A Christmas Tale...

If I knew who originated the following tale, I'd certainly give them credit!  It's a bit like "Christmas Meets 'Thick Face, Black Heart'".  Enjoy, and send it around to every teacher you know ;-)
------------------------------------------------

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary.


Every word out of the bird's' mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to 'clean up' the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.


Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."

John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude.

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

Merry Christmas.......
---------------------------------------------

The moral of the story?  Some people just don't understand anything but force.  Sad but true.  Gandhi could use non-violence on the British.  Good thing he didn't have to try it out on the Nazis or the Soviets ;-)

And you can't avoid the simple fact that every once in a while, you'll find yourself in an absurd situation where you have to make an example out of someone, like the turkey in the story.  You can think about that one over Christmas dinner ;-)

Blessings to all,

Dr. Symeon Rodger

You Can Only Love People if You Have a "Black Heart"

Welcome to the fourth and final installment on "thick face" and "black heart". If you've stumbled on this post and don't have a clue what I'm talking about, be sure to read the previous three posts FIRST.


What an abhorrent concept! What can possibly be good about having a "Black Heart" (BH)? Doesn't that describe a psychopath like Hitler, Stalin or Chairman Mao?


Nope. Not the way we're using the term here. Yes, they did use the same power of BH that you're going to. However, you're going to use it for transformative purposes, not destructive ones.


There are three aspects to BH. They all have one thing in common - they involve distinguishing between real compassion and false compassion. Let's have a look at them:


1. HELP THOSE WHO SEEK TO DO GOOD:


Have you ever seen a parent whose child developed serious behavioral problems all because that parent was too spineless to say "no!" when it was necessary? Did the child then start to push the limits, disrespect the parents and shamelessly manipulate them? And did the parents let the kid get away with it?


If you're nodding your head right now, you and I probably know some of the same parents! And the parents' excuse for this is always couched in terms of "compassion", of not wanting to scar their child for life by denying him a candy bar, or not wanting to "impose their views" on their child, of wanting to let him "find his own way".


This compassion is a mental fiction. It causes great harm to the child and to anyone that child will deal with over his or her lifetime. It has devastating consequences, perhaps for generations.


As a parent, it's your job to train your child to be a polite, respectful and self-actualized person. And that means saying "no" sometimes. It also means challenging your kids, allowing them to make mistakes and get hurt, not shielding them from the nitty-gritty of daily life in the "real world". A false compassion would shield them. Real compassion requires a "black heart". A BH means "tough love", it means knowing when it's more important to slap a hand than hold it.


In ancient Sparta, as in some native American societies, the tougher parts of the education were undertaken out of reach of the parents and especially the mothers, who wouldn't have wanted to watch their offspring be put through hardship, even if that hardship was extremely beneficial in the long run.


It's said that the 20th century Orthodox Christian holy man, Joseph the Hesychast, didn't have a kind word for his disciples. In reality, his disciples knew he love them deeply, but the feigned harshness of the old man was a vital element to help them discover the inner resources they would need to overcome their spiritual challenges later on.


Likewise, the great Taoist master, Wang Liping, always says he is deeply thankful for the unsparing, ruthless severity of his masters, because that's what allowed him to achieve his extraordinary life.


Joseph the Hesychast and Wang Liping's old masters are perfect examples of BH. They know what needs to be done and they do it, regardless of the immediate discomfort of their disciples or of those who were "offended" by their way of life.


In essence, they were putting the power of BH at the service of those who were seeking to do the right thing. Another scenario along the same lines is defending people who are unjustly attacked for doing the right thing. In the recent series of crises in my own Church, those of us who spoke up did so partly to protect others who had already stuck their necks out.


2. STOP THOSE WHO SEEK TO DO EVIL:


Black Heart also refuses the false compassion that would allow people doing evil to continue to harm others and wreak havoc.


There are many wonderful features of life up here in Canada. The criminal justice system is NOT one of them. Enslaved for decades to absurd ideas that the criminal is the "victim" of society, our system has a nasty habit of letting violent criminals go free. The penalties for real wrong-doing are a bit of a joke.


In her book, "Thick Face, Black Heart," Chin-Ning Chu illustrates this with the true story of two ancient Chinese warlords. One was the emperor of the time and the other a peasant and rebel leader trying to overthrow him. The emperor captured the rebel leader at one point, but refused to deal with him harshly, considering him a worthy opponent of sorts. This allowed the rebel leader to escape, muster his army again, and overthrow the emperor.


Chu points out that this act of "mercy" simply prolonged the civil war and the slaughter of innocents. So the emperor's "mercy" was self-indulgent and counter-productive. Likewise, nearly every great tyrant of the 20th century was in jail at some point, and some damn fool decided to release him. Hitler even wrote "Mein Kampf" in prison, explaining in detail his insane plans, and they still let him go.

