A Look at What Matters Most by James Hollis PHD Part 3 - CH 7, 8 That We Live Verbs, Not Nouns, That We Find and Follow the Path of Creativity and Delight in Foolish Passions

Chapter 7 - That We Live Verbs, Not Nouns

Quite a thick chapter, Hollis thoroughly sought to expound upon what he felt was a significant concept.
Namely; that our minds tend to desire fixed constructs to live within and through, but that nature often
is not this way.  

“All of us carry fixed, reified assumptions about the nature of reality.” Yet, Hollis challenges us that
once people believed certain things (for example, that the earth was flat), only later, with much resistance
towards forward-thinking men, to change their minds and discover that things were not as they first had
seemed (the earth is round). Over time our thinking has continually evolved thus, ever expanding our
views.

“The ego's agitated agenda is to live in a world of comforting nouns, that is, fixed identities,
counters on the table to be moved at will, predictable entities that can be controlled, maneuvered
and contained. And all the while the ego really swims in a sea of verbs. That is, not things fixed,
but things happening. And ego tripping over this fact from time to time, grows all the more unsettled,
anxious…”

It’s natural for us to fear change. It is much easier to stick with unchangeable nouns that give us a sense
of security or comfort in our lives, but there will always then be a tension, a challenge welling up within us
to open up to possibility. 

“It is our natural tendency -within me as much as the next person- to want to reify, fix, harden,
locate the world, and pin it down, in order to control it. As natural as this need is, it may also
be the chief source of our misunderstanding, our alienation from the world and from the
mysterious energies that inform it..., Nowhere is this tendency to domination greater than in
the Wester world. We have gained great sovereignty over our natural environment but seem
more and more uprooted and unhappy.all the time. The classical Easter view that all is in flux,
that the point is to be present with the present and to ‘go with the flow’, is a tempting but bitter
pill to swallow.”

Fear of change overwhelms our higher selves and professed principles. We would much rather put
meaning into an organized form, instead of mystery. Yet Hollis warns us that:

“When the form is worshipped, the God is "dead," that is, the energic mystery that gave it life
is supplanted by human constructs.”

Hollis iterates that we all find ourselves at ‘comfort way-stations’ along our life journey, but that when
we are compelled towards greater avenues of growth, we may often be met with resistance by others. 

“Spontaneous observation threatens the group, for they are not interested in exploration but in
finding certainty, less concerned about enlargement through personal, original insight than in
the more secure validation of external authority.” 

Let’s not forget Socrates, who In 399 BC, went on trial and was subsequently found guilty of both
corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety (asebeia, "not believing in the gods of the
state"), and as a punishment sentenced to death, caused by the drinking of a mixture containing poison
hemlock (en.wikipedia,org)

Thankfully justice has transformed into more true forms of analysis for determining one’s fate, based on
what is truly lawful for the betterment of humankind. Yet Socrates is a prime example of the extreme
hardship that living our true selves could entail. We can’t be dissuaded in our desire for growth, for “we
are nouns in our conscious life but, in our journey through time and space we are all verbs.” There is no
way to hold back the flow of our unconscious needs if they are what are meant to become.

CHAPTER 8 That We Find and Follow the Path of Creativity and Delight in Foolish Passions

Extrapolating upon the previous chapter, Hollis wishes to indulge us in the numinous presence that
various inspirations gift to us. They are the motivating factors that move us towards growth, renewal,
rebirth and creation. When this happens we must appreciate and respect them for what they are. Do
not bury them away in some small place of ourselves.

“If such images in form speak to us, occasion resonance, then they express in outer form some
analogue to what lies within. To those things that do not resonate within us, we are indifferent, no
matter what the endorsement by fashion, popular taste, or vested authority. Such stirring within
must be respected, for it is a movement of soul whose vagaries can never, nor should, be
subsumed by mere practicality.”

In some instances, an experience may be so enlightening that we may be enamored so as to feel
‘possessed’ by it. With his gloriously poetic prose, Hollis reminds us to be careful regarding discerning
between limiting complexes, and those resonant experiences that truly encourage our future benefit.

“It is of profound importance, of course, to know the difference between being possessed by a
God and possessed by a complex. Men who have fallen in love, or acted violently, learned too
late to consider the difference. To be possessed by a complex is to have our ego consciousness
owned by a split-off aspect of ourselves. To be possessed by a God, so to speak, is to be
summoned to an obedience to something higher. Even then, we have to ask which God? What
choices? What circumstances?”

“Of any possession we have to ask, "what does it ask of me?" And "what are the consequences
of this imperative?"... do we not have to attend the distinction between what the gods ask of us
and what our ethical responsibilities are? After all great atrocities have been committed in the
name of various gods, or maniacal enthusiasms.”

“We do not choose our enthusiasms; they choose us. .. We can acquire an enthusiasm, learn it
from someone else, of course, be influenced by those around us, but if it does not occasion
resonance within us, it will be a passing fancy. Resonance means to resound, to set off echoes
within us, to preserverate within, as a tuning fork hums long after it is struck. Whenever we
experience resonance, something continues to hum for us.”

Our souls may be taken with a person, an idea, inspired by a piece of art, song, film or writing. We may
feel it tug at our unconscious; luring resonant emotion and thoughts to the surface, towards realizing
something numinous and purposeful in ourselves. Like a dream coming to reality.

Hollis presents a very relevant example for our modern Western minds in the form of Cynthia, an
investment banker. Cynthia has been having dreams that indicate that, though her mother has been
dead for some time, a “mother complex” has been hindering her decision to change her career, a
career that she emotionally outgrew long ago. There are indications that Cynthia wishes to be more
adventurous and take the risk to author a new biography for her life.

