The Heart of the Matter; Becoming All You Could Be.
(How to fill your own heart for yourself.)
“There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.” (Orison Swett Marden).
“How will you go about finding that thing, the nature of which is totally unknown to you?” (Plato)
The primary argument of this book is that we humans deeply want and need to “Become all that we could be”, as the Marden quote above, and that this is actually why we are here having a life on Earth. This is also how we find ‘that thing’ of Plato’s quote, also above.
So, this book addresses this business of finding those ‘powers within’ and Becoming, and how we can do that for ourselves. Hence this is a self-help book or manual, because it is a ‘how-to’, written for those looking for purpose, or meaning in life, and those ‘powers within’. It is a how-to because it includes a DIY psychological method for doing this. See below.
The first things that we need to establish are that:-
- Every one of us does have these ‘powers within’, (not just some of us) and they are indeed within us, in that we do have an inner part of ourselves, not just the part that everyone else can see. Our ‘powers’ are our own natural tendencies, gifts, skills, talents and interests, which are individual to each of us. The idea then is to work out for ourselves what these powers are, so we can realize what is in there, and how to access them, use them and work with them, in a manner that we love to do,
- And we need our hearts to find these ‘powers within’ that we love, and then we use our heart to navigate to where we want to go, and then we find that our rewards are at our heart.
Thus, to repeat, you need your heart if you want to Become, which has its rewards at your heart, as in, you use your heart to find your Path with Heart that leads to your Becoming. And so, we had better have a heart to work with. Your Path with Heart includes ‘tending’ to yourself, which is a paying attention to, and caring about and looking after your body. This is a kind of ‘gardening’ so that we can grow and Flower. I will be using the term Flowering as well as Becoming in this book, because I use a lot of gardening, tending, and plant metaphors throughout it, to make a point. Flowering and Becoming are very closely related. I will use Flowering to indicate our Creative output as we go on to our Becoming, which actually never ends. As we grow in our understanding of life and follow our Path with Heart, so we begin to flourish and blossom, which will fill our heart. And so we Flower on our way to our Becoming, and even fuller hearts. Not to mention, most flowers are very ‘becoming’, and we like them very much.
Hence it would be wise to have an Explanation of Why We are Here (WWH) having a life on Earth, that supported this human need of ours to Become, and that Explanation has to include why we have a heart in the first place, and where it has come from, because when we leave out heart, we leave out love, caring, kindness, courage, respect, etc., and their concomitant values of Truth, Justice, Liberty, Freedom, Choice, Equality, Democracy, etc. and who likes that? But unfortunately some do because they prefer money and power. But as we leave out heart, so we leave out the real rewards of life, which are a heartfelt Love and Delight, along with feeling ‘filled’ and ‘full’. That’s why we want to Become.
So, do we have this kind of WWH Explanation, or ‘world view’ of how life works and what it is for? The premise here is that the Explanations we currently have do not support our hearts and our loves, and leave us floundering, and I think we’re getting a bit stuck. I discuss our current WWH Explanations in the Prologue. I doubt that many people are happy about being stuck because I wasn’t. As far as I’m concerned getting stuck is not only painful, but boring to boot. So, this book is also about getting out of ‘stuck’ which is much nicer, so you might like to see and test for yourself if the information here works for you.
The Treasure Tool – a Method for Inspecting and Transforming your Issues.
The primary purpose for writing this book is that I have developed a psychological self-help method or tool that helps us to get to our Becoming and hence, our heart’s rewards. It’s a method that you can use for yourself, as in DIY, whenever something comes up that you wish to investigate or inspect, as in, have a good look at. So, what does the TT do and bring? When I talk about ‘things that come up’, I mean things that upset me, and this method brings me peace of mind – always. You can think of it as ‘hurdling problems’, ie, the hurdles or things that get in the way, or you can think of it as a Bug-Hunting tool for hunting the things that ‘bug’ you, but I call it the Treasure Tool (TT), because I treasure the insights that this method brings me. This method is derived through and from other methods, but it has a specific sequence of steps that are important to the process. The point being that this method can be learnt by you, and used for yourself for your own path-finding. Its strength lies in using these ‘bad’ things eg, upsets, bugs and hurdles, (which we all have plenty of, and they give us the shits or the irrits, so to speak), to help you define the things that you are really wanting at your heart. To repeat, you use what is already in your life now, to help you find your ‘thing’. To me, this method transforms ‘shit/manure’ into fertilizer for your soul, and helps you to understand life and what it is doing. (It’s a sort of ‘composting’ method that helps you to grow in understanding life, which gets you to ‘Flower’, which is ‘Becoming’ to you.) It also means that you can help yourself with those things that bug you, and you don’t need to find an expert in whatever to help you, not to mention having to pay for this help for however long it takes, and too bad if you can’t.
