by Harry Palmer
The bamboo and the oak tree employ two different strategies to survive. The strategy of the oak is to grow very solid and strong to withstand the force of the wind. The strategy of the bamboo is to stay flexible and bend before
by Harry Palmer
The bamboo and the oak tree employ two different strategies to survive. The strategy of the oak is to grow very solid and strong to withstand the force of the wind. The strategy of the bamboo is to stay flexible and bend before the force of the wind. The wind, in this analogy, is really a symbol for the forces of change. The oak uses its solidity to resist change. The bamboo uses its flexibility to bend with change.
A few years ago, a great hurricane blew across southern Florida—Hurricane Andrew. Trees were uprooted. Houses were blown down. The news cameras panned over the area to show the devastation. Every palm, palmetto, and oak tree had been leveled, but the camera showed one small clump of bamboo that had survived. The oak trees, even with their massive strength, didn't survive. The bamboo did. The flexible strength survived; the inflexible strength perished. It is a lesson.
In a world where things are changing rapidly, flexibility is a better survival strategy than force.
Individual consciousness can take on either the qualities of the oak or the qualities of the bamboo. It can be empty and flexible, or it can be solid and unbending. In most cases, it starts out flexible and then hardens over time.
What is it that hardens consciousness into inflexible viewpoints? Some people will say it is the suffering caused by the world. But no matter how much you change the world, it does not make your consciousness any more flexible. So what is it that leads to inflexible viewpoints? Two things: Transgressions-Kept-Secret and hidden agendas.
Transgressions-Kept-Secret(*) are the damaging actions and non-actions that you would rather certain people not find out. A transgression is an instance of breaking a law, or breaking an agreement, or vioutf8g a social standard, or vioutf8g your own values. It is damaging something you have agreed to protect.
* If you've ever overheard a Star's Edge Trainer refer to someone as having ticks, they weren't referring to the blood-sucking insects. They were using the acronym TKS (pronounced ticks) for Transgressions-Kept-Secret.
Examples of TKS are robbing a bank, cheating on your marriage partner, spray painting graffiti on a public building, or acting in a manner that is contrary to your own conscience. There are lots of possible transgressions and, until you achieve sainthood, it is expected that you will commit transgressions occasionally —if only by accident. When your transgression is not kept secret, it is called a mistake.
If someone tells you that they have not committed any transgressions, realize you are talking to either a saint or a liar. Human beings make mistakes. They are supposed to. That's how they learn. Human knowledge is the product of mistakes. It is only when the mistakes are hidden or become intentional (as in a hidden agenda) that they lead to inflexible viewpoints.
A hidden agenda is really a strategy someone has for committing, or continuing to commit, a selfishly motivated transgression. It is an intentionally damaging action. This is the phenomenon that moralists call evil, or that the Buddhist would say is a karma incurring act.
A Transgression-Kept-Secret is kept secret because of shame or fear of disapproval or punishment. A hidden agenda is kept secret because the person intends to commit or repeat a transgression. There is little, if any, shame involved in a hidden agenda. To the contrary, there is often what could even be called a criminal pride. The major difference between Transgressions-Kept-Secret and hidden agendas is that in the latter, there is only a slow recognition of the damaging actions. Hidden agendas are often concealed behind pseudo-righteous identities pretending humanitarian motives.
Here are the principle elements that lead to an inflexibility of viewpoint, to a hardening of consciousness, to what one Wizard so aptly described as zombie-consciousness. How can they be healed?
Transgressions-Kept-Secret (TKS—pronounced "ticks")
When a person commits a transgression, the first question they are often asked is: "Why did you do it? Why? Why? Why?" This is a totally irrelevant question. Nobody can answer it truthfully. You are asking them to make up an explanation for why they are not source. Lie to me. I want to hear it.
The explanation won't change anything. The explanation won't teach anybody anything. And the explanation, no matter how good it sounds, won't prevent them from doing it again. You might as well answer "Why?" with, "Because my mother conceived."
Do you know the biggest reason why I think you keep your transgressions secret? You are afraid that someone is going to ask you, "Why did you do it?"
And you don't really, honestly have a clue. So if you are asked, you are going to have to commit a second transgression of lying to explain the first transgression.
Do you want to know what causes the amount of Transgressions-Kept-Secret in a society to rise? Because the society becomes focused on, "Why did you do it?" So you open the door to Why-Therapies(*).
* Why-Therapies are concerned with explanations of why one 