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Nobody gives you a check mark for the work no one sees, and that is exactly the work that teaches you to see.
A scientist once stayed in the dark long enough that his eye began to record ultraviolet, light nobody knew a human could see. Gerald Heard uses that as his picture of prayer, and this episode uses it as the picture of everything else worth training: the run at 4:30 that nobody claps for, the reading, the skill you are still bad at. What you can perceive is trained, and most people leave the room long before they find that out.
It opens cold on a line about a man who, having lifted himself, lifts the world by his example. Then Henry and Harrison start where improvement actually costs something, which is the friends you lose as you get serious. Emerson has the sentence for it. "A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends, for every friend whom he loses for truth he gains a better." Nobody is at fault. It is a fallout of frequency, and it is the shape of the thing rather than a failure inside it.
Then the long read, from Gerald Heard's Training for the Life of the Spirit. Scrape off any sense that prayer is unreal. Go back to Heraclitus and own that the senses are bad witnesses, that it is not only the will at fault but the understanding, because we do not merely fail to do the right thing, we cannot even see it. Get rid of "that scar tissue on the eye of the true mind." Build, by long and patient exercise of mind and body, the psychophysical athleticism that lets you attend steadily and long enough to apprehend reality. Then the ultraviolet.
From there it opens out. Why nobody hands you a blue check mark for running at 4:30 in the morning, and why you have to assign uniqueness to a thing that has no following yet, starting with yourself. The hype machine and the ranking accounts, and how little any of it is worth in the room you are actually working toward. Integrity as integration rather than levels. Prayer as listening rather than speaking. Divine delay. Aquinas on a thirsty man and a God who "wouldn't make him thirsty if there wasn't water." Attack your weakness. Do something new, make it your new normal. And the woman on the tee box who cannot swing correctly because she has never seen what the ideal looks like.
It lands back on Emerson. "Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that a man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be out-generaled. But put him where you will, he stands."
If you are doing something real that nobody has noticed yet, this one is for you. Stay in the dark long enough to see it.
In this episode
00:00 · Having Lifted Himself, He Lifts the World
00:16 · A Round of Golf and a Call to Humility
03:11 · A New Degree of Culture Would Revolutionize Everything
06:41 · Emerson: Every Friend You Lose for Truth, You Gain a Better
09:32 · Gerald Heard on Prayer: Scrape the Unreal Off It
10:37 · The Scientist Who Stayed in the Dark Long Enough to See Ultraviolet
12:48 · No Blue Check for the 4:30 Run
15:26 · The Hype Machine and the Room That Does Not Care
17:43 · Earned Attributes, and Saints Who Moved Cities
20:26 · Prayer Is Not Just Speaking, It Is Listening
23:45 · Emerson on Valor: The Power of Self Recovery
26:43 · Do Something New, Make It Your New Normal
Read, quoted or named in this episode
Gerald Heard, Training for the Life of the Spirit
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Heraclitus, by way of Heard
Thomas Aquinas
Napoleon
The Book of Job
"I don't think integrity has levels. It's more, how integrated is your life?" (The Infinite Game, Ep 095)
The Infinite Game with Harrison and Henry Schertzinger. Mental, spiritual, and physical health, and the wisdom to help you play life at a higher level.
The Infinite Game is the podcast from You. First. You First. Then everything else is possible.
The Infinite Game Podcast exists to capture yesterday's and today's wisdom to help us all play life at a higher level. With topics of mental health, spiritual health, and physical health being the focus for pursuing mastery in the game that matters the most: life. There will be two styles of shows, one, with Henry and Harrison talking, the other, hosting guests to glean insights from them!