Hence, it can: –
- Help you find your Path with Heart and to stay on it as you Become.
- Bring Peace of Mind, as in, reduce the internal racket/noise, and learn to love ‘what is’.
- Help you collect up your ‘lost bits’, which leads to feeling more ‘collected’ and ‘whole’ in your day-to-day world.
- Use the ‘bad’ to get to the ‘good’, so there’s always plenty of material to work with.
- Transform Manure into Fertilizer.
- Hurdle problems or ‘De-Bug’ you.
- ‘Integrate the Shadow’ which is a Jungian concept, which is explained further on in the book. This increases integrity.
- Bring insights that you will treasure. Our insights are ‘the wealth of the soul’ (Oban).
- Clear fears, so it helps courage.
- Increase ‘consciousness’ or ‘awareness’ and ‘individuation’.
- Help you navigate life to your satisfaction, ie, help you get to where you want to go at your heart.
- Help you fill your own heart for yourself.
All of which are good things, if these are your aspirations.
But, and there’s always a but, the principles and concepts underlying how and why the TT works are counter to our commercial Media ‘wisdom’ and ‘world-view’, which is now all that we know. So we need to explore and inspect just exactly what these concepts of our ‘world view’ are and their effects on us, because normally we don’t query them at all for various reasons. They are ‘just there’, as ‘givens’, and that’s that. But this book does query them. It’s a thinking about our thinking. Are they really ‘givens’? See the Prologue. The point being that if you want to use the TT method for yourself, you need to understand these lesser known principles and concepts. Then it will make sense and be useful for you and your own purposes.
Hence, this book has been written to show how and why the TT works, so that you can use it for yourself to Become all that you could be. And as you do so, it will bring you your heart’s rewards, along with meaning and point in your life which will sustain you as you go on exploring what life has to offer, finding those insights that you will treasure.
If life is a maze of passages and dead ends, then this book is like a line that can get you to the centre, where your ‘powers within’ lie, and indeed back out again in one piece, if you wish. This book gives you an ‘overview’, or a ‘how it works’, like a map of any particular maze, so you can use this ‘map’ to avoid those dead ends and ‘stuckness’, enabling you to explore on.
So, who am I to write this book that looks at these questions?
In the classic manner, this book comes out of my own searching for what I thought of as love, happiness and what I was ‘supposed to be doing’, viz, purpose. I spent a lot of time ‘blundering around with no idea’, finding it all very painful, and ended up chronically ill as well; as in, the pain drove me to look. So, I searched and that was quite a bit of searching, on and on, poking my nose into whatever caught my interest or that I could afford, looking for what might help or not; reading tons of self-help books, doing courses, seeing therapists, on and on. This took a lot of time, along with plenty of wondering how on Earth any of it made any sense. Eventually I developed this method of internal enquiry that I call the Treasure Tool, which has been so useful to me, so that I wish to tell others about it, because it helps me so much and maybe it will help you.
There is no requirement to believe anything. It’s simply that there is information here that you may wish to consider, and it may help you. Hence, it’s your choice, and you must have choice, as must all. As we head into the joys of artificial intelligence, obviously any machine can write anything. So, how can you tell whether this writing is ‘real’ or useful or not? I think the only question that we can ask is, does this writing have any meaning or resonance for you? Is it important to you ie, does it matter? As we have a life without meaning, then nothing matters, and our words actually become meaningless. I also suspect it makes us mean, and it ‘withers’ us, as in, we are stymied and can’t grow in understanding Life, so there’s no Becoming.
I think of this book as a kind of ‘Missing Manual’ on the way that humans and Energy ‘work’ or ‘tick’, and how you can use this ‘how-to’ for your own interest and ultimate delight, which is indeed saying something in these oh, so happy times. [Anyone who has ploughed through a ‘Missing Manual’ to help themselves work out how to use a computer and its software, will find this book a lot more user-friendly, and dare I say it, rather more interesting.]
And maybe it’s useful to say what this book is not.
It’s not about: –
- Finding a way to be ‘better’ or more powerful, clever or richer, etc, than others, aka ‘judging/comparing’, as in, it’s not a competition.
- Being ‘Spiritual’, in terms of ‘all sweetness and light’, or ‘channelled’ as a source of ‘higher wisdom’ that we poor little humans don’t know, or tons of affirmations, and/or tons of meditating,
- ‘Religions’ in terms of which deity, or more rules to follow, eg, you ‘ought’ to do this or that, or ‘be good – or else’, etc.,
- Platitudinous or academic/intellectual philosophies of ‘it might be this, or it might be that’,
- Relentless positivity as a tactic for how to control it all with your mind.
