Self-image
I was asked what keeps me going, moving forward, especially in crazy times.
There are so many answers to that question. I’d like to select from among them and mention something I discussed once before: The notion of pushing my edge.
It was a 1970s growth movement notion that deserves to be remembered. What kept us moving forward then in an encounter group or a less-confronting awareness workshop was the idea that awareness had a leading edge and we had to push that edge forward by such things as being transparent or calling ourselves on our own numbers or reporting a noticeing or realization, etc.
Little more like it….
We took the initiative and saw that as freeing our awareness. We operated on the presumption that the truth would set us free and valued truth-telling next to loving.
Awareness that’s freed up expands. (1) I know for a fact that every one of us in the three-month encounter group I attended in 1975-76 experienced greatly-expanded awareness as a result of the process. All was love at the end. No speaking was necessary. (2)
Implicit in the idea of pushing my edge is that it was up to me to operate my own process of awakening. I have to initiate, overcome inertia and comfort zones, and take the risk.
When you have a whole group doing the same, magic occurs.
So the way I keep going is that I take a look inside and see what’s happening and then, with regards to it, push my edge – in sharing about it, sharing about me, etc.
Footnotes
(1) According to Beckow’s Theorem #1: An increase in bodily tension results in a decrease in awareness; a decrease in bodily tension results in an increase in awareness. Therefore, as fear-based tension subsides, awareness should increase.
(2) See “Last Lunch at Cold Mountain,”