The Infinite Game is a project that believes the expansion of our capacity and the shouldering of personal responsibility is the key to changing culture.
he will having lifted himself lift the world by his example many will see the
way we'll walk it and the powers of darkness will be weaker for having lived
Henry how are we doing great yeah that's a powerful quote that's such a good quote
yeah this weekend this weekend it's probably been like three years or two
years since I played golf and there were so many moments of just a call to
humility I mean I had zero expectations of how it was gonna go but there is this
we say to our players all the time well you say it all the time which is muscles
have no memory so there is no memory in the muscles it's all the connections of
the mind I've never said that once really I say you say muscles have no
memory it's the neural pathways in your mind and okay actual I do say that I say
it's not muscle memory it's nervous system conditioning nervous system
conditioning exactly never put it that way yeah but I was I was smiling because
there almost is this idea the more you train your mind to make connections and
double-click into things and just have a natural curiosity of cause and effect and
why is something going this way verse the way I thought it was gonna go it's
just a fun exercise to go out there and do something you haven't done in a while
yeah which was golf for me this weekend had a lot of fun doing it and then this
morning last thing I'll say before we get into it I made a post on my Instagram
story of me doing just a free free-standing handstand push-up which was
like this next skill of handstand walking and I was doing pirouettes and now I'm
gonna put it all together and just keep going from there and seeing how good I
can get on my hands and if you aren't constantly practicing this like how
intellectually curious you are and what you're pursuing I can't imagine just
going through the motions of something you do consistently and not again having
that practice of you see a Wikipedia page double-click in to the next topic
the next topic the next topic like learn it as deep as possible it's it's so fun
and I can imagine not not doing it I agree it is a skill though it is a skill
to really make your intention your where your consciousness is being pointed at
and that I say that to player all players all the time where is your awareness
right now you know are you feeling it truly in your hand your pointer finger
your shoulders how granular yeah yeah how detailed is your awareness now apply
that throughout your entire day is you can be hyper specific and intentional and
where am I taking steps forward in my life today yeah so as we get into it
guys just a reminder if you could of course subscribe to the show if you're
not sure the show if you get something out of it most importantly though apply
it the the main focus is how can we play life at a higher level that's our
obsession it is a never-ending almost you know Jacob lad Jacob's ladder that
which continually just recedes into the the distance that which is best and
continually getting better that is all of us yeah I wrote this on my post-it
note to put on my computer and it's almost gonna be like a constant embedded
into my prompts when I'm working and it's this idea a new degree of culture
would instantly revolutionize the entire system of human pursuits if you just
elevate a culture all of culture increasing its ideal or just the
awareness of what you're called to would completely revolutionize human pursuits
like that is the human inaction is pursuing something and when we I think
about the you project and just trying to build an ecosystem that allows excellence
to just unfold it is this elevation of culture yeah because man there's a lot of
things out there in culture that lead nowhere I agree I don't think you fully
or people fully appreciate mmm appreciates the wrong way to say it maybe
fully understand the process of progress and improvement until you lose friends
and you lose friends because you get into that point where you've started to
say hey this matters to me I'm going to start to align my actions refine what
I'm doing daily I'm gonna start to allocate sometimes that went to you okay
those random people that talked about surface level things and did surface
level things you start to move forward they start to not so much move back they
feel that movement back there's tension there there's a feeling of oh you think
you're better than us now yeah there is a fallout of frequency and once you
understand that it is really darker before it's darkest right before the dawn
meaning when things are at its maximal this sucks this is the worst it's ever
been right that right on the other side of that is the breakthrough socially
right because you're either gonna have a very hard conversation with that person
or it's over but also same thing obviously with ourselves and the
versions of us that are fighting internally right it's right when the
temptation the weakness the feeling of there's no chance I can keep going right
now on the other side of that is is the breakthrough and that is the elevation
of culture it does happen in a moment one of my favorite quotes is change
happens in a moment but preparing for change is what takes time you're just
constantly in this internal struggle and battle until clarity comes conviction
comes until you've really made yourself certain of no no this is the path that
I'm walking I've been down all those roads before I've turned back I've slid
