The Carrot, Egg and Coffee Parable

Since last weekend’s workshop I have been literally deluged with e-mail from both attendees and non-attendees asking me to expand on the Metaphysical segment of my presentation on the Friday night lecture portion of the workshop. As it turns out, people are far more interested in the metaphysical side of M.E.T. than the physical.

It seems to have a struck a common nerve and makes this month’s Blog a no brainer. Now I can’t possibly duplicate what I do in person, but the fact it was not only well received but “life changing” as many put it, illustrates that people are finally starting to get it, that industry indoctrination to dogma, and an inherent clinging to information at the expense of true purpose, is a hollow empty pursuit in both the short term and long term.

I would like to also address the Tao nature of athletic pursuit, as the movement is really catching fire. The Tao, stands for the T, in M.E.T. but I will have to address this in next month’s Blog. There is only so much that can be covered and still have it sink in to levels deeper than note taking and rote learning.

Suffice it to say here that the M in MET, stands of many key words to illustrate the metaphysics of athletic pursuit or any other pursuit in any realm. The E in MET likewise represents other key words of focus beyond that of gathering information and implementing rigid principles.

And the T in MET is far beyond the physical and represents not only the Tao athlete, but much much more. Transcendence should be a key part of any pursuit worth undertaking, and if pursuing a goal does not translate in to truth, self-knowledge and personal growth, then perhaps the person needs to re-address the “why’s” of their undertaking and not so much the “how’s”

If you were to be stranded on a dessert island the rest of your life with all the comforts of home, but never to interact with anyone ever again, would you still pursue the same endeavours, and if so would you still do them with the same goal or purpose as before? With no one to measure against or judge you, and no societal norms to abide in, or adhere to, or be compared against, what meaning would you attach to said pursuits? This is reflective of the Tao nature of any pursuit from golf to bodybuilding to tri-athlons, and even to roller skating should that be your chosen pursuit to reflect your purpose or your spiritual guide.

The fact is that inside of each of us is a powerful force to guide and direct us toward happiness and fulfillment. We seem to have lost contact with that force.

As mentioned in an e-mail to me this morning, this “force” if you will has been represented symbolically in Star Wars, via a light sabre. (or life saver) Hence, “let the force be with you” This is not nearly as hackneyed as people may think, but instead something worthy of deeper contemplation. We all have a spiritual compass, unique to ourselves, our life, and our spiritual energy.

However because of the nature of society and the all encompassing force of ego consciousness, we live only in the information world.

I’m here to tell you the secret does not lie in pre and post workout nutrition or a low carb vs. low fat approach. Staying within this information based dogma is self-limiting not self-fulfilling. If it was self-fulfilling than no one would be struggling to hold on to physical achievements, to have them for a moment and then to watch them slip away, only to have to start at the beginning again, concentrating on information, like sets, reps, calories, grams, in a never ending repetition of behaviour with no purpose; in essence execution without meaning.

Yet instead of grasping the fruitless nature of “information” based dogma, we end up repeating the same, thinking that it’s a matter of “different calories” different diets, different workouts; yes that’s where the secret lies.

And all the magazines and websites and supplement companies that need to perpetuate themselves will keep presenting you with more and more complicated information and dogma, blinding you to the reality that “truth” is beyond information.

I will get to that.

First most of what is missed is because people have a counter intuitive relationship with themselves. What should be an opportunity for growth and an open mind is in actuality perceived as threatening because of the old success/failure duality. But as Marianne Williamson said, “our biggest fear is not that we are incapable, our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination” For most people stuck in the information based dogmatic approach to achievement, such a statement makes little sense or seems confusing.

Not so if you live from a spiritual base.

