THE TRIAD OF BECOMING #6

UNDERSTANDING

HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

VS.

WISDOM

HOPE, FAITH, BELIEF, TRUST, SURRENDER

We need both sides for balance.

Balance is achieved by harmonizing polarities. Dualities come into harmony by negotiating a third or middle path, a path not of assimilation but one of coexistence. 

There are only two feelings Love and Fear.

The Ancestors urge us to find the way

between Contraction (Fear) on the left and Expansion (Love) on the right

between, 

Hopelessness, Doubt, Denial, Disbelief, Resignation, Detachment 

and

between

Hope, Belief, Faith, Trust, Surrender, Non-Attachment.

Trust allows us to Surrender and be Non-Attached.

 

UNDERSTANDING

 

HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

 

There is trust; there is doubt. 

There is belief there is denial. 

There is virtue; there is domination.

 Doubting is acceptable as long as trust remains.

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for s/he shall never be disappointed.” Alexander Pope

 

Expecting nothing becomes a no-can-do attitude. One could rephrase this to … “Cursed is he who expects nothing and lives in a world devoid of hope.” The shadow side of Hope is hopelessness, denial, resignation and detachment . 

"Ever since I gave up hope I feel better." Anonymous

Hopelessness can allow for resignation and a certain degree of comfort ... as in there is nothing I can do about this so I may as well watch TV, eat junk food and drink beer - the couch-potato-syndrome.

The Serenity prayer has more wisdom.

 “O God and Heavenly Father, grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other..." Reinhold Niebuhr

When it comes to global issues there is often nothing we can do. That does not excuse us from embarking on the path of spiritual transformation.

"Render unto Cesar that which is Caesar's. Render unto God that which is God's." Jesus

“S/he who sees life as a process of spiritual perfection does not fear external events.” Tolstoy

 

DOUBT

 

Doubting can be useful. It is possible to doubt and trust at the same time. Trust and doubt are not usually mutually exclusive. The shadow side of doubt is disbelief. The Ancestors teach ... you will come from doubt to belief ... but this depends on our trust.

 

Doubt is a way of exploring wonder 

and anxiety and is a way of expressing caring. 

It is only in their excess and misdirection that they are futile and counter-productive. Better by far to use their service appropriately than banish them.

 

Hopelessness, denial, doubt, disbelief and resignation are about 

a giving up. 

Resignation leads to Detachment and Desperation.

 

Concerning detachment, one of its paths leads to a lifeless world without enthusiasm or hope. A place of indifference where one could become ensnared in hidden traps of dejection and despair, where one no longer cares to love nor dares to trust.

 

The mystery invites us to surrender and trust the inexplicable, 

to what we cannot really know 

and yet the not knowing fills us with wonder and awe.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF HOPELESSNESS, DOUBT, DENIAL, RESIGNATION, DETACHMENT

It is trust which sustains the vision and love that actualizes it.

It is Trust that propels us on the Hero/ine's journey in spite of our fears and doubts.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” Patanjali

Negative polarities can us lead down a slippery slope of limited   choices and defeatist action. They can prevent us from seeing what may be possible and what is achievable. Optimist are happier and more successful than pessimists. Pessimists are more often correct but because of their thinking may be creating their own reality. 

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford

 “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is to high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.” Michelangelo

HOPE

 

 Hope is about believing in the evidence and then watching the evidence change.

 

Hope requires action. Having deep knowledge alone is not enough to actualize it.

 

 Hope without expectation is an unlit candle and a single winged bird.

 

When the first white settlers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope they encountered the San Bushmen hunter-gatherers. These simple people shared everything and to them the bounties that nature provided belonged to everyone. They owned no land and their belongings were limited to the tools they needed for hunting and gathering and surviving – a digging stick, bow and arrows, tools to make fire, clothing made of animal skins and rudimentary grass huts which were impermanent because they were nomadic. They mostly slept together at night around a fire on the mother earth.

The livestock owned by the settlers seemed to be free game to them but when one of them hunted it he would be imprisoned. The jailers noted that young healthy Bushmen who could go without food and water for prolonged periods would be found dead in the cell even though they were provided food and water. The Bushmen lived so much in the present moment that they could 

not conceive of ever getting out of such a hell hole. Having lost all hope they would succumb.

Hopelessness can be fatal.

 

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The placebo effect has the power to help, to heal and to cure. It depends on the patient being given and having hope.

There is an interesting report written by a psychologist Bruno Klopfer in 1957 who was involved with the treatment of a Mr. Wright regarding a new drug called Krebiozen that had just been released for lymphoma. Treatment for lymphoma was seriously lacking at that time. Wright had been admitted to hospital, cachectic, bed ridden, on oxygen with hugely enlarged lymph nodes, fluid in his pleural cavities and a dismal prognosis. He had fulminating metastatic lymphoma. Wright was extremely well informed about his disease and had read all about the new drug's optimistic claims. He begged the doctors to find and give him this new drug. They complied and after it was administered his lymph nodes melted away, the fluid around his lungs disappeared and ten days later he was in complete remission. He was discharged from hospital,  ambulating, without oxygen. Wright was vey scientific and rigid in his beliefs and followed all the data available at that time. Information began to circulate that Krebiozen was not all that it was thought to be. He became depressed and was readmitted in his prior condition. His medical team had been amazed at the rapid response and being well aware of the power of placebo they decided on a new treatment plan which today would be unethical. They told him the drug was just as good as they had thought it to be but some of the shipment had deteriorated and that they now had an even more concentrated version. This time they gave him a placebo with the same excellent response. He was discharged again in complete remission. A short time later the A.M.A published a report that Krebiozen was ineffective. Wright died a short time after the report was released.

The combination of Hopelessness arising out of the 

nocebo effect (the power of belief to hurt, harm or even kill you) combined with guilt (someone was wronged)

supplemented with a hex from witchcraft's negative non-local effect can be a death sentence.

This story about an African employee (lets call him Jacob) in Johannesburg who goes to his employer (say Michael) and relates that he is going home to die. On further questioning Michael finds out that this is because of witchcraft. Michael had done something wrong. 

He takes Jacob to see a doctor who does a full work up; blood tests and imaging and tells them both that Jacob is perfectly healthy and has no reason to be concerned. Jacob goes home and shortly after Michael gets a call from Jacob's wife that Jacob had "passed."  Michael is distressed and tells her; "but we took him to the best Dr. and the blood tests and X rays could find nothing wrong." His wife replied; "Yes but the snake that the witch put in him was very clever and hid behind his bones where it could not be seen."

In the next blog we will talk about Trust, Surrender and Non-Attachment