This is the sixth in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. This installment is The World Systems – Repetition.

“The fourth area of The World Systems in this Dynamics series is Repetition. I collaborated a long long time ago with a gentleman who did a book. His name is on it not mine, but the book was called “How to Tell What You Know.” The concept behind this book was very simple. You tell them what you are going to tell them, you tell them and then you tell them what you told them. That’s how you get your point across. Well, that’s a good concept and at that time it worked and I think it still works.  However, the word merchants, and the advertising agencies, and the corporations and the government have carried that much further along.  Now you tell them, you tell them, you tell them, you tell them. Then you tell them what you told them and you tell them what you told them; in other words repetition. The idea today is basically brainwashing. If you tell them long enough they will believe you. That was probably one of the key factors behind Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister in World War II.  You tell them and you tell them and you tell them until they believe the falsehood is the truth. As I say, in this time and space that’s been elevated to an art. If you are not aware that you’re going through this brainwashing obviously you’re in the commitment without ever knowing it.

This is a personal thing because it’s been with me almost all of my adult life. One of the things that will push one of my buttons is when someone tells me something and I’ve heard it. Because I always pay attention to people when they are talking to me what I can’t stand is when that person tells me more than once. If I didn’t understand them I will let them know. I’ll say that I didn’t understand them or I didn’t hear them. Now if I don’t say that, I heard them and what I don’t want is to be told that again and again. I find repetition not only an insult but also repetition as a point of danger inasmuch as it shows their insecurity in my belief and their need to try to get me, by repetition, to either agree or understand them in which case they are literally trying to overpower me. I’ve never liked that.

Now in this day and age we see this as a consistency, especially in governments, as propaganda. You are told and you are told and you are told and it makes absolutely no difference that you’re not being told the truth. Lies become truth when you’re told them long enough. Just read a newspaper any day of the week, as there is hardly one iota of truth on those pages that is, at the very least, not manipulated news. About the only thing that seems to be true in todays newspaper is today’s date and possibly the location of the event. After that there’s not much in it.  There is so little truth in the media that it has now really become a farce. It is all manipulated news and you are being told exactly what you’re being told.

If you ever want to check this out sometime, and I don’t really know if you’d ever be privy to it, but incidents go on all the time in a city of this size. Quite often you’re there or around there when an incident occurs; a fire, an accident, a robbery or whatever and in some cases you may literally visually be privy to the event. Then turn on your six or eleven o’clock news and hear what the media says. You can’t even match it up. If you listen to what they say, never mind the pictures as they are fairly factual and they aren’t going to mess with much of that, but then listen to their story or better yet read it in the newspaper. Its manipulated news and that manipulated news is placed in front of you as a repetitive process to convince you of a certain thing. One of my other pet peeves is weather reporting.  Here in the northeast you have seasons and we have seasons in Dallas. These seasons are more extreme in the sense that your winters are colder and our summers are hotter. So what happens is all summer long they keep harping away on how hot it is and wouldn’t it be nice if it cooled down. Now, the minute the seasons change and it gets cool they start harping on how cold it is and wouldn’t it be nice if it got warm. That’s manipulation. What it’s doing is brainwashing everybody into thinking is what they are in is an uncomfortable state and things would be better if that state was changed rather than recognizing that winter is supposed to be cold and generally is and summers are supposed to be hot and generally are and the way to enjoy a season is to recognize that’s the way it is. Yet they will manipulate those facts to make you feel uncomfortable. Isn’t it hot, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had a cool day. Well, they know you’re not going to get a cool day at least not down here until at least until October or November.  So then when it gets cold and we have our ice storms and everything they say wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were back in the summer. No, it wouldn’t be wonderful because then you’re talking about summer all year round. That’s a brainwashing technique at the very simplest and stupid level and you can run that up the scale to politics and everything else. What do you think, for example, about why celebrities are suing these rag magazines newspapers? Because they are nothing but a pack of lies and it’s manipulated news or manipulated truth, which is really a lie. I can make a statement to you that I really don’t believe the government is doing their job. So you go out to get your paper and there’s this banner headline that reads Tiffen accuses government of blah, blah, blah. They are basically saying what I said but it has been manipulated around into a whole different phrase and a whole different state.