One of my favorite examples comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Captain Picard has a golden opportunity to destroy the Borg (the single most dangerous and sinister threat to civilization any sci-fi author could ever invent).  Yet, he hesitates and finally doesn't do it, rationalizing his stupidity by comparing the act to "genocide".  Excuse me.  Time out!  What about the hundreds of billions of people whose lives will be destroyed in the near future when the Borg overrun their planets, and all because of your bogus compassion, Captain Picard?  I guess your "compassion" didn't extend to them.


If you look carefully, you'll see bogus compassion is all around you. In our Church, we were too soft-hearted to sack ALL the bishops who tried to cover up the financial scandal. Instead we only sacked the top guy. That has already come back to bite us. Real compassion involves cutting off evil - suddenly and definitely. That's the essence of BH. BH accords well with the old saying, "All that's needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."


3. HONE YOUR KILLER INSTINCT:


The "killer instinct" is muted in our society. It's sublimated into other outlets like watching professional sports and playing video games. People who like to talk about inner peace may be horrified by the mere mention of killer instinct, considering it something to be programmed out of human beings.


Great spiritual traditions thought otherwise. They knew that the same power that you could use egotistically to kill someone who merely disagrees with you is the very power that you need to harness to overcome your inner obstacles. There is a war to be waged for inner peace.


Obviously, that same killer instinct is instrumental in "thick face" - it's the inner power that allows you to develop a powerful self-image, stick to your guns and resist the criticism and opinions of others.


It's also the power that allows you to become DEFINITE about your lifestyle, about who you are and what you stand for. It's the very power that brings clarity.


If you're a man, a male human being, you are a hunter and a killer by nature. Yes, society's gone to great lengths to program that out of you, to tell you you shouldn't have those feelings or act that way or think that way. Ancient Traditions took a different approach - they taught you how to harness and redirect that power, not repress it. Repressing it leads to neurosis and boredom.


And women need this too. It simply expresses itself differently. But find a mother protecting her child from physical danger and you'll see true killer instinct.


CONCLUSION:


"Thick Face" and "Black Heart" express the reality of your mind-body organism. In your natural state, you're impervious to the opinions and agendas of others, you're definite with your life and clear on your purpose, you are "brutal" in defense of the good and "ruthless" in crushing evil. These are divine traits within the human being.


Yes, they can be perverted, as they have been by tyrants, corporate executives and jihadists throughout history, as well as by fascists and religious fascists of all kinds. That, however, is irrelevant. You already possess the energies of Thick Face and Black Heart within you. They will come out somehow. It's up to you to channel them in ways that transform your life and the lives of those around you.


And when you do that, you'll be a true WARRIOR.


To learn more about the Way of the Warrior as the ultimate life paradigm (and the one with the most historical evidence to support it), go to:


http://bit.ly/WarriorBlackBelt


~Dr. Symeon Rodger


P.S. I hope you've enjoyed this series on the concepts of "Thick Face" and "Black Heart". Feel free to leave your comments below!

How "Thick Face, Black Heart" Gives You Clarity and Conviction

Welcome to our next installment on the warrior philosophy of "Thick Face, Black Heart" (TFBH) and what it can do for YOU. If you've just stumbled on this post, please go back to the two previous posts and READ THEM FIRST. Otherwise, you'll get lost in a matter of seconds ;-)

Practicing TFBH clarifies everything in your life. TFBH means living in the world of the DEFINITE. Once you become very definite about your lifestyle - about your diet, your exercise, your responsibilities towards others at home, at work and in general, something miraculous happens...

GREAT CLARITY ENSUES:

One of the defining characteristics of the mentality of most people in our culture is its lack of definiteness and direction. We're a deeply conflicted people who create deeply conflicted lives.

Once you DECIDE to adopt a definite manner of life - meaning you stick to your lifestyle even when others attack you or, more importantly, when you yourself "feel like" caving in - then the next step is this:

Decide who you really are and what you stand for. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are my highest values as a person?

2. What moral standards do I refuse to compromise on?

3. When have I been asked to go along passively with something unjust or to live with a lie? Have I become "politically correct" (in other words, a pathological liar)?

4. When have I actually gone along with a lie?

5. If I could contribute just ONE good thing to the world in my lifetime, what would it be? And what am I willing to do about it?

6. What infuriates me? What will I absolutely not tolerate?

Yes, contrary to what you might think, righteous anger is not an evil. The ancient Christian tradition considers it a protective force implanted within you by your Creator. If you see evil and injustice done to others and that doesn't infuriate you, then you've got a real problem. Not that you should lose control of yourself; simply that you should feel impelled to take action.