While it is about being human, and growing more satisfied and comfortable with that, as well as able to develop a relationship with life, which is a ‘powerful’ enough thing to be.
This book is also an inspection of our societal concepts of what life is for, (our ‘world view’) to find out what is actually there, as in, what we actually have, as in, the truth of it. But what we are actually looking for is what is true for us personally, compared with what is a story, because if we want Love, Life and Grow, we need our personal truth, while stories, however ‘nice’ they may be, stymy us and we can’t Grow to anything. We are looking for what’s important and what matters and why, as well as what happens when we don’t know these things. If we want to Grow to Become in a world that doesn’t know how to, we have to do this ‘inspecting’ for ourselves, and hopefully this book will help, and there is plenty to inspect. Thus, as we continue to do this inspecting throughout the book, the sense of it all builds, and you get practice in seeing how the concepts and principles outlined here work/’behave’, and why and how they can be useful for you. Eventually we get to the Treasure Tool method in the Goal-Setting chapter, where you can learn how to use this tool/method for yourself, to set your own goals, and ‘hurdle’ your own problems, so that you can start navigating to where your heart wants to go, ie, your Path with Heart.
Hence this book is not only about finding your own heart’s rewards for yourself, it’s also about the principles behind or underneath this ‘Becoming’ process that others can also use for their own benefit. As we establish how this ‘Becoming’ process works, and why it works this particular way, so we find principles for building, structuring and organizing a society where everyone can find their own heart’s rewards, as they wish; the rewards that feed us the best and the most. So, this book is a way to make sense of this business of life for human beings, because, if it makes sense, then we can use it for our own purposes. We can use our own senses, as in, what we can sense and observe for ourselves, here and in the now, to get to where we want to go in the future, with the result being our Becoming for ourselves, with its concomitant rewards at the heart, which is our reward in life, and very nice too. I call the principles underlying this ‘Becoming process’ a Useful Understanding System (UUS) for us humans to make sense of life, and find our own real rewards.
What is the structure of the book?
It is meant to be read in sequence. The book is based on concepts and principles that need to be established as a foundation first, before being able to discuss how they work and how they are used. Also, a book such as this requires that words be carefully defined in a particular manner, and are then used that way throughout the book.
The Prologue.
Here I discuss our current concepts, beliefs and ideas about Why We are Here. This being our current ‘world view’. We have some problems with our current ‘Explanations’, with the main premise being that our current ‘Explanations’ ‘stymy’ us, and leave us unable to find our Becoming. In fact, we need a new ‘world view’ that could be useful to all, and sustaining and supportive for us humans in our endeavours to Become. This ‘Explanation’ has to include our hearts. We humans need point and meaning to life before we will actually start looking; otherwise, we won’t.
Part 1, Foundations.
In this part, I outline the foundations for this UUS; including how Energy works and what it does. This includes some Principles of Energy that in general we have not noticed. These principles include the Principle of the Opposites, and the Principle of the Mirror, which are spelt out along with some other principles that we are more aware of. We also need to understand how we are ‘built’ in terms of our psychology while we are alive, because this is the way that the Observer/Creator, ie, God, is ‘built’. This is important because our psychology interacts with Energy in ways that we are not aware of. I also discuss what I consider God to be doing, and thinking, as well as what our emotions are and how we label them. In particular I introduce concepts such as the fact that our psyche is more than just the conscious; and define Love as TISP to make it very clear what I’m talking about. This section is the basis for the discussions in the rest of the book.
Part 2, Wanting.
In this part I look at those things that we do individually to get the things we think we want, and I use what we do to comfort ourselves, along with various teachings and maxims we consider important, to get an idea of what we are really looking for. Why do we do what we do, and do they work, and if not, why not, and so on…? I also look at what all humans fear and wish that they could avoid, and then I look at what we humans are really wanting and why we want it. I use the principles laid out in Part 1 to connect into how to use these concepts for your own purposes.
Part 3, Counting.
In this part I look at those things that we think, believe and actually do at the societal level, especially at things that we think count in our lives and those that we don’t. What do we value? What is important, and why is it important? My argument is that we are discounting many of the things that are really important for life’s ability to continue. We will not be able to get to where we really want and need to go at the individual level, unless we change our societal concepts and hence, our social structures.
Part 4, Empowering.
