Finding Your Plumb by Looking Backward
Download MP3A mentoring conversation with a newer brother in the fraternity opens this episode. The young man wanted the answer to what the plumb means — he wanted it handed to him rather than discovered. That impulse is understandable, especially earlier in life when there isn't much past to look through. But Brian's point is that no one can give you your plumb. What they can do is show you where to look for it. The place to start is backward, not forward.
The plumb, in operative terms, is the instrument that helps you stand upright through your several stations in life. In practical terms, Brian describes it as purpose — and the clearest evidence of it isn't abstract philosophy but lived experience. Specifically, he points to moments when the self almost dissolves into the present: the musical jam where nothing else exists, the teaching moment where the looming bill and tomorrow's worries simply aren't there. Those experiences of ego-dissolution aren't mystical events; they're data. They show you where your energy is most naturally and fully engaged. Looking backward for the recurring themes around those moments — what preceded them, what followed — is how you begin to surface your purpose from the ordinary noise of life and use it to shape how you build yourself going forward.
- Why purpose can't be handed down and must be discovered personally
- The plumb as a symbol for standing upright through life's stations
- Ego-dissolution in flow states as evidence of alignment with purpose
- How to identify recurring themes of full presence in your own history
- Looking at what came before and after peak experiences, not just when they happened
- Using those patterns to shape how you work your own stone going forward
Free Lodge Resource: Download the A Mason's Work Discussion Guide - a free, printable discussion guide for your lodge education night. No signup required.
Ready to go deeper? A Mason's Work - the operative method in full. Or bring Brian to your lodge: Virtual Lodge Education Session - $250.
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- Jorge
