Peaches, Alignment, 5 Rules

"What is the best way to avoid suffering?" I asked Michele McCarthy. "Go for what you most want," she said. "If that thing doesn't make money -- like, say you want a theatre in rural Eastern Europe -- then you have to set up your life to generate the money somewhere else."

"Even when you're going for what you want, you'll have to do things you don't want to do," she continued. "I want the world to all live in Greatness. So I have to sell. I have to write. I have to live with uncertainty. I don't like any of those things. But I am willing to do them, because they are on the path of what I want." She paused.

"The surest way to suffer is to NOT do what you want," she said. "I know lots of unhappy people with money."

This way, you get the peach. It may be expensive. But not nearly as expensive as not getting the peach.



You can solve for whatever you want. But if you don't say what you REALLY want, all the solving in the world won't get it for you.

I dreamt last night that I was talking with Kipley, who in real life is wrestling with this same thing. He looked just like himself, except he was a light-skinned black guy. We were preparing to make a movie, listing people and tasks. Kipley was going to be everything except the DP, but somehow there were still a lot of slots to fill. We talked about how beautiful Bertolucci's The Last Emperor was, who the DP was on that, & how could we get him. That morphed to us working on whiteboards and laptops. Which morphed to Karin driving us in her blue pickup truck to the first shooting location. We talked nonstop the whole time about theatre, greatness, and money.

The McCarthy's have an Alignment protocol that goes:

1. What do you want?

2. What's blocking you from getting that?

3. What quality or virtue, if you had it, would dissolve that block?

4. What actions can you do now, as proof that you are practicing that virtue daily?

5. What will it look like -- how will the world be different -- when you are done? When you have absorbed that virtue & are demonstrating it in full flower?

Well, I was stuck on even being able to say what I want. So the first problem I tackled is, what's blocking me from THAT? I realized:

I'm not actually stuck on HOW to get what I want. I'm stuck on being willing to love myself enough to have it.

Figuring THAT out took a lot of work. Naming the problem correctly is half the solution. So that's what I asked for help on this weekend -- love. Lots of good ideas from Jim & Michele McCarthy, and the Diva Team. Asking for help is a meta-way of loving yourself.

A related tool which helps me over a longer arc is Kirby Shelstad's 5 Rules for Manifestation:

1. Say what you want. Be as clear and specific as possible."I want to go to art school" is hard for the universe-- and you -- to grasp. It is much easier to deal with, "I want to join the University of Washington's Printmaking MFA program, starting in September, 2005."

2. Say what you are willing to give up, to get it.
"I'll sell my house, I'll give up my job, I'll live in a dorm. I'm willing to work a college job & take out loans."

3. Say what you are not willing to give up.
"I won't give up having a room of my own, a latte a day, a car with regular maintenance, a movie a month, healthy food, a daily workout, and health insurance. I won't work a college job more than 10 hours a week; I'll take more loans if I have to. I am not willing to go more than 50K in student-loan debt."

4. Accept it when it comes.
Actually, I would add a step 3.5 which says: The Universe will start offering it to you right away. "Like this?" it'll say. "Like this?" The offers won't be quite right -- but by figuring out WHY, you'll get clearer about your goal. "Yes, I did say I wanted my own theatre... but now I realize, I also need it to have clear sightlines and a high ceiling. This one has a low ceiling and pillars every ten feet."

5. Let it go when it is time for it to go.