In this part I look at how to use the concepts of this UUS, developed throughout the book, to empower ourselves, politically, socially, personally and individually, along with our bodies, all to the same end. It’s basically about how to love and serve ourselves and others, and what that involves. I also discuss individual differences using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) because I think that it’s important to understand these differences when it comes to setting goals for yourself. It’s part of ‘knowing yourself’. The last chapter is about goal-setting and the problems with doing that. This chapter includes the Treasure Tool which you can use to help you hurdle your difficulties, and it does help goal-setting as well, although it helps to set goals first.
Conclusion.
The primary reason for this book is that using the Treasure Tool can help you get to where you want to go in Love, and you need to understand how and why it works, so that you can use it properly for yourself. To repeat, this is because its principles are counter to our current implicit ‘Explanations’ of ‘Why we are Here’, with all the repercussions that come out of these insufficient ‘Explanations’, which we accept as ‘truth’, and they are simply not, but we need to understand why and how. High time for something a lot better, and more use for our Becoming. This book is as a manual and guide for us human beings to grow and Become, which involves tending to ourselves and life. It’s a ‘how to tend and care for your whole self”; what to look for; what works and what doesn’t and why; what are the needs; what are the problems and their signs and symptoms, so you can spot them; and how to fix them, not to mention prevent them in the first place, and so on.
There are indeed very satisfying rewards in Life on Earth. And there are also things to be very careful about, and it’s very handy to know which is which. And once again, why.
You are not here by accident, machine or punishment or trapped, by God or whom or whatever. You are not meant to be used or exploited for others’ gain. You are meant to find and develop your own abilities, gifts, interests, skills and talents, and learn to treasure them for yourself. You have the right to be here, alive, now. So, look for what’s important to you, and what you love at your heart, and bring life to that/those that you love. Your Becoming is what brings life to you, and it is what Life wants from you.
Your ‘Path with Heart’ is your ‘right living’ for you. Find what you love, and work out how to give that more love, in a manner that you love to do, to help it grow and develop, which will delight you, and grow and develop you. This never ends. You will Grow as you find your Path with Heart and are able to stay on that, and go on to Become. As you Become all you could be, so you get to your heart’s rewards. And along with this finding your Path with Heart, your health is likely to improve; another bonus.
The message of this book is that there is meaning and point in having a life on Earth for all of us, and the rewards are here on Earth. To repeat, again, we are here to learn how to Grow and Become, which gets us those rewards at the heart. This is an entirely win-win setup, but it does require a bit of effort on your part, as in, good old ‘Till and Keep’, and thinking about all this, which takes time.
So, all that’s left then is to work out for yourself,
- What your heart loves and wants, ie, your purpose, or Path with Heart,
- How to set up your life and lifestyle for finding and continuing that, and,
- How we ourselves can Do that Giving of Love/Life which leads to Becoming, while also giving Life and growing us, and especially,
- How we can love doing that.
Simples.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
This book is the result of my own search for real rewards in life, and what they actually were for me, and how to make sure I could get more as I wanted to, using my own energy correctly, as in, in line with how Energy works. As I have said above, I spent a lot of my life looking under a lot of ‘rocks’, but these rocks were all the different teachings (‘good’ and ‘bad’) of so many people who took the time and effort to express their own findings about life. Hence this book is highly dependent on their efforts. It is inevitable that I have forgotten some of these sources, so, my apologies, and please let me know. And, of course, all mistakes are mine, and please let me know.
This book was largely written before Covid, which I consider to have upped the ante in making us more fearful, and where is our Becoming now? Can it be possible in a future designed by ‘powers that be’ that want most of us to be ‘peons and serfs’ if not machines, in these increasingly ‘Feudal’ times? We are going to be terribly unhappy (and dare I say, bored) if we can’t get to our own Becoming, and this is a primary reason for writing this book.
My hope is that there will be people who can read this book, and apply the Treasure Tool for their own use, especially women. We might have a better society because of it, and I think we certainly need one, and the sooner the better, for us and our children, not to mention Nature and Life.
And Jung should have the (2nd) last word because so much of this book is using his concepts (which I have accessed mostly through the writings of Marie Louise von Franz).
“Everything good is costly, and the development of personality [which I refer to as Becoming] is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yes to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one’s eyes in all its dubious aspects – truly a task that taxes us to the utmost.” Jung. CW 13 par. 24.
In sum.
The ‘message’ of this book then, is…
You are meant to find your own Path with Heart which leads to your Becoming, with its heart’s rewards, and do your own ‘tending’ of yourself for yourself to achieve that, and here’s a ‘how to’, ie, a ‘Becoming’ manual. You don’t need a group or a guru, or someone else’s beliefs or ‘shoulds’ or authority for this tending of yourself. Yes, there are challenges, and you can enjoy it, and there’s always more.
Let de-light show you the way.