Post by darkprism on Apr 28, 2011 7:49:00 GMT -6
Center of Gravity
After some time of working my way slowly through Girard Haven's excellent Fourth Way book 'Creating a Soul', I've encountered a chapter that has sparked some intense interest.
An excerpt from the beginning of the chapter;
"If the four lower centers are pictured as four radios playing simultaneously, center of gravity can be thought of as the one which is turned up the loudest. Unless a special effort is made to listen to the others, one will hear only that one, and act solely on the information it provides"
*Four lower centers being Instinctual, Moving, Emotional, Intellectual.
I've begun to observe where my center of gravity rests predominantly, and it is no easy task. This is an important and often overlooked aspect of the Work as it can lead one to discover why they prefer one thing over another, why they may act on emotion over intellect or prefer one thing of a physical nature and reject another of an emotional. In a Work sense, center of gravity will determine what a person values and hence what he pays attention to.
As Haven suggests, it's like listening to one radio loudly while ignoring or paying less attention to the noise of the other three.
As an example, a person with a dominant intellectual center of gravity might often prefer to engage in conversation with another of intellect, whereas someone instinctually centered might prefer to touch and care for the person. In this example, one values words and ideas and the other the experience of the senses. An instinctive person may also see words as literal and having specific meaning to the practical, physical aspect of life, otherwise it will be deemed useless and discarded as impractical. The one with a dominant moving center may glorify sport and body movements over artistic creation more rooted in the emotional or intellectual realms of ideas and expression.
We all have the four centers within us. They all arise within us at certain points, in particular situations and at different times, however, our own dominant center of gravity will determine where our general ideas, attitudes and preoccupations towards life, lie and how we generally view the world. They are all equally valid(or invalid) and loosely determine us as man 1, 2 or 3.
This chapter of the book encourages the reader to avidly listen to what noise the other 'radios' are transmitting and to attempt to respond from these other centers that do not come naturally to oneself so as to receive a more balanced, well rounded view of the world. There will be buffers and justification 'I's that come up to try and prevent us from listening to the other radios and this is the caution given in the book.
It is only natural(or unnatural) that this struggle to operate from unusual centers of gravity will usher in more conscious and deliberated thought and control, potentially causing greater Self-Awareness and steps in the direction of becoming a well rounded, mature man number 4.
Awake!
Dark Prism
After some time of working my way slowly through Girard Haven's excellent Fourth Way book 'Creating a Soul', I've encountered a chapter that has sparked some intense interest.
An excerpt from the beginning of the chapter;
"If the four lower centers are pictured as four radios playing simultaneously, center of gravity can be thought of as the one which is turned up the loudest. Unless a special effort is made to listen to the others, one will hear only that one, and act solely on the information it provides"
*Four lower centers being Instinctual, Moving, Emotional, Intellectual.
I've begun to observe where my center of gravity rests predominantly, and it is no easy task. This is an important and often overlooked aspect of the Work as it can lead one to discover why they prefer one thing over another, why they may act on emotion over intellect or prefer one thing of a physical nature and reject another of an emotional. In a Work sense, center of gravity will determine what a person values and hence what he pays attention to.
As Haven suggests, it's like listening to one radio loudly while ignoring or paying less attention to the noise of the other three.
As an example, a person with a dominant intellectual center of gravity might often prefer to engage in conversation with another of intellect, whereas someone instinctually centered might prefer to touch and care for the person. In this example, one values words and ideas and the other the experience of the senses. An instinctive person may also see words as literal and having specific meaning to the practical, physical aspect of life, otherwise it will be deemed useless and discarded as impractical. The one with a dominant moving center may glorify sport and body movements over artistic creation more rooted in the emotional or intellectual realms of ideas and expression.
We all have the four centers within us. They all arise within us at certain points, in particular situations and at different times, however, our own dominant center of gravity will determine where our general ideas, attitudes and preoccupations towards life, lie and how we generally view the world. They are all equally valid(or invalid) and loosely determine us as man 1, 2 or 3.
This chapter of the book encourages the reader to avidly listen to what noise the other 'radios' are transmitting and to attempt to respond from these other centers that do not come naturally to oneself so as to receive a more balanced, well rounded view of the world. There will be buffers and justification 'I's that come up to try and prevent us from listening to the other radios and this is the caution given in the book.
It is only natural(or unnatural) that this struggle to operate from unusual centers of gravity will usher in more conscious and deliberated thought and control, potentially causing greater Self-Awareness and steps in the direction of becoming a well rounded, mature man number 4.
Awake!
Dark Prism