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In my mind, I divide the journey / story into three chapters.
Each chapter can be thought of as a descension and an ascension. The ascension marks the end of that chapter. Each new chapter is more challenging than the last.
You don’t need to commit to completing all three phases before starting, but IMO everyone should commit to at least completing the first phase at some point in their life.
My first recommendation when starting is hero identification. Watch hero’s journey movies (or read stories) and identify with the hero.
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Next, the parable of the lost son:
The older brother represents the firstborn, or chosen son. He is in the place of privilege as the inheritor of the estate.
Nobody wins the game without losing many times, and you can’t win the game until you realize you’re in it and losing.
The younger brother is in the losing position, but as I mention above, this is the position you need to be in.
Study the story to see how the younger brother levels up. Notice how he says, “Father, give me my share of the estate.”
You need to understand that the younger brother has no entitlement to the estate. The reason why he is able to make this move is because he has identified with the older brother. When you identify with someone, their story merges with your story.
There are advantages to each position - younger and older brother. The advantage of the younger brother is that he has nothing to lose. Because of this, he can condemn the father by demanding the inheritance.
Now, translate all of this into the Christian story. The Christians are the older brother. You are the younger brother. This is the Christian story, so Jesus is in the position of the father.
One of the promises Jesus made was “Whatever you ask for in my name will be granted to you.” When you identify with the Christian, then what is true for them becomes true for you.
In summary, in order to progress through chapter one, build your dual identity as both Christian and Non-Christian. This will take some time and effort to enter into the Christian story. At the same time, watch movies for hero identification.
Then, use the parable of the lost son as a guide. Serve Jesus and follow his commands. Pray to him and ask for what you desire. When he doesn’t deliver, make demands and make a stand. This will cause a deconstruction and you will enter the land of freedom, just like in the story.
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Learn to be resourceful in order to further the hero’s journey. When something negative happens to you in your daily life, then use that momentum to further identify with the younger brother (Non-Christian).
Access the dreamer and your imagination to build up your Christian identity. Watch YouTube videos of devout Christians and try to embody them. Etc, etc.
Then, use the parable of the lost son as a guide. Serve Jesus and follow his commands. Pray to him and ask for what you desire. When he doesn’t deliver, make demands and make a stand. This will cause a deconstruction and you will enter the land of freedom, just like in the story.
Once you deconstruct, then I will use different language since you will no longer be in the Christian story, but it’s important to really create a bond to the Christian story for later. So, retrace this over and over.
Just like in the parable, you have to become lost and dead in relation to the Christian story. In order for this to occur, you must first belong to and live in it..
I’m going to go ahead and move on to part 2..
I want you to now place yourself within the Darwinian world. Fitness, competition, hustle. You are a human animal within the secular, Darwinian story. Contemplate the implications of that.
This period is about beginning to cultivate a relationship between you and the self. Initially, it’s going to be difficult to relate to the self directly, so you are going to start at it indirectly by relating with the world. The world will serve as a bridge to the self.
The goal is to improve the quality of your life, which is dependent on the state of the world. You are to see the world like a child with immense unrealized potential. You are in the role of the parent.
Like a child, the world is insecure, always checking in with you to determine how it should feel. First: affirm the world (eg: “This is my world, which I love; with it I am well pleased”😉. Next: practice stoicism in the face of adversity so as to encourage confidence in the world. The more affirming, confident, and secure you are when relating to the world, the higher the chance the world will provide for you the good life. Just like parenting a young child, celebrate the good done and be quick to move on from the negative.
It’s important to mention that time spent is everything here. It’s about maximizing the number of moments throughout the day where you are consciously relating to the world. Set reminders until you develop the habit.
Once you’ve established the affirming foundation and built a strong relationship with the world in a more motherly role, it’s time to shift to the role of the father who is raising the expectation level in order to actualize the world’s full potential. Now, you are focusing and lingering more on the negatives in your life. By doing this, the implied messaging from you to the world is something like, “Is this acceptable to you? Can you not do better than this?”
So that you don’t strain the relationship too much, go back and forth between the father and mother roles — Raising the expectation level + judgment while still affirming.
After some time of that, it’s time to push the relationship even further in the masculine direction. You become hyper focused on only and all the negatives in your life. And you don’t just linger for a time. You dwell and refuse to move forward in your life. You hold onto the pain in your life and the attitude from you to the world is “This is unacceptable. We are not moving forward because I know that you are capable of better than this.”
The more you do this, holding tightly onto the pains and disappointments in your life, you will gradually sink closer toward despair. This despair will open up access into your inner world where you can begin to directly relate to the self in self consciousness and self awareness.
Once you’ve developed your inner awareness to directly access the self, then you’ve successfully completed this section of the journey. All the relating you’ve done with the world in this section will help you to hit the ground running with the self.
Next, I want you to bring in the Parable of the Lost Coin.
This parable will assist you in winning the battle against unconsciousness. The previous steps have helped open your inner world and have given you direct access to the self, but there is a force which resists this inward direction and wants you asleep in unconsciousness.
In the parable, the darkness represents the darkness of the inner world. In order for the woman to search for and find the lost coin, she has to first realize she is missing it and that it’s valuable enough to search for.
Likewise, you are going to have to remind yourself that you are missing something which is valuable enough to search for in the darkness of your inner world.
Turning on the lamp represents the light of your conscious awareness and sweeping the floor represents feeling deep inside yourself.
Dedicate yourself to the above, retrace the steps, and after a month or two, you’ll have established the foundation to self mastery and a life of thriving.
We still haven’t completed the first chapter, but for anyone who has integrated everything covered previously, it won’t take much time to complete.
Who am I? After all of my posts here, still no one knows me?
Identity is a strange thing.
Even if the Son of Man has his entire memory erased, and is living a quiet life in a foreign place, he would never forget who he is.. unless he forgets who he is.
Do I need to perform miracles? Of what use is that for you? To establish who I am?
I already know who I am.
The SoM has already been in this world and performed miracles. Did the miracles cause the witnesses to remember who they are? If miracles aren’t enough, then what?
Nobody, and no amount of miracles, can permit the SoM to remember who he is and come into being. He must permit himself to come into being..
..when he decides to remember.
Everything changes when the human animal accepts that he is not the main character, and the privilege belongs to the self.
While the human animal can only exist in the Darwinian story, the self has the potential to transcend this Darwinian world and access true greatness - the real good life, rather than some counterfeit version.
Knowing that he can only penetrate the inner world and directly access the self through heartbreak and despair, the human animal lays down his life and willingly suffers on behalf of the self. By doing this, the human animal becomes the right-hand-man, the good steward, the dark knight.
He becomes a parent to the self, accepting the responsibility of caring for and raising it in order for it to fulfill its immense, unrealized potential.
He becomes a twin brother to the self. Whatever is true for the self, whatever it experiences, the human animal experiences. This allows him to lead the self through his own actions.
