Awaken the Fool
The archetype of the true clown is sillyness and permission to be the ‘child’ and play. Perhaps the ‘child’ is the part of ourselves we have denied as we had to grow up.
Awaken the Fool is about meeting the Fool in all of us. The question is – is the Fool an idiot or a wise Fool or both? Are we imperfectly perfect?
The Fool carries the fools gold (nuggets) of values as a wanderer. In kindness, empathy and love we pass REAL HOPES to everyone, leading by example and not changing the world as we realise every Fool has their own path to walk.
The quest is to love what is, speak your own truth, and share wisdom for the benefit of others. Maybe the wisdom seems ‘out there’, maybe it seems ‘crazy’ but as we learned from Dr Patch Adams in his meeting with scientist Arthur Mendelson we have to not look at the 3 fingers held up but allow our eyes to see beyond, that is, to see differently.
What is a fool?
Essay
The Fools Gold
The fool carries the nuggets of REAL HOPES for humanity.
A Fool teaching REAL HOPE to children. The video summarises REAL HOPES.
Susan Carew is a Rotary Peace fellow. The video is a message to inspire Rotary. Susan aka Peace Fool describes her foolish philosophy.
Susan has a second website Worldpeacefull.com which showcases REAL HOPES as a universal model for peace and happiness.
A New Model
Below is an extract about the Fools Journey from Susan’s free pdf book
A Fool for Peace. A_Fool_for_Peace_1_A_FOOL_FOR_PEACE_A_Fo
The fools journey depicts how I chose to be a Fool and trust my heart against all the odds and follow what I know to be true for me. Yes I did carry a little bundle on my back, this was filled with questions, courage, values, honesty and love. I walked alone yet my intuition guided my steps and gave me the trust to step off the cliff into the unknown. It is a journey you cannot plan and would seem impossible if proposed, yet it unfolded as naturally as placing one foot in front of the other. It was Lao Tzu, the famous old Chinese philosopher who proposed that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. This means action taken from stillness. Whenever I step into the air solid ground appears beneath my feet. Some call it landing on your feet, but I have always found that life supports my every step.
From the archetype of the traditional Fool (or Jester) I have created my own clown character Peacefull, or depending on my mood, Peace Fool. Jesters are known for speaking truth to power, and on this journey I found myself following the invisible threads to weave truth and love. When I closed my eyes I saw Gandhi as a silent traveller beside me gently nudging me to not give up and find the road less travelled. Always his vision came to me to be the change you wish to see in the world. This mantra disciplined me to walk the talk.
In 1998 I had a dream that I was teaching peace and this opened me up to my own quest, though I didn’t realise I was reaching for my personal Holy Grail. The question arises is the Holy Grail a real cup or is it a mythical cup? Perhaps it is a metaphor for the real gold of life or what I call the Fools Gold. Perhaps this is the gold of self realisation. Many have spoken of the alchemy of transforming base metal into gold. Perhaps in truth it is really about personal transformation, transforming negativity into positivity as the real gold of life.
I am going to take you on a fantastic journey that only a Fool could make. We are going to step off the cliff of what is perceive as the solid ground of life to find the real magic in life.
Come with me and let’s go on a journey to discover the peace within. Perhaps you are a Fool for Peace?
CHAPTER 1: My Dream of Peace (1998)
‘In clapping both hands a sound is heard:
what is the sound of the one hand?’
– Zen Koen
Many stop and try to hear the sound; they become puzzled. Peace is a puzzle that has not been solved by humanity, as we have approached the problem as two hands clapping. Peace requires each of us to see differently, for in the past we were seeking applause, rather than to pause in the silence to deeply listen to ourselves, for all answers live in the heart of each of us. That is why peace is present in every moment, every day, and expressed in simple ways, as wisely stated by the Rotary International former President Sakuji.
Another question to consider is – ‘Is peace present the moment you start thinking about it?’ Can we think about peace, or is what we are grasping for beyond thought? Is it universal? Is it inherent within our very nature?
We are indeed threads within a web of life that is intricately woven and balanced. We did not create this web, we are a thread within it. As we ask questions we open up to possibilities that allow us to see what we cannot see to find that peace is not what we think, it is who we are. Some may ask – is the dream real?
In 1998 I dreamed I was teaching peace to children. I awoke in the middle of the night, excited. The next day I rang a friend of mine who is a teacher and asked: ‘Does anyone teach peace to children? Is there a dedicated subject or curriculum?’ he stated there was Social Studies which had elements of war and peace in it, but there was no dedicated subject called Peace.
