A masculine spirituality

Does such a thing even exist? Of course. Yes! But that’s a concession, not a boast. A masculine spirituality has a decidedly yang quality to it, an imbedded bias for action. Thus, some women are more yang than some men just as some men are more yin than some women. Wherever we find it, a bias for action needs to be examined and undone. We are human beings, after all, not human doings. “Know the male,” advises the Tao, “but keep to the female.” Most of what yang-men do is unnecessary. That was Gurdjieff’s definition of sin—whatever is unnecessary.  

Men bedecked

When we’re young, we’re easy prey for cultural assortments, doctrinal adhesions and tribal affiliations. In our unexamined middle age, our attachments hang from us like sticky notes on the door of a refrigerator.

The scent of a man

A diseased mind produces a bodily stench. Recalling a state dinner, diplomat Fiona Hill said that Vladimir Putin neither ate nor drank and that he “smelled odd.” By all accounts, Adolph Hitler reeked.

Factual men

Factual men are quiet, kind, humble. Opinionated men are the opposite of that.

Big wheel rolling

Some men lose themselves at the centre of the wheel. We cannot say they are inactive; they’re just not moving. (What does not move is not noticed.) Other men, peripherals, are flying around on the rim. They’ve got a bucket list. They’re collecting experiences.