back no no no the certainty is now boom change happens full step function yeah
until then though it's this preparation for change you're starting to clarify
your mind purify your intentions make your life full of I mean full of
integrity because I don't think integrity has levels it's more how integrated is
your life and so culture it is it is kind of instantaneous but you have to be
ready to fight for that final battle that gives you the breakthrough that is
the thing that I think we've learned most as leaders of a in-person community
is that there's always these cyclical rhythms of hey guys I know we're gonna be
really mad for about one to two weeks then we're gonna establish a standard
we're all gonna have fun for probably two two months but it slips then we have
to be the bad guy if it slips though we're going to have to be the the bad guy
because you got to keep the main thing the main thing today I in the circles
essay I'm not sure if you saw it but the mention of the idea of friendship is if
it doesn't evolve with where you're going it's just not gonna work it can't work
no and Emerson says a man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his
friends for every friend whom he loses for truth he gains for a better I wrote
that down I wrote that down as like this needs to be so internalized by all of our
players that feel they are at fault for a friendship falling to the side you're
never at fault for a friendship on to the side unless even if someone's asked
for you to be their accountability partner like you've been tasked yes to
be your brother's keeper in a sense but at the same time there needs to be equal
yoke and the effort in the care yeah I've loved when I read that I'm like
that's so good we used to be very prompt on calling out or not even prophesying
because that's the incorrect term but throwing out to our players when someone
is really going hard and you see the switch flip you're saying hey how are
your friends yeah guessing in that like two to four month range of when the
friction between those past relationships that have no motion no
action they're not moving towards anything there's not a clear clear aim a
clear ideal compelling vision you combine those that starts to give you
something to work towards if the friendship doesn't have that there's
going to be a serious polarization of you moving forward and them staying
stagnant them pointing at you saying oh you think you're better than us now and
not including you on certain things like I didn't all that stuff no no you got to
put it behind you below you need to just simply remember no I don't I don't think
I just know I'm not going to the same place as you yeah I no longer entertain
that type things and like you've said Emerson lays out so beautifully which is
every door that closes another bigger brighter one opens brings you and ushers
you in to a room that you say you know what no this is this is where I want to
be no yeah I don't know if I'll do this every Sunday but I think I may which is
Sunday used to be a semi-sleep in I mean I wouldn't really set the alarm this
weekend I think I woke up at 4 4 45 or 4 15 on Sunday and just read Emerson for
three hours oh my goodness you're just starting to get introduced to him I've
been telling I've been telling you for years and years and years you've got to
read this guy insane credible do you want to go first sir yeah I mean I've
got a solid one by Gerald hurled and I think it's gonna lay out a number of
things for that are very applicable okay so Gerald hurt hurled tough name to say
he in this book training for the life of the spirit talks about prayer very again
we can apply it to our lives for anything this is just training a very
refined part of us so he goes the first thing then that we must do with prayer
is to scrape off it any sense that it is unreal it will seem unreal until we do
the following three things we must own that as we are we do not contact reality
we must go back to the first Greek scientist Heraclitus and own the sense
own that the senses are bad witnesses it's not merely our will which is at
fault but our understanding we not only do not wish to do the right thing we do
not know it who can't even see it by the life of virtue we must begin to get rid
of that scar tissue on the eye of the true mind that disease of the semi
circular canals of the soul whereby we cannot help seeing the world upside down
by long and patient exercise of the mind body we must build up that psychophysical
athleticism strength which permits us to attend steadily and long enough for us
to be able to apprehend reality closer is he than breathing nearer than the hands
and feet but so is the ultraviolet radiant closer to us than the light
because far more penetrating we never knew that we could see it until a
scientist by chance stayed in the dark long enough for the eye to begin to
record it do we tire and get distracted that is as though the watcher for the
ultraviolet forgot his aim wondered out of the room and abandoned his experiment
very powerful yeah that book that book's unbelievable one thing if you can find a
copy of it you know it's very tough to find Gerald Hurlde's some of his
writings if you can find a copy of training for the life of the spirit it I
show a couple years yeah I've read it five times it's just read it again our
copies completely falling apart yeah it's you because I well it is falling
apart it's actually it doesn't have a spine it's just one page because I like
just one page at a time yeah and pulling what I pull one page away and I think