Unbeknown to me this dream would gently catapult my life onto a new track. I subtly began to shift from the secure track of working as a market analyst, to a new life living from what was unknown. I had no idea how I would teach peace to children, but the seed was planted in the dream. I certainly didn’t want to enrol in a four year degree to get qualified as a teacher, so I let it go and life showed me the Fool’s Way.
I wrote ‘Awaken the Fool’ in an inspired moment and it seems to me this is the dream that is becoming real. I sensed as I wrote this, the Fool’s Way is the real peace movement. I turned this writing into a peace education program. Here is an outline of the philosophy of the Fool’s Way.
Awaken the Fool to REAL HOPES
Peace Fool is an archetypal figure who demonstrates living peace. The fool steps out into life with innocence discovering the wisdom as s/he stubs her toe on the stones and rocks of life. Each obstacle becomes an opportunity to be with the pain and learn how to transform pain in the future. If one keeps returning to the same place and stubbing the toe, the fool hasn’t learned the lesson or has been in a vague state not really awake in the present moment as s/he walks.
The Peace Fool carries REAL HOPES in a bag of magic tricks. The gold in REAL HOPES lives as:
Responsibility, Empathy, Awareness, Love, Honesty, Oneness, Peace, Enjoyment, Service
Each value is the wealth s/he carries. It is the real wealth, it is the Fool’s Gold because everyone thinks it is not real wealth as s/he has nothing and is a fool. They are spellbound by the trinkets and material things in the world. Whilst the fool spends life discovering that the gold is within and watches bemused as the world keeps digging for gold and looking outside themselves to other people and the external world to give them the gold. The fool is in a constant state of joy because she has everything in her bag that she could possibly need.
People in the world are in a constant state of pain and lack because they are always trying to find the gold out there. The fool knows when you go with in you do not go with out. The world has it the other way around when they go with out they don’t go within. So the fool feels full and the people feel empty. Yet the fool knows that when you empty of desire, that is when the gold appears like magic. Yet people think if they are empty they can fill their stomachs, yet they get hungry again and spend their whole lives trying to be full.
So how can the Fool’s Gold be the real gold in life?
Let’s explore REAL HOPES and perhaps you find your real wealth along the WAY.
Responsibility
Responsibility is the ability to respond you can do something!!! Hmmm what do we mean you can do something? You have the power of choice.
You have the power to create your life. Do you believe that? If you cannot respond it means you become a victim of life, you believe you have no options and you just have to put up with whatever people give you. You feel power-less.
If you are respons-able then you are able to respond, you know you can do something, you know that even if you haven’t got the solution and it feels like the juggling balls are up in the air, just be patient, like juggling it takes time to get it. If you are patient and relaxed you will suddenly get the pattern or the key to your problem. Just get into the flow and it happens.
Just imagine the outcome you want and funnily enough life just puts people in your way to help you solve your problem. Life is always helping.
Empathy
Did you notice empathy has ‘path’ in it hmmm
You can stand in someone’s shoes, now they could be big clown shoes or small shiny shoes (tight fit) but you walk in their moccasins for a while and get an idea of what life is like for them.
You quickly notice that it feels different from your life so you no longer expect them to be like you. You try and be like them and find harmony without losing your shoes.
So it is really understanding other people and finding your hug which you might have left behind as you didn’t understand them.
Awareness
What is it to be aware? I always think of my eyes being open, not just seeing what is around me, but knowing the gold here is noticing what is happening for yourself and other people.
Sometimes when you are used to noticing you will find that not only are you aware of yourself and other people you will be aware of how you are part of a world family and who knows maybe even a cosmic family.
So open your eyes and look around you. Remember it is to see first then look. That means seeing inside yourself first and listening to those little intuitions that push you walk around a corner or change your day.
Awareness sees your life as a journey and that you create your life. How do you do that? By your thoughts, words and actions. Ask yourself, what am I creating? Is it fearful, hurtful, loving or fun? You are aware you create your response to every moment, how amazing are you!
Love
Oh I love love, where are my love glasses? Here they are. I am a fool for love. Is anyone else a fool for love?
Clowns love everyone. We don’t go out and say ‘I love you but not you’. We see the love in every person. We are not scared of anyone.
Love is my favourite apple to eat. It is sweet and juicy. You can fall in love, you can love a drink on a hot day, you can love your life, you can love what you are doing, love your friends, family and hobbies.
Love is the warm fuzzies happening inside you. Love is unity it joins you with people and activities you love doing. Sometimes time just disappears when you love what you are doing.
When we love people we snuggle up, we chatter away, we share our things enthusiastically and we don’t feel alone.
Most importantly we know that love is who we are. So you don’t have to go and get it, you are it. You know that love is inside you because you feel it. How great is that! So think good thoughts, be hopeful and positive. Feel the love as the cup half full not half empty.