What I am saying is that one of the controls and factors that really put you in a position of loosing your identity is to put you in a perspective in which whether it’s the truth or not, and often not, it’s repeated enough till you and everybody around you begin to believe it. See how easily that goes back to number one. If you keep being told that you are first, you are first, and you’re not really first however, you begin to believe that you’re first. But, in order to maintain that first you’ve got to be competitive. Now you believe in the competition and if you believe in the competition you’ve got to get aggressive. So now whether you like it or not you’re caught up in the aggression of the competition and you’re right back to where the whole circle closes and you’re all caught up in this thing. That’s the way the system is going to go. There’s no way out of it because we’re locked into that particular syndrome.” – Gregge Tiffen, 1984

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 7 – The World Systems – Fear.

This is the fifth in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. This installment is The World Systems – Aggression.

“The next element is the dynamics of aggression. Now I realize that subject was touched upon as part of the “being first” dynamic, but I need to separate them. When I got to the idea of being first, I told you that you can’t be first unless you compete and then I used the words aggressively compete. What I’m talking about now is the third one, which is aggression itself not necessarily associated with competition, just aggression. I find you in line so I push you out of that line and that’s not to be first, it is just aggression. We have a discussion and I run it into a full-fledged screaming argument. It’s not to become first; it’s just to intimidate you.

I don’t feel too good about the books that have come out in this decade, such as The Art of Intimidation or How To Be First. These books really say in one sense or another that you must verbally punch the other guy in the nose. How else are you going to get by? But those books, articles, and those concepts are certainly fit for where we find ourselves at this particular time. Aggression is one of the characteristics that take place.

Now I don’t think I have to explain to you how negative and anti-spiritual in universal terms aggression is. We all have a certain amount of it. The problem is that those of us who are not naturally aggressive find that any action of aggression is extremely depleting. It uses up our energy, our vitality, our concepts, our creativity and just about every part of us. To some degree we all have a modicum of aggression built into us because we are part of the genetic scheme here and it’s part of mankind. What I am talking about at this phase is serious aggression. At the ultimate end of the scale it’s war. Pure and simple even to the point of atomic or nuclear war. At the lower end of the scale it’s two people who are just beating on each other with sticks for no other purpose than to beat the other person into submission. That includes, by the way, verbal aggression in which one person just simply beats the other one verbally. I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that I can’t out shout and out yell, but if I did that, it’s verbal aggression. I talk over you, I talk louder, I talk faster, I talk more intensely and that’s no different than picking up a stick and hitting you on the head. So you’re going to find aggression in all its phases.

One of the things you may run into, let’s say again in the business world, or the career area of your life is that aggression will be considered something of a satisfactory premium in adjudging an individual. I like him or I like her because they’re aggressive. Generally that’s a very positive word. It means someone who initiates his or her own action and will carry it through. The way it going to come out now is, I like them because they push everybody else out of the way, get to the top and doesn’t stop for anything. That’s a tank rolling over a banana. It’s the old metaphysical story about it not making any difference if the pot hits the steamroller or the steamroller hits the pot. It’s bad for the pot. You have got to realize that when we talk about this kind of aggression it really doesn’t make any difference the reason; the recipient is the one who suffers.

Here is the case where you honestly cannot meet fire with fire. That is not if you want to survive this period. Here is the case where in one sense you’ve got to insulate and really the only thing that will insulate against aggression is non-aggression. I’m not really talking in the terms of Mahatma Gandhi, but I am talking in terms that you can’t fight someone who doesn’t fight. I’m not talking about going around waving olive branches. I’m not talking about putting on white robes, beating a drum and saying a bunch of words over and over again. I’m talking about getting back into the area where you’ve got your base of stability and realize that nothing can be gained by coming into an arena of aggression and so you simply won’t enter into it.

