There comes a point, a reckoning in all of our lives
where we simply say – enough
I must learn to think my own thoughts
I must discover the way to compassion
on my own terms,
but not just “own” as in alone,
but on my own, within the context of community itself…
Humanity has spent a long long long time, oh… about 8,000 years fixated on a punishment and reward framework. If we are good, we get good stuff and heaven, if we are bad, we get bad stuff and hellishness.
If this were true, our planet would not be in the peril it is in right now – because those harming it generation after generation would have already reaped what they sewed. So what is going on?
Logically we know the punishment-reward paradigm doesn’t quite work, but our brains are still stuck in this pattern. This pattern enforces avoiding suffering in order to experience less pain or achieve more gain. It is competitive by nature and has scarcity built into it.
I personally feel this way of thinking is quite dangerous to our development as a species and actually keeps us in isolation when we could explore together what to do next as a group of loving humans. This looping keeps us trapped in a quasi-deterministic worldview without even really choosing it. Punishment and reward are just there operating in the background, almost all traditions are seeping in that teapot. What else might there be to create a more generative brew?
What is our motivation at this time? What is YOUR big why?
Are you stuck in punishment and reward thinking?
Let’s get a little uncomfortable today. Just a little… The kind of discomfort I call us to is designed to lead to breakthrough, not breakdown. But first, let’s see how we feel about it together.
Red Thread Letter #899
Beyond Punishment and Reward
Cloud Temple – Acrylic on Canvas
Painting by Shiloh Sophia – Email for pricing
Hi Dear One,
I am sitting here this morning, October 7 writing this to you. I am thinking of you and what you are navigating in your life and what I am navigating in mine. I vacillate between a feeling of pure joy to get to do my work and also fear for the future, our planet and our sweet world.
I know for sure that my part, or what we call the ‘red thread’ is to guide us to wake up, so that we can be present and make choices from consciousness.
Reading this and getting it, is kind of like breaking an ancient spell. This invites your own consciousness to show you what you are not seeing and to choose.
So get a cuppa. Take ten minutes and tune in. I suggest reading it out loud or you can hear me say it HERE – I spoke it and then had it transcribed. The intention is to stir you to your own awareness. Using poetic language can support the brain in moving just off of the usual pattern enough to see something fresh arise. Let’s see.
Beyond Punishment and Reward
by Shiloh Sophia
Dear One,
When you think of the word
and the meaning of UP,
What’s the very next word
that comes to mind?
Is it DOWN, or something else?
And if it was something else,
what would it be?
When you think of the word…RIGHT?
What do you think of next?
Do you think of the opposite?
Do you think of LEFT
or do you think of WRONG?
Where does your mind naturally go to
when you consider words that have meanings,
that appear to have opposite potentials?
When you think of the word HERE,
As in I’m here,
then where are YOU?
Or where am I?
Are we also HERE?
Are we THERE?
Are we over THERE?
(Where is there?)
When you think of suffering,
(and the opposite of suffering)
What comes to mind?
What comes to heart?
Is it pleasure
or the release of suffering?
We’ve largely been living in
an enforced either/or construct,
even though we’re all aware of AND.
Every concept has a spectrum of possibility.
Yet humans through education
and certain religions have come to
create a kind of forced polarity
competition and separation
This has resulted in a way of thinking
and being that could be
an illusion…
What do you think?
Does it feel like an illusion,
the vacillation between the either/or?
For this politician or not for this politician,
for this vaccination or not for this vaccination,
a good person or not a good person
Even when we generalize
about regions of the world,
this state is that color,
this state is that color.
and that means what?
Generalizations about entire countries
as if that somehow impacts
the soul of each person…
Does it? What do you think?
How much sovereignty does
the individual have
in determining their identity
and their outcomes
and what is the path of practice
or the way to determine one’s relationship
with one’s identity?
Can we truly author it?
Or are we just simply stuck with
what ended up happening
based on our life story?
Do we truly reap what we sow?
We want to think so,
but then we wonder how people who are sewing
terrible things like the poisoning of water,
the extraction of gas
through the blowing up of rocks
We want to think that, what?
What do you want to think about
those activities? (or the people)
The riddle of being is here
We can’t understand how someone
who could be a part of extraction
that leads to collapse…
How could they do that?
Don’t they also have a family
and why are they not
reaping what they’re sewing
or experiencing the karmic wheel sooner?
Why aren’t they stopped
before they do more damage?
Sometimes we wish punishment was quicker,
whether we acknowledge it secretly or otherwise
What way do you live?
How do you go about your day
from waking, to dressing, to eating,
to walking, to working,
to being with the pets and the children,
and your lover, your mother, your father?
What approach
is it chosen
or a default setting?
I don’t know about you all,
but I’m interested in exploring
something other than
up/down, here/there
good/bad, left/ right
and the punishment and reward structures
that has been seeped so deeply
into our consciousness
Such that
we can barely get out from under it
to think an original thought
When I think of my path of practice,
starting with leaving the corporate world,
leaving the corporate education system,
going to the mountain to study at the age of 24
now being 52 and
what have I got to show for myself
other than a chosen approach?
But I guess that’s what I was looking for
An approach,
an approach I call Intentional Creativity,
which isn’t just a way of making art,
but actually a way of living life
And at the root of it is inquiry
into questioning ourselves, our thoughts,
our defaults, our hopes, our dreams, our desires,
our relationship with suffering,
our very relationship with up and down
and not just to arrive at a middle path,
a place of neutrality or even inner peace
when the rest of the world is at war,
but actually to just
be at cause
for doing the thinking at all
For asking the question,
How might I free my own identity
from the punishment and reward structures
set up by power-over systems,
by people I wouldn’t invite to my dinner table?
Why would I allow the worldview of people
I wouldn’t want to share a meal with,
to shape my consciousness any further
then I absolutely had to..?
There comes a point…
a reckoning in all of our lives
where we simply say
~ enough ~
I must learn to think my own thoughts
I must discover the way to compassion
on my own terms,
but not just own as in alone,
but on your own
within the context of community itself,
there’s a continuity here
There’s a morphic field that’s been building
many, many, many, many years,
many thousands of people practicing
And there’s an opportunity
for the kind of discovery and waking
and being that I know many of us seek
Because you tell me
and because I seek it with you
So let us go forward together
on a path of practice, in inquiry, discernment,
the awakening of true compassion
and the exit in each our own time
from punishment and reward.
What fertile deep, delicious place might exist
if we weren’t always trying to
avoid suffering in this life or the next
or achieve reward in this life or the next?
What is there
when you remove that illusion
and you sit right in the center of self
or in my case,
I meditate standing
So when I stand right in the center of my myself,
it helps me stay alert to be in standing meditation
and inquiry and ask the impossible questions
of my heart and invite those along my red thread
to journey with me
I know there are more places for us
to explore together
and I’ll be with you providing encouragement
for our journey
Big love, big love, big, beautiful love
coming to you from right where I am here
to right where you are, here, in my heart
P.S. You might wonder what I meant about breaking an ancient spell. When we are living in a paradigm that has been so unconscious for generations, we may not be fully aware that we are living in it. I think this becomes a kind of spell we are mired in. Maybe the punishment and reward framework hasn’t been a spell for you, but it has been for me and many thousands I’ve worked with.
For you, what kind of spell do you need to break today?
