As we discussed in our previous article on the Four Forces, centripetal force is the force that pulls us inward.
If you were swinging a ball on a string the ball will go in a circle.
The force, or pull from the string, would keep the ball moving in a circle.
If that string were to break the ball would move off straight as a result of the centrifugal force pulling it outward and it's forward momentum moving it straight.
In the case of studying and understanding human nature, we understand centripetal force as the desire we all have to spiral inward to our inner world.
In our world, however, all of us don't have that desire even if we think we do.
Howard Thurman, the great African American minister and mystic said it better.
In his book, Searching for Common Ground, he was discussing the need for us to go inward during times of trouble and uncertainty, to find comfort and to obtain a clearer understanding of our circumstances.
If someone wanted to stop us from finding comfort and a clear understanding, however, all they needed to do is make us so uncomfortable in our place of comfort that it would become a place of torment.
"If one can torture the person in the body," he said, "they can drive the spirit out of the body and then use the body for whatever they desire.
" This can be done by repeatedly telling a person that they don't have worth and value.
It can be done by convincing us that we are not good enough now and never will be until we attain a position, or perform in a way that is sanctioned by the power structure in our society.
Our power to choose what we want is taken away when this happens.
Our power to decide what is right or wrong is taken.
Even our power to know who the spirit and God is, is taken away because we are looking for answers outside of ourselves constantly and not trusting what we get from the inside.
We are forced then, to go outside for clarity and understanding when the conditioning works.
We are forced to perform for others in order to feel good about ourselves.
We become slaves to public opinion, even more so, to the opinion of those who are in charge of the media and many other power structures.
Normally what would pull us out of ourselves is healthy need.
It is a need that comes as a result of knowing that we can grow and prosper by interacting with others and hearing their ideas and then processing them.
Unhealthy need is another case.
Unhealthy need makes us go outside of ourselves in order to feel good about ourselves.
As our ability to deal with other people continues to make us feel good about ourselves we begin to forget how to think, interact with ourselves, and love ourselves.
Going inside becomes painful.
When we are on the outside, interacting with people and we get a sense of healthy fear of loss of self, instead of going back to ourselves we go farther out.
We actually forget who we are.
Out of sheer exhaustion we go back into ourselves sometimes and we find pain, sorrow and depression waiting.
We can't sit quietly, we have to keep our lives full of external things so we won't feel the pain and discomfort.
Achieving and getting more attention becomes the only thing that we seek in life and then we pass this sickness and judgementalism on to our friends and loved ones.
We have mixed up our need for growth with the desire for comfort and strokes from the outside world.
This is dangerous.
People's have been known to go to war because of not knowing the difference between their needs and desires.
In order to stop this from happening, we should constantly be doing the inner work.
The inner work involves looking deep within.
Spiraling as far in as we dare and flowing along with centripetal force, and examining maladaptive thoughts and ideas and working to remove the artificial beliefs and the artificial idea of self that we receive from an often sick society.
There are many ways to do this--prayer, meditation, tai-chi, yoga, self-hypnosis are just a few ways.
The idea is to remember who we really are and that we have worth and dignity that does not have to be given us from outside sources.
Worth and dignity is something that we receive when we are born.
It is our blessing as human beings.
As we remember this and work to cultivate our beauty even more first, not so others will congratulate us, but so we will become the same beautiful person on the outside as on the inside, we will remove the harsh memories and the behavioral patterns given us by a consumer society and be free.
We will have the power then to choose what we like and what we do not like.
We will be able to work joyfully and playfully as we chose our hobbies and career paths and when the outside world and society tries to socialize us to the idea that our worth depends on how much we can buy or sell.
We will be healthy enough and powerful enough when we go back inside to turn that around the negative messages and deprogram ourselves.
All of this can only happen, however, if we continue to do the inner work and we continue to do it daily.
Everyone can do the inner work.
There are thousands of books, tapes, and video tapes that we can use to do it.
Just make sure that the book that you are reading, or the tape you are watching, is not just fermenting the ground for the growth of a self satisfaction.
Be careful what you choose to watch and read and you will become strong and powerful.
After that, you can read anything and it will not touch you.
You can walk through fire and it won't burn you and walk through walls.
All of this just from doing the inner work.
Excellent, isn't it? In our next article we will discuss centrifugal force.
This is the pull outward, away from the self into the society and your social world.
We will discuss the cultivation of good friendships, healthy relationships, and how you can do the outer work in such situations.
You can see more articles like this at our free Journal of Practical Spirituality at http://www.
dswellness.
com where you will find many books purposely designed to help you do the inner work, the outer work and the greater work of transforming the world.
Dr.
John W.
Gilmore received his D.
Min.
degree in Integrating Work and Spirituality at UCS, now known as Wisdom University, in Oakland, CA.
He is a writer, a certified healer, a spiritual director and martial arts teacher.
His many books on interfaith spirituality can help you do the inner work.
His latest book, Reclaiming the Religion of Jesus in a Modern Age, can help you reclaim the teachings and mystical religion of proto-Christianity if you are a Christian or consider yourself a post Christian.
http://www.
dswellness.
com
If you were swinging a ball on a string the ball will go in a circle.