You don’t have to be a smart aleck about it, you don’t have to be supercilious about it and you don’t have to put on airs. You just won’t enter into it. Sometimes that may amount to nothing more than you staring at the person and not giving any answer. That’s a pretty unsettling act in itself. Sometimes it may mean biting down and turning the other cheek. Sometimes it may mean indicating to the other person in some way that there is a point beyond which you won’t tolerate their aggression. That can be assumed either as a threat or promise depending on what you mean. But what you don’t want to get caught up in is the emotionalism associated with aggression because once that takes place you very simply loose control. Once you loose control all of your meaning, your intent and what you’ve tried to gain in your system is basically down the tubes.

Sometimes you’re going to have to probably sit or stand by and see other people get promoted, other people praised or rewarded in your company or place of business just because they’re aggressive. Just because, in every sense of the word, they’re nothing but bastards and they don’t care who’s in front of them, they are just going to roll over them. You will see those people rewarded and praised and wonder if the whole damn world isn’t crazy. But again, there is no way that you’re going to be able to deal with that other than recognizing in the long run you’ll come out of it and it is true that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The aggressor will always meet another aggressor. The worst thing about drawing the sword on the battlefield and becoming in effect the unbeatable knight is everybody’s out to beat you and sooner or later you’re going to meet your match even if it’s just by attrition and age, you’re going to meet your match. So, winners always lose and losers eventually can win and you don’t want any part of that.

What you want to do again is to maintain your stability. So it becomes necessary at this point for you to evaluate and review your degrees and levels of aggression. I think it becomes very important for you to do that. You’ve really got to see where your aggression points are. You’ve got to perhaps, for the first time in your life really take a good look at where your buttons are and how easily they can be pushed. If they can be pushed that easily, what are you going to have to do in your reevaluation of yourself to change that?

We all have buttons that can be pushed and the problem is that everybody else knows them telepathically. Give the average person ten minutes in a social engagement and that person instinctively knows the weakness of everyone he talked to. He doesn’t know that he knows, but he starts pushing the buttons right away. Well, in a system that is going aggressive a lot of your buttons are going to be known. You must remember that in an aggressive atmosphere and again I’m talking about the career area, oftentimes the higher ups in a company for an example will pit two people against each other on an aggressive basis simply to see who comes out on top. It’s just a matter of determining a competitive team and you’ve got to be very careful to not get trapped in that. Within a family situation you’ll see children competing on an aggressive basis to see which is the stronger. Some people make look at it and say, well isn’t this survival of the fittest? We’re not talking about survival of the fittest in that sense. If it’s dog eat dog, one dog will always eat the other dog eventually and that should be circumvented. Don’t get caught up in that. That does not mean that you never get mad, as I can’t conceive that I would never get mad. But is does mean that I will take better control of my aggression, be much more aware of what set it off, and be much more aware of what’s going on during the process so that in effect I don’t loose my head because that’s really where it will lead.” – Gregge Tiffen, 1984

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 6 – The World Systems – Repetition.

This is the fourth in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. This installment is The World Systems – Extremes.

“The second condition is Extremes. Extremes mean extremes.  It means the opposite end of midpoint. Now, what determines midpoint? Well I don’t know, but midpoints are generally determined by conceptual track records or some commonality that we can identify. Literally if we look at a scale of one to ten we can say the midpoint is five as that seems to be mathematically logical although that can be exploited by a number of other reasons. What you’re not going to see are midpoints. You’re going to see actions, people and systems in extremes. The very worst and occasionally the very best. This is going to be very confusing to you because on one hand where you are seeing the very worst that can be awful, you then turn around and see something which is definitely at the opposite end of the pole. You say to yourself oh well thank goodness that all worked out, it off balances. It may or may not.  By and large I expect to see more extremes on the negative end of the pole. The extremes in this case meaning that people will move from the generally positive end of the spectrum to the negative end of the spectrum.  They will abdicate the positive end. Now the way you’ll feel this is you’ll feel impressed or forced as it were into a lot of these extremes. People around you are just going to do really wacko things. You will say to yourself, I don’t understand this; I really don’t understand this at all. Because it won’t make a lot of sense to you, the effect will upset your own conceptual balances. You will you wonder if they are doing that, then where am I in relationship to all of this. Where you thought you were at say center point, now you haven’t got any idea whether you’re at center point anymore.

