Sword-Neck is a technique I use when I need to perform some action which takes some raw courage. It's good for pushing through everyday fears, like asking a professor to wrap up a class when he's going over time, or approaching a cute girl. The way it works is pretty simple: visualize a sword, at the level of your neck, with the hilt just in front of your neck, and the blade pointing out in front of you. Visualize it and then go.
I've found the SwordNeck builds power the more often and effectively it is used. When I first started making use of it, I was still in the seduction community, and made a regular habit of going up to strange women and introducing myself. That took balls by itself, but once I integrated my neckblade into it, I had less excuse to chicken out. Fear might grip me and try to keep me from making a fool of myself, but I have no choice! The power of Swordneck compels!
So where'd I come up with such an outlandish idea? It's actually based on something I was reading in Ken McLeod's Wake Up To Your Life, a book about practical (non-religious) Buddhist meditations. I did what Ken advised against, and read ahead without taking the time (months) to actually work through the prescribed meditations. I couldn't help it... the book is like crack. Along with each meditation there are pages upon pages of commentary, seeping with the wisdom of thousands of years. The focus is on Tibetan Buddhism.
McLeod talks about five elements (this should be pretty familiar stuff to anyone who's ever played any RPG). Earth, water, fire, air, and void. Each element has a corresponding symbol. In that order, the symbols are the jewel, the mirror, the rose or lotus, the sword, and the circle of light. To each element is also associated a reactive pattern (a bad thing) and a quality (a good thing). And, because this system couldn't possibly be complete without it, there's also a body part for each item. I'll go ahead and summarize with a list.
Element: Bodypart; Reaction; Quality; Symbol
Earth: Lower Navel; Rigidity; Stability; Jewel
Water: Upper Navel; Fluidity; Clarity; Mirror
Fire: Heart; Consuming Intensity; Knowing; Rose
Air: Throat; Busyness; Effective Action; Sword
Void: Head; Dullness; Union; Circle of Light
When I encountered this, my initial thoughts were something like, "okay, so when does Tinkerbell appear in all this?" Reading through the meditations and commentaries, however, I was gradually converted. That's a common pattern when I read McLeod. He presents stuff which I resist fiercely, and then that resistance is slowly and surely broken down under the steady influence of the commentary. I've since come to notice this pattern in everything I experience: the more resistance I have to something, the more I end up growing from it. If Ken were writing about calculus and analytic geometry, topics to which I have zero resistance, then I'd gain nothing.
The main line there is the "Air" line. In that line we see busyness and effective action as two opposing sides of one element. This makes a lot of sense in my life. The way I spend my time usually falls into one of the two. I might keep myself very busy (including busyness with leisure activities like video games or music), and I accomplish nothing. Sometimes I'm even busy with an intention of accomplishing something, and yet nothing seems to end up getting done. Effective Action, on the other hand, is the idea of just pushing through all the distractions and doing what needs doing.
Example. Say you're a lonely guy and you want a girlfriend. There's a lot of busywork you could do, shopping for clothes, memorizing pickup lines, fiddling with your facebook profile, hanging out on dating forums, and so on. (I'm speaking from experience here, I didn't have my first girlfriend until 23 or 24!) But none of that will actually get you a girlfriend. Effective Action in this example is a state where you become very present and aware of what's going on all around you, including the subconscious scripts lulling you toward busywork. You ignore those scripts and do what you gotta do, which is go talk to some girls you like. Once you're talking with them, you stop thinking about what's the right thing to say or do, and just do it naturally.
And part of the meditation is, visualizing that saber jutting out from your throat.
I don't know whether this process really works because of five elementals and Tibetan traditions. I just got the basic picture from there, modified it a bit, and put it into practice. It's worked for me. I'm a pragmatist. If picturing pink elephants will help make me more successful, then by god, I'll mentally conjure me up some rosy-hued mammoths!
In fact, the elephants might even work just as well as the "vocal cord cutlass". I'm not going to rule out that it could be some sort of Pavlov's Dogs phenomenon, or even a placebo effect. Thing is, I don't care. You do what you can in this world.
Heck, part of the strength comes from my own fear of being proved wrong. If I'm in a situation where I need to marshal my courage, and I use this crazy Jedi mind trick (now a Jedi mind trick which I've written about on the Internet!) and it fails, that's a big ego shot. That gives me some motivation to not let it fail-- i.e., to go through with whatever I'm summoning the courage for!
The Sword-Neck is a very mighty tool. Be warned that when the protective patterns that keep us from totally controlling our actions start to unravel, there's a danger of making a fool of ourselves. Case in point. During my Tokyo trip, I decided to explore Tokyo University. I was very disappointed to find that unlike American universities, everything was totally sealed off from outsiders. (All the entrances even had signs forbidding me from entering. Of course these were written in Japanese, which I could have pretended not to know how to read, if caught.) I was able to get into the library lobby, but to get in the library proper, you had to swipe your card to make a little gate open. I waited for one of the students to swipe his card. Then, invoking the Power of Air, I followed one step behind him. Unfortunately when the Japanese wanna keep you out, they're dead serious, and the gate slammed shut on me very awkwardly. It was quite embarrassing-- a mis-application of "Right Action". But then, the alternative would be living the rest of my life wondering what would've happened if I'd made a run at that gate!
FURTHER READING
I wish I'd known how to conquer all my fears like this while I was serving in the military. Read about the trials I had to face there in my series, Air Force Boot Camp.
Are you, also, a pragmatist? Someone who doesn't really care how it works, or even if it's a placebo, so long as it gets the job done? Then check out the article, Models Of Reality.
Just in case you've miraculously conquered all your fear so far, here's a challenge that might get the ol' phobia factories working again: Four Reasons To Go Homeless By Choice.
