This is the third in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. This installment is The World Systems – Being First.

“The first area I want to talk about is FIRST.  First in this case is like we’re number one.  One of the earmarks of this period is everybody wants to be or is trying to be first.  We’re the number one team, we’re the number one company, and this is the number one product. We are first!  First, by definition, certainly means the front of the line. First number, first person, first order or whatever the case may be. This position is based on the assumption that all other things follow first, like second, third, fourth and so on.  But, inherent in becoming first is a state of very aggressive competition.  You don’t become first unless you fight for it. It was coach Vince Lombardi who said when the going gets tough, the tough get going. That’s a great football fight line and it works great on the football field, but when the economy and business and everybody associated with those areas start subscribing to that mode of operation what you’ve got is not a football game. What you’ve got is aggressive competitive mayhem where everybody, with no holds barred, is trying to be first.

Not only am I talking about this country, but I’m also talking about it in a global sense.  America comes first, is number one, England is number one, no Germany is number one, no Japan is number one and what we have out there in a very shrinking world due to communications and jet planes is a global competitive field. A field on which anything goes in order to be first. The Japanese have certainly taken over some very important world markets and have become first.  West Germany has done a major job in becoming first in certain areas. Russia is always on the field competing for first of whatever. The OPEC countries need to be first in oil and the list becomes endless.

What you have to recognize is that whether you like it or not or participate or not, you are caught up in the terrible game of King of the Hill.  When a country says we must be first, what they don’t tell you in parentheses in the next line is, at any cost. And at any cost is a very expensive experience because it could be at the cost of lives, at the cost of dollars, at the cost of the welfare and health of the nation, it is at whatever the cost is.  You’re not asked to vote on this, you’re just asked to participate and support. You are unwilling cheerleaders whether you like it or not. You’ve come to the game and they have decided what the game is going to be. You don’t even have any recourse to turn your ticket in, get your money back and go home. You’re stuck in the stadium. So one of the characteristic earmarks you are going to see is an intense increase in competition.

Now, the very first thing you have got to realize is that the Universe, in terms of its character, does not compete anyplace. That is, competition is not a universal term, it is manmade. Nothing in the Universe competes with itself or with anything else. Everything operates according to individual pattern. So the Universe is saying, look, we don’t compete and we come along as humans and say but we do compete. Do you  recognize that this is in an antagonistic diametric position to the way you are constructed? The very first thing you have got to learn to deal with is that you do not compete.  Now, what happens if you don’t compete in a competitive game? Well, one thing is the other team takes the ball and goes home. Very seldom can you take the ball and go home. But, if you don’t have anybody to compete against, nobody can play against you. What you’ve got to fall back on is Universal value and truth and Universal value and truth is; We don’t compete! If I follow my own pattern, if I stay true to who I am, my own cause if you like, I will see this thing through and all of these dogs that are growling, all of this shouting going on, and all of this competition that’s being determined has nothing to do with me. You don’t compete for a mate, you don’t compete for a job, and you don’t compete for a dollar. You don’t compete for anything.  You follow your inner course, which can be in one sense intuitive. In another sense it could just be the sense of knowing yourself and knowing where your stand lies.  Sometimes it’s just the discipline of turning around and saying, I’m not going to get into this competition. It may definitely mean breaking a whole series of old habits born out of your own experience of competing most of your life.

 That doesn’t mean to say that if, for an example, a job position comes open and you are asked to submit for it, a resume or whatever.  I would do it but I wouldn’t do it on the basis that I’m competing. If I want it, I would do it on the basis that the job is already mine.   I’m following the rules by submitting the resume but I’m not going in there competing.  Those of you who work in corporate or institutional structures are going to find the so-called politics at work unreal. The competition is going to be unbelievable.  Everybody is going to maneuvering and backbiting and shoving and repositioning because most of them are working out of fear, as they always have by the way.  Now if you want to get entrapped in that you never going to get through this.

You can’t look, for an example, at your finances and say, I’ve got to go out and make more money! I’ve got to do this and I’ve got to do that. What you’ve really got to look at is your creative value. You have to realize that money is simply a way of keeping score. Money is a flow chart. Whatever you need, and it may not be large amounts and give you a luxurious living, but whatever you need the Universe is going to provide. And if doesn’t provide it then it wasn’t for you to have at that time. You’ve got to start developing very early a certain basis of faith. You have to depend on yourself. You have to depend on the Universe. If you find yourself forced into competition and find that you can’t remove yourself from that competition then you’ve got to change your attitude. And the attitude is not I don’t care whether I get this or not, the attitude is, if this is right for me I will get it and if its not right for me I won’t get it.  And so you are calm while the storm rages around you. You’re calm and you’re settled down and you just know that it’s going to work in the long run to your behalf. Now sometimes this may appear to cost you something. It might cost you money, that is, there may be some investment and you loose something, so you say. It might cost you some attachment, or some friends. It might cost you to some degree part of a position, but whatever it costs you it’s going to be nominal. And what you do is kind of shrug your shoulders and figure well, whatever I seem to have lost at this point I’ll recoup ten times over by simply staying on track and the Universe will bring it around. It will, it really will. Maybe not tomorrow, but somewhere along the line and you’ll look back and say boy I’m glad I didn’t get myself all bent out of shape over that.  

The vortex is there and the entrapment is there and you’re going to hear a lot of growling and howling around you. You’re going to have to recognize right away that the issue of being first means competing for King of the Hill. No holds barred, everything goes, anything goes and you must not allow that to inundate you and take you away from your center.”– Gregge Tiffen, 1984

 TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4 – The World Systems – Extremes.