Bumping up against the Yellow Belt Ceiling
/An interesting hypothesis in/about Hang.
That we are somehow “stuck”.
Not everyone, of course.
Just some of us.
Stuck is probably too pejorative of word.
Stuck is doing the same o’ thing, over and over and over again.
No new ground is being taken.
No new vocabulary being used.
No new skill sets being practiced.
Which is fine.
If doing the same o’ thing is giving you the life that you want to have, keep on keeping on.
So what is the stuckness about?
Dojo is a relational practice.
So the stuckness is about relationshipping.
Which, seems to me, has to do about who you do what with, in a relational sense.
One of the great things about first coming to Hang, for most, is that you see a bunch of different types of people doing relational things with each other that MOST CERTAINLY do not fit into your box of normal.
It can be startling.
It can be disturbing.
It can be exhilarating.
It can be frightening.
Etc.
There is encouragement to, “Try something different.”
Fine, fine.
Enjoy doing something different.
Enjoy doing something forbidden.
You should eventually get, “Try something different that you believe will give you more of the life you want to have.”
All of that is White Belt and some Yellow Belt.
White Belt is, “What is.”
Yellow Belt is, “Given what is, what might be?”
I think that the stuckness has to do with the membrane around Red Belt.
The membrane is generated by White and Yellow Belt.
Red Belt is, “Multiculturalism.”
In shorthand, “No specific signifier has to be linked to any specific signified. No specific signified has to be linked to any specific signified.”
In multicultural relationshipping, no specific experience of relationshipping has to be linked to any specific type.
There are no rules about who you do what with.
There are no rules about what you’re going to get from whom.
Not to say that any individual doesn’t have preferences.
It’s a very tricky thing to differentiate between a preference and a bigotry.
How?
The shorthand, from Jed, is, “Everything burns.”
Monoculture burns.
Monoculturally-defined relationshipping burns.
In Hang, White and Yellow Belts experiment with what they can do with “that kind of person” or “this kind of relationship” or “coming from this experience” or “wanting to get to that experience.”
Red Belts know that they are going to play relational jazz in Hang.
They have no idea who is going to show up with what instruments at what kind of proficiency.
The Red Belts def have preferences.
The Red Belts def have areas of, “I can do that really well” and areas of, “I suck at that.”
It’s not about reading sheet music.
How do I make music with you in a way that, for lack of a better word, pleases me.
Not pleases me in a Black Hole kind of way.
Pleases me in how I was able to art.
I think the stuckness is the difficulty in putting the damn sheet music away.
All the way away.