about it you know it is he was arguably a spiritual master of the West and he's
very very trained in the Eastern Eastern traditions what is so good about the
beginning of that and we kind of yeah there's so this is a boundary we try to
put up quickly at training which is you cannot make a joke of something and
pretend that it's not unique or special meaning the environment yeah you may walk
up to something and say oh this is just a joke this is a normal like I'm here to
just play in the context of lacrosse Academy here just train lacrosse and
they're that but we believe we're doing something unique and special and it's
important and you have to believe in that and you can't kind of not take this
mask off or pretend but there is this culture of like making a joke of
everything and the training for the life of the spirit is the not the first call
but it's just a call to the deep deepest meaning that you can kind of assign to
anything you're participating in and it is so not like the youth to walk into
something and believe they're participating in something that's very
special unless it has like a billion followers and is coined is got the check
mark but eventually you need to assign uniqueness to something that has no
following which is like yourself at the beginning or what you're doing at the
beginning and yeah that's if you can put that cross domain like you going on a
run at 445 in the morning if you don't believe that is unique and special and
you can assign the deep practice and the transformation that comes with that yeah
you're no one's gonna hand you the what you're doing is incredible or I agree the
prayer you're participating in is going to be transformational absolutely you're
not always going to just get there's not gonna be a blue check mark or a million
in a million followers for everything you participate in it's the reappraisal of
what actually matters and then what gets extended from that naturally insane I
wrote down ego driven or value driven you know I love how he starts the first
thing you have to do is scrape the unreal off of it yes you have to reappraise
it you have to go okay so there's running there's reading and prayer might
be something totally different but that gains me or gets me allows me gives me
access to affords meaning it's not mine me something completely different and
more powerful more beneficial and then I love the two Heraclitus where you have to
go you have to start to think yeah I don't know myself I actually don't I
don't even contact reality I don't even know it I love that part that is such an
incredible point where he goes we not only do not wish to do the right thing
we don't even know it we can't even see it we win so you have to train yourself
I mean again this these points were so incredible it's that the reappraisal of
the reappraisal of what matters and then the sliding over to oh my goodness this
is where we get to the seek first the kingdom of heaven all else will be added
after it's because we start to see clearly I start to for the first time
potentially touch reality and one of my favorite teachers Maharaji goes action
is the touchstone of reality now pure action true action not stimulus response
reaction reaction it is true integrated harmonious aligned action okay that is
what we're trying to get ourselves to yeah I've got a clear aim clear ideal
compelling vision I'm aligned and integrated I might touch reality yeah
also too I've taken a step back I've started to feel where my ego is pushing
and pulling me where my intentions might be impure like Henry just said there
there's no blue check market running running at 430 in the morning or what I
mean we talk about what makes you those powerful we talk about this all the
time which is the smoke and mirrors of the social media hype machine it's so
insane we watch all the time this lacrosse account peer this lacrosse
account up here and the account only exists for creating rankings and hype
and drawing attention to things none of that even matters it shouldn't when you
get to the real arena which is the final room you step in and what you're working
for which is college no one even cares who you played club for no one cares
no what accomplishments you had they're all great and should be received as
either proof the work is working or proof you have more work to do so those
are what we call you know markers on the road but this hype machine that people
participate in thinking that it is significant is such a shame because they
don't realize someone that could be ranked or could accomplish something
their lifestyle is not leading to long-term success or their internal
fulfillment they find in the process could be just going to a cliff yeah and
there there is this reality which you want to participate in which is just
being real and just enjoying what you're doing not even enjoying loving it like
being fully alive that's the greatest accomplishment you have because it's
gonna lead to long-term success yeah valuing the right thing right sincere
pursuit I love the third point to this last point didn't do a great job reading
it I probably should have yeah it was a little different paragraph but the point
is the example of the ultraviolet light yeah you know how he kind of subtly put
in knowing even how this scientist yeah how this scientist discovered it which
was he was patient enough to stay in the dark to finally see it and if we don't
properly train ourselves to find this presence right at some sense we call it
finding your sacred center right establishing that that presence finding
