POV Monday Promo is a ten-part series leading up to the publication of Prayers of a Virgin: 52 Weeks of Poetic Inspiration and Personal Planetary Guidance with the Destiny Cards. POV Monday Promo’s goal is to get the needed feedback and funds to edit, format and publish the printed book through Amazon Pre-Order Sales. The promo will also build a buzz around the book via “blooking” the first 3 Chapters before the e-book launches on  September 26th.

NEWS FLASH!! On Sept. 9th, I have an Special Offer and Announcement to make for anyone considering purchasing POV while it’s on Amazon Pre-Order.     In the meantime, here’s Part  3  of Ch. 2: The Reclaim Game. I  look forward to your feedback! Please post a comment below, on my Who I Communications FB Page or contact me directly if you don’t like to leave comments. Enjoy!

Part 3 of Chapter 2: The Reclaim Game

Reclaiming Your Virgin Mind- A Practice

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” – Shunryu Suzuki

In many ways, the virgin mind is similar to the beginner’s mind in Zen Buddhism. According to Shunryu Suzuki, author of the modern day classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice, the beginner’s mind refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would. The virgin mind also relates to the Fool’s card in the Tarot and the Joker in the deck of playing cards, which I’ll get into more deeply in the next chapter. But first, let’s talk about the virgin mind and how it relates to the beginner’s mind.

The Virgin Mind

So, for a recap or just in case you skipped the introduction where I explain this more fully, a virgin by a more traditional definition, isn’t a sexually inactive person, but rather, a person that is “owning onto themselves” or unclaimed by another person or thing. The goal then is to become virginal in your mindset, where no other person, ideology, or substance that doesn’t have your best interest in mind has “ownership” over you.

Now let’s be clear, being claimed by someone or thing isn’t a bad thing at the end of the day. In fact, I see it as our ultimate goal once we’ve done the work of knowing and loving ourselves. Just as you would claim virgin land and build a foundation that supports your current and future generations, being claimed by the right person or thing can bring meaning and joy to your life. However, if you’ve built your foundation on quicksand or near a toxic dump, then you have no foundation or future you can depend on.

“Give me the child for the first seven years and I’ll give you the man.” -Jesuit maxim

This bold statement needs to be written in bold letters, for it encapsulates (for better or worse) the power of the mind in the formative years of shaping our reality.

If you wake up one day with the sudden clarity that you’ve had no say in the shaping of your reality or you don’t like what you’ve been claimed by, then it’s up to YOU, to reclaim yourself back in order to be claimed by what you DO want. This is one of the hardest things to do and this is why I can’t stress enough that this is a purging and a practice.

Any person overcoming a drug addiction understands all too well what this purging process entails; however, there are so many other ways to be unfairly claimed or become addicted to people and things that don’t serve you. This can be toxic thoughts, unfruitful philosophies, fried food, senseless sex, co-dependent relationships, or non-productive nationalism.

In their work, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor put it this way.

“…nature is not stupid. In nature, a species changes itself when it perceives (or feels, that taboo word!) over a period of time a genetic need for change. Species change is not dependent on random arbitrary mutation, is not a function of sheer accident, or blind luck, but is a kind of group-willed phenomenon…”

No matter what is or has been, NOW is the time in mankind’s evolution to collectively reclaim a virginal mindset in order to ‘reset’ our minds to what we really desire. I’m not saying the venture will be easy or hard for that matter, but it will take a level of commitment, passion and compassion that I feel as a collective we must be ready for.

Mastering The Mind- The Tale of Two Choices

Going back to Dr. Marimba Ani’s work in reference to the asili, she states:

“It acts as a screen, incorporating or rejecting innovations, depending on their compatibility with its own essential nature. It is as though the asili were a principle of self-realization. It is a compelling force that will direct the culture as long as it remains intact: i.e., carried in the “cultural genes.” In order for the culture to change (and this includes the collective thought and behavior of those within it), the asili itself would have to be altered. But this would involve a process of destruction and the birth of a new entity. Cultural asili(s) are not made to be changed.”

My question is, although a cultural asili is not “made” to be changed does that mean it’s not “meant” to be changed over time? And if so, who does the changing? The only thing constant is change. This is where G.O.D. as the Generator, Operator and Destroyer working via It’s creation comes into play. And as I stated earlier, this aspect of G.O.D. is the one thing that gives our person with its limited perception, the most problems in life. We resist change and therefore we resist G.O.D.’s natural timing for change.

If a change can be seen in the current Afrikan cultural asili today moving from unity and regard for all life, to the level of tribalism, war, and mass genocide we’ve seen in modern times, is it also possible for a change to be seen in the European cultural asili where the motivating factors of individualism, xenophobia, greed and separatism are replaced with planetary oneness? And going even deeper, will it involve what Dr. Ani calls a process of destruction and the birth of a new entity which was witnessed historically  when the Afrikan-centered/Indigenous Peoples asili was usurped by the modern day European world-view?

“…unconnected consciousness is destruction’s keenest tool against the soul.” -Ayi Kwei Armah

Social psychologist Mari Fitzduff states in her groundbreaking work, “An Introduction to Neuroscience for the Peacebuilder,” that changes are possible but not always easy. Quoting directly from her work, I want to address the bad news first, the good news, and then end by sharing my answers to two of the ten questions she poses to all peacebuilders to ponder at the end of her paper.

The Bad News- Change comes slowly or not at all

“How much our genetics influence our attitudes and behavior is still a major research question. The suggestions range from 40{c4b71a291f3bf72506dad7630dec5dabc6a952a116f9e82805cefba7d60513e8} to 53{c4b71a291f3bf72506dad7630dec5dabc6a952a116f9e82805cefba7d60513e8}. While it is suggested that predispositions can be changed and altered, effecting such change has been likened to turning a supertanker – such change takes considerable effort and time.”