Always remember that love is the answer to all your problems or questions in disguise. Remember when you love you can never hurt anyone.
In conflicts always try to lovingly explain your side and listen lovingly to what the other has to say. Why not solve the problem and not hate the person. We all make mistakes.
Know that when you follow your heart it leads you home to who you are. Be a fool, keep your heart on your sleeve, never be afraid of sharing your heart with anyone, even if you get hurt dive in again. Life is meant to be up and down but never dull.
Just because something happened in the past doesn’t mean it will happen in the future.
So follow your heart it will never let you down. The purpose of the journey is to follow your heart.
Honesty
Did you know fools are jesters? What do jesters do? Jesters are famous for speaking the truth to power. That was to the king or authority. Why did the Jester’s get away with it? The Jester’s made jokes and got away with it, they made the King laugh at himself. The King enjoyed having the Jesters in the court as they helped him humorously see himself. It is intimacy – in-to-me-see.
What do you think is the most intelligent thing you can say? I could be wrong? How is that intelligent you may ask? Well it allows you to open your mind to other possibilities. Also you are looking for truth, not to be right. That means the real power is speaking the truth and not taking yourself too seriously. This is the gold nugget.
When you get the truth you just suddenly see, that is what it means to see (within) and then look. Truth sets you free to be who you really are. We can get very confused in life as we know there are many truths out there. The best way as a jester I can describe that to you is by a mirror ball. Each mirror is a person with their own truth. There are lots of tiny mirrors on the ball. So when you look into the mirror ball you can’t see yourself, you become blurry or confused. That is not to say their truth is wrong because you can’t see it, it is just to know there are lots of truth’s different from yours, it is just the way the world is. Another way to see this is the parable of the Emperor with No Clothes:
A vain Emperor who cares for nothing hires two swindlers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “hopelessly stupid”. The Emperor cannot see the clothing himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense, until a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
We can live in denial to not be seen as the fool. Yet had he not had an ego and was prepared to be seen a fool, he would have acknowledged the clothes were invisible, he was naked before truth. Now if you want to know your truth you have to look at yourself. That means that you see inward and ask yourself – is that true? I know of a wise lady who does personal inquiry. She says that whenever we feel negative we are not seeing the gold. The gold of course is love. She says if you question your thoughts and ask is it true? can you be absolutely sure that it is true? how do you react how do you feel when you believe the negative thought? who would you be without the thought? and then this is the really amazing bit – you turn the thought around and wear it. Try it on for size. You may not feel comfortable, yet if you are honest you may find what you imposed on someone else is actually your projection. The truth is always in you. What happens is that you know the truth deep down and up it comes into the light of day to show you that you projected something in you onto the other person. It is like a movie screen where your mind is the projector and the screen is the other person. You realise that it is not true, just like a movie, it seems real but when you question it you start to laugh. That is why Jesters are always laughing we see that everybody is perfectly fine, they are doing their best. The truth sets them free.
Oneness
Oneness is err a big one, one that few talk about.
Imagine oneness like the whole world and all the air that circulates the planet. Imagine that every single person and organism on this earth has breathed the same air.
We all come from the same family tree. Every single person comes from the human family. We all have the same designed bodies, those who do differ a bit are also perfectly human.
Every problem you have had someone else has had, so you are not alone. We care for others when they cry, when laugh when others laugh and that is the feeling we are one.
Amazingly sometimes when we are thinking of someone they may actually ring, imagine that. How can that happen if we are separate. How do we know?
We all love to be with other people, we feel warm and safe as we can feel their presence and it feels good.
Peace
I am Peace Fool so this is another favourite of mine. This is the gold that is more like a ray of golden light.
Humans come in all shapes and colours, you can imagine a rainbow. When we all come together it is like white light.
Peace just fills your whole body when you are really happy. How do you know you are really peacefull, you just sit there like a Cheshire cat with a happy grin. You may even laugh for no reason.
Even when things haven’t worked out the way you thought you are still peacefull because you are curious about what is going to happen.
You know that life is not about control but the journey of discovery, so you realise when it goes differently that you are to just follow your heart and see where the thread takes you. As your life is a tapestry. You just can’t see the master peace right now.
So you don’t resist anything, you just flow with life and if anything negative happens you know to question your thoughts and to find peace inside you.
Everything in the world reflects us. If we think the world is bad, funnily enough we see bad, if we think the world is great, guess what we see great. It is like the red car in a car park. Say you say to yourself I love red cars. Suddenly you see them everywhere.