that joy that abiding peace that deep and abiding well-being the moment you
touch that all of a sudden you can return to it and when you're patient
enough you might be able to stay that you're able to stay there and discover
something that you never would have been able to without that training right same
thing with the running the reading okay I would not be able to get on a mic and
Henry I could go for a very long time if we weren't watching a clock and saying
alright we've got work to do but the only reason we're able to do that is
because it's been a decade of reading a ton of writing refinement continually
clarifying you know what we've learned how we've applied it doing better and
better at not speaking beyond our skis those are those are earned attributes
same thing with running or working out okay you go and earn your ability to
feel comfortable in certain settings and unlocking certain capacities in those
settings well the invitation here with Gerald hurled is he's saying there
actually is that too with the spiritual life there's that too with the life of
virtue with the life of almost the invisible forces that truly move the
world and you could say some of them in time in contact with the sacred yeah
some of the most powerful sacred is silence have been saints that can move
though like that moved cities right that really helped reality unfold and now not
every spiritual master is pulling Elon Musk type build lines yeah yeah you know
and somebody could say well Elon's probably an atheist he's not praying
like this I disagree I agree I would as well right I would as well I think he is
probably posted the same Michael prayer one day well he actually straight-up
posted it I'm not even saying on this side of atheists I'm more saying this
like abiding presence of as you touch reality as you're plugged right into
reality and what you're meant to do in this moment for the cop like the greater
being receptive to the call yes I would say he's probably very receptive I think
he's answering his task yes and there and that is the highest honor of feeling
like you've answered you've gotten a call you're like oh wow this feels like
a call yeah to do something doing what I'm doing yeah I'm doing what I ought to
do I agree but at a young age the kind of move towards the invitation looks so
much simpler than anyone believes because you're around this church has to
be so emotional and I need to go sing for 45 minutes and if I don't and if I
don't leave motivated or that the pastor didn't give me an insane message that
didn't make me cry didn't receive the invitation of God like no oftentimes you
need to spend long extended times in silence or when you're running you need
to spend time in your thoughts in prayer in prayer is not just speaking it's
listening so that's where you start to dialogue with like what what are the new
thoughts that are outside the certain cycle that you're in and then how do you
interact with those and it's like Harrison said as much training goes on to
allow you to do things outside of your current capacity this is the same
situations in prayer which allows you to either come in contact with higher
states of peace or just like okay I mean so many ways also two snapshots of the
future I would say everything we have in our lives anything I get to do in my
life especially you project very real now so it's fun to talk about but every
single iteration of the app gets revealed to me in prayer yeah I mean when
I have certain certain snapshots it is genuinely it's always in prayer it's
always in prayer that's why I have a notebook next to me it's in this kind of
imaginal people space people feel me the next step when feel me the next step when
people think they have the gift of prophecy that the prophetic gift is only
I am gonna find this guy named John and tell him his kids coming home tomorrow
or somebody but the prophetic nature for some people maybe the builders or
creators are just like seeing the next step you've seen the vision of what's
coming ahead and I think that is a beautiful thing you get in prayer which
is like and I laugh about this all the time which is I can't wait to get to the
next thing we've seen like I can't wait for this next step to happen because
there is a divine delay and what you're shown and then how long it takes to
actually get there yeah but if you stay faithful and continue to receive the
next step like you will get to that vision you're not just kind of seen the
sunlit uplands for no reason oh yeah that's a beautiful thing Thomas Aquinas
talks about all the time man is thirsty God wouldn't make him thirsty if there
wasn't water yeah you would not see or feel there's a brighter future I can
become great there are skills that are dormant inside of me if those were not
able to be awake just like woken up I agree that I mean that is one of the
most classic I wouldn't even call it a Tony Robbins principle but it's that you
would not be inspired by a certain trait that you don't have in yourself it is a
call to awaken it to develop it and that is depending on what age you are if
you're young yeah you're looking for hey what are you inspired by what do you
aspire to what what do you look up to that is where you're destined to go in
those snapshots those flickers of leverage of revelation of coming
attractions it is then a and this is kind of I can't wait to have the time to
I've said this before republish my first book Angel in the Marble where vision
meets relentless action freaking awesome like awesome title incredible way yeah
yeah yeah wrote that way before AI and man it that's that's it right you get
