Path to Spirit

We have the luxury and even the necessity of rethinking the meaning of the training and what makes the P2S training so distinctive.
In preparing for the meeting with the MKP Leaders at our 25th anniversary, I met with Robert Moore and got stimulated to reread his “Facing the Dragon” book which is on grandiosity. He basically says in the book that we individually and collectively in groups have to “get over ourselves” in terms of either indentifying or projecting our grandiosity. And grandiosity comes from not distinguishing the Self from what Moore calls the Great Self (g_d). Moore suggests that we need to recover from something, otherwise the grandiosity will take over. Since beginning this work, I had to embrace this idea or be overcome with grandiosity not only from my own flirting with greatness but from dealing with other’s projections. Thus, the renaming of my animal name to Just Cougar. I am grateful for that transformation as I can focus of distinguishing between my stupidity and my strengths.
So where does that lead us? Well, the men’s work needs to begin with dealing with how we identify with the masculine. I get from Moore’s work when he says that humanity needs “Humanity Anonymous”, meaning that everyone has to deal with narcissism and grandiosity. It’s the basis of how we look at ourselves. So the men’s movement and the NWTA is really “Men’s Anonymous”. That is, the NWTA is at root finding our real masculine selves in exploring the “shadow” side of our masculine nature. And the substantive part of that process is exploring our “little boy” shadow and how our fathers were absent. The NWTA focuses on how the constellation of the 4 archetypes depend on coming to grips not having enough “fathering” and feeling powerless as a boy. It is in that search for the deeper masculine and a relationship with the inner father/King that we embark on finding our real power.
The NWTA provides this masculine fathering and mentoring that men sorely miss. We realize the need for male companionship and to be loved by men guides us in finding our mission and deep power.
So how does this relate to P2S? In thinking of the weekend and revisiting its meaning, I recalled that most men in the Dilemma Building exercise usually pick a woman to which they have a conflict. And then I started thinking just how conflicted we are as men with women. They are both the bane of our existence and the prize that we pursue. And what is the basic origins of this need? MOTHER. Most of us want and really need the acceptance and affection of women but it started with our mothers.
Whereas, the NTWA focuses on “father-loss”, the P2S work often gets even deeper and earlier to “mother-loss”. Most boys have deficient nurturing by mothers to develop the inner masculine. We don’t get touched or consoled as much as girls. And then when we get older, we project this royal need for mothering on to, guess who? WOMEN. We end up needing their love.
So then I got thinking that the “Breath Work” exercise needs to start with generating focus and energy on the “mother-loss”. For those of you who attended the “Path to Mastery”, you may remember the “Pleading for Mercy” piece. We had the men plead for their parent’s mercy in terms of “where were you when I needed you, mom (or dad)? Anyway, the Breath work energy needs to go deeper into the unconscious of feeling disconnected from mother. We have focused on men finding a love object in the Breath process and when they touch is an element of shadow.
Now I see the NWTA as dealing with the “royal” masculine side. We have always referred to the distinction with NWTA as it deals with the “yang” energy and P2S deals with the complementary “ying” energy. In dealing with “energies”, we stayed away from the masculine/feminine comparison and just stayed with energies.
Yet, the NWTA is getting men to find their masculinity without being caught up with identifying or projecting their grand(iosity) masculinity or with the masculine God. And P2S appears to focus on not projecting their feminine need on to the royal woman and owning that incompleteness in our psyches of needing nurturing through the royal woman.
We all know just how devastating and damaging not facing this dragon can be. We either over-identify with needing women or we can dis-identify with this need. Either way, we are left with this need to complete ourselves through the feminine.
So perhaps, we have something here whereby we have the holy compliment to the NWTA and can market it as such.

PATH to NOWHERE (NOW-HERE):  “Tiger by a Necd:

In my pantheon of male heroes, most of them are of African descent, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali.  Not that I am making this a race distinction, although I do believe that seemingly suffering of our Black brothers begets wisdom and compassion.  Tiger Woods has always been a favorite of mine.  I believed his father, Earl, when he predicted that Tiger would have a far greater impact in the world than what he would accomplish as a golfer. 

Up until now, Tiger hasn’t really found his “cause”.  He has initiated educational programs for inner-city kids and made it possible for other African-American kids to by-pass the color boundary and ascend to the possibilities of their own greatness.

Yesterday, Tiger checked himself out of the Players Tournement Championship because of a “neck” injury.  He apparently has had this condition for “awhile”.  He didn’t want to report it because he apparently didn’t want the world to know about it.  And apparently to Tiger, it wasn’t any of our business anyway.

From my understanding, the neck resides in the part of the body which we refer to as the 3rd chakra.  This area of the body holds the energy for speaking ones’ truth.  If you have some resistence to telling the truth, you might have trouble speaking.  Something might get stuck in your throat.  You might have to clear your throat to speak the truth.  You might also have some hankering for “necking”.   Now all this is unconscious awareness.  But it feeds the premise that Tiger has not only been circumspect in withholding his truth but also hiding his true feelings.  As my yoga teacher, Steve, mentioned yesterday, there are “facts’” and then there is “truth”.  Truth comes from a full awareness of our feelings.  Tragically, you never get the full scoop when Tiger speaks. 

I am still a Tiger-fan, although I am waiting until he begins to fulfill father-Earl’s prophecy of making a big impact on the world.  I would suspect that some spiritual transformation is due.  The Buddhist principle of ahimsa would seem to apply here.  In Tiger’s case, not bringing harm to himself or to others.

Ahimsa begins with as all things “breath” and a letting go of all things injurious to oneself and others.  This requires “speaking ones truth”.  Can you imagine Tiger sitting in one of our circles sharing his truth and then coming to the awareness of how this is burdening him and his golf game.  And how through forgiveness he could be a model for others who ignore the shame of keeping a secret. 

At Path to Spirit there are more secrets shed than any one place that I know.  It is intrinsic to our process to find the truth in each element of our own burdens.  Each “split” is an opportunity to comes to terms (in God’s eyes and ears, so to speak).  Imbedded in each split is the truth that “passes all understanding”.  I am looking forward to Tiger coming forth and healing his 3rd chakra.  Tiger the “time is NOW” and the “place is HERE”.

If you are ready to register for a P2S training or you want to refer a person to register, please refer to the Applicaton page.

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SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2010