Spiritual Warriorship and the Petty Tyrant

Date to be determined, 7:00
Shenendehowa Adult Community Center
6 Clifton Common Court
Clifton Park, NY 12065

“One of the great maneuvers of stalkers is to pit the mystery against the stupidity in all of us.”–Don Juan

As spiritual people, we are often cultivating noble characteristics such as love and empathy toward others. These are all essential components of an authentic spiritual path. The theory is that the more people who become peaceful within, the less violence there will be without.

Sounds beautiful and I am sure some day humanity will reach that understanding, but there is hard evidence that for the time being, we need to think otherwise. According to current science, there are a significant number of people (sociopaths and narcissists), who are biologically incapable of feeling sweet emotions such as love and empathy. The rest of us with normal emotional palates cannot even fathom the mind of such people…but we must!!

Harvard trained psychiatrist, Martha Stout, the author of The Sociopath Next Door, estimates that one out of 25 people are a sociopath, a person who has no conscious, so they are incapable of feeling shame, guilt, or remorse. Narcissism personality disorder which is evidenced by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for admiration, and a complete lack of empathy is estimated even higher, approximately 1-2 people out of 10.

As much as spiritual movements talk about how we are all “one”, we must learn to identify the distinct characteristics of such creatures; otherwise our spiritual paths lead us like innocent Goldilocks, who willingly entered the dark and unknown forest, blind to the dangers of cunning yet charming predators. The problem is that we have our own form of narcissism that can become devastatingly ensnared in theirs. We project our normal range of human emotions on them, which causes us to misinterpret their predatory behavior.

Because the numbers are so high, we all probably interact with such personality types, and I believe they are here to help us refine our ability to evolve…only if we know the curriculum, and this class will teach an overview of that curriculum.

The short answer from the experts is get away from these people as quick as possible, but there are many situations where we must deal with these toxic personalities on a daily basis. Repeated daily contact can covertly wear away our sense of identity and worth which causes us to feel like victims. If we are not to feel deflated by these frequent interactions, we must see these encounters as opportunities for strategic growth with a defined curriculum. This class is for anyone who often finds themselves saying things like this, (often with a twinge of guilt)

• “She always puts me in double binds. I can do nothing right.”
• “I don’t understand why I can successfully negotiate so many relationships, except for my relationship with my spouse.”
• “She always has a story on why she didn’t do something”
• “I can’t even believe that he/she ___(did something) “
• “When I am sad or down, he/she is either cold or cruel”

We will discuss how to successfully navigate around these challenging relationships by reviewing them in context of Carlos Castaneda’s concept of the petty tyrant, and learn how nothing enables us to earn more spiritual stripes in this world than holding our power in their presence. We will learn about the six components of spiritual warriorship defined by Castaneda, Warriorship, Control, Discipline, Forbearance, Timing, and Will.

This is a topic that is conspicuously ignored in spiritual circles, but our ignorance of such concepts is the reason why we waste years attending classes on forgiveness and trying to overcome inevitable hurt from dangerous people.

If we just knew the higher concepts of the spiritual path, we would not waste so much of our precious human lives rehashing only a fraction of the story and always feeling defeated. We would embrace the gift of skilled freedom that these people offer. We would know how to use these challenging relationships as an opportunity to stalk our own power and even evolve to the point in our growth that Castaneda describes where we experience sublime joy and empowerment in the presence of our petty tyrant!!

This is a must attend class for every peace loving, sweet natured, good hearted, “always see the glass half full” spiritual seeker, so that you will always be able to maintain that wonderful disposition, no matter what the Universe sends your way!

When we don’t know what we don’t know…we can get blind sided. Stay gleefully on your spiritual path by attending this class.

Date to be determined

$20 Donation Appreciated

Shenendewhowa Adult Community Center
6 Clifton Common Court
Clifton Park, NY 12065
From 87 – Take Exit 9 W/Route 146  heading toward Schenectady
Travel on Route 146 for 2.4 Miles
Take Left on to Vischer Ferry Rd
Travel on Vischer Ferry Rd for 0.4 Miles
Take a Left into Clifton Commons Blvd
Very shortly, there will be a T-shaped intersection
Take a right at the T-shaped intersection and travel on until you see the red building on your left.
Enter in the side entrance on left.
Take a left down the hall, and room will be on the left

photo credit: Yoga Warrior Pose Image credit: szefei / 123RF Stock Photo

Rescheduled for Spring, Stay tuned…

Who Do You Think You Are?

Tuesday, January 28 at 7:00 PM
Clifton Park Adult Community Center
Bethany Gonyea, MS

After all of my spiritual study and life experience, I have come to a belief about life’s challenges…why they occur, why they keep coming, and why they often seem to be custom designed to rock us to our unique individual core. It is my belief at this point that every challenge that comes our way is inviting us to ask this one question….

”Who Am I?”

Am I a finite being that has only the apparent resources at my fingertips….or am I a citizen of the Universe with the ability to invoke resources far beyond what my five senses allow me to experience?

There is a Greek myth of Lethe. The myth suggests that we all take a sip of this river of forgetfulness (Lethe) prior to incarnating, which causes us to forget our eternal nature, our eternal state of being. People who experience near death experiences often report they are no longer afraid of death, because while they were “dead” they “remembered” or experienced their spirit as so vast, so expansive, and so much an integral part of infinite love they never again fret their own death. After gaining this perspective, they often return to their lives to make different bolder choices, ones that reflect their remembering of their larger identity which enables them to manage life’s challenges from a much broader more resourceful perspective.

In this talk we will determine if we have a fixed or growth belief system based on psychologist Carol Dweck’s thirty years of research and how answering this question can help us to meet life’s challenges in a much more creative and even fun approach. During this talk, we will start asking the question of “who we think we are” and observe how it influences everything in our entire life including relationships, job choices, financial choices and health habits. Simply asking this question invokes deep introspection and change as it recalls a deep knowledge within all of us.

$20 Donation Appreciated

Shenedehowa Adult Community Center
6 Clifton Common Court
Clifton Park, NY 12065

From 87 – Take Exit 9 W/Route 146 heading toward Schenectady
Travel on Route 146 for 2.4 Miles
Take Left on to Vischer Ferry Rd
Travel on Vischer Ferry Rd for 0.4 Miles
Take a Left into Clifton Commons Blvd
Very shortly, there will be a T-shaped intersection
Take a right at the T-shaped intersection and travel on until you see the red building on your left.
Enter in the side entrance on left.
Room will be the third set of doors on the right.