The Little Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This Universe Copyleft © 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D. Subscription Information: Maria Loren mloren@newciv.org Website: http://transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/ The Middle Path of Positive And Negative Processing If a truck hits a roadblock on a highway, let's say a bunch of trees that fell onto the street after an El Ni~njo hit and run, the driver has a couple of options: he could decide: * that the entire street was a dead-end and it's better to back out, * that the point where he finds the barrier would be the place where he really wanted to be to begin with (don't laugh, this happens frequently !!), * that he could break through the roadblock if he would just drive on with enough steam, * that he better stops and clears the road. Now, the last two options correlate with Positive and Negative Processing. 'Positive Processing' restores the power of a person and can make it break through any real or imagined barriers. However, there is a considerable danger luring in the dark ahead: even though the person may 'break through to the other side', the barrier could cause so much damage that the person could get into serious trouble afterwards. A reason for this can be seen in the 'logics' of a person that has not cleaned up its act according to its level of power: it will attempt to stop itself if it becomes so powerful that it could cause harm beyond its own ability to confront the results. Another way to see this phenomenon is to consider that a 'positive power' may be embedded in a so-called GPM configuration, which binds it to a 'negative' power. In other words, the stronger the 'positive' power becomes, the stronger the 'negative' side will be, too, unless the mutual holding of the two powers itself will be resolved first. The strengthened negative side of the GPM can not only undo the positive processing gains, it has the potential to utterly destroy a person's current life. It could be speculated that this built-in and extremely powerful 'auto-stop' has prevented the more wide-spread use of 'Positive Processing'. In any case, the vast majority of processes currently around are 'Negative Processes'. While they make to seem a lot of sense, especially to 'paying customers', they, too, have some drawbacks: * even if a barrier has been successfully removed, the truck has already stopped and will remain at that position (unless fired up with a _positive_ process, of course), * concentrating on the barriers increases their importance and their power in general * the person can become hypnotized by its problems rather than becoming able to look ahead towards solutions. Persons processed exclusively with 'negative processing' will develop the following, easily observable properties: * they do _not_ gain in power, neither spiritually nor in 'common' life (e.g. financially or in their relationships) * they notice that 'charge' can be removed but do _not_ experience an increase in their individual sense of responsibility, thus 'making it OK to commit overts' (using the lingo of the group to which this mainly applies) * their 'charge' will re-manifest itself more solidly after some time because the source of the problem has never been handled. Now, an obvious solution to the dilemma would be to use _alternatively_ positive and negative processes in an appropriate way. But what determines what would be 'appropriate' in this context? The 'Golden Rule' of Gotamo was the proposition of the 'Middle Path', avoiding the extremes of either side, culminating in his so-called 'Eightfold Path'. His starting point was the ability of a person to 'feel' or 'sense' what is _right_ for the person, irregardless of what anyone else in the Universe would say or think about it. This could be called the 'ultimate ethics of an individuum', the 'individual code of honor', or the 'individual standard of integrity'. In any case, a person has to learn to _feel_ its own rightness as it appears unique to the individuum and thus cannot be generally codified in patterns of 'moral behavior' except in gross and obvious violations such as 'theft' or 'murder'. While a person is restoring this feeling of individual rightness, the barriers will manifest instantaneously. This means that this process could be taken as a guideline as to what to process next and especially as a criterium whether to proceed with a 'positive' or a 'negative' process. In other words, this approach constitutes a 'dynamic bridge' that is custom-tailored to each person by each person. It establishes what Gotamo called the 'Middle Path': which means 'staying on track' and not crashing by going too fast or getting stopped dead by barriers, real or imagined. His classification of 'eightfold' comprised viewpoints, planning, communication, action, exchange (like in earning a living), effort, consideration, and focus. Each of these divisions can be checked for 'individual integrity' and the check itself will both rekindle original (positive) purposes as well as any self-imposed barriers. This is a gradual process and not a one-shot. But once the 'total integrity' of a Being has been restored, it is not fractioned anymore: it has overcome 'dukkha', the un-wholesomeness of being in pieces rather than 'whole'. This wholesomeness is characterized by the absence of compulsive processes and was called 'nirvaana' by Gotamo. Ironically, this absence of compulsive processes (or GPMs to use another lingo) appears as an intolerable condition to someone who is being consumed by exactly those compulsive processes. It is thus pointless to point out that only the absence of compulsive game playing is fully restoring a Being's ability to play _and_ enjoy games, irregardless of whether a Being eventually prefers to play or not to play. The only way to find out for oneself is to drive down this road completely and to fully confront the game of Life, Universe, and Everything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyleft © 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.