As many of you know, my jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church has suffered a debilitating financial scandal and a generalized leadership crisis over the past couple of years. At one point the lies became too much for me and I spoke out. And I took the criticism that comes from the spineless and unprincipled who fear nothing quite so much as rocking the boat. That's an example of "thick face". However, many who did speak out and continue to do so have suffered for it much more than I did, and they deserve great respect for doing so.

Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. are perfect examples of people who felt compelled to speak out. They saw injustice and got REALLY ANGRY about it. However, they were able to channel the force of their righteous anger into great moral principles and to achieve victories once thought completely impossible.

REFUSING OTHER PEOPLE'S DEFINITIONS FOR YOUR LIFE

My family has a dear friend who's over 90 years old right now. He was a best friend to my father for over half a century. Lately he's become a bit obsessed with telling my children how off-track they are with respect to their educations and career choices. They need to become doctors, lawyers or dentists, he says, because those are the people who make the real money.

Well, that kind of career advice is understandable from a post-war immigrant, but it really lost its validity after the sixties.

Likewise, you'll find all kinds of well-meaning people trying to define your life for you. Some of them may be success "gurus" telling you success is measured in dollars. Some may be family members who think you should go to university because the previous three generations of your family did.

One thing you can be sure of: if you are definite about your lifestyle - adopting a "thick face" in that department - and if you're increasingly definite about who you are and what you stand for, you'll become more and more CLEAR about what you want to contribute. And when that's the case, you WILL find all kinds of people putting obstacles in your way.

The great thing about practicing TFBH is that once you become very clear and definite about the little things in life, you'll get CRYSTAL CLARITY surprisingly fast on the larger issues, including what some would call your "major definite purpose" in life.

Try it. Don't believe me; see for yourself! "Thick Face" and "Black Heart" are the essence of the world's ancient spiritual traditions and of the Warrior's way of life worldwide. And the best course on the Warrior's Way of Life I know is this:

http://bit.ly/WarriorBlackBelt

Next time, I'll finally explain to you what "Black Heart" means - it doesn't mean what you're probably thinking it means... ;-)

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Getting a "Thick Face" - Regaining Your Personal Autonomy

As promised, here's the first installment of how you can understand and cultivate the profound philosophy of "Thick Face, Black Heart" in your own life. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you MUST read the previous post FIRST.

THICK FACE

You probably know that Asians tend to be VERY concerned with matters of face (as in the expression, "saving face"). In other words, reputation means everything to them and what others think really matters. To us in our individualistic culture, this seems a trifle overdone at times and it has a couple of major disadvantages - it means you cede control over your behavior to other people's ideas and standards and it also makes you reactive and highly predictable.

Not surprisingly, "Thick Face" (hereafter "TF") is quite the opposite. It's more like our concept of "Thick Skin". It means you stop caring what other people think or say about you. You stop trying to live by other people's standards and start living by the principles you really believe in.

Yes, at its worst, this could mean you're a sociopath who thinks he's the center of the universe and the fount of all wisdom. Hitler, Stalin and Chairman Mao all had very thick faces. However, consider the following...

Back in the early 1920s, a very enthusiastic young spiritual seeker arrived on Mount Athos, the most important center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. Despite immense pressure to "settle down" and join one of the large monasteries, to become "one of the crowd", he steadfastly refused. He knew exactly what kind of spiritual life model he wanted to follow and endured lots of abuse for it. And later on, when he was living the life he so ardently sought, he was verbally abused by other monks who condemned him as eccentric and unfriendly, all because he insisted on following a schedule and carefully managing his time and the time of those who had joined him (and that meant, "if you show up when we're praying, we won't stop to talk to you! Hence the reasons others felt slighted by him).

This young monk's name was Joseph... later known as Joseph the Hesychast, one of the great spiritual masters of the 20th century. Joseph's refusal to cave in to the pressures to conform or to surrender the integrity of his lifestyle to criticisms of others are the epitome of THICK FACE.

Politicians tend to have very thick faces. They have to. Of course, not a few of them are self-centered sociopaths who don't care who gets hurt. On the other hand, consider Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King - they were all the object of violent criticism and they all survived and succeeded by having a TF.

TRUST YOUR OWN JUDGMENT

By now it may have dawned on you that you can't have a TF without trusting your own judgment. That may sound arrogant, but it isn't always. So let's clear up a common misunderstanding - being humble does NOT mean you cave in to other people's opinions. After all, Joseph the Hesychast's whole life was about cultivating humility, and he never caved in. Humble people do not surrender their principles for any reason. Opportunists do... at the drop of a hat.

