It is inherent in us mortals to seek for patterns in life around us – patterns of behaviour, patterns of achievement, and patterns of answers to the questions of life.
Naturally we tend to favour those patterns that help us to be successful in all our different endeavours. The reality is that many patterns we see around us lead to disappointments and even disasters in multiple forms. The patterns that evolve from unbridled anger for example can easily lead to rage and much pain and damage. The patterns that evolves from the urge to gain unfair and privileged advantage over others can result in a growing momentum of corruption and who knows where this can lead to?
In practical matters all of us are subject to the advantages and disadvantages of behavioural patterns that flourish around us and that we are not always fully aware of. The Old Man speaks out of much experience over the years in seeing how positive patterns can lift and negative patterns of behaviour can destroy.
A key behavioural pattern that is all too often prevalent in our society it that of negative channels of destiny. Let’s look at one example of how it works:
Impatience tends to breed unfriendliness;
Unfriendliness tends to breed disrespect;
Disrespect tends to breed judging of the person and grouping;,
Judging tends to breed malice;
Malice tends to generate animosity
Animosity can lead to terrible things
.
A fellow traveller of unfriendliness is rationalisation;
rationalisation tends to breed justification;
justification tends to justify malice;
malice tends to justify hurt and unlimited suffering of others
One supposes that the vicious patterns embraced by the terrorists portrayed so prominently on the world stage started somewhere before it became an entrenched pattern in them.
Most of us manage to draw a line along the channel of impatience and stop short of terrible things.
Yet we keep on being unfriendly when it suits us.
It is a bit like taking out the pin of a hand grenade and putting it back again, habitually.
Channels of excellence
The great reality is that channels of behaviour also applies to positive channels that we call channels of excellence. There are many such channels of excellence around calling out for us to emulate and embrace. One example is:
Humility (to be teachable) tends to lead to learning life lessons
Life lessons tend to grow in us to build positive character
Positive character tends to be fearless and to do the right thing
Doing the right thing tends to cultivate inner peace and confidence
Inner peace and confidence tends to generate authentic behaviour
Authentic behaviour is the only real counter to toxic behaviour
The best time to avoid negative channels of destiny is to watch that little thing called our tongue:
Every time I speak
I open the door to a spirit every time I speak
I do not control its power on the strong or the weak
Every time I speak….
The entering spirit may be water on a raging thirst
Or evil and deception spreading like a curse
Every time I speak….
Every time before I speak
I can control that door
Every time I speak..
May the reader be successful in embracing positive channels of excellence and avoid negative patterns like the plague.
The Old Man