How would it be if only one person stayed solid and sane and everyone else went insane?  How could that one person stay sane when the rest of us go insane?  And on that particular basis, how long does the sane person stay sane when everyone else is insane? What happens is that it changes the commonality. It makes you look at yourself and say god if everybody else is running off this cliff something must be wrong with me. Maybe I should run off the cliff too as it seems to be the way everything is going.  So by living in a state of these extremes you begin to question your stability. You begin to question your center point and you begin to think gee maybe I’m not right. And of course that is the first step towards getting yourself sucked into the vortex and losing your own stable point.

What you must do now is find where your true stability is. That’s going to take a lot of interior evaluations on your part. What are your values in life about yourself, about your relationships, about your money, about your feeling towards the country and the government, about your family, about your career, about everything? Everything has to be looked at. What you need is a clearly defined foundation that you can plant you feet in like wet cement, let it dry, and say in effect there’s my rock.  I can live with this with only minor modifications. That is one of the great self-change things that are going to take place. One of the greatest  is getting you to identify this stable base.  Most of you if you’re pretty average, whatever that means, really don’t have that base defined. You need to get that defined. A lot of you think you know what your stable base is but you’ve never really looked at it. You must go through the whole list.  And, you might say well, I thought this was it, but I really see now in looking at it that its not. If it’s not then throw it out and get the real thing in there. And don’t tell me that you can’t figure out the real thing, sure you can. It’s going to probably take a little effort, a little insight and a little time but you’ll find out what it is. It’s in there.  And there is always some modicum of variables that are associated with it that will allow you your lateral movements as things begin to change, but the stable center point is not going to change at all.

Throughout the world countries, nationalities and groups are going to do extreme things. Labor Unions will do extreme things. Congress will do extreme things. Haven’t you noticed that we have a problem in the world today with terrorists?  Now are terrorists stable? Everything they do is extreme. They’re just the precursors of what’s happening so all you’re looking at is the natural element and function of this particular extreme state. They just happen to be upfront with it.  You will find these extremes operating literally in every conceivable phase of your life. You will again look at yourself and say I don’t understand this and maybe I’m crazy and they are sane. And unless you’ve got your stable base to work from I don’t think you’ve got anything to go back to. You’ll end up typically following the Pied Piper crowd. It’s not going to be easy because if you’re around a hundred people who are jumping off a cliff, it’s going to be very hard for you to understand that staying on stable ground is where you’re supposed to be. There’s nothing like the weight of the crowd to send doubts running up and down your spine. If you are not prepared, it leaves you in a very open and vulnerable position. Establish your personal stable base or centerpoint.” – Gregge Tiffen, 1984

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 5 – The World Systems – Aggression.

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.

This is the second in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. We continue with Survival. 

“The second dynamic in these times is one of survival.  Not survival as in life or death but survival in a real spiritual sense. If we handle this properly and come out as survivors, what we have done is probably gotten rid of the human growth limitations that tend to hold and anchor us down. We become really terrific beings. It brings us to a point of spiritual survival that has great value and in a real sense moves us to a whole new level.

You have to realize that when you come back, that is the reincarnation concept, which is a learning concept, you come back at a time that is ideally right for your development. Now I’m going to make an assumption that I can’t prove, but being in the work for as long as I have it’s a fair assumption.  Those of us who can survive these times, and in effect survival means accomplishment, we’re going to bypass a number of reincarnations that would have been the slow step-by-step baby process of learning. What we are now taking is a quantum leap.  The Universe is basically saying “Gee, you did a really nice job so we think what we’ll do is let you skip grades 5, 6 and 7 and you can go on to grade 8. Actually this is not a bad deal because you can assume 5, 6 and 7 are typically going to have a lot of drag and sludge in them because basically that’s how the learning experience goes here.  Remember that for every learning incarnation you have you have to have an incarnation to set a problem up. So just for the heck of it let’s say you’re graduated 3 steps. You’re actually missing 6 incarnations. How long would that take? Well, conceivably it could take a couple of million years depending upon the timing of when everything was right for you to come back. So if you don’t think a couple of million years isn’t a big quantum leap for this school I don’t know what would be. When you look at that you’ll realize that in a real sense it’s got to be worth it. Not only have you made the advancement but also you’ve been able to get over a lot of these slow and sometimes-ridiculous development areas that you no longer have to deal with on a step-by-step basis. That just puts you enormously ahead in the whole spiritual process.  The problem here of me telling you about it is that I can tell you about it but I can’t give you any real connection in consciousness that gives you an insight and have you say “Oh yeah, I feel it right here, so you’re right.”  You just have to take it as a premise and see how it feels after you mull it about for a bit.

