I think he is right, but that he does not go far enough. It seems to me that we all crave direction, and in the moral sphere the only directions can be away from or towards our moral goals. A personality based on a chosen goal is characterized by a deep qualitative order I have called “Telearchy” which provides a sense of relief and freedom in and of itself from the burdens of confusion, self pity, and an unstable sense of what to do in life.
Within (W)holotropic Breathwork, the goal is definitionally Wholeness, and the means of moving towards it the liberation of what they term the Inner Healer. For those who are hurt–pretty much all of us–release from the prison of self defeating, deeply imbedded, generally unconscious behavioral and emotive patterns is wholesome, invigorating, and useful.
Doing my meditation this morning, though, it occurred to me that if a wound is concave emotionally–if it represents the intrusion of the outside world in such a way that a permanent change has been affected–then there ought to be the emotional equivalent of a convex curve as well. We can in fact intrude into the world, from the inside out.
Joy, as an example, can be infectious. Optimism, love, excitement: all can be spread. What you need to do this is a superabundance of these traits, such that you are not only not deficient in them, but so profoundly filled with them that you cannot but spread your abundance.
In my view healing wounds is only half of what humans are capable of. We are capable of becoming human dynamos, sources of light and healing energy. I have at times felt strong currents flowing through me, and my goal is to build this flow as well as I can, which in my case will first consist in meeting my own emotional needs well enough that I am never an asshole (a counterfactual statement, regrettably, at the moment), and that I am able to achieve consistent congruence between thought, word and deed (also not currently a salient element in my own life).
I used the word guru in one sense a few posts ago. I will use it in another way. Let us suppose that everyone is emotionally wounded, or at least incomplete in some way. They are not sufficient unto themselves. They cannot act as radiant lights without context, without emotional support, without people who understand them.
It seems to me there is a limit to what can be achieved within a mass of people, each of whom needs some section of the others for optimal functioning. Do there not need to be those who are “self-born”, who regulate their own destinies, who can give without taking? I feel there do, those who can move but not be moved. We might follow Aristotle, and place their final reliance on God, however we define the referent of this word. I am fine with that.
Such people, though, I would also call “heavy” (guru), and certainly teachers.