A Mason's Work

Today we address the "alluring problems" of gratitude: toxic positivity versus perpetual cynicism. Using the Masonic symbols of the Rough and Perfect Ashlars, we discuss how to find a middle ground that acknowledges reality while remaining grateful for its edges.

Key Highlights:
  • The Denial of Reality: The danger of only seeing the "Perfect Ashlar" and ignoring opportunities for improvement.
  • The Masonic Pavement: Finding harmony between the positive and negative to create a stable foundation for growth.
  • Grateful for the Roughness: Why we should appreciate the "rough edges" of the world, as they provide the space for us to work, refine ourselves, and cultivate consciousness.
  • Today’s Takeaway: Look for something or someone in your life that is "perfectly imperfect"—a subtle flaw or quirk that gives them delightful character.
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  • Tim Dedman
  • Jorge

Creators and 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.

[00:00] This week, we've been moving through the spectrum of what it means to go from appreciation to
[00:07] gratitude at the shallow end, the daily noticing practice through to the sort of transcendent
[00:14] recharging or refilling of yourself by virtue of these profound surrender gratitude experiences.
[00:26] What is important to understand about a lot of the gratitude conversation is that when
[00:38] we look at gratitude, there are some alluring problems with it.
[00:48] And I say problems, I want to be very careful here.
[00:51] You very likely have met people in your life that only see the perfect Ashlar.
[00:59] They only see what's working and working well.
[01:05] They are super appreciative at all times of the right stuff.
[01:12] So much so that they dismiss or blow off the opportunities to improve or to fix things.
[01:22] They diminish them as something that is a focus on the negative.
[01:29] Clearly, that doesn't work, right?
[01:31] That kind of perpetual ignorance of the fact that the world has rough edges and opportunities
[01:40] exist to improve it is in its own way, a type of denial of reality.
[01:47] And in the same way, we all know folks that are focused only on the rough Ashlar, that improvement
[01:54] activity, that perpetual polishing, so much so their nose is always to the grindstone such
[02:01] that they never see the world around them.
[02:04] And that is it's a different type of misapplication.
[02:09] What really is what we're cultivating with this kind of approach is this true and genuine
[02:19] appreciation that we find in ideas like the Masonic pavement, that there is this positive and negative
[02:28] at all times, and they are in perfect harmony.
[02:35] This perfectly imperfect understanding of the way the world is creates this foundation that
[02:46] allows you to selectively move from place to place as you need to.
[02:52] You can move to the place of refinement and move to the place of appreciation and into that
[03:00] deeper space of that depth gratitude.
[03:04] When you can appreciate both the rough Ashlar and the perfect Ashlar conceptually in the context
[03:11] of gratitude, you can appreciate the opportunities of learning and growth of really improving
[03:18] yourself and the world around you.
[03:21] You become grateful for the roughness of the world because it gives you a place to work and
[03:28] refine the self and cultivate consciousness.
[03:32] And you gain this appreciation of the grand architect of the universe and how everything fits together,
[03:39] even though all the edges are rough.
[03:43] This appreciation and gratitude both combined become this nourishing force that you can harness
[03:55] to recover, to refresh, to also become its very own type of agent of change in the world
[04:05] by expressing gratitude.
[04:08] And we'll talk more about what that looks like tomorrow.
[04:11] You can take this practice and turn it into this type of agency to change the world around you.
[04:19] So for today's sort of takeaway, what you want to look for, if you can see it,
[04:26] are the places where something or someone in your life is perfectly imperfect.
[04:33] Maybe it's the way they mispronounce something.
[04:37] Maybe it's the way they have a superstitious behavior that doesn't make any sense.
[04:44] Maybe it's just the subtle imperfection that gives them such a delightful character.
[04:52] When you can do this, you'll begin to relax a little bit more into the present moment.
[04:58] And that's the goal.