[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Seth 2

impaul99, I recognize your frustration. I knew you were in for trouble when I saw your “armwrestling scenario” question. It’s like you’re trying to pigeonhole Steve into answering ONE way, so you can feel like “ah-ha, I get it now.” But no matter how you try to pin him down, he evades you every time.

I was at a training course last weekend, where the teacher was asked a question. She answered "Perhaps." The student re-phrased the question. She answered "Yes, I understand what you're asking. The answer is perhaps." So the student tried again and got the same answer.

I'm going to label Steve's answers to me as "Non-responsive." just like the teacher. Why did the teacher not respond to the student? Because the question wasn't relevant to the test we were preparing for, and the answer would just confuse the student even more. Also, on a few questions I know that the teacher wasn't allowed to answer due to regulations. Also, I also know on some of the questions she didn't even know the answer, but instead of saying "I don't know." she just said "Perhaps." Such is the nature of teachers.

What are you trying to do? To me, it looks like you’re trying to fit Steve’s ideas into your own belief system. You sound like you’ve read a ton of material, and you’re trying to weave it all together into some masterpiece.

Absolutely. The formula I follow is to learn something new, understand it, see if it has an empowering effect on my life, if so incorporate it, if not - discard it. I do not judge, however, if something doesn't fit into my life. I am well aware of the fact that not everything that empowers me will empower others. I only seek to understand.

Think of Bruce Lee’s thing about the cups. If you want to fill your cup with Steve’s cup, you must first empty yours. Stop trying to fit EVERYTHING into your cup. You can’t! Does that help?

Yes, Bruce Lee is a personal hero of mine. He also said that Jeet Kune Do must mould itself around you, you should not mould yourself around Jeet Kune Do.

I will never "empty my cup" and fill it with someone elses beliefs if they don't make sense to me. Steve's Blog is "Personal Development for Smart People". I do not believe he expects his readers to just take what he says at face value, without questioning it, without asking questions about it, etc. I think he expects his readers to only take that which makes sense to them. If not, he would disable comments on his posts, and would have never started a forum to discuss his posts. If he just wanted people to take what he says as Gospel, he would be a preacher not a teacher, and I don't think that's what he intends.

I would never do that to anyone. I always like to tell people to use their own common sense and take what they like, and discard the rest. If you don't do that you'll end up with some schmuck who jumps off the building and kills himself leaving a note saying "I totally understood your article, and I no longer believe in gravity so I decided to test it out. Hope this works!"

I agree that it sounds like Steve has reduced his beliefs to “Everyone is a droplet in the ocean of consciousness. You’re both an ocean and a droplet, get it?” I find that very under-whelming. But it doesn’t matter. I like reading Steve’s writing.

I kind of have this question when reading personal development material. It is "So what? How does this empower/help me or anyone else?" If it doesn't, I just label it as "Interesting, but not very useful for me right now."

I don't read Steve's Blog for entertainment. I can go and watch a movie for that, or play a video game or hang out with my wife, or go outside and play. I read his blog in hopes that I learn something. That goes for anything else I read. So I'm not trying to be harsh, I'm just saying that I try to get as much value as I can from his material. That is why I ask questions if I don't understand something.

Here, try this perspective: Can you read Steve’s blog and just enjoy it? Stop trying to understand everything and sort everything out. You’re only entangling yourself worse in a web of logic. Do you see that more logic is not going to help you?

Can't. My brain is broken. It wants to understand everything. It's like I was born that way or something. It doesn't mean I have to only understand things logically, but I do try to understand things.

I’m certain Angela was being authentic in her last post, but as a passive-aggressive argument, it’s a stunning work of art. She appears to ignore the heated discussion in the thread, but compliments Steve on the exact points you are missing! “I also enjoy the tone you manage -- I'm not sure exactly how you do it -- of confiding in your reader, "this is what works for me, and I'm happy to talk about it with you, AND you are free to take it or leave it." It's a friendly tone! And it contrasts starkly with a "This is The Truth" approach.” Zing!

If you understand Angela’s post, then you’ll see that taking a “This is The Truth” or even a “What is The Truth” approach with Steve will always fail. Take it from me!

Point taken.

In the end, after all this discussion I came to the realization that Steve and I are pretty much describing the exact same thing from two different points of view. The important things we agree on are:

(1) Anything is possible.
(2) All limits are self imposed.
(3) All physical matter, energy, thoughts, and everything else exists within a container, and that container is consciousness.
(4) Can Steve defy the laws of gravity and fly? Perhaps.
(5) Would Paul win an arm wrestle with Steve? Most definitely. He can fly over here if he doesn't believe me.
(6) The most powerful force in the universe is a sense of humour.