The object then in this time frame is basically the object of survival. What we’re looking for here is to meet the demand.  Going back at bit, the demands are not placed on us by other people. The demands being placed on us are by the system. The system, which is operated by people, can be anything. For the most part it is going to be governments of one sort or another. But, it is also going to be representative of any part of the system, i.e. banks, schools, municipalities, and corporations, whatever. And you are going to find very weird things coming up. The system is not going to treat you kindly.  One of the things you can depend upon is that every time you learn the rules they’re going to come around and change those rules. The minute you think you’ve got a handle on something, somebody has another rule, or a new rule, or the other rule has been dropped.

To prove my point here is an aside example. During the Reagan campaign for the presidency of the United States he said he had no intention of raising taxes. And during the summer after he was elected, while we were all asleep, including the Congress of the United States, they passed a tax reform bill as a rider to another bill. When you looked at it, it cost the American taxpayers about $29 billon dollars. What they did was to close all the tax breaks that were available up until that date and everybody slept through it. So, Mr. Reagan didn’t have to say he was raising taxes; he already did by cutting off the tax breaks. The big ones. The important ones that made a lot us, especially people who are in business, function a lot easier. And even the people who just go and pick up their paychecks were effected because we were asleep at the switch.  That is the kind of rule changing I’m referring to. That’s the kind of thing that catches you asleep and what can you do about it? By the time anybody woke up to it, it was ipso facto. There was nothing that could be done. The IRS was sitting there chuckling, counting the money coming in and everyone was gnashing their teeth and there was nothing that could be done about it. You are dealing with a system that moves like that.  This is worldwide; not just the United States, but governments all over the world are doing this on a monopoly board. You have got to realize you either have a choice of going along with this and being caught up in this vortex, or somehow at your own level reaching some degree of protection so that at least you can minimize this ponderous effect of the rules and the rule changes. What I am trying to do, if I can, is to open your eyes, your consciousness, and your mind to what is happening so that you can redevise yourself to some degree so that you can see what is going to be needed.  

The thing that bothers me most, in all honesty, is the fact that the so called uneducated or under educated part of our society, the ones that normally take the blunt of all the negative conditions of major changes and control, will riot and rebel. That would be disastrous but I honestly can’t say to you that that is not within the realm of possibility because these are the people who usually get the worst conceivable end of the deal. They are the ones who’s paychecks reflect the tax bites, the cost of living, housing, the elderly who are on fixed incomes, and inner city people who are trapped in this thing. The more astute and intelligent the individual, the better the probably of having a fair fighting chance but, those who are not in that category may bring about an uprising and in that case you are in chaos. I’m not here to sound like some doomsday prophet but I also feel I’m a realist and the realistic view of this is that there is a potential possibility that we cannot ignore. This is a part of the survival scheme too. Can we live through that? The country may survive but you may be looking at the survival of a cripple and that is not survival at all.”  – Gregge Tiffen, 1984. 

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 3 – The World Systems – Being First

This is the first in an ongoing series of articles entitled The Dynamics. We begin with Time. 

“Time as you and I know is speeding up dramatically. This is not something that is just fancy and metaphysical.  We are actually moving vortexally at a faster rate of speed. The clocks haven’t changed nor has the calendar.  You look at a clock and for all intents and purposes, you are looking at 24 hours. You don’t have 24 hours in a day anymore. Literally even though the clock is registering 24 hours you are loosing minutes a month in actual space-time.  The clock (or science) per se, will never register this. But the fact of the matter is that if you look at a vortex that represents a cycle and that cycle is normally registered as 24 hours, we don’t have 24 hours anymore.

