity of death we avoid the truth about each moment and in that action we avoid life. To get more life we need more death awareness. This is the way Masks are used by the natives in Bali Indonesia - to "scare" the life back into you - and to get you out of your thoughts. Without using blame it is possible to have enough awareness to become "one-hand-clapping" and in that process achieve activation.

There was an attempt to keep all the information on a common sense basis and to keep all the mumbo-jumbo back in the Zen Centers. I hope you will remember that all this information, even if it is true, will not make you better than other people. It hopefully will allow you to survive longer, and to interact with others in the most productive mode possible. In my opinion, life is the play of the Gods. You are challenged to avoid all the sink holes that get lesser beings. Every problem is just another opportunity to excel, so enjoy it, and don't take it so seriously!

Many of the problems we have in life are cause by people trying to influence people, or lay a trip, without trying to understand and really communicate. It is the substitution of control in a relationship in place of open acceptance of others. This has been a standard approach to others for years. With so many years of striving for control over others, it will take time to change our society, into one of more individual responsibility. Enlightenment Intensives, when done right, bring about increased individual responsibility and increased creativity.

Karma is a powerful concept that is little understood here in western cultures. We here in the West tend to prefer direct action to solve our problems. We think in terms of quick results, and our backup system might be considered to be religion. Eastern systems of thought - think in terms of long-term results and their backup system might be considered to be enlightenment. Perhaps I am making the differences too simple, but let me explain it a bit. Karma is a concept that in effect allows people to relax and know that "Life" and the processes inherent in our interactions will eventually take care of the problem whatever it is. For example, suppose we had a classic Western "bad" guy. Karma would tell those who believed in karma that this "bad" guy would have bad karma that he would have to work through, and that is not something that we would ever want to deal with. Having bad karma means your whole life is a mess, you are not allowed to get into a higher state, such as enjoying watching a tree grow. While you may not directly suffer as a result of bad karma, you certainly would not be able to be really happy. You would be cut off from your higher states.

The Eastern view would be that people carry their own punishment, and that they are their only real policemen, judges, and jury. Further, the Eastern view is that these people are much harder on themselves than anyone else could ever be. Since they believe in reincarnation, they assume that the punishment may last 10,000 years. No small feat for the jailer. So the Eastern view is pointed inward.

The Western view has much less complexity. It is an eye for an eye and quick trials and swift punishment as the ideal approach. The "bad" guy must be directly challenged and punished. If there are mistakes, religion is there to deal with the broken fragments. The good guy who was hung by the angry mob will spend his time in heaven.

Now let’s consider the Eastern person's back-up system. What does he or she rely on when their system seems inadequate? The inadequacies of their system is the existence of internal pain and anguish, just like the Western person’s systems failures. The Eastern mind does not look elsewhere, they do not need an external "heaven" because they reach inside and become "enlightened".

Enlightenment is not a mental process, which means you cannot get there by study and intelligence. It is not a process, like the subject of mathematics or physics; it is beyond thought and almost beyond effort. Enlightenment is a shift of being. It is not easy, but the Western way of getting into heaven is not easy either. The traditional Eastern way to enlightenment requires many years of meditation, self-discipline, or yoga.

So that is a very superficial view of two systems. They both have problems, Western thinkers point the finger of "Blame" and Eastern thinkers are "inactive". People in either system are indoctrinated from an early age, so that they fit in as adults. That unfortunately, leaves the real job up to us. We can advance man's knowledge of our place in the universe. First because we can be skeptical; and second, because we can be exposed to life. Living is a wonderful process, which allows you to know truth to whatever level you wish to commit to, and to borrow and share with others along the way.

To help focus on a new approach to life and living, I include a Survivor’s Guide Bill of Rights; see Attachment one. It acts to declare your freedom and to release you from any imagined limitations. Of course, you are expected to be skeptical, so chew on it and choose what you swallow. I suggest in the Survivor’s Guide Bill of Rights that many things about how we are might be arbitrary. I am really describing the power of choice. Let’s take a look at all those ideas you might have which are stuck. How about your feelings?

Why do we believe as we do? Most people "feel" their belief. I think if we are to enjoy life we must understand it. I have found that most people think that feeling precedes thinking. They "feel" about something, and then they rationalize it until they think that way. This vastly limits their choice and possibilities. My opinion is somewhat different. I think first that "feelings" are just old thinking that has been driven from out of our consciousness by our interactions with others. Second, most things in life are really arbitrary, except that we have become tangled up in them. Feelings have been driven out of our choice. I see a whole series of small concrete inaccuracies that tend to drive our thoughts into deep feelings. Being an engineer, let me itemize the state transitions or the subtle state shifts involved.

