Mastering Your Mental Lodge: Freemason-Inspired Mindfulness

Freemasonry-inspired self-reflection and mental discipline practices are pretty great! Learn how adopting roles like the warden or Tyler can enhance focus and eliminate distractions. Perfect for those looking to fortify their mental landscapes and discover a deeper concentration.

Key Points
• Use lodge roles for self-reflection
• Inner/Outer guards help focus
• Deacons symbolize data transfer
• Tiling the lodge equals mindfulness
• Roles go beyond administrative

Best Quotes
00:01 - 00:22
• "More often than not, when we're talking about Freemason and Lease on this channel, we're using the lodge not only as a collection of the members present, ready to do work, but we're using the concept of the lodge as an analog for your mental landscape."

00:43 - 00:49
• "And so this is based on the Pennsylvania ritual, at least for almost all of our examples."

01:18 - 01:22
• "Senior warden's responsible for making sure everyone gets paid for the outcomes of their efforts."

01:27 - 01:33
• "You can use those as mental constructs for you to evaluate kind of what's going on in your world."

02:00 - 02:11
• "The deacons as well also serve as messengers. They carry the right kind of data, sensory feedback information from sort of one function to the next."

02:42 - 02:53
• "When you sit down and, and Wilmshurst talks about this in the meaning of masonry, when you sit down to reflect or sit down to study, one of the first things you need to do is eliminate distractions."

03:00 - 03:21
• "So you go through the process of tiling a lodge, you go through the process of essentially setting the guards on your attention and making sure that you're gonna be in an environment where you're not gonna be distracted, you're not gonna be disrupted from your study, same thing's true with pretty much every other role that you have in the craft."

Creators & Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

00:01
More often than not, when we're talking about Freemason and Lease on this channel, we're using the lodge not only as a collection of the members present, ready to do work, but we're using the concept of the lodge as an analog for your mental landscape. So when you are sitting there thinking, meditating, reflecting, developing your plans, troubleshooting behaviors, all of those things, you're going to want to try and step through the perspectives of the different people in your, the different roles in your lodge. And so this is based on the Pennsylvania ritual, at least for almost all of our examples. The, the different roles and responsibilities of the officers are pretty consistent across most jurisdictions. So you don't need to worry too much, but there are some subtle differences, and we can get into that in a little bit. So if you imagine for example, that you have your, your wardens, right, your junior warden, your senior warden, and they're responsible for junior wardens responsible for rest and refreshment and calling back onto labor.

01:18
Senior warden's responsible for making sure everyone gets paid for the outcomes of their efforts. And the Worshipful Master's responsibility is to direct the work. You can use those as mental constructs for you to evaluate kind of what's going on in your world. But the other roles are just as interesting. So your perent or inner guard, if you're in a different jurisdiction, or your Tyler or your outer guard, serve some great responsibilities as well, both in eliminating distractions and making sure that toxic people entities don't get into your building or get into your lodge room or get into your mental landscape. But the deacons as well also serve as messengers. They carry the right kind of data, sensory feedback information from sort of one function to the next. So when you start going through this exercise of really understanding and evaluating that mental lodge landscape, you get the benefit of being able to take multiple perspectives and those perspectives can then be leveraged to increase visibility on the various issues you might be struggling with. So for those of you that are not quite versed in this, let's take a little practical example. So when you sit down and, and Wilmshurst talks about this in the meaning of masonry, when you sit down to reflect or sit down to study, one of the first things you need to do is eliminate distractions. You need to try and eliminate the outside world from interfering with your studies, whatever they might be.

02:59
And so you go through the process of tiling a lodge, you go through the process of essentially setting the guards on your attention and making sure that you're gonna be in an environment where you're not gonna be distracted, you're not gonna be disrupted from your study, same thing's true with pretty much every other role that you have in the craft. So while you're sitting there, beginning your reflections, start to take on those roles and sit through them as in the same order you open a lodge. And I think you'll find it really does bring you to a sort of a, a place of a deeper concentration, a deeper understanding, and a fairly intense amount of focus for you to then move your initiatives forward, whatever they might be. We'll get into more of these roles as the podcast progresses this week. We'll talk about them certainly some more, but for your own, for your own use between now and the next episode or when you listen to this and when you listen to the next one, just take a moment to sit in as many of the sort of conceptual, imaginary role-playing chairs as you can, acting as your own senior warden, acting as your own junior warden, acting as your own outer guard, inner guard, perent Tyler, acting as your own treasurer or your own secretary.

04:20
Every one of these is beyond an administrative function, has a, a cognitive function as well. You know, keeping track of resources, managing, managing your available energy, all of those kind of ideas all roll into this kind of internal lodge landscape. So, so give that a shot between now and the next episode, and we'll come back with a, a detailed, more detailed exploration of one or two of the roles in the future episodes. Thanks.