Tuesday, August 27, 2019

SEPTEMBER - 2019



                                                WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT --- MEN!



The evolution of masculinity


Most articles about ‘free speech’ stemming from the “politically correct” club, identity politics and even the #Me Too movement, promote all sorts of agendas to create a social obedience. Anyone who expresses him/herself openly in the media, are immediately attacked for their work. Artists, writers, political commentators etc, are persecuted for their ideas.

However, the group that is increasingly pushed against the wall and must “watch their back” are men. In my recent REFLECTIONS, I noted that there seems to be a strong rebuttal to this trend to ‘badmouth” men coming (and from a woman writer) is the title of the book by Bettina Arndt: # MENTOO. It is an open and well researched book about how the 'politically correct' mob, are destroying masculinity calling it “toxic” including all sorts of negative labelling attempting to emasculate men..



Another female author: Lionel Shriver states that “identity politics could lead to ‘bad art’ and I would add that it also would destroy relationships between men and women. Particularly damaging the young adults of today. It appears that this ‘witch hunt’ against men is spreading all over the icons of free speech – the universities. They are totally out of reality and lacking any facts. “It is a rat’s nest of hysterical super sensitivity” states the novelist Lionel Shriver. It is time to push back against this phenomenon of politically correct and identity politics hysteria and write with open proven facts about the absurdity of the claims against men. All people need to express their frustration to this mediocre fad that is contributing to a climate of social constraint in all aspects of creativity and identity. One example of this absurdity is the requirement to use the pronouns: ZE and ZIR or CRISGENDER in schools as a gender-neutral references to he and she. 

We hope that those who rise to this absurdity must work at all levels of society to stop this trend to eliminate what Nature has developed over millions of years. That is: male and female creatures on this earth including humans.

To begin this Reflection for this month, I am including here my comments on Masculinity to the Australia Association of Counselling. Their newsletter offered some ideas about counselling men using a variety of skills to help men. However, few men are attending counselling for fear of being labelled mentally incompetent. My own experience working with men over the past ten years, I became convinced that the various counselling (or therapy) ‘models of practice’ do not help. Most theories are not designed to help men but are of a generic nature. Men like and get a lot from being in a group gathering and sharing their personal stories with other men listening. They benefit from initiation rituals and men events that give them a strong identity and support to a path of wholeness.


ACA Newsletter on "MEN AND EMOTIONS”

Having read your article about “Men and Emotions: From Repression to Expression”, I congratulate the Association for the support you have initiated to the issue of emotions and men and questioning the raising gender zealotry in recent times that is contributing to the main cause of the crises in men, particularly the young men.

“Today, any celebration of masculinity is limited to praising men who do more housework, get more involved with the children, and men who are able to cry, empathise with women issues and openly express their ‘soft feelings’.” As stated by Janet Albrechtsen in the Australian newspaper. Another article by Peter Gonis states that: “Years ago they used a knife to castrate young boys, today it is castration with anti-male language”. A third article that is published in the RACQ magazine by Jessica Wilson, states that “stereotypes of masculinity are harming Australian men”.

So, perhaps we are noticing a new social awareness that is becoming more open about the crisis of identity that men (particularly young men) that are undergoing in our modern age. It seems an error to demonise men as psychologically sick or experiencing some mental health issues, but it is the current so called “political correctness” that is relentlessly attacking masculinity.

A study at the University of Queensland, has revealed that young men who tend to conform to the traditional definition or stereotype of manhood, are set up in so called “Man Box” as being bad and  therefore are twice as likely to consider suicide and several times are more likely to become violent towards others.

Naturally, these men develop poor mental health and do not seek counselling but resort to binge drinking and traffic accidents. This study concludes that the traditional definitions of masculinity are generational - meaning that they are passed from grandfather to father and then to son. Thus, the result is that there is a big pressure on men from the anti-male activists, on one side and the old ideas about who is a male from the older family members and old beliefs on the other side. Psychological counselling, therefore, will not work.

The suggestion I am offering, based on ten years working with men groups, is to develop emotional skills with young men led by elder Mentors, and leaders that can bridge the gap (or a black hole) to enable men to express their masculinity and their deeper emotional needs. Having experienced hundreds of men groups, I am convinced that it is useless and even harmful to reduce masculinity to an illness needing counselling that is not working and adds to the collective psycho-cultural crisis.

It is about time that the Associations like the AIPC ( Counselling), Ganz(Gestalt), AASW (social work) and so on, begin to support healthy masculinity and stop those who attack men as “toxic males” because this attitude of castrating men psychologically and socially  will not work but only aggravate the impact on all  our society.