“What stands in the way is not an outer obstacle, but an inner impediment, namely, an
archaic message to please her parents, and to avoid risk… For Cynthia, her
developmental dilemma is whether she will surrender to the creative desire of her own
psyche to end one form of her journey and begin another, or succumb to the admonitions
of the past. Tapping into her emergent enthusiasm will re-energize her and confuse all
her financial colleagues, who will be puzzled why someone would slay the cash cow she
currently milks.. But for many deep inside they will also envy her for what she has
discovered.”

It is far from an easy task to let go of one’s sense of security and risk a creative new endeavor.
It means sacrificing a part of ourselves, letting go and trusting ourselves towards a new future.
If we don’t accept it, plan for and prepare our way forward though, then our unconscious minds
will find a way to insist upon change. This will throw us into a disorienting turmoil where we must
change our thinking. Oftentimes this contains a measure of grief as we are forced to let go of our
previous plans and hopes. 

“As we know, life is a series of passages. In every passage there is a death of some sort,
the death of naivete, the death of a dependency, the death of an understanding of self
and world. And, after that death, there is often a terrible "in-between" , sometimes lasting
years. Our ego understandably does not cotton to the idea of anything dying: vested as it
is in it's own security and maintenance, it will prolong, resist, deny, as long as it can, the
dismantling of the old. The terrible in-between is what often brings people into therapy,
for they feel very much alone and ineffective in restoring the former sovereignty of the
ego... The good news and bad news are both the same: we are asked to die. Only
through this death can our natural creativity enact its developmental plan. Sounds easy
in theory, but not so easy to go through. Nonetheless, if one can step back and see that
this is the nature of nature, that our own psyche is directing these deaths in order to bring
us to the next date, we might, from time to time, facilitate rather than resist the creative
process.”

“Tragedy is such a devalued concept in our time. Actually, it is a heroic sensibility, a
summons to consciousness, and admonition to greater reverence for the gods. We are
raised up, serve as playthings to the gods, fall, and then the responsibility for such a
tumble is ours, we are told. Wait a moment, how is that our faults, we who so casually
confuse Fate with Destiny? Fate is what is given to us; Destiny is what we are summoned
to become. In the interplay of the two, human character plays a role. Hubris, or the
fantasy that we know enough to know enough, seduces us towards choices that lead to
unintended consequences. Hamartia, the failure to see clearly enough, to see humbly
enough, is a lens through which we imperfectly envision the world, unavoidably distorting
and reductive, but convincing at the moment nonetheless.”

So, we must accept, we must grieve, we must forgive ourselves, and let go. After this, one may
have no idea how to rebuild. Create though, we must and, we will! Hollis assures us that “When
we are doing what is right for us, the psyche provides enthusiasm that is, the energy, to support
investment in life.”

“THE CREATIVE PROCESS is found in all of us, and also asks so much of us. It comes
to us as symptoms that embody hidden corrective, compensatory dreams, depressions
that tell us that the psyche will no longer cooperate with our faulty choices, and so on.
The creative process always asks for the death of some old attitude, which is why we
resist our growth and development so often that something else has to take over, or our
children have to carry out the unfinished project for us. What we may also have not
considered along the way is that every time we have shunned our summons to creativity,
left undeveloped a talent or capacity, we have thereby removed that gift from the world.
Our gift to the world is honored by bringing our best self to it: paradoxically, we do that
by sacrificing ego comforts to our creative process, which, killing off the old, drives the
project that we are forward.”

Creativity is all part of the process. It is there whether we are aware or not, but be aware! Be the
author of your vision, direct it the way you want it to go, and have fun with it! This is your life! 

FOOLISH PASSIONS- “They may only be foolish to the world, but they are not foolish
to our souls, or they would not have the power to attract libido, mobilize and guide its
vecters. There's a big difference between wasting time - our pop culture offers a vast
arena of possibilities for doing so - and having a Passion.”

So, be careful: Is this interest increasing you? Do you feel a sense of momentum when you
engage in it? Does it further inspire? Does it energize you? Don’t waste your energies on things
that eat your time, energy and spirit. Instead, What are your strengths? What opens up your
mind, your heart, and broadens your horizons? Who cares what anyone else thinks: this is you!
Your life. Don't think that other's won't appreciate it either. There will always be someone out
there who finds worth in what you do. A kindred spirit who needs to be reminded that this
interest is important too.

“If we do not create our own myth, we will be enslaved to someone else's”.

“The word Passio is the Latin word for "suffering". A passion is something we feel so deeply,
so intensely that it hurts, yet much of worth comes from such a hurt. All of us have passions,
but because they, too, ask much of us, we often dissemble, slip-slide away, and leave them
along the road behind us.”

“Goethe’s personal motto was Dauer im Wechseln - ‘what abides amid change.’ So, what provides continuity amid our sundry discontinuities? Certainly the Self abides our constant deaths. Our cells divide, die, generate at a slowing pace, and we are not the same bodies now as the moment before. Memory helps, but we cannot even answer the simple question “Of what are we unconscious?” Yet there are, from time to time, points of reference, benchmarks, lines drawn from which we get a provisional baseline, a fleeting summons to the next goal, a moment’s thought that this absurd, arbitrary game we call out lives might actually mean something. Sometimes a foolish passion opens a slit into the mystery. And, as Louis Armstrong said of jazz, those who have to have it explained to them will never know.”