As the French philosopher once remarked, “the only real voyage of discovery exists NOT in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” When someone “sees” from a non physical, meaning non ego based, non position based place of strength, one sees only possibilities and not limitations. People need to go beyond information in order to stop limited thinking, and thinking in limitations, such as “this diet” or “that workout”

It was a surprise to me that prior to my workshop many were writing expressing real stress over whether they would be out of their league there, and if they should attend at all, thinking surely in limitations of form. I’m sure many avoided the workshop for similar reasons. But seeing adversity and choosing resistance or avoidance of it is counter intuitive and only leads to stagnation in the non physical inner world of truth and importance. To that end I present the old parable on the Carrot, The Egg, and Coffee.

The Carrot, the Egg, and Coffee

The carrot, the egg and coffee grounds were to face adversity in the form of boiling water for a specified time period. The carrot before facing the adversity of the water, was strong, vibrant, and colourful. That was its basic nature. After facing and trying to resist the adversity of the boiling water the carrot came out, dull, soft, limp. Its basic nature had been changed, but the adversity of the water remained undaunted and clearly the victor.

The egg before being beset with the adversity of the boiling water seemed symmetrical, whole, and complete in its hard shell protecting its inner liquid nature, its real self. Upon facing the adversity of the water the egg also tried to resist. The boiling water was unrelenting. The adversity was too much. The symmetry of the outer shell was now easily cracked, easily broken. What it attempted to protect had become hard, different, no longer fluid and liquid. Its basic nature had been altered by adversity.

Yet the boiling water remained undaunted, still the adversary, still the victor, still unchanged.

The coffee went in to the boiling water but something was now different. Instead of attempting to resist or avoid the water, the coffee embraced it. By embracing the water and its adversity something interesting happened. The nature of the coffee indeed changed. But it was enhanced. The coffee by embracing the adversity became something greater than it was, and for the first time, it was the boiling water that changed from being embraced rather than resisted.

The adversity of the water became part of the new form of what coffee, had “transformed” into. The coffee, unlike the carrot or the egg, embraced the adversity and by so doing, altered the adversity itself, to a more complete version of itself.

The coffee was improved by not only facing the adversity of the water, but by embracing it!

There are so many life lessons to this parable. I should think most are obvious.

Often I get many people who want to start training with me who begin with “limitations” They complain of bad knees, or a bad back or shoulder etc. When I ask them what they do for these ailments, the automatic reply is “I avoid this exercise, that exercise, etc” My immediate response of such counter intuitive logic is “how is that mentality working for ya?” In other words, does it make the affected area stronger? No. Does it make it less susceptible? No. Fact is by avoiding or resisting adversity for challenged muscles, they stay weak, they stay limited, and someone has an enduring excuse for limited thinking, failure, and rationalization.

The only real way to prepare for adversity is to experience it!!!!!!!!
However how we experience it is beyond the informational, beyond the physical. If you resist or avoid adversity you are either forever changed by it, your nature is altered negatively because it enhances fear, or you remain weak from its avoidance, also reflective of a fear mentality.

Let me save you all the suspense. There will be adversity in your life in many forms.

Resistance and avoidance are counter intuitive. They are not options. Instead let’s define fear differently. Often just having a means to identification can be powerful. Replace the word fear with the acronym of F.E.A.R. From now on Face Everything And Respond !!!

After presenting the metaphysical part of my lecture at the workshop, I still remembered all the people that expressed some intimidation and trepidation for the actual workshop. I created right there a “coffee” like attitude. I instructed everyone from that point on, no one gets left behind. The goal of the workshop would be the metaphysical approach of T.E.A.M. I run my business the same way. Enough of this macho crap of the old Musclecamps of the 20 inch arms over here, and the 400 bench press peeps over here. That is limited thinking and thinking in limitations.

No more!

Our motto for the workshop was T.E.A.M. (Together Everyone Achieves More) Now that is just an expression. Just like the parable above it could be resisted, avoided or embraced. Everyone got it. Everyone embraced the T.E.A.M. spirit.

