There are two kinds of people in the world:<\/p>\n
As for the first kind, it should at some point dawn on them that persuasion is singularly ineffective. They may try to persuade by reason or logic, but this has no effect on those who are influenced by other factors, such as emotion, group loyalties, and so on. A man’s identity is intricately tied up with his worldview, so he is loathe to give it up. There are very few who attempt the First Trial<\/a>. Even the persuader is limited by his own worldview. This is because there are many personality types and those of different types are opaque to each other. They respond to different centers and have different orientations to the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his interior life, a man may be centered in the:<\/p>\n In his relation to the world, a man may have three orientations:<\/p>\n That yields nine fundamental types, and many more subtypes, since a man is rarely in a single classification all the time. These nine types correspond to nine possible areas of interest, although it is difficult to get a man to think beyond his primary and secondary areas of interest. Another factor is whether he can experience things objectively, as they are in themselves, or subjectively, insofar as they affect him. This results in three more classifications:<\/p>\n Alfred North Whitehead<\/strong> wrote that a man wants to live, then live well, then live better. Hence, his goals are prosperity, justice in his relationships, and then eternal bliss. A man has difficulty in balancing those goals. For those focused on prosperity, for example, the higher goals are usually invisible to him. The spiritual path, therefore, will differ from person to person. As William Blake<\/strong> wrote: “One law for the lion and ox is oppression.”<\/p>\n A young man asked me, earlier today, for advice on his own spiritual path. His mind was filled with conflicting demands from parents, peers, and so on, thus his own dharma was hidden from him. Of course, I couldn’t tell him what to do. As I explained to him: “It would be unwise of me to offer such advice to a new acquaintance and imprudent of you to accept it from a stranger on the Internet.” Instead, I encouraged him to clear his mind of those nagging opinions in his head to let his own Will guide him, and suggested some spiritual exercises. Obviously, to determine one’s True Will is difficult in the best of times, and all the more so in the modern world that does not have a place for those of a Traditional cast of mind.<\/p>\n A good spiritual exercise, then, is to try to determine the personality type of those you interact with during the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Obviously, to determine one\u2019s True Will is difficult in the best of times, and all the more so in the modern world that does not have a place for those of a Traditional cast of mind. Continue reading Centers<\/h2>\n
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Orientation<\/h2>\n
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Objectivity<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n