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6 comments

• Comment Link Wednesday, 03 October 2012 22:31 posted by James Barrow

  Wow, the Anthony Griffiths video.... thanks Juma.
• Comment Link Thursday, 04 October 2012 21:35 posted by Brandon Walker

  First, this is a wonderfully engaging glimpse into the New Warrior Training Adventure experience. I wholeheartedly echo the beauty and power of the work being done in the ManKind Project, not only during these weekend adventures, but also in the regular gatherings of this community of men. In these more frequent and more casual settings, we apply what is learned during the weekend to our everyday lives, sharing with and learning from each other in a safe, supportive atmosphere. Readers should know that the weekend is not just a one-shot thing, it can also be a gateway into a richly supportive network of men (it has been for me).
  
  I also had a significant breakthrough after reading this piece, although I don’t think it was the one the author intended. My critique of the piece is this: Fundamentally, I think there is a confusion here between “authenticity” and “intensity”. I personally don’t believe that the presence of one requires or implies the presence of the other. While I have had my share of moments of vast freedom and cathartic healing from touching into the full intensity of my emotions, I think it’s a limited perspective to try to describe such state experiences as “real”, implying that the rest of our experiences are somehow less real. In the archetypical language used by the ManKind Project, Jungians, and others, what is described in this piece is one expression of the Lover (feeling, sensuality, vigor, intuition). The realms of the Warrior (action, accountability, loyalty, and setting boundaries), the Magician (contemplation, innovation, and reticence), and the King/Queen (visionary leadership, generosity, and blessing) are equally “real” aspects of the human experience, and part of the brilliance of the NWTA process is that all of these archetypes and more are addressed during the course of the weekend. Also, the depiction of Lover energy in this piece is only one particularly explosive expression of it (an expression often preferred by Type 8’s, from what I understand). To get to the honest, authentic truth that tries to reveal itself through my emotions, this type of state experience is often not enough. After the pyrotechnics, I have to go down, down, deep into the bone, quarrying out the small, hidden, sometimes hard-to-swallow nuggets of truth that could otherwise be overlooked (intentionally or unintentionally) while I’m expressing myself in ways which are more outwardly intense.
  
  The bottom line is, I think this piece offers a narrow perspective of “real”, and I can see all kinds of negative consequences that such a narrow perspective might cause. And my breakthrough is this: I no longer resent Juma’s Type 8 personality for his narrow perspective. I thank him for the important work he is doing in the world to bring out the fiery and intensely felt side of life, to keep us on the edge and more than just a little bit uncomfortable. And I’m learning to witness, honour, then gradually let go of my own narrow focus as well (Type 1: To be loved, I must be good, and to be good, I must be right. Ouch.)
  
  Big gratitude to all the types out there. May we all find our place and play our part with mastery.
• Comment Link Friday, 05 October 2012 17:05 posted by Juma Wood

  Brandon,
  
  I appreciate your discernment on this and allowing me to refine my thoughts/feelings.
  
  In the past I've tried to capture all of my perspectives at once when writing a piece, but that ends up being an exercise in compulsive mind games (perhaps the shadow side of the Magician in this language?) and a certain dissociation from the truth of my experience. So, coming off that weekend, alive with the power of my own emotional (and really existential) clarity, this was a writing from the power centre of my own perch in this great narrative of life.
  
  Where I would refine a little differently than you did is this: the impression I think I left with this piece is that emotional catharsis alone is authentic expression. I don't believe that is the case. It is a piece, this catharsis, the deep feeling and expression of primary emotional content. And it is a beginning, I believe, a doorway in to an increasing subtle relationship to the essential moments of living.
  
  The practice I've been most alive with since beginning this work has been around emotional literacy. I love to reflect on that term. For me, in my actual day to day experience, it is not a constant bloodletting of emotion, though heading into the woods now and again and bellowing a barbaric yawp from the caverns of my being is a welcome and important practice. Rather, I experience a moment to moment recognition, and an increasingly nuanced recognition, of the feelings that arise and that, often in my life, have held dominion over me.
  
  Getting these feelings out in front of me has begun a process of recognizing where I actually am, moment to moment, in the daily struggle to be truly awake and alert to the opportunities to serve and be present in a day.
  
  Some psychological work speaks of different 'voices' or personalities/personas that operate within us. I find this useful. I have a 'controller', a 'wounded child', a 'punisher' (I'm giving these my own names) that are, in my experience, distortions on the simple expression of who I actually am in my naked simplicity. They are triggered by stimuli, internal and external, habitual responses to life, scripts. Emotional literacy to me is getting a handle on these 'characters', these responses and where they were created, at their origin.
  
  Where I would disagree, and quite strongly, is this: I'm not sure there is a difference between 'athenticity' and 'intensity'. We probably have to define our terms. If by intensity you mean the balls out catharsis of this piece, than I agree, and refer to what I've now written above. But, in my travels and experiences and questioning of others, the 'experience' of being, remaining most alert/awake, is intense. Again, this intensity can take any number of forms of subtle expression/experience/recognition. I believe, with all my heart, that if one is not numb to their own life force at its essence, their is a certain intensity that speaks to the overwhelming and amazing fact of being simply alive.
  
  Thanks for the opportunity to refine this piece for posterity and I welcome further refinement/response on your part.
  
  Blessings
  
  Juma
• Comment Link Friday, 05 October 2012 18:35 posted by Brandon Walker

  "We may say that feelings have two kinds of intensity. One is the intensity of the feeling itself, by which loud sounds are distinguished from faint ones, luminous colors from dark ones, highly chromatic colors from almost neutral tints, etc. The other is the intensity of consciousness that lays hold of the feeling, which makes the ticking of a watch actually heard infinitely more vivid than a cannon shot remembered to have been heard a few minutes ago."
  -Charles Sanders Peirce
  
  I like that. It suggests to me that an "intensity of consciousness" (what I might have called authenticity) requires a good measure of sensitivity, empathy, and probably also emotional literacy.
  
  I believe another important distinction between bright, loud intensity and an intensity of consciousness (aka authenticity) is that authenticity understood this way can be applied more directly and effectively to other areas of the life. Howling at the moon and the catharsis of dredging up hardened old wounds is vital in my judgement, but when it comes down to being a provider, caretaker, protector, reformer, innovator, nurturer, challenger, lover, designer, athelete, arbitrator, etc, I need to call upon that subtler, more sensitive intensity of conciousness. If I've privileged a more bright-and-loud expression that is focused on my own life force and my own story, and default to that (intentionally or unintentionally), I'm concerned that I might miss the point of what I'm really here to be and do, in service to the world.
  
  I appreciate you can't capture all your perspectives on a single page, and I thank you for working to refine these ideas with me.
• Comment Link Friday, 05 October 2012 20:36 posted by Juma Wood

  Marvelous quote to dig up...well done. As usual, metaphor alone captures the ineffable.
  
  I echo that the trumpet of my own story can and does interfere with the silence that underlies the score. In that silence, pregnant with possiblity, is direction that more accurately can be said to be what wants to happen, rather than what I want to happen.
  
  And so, at my best, I listen, present to various rhythms, and I put myself in position to become an instrument of the muse, the music.
  
  Emotional literacy than is about availability, to the mysterious current of simply living a life of service, however I can best define that concept, in tune with what the moment puts in front of me, the audience of options, alternatives and hard choices.
• Comment Link Sunday, 14 October 2012 17:54 posted by Durwin Foster

  Thanks for your post, Juma!