Are you infinite? Think like a cyclist (part 2)

maybe read part 1 first – read here

Introducing the wheel of self reflection
How did we go from infinity and oneness to separation and opposition? Perhaps Duality is an illusion? Could we blame the mirror neurons buried deep in our brains for tricking us out of the Garden of Eden? They were built for empathy and rapid learning but what happens when fear distorts our perception of what is really going on?

Spiritual teacher Thomas Huebl draws the “loop of individuation” as an infinity symbol and explains one side as an endless wheel of relating: “Becoming and belonging”.
We develop through relating. For example, we run from our mother to explore the world. Then, when fear stops us, we turn back for comfort, to belong again. This happens over and over.

But what about the other side of the loop?

About 75 000 years ago we developed mirror neurons to speed up evolution.
Could this be like putting a mirror between the two sides of the figure of 8 of infinity? Then everything we do is reflected back to us as other.

Let’s call this “the wheel of self reflection”.
This new wheel has advantages and disadvantages. We want to know ourselves. There’s no longer just one of us here playing alone. We have m/other. But there’s an illusion of opposition. We come back to our mother’s arms for comfort. We see her smile. The world feels safe and we can run off again.
Each time we look at m/other we get ideas: how to behave, how to relate. She’s our “wheel of self reflection.” Add more people and events and our view of ourselves gets richer and progressively more complex.

The wheel of self reflection drives the vehicle forward
Have you noticed? By putting a mirror in the middle of infinity we now have something that looks and behaves exactly like a bicycle. The back wheel drives the bike forward. The front wheel steers but is freewheeling. From a distance one can see that the entire bike is moving in one direction, but from close up it could look like the back wheel and the front wheel were apposing each other. If you were an ant stuck to the front tyre, as the wheel spun round each time you would have the impression that the other wheel was opposing, about to come down on you and maybe even crush you.

So how can we apply this to ourselves? What if each time we self reflect we start to see through the mirror. Like in Aikido, instead of seeing the movement as opposition we use the movement to our advantage. And gradually we clean away the fog, blood, sweat and tears and look through these illusions – the illusion of resistance and also the illusion of other and opposition? What do we see? Can we find timeless archetypes that help us make sense of who we are or whatever is happening right now? In what way is what is happening now moving the bike forward; serving us and the greater good?

If light is driving the wheel and all we are doing is steering the front wheel with our attention, riding the stream in order to endlessly become, how can we focus our attention on using the movement generated to go were we want rather than where we don’t want?

Some developmental stages
stage 1. the Victim
stage 2. the Judge
stage 3. the Witness
stage 4. conscious co-creation…
……………………………
Stage 1
In our earliest developmental stage, the entire flywheel is driven by “m.other”
Mother is the mirror flywheel, either the goddess or/and the wicked witch, driving our bike forward. Through her we learn to relate and reflect on and eventually see ancient archetypes in ourselves, or disowned voices. If she isn’t fully present and able to relate and hold our fear or shame or other emotion our gears get stuck in this developmental age.
Then we keep meeting others who help us shift because they are also stuck in this developmental age, and can reflect this back to us, like Trump for example. For Trump, “other” = “dangerous”. Because he had to “toughen up” he can’t presence fear but instead feels fearless. He can’t really feel himself, so he can’t feel others either. “Strong” = “good”, and “Fear” = failure to be strong. Feeling no fear = fearless = independent. But this state is actually disconnected from self and other. Trump seems dangerous because he activates our own core wounding. We don’t want to see that we have lost our capacity to feel ourselves and others.
We continue to see others as threats or dangerous until we learn the core teaching of self reflection: “Do unto others what you would be done unto you.”

Eventually we acknowledge and share our fear and risk feeling vulnerable. Vulnerability is the glue that binds us.
Stage 2 onward.
Gradually the mirrors (all the “spokes” of the fly wheel) are replaced with archetypes we can own in ourselves. Or disowned voices/too inactive “spokes” reclaimed.
Gradually the entire bike moves through the mirror, from unconscious to conscious. From past to future?

The bike is humanity and we are each just one experience of this joy trip?

Part 1 – Feeling stuck? think like a cyclist
inspired by an exploration of my own feelings of uncertainty…

References:
1. Thomas Huebl – see Mystical Principles of intimate relationships – for more on “the loop of individuation” – becoming and belonging.
2. Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran the neurons that shaped civilization – we construct identity through mirror neurons
self awareness without attachment to the imaged self – we are a momentary expression of an ever changing unity.
3. Peter Levine on Spirituality, Archetypes and Trauma
10.02 into video: “The two vortexes spinning in opposite directions: the protector of the inner temple…” Peter levine

and 10.20 into video: “…you see this in some many different ways, the entrance to a mosque in Istanbul”

4. Rick Strassman DMT: the spirit molecule
39 minutes in: “the picture patterned puzzle door is the furthest reaches of humanity…what defines you as a human being..” Patricio Dominguez