Going Low, Going High, and the Three Gates

On the subject of dealing with aggressive force without being corrupted by it, Phillip Fellman said:

“(To act without) malice, no hatred, just calm action in the moment. Often the mechanics of the situation simply play out by themselves. You absorb, deflect, reflect the ego-driven energy directed at you as the situation requires. It rarely requires that you suffer to satisfy the infantile needs of that voracious, destructive ego. It may require you to extinguish the source of malevolent, destructive, anti-life energy. The nature of the energy itself determines those consequences. You are merely the medium by which equilibrium is restored. As Marshall McLuhan said, the medium is the message. You don’t need your ego to superimpose an additional message on top of that. You stay within your own center, no judgment, no thought. Be present, act. I am, I do. Act with love, nature will handle the rest.”

People don’t seem to understand. “when they go low, we go high” doesn’t require you not to strike back. Doesn’t mean that violence doesn’t trigger response. It COULD mean “if they try to knee me in the groin, I’ll blind them.” What it certainly doesn’t mean “if he insults my mother, I’ll insult his.” That is schoolyard bullshit.

If you believe that’s your obligation, you have a lower opinion of humanity than mine. People are starving for leadership. And they will take a bloviating bully, if it seems he’s stronger than the nice but weak person who is the alternative. “I’d rather win and be wrong…