Of course, we will have people of all genders that will be offended by healthy premises about men, but their offences cannot erase the way Nature selects all species and gives us gifts without much care about who may be offended. Yet men today are expected to reject their masculinity to avoid offending those who are always offended.Here are some consequences:

SOME NATIONAL STATISTICS ABOUT THE MEN CRISIS
1.            One in five men experience depression in a twelve-month period.
2.            Three quarters of people who die by suicide are men.
3.            Six Australian men between 15-44 take their own lives each day.
4.            One in five men will experience an anxiety condition due to stress.
5.            Men are less likely to seek help for mental health than women.

Indian god vishnu and consort

Thursday, August 1, 2019

AUGUST 2019 BLOG





AUGUST 2019 BLOG

FATHERHOOD AS A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

“Today are being psychologically and culturally neutered (castrated) in the early stages of their cognitive and affective development through subliminal conditioning aimed at the gradual rejection of their masculinity to ensure their development along the lines of fluid identities. Introducing our children to this fluidity is a crime against their humanity in that it is deliberately engineering their personalities, sense of gender, even sex. A sinister agenda driven by politically correct and rabid misandry”
 Quote from an article by Dimitry Gonis: They are out to shear away masculinity.

So, we may want to reflect about the above quote and consider, as fathers, (and mothers) what a father can do bring some common sense and enable the young boy in understanding his masculine development. After all, the father is the primary model of the “ideal man” being present every day in the family. The father’s role is to help boys find their way to a purposeful adult life and become a man of character for his own children.

Many of the inherent stereotypical traits that our culture associates with masculinity like achievement, competition, adventure and risk taking are not inherently bad nor harmful cultural constructs that should be engineered out. They are innate characteristics that must be shaped, moulded and channelled into virtues. It is here that the father has an outside strong influence on his children. research shows that without the father at home, boys are at risk of not attending college or university studies.

As a father, ask yourself this question: What can I do to show my son the path of life? The way to adulthood? One key learning that a father must explore first is the spiritual context of fatherhood. I call it Soul Craft.

To enable fathers and men in general to reflect on the spiritual work they can embark on and deepen their purpose in this area, I offer here my own essay about my exploration on this topic. Your comments and your stories are most welcome.




FATHERHOOD AS A SPIRITUAL PATH – the way to a man’s soul.

Yaro Starak, Gestalt Therapist
I will start by telling you briefly, my story. I was born a month after the Nazi started the WWII with the invasion of Poland. Soon after, Ukraine was invaded by both enemies: the Nazis and the Communists. The land where I was born became the start of a struggle between two forces convinced that one of them is right. Eventually both contributed to a major destruction of most of Europe. My father, who was a photographer, was arrested by the Communists and deported to Siberia and after then he was never seen again.
Having lost my father at a very early age, I relied on my mother during my growing years to adulthood as a guide and support. Fortunately, I had two uncles (my mother’s brothers) who were very present as my male figures and roles models during those formative years. They enabled me to learn about the male role in a mainly female household.
It is evident that a child does not have to have a biological father and even some children who have a biological father have had sadly negative experiences when growing up. However, research indicates that when a father or male carer, is present as a positive support, that presence may reduce psychological problems and behavioural issues. An increased amount of real time involvement of the adult male may help increase the child’s social, educational and relational ability that will ensure the potential to have a solid and positive life as an adult man.
A brief history of Fatherhood
The link between sexual acts and procreation can be empirically identified, but it is by no means of immediate evidence. The conception of life cannot be observed, whereas its birth is obviously visible. The extended time lag between the former and the latter certainly does not help to identify their link, but on the contrary it makes even more difficult to assume any kind of relationship between these two events. Some may even go as far to argue that human beings have occasionally ignored that males impregnate females. During this early human evolution period procreation was sometimes even considered to be an autonomous 'ability' of women. Men were essential to ensure the survival and defence of the social group, but only women could enhance and guarantee the human survival through their ability to create new individuals. This gave women a role of primary and indisputable importance within their social groups.
This situation probably persisted during the whole Palaeolithic age. Some scholars believe the well-known Venus figurines of that age to be clear witnesses of it. During the transition to the Neolithic age, agriculture and cattle breeding became the core activities of a growing number of human communities. Breeding in particular is likely to have led women – who used to spend more time than men taking care of the cattle – to observations and considerations which gradually allowed them to discover the procreative effect of the sexual act between a male and a female.



