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The Convergence of Five Hands: Flowing Past the Hero Trap into Collective Sovereignty

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The Convergence of Five Hands: Flowing Past the Hero Trap into Collective Sovereignty The raiders struck under the dark of the moon, vanishing into the volcanic hills with the entire wealth of the clan. The village youth ran in ten different directions, tiring themselves against the stones, achieving nothing. Five brothers stepped forward—one could hear a reed bend leagues away, one could read the scratch of an ant on bare basalt, one had arms of ironwood, one smelled smoke on the wind, and one held the medicine of mist. Yet, left alone, each brother was entirely helpless against the canyon pass. How many of us in modern life are running ourselves into an early grave trying to be all five brothers at once? We take pride in saying, "I don’t need anybody, " while our physical bodies, our families, and our institutions bleed out in silence. We are living out an exhausting, imported ghost story of solitary grit, convinced that asking for shared labor is an admiss...

Initiation by Imagination- Lost story of Gye

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“Elder we hear many stories in Gye-Nyame, but very few about Gye himself.” I stated as we sat in the shop drinking coffee and smoking hookah. This elder was hard to catch up with, and even if you caught up with him you were not guaranteed to be blessed with a conversation. So I planed to take advantage of every minute that he blessed me with. “You are right young man there are not many stories about Gye that we share, but they do exist, and at the right time they appear to those who earnestly seek them.” the elder said as he sat back holding the hookah stem enjoying the flavor he had chosen. “Elder will you share one with me?” I asked hoping for a yes... “Young man it will be my pleasure, I have heard a lot about you and the work you have been doing in the tribe, so I feel it is time for you to get more info about our mythic founder.” He then passed me the hookah, and took a sip of his coffee. Looking at me very seriously, “make sure you take care of this story and do not pass it to ...

"It Is Time For You To Leave"

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Before you read please check out the video so that you will not get lost, some of my readers are to young to remember the show Kung Fu, and will not understand my references.  What I loved about Kung fu was that it introduced me to different way of thinking. The scene that I am discussing today is the test that was set up in this fictional shaolin temple that determined when it was time for a student to leave. The test was basically the head monk (Master Khan) standing before the student every so often, and challenging the student to snatch the pebble from his hand. When the student missed he went back to his daily practice in the temple as a student. When he was finally able to snatch the pebble he and the master knew that it was time for him to leave. In other words it was made clear to the student and the teacher that student had no more to learn in the temple and it was time for him to continue his studies in the world. If only real life was this simple, and clear cut. ...