Our minds are like that what you focus on expands, so if you want peace, focus and just be it. As Gandhi envisaged ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’.
Enjoyment
Enjoyment is not too hard to explain. It has joy in it. What is joy?
Some people think enjoyment is all about pleasure. Do you know the difference between pleasure and joy? Pleasure is taking, joy is giving. Yes I know people think just go out there and do what they want to have fun and don’t worry about other people, even if they have fun at another’s expense. We know that is not the real fun.
Pleasure is different it is about buying things, escaping into games where you get distractions of winning but truly you never win when you go for pleasure. You spend a lot of money and then guess what, the next desire comes and you have to have it. How many things are in your room piling up because you bought them impulsively as you had to have the latest whatever, after a while you got bored and started searching again, as you have to fill your time. That is taking from life.
Enjoyment has joy inside, this means you are happy inside. You don’t need things outside you to make you happy. Life is just so exciting and wonderful you feel alive and want to share.
You know you are living the life you are meant to and being true to yourself, when you do the joy just sparkles up, bubbling, shining and you just can’t help smiling. Some people will see you as confident and real.
Imagine if you didn’t have to fill your time that you were already full on life. That joy was there and you knew that life would just send you something interesting when you need it. So you have plenty of space to give of yourself sharing what you know, your talents and caring about other people. This is giving to life and life gives to you. You have something to give so you are not empty. Get it!!
So enjoyment is the jester always laughing and smiling and looking at people with a cheeky twinkle. Where you just want to go up and meet people. No-one is scary because you see yourself in them and just smile. You laugh at life when you see mistakes made as you know everyone is learning you don’t take life seriously you just laugh as you have been there.
Did you know that life is the joke? do you get the joke? You are here to have fun not to be sad and moping around, you create your happiness as well.
Did you know the thoughts you think decide what emotions will come up. If you are always saying that I never get this or that, I am lonely, I don’t have money, I am not in control and no-one likes me. Your thoughts will make you feel sad. What if you decided to sing another song where you think life is great. For example – I know I need something as I have it, I am here to learn lessons about life, I am not in control, I am on a journey of self-discovery, everyone is doing their best, if someone leaves that is life saying goodbye to them, even if someone dies you know that life is the universal pattern-maker and you are just grateful for what you had.
The real joy that is that life is meant to be as it is because it has happened. When we place joy into life we can deal with difficult issues as we look for the gold nugget buried beneath the drama. That is enjoy-ment. It is meant to be, get it!
Service
This is the last one. To give service makes life such a magical place.
When we have all are values together in the one bag, we head out onto the open road. We have all we need with us and are open to life, the road is long and exciting. You have no idea where you will end up. But you trust life as you have the gold with you.
Service is an integration of all the gold into selfless service to others as there is nothing that you need, so you share from your little bag the secrets of life. You are living to give.
To be a foolish is how you really get to know the world. Imagine everyone is floating on a ship of fools in the ocean of life. Imagine how much fun that would be.
So you just serve everyone who comes up knowing they are meant to be there. Perhaps in a quiet moment they even asked for you to come. Sounds like a magic trick hey.
Sometimes you can serve by doing nothing, let people work things out, other times you can just love people and that is sending a beautiful vibe to them. Other times you may help them with something or be like a mirror shining truth back to them to see who they really are. They may be surprised how great they are when they see to look into their own book.
Service represents the highest value of all the Fool’s Gold, like a rainbow each value has a colour of virtue, each positive thought weaves a thread to co-create the world’s tapestry.
It is the big picture.
Therefore, ‘to thine own self be true’ is a Peace Fool’s song.
The Fool’s Gold Transmutes Negative into Positive
Did you know that the Fool’s Gold is actually Pyrite. The meaning is as follows:
Pyrite is often called “Fool’s Gold,” though there is nothing foolish about this mineral. Within its gleaming beauty is a stone of hidden fire, one that can be sparked to life by striking it against metal or stone. An Earth element, it also resonates with Fire energy, symbolizing the warmth and lasting presence of the sun and the ability to generate wealth by one’s own power. It is masculine in nature, a stone of action, vitality and will, and taps into one’s abilities and potential, stimulating the flow of ideas. It brings confidence and the persistence to carry things through to completion.
As a talisman, Pyrite is a unique protector, drawing energy from the Earth through the physical body and into the aura creating a defensive shield against negative energies, environmental pollutants, emotional attack and physical harm. It also supports one with a spirit of boldness and assertive action when protecting others, the planet, or in standing up for important issues of community. It stimulates the Second and Third Chakras, enhancing will power and the ability to see behind facades to what is real.[i]
[i] http://www.crystalvaults.com/crystal-encyclopedia/pyrite