That cycle is now shorter and it’s beginning to shorten by minutes each month so that by the time we finish a decade we’re probably going to loose as much as 2 hours off the 24. Now this loss isn’t clock time, but it is actual creative time. Even now most of you, if not all of you, say “I don’t know where the day goes” or “I’ve got so much to do and I don’t seem to be able to get it done” and you look at whatever it is, your workload or scheduling or whatever you’ve got and you say “Gee, I haven’t scheduled more, I don’t necessarily seem to have a greater work load, but I don’t seem to be able to do all of these things that have to be done within the space of time that I’ve allotted.” The reason for this is that you just don’t have the time you think you have.

Add to this is the fact that you actually do see things speeding past you.  Everything is moving at a very rapid rate. Decisions are being made faster. Products come to market quicker. Businesses sprout up and die faster than they ever did before; today they’re open and tomorrow they’re closed. Scientific advances and discoveries are moving much faster. The space program is working far beyond its original timing limits, Ad infinitum!  Literally everything around you is moving more rapidly. It seems as if one minute you’re looking at a niece or nephew or child and think “Oh, isn’t he cute” at 6 months old and before you know it he’s a year and a half. You say, “where did all the time go or what happened to all this time?”  That’s pretty much the timing characteristics that we now face. It doesn’t rob you so much of time or creativity as it puts a pressure on you and your own particular tempo, or vortex if you like, to speed up to match it.

Now the problem for a lot of us, and in particular for the older generation, is that we’re not used to speeding up at that kind of rate. The background habit is that we meet circumstances that come up as quickly as we can. In between that circumstance and let’s say the next event there is breathing space. We kind of collect ourselves and get back to norm and then when the next crisis comes up we take care of it.

What is happening now is when one crisis finishes the next crisis begins.  There is no space in there that is enough space for us to recoup. We are on this speeding train so we don’t really have the marvelous time that we used to have to kind of lay back and watch the clouds go by, take a deep breath, put ourselves back together and get up and face the world again. By the time we’re laying down on the beach it starts to rain and we have to pull ourselves together and get up and do something about it.  That’s the kind of time we’re losing and consequently that literally produces an untold stress on the system, psychologically, physically and even spiritually. That’s why you may be observing around you and you yourself may be involved with, seeing people going off the deep end. Everybody is hanging from limbs. People are acting odd, they’re going crazy, weird things are happening and people are telling you that they can’t cope anymore.  Well, this is all part of that timing problem. 

The object of this condition and the result is not to wipe us out. The Universe is not making a move here to see how many people it can eliminate in a few decades. The object is to put you in a position to see whether you can take advantage of what amounts to a quantum leap forward in your development. And, in all honesty, you will never get another chance like this. One of the great things that you’ve got to see is that it is an opportunity no matter how it may appear to you. This is a real opportunity. And, if you can do well in this you’ve literally taken a masterful jump in growth, and I’m talking of course in terms of spiritual growth. You’re taking a jump as it relates to your learning lesson, your taking it as a spiritual being, and your taking it as consciousness. In effect you’re going to not only gain, but also really learn.  Literally learn a tremendous amount more than you’ve ever known before.  What you can learn during this time would be equal to four to five decades under so called normal circumstances.

Really, it’s a question at least in my way of thinking, of are you’re willing to meet the challenge and to take advantage of it because that is really what it comes down to. Being able to say all of this is well worth it because of the end result. A result, which you really can’t see at this point and can only assume, is going to mean more to you than what you really have to put out here in order to make all of this function.”  – Gregge Tiffen

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2 – The Dynamics of Survival. 

During my initial mystical training in the Far East, I learned that The Law of Independence and Individuality does not embrace emotion. The way I was taught in Tibet was “tough love” which is free of emotions because emotions are not clear or understandable. The rate of progress I made from that point on was left up to me. To accept an event as your opportunity to reveal more self honesty is the issue for effective and efficient rates of progress.