Ancient Rome

Roman law and tradition (mos maiorum) established the power of the Pater familias (Father of the clan) within the community of his own extended familia. He held legal privilege over the property of the familia, and varying levels of authority over his dependents: these included his wife and children, certain other relatives through blood or adoption, clients, freedmen and slaves. The same maiorum mos moderated his authority and determined his responsibilities to his own familia and to the broader community. He had a duty to ‘father’ and raise healthy children as future citizens of Rome, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household, to honour his clan and ancestral gods and to dutifully participate—and if possible, serve—in Rome's political, religious and social life. In effect, the pater familias was expected to be a good citizen. In theory at least, he held powers of life and death over every member of his extended familia through ancient right but in practice, the extreme form of this right was seldom exercised. It was eventually limited by law. Therefore we know that traditionally, fathers continue to act in a protective, supportive and responsible way towards their children.

Even though the father was considered as the provider, the mother, on the other hand, is still viewed as the predominant carer of children due to her capacity to give birth. Feminists  have challenged this  premise of ‘gender arrangements’  of work and care and the male ‘breadwinner role’ and therefore we have seen more policies targeting men as fathers and demanding a more sharing relationships in the modern family.

The Father challenge

Sam Keen(1) and  other writers have observed fatherhood and made similar statements as Sam Keen in his book FIRE IN THE BELLY. Sam Keen stated: “We men tend to view ourselves as independent actors. As warriors, controllers, providers, protectors, and occasionally as lovers. We peg our self-worth on our tax brackets or how much we've published or how many women we've been with. We constantly look to the outside world for our valuation. Within the "men's movement" there is a tendency to talk about how I was treated by my father, about the lacks I had in my life, about my own confusion and pain and grief, about initiation (without any idea of what we want to initiate our children into). These are legitimate experiences that afflict our lives, but there comes a time when we men have to look beyond our own suffering and recognize that we are also causing suffering”. He states further that:

 "There is no way for men...to recover wholeheartedness, to become passionate and truly free, without rediscovering the central importance of the family." To rediscover the family, we, as men, must rediscover ourselves as fathers and parents, and place this role of the many roles we play at the centre of our lives. It is within the context of the family that we live our lives, and it is here that we receive our deepest wounds and most profound joys”. (Fire in the Belly)

For many years I have given away the responsibility to raise my son to his mother. I was raised by my mother, so I believed that mother can do a better job. However, having travelled, worked as an academic and a Gestalt therapist, I discovered that my son was longing for my contact and so we made sure we played sports and games for many years. Yet, I did not feel a real involvement with him. This changed a lot after the birth of my younger son.

As fathers, we give our children many gifts along with many wounds. Paradoxically, the wounds and the gifts are two sides of the same coin. When we give time and attention, we heal the wound of abandonment. When we acknowledge a child's accomplishments, we give the gift of confidence. When we support the free expression of feelings, we give the gift of self-esteem. In essence, if we show with our dedication and time, our love, attention, nurturing, it will demonstrate that we truly value our children and then they will come to value themselves and us.

We have to be willing to be available to our children as often as we can, and to be with them as often as practicable. There is no substitute for time with children. They know it and so do we. As fathers, we can no longer afford to use such excuses as "college expenses," "personal growth," "bigger houses," " more cars, gadgets, or other toys" to justify our abandonment of our children. For at a deep and profound level all men are the fathers of all children whether they are biological or not. We have to go beyond the personal to the communal, and work to heal all of the damage our forefathers still perpetrate through us. Such damage is evident in the many violent acts that men perpetrate even today.

When I conducted many men workshops, over the past ten years, I discovered that I am not really teaching about how to be a man, but learning how to be a man! When men asked me “what to do to become a better father to my children”, I had only one answer: “become aware that YOU need to change”. Change must come from within and not from the cultural, religious and social introjects. One important option to develop yourself as a father, that has been largely overlooked for centuries, is the importance of fatherhood as a spiritual practice.
My two sons


Fathering as a spiritual practice.

It is my conviction that fathering, for men, is clearly a spiritual path. For many men, their first step into their hearts, entering the heart of love, is through their love of a woman. Men take solace from women. Because of the deep seated nature of the competitive male spirit, many men don't trust one another. But they often trust and can let go of their protective shells in the presence of women. This is also possible with one's child. Some men turn their backs on their children. Some let the women in their lives be the ones that become enthralled with their children. We can raise our kids by default, or consciously. There will never be more pain, more transformative pain than with your child or children, nor more opportunities to grow big in heart and spirit. By rising our children, we (parents) revisit childhood again, the magic, the pain, the joy.  We are gifted with the opportunity to experience one of the most powerful of the ancient healing processes. Hanging out with his kids, an involved father will hear, not Ommmm, but the sound of his own silly laugh, a close reminder of the giggles of his own childhood.

