META-HEROISM

At the primary level, a hero is the person who faces some danger or risk, who puts his own welfare at risk in order to do something of a higher value. We consider someone a hero who rushes into a burning building to save a child. We consider it heroism when people give their time and energy to be a part of a rescue team, to hunt for a missing person, to lend their hands and shoulders to rebuilding a community.

Of course, even at the primary level of response, these heroic activities involve meta-states for courage, passion, love, commitment, etc. so that in spite of the fears, apprehensions, worries, uncertainties, etc., the person faces the fear anyway and stands against his or her fears. Typically it takes stronger and more emotionally intense meta-states to overcome the primary level fear.

If that’s the case with primary level heroism, what about meta-heroism? Is there such a thing as meta-heroism? If there is such a creature, what is an example of meta-heroism? What is the range of things that a person could be heroic about at a meta-level?

To move up to a level into meta-heroism this is where being heroic in attitude and spirit about higher values and experiences of the mind and spirit. This means facing fears and dangers at meta-levels. It refers to an attitude of being daring, audacious, and courageous regarding things of our higher states.

What’s an example of this you ask? An example of meta-heroism is a person manifesting the willing to engage in the struggle of self-understanding to know one self and to look directly at weaknesses and character flaws. For a person to persist in this to gain self-knowledge, a higher level courage is required. Meta-heroism is sometimes required to face oneself, to know that “I am more than my problems.” In this it takes a meta-courage to refuse to let your circumstances define you. Not infrequently I see a lot of meta-heroism when someone decides to face his or her dragons— the shadow side of self.

More recently, as I’ve been working with the new Self-Actualization Models, I have seen people demonstrate tremendous meta-heroism to their vision to self-actualize. Sometimes this is in the realm of taking charge of their power to construct meaning, to resacralize life, to refuse the discounting skepticism of our age, and to take the courage to believe in goodness. Sometimes this occurs in the area of entering the Crucible of Change and letting old forms of meaning, old cultural rituals, dated emotions and impulses, etc. melt down and be de-constructed. Sometimes it is even in the zone of engagement. After all, it takes courage to let go of self, of ego, and to get lost in an engagement.

Courage is also required for gaining knowledge. It’s required in the struggle to understand things, to make sense of the world, and to overcome the challenges to solve problems. When many give up and take the easy road on the path of least resistance, those with the higher levels of courage continue the pursuit. They refuse to give in to pessimism or skepticism. As meta- heros, they refuse to belief that defeat is permanent. They stubbornly refuse to stay down after a set back but instead resiliently bounce back. They pick up the pieces, learn from the experience, and give it another go.

It is meta-heroism to refuse to accept a temporary helplessness, to refuse to conform to society, to live off the opinions of others, to make a commitment and to follow through on one’s dreams and visions. In these ways, this is what Nathaniel Brandon calls “the heroism of consciousness.” Here it takes a higher meta-state of courage to accept our own consciousness and to be responsible for it.

After all, as semantic beings who live by our beliefs, concepts, and understandings at the higher meta-dimensions, it is a meta-heroism to choose high ones and then to translate them into reality. You engage in meta-heroic behavior when you use your determination to translate from mind into body. It’s easier to feel satisfied that you “know” something without transforming the knowledge into doing.

Other examples of meta-heroism include the courage to change your mind. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage and commitment to truth to admit to the need to change your mind and then to do it publically. We can view this also as the meta-courage to refuse to be a prisoner to yesterday’s knowledge and choices.

There is the heroism of acceptance, of just acknowledging what is, accepting the cards that life or God has dealt us, and to then ask the coping question. “Given that this is the case, what’s the best way to handle this?” A form of meta-heroism is to live in the moment. It’s easier to escape the here-and-now moment into the nostalgia of the past or the beauty of a different future. For us humans, living fully in this moment takes more focus, more awareness, more choice.

Ah, there are a great many areas within your higher state that you can rise up and demonstrate a meta-heroism. May your life this week be meta-heroic in the choices you make!