this snapshot of what could be of what David could be then it's a removal
process but what that means is it's an action it's it's continual action in
refinement very solid we have a lot to wait we've we've said a lot we've said
enough we don't need to continue to well this goes well this is the last thing I
want to say and then we can end it says valor consists in the power of self
recovery so that a man cannot have his flank turned cannot be out-generaled but
put him where you will he stands yeah nothing more put him where you will for
the sake of not saying like insulting any anything or anyone or any type of
person turning back is such a shame you let down your future self in a way that
you will never understand and that is your only kind of ask of the future
which is like keep going because right now if there is something that is
challenging you like what a blessing that that's asking you to expand for
tomorrow and I couldn't think how someone believes the mindset of seeking
constant comfort comfort will lead to long-term success it doesn't make any
sense yeah like wake up and if you have a full tank empty it on pushing yourself
in areas every area possible especially I'll text players all the time attack
your weakness attack your weakness there text me what what should I do tomorrow
attack your weakness yeah that that's almost always the call yeah I think
that's the power of sports because it's something the kid is choosing to do
that's a tough frame of reference or frame that's a tough mental framework to
apply when you're in school yeah and you feel victim to shit you don't want to do
exactly but the moment you find your arena your arena that you're gonna pour
yourself in you go this is me right this is what I get to choose to do this is
how I show up every single day and prove to myself that you know what I say things
and do things I can adapt and overcome I am way stronger than I think I can
become somebody new I can pour energy into something and get better at it and
not getting better means something that's the power the final the bridge
that you got to draw is though I'm not doing it for the sake of what I do but
for the this is the vehicle to take me to the next version of me and I was
playing golf this weekend with my dad and I'm like I love this for the sake of
I hope dad uses it as the most exploratory course you can possibly go
down meaning how serious can I take every single variable that goes into
this I need to take care of my flexibility I need to take care of my
power of my core and my legs and my shoulders everything like my nutrition
before I go out to the course I mean film study like double click into
everything not because you'll be a failure if you don't rank number one on
the PGA but like this is your thing to get this is your thing to get every
single process of progress down to a science yeah you know and and here's
something new then make it normal do something new make it your new normal do
something new make it your new normal that's the process of continual
expansion do something new make it your new normal figure out okay becoming is a
function of overcoming what am I overcoming right now and what am I doing
that's aligning me with the goal it's that it's can it's just continually that
simple but people don't like this is clearly this is the last thing I have one
more quote this is one of the last things I'll say we were driving by one
of the tea boxes and this lady was swinging and I made a comment to dad she
either is not able to swing or has no understanding of what the ideal looks
like because she can't even be trying to swing correctly and that's the final
step in this equation which is you have to understand what you're trying to
mirror like that's where a film study comes in for all the sports players out
there which I've done my entire life I mean in college I would practice what
happened I text coach Metz is a film up yet I don't see it as a film up and I'd
always watch film same thing now in CrossFit I'm watching every movement I do
and I'm very aware ooh that snatch position does not look like the pros and
then you break down the variables of what it takes but you and I say that at
the training all the time hey do you want me to show you what it's supposed
to look like or is your body just completely ignoring what you think
you're supposed to be doing yeah yeah no we say that all the time to players and
then as a coach it's a bummer as a trainer it's a bummer because you start
to not lose hope but you know all right this person's either uncoachable or
they're so uncoordinated they do have no hope here yeah like it is going to it's
going to take a force of will from their side there's nothing more I can say I've
said it a thousand times I've pointed it out to him I've said do you not feel
this do not do not see this you know we're very clear and kind of where we're
trying to point people's awareness to if someone's pointed your awareness your
awareness to something it is your your job to immediately adjust that this is
my last thing I love this because Henry said can you say that last line of the
emerson Emerson which about he's still standing cannot be out-generaled but put
him where you will he stands put him where you will he stands this is another
great Napoleon quote where he goes in war men or nothing one man is everything
how about one God saying to the devil my son job over there give him your worst
so many powerful lines all right God bless my friend please pray for us we're
praying for you we'll see you next time