Step #3

Love is a Battlefield (link).

You've thrown off all of the inessentials, mapped out your world's weaknesses and strengths, now you're ready to head straight into the belly of the beast and battle some petty tyrants.

This is where warriors get tested. You won't win every battle. If you didn't master discipline, you'll probably give up and quit or, worse, you'll win and join the petty tyrants around you. But, you can also choose to master this step: forbearance. Forbearance is continuing onwards without getting discouraged or impatient. Here is where you get tempered. Don Juan said a warrior knows he is waiting and what he is waiting for -- that was the joy of the warrior. You are waiting to be perfected by the forces which are pounding you while you stay aware like a samurai.

You may walk into the mayor's office, for example, and get told that the mayor won't be able to see you now. Or you may confront that bully you had in high school and he finds some other weakness you didn't know you had. You must keep learning. You take your failures, keep getting up and trying something else. Every fortress has a weakness. As Godel showed, every system of order has a weakness (doesn't matter if it's the law, computer software, or a nuclear arsenal). Through forbearance, you are constructing your "Godel sentence" which will topple the power that holds the adversary in place. And that's exactly what holds them: their obsessive routines with the Known. But you've already thrown off all that baggage.

The petty tyrant is the secret to gaining enlightenment in one lifetime, rather than 100 of them. Your stupidity, ignorance, obsessions, and the obsessions of everyone else are the walls of the Crucible. The petty tyrant is the heat. You are learning to be in harmony with your own self, transmuting yourself into gold through higher awareness. You must keep getting back up, but you don't have to keep fighting. Sometimes you have to retreat for awhile and let your spirit temper a little, cool down, like annealing steel.

As you do this, XXXyou will be mastering the warrior's controlled folly. This little bluff of controlled folly is the gate of the dam you've built with control and discipline. Only then can you use it, because until then they are on top of you. Forbearance becomes its strength. The stronger you've forged these three, the greater the result when the time comes. And that's the next step.

When you've found your line into the world of power, you're ready for your next move.

Step #4: Timing.

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