1. I think we start by arbitrarily thinking. We are full of energy, and full of possibilities.
2. Next, we get into an argument with someone else. As the argument gets more intense, the thought once arbitrary now becomes our position. (shift No. one)
3. More time passes, and we meet other people, but now we take the same path (shift No. 2), and the thought loses its arbitrary creation.
4. We confuse the new argument with the new person with the old argument. (shift No. 3) We may also confuse the new person with the old person. (shift No. 4) This is hard to understand on first reading. What in fact takes place is a process of globalization (shifts 3 & 4). We started with an isolated event, and by subtle inattention to details we create a globalization.
5. We now have a monster, which on some level we are not happy with. We speak, but we don't get satisfaction. (shift No. 5) This is not so hard to understand, because we don't really know who we are talking to - - the past or the present? We have found ourselves in a situation where all people seem to be the same, and that is not very satisfying. Have you been talking more and enjoying it less?
6. This situation causes us to dissociate with our own thoughts and now these thoughts become our feelings. (shift No. 6) We are tired of all this talking, and we just know what we know. This lack of spontaneity, this confusion of one person with another, this globalization, this not wanting to think is the nature of feeling.

Now, if you follow me this far, you can imagine that all our lives this process has been going on, and we have feelings about everything. Nothing is left to be arbitrary. At the same time, we have become more dissociative, and nothing that we say gives us any real pleasure. This is like piling mud on top of our heads, it takes the fun out of life. I think there is another way to approach this problem of interacting with others. Imagine a world where there is only you and others, and a surrounding stage of arbitrary objects. Also imagine that all you want in this world is unique acceptance as a non-object. Now how do you live in this new world?

First, you start to play with all the arbitrary objects, and you place your attention on all the other people. This attention on others allows you to find what other people think about these arbitrary objects. Some people hold some of the objects as sacred. These are their feelings. If you play with these objects, you offend these people. These people have a complete inversion of reality. They consider themselves less than the sacred objects. For these people, you cannot tell them who you are, because they do not know who they are. Therefore you have no choice but to help them "through" their feelings, to get them to become responsible. If you get the other to talk about the meaning of these objects, and you help them to re-consider them as arbitrary, you increase their responsibility. They no longer act in a knee-jerk way. Once you get the other to consider themselves as a being that is not an object, you just need to let them know that you are equivalent to them, but with a different "who-ness". You are another person and not them.

In my experience, the first person you accomplish this with creates a monolithic conscious reality. Feelings are now no longer automatic. This is just the start of the pursuit of contact with others. It takes three non-object people to create a pluralistic vision of reality. In this pluralistic reality, thinking is now not automatic. What has happened is that now each person is unique and all thinking is moment by moment a sharing, and arbitrary with respect to others. I no longer create monolithic monsters that affect others. I hope you can understand what I have said here. It is almost incomprehensible. First, remember that it cannot be "true" in the sense that it is a monolithic reality, it is only "true" for me, and I use a lower-case letter.

If this does not make sense to you, think about feelings. Logically recognize that totally automatic feelings leaves you powerless. Also note that you can unlearn your feelings, and this makes you more responsible. Now take the leap of faith that thoughts are just like feelings, and you can become more responsible and less the effect of your thinking. Why is responsibility important? It is the only way to get to the heart of love. Love is the sharing of two people, and without responsibility you are not completely there. Have you been talking more and enjoying it less? If your answer is yes, try reading this last section again. If this is the tenth time reading this, go to the refrigerator and pour yourself a cold beer and calm down; you are taking this life all too seriously.

I hope this guide allows you to see a better way to enjoy life and survive with an easy smile. I have also introduced you to "Enlightenment" as an important process of self-discovery. Recognize that this guide is my personal view, and others may correctly see it differently. There are several other books that also cover the subject of "Enlightenment" from a Western perspective. Here is a list of what is currently available on the subject:

1) "Tell me who you are", by Jake Chapman, ISBN 1 85421 026 2

Published by Jake and Eva Chapman, The Old Manor House,

The Green, Hanslope, MK19 7LS is association with

The SPA Ltd. United Kingdom

2) "The 72 hour mirror, the Enlightenment Intensive Process:", by Jeff Love.

Published in U.S.A. 1979 by Inner Ed. 17626 Orchard Ave.,

Guerneville, California 95446

Reprinted April 1986 by Origin, Star Route, Sattley California 96124

The best way now to find out about Enlightenment Intensives is to click on the world wide web - Ed Riddle - (who goes by ‘Edrid’) has a wonderful web site at www.sandoth.com it lists all the up comming events and has older ‘Self and Other’ newsletters.

I encourage you to start to talk and share what you think and feel about life. You have a unique gift that only you can give. A good start is to form your own Wednesday night group (see attachments 2 and 3) and just explore your interpersonal relationships together with other people like yourself. Discover your full potential, and make life worth doing. I have included information on how to run and coach Enlightenment processes (Attachments 4 through 8). These subjects are under reported, and hopefully this guide will help to create change. Remember to stay both awake and skeptical and live life with personal responsibility in a state of Joy. As a final step - just be awake - and don't even try to "Remember" and thereby quit creating a mind and living in the past. Enjoy the love you then find around you.