Think back through your life. Can you think of times where someone in authority was pressuring you to do something or agree with something you thought was inadvisable or wrong? Looking back on the incident, were you right? Should you have trusted your gut?

When have you been right all along? On the other hand, you need to admit the truth when your judgment has been wrong.

I've been viciously criticized and even plotted against because some people found the "controversial" things I wrote in "The 5 Pillars of Life" totally unacceptable. They would happily have banned the book and had me tossed out of the priesthood of the Orthodox Church.

However, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's to trust my gut on matters of spiritual life and personal development. I'm so convinced I'm right about certain things to do with the history and development of Christianity, for instance, that all the opposition in the universe won't even make a dent. Now, if someone comes to me with "new evidence" and can prove that I might be on the wrong track, I'll happily listen. This isn't an egotistical thing - it's about what's true and what's not.

And you can probably find a parallel in your own life.

The essence of TF is regaining your personal autonomy, no longer having your life controlled by the opinions of others, by what they think of you or say about you, by the standards of the prevailing culture - standards that always claim absolute truth is on their side, even though they differ from one culture to another and shift over time.

It is NOT POSSIBLE to do anything significant in life if you don't have a TF, simply because anything worth doing WILL bring criticism. People WILL try to drag you down to their level. They WILL be jealous of your accomplishments and rain on your parade. Get used to it now and determine from this moment on to adopt a TF.

Fortunately, everyday life gives you lots of opportunities to practice. Think about it and make a list of what you'll do this week to practice!

THICK FACE AS A WARRIOR PHILOSOPHY:

Chin-Ning Chu was quite right to call TFBH a "warrior philosophy" in her subtitle. In fact, I'm convinced that the warrior traditions of the world's "Authentic Ancient Traditions" (as I called them in "The 5 Pillars of Life") already contain the essence of TFBH, simply because TFBH describes your natural state once you're rid of all the cultural conditioning that's holding you back.

To learn about the most comprehensive Warrior training program I know, go here:

http://bit.ly/WarriorBlackBelt

In the next post, we'll go on to discuss how TFBH can give you COMPLETE CLARITY about what you want to do, and very quickly!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Why YOU Need a "Thick Face" and a "Black Heart"

Hi all,

This week I have something REALLY special for you. So, for your own sake, you'll want to read all this VERY carefully and meditate on it.

You've no doubt read tons of stuff about self-help and personal development or you wouldn't be reading this. So you've seen and heard lots of experts trying to answer questions like:

- Why do some people succeed and others fail to reach their goals?
- Why do some have total clarity about what they want, while most people don't?
- Why do a very few find deep inner peace, while most remain tormented and conflicted?
- Why do 5% of the population make a difference while 95% don't?

One of the most profound answers to questions like these came in a book first published 99 years ago. The book, called "Thick Black Theory" was IMMEDIATELY BANNED by the government as far too dangerous for the population to read. Seriously!

That alone probably means it's worth reading!

The catch is that reading the original might not help you much. First of all, the book was written in China, and is full of allusions to Chinese culture and literature that would make it next to incomprehensible, even in translation. After all, an expression like "how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?" means nothing unless you're familiar with "Alice in Wonderland".

The author of "Thick Black Theory" was Lee Zhong Wu, a sociologist of sorts who was dispassionately cataloguing the behaviors of the successful. Fortunately, a Chinese-American business woman named Chin-Ning Chu turned Lee's somewhat obscure content into a superb book in the early 90's, under the title, "Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life".

The catch is that a "Thick Face" and a "Black Heart" (hereafter TFBH) can serve the saint and the sinner equally well. The theory really describes powers or energies of the human spirit that could be used for great good or great evil. And that tends to put off the "bliss-out" New Age types who can't get past that fact long enough to understand the incredibly profound content.

Over the next few days, here's what I'm going to do for you:

1. Unpack the concepts of "thick face" and "black heart"
2. Show you how they apply to YOUR life
3. Demonstrate how they accord totally with the teachings of the world's "Authentic Ancient Traditions" of spiritual life and self-refinement, forming the core of Warriorship, and...
4. Give you the basic principles of how to begin cultivating TFBH for yourself

CAUTION: The principles you're about to see in the following posts should not be shared with unscrupulous people. Moreover, some of them may shock you a little. If that happens, just take a deep breath and say, "I guess I haven't understood this just yet."

TF and BH are concepts indispensable for success in any endeavour. Without mastering and applying them, either consciously or unknowingly, you're always going to wonder what's missing and why you can't seem to make progress.

Moreover, when you look at where you've had successes in your life already, you'll start to notice traces of these practices.

Are you ready for the ride? Okay, we'll see you next time!

And if you know any other people of good character who need this knowledge, bring them along too.

Oh yes... don't forget to leave your comments below!

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger