Live with a ferocious intensity and vehemence…or not at all.
Utterly fascinating: Kierkegaard believed that from the freedom given to mankind, man is in constant fear of failing in his responsibilities to God, producing a strong sensation of angst. But God wouldn’t want deep-rooted spiritual conditions of insecurity and despair. There is nothing to fear; angst is an illusion! So is ennui or boredom, when the mind if fully engaged. Shame, according to John Bradshaw, is an “emotion that lets us know we are finite”. Wrong! It’s an emotion that conceals and denies our capacity. Shaming destroys dignity, it condemns potential. We can ameliorate any limitations by immmediately absolving ourself from self-induced or external shame. Anthropologists say that shame is violation of cultural values, while guilt is violation of internal rules. Both are unsatisfactory, invalid emotions, but knowing their origins can help pinpoint the origin of those false emotions.
While Holden Caulfield operates as the main character in the bildungsroman (a novel about spiritual growth), it’s ironic that he resists maturity, condemning adulthood for its phoniness, superficiality, and hypocrisy. Additionally, this is the ultimate novel to witness the Eriksonian stage of growth “Isolation vs. Intimacy” as Holden is drawn to Sally Hayes, but then pushes her away out of need for isolation. After being the ultimate Holden Caulfield, I understand this book and can attest that there is some veracity in his claims.
Yet there is a rich dichotomy to be divulged regarding the Holden Caulfield to “Phlegmatic adult” spectrum — neither extreme is desirable. Seizing and connecting with the childhood curiosity and honesty is incommensurately important, but Holden’s discrepancies — over-adherence to isolation and loneliness and reluctance and sexual immaturity — to that should be discarded, but one certainly shouldn’t flip to the other extreme — a phlegmatic, stodgy hypocritical adult. The message of Catcher in the Rye is not to ridicule both ends of the spectrum. Rather, hypocritical, stodgy elements of adulthood should be harshly criticized and abandoned, and the general milieu of Holden should be embraced, but after dissecting out the intimacy vs. isolation problem and completely discarding notions of irrational fear, angst, and boredom
Everyone wears 5 masks:
- The Psychological — Labeling, maladaptive diagnosing
- The Computational — Looping, repetition, mindless tasks
- The Political — Prohibiting, barring
- The Dramatic — Disuading emotions
- The Literary — Mental illusions, ennui
These five masks protect one from false vulnerability, creating an illusion of spuriousness, but deleteriously conceal our five faces. The masks great a game — fantastic, alert, and drawing from multiple intellects for people interaction.
Everyone has 5 faces:
- Nature — Ocean, Flowers’ mathematical precision of Fibonacci, wavelengths, frequency
- Sex — Passion, Excitement, Affection, Joy, Happiness
- Music — Precision, Math, The Number One Connection
- Humanity — Spirituality, People Relationships, Profession, Work, Intimacy
- Body — Stretching, Yoga, health, exercise, Zen focus, nutrition
These five faces are jubilant reality. Connecting with them and showing them makes your life a colorful joy-ride of heaven because you abandon the concept of distrust, fear, and doubt. The five masks protect us and give us an interface for success; our five faces are authentic and alive and total nature.
Here’s What I’ve experimented with — de-activating the brain. A girlfriend I had said some things that convinced me that I would feel more liberated, less inhibited, if I let my emotions direct my life. The theory was that you would react based on what you were really feeling instead of “over-thinking” something. Interesting theory, but after years of experimentation — completely false. You need to have your brain engaged for the best sex, to make a professional living, to run marathons, to bike a Tour de France, to buy and drive a cool car, to navigate and map out an entertainment plan, to be a great, fantastic host, to have an amazing travel itinerary, to lead a brilliant and amazing life! This lead to the Charter…
5 Tenets of the Validity Charter
1. Karmic Equilibrium of Generosity
After personal fundamental needs for fulfillment are accomplished and MET, channel 90% of mental, emotional, and your spiritual energy SET of intention toward dissolving BARRIERS in and fulfilling the lives of other inhibition-CARRIERS to generate karmic equilibrium of reciprocating happiness generosity. This nourishes the factual principle of “if you help a person overcome the illusion of inadequacy or understand a belief that releases incredible happiness, someone will — via reciprocal KINDNESS –do the same for you, curing your BLINDNESS”.
2. Mind Engagement
Understand and fully live WITH the mind engaged, not disengaged or de-activated, knowing and understANDING that with the mind engaged
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Dan Millman writes, “The only difference between fear and excitement is whether you’re breathing” (138). This distinction is such a fine line because the energy levels of alertness combined with flight/fight operate on such a hair-pin trigger. Doing some deep breathing, literally, restores confidence in your discovery of exhilaration and the renounciation of fear.
Millman, in his brilliance also writes, “The only safe and sure way to destroy your enemies is to make them your friends” (139). This is brilliant! Way of the peaceful warrior. This is not saying, you say, “I don’t have a weed problem, I just consider weeds plants”. Instead, this is transforming the ire, or it’s utilizing the rancor or distaste for someone and developing that inimical relationship into one of, at the least, comraderie and at best, sincere rapport.