I've found the SwordNeck builds power the more often and effectively it is used. When I first started making use of it, I was still in the seduction community, and made a regular habit of going up to strange women and introducing myself. That took balls by itself, but once I integrated my neckblade into it, I had less excuse to chicken out. Fear might grip me and try to keep me from making a fool of myself, but I have no choice! The power of Swordneck compels!
So where'd I come up with such an outlandish idea? It's actually based on something I was reading in Ken McLeod's Wake Up To Your Life, a book about practical (non-religious) Buddhist meditations. I did what Ken advised against, and read ahead without taking the time (months) to actually work through the prescribed meditations. I couldn't help it... the book is like crack. Along with each meditation there are pages upon pages of commentary, seeping with the wisdom of thousands of years. The focus is on Tibetan Buddhism.
, a book about practical (non-religious) Buddhist meditations. I did what Ken advised against, and read ahead without taking the time (months) to actually work through the prescribed meditations. I couldn't help it... the book is like crack. Along with each meditation there are pages upon pages of commentary, seeping with the wisdom of thousands of years. The focus is on Tibetan Buddhism.McLeod talks about five elements (this should be pretty familiar stuff to anyone who's ever played any RPG). Earth, water, fire, air, and void. Each element has a corresponding symbol. In that order, the symbols are the jewel, the mirror, the rose or lotus, the sword, and the circle of light. To each element is also associated a reactive pattern (a bad thing) and a quality (a good thing). And, because this system couldn't possibly be complete without it, there's also a body part for each item. I'll go ahead and summarize with a list.
Element: Bodypart; Reaction; Quality; Symbol
Earth: Lower Navel; Rigidity; Stability; Jewel
Water: Upper Navel; Fluidity; Clarity; Mirror
Fire: Heart; Consuming Intensity; Knowing; Rose
Air: Throat; Busyness; Effective Action; Sword
Void: Head; Dullness; Union; Circle of Light
When I encountered this, my initial thoughts were something like, "okay, so when does Tinkerbell appear in all this?" Reading through the meditations and commentaries, however, I was gradually converted. That's a common pattern when I read McLeod. He presents stuff which I resist fiercely, and then that resistance is slowly and surely broken down under the steady influence of the commentary. I've since come to notice this pattern in everything I experience: the more resistance I have to something, the more I end up growing from it. If Ken were writing about calculus and analytic geometry, topics to which I have zero resistance, then I'd gain nothing.
The main line there is the "Air" line. In that line we see busyness and effective action as two opposing sides of one element. This makes a lot of sense in my life. The way I spend my time usually falls into one of the two. I might keep myself very busy (including busyness with leisure activities like video games or music), and I accomplish nothing. Sometimes I'm even busy with an intention of accomplishing something, and yet nothing seems to end up getting done. Effective Action, on the other hand, is the idea of just pushing through all the distractions and doing what needs doing.
Example. Say you're a lonely guy and you want a girlfriend. There's a lot of busywork you could do, shopping for clothes, memorizing pickup lines, fiddling with your facebook profile, hanging out on dating forums, and so on. (I'm speaking from experience here, I didn't have my first girlfriend until 23 or 24!) But none of that will actually get you a girlfriend. Effective Action in this example is a state where you become very present and aware of what's going on all around you, including the subconscious scripts lulling you toward busywork. You ignore those scripts and do what you gotta do, which is go talk to some girls you like. Once you're talking with them, you stop thinking about what's the right thing to say or do, and just do it naturally.
And part of the meditation is, visualizing that saber jutting out from your throat.
I don't know whether this process really works because of five elementals and Tibetan traditions. I just got the basic picture from there, modified it a bit, and put it into practice. It's worked for me. I'm a pragmatist. If picturing pink elephants will help make me more successful, then by god, I'll mentally conjure me up some rosy-hued mammoths!
In fact, the elephants might even work just as well as the "vocal cord cutlass". I'm not going to rule out that it could be some sort of Pavlov's Dogs phenomenon, or even a placebo effect. Thing is, I don't care. You do what you can in this world.
Heck, part of the strength comes from my own fear of being proved wrong. If I'm in a situation where I need to marshal my courage, and I use this crazy Jedi mind trick (now a Jedi mind trick which I've written about on the Internet!) and it fails, that's a big ego shot. That gives me some motivation to not let it fail-- i.e., to go through with whatever I'm summoning the courage for!
The Sword-Neck is a very mighty tool. Be warned that when the protective patterns that keep us from totally controlling our actions start to unravel, there's a danger of making a fool of ourselves. Case in point. During my Tokyo trip, I decided to explore Tokyo University. I was very disappointed to find that unlike American universities, everything was totally sealed off from outsiders. (All the entrances even had signs forbidding me from entering. Of course these were written in Japanese, which I could have pretended not to know how to read, if caught.) I was able to get into the library lobby, but to get in the library proper, you had to swipe your card to make a little gate open. I waited for one of the students to swipe his card. Then, invoking the Power of Air, I followed one step behind him. Unfortunately when the Japanese wanna keep you out, they're dead serious, and the gate slammed shut on me very awkwardly. It was quite embarrassing-- a mis-application of "Right Action". But then, the alternative would be living the rest of my life wondering what would've happened if I'd made a run at that gate!
FURTHER READING
I wish I'd known how to conquer all my fears like this while I was serving in the military. Read about the trials I had to face there in my series, Air Force Boot Camp.
Are you, also, a pragmatist? Someone who doesn't really care how it works, or even if it's a placebo, so long as it gets the job done? Then check out the article, Models Of Reality.
Just in case you've miraculously conquered all your fear so far, here's a challenge that might get the ol' phobia factories working again: Four Reasons To Go Homeless By Choice.
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