What happens if I live with the courage of my conviction of who and what I am, and I do not modify that to satisfy other people? Do I have the courage to make proper choices based on spiritual values not what I am told by society? How am I to live in this world without consciousness and the planet splitting me apart? How willing am I to deal with me and at the same time deal with external situations? How do I identify myself? Who am I to me? This is not simply ego conviction that makes modifications to get along. This is my self identity. This is my life as a totality. No one can give me the answers. The world and the Universe had been vying for my attention. Now I wanted the meaning behind the words. The time had come to LISTEN and accept the Seven Virtues as my internal strengths.

#1 SELF BELIEF:

The most rewarding part of aging is the realization that you have gone through many difficult life experiences, and you are still here. It makes little difference if this awareness comes when you are in your 20’s or in your 60’s. The point is, you have established a personal track record that allows you to view your accomplishments and your failures. You have known the uphill and downhill of your life, a view which now gives you reason to arrive at self conviction. Perhaps you haven’t always come out on top. What is important is that you have come through, and now you can take great pride in knowing that even under the worst of conditions, you can survive.

Now is the time to take stock of that personal strength. Occasionally, there may have been helping hands that kept you from falling, and you may want to recognize that but, in the end, it was your own determination and self conviction that finally brought you through. These accomplishments, even if they were part of commonplace events, have set an indelible record of accomplishment that should cause you to be proud. The climb up the mountain has been yours. Every hand-hold and every footprint has been made by you. You have lived your fears and doubts, and you have carried yourself over the top. The cheers or criticisms of those watching meant nothing. In the final surge, it was your own fortitude that brought you to the pinnacle of success.

#2 SELF CARING:

You are your own responsibility. You know this to be true because you have watched yourself in health and in sickness, joy and sorrow, and you know that you have been a real part of those realities. Even when it has not been what you wanted, you have not been able to live apart from yourself. With every heartbeat, the pulse of life records itself on every fiber of your being.

You are the result of being you. You cannot turn away from your reality. You cannot dissociate yourself from your feelings. You cannot abandon yourself. And, why would you wish to do so? In all the clang and clutter of life, you are your dearest possession. Every thought you have moves the tides of life. Every motion of your body shakes the mountains of mortality. You are the powerful microcosm of Universal macrocosmic explicitness.

There must be caring and protection for this alpha and omega we call Self. You cannot ignore that which is the personal vehicle of life experiences. Self denial is the bearer of arms against your greatest good. Self neglect is a microbe of destruction eating away at the spirit of your totality. Your uniqueness does not give leave for others to enter your space to heal, to dissect, or modify. You are your own best physician, your own best companion, your own best lover. To accept the responsibility for your own structure is both a requirement and a gift. Nowhere else will you find greater demand or greater satisfaction than that which the bloom of self caring can bring to the Garden of Life.

#3 SELF COMMITMENT:

And what should one do with all this power? What if there were no outlets, no way for the creative waters to spill out of the dam and irrigate the fields of life? What would be the result? A barren wasteland? A jungle of misshapen entities? A haven of half beings or ghostly apparitions? Certainly, it would not resemble Life as the Creator foresaw it.

It is incumbent upon you to take up your role as co-creator with the Universe. It is the great gift of Manifestation. It is the sunshine of opportunity that warms and nourishes every acre of our existence. Immobility is the blade of destruction that cuts off our legs and arms and leaves us helpless to take possession of our infinite good. You cannot wait for others to do the work, as they cannot wait for you. It is necessary for each person to commit to their own creation. Everyone sees a color differently, or a shape in a different projection. It is your individuality that Life depends upon to fulfill its infinite Plan. If you do not do your part, then a color or a shadow, so necessary for the picture of humanity, will be waiting.

Creativity has no element of failure in it. Perfection is not a goal. Self commitment is the totality of manifestation no matter how small or how great the outcome. You must be willing to wield the brush, swing the hammer, and ply the needle. You have been designated the co-creative light giver. You are needed.

