Attend weekly Japanese Jiu Jitsu class at Great River institute, located in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Study with Scott Walter, Sensei..
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The Seven Fundamental Principles for Standing in the Face of the Truth represent a relationship between the balance and harmony of standing in the face of the truth. There are many, many forms of truth that can matter in countless ways. In understanding the Seven Fundamental Principles better, it’s important to be mindful of what they are addressing.
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When an aggressor grabs our wrist, our tendency is to use resistance as our course of action. Perhaps we attempt to jerk our hand away, or maybe we suddenly start pushing, twisting or even shouting. We tend to react one of two ways: fighting it or giving in to it. Similarly, we employ the same practices when encountering difficulties in our everyday life circumstances. In Jiu Jitsu we train to not meet force with force. Instead, we practice to ‘become one with’.
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Recent Jiu Jitsu classes have been delving into the mechanics of what occurs when resistance emerges. But more importantly, we have been learning that there are glimpses of awareness that can take place, but typically only if we have ‘the eyes to see’.
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When I was between 12 and 15 years old I had an event that would occasionally occur. It always happened spontaneously and it was easily the most terrifying thing in my entire youth.
I would see something, It always appeared in my bedroom, and it always took place exactly the same way. It was a spiritual being, but it wasn’t a vague wisp of light nor was it a shadow. It was a fully featured woman, clothed and sitting in a rocking chair. She always appeared the same way, seated and rocking in a wooden rocker at the end of my bed.
We had a busy house with a family of eight. There were six kids, three boys and three girls, and we only had one bathroom and three modest sized bedrooms for the whole family. My parents had the biggest room. The three girls had a room and us three boys had a room. That put three beds plus dressers in each small bedroom. My bed was positioned on a wall with enough open space at the foot for a closet door to swing open. When this woman appeared, she would appear in that space.
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“For as long back in this life as I can remember, I have found myself captivated when looking at people. My mother would constantly correct me saying, “Don’t stare”. But even with her admonitions I would simply engage in peripheral vision. When I looked at people with this focused stare, I saw things that opened the multi-dimensional door for me in a myriad of ways. I could do this without thinking and yet I’d become lost in thoughts I could not describe.”
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Balance and Harmony’ is an often-used phrase that sounds good on paper but isn’t always so easy to achieve. Quietly residing between those two seven letter words lays a simple three letter word — ‘and.’ As we shall see, it’s all in the ‘and,’ because hiding in that modest conjunction are five secret principles to improved balance and harmony. The power of the ‘and’ reveals how to transition from Balance to Harmony.
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I attended three comprehensive lectures and several initiations given by HH Dalai Lama this past weekend and I was attentive to each of his messages, his reasoning, his concerns and warnings and what he said was mandatory to understanding and effective practice. I took his suggestions to heart and practiced what he suggested while listening to him, after the lectures were over, during our group discussions, in between the discussions, in my meditation time, when I was driving, when we were eating and even when I was feeling tired and ill. I tested his teachings in every application I could find and they held up well for me. They did not hold as well when they were not practiced and when they were not understood it was hard to practice them.
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I can say the point again, but before I do, let’s remember why and what we are here practicing. We are learning about an art…an art of giving…and way of being in the moment that can unlock the inward understandings of everything.
Now here is the point: when you practice, you have to go through the prime positions to bring anything into being.
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When we set ourselves to practice our reason for being, are we able to remember what it is? Do we look for it and stand on it, hoping for an even clearer version to appreciate? Do we respect it when it peeks through the moment at us enough to acknowledge it? Do we appreciate it and grow it into a more capable position? Do we show gratitude when the better version presents itself? Do we respect the improvements enough to live on them, sharing them and growing them more in our lives?
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As I wrote earlier, it was eating from the tree of knowledge that separated Adam and Eve from the Known. Before they took that turn, they were dwelling in a sense of Oneness with the Known. Adam was primarily looking inward and Eve was primarily looking outward, but they shared a Known connection between themselves. As they lived in this inner connection, it provided them with a Knowing of the Known, and they became Known for it.
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Using the understandings is the way to understand them better and it leads to more of the Knowing aspect within when we use them as they are Known instead of how they are known or unknown. Are there gradations of knowing? Yes, there are gradations of Knowing, just as there are gradations of knowing. As you come to know me more, you will have more knowledge of me and of my understandings. As you come to Know me more, you will have more Knowledge of Me and my Understandings.
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The points we are discussing are not only in every one of us, they are in our moments as well. If we consider the moment as a cross section of life’s ongoing momentum, we will have a slice of living current to examine. This slice is one part of a continuum. This cross-sectional view and the continuum it belongs to is our subject when we become aware of life as a continuum and when we become aware our relationship to it.
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It is important that we can move both inwardly and outwardly through our givings, as this enables us to navigate through life’s many circumstances and to line up with the spiritual values and matters of the moment. But I do want to once again address the outward and inward directions as I am using them. Outward values are values that are negative to a particular state of being and inward values are positive to that same state of being. By state of being, I am including any particular value, any reason, any manner or way, and any point.
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Let’s consider Adam and Eve. These are the names given to the Prime positions of Male and Female in this current model of humanity. Even the names have meaning. These prime points are in each application of this model, you being one and me being another. These are also the names given to the beings incarnating into those first two Prime positions. It is not the names of the souls. It is the names of those particular lives. This model, along with previous models, such as the Neanderthals, was created as an evolving species and there is an evolvement within each model. But previous models were in need of revision and the beings that created the new more evolved model set about to do just that. These beings, known as the Elohim were the creative team. Genesis says ‘They created Adam in Their own image.’ This refers to the Creators, acting as God, being seven in number, each representing the seven spirits of God, or the seven chakras, also referred to as the seven seals in humanity’s closed forms of awareness.
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This essay delves into Adam and Eve, including describing both what they symbolically represent and literally empower within each of us. The basic notion being that Adam represents the part of us that is facing inward toward source and Eve represents that part of us that is facing outward toward matter. The Christ-point describes the hovering or balancing in between these two aspects of our nature. And when we balance the most perfectly, in a 50/50 position, we are unifying the two parts into one.
The Christ is not a person. It is a way of being. Christ is the mend for the riff of separation caused by the fall of Adam. Christ is the mend for the separation in us all if we claim the place in the heart where it is the in-dwelling of. It represents a way of connecting to the ONEness. Adam was the name given to the soul entering into a new model of Humanity. That model was paired into male and female and was called Adam and Eve. They each represented an aspect of being. Christ is the way of connecting those aspects.
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Giving is a universal principle. Everyone is a giver in their life. Some people focus on the value of their giving more than others. Of those people, some focus on the value of what they give, while others focus on the value of giving itself. We want to put our attention and study on the value of giving and how to improve our connection to our reason for being through our acts of giving.
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Sometimes Principles and Truths become fashionable and we lose the actualizing to temporal expression. Sometimes Truths and even Love can be used as very hurtful weapons, injuring the Hearts and Hopes of others and ourselves.
As we study and practice to be more in line with what we want our Eternal Relationship to be more about, we begin to see Principles in more meaningful ways.
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The Inclusive Nature of Respect
In my experience, the only way to continuously grow our inner values is to see the inner values growing and expressing in the lives of ourselves and of others. When looking at the extremist in anything, you can position yourself where you feel the extremist is not able to see anything inwardly. You can become an extremist when you feel no one can see inwardly except you.
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