The Good News –Predisposition does not mean predetermination

“…While we are, both as individuals and groups, often predisposed to respond to conflicts in certain ways that are more sympathetic to our genetic and biological make‐up, as well as our social and environmental history, we are not trapped by such characteristics. Predisposition does not mean predetermination– there is no individual or group that cannot change its behavior towards another individual or group.”

Questions for the Peacebuilder

Question #7: How do we change our peacebuilding work so that our strategies can take account of the frailty of our inherited human nature that tends towards fear and exclusion of others- as well as our human capacities for cooperation, altruism and courage?

My Answer: Courage! It takes courage to share your greatest gifts and to stand up to the collective criticism of introducing new paradigms or analogies that allow people to see things from a different perspective. People like Shariff M. Abdullah and his paradigm shifting book Creating a World That Works for All  and John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex are beautiful examples of courageous trailblazers in shifting the current paradigms.

Question #10: How can we pitch/target our messages and campaigns to different audiences in full awareness of their differing neural dispositions? How do we frame messages about our work so that they appeal to the whole brain, and not just the rational part of it?

My Answer: Story! In the book Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence, Lisa Crons mentions that according to research, it’s the firing of our dopamine neurons that lures us into story, signaling that intriguing information is on the way. She states,

“Even more exciting, it turns out that a powerful story can have a hand in rewiring the reader’s brain- helping instill empathy….Writers can change the way people think simply by giving them a glimpse of life through their character’s eyes. They can transport readers to places they’ve never been, catapult them into situations they’ve only dreamed of, and reveal subtle universal truths that just might alter their entire perception of reality.”

Every effective screenwriter knows the power of story. Watching the protagonist of a good story overcome overwhelming obstacles has the power to take you out of your rational mind and plant you more into your whole brain, as well as your heart space.  My forthcoming book, It’s All G.O.Ø.D.: A Conscious Co-Creator’s Guide to Healing the Effects of White Supremacy (IAG), is part memoir and part paradigm shifting guidebook. IAG seeks to introduce you to a new paradigm, while sharing my story of facing the shadow and delving deep into the unknown to find the truth behind the veil of illusions.

The Tale of Two Choices

Everything is about choice. Essentially the purpose of this book is to inspire and assist you in understanding your life path and cycles to make better choices, which I’ll get into in the chapters that follow. But before I do, I can hear some of you saying, “Why do I have to choose at all? Why can’t I have, be and do it all?”

In this instance, I’m not talking about what you choose to “have” in your life, because you already have the potential to attain everything innately within you. I’m talking about what you choose to “commit to” that can bring you more happiness. This has to do with your level of dedication to the standards you set in the pursuit of happiness. There’s an expression that says you can’t serve two masters at the same time and I think it applies perfectly in this case.

Two Places

Essentially, you can only do any action and think any thought in life in one of two places, and that is- inside your heart space or outside your heart space. When you think and act from the heart, you are able to see beyond the veil of illusion and create more happiness in your life, in cycles and cycles. When you don’t, you enter into the jurisdiction of the mind, making daily deals with the devil of separation. You fall prey to your unknown subconscious desires and are easily manipulated by what Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, calls the collective pain body.

Two States and Two Types
There are two states of being and two types of beings on the planet. The two states of being are awake and asleep, and the two types of beings are initiated and uninitiated. All four categories are relative in certain areas and to certain degrees in everyone’s life. You can exist on all four categories, depending on the area of life we are talking about.

For example, when it came to the importance of leaving a financial legacy, I was totally asleep before my mother transitioned. However, while going through my mother’s belongings, I had a life changing revelation after having found five life insurance policies that my mother had let lapse (including the last one that she hadn’t mailed off when she first got sick with blood clots about a year earlier). Somehow, the realization that my mother died with NOTHING financially was what it took to finally awaken me to just how important leaving a financial legacy is. While my mother Daisy didn’t leave a strong financial foundation, she did leave a strong spiritual foundation that is serving as a catalyst for my initiation and commitment to leaving a financial legacy for the next generation.

You see, once you awaken to something, the next step is initiation and your personal “S/hero’s Journey” is the path to that awakening. It’s interesting, the symbiotic relationship between the person that’s asleep and the person who is uninitiated. It’s as if G.O.D. uses the cries of the uninitiated to awaken those who are asleep, just as it uses those who are asleep to initiate those who are uninitiated.

A perfect example of this in the United States is police brutality, especially toward Black males. While the Afrikan-American community has been historically wide awake to this brutality, it has been the sleeping denial or indifference of the White community that has lead to more of the initiating experiences of protest, community organizing, and public awareness campaigns to awaken all of America to it’s shadow side.

What’s Your Choice?

“We are all engaged in the task of peeling off the false selves, the programmed selves, the selves created by our families, our culture, our religions. It is an enormous task because the history of women has been as incompletely told as the history of blacks.” -Anais Nin

There are two choices. One leads to a world of separation that starts in the mind and the other brings forth unity, which also starts in the mind. Which choice will you choose? Will you choose to be in the heart, to become more awakened and initiated, to see life from an Afrikan-centered asili or worldview or will you choose the opposite? This is the tale of two choices and in every moment you are making choices. Will you make more choices based on the Divinity within you or will you continue making daily deals with the devil of separation?

“Everybody falls the first time” – Cyper: [to Neo] From movie, The Matrix

Now that you understand that “falling” is necessary in order for G.O.D. to experience Itself via It’s Creation, it’s time to sharpen your skills and play the Reclaim Game as an act of living your truth and beating the devil of separation who tries to trick us into believing that there is anything separate from G.O.D. The next chapter will cover five action steps you can take to reclaim your “virgin mindset” and become a better conscious co-creator of the life you desire.

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