A Mason's Work

[00:00] I think we've all been there where you have something come up and you have two choices.
[00:10] And we talk about this biologically, right?
[00:14] It's the fight versus flight reflex where there is something that happens, a piece of feedback,
[00:22] a critique, something that gets just a little bit too close.
[00:30] And you want to kick ass or you kind of run from it.
[00:37] You reject it.
[00:37] You go completely flat.
[00:39] You dismiss it like, eh, whatever.
[00:40] It doesn't matter.
[00:42] That is an indication that you need to go into the preparing room.
[00:50] Those kinds of responses to something that has arisen in your everyday life, that there
[00:57] was a knock on the door and the Tyler and the person or the Tyler and your inner guard routed
[01:03] it to the preparing room.
[01:05] Anytime you have a situation where you are all sorts of hot and bothered about what you're
[01:12] going to do next, you can't examine from those positions.
[01:16] To route those cares and concerns and challenges into the examining room would be a mistake because
[01:25] you are not able to rationally examine.
[01:28] You have to go through the preparing room.
[01:32] The preparing room reminds us to divest ourselves of the metallic substances of our everyday life,
[01:41] the things that are offensive and defensive.
[01:44] And so when you come in with a situation where you are carrying all of that metallic stuff,
[01:53] you're going to run the risk of not being able to honestly take on the work.
[02:00] So the first thing you need to do is go into the preparing room.
[02:05] And for a lot of people, you need to develop a preparing room process, right?
[02:11] We talk about the preparing room in the context of conferring degrees or what that degree experience
[02:17] is and how do you get ready for it.
[02:19] When you're about to do work on something within you, you have to have your own preparation process
[02:27] to get through to the level of understanding to do the work.
[02:33] You have to take off the armor.
[02:35] You have to put down the sword.
[02:37] You have to let go of any of those preconceived notions about whether or not you qualify for
[02:46] the work, you qualify for these fears.
[02:50] A lot of folks think that maybe because they're doing well financially that they don't have the
[02:55] right to be afraid of things, you have to drop all of that crap in the preparing room.
[03:01] So for some folks, you can do that on a cushion, right?
[03:07] You can sit and you can meditate and reflect and let go of the emotional response.
[03:13] You can take that deep breath and let it go.
[03:17] Some folks need to process this stuff differently, right?
[03:21] So whatever your process might be, sometimes it's a journaling process.
[03:26] Sometimes it's just that naming process.
[03:30] Sometimes it's going out for a walk in nature and feeling that being a part of something bigger
[03:39] will help you let go of that immediate emotional response.
[03:44] What's important then is to, again, with an established protocol for your own preparation
[03:54] to do the work is then begin to threshold into the lodge itself.
[04:02] You can say, okay, well, I think I have let go of all of this noise.
[04:06] I think I'm ready to deal with this.
[04:09] And when you do, you then can either take it into the examining room where it no longer
[04:17] has that emotional charge and you can begin to determine, is this mine?
[04:21] Is it appropriate?
[04:22] Does it make sense?
[04:23] Is the response rational or irrational or what have you?
[04:27] And then move it into the examining room or you can move directly into the lodge rather,
[04:31] or you can move directly from the preparing room into the lodge with something that you know
[04:36] is yours, that you know you've owned and earned and all of those things.
[04:40] So you can then take it into your mental lodge and begin the process.
[04:47] And for as much as we've been talking about the mental lodge all week and for the last several
[04:51] weeks, don't dismiss.
[04:54] You could take this into your real lodge as well.
[04:57] You can go and socialize this process with people that you know, care about and trust.
[05:03] This is not, does not have to be a solo exercise.
[05:09] If you're feeling heated about a thing, you can go talk to a brother.
[05:13] So this part of your preparation, you know, again, is something that you can take on.
[05:19] You can collaborate.
[05:20] You can work with a partner.
[05:22] You can work with a brother.
[05:23] And from there, once you're ready, you can then move it into the lodge space and begin
[05:29] to figure out how you're going to react and how you're going to respond.
[05:33] Once it's honest, once it's true and validated, then we can build the appropriate capacity and
[05:41] figure out how we're going to deal with this in the future.
[05:44] And we'll talk about that tomorrow as we close the week.
[05:46] See you next time.