Integral Warriors: Embodying the New Masculine, a men's group, Part two

This is a very different blog than I expected to write today. Judging by the early lack of enthusiasm around the concept of a SeattleIntegral men's group, I expected three, maybe four, men to show up at the first meeting last night. We had nine men show up and they seem to be exactly the right men.

Nine men! Nine brave men who all have powerful personal stories. Some came with a purpose, or mission, and some are not sure why they came, but feel called. I won't go into any personal stories, other than my own, if I feel it's relevant to a teaching or of possible value to others, and I won't mention the names of those who've shown up.

Some of the issues that came up are about purpose, addictions, relationship, money, forgiveness, self love, accountability, fear, trust, and what's holding us back?

For me, I know I need to be in the company of men. I need to hear the brutal truth about who I am and what I do, or don't do, from a masculine perspective. Like many men, I bathe and luxuriate in feminine energy, especially with my beloved (I've never met a woman who tells the truth so fearlessly and so compassionately as she). However, I also recognize that I've not paid enough attention to the polarity of the masculine in the company of men, and that's perspective I need to embrace. However good I might be at holding the Divine Masculine on my own, there's always a way to go deeper.

While aware of Jung's four archetypes used in other men's groups - the king, the magician, the warrior, the lover - and paying attention to the integration of all, the focus of those group will be David Deida's work, particularly around his book "The Way of the Superior Man."

I am also delighted at the chance to step deeper into my role as a spiritual teacher, and sharing the wisdom I've gained with other men, and learning from them as well. This is also not a free group. There is a small fee for each of the meetings. That's part of my commitment to be paid for the work I do, as well as the men's commitment to the value received for the time and effort I put in to facilitate and lead the group: part of my personal work around conscious abundance, as well.

Conscious Abundance?

Here's an interesting question and book I've ordered. It asks about consciousness and abundance. Can the two co-exist? I know a lot of people who don't think so. As with some aspects of stages of consciousness (particularly the Spiral Dynamics model), a person's current stage is defined by the "why" we do things. What's the value that motivates us?

I think it's the same with abundance. It's not that we have abundance, it's what we do with it. I also think OSHO owning over 100 Rolls Royces at one point is way over the top, and another reminder that even the greatest teachers (I love OSHO!) still have human frailties.

Even some authority/mythic level religions and churches are tapping into abundance as something we deserve. I'm beginning a program of conscious abundance and will be writing about it over the next few blogs, including blocks that prevent my conscious abundance. Part of this program is why I haven't been blogging. I'm back, again.

Gary

How to get rich: can rich people be transpersonal?

Can you be a first generation rich person and be 2nd/3rd Tier?

585 million pounds is roughly the net worth of Felix Dennis so one assumes he knows what he is talking about in his book How To Get Rich < http://www.amazon. co.uk/How-Get-Rich- Felix-Dennis/ dp/0091912652>;

Can rich people be transpersonal? Osho at the height of his success had over 100 Rolls Royces, Spirit Rock < http://www.spiritro ck.org/> Dharma teacher Jack Kornfeld
< http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Jack_Kornfield> is a millionaire. Geshe Micheal Roache's story is an interesting one. As a young western Tibetan Buddhist monk his Lama told him to work in business incognito and apply Buddhist principles to business, he chose the diamond business in the big apple, and did become very successful and single handedly supported the Sera May monastery. You can read his story in The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business < http://www.amazon. com/Diamond- Cutter-Buddha- Managing- Business/ dp/0385497911>

His short list of qualities (below) needed to get rich seem to me to show a combination of higher developmental traits as well as lower ones, he says apart from numeracy education is not relevant, although here in the UK one imagines a 'good' education with the connections for elite networking could be useful? As people move up the hierarchy of developmental needs to an
integral perspective, 2nd and 3rd tier spaces, can you still keep the predatory, plundering, pillaging qualities needed to become rich?

Maybe if like Felix Dennis you can keep it a game, take a one taste perspective, make subject object, not identify with it; disidentify echoing Krishna's advice to Arjuna on the Battlefield as related in the Mahabharata. Just before the battle at Kurukshetra, Arjuna sees that the enemies he's about to do battle with are his relatives, friends and teachers. Krishna, his charioteer, shows Arjuna a glimpse his of his non-dual true, unknowable form, and from that perspective higher up the mountain the contradictions resolve themselves, as Jung used to say. And of course the Samurai in Japan attained a high level in pursuit of excellence in combat, using similar
techniques as Eugen
Herrigel< http://www.amazon. com/exec/ obidos/search- handle-url/ 102-5368443- 8780167?% 5Fencoding= UTF8&search- type=ss&index= books&field- author=Eugen% 20Herrigel> shew in Zen and the Art of Archery <http://www.amazon. com/Zen-Art- Archery-Eugen- Herrigel/ dp/0375705090 >

joty

"Now comes the hard part. Before we really get started on getting started, I ask you to consider carefully the short list below. It is by no means comprehensive, nor will it be the last list in this book, but should you find yourself unable to measure up to even one of these initial demands (and I mean just one), then my suggestion is that you close this book and give it to a friend, or an enemy

- depending on the degree to which you enjoy ironical gestures.

- If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand very little chance of ever getting rich.

- If you care what the neighbors think, you will never get rich.

- If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse, or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.

- If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents or degrade them, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)

- If you are not prepared to work longer hours than almost anyone you know, despite the jibes of colleagues and friends, you are unlikely to get rich.

- If you cannot convince yourself that you are 'good enough' to be rich, you will never get rich.

- If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.

- If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich."

"Trust your instincts. Do not be a slave to them, but when your instincts are screaming, Go! Go! Go! Then it's time for you to decide whether you really want to be rich or not. You cannot do this in a deliberate, considered manner. You can't get rich by painting by numbers. You can only
do it by becoming a predator, by waiting patiently, by remaining alert and constantly sniffing the air and by bringing massive, murderous force to bear upon your prey when you pounce."

(excerpted from Felix Dennis' book, How to Get Rich)