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Pleasure and Authority
November 12, 2008
There is another reason why we hesitate to try new pleasures. In addition to our egos' resistance (which we mentioned in a previous article), we also have a habit of doubting -- questioning -- authority.
Questioning authority goes hand in hand with democracy. However, it also robs us of the pleasure of allowing someone to guide us through new experiences. So, although we need never scrape off that faded old bumper sticker that reads Question Authority, there is a reason why authority rules.
The responsibility that goes along with authority tends to inhibit the spontaneity of leadership. Most authorities tend to lead us into the safe zones, and so nothing changes. If a leader can only create the space for ritualing this problem is easily overcome. Guiding us into the unknown, the spontaneity of leadership is combined with the control of authority. The key, then, is controlled spontaneity.
We know this is true. As parents, at a certain point the best advice we can give our kids is none at all -- we need to let them develop some autonomy. So, we create the space for them to take flight and we hope for the best. All our past control, hopefully gives them enough common sense to be spontaneous without killing themselves.
In our own lives, too, we are often just as frustrated as our children. Why can't we create the space for more of our own controlled spontaneity? We have an innate need to grow and change, and to express ourselves, but we seem to have lost the knack for it.
Our frustration comes from an uncanny ability see how the world around us might be improved. After all, our symbol systems have evolved through the millennia to be only the fittest, not the best.
Our symbol systems -- our traditions -- tend to grow very confusing and complex. They become misleading towers of Babel, confusing veils of Maya. Ultimately, our symbols and symbol systems really carry the promise of transcendence, of a return to some sublime, natural but divine state.
We are always searching for new ways to improve our traditions, and, like Dorothy, we have always had the power within us. Close your eyes, tap your heels together three times, and repeat "there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."
That home happens to be in our rituals. The life force of all our traditions is in the ritualing. Authorities and leaders create the space for ritualing, where symbols, both old and new can bubble up into prominence amid the controlled spontaneity of moment. This is the qualiadelic experience, and it transforms our consciousness, our Selves and our communities, and our traditions.
Our frustrations, like that of our children, dissipate when traditions release their outward hold on us, and trust that we have absorbed what their common sense, or their wisdom. How pleasing, to spread our wings, again.
All pleasure is potentially transformative. The pleasure, however, is not the goal; it is a by-product of our conscious ritualing.
While authorities may be able to help us along the way they cannot actually take us to the goal; in life we have to do that for ourselves. It is like a road map, which is the authority for traveling on the highway. The map certainly gives us valuable information, but the road itself is reality. If we pay too much attention to the map and not the road, we could go flying off into a ditch. So, ultimately, we must live the qualiadelic experience on our own.
Albert Einstein had no one of authority to turn to in the midst of his explorations on relativity. Bill Gates is another. Artists are notorious for going it alone into the unknown. Whenever our actions move us beyond the known and onward into the spheres of the ideal, we will find ourselves left to our own devices with no one to guide us.
Even two lovers have no one to turn to -- after all, who is an authority on love? We can not learn about love, nor beauty, nor truth, or any ideals, from books. We must live them for ourselves to understand their true meanings.
Be Qualiadelic. Be Conscious. Change the routine.
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