 Having had the wonderful and magic opportunity to be a full time father to my second son, I was able to actually experience the great spirituality that he offered me from the moment of his birth. Through being a full time dad, I was re-parenting myself! I experienced a love process. Wherever my son goes, he goes in his world, whatever he does (when we're together), I am there. I might take him there. But he takes me in. We go to places-physical places, emotional places that I never accessed with my absent dad. I protect him. I play with him. I guide him. And in return, he inspires and challenges me. Together we learn, play and grow our love. Swimming, rock climbing, bicycling, watching movies, reading books and comics, rough-playing , making the bed and learning our limits. Through his experience of wonder I get to feel that soul wonder all over again. Through providing healthy limits for him and calling him when he breaks those limits, I get to rediscover those boundaries for myself. Through teaching him the importance of honesty, integrity, patience and perseverance, I get to model and am reminded, at a fundamental level, of the strength I have to live those qualities daily.

Over many years, I have had the good fortune to learn and travel the world. I spent time at alternative and spiritual communities around the world. Attended meetings at Ashrams and read some of the important books on meditation and joined seminars about soul work. I also trained in gestalt therapy and became a founder of two institutes in Australia.  I've cleaned out my closet of negativity and am continuing to clean up my act. I've healed a lot of wounds with my father and made peace with my mother. My heart has been split open and then healed by love and crushed by grief. I've danced and loved my way into countless forms of bliss. I've experienced the wisdom of the breath, been moved by deep silence, witnessed the inherent beauty of simplicity, and I have been moved by honest and kind words.

All great teachers remind us that Love is the answer. Love is the answer for me too. The question it answers: "What is truly important?" and the answer is: our children as our wise guides. I have gained this insight by spending my time with my son. Focusing my time and energy into raising my son is now my spiritual path. This is not only a rediscovery but a revolution of who I am.
Many people think that their next great spiritual lesson is going to come from a new teacher or "spiritual pursuit." They travel to India to find the guide. However, if you are a parent who is paying attention and prioritizing your children over other self realizing, self-fulfilling pursuits , then you probably are experiencing many awe-filled, quiet and simple moments of pleasure. The gift of parenting is often in those rare moments in-between all the busy stuff. If you are a father spending your time on your child, giving your full presence, whether you're interested at that moment or not, whether you have that time or not, you are a revolutionary!

 




What is the path for men?

We know that most men were not trained to prioritize their active involvement in their family. How could they? In school, life skills’ training for boys is dismal where it involves caring for themselves or others. Boys are trained in the don'ts: "Don't be a cry-baby", "Don't let others know you're hurt," "Don't let others see that you are weak," "Don't be a wimp," "Don't be effeminate," "Don't be sensitive to other's pain." Boy's training means: minds overrule hearts. Productivity is more important than sensitivity. Boys are rewarded for paying attention to facts and numbers, not themselves, not others. For men to unlearn and retrain themselves, going against what they've been taught about who men are and what men do, is not easy. What men often need is the equivalent of sensitivity training in gestalt groups. Many men need to revisit what they were told is unimportant and learn to trust their intuition. Many men need to become aware that when they were told men were not supposed to feel, need to practice feeling. Those men would then be good to themselves and those they love by learning about gentleness, kindness and being real. Those men would do well extending compassion and gentleness towards themselves and others. But it is hard to combat this training at a cellular level. In reclaiming the essence of our nature, the nature that is in men as well as women, boys as well as girls, we learn the necessity of caring for one's self and others. This is not as simple as it seems. If a man was not taught to honour these qualities, he will need patience and incredible commitment to learn these lessons. Once we take the time and make the effort to connect with the heart's sense of love, creating and prioritizing family over almost anything else makes perfect sense.  Men, who are waking up to this, doing the work and making this commitment, are lavishing a gift onto themselves, their partners, but most importantly their children and the community.

Conclusion

Living and breathing and thinking about our children are what many of us must do as our spiritual work. This is the first order of love.  Though men have been trained to respond differently, many fathers, like me, are heeding the wisdom of their heart. Then love is present not only in us but our children and in their child or children.

Fathering is a loving spiritual practice!



“All suffering gives rise to a great compassion
A great compassion creates a generous heart
From a generous heart is born an honourable person
An honourable person builds a united family
A united family generates a gentle community
A gentle community creates a peaceful nation
A peaceful nation makes a happy world
In which we all live in solidarity, peace and happiness”

BUDDHA
  
1.        Sam Keen FIRE IN THE BELLY 1992