#4 SELF APPLAUSE:

If there is no one inside of you but you, then who is to judge what you do? If you keep your thoughts to yourself, how can we assess their worth? If you create a body of work that fulfills your dreams, how can we tell if it is right? Only you can judge yourself. The trumpets of praise or the resonance of disapproval has no basis in fact to what you are doing. Those who cheer our efforts today will soon be tomorrow’s naysayers.

Self reward is the sibling of creativity. What is there to be gained if you create in darkness and in a vacuum? Shouts of approval and waves of satisfaction are rightfully anticipated. But these responses must be self initiated. If you cannot be gratuitous to your own labor, why should others be under obligation to respond? After all, we are not part of your creative process. How then can we be held accountable to approve the results?

You need to understand that every act is an accomplishment of some value. Nothing you do is too small or too large to be excluded from the creative mix. Everything is compared in the eye of the beholder, and you are that person. You need not drown yourself in self praise, but the denial to any degree of recognition results in a self-inflicted wound that is unlikely to heal. If your creative stroke is the inhaling of Universal Power, then self applause is the responsive exhale. If this interaction is not here, then the breath of life is stilled.

#5 SELF WORTH:

Who determines the value of a product or service? Obviously, the person providing the product or service becomes the authority that levies the cost for that item. Who then determines the value of you? If you are self-made, then you set the price. If you are made by some higher Power, then It sets your value. If you believe that your father and mother created you, then they set your worth. Difficult to determine, isn’t it?

It is apparent that it is folly to claim to have established the value of a person. If there is someone you love, you cherish them and no value would be too high. If there is someone who is loathsome to you, their value, in some form or another, is clearly diminished in your eyes. What one is worth by human or commercial standards becomes a highly arguable sum.

It is not irrational to suggest that you and you alone, should determine your own value. This is not something that lends itself to an hourly rate or a yearly stipend. Your value is totally dependent upon how you asses yourself. If you think you are not worth much, you clearly send that message to the rest of us. If, on the other hand, you have a high sense of value, we will see it in everything you do and say. The elements and parts that determine self worth are multitudinous. Remember, you are irreplaceable. How much do you think that should be treasured?

#6 SELF LOVE:

Praise, exaltation, and honor! This is what we willingly give to that which we recognize as the Higher Power in the Universe. In some forms, it shows as religious belief with all the accompanying pomp and radiance. In other forms, it can be quiet and indwelling in a space of personal hermitage. In either case, it is personal and unique to each person. It cannot be explained outwardly or illustrated with any accuracy. That is why self love is seen as a centerpiece at this exalted altar. Its reproduction with any precision is impossible.

This is an issue of the deepest meaning on every level of your being. It is not something that is discussed at afternoon tea, or over beer with the boys. It encapsulates your spirit and weaves together your dreams, your visions, and your manifestations. It is the method by which you talk to the Universe and hear Its response. To deny its existence or entertain a disbelief in its reality is to devalue yourself to such an extent that you lose all reason for being.

Self love is your secret garden. It can be enjoyed unto ecstasy, but it cannot be shared. It is your ultimate sound in the symphony of the Universe. It gives recording to your being, and a musical score that is essential to the production of life itself.

#7 SELF SATISFACTION:

You are an unquenchable flame. There is nothing you can do to yourself that will eradicate you from the Universal fabric. There is no damage you can do to your life that will separate you from the energy of existence. This is the Truth. This is the Law.

There is no reward for denying yourself. You will not receive any kind of Divine punishment, nor will you be handed over to a mythic monster in some furnace of damnation. Despite the ups and downs, you are a good person, and you have the right to be here.

Be happy with yourself. The joy you experience provides an indestructible armor against any misfortune. Your voice was meant to be a lullaby giving comfort to the weary and security to the young. You were meant to be the giver and the gift. Do not attempt to take that from yourself. It cannot be done any more than you can take the stars from the heavens. You have YOUR place in the Universe. Accept it with grace and good humor.

The rates of progress you make with yourself occur by an imposition of your will that expands upon your self identity….Gregge Tiffen