The force, or pull from the string, would keep the ball moving in a circle.
If that string were to break the ball would move off straight as a result of the centrifugal force pulling it outward and it's forward momentum moving it straight.
In the case of studying and understanding human nature, we understand centripetal force as the desire we all have to spiral inward to our inner world.
In our world, however, all of us don't have that desire even if we think we do.
Howard Thurman, the great African American minister and mystic said it better.
In his book, Searching for Common Ground, he was discussing the need for us to go inward during times of trouble and uncertainty, to find comfort and to obtain a clearer understanding of our circumstances.
If someone wanted to stop us from finding comfort and a clear understanding, however, all they needed to do is make us so uncomfortable in our place of comfort that it would become a place of torment.
"If one can torture the person in the body," he said, "they can drive the spirit out of the body and then use the body for whatever they desire.
" This can be done by repeatedly telling a person that they don't have worth and value.
It can be done by convincing us that we are not good enough now and never will be until we attain a position, or perform in a way that is sanctioned by the power structure in our society.
Our power to choose what we want is taken away when this happens.
Our power to decide what is right or wrong is taken.
Even our power to know who the spirit and God is, is taken away because we are looking for answers outside of ourselves constantly and not trusting what we get from the inside.
We are forced then, to go outside for clarity and understanding when the conditioning works.
We are forced to perform for others in order to feel good about ourselves.
We become slaves to public opinion, even more so, to the opinion of those who are in charge of the media and many other power structures.
Normally what would pull us out of ourselves is healthy need.
It is a need that comes as a result of knowing that we can grow and prosper by interacting with others and hearing their ideas and then processing them.
Unhealthy need is another case.
Unhealthy need makes us go outside of ourselves in order to feel good about ourselves.
As our ability to deal with other people continues to make us feel good about ourselves we begin to forget how to think, interact with ourselves, and love ourselves.
Going inside becomes painful.
When we are on the outside, interacting with people and we get a sense of healthy fear of loss of self, instead of going back to ourselves we go farther out.
We actually forget who we are.
Out of sheer exhaustion we go back into ourselves sometimes and we find pain, sorrow and depression waiting.
We can't sit quietly, we have to keep our lives full of external things so we won't feel the pain and discomfort.
Achieving and getting more attention becomes the only thing that we seek in life and then we pass this sickness and judgementalism on to our friends and loved ones.
We have mixed up our need for growth with the desire for comfort and strokes from the outside world.
This is dangerous.
People's have been known to go to war because of not knowing the difference between their needs and desires.
In order to stop this from happening, we should constantly be doing the inner work.
The inner work involves looking deep within.
Spiraling as far in as we dare and flowing along with centripetal force, and examining maladaptive thoughts and ideas and working to remove the artificial beliefs and the artificial idea of self that we receive from an often sick society.
There are many ways to do this--prayer, meditation, tai-chi, yoga, self-hypnosis are just a few ways.
The idea is to remember who we really are and that we have worth and dignity that does not have to be given us from outside sources.
Worth and dignity is something that we receive when we are born.
It is our blessing as human beings.
As we remember this and work to cultivate our beauty even more first, not so others will congratulate us, but so we will become the same beautiful person on the outside as on the inside, we will remove the harsh memories and the behavioral patterns given us by a consumer society and be free.
We will have the power then to choose what we like and what we do not like.
We will be able to work joyfully and playfully as we chose our hobbies and career paths and when the outside world and society tries to socialize us to the idea that our worth depends on how much we can buy or sell.
We will be healthy enough and powerful enough when we go back inside to turn that around the negative messages and deprogram ourselves.
All of this can only happen, however, if we continue to do the inner work and we continue to do it daily.
Everyone can do the inner work.
There are thousands of books, tapes, and video tapes that we can use to do it.
Just make sure that the book that you are reading, or the tape you are watching, is not just fermenting the ground for the growth of a self satisfaction.
Be careful what you choose to watch and read and you will become strong and powerful.
After that, you can read anything and it will not touch you.
You can walk through fire and it won't burn you and walk through walls.
All of this just from doing the inner work.
Excellent, isn't it? In our next article we will discuss centrifugal force.
This is the pull outward, away from the self into the society and your social world.
We will discuss the cultivation of good friendships, healthy relationships, and how you can do the outer work in such situations.
You can see more articles like this at our free Journal of Practical Spirituality at http://www.
dswellness.
com where you will find many books purposely designed to help you do the inner work, the outer work and the greater work of transforming the world.
Dr.
John W.
Gilmore received his D.
Min.
degree in Integrating Work and Spirituality at UCS, now known as Wisdom University, in Oakland, CA.
He is a writer, a certified healer, a spiritual director and martial arts teacher.
His many books on interfaith spirituality can help you do the inner work.
His latest book, Reclaiming the Religion of Jesus in a Modern Age, can help you reclaim the teachings and mystical religion of proto-Christianity if you are a Christian or consider yourself a post Christian.
http://www.
dswellness.
com
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