The result was something to behold. There were no wall flowers. People would see an exercise demonstrated and ooh and ahh at its difficulty, but seconds later they were doing it. There was no “trying with doubt attached” There was only ‘executing excellence” toward it. (The E aspect of MET) That is not to say all movements were mastered. But they were embraced and from that point approached by a sense of challenge and invigoration rather than intimidation and fear.

If you’ve read the thread on the workshop then you can feel right beyond the posts, that T.E.A.M. was victorious.

Now here is the thing. The T in M.E.T, also represents transformation and transcendence beyond the “Metabolic Enhancement Training” to subjective meaning of experience. The problem with living in the ego centred world is that we are always occupied only with ‘form” as in the roles we play, how we measure up, how we achieve, what we have etc. If we look at it more closely the ego world is the world of “form” By living in that world all the time we only have access to “in-form-ation” That is quite limiting.

The solutions to all predicaments come to be seen as “in-form-ational” and physical.

Can’t sleep? Medicate. Feel anxious? Medicate. Not feeling joy? Medicate. Well with the death of actor Heath Ledger and the wrestler Chris Benoit before him, we can witness that a physical solution to non physical issues is a losing battle. Medicating adversity is avoiding and resisting it on a different plane than its existence. How is that looking to ya?

Most in our industry of competition and cosmetic enhancement forgot why they began this process to begin with. They are now forever wrapped up in the unrewarding unfulfilling world of form, where how much they lift, how many calories they eat, and their pant size are now the precipitating factors and ends. The joy is lost.

Listen, we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing!

The surest way to make anything old is to start measuring yourself against it all the time.

We need to get beyond the world of “form” Follow me here. If we can “trans-form” to measuring against activities, then we can transcend to measuring ourselves instead against qualities of character. When we “trans-form” from the physical world and find our spiritual compass, then we can access what is beyond “in-form-ation” now we can access our spiritual nature. When we do that now we can access “in-spir-ation. I am telling you spiritual force is stronger than any other “form collecting” you can do.

Scott how do you stay on your diet?

I don’t count calories and I don’t; count grams. I stopped doing that ages ago, as a process of limited thinking and thinking in limitations and form. I stick to my diet by “executing excellence everyday” I don’t judge myself against a calorie to be measured.

That does not measure me, it limits me.

Instead I measure myself against excellence. I would not miss a workout, or cheat on my diet because commitment and discipline are qualities of character of spirit, like devotion, integrity, self-honesty etc. By measuring myself against that, the little things like following through with excellence of execution and expecting more (all elements of the E, in M.E.T) are easy by comparison. Diets are not hard, our mental and emotional attachments to them just block clarity of purpose.

Think of the spiritual self as the trunk of a large tree complete with vast route systems, and such a steady base upon which to stand.

This spiritual base which we all have as a birth right is unique to each of us. It is “the way” (the Tao) by which we connect the dots of physical, emotional, and mental being.

Everything else is just ‘branches to existence”

The problem is most of us have this upside down. Stop seeking. Like I said at the workshop, if you seek a helping hand you can find two, one at the end of each of your arms.

The fact is Big “C” coaching is beyond fancy information. Big “C” coaches are more like conductors of a symphony, aiming to create harmony between the physical and the metaphysical. Stop being impressed by insignificant information that has no bearing on your “experience” of phenomenon. Instead of accessing “in-form-ation” start accessing your own “in-spir-ation” which is infinitely stronger. I promise you the meaning of everything from that point on is substantive, not formative.

As one of my articles in the workshop workbook states, I can impress you all day long with my knowing of the chemical constituents of chocolate. Does that in any way at all, lead to an experience of its taste?

As usual some of you will get, many of you will not.

If you do in fact get it, then I leave you this, “May the force be with you”

My next book is all about this aspect of Big C coaching in the real world. If you like this Blog, then you will want to get the book. If you find this stuff represents “gibberish and non sense” then you will be well to stick to books of measurement and pseudo science.