The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth
By Jeff Stone

Many moons ago I worked at a prison to help rehabilitate prisoners. During that time, one of the more aggressive inmates made a comment along these lines: “They say that the meek shall inherit the Earth, but that’s a bunch of crap; the strong and powerful shall inherit the Earth.”

What he did not understand was that inheriting the Earth is nothing to do with strength or even intelligence, but rather humility and teach-ability. The more teachable you are the more you gain or inherit, and the more wise you become.

Root:
Let’s remember our roots. Do you think that guys like Houdini were born knowing how to be entertainers? No way! Houdini had more failures in his early career. He had to learn to become who he became. He also spent time learning how to pick locks and build illusions… on and on and on.

The point is that our past is full of well-known performers who were life-long students of the art. They never stopped learning, nor should you. Your art, our art is rooted in a history rich with brilliant people who made it their life’s work to study and learn as much as they could. Sometimes the learning came from other people, sometimes from books, and sometimes from themselves.

Having the ability to see yourself is a knack that takes years to pursue. Notice that I did not say “achieve,” but rather I said “pursue.” Most people waste many, many years of their lives not pursuing the ability to see themselves. Paradoxically, it is the view of themselves that obscures the ability to see themselves.

In other words, they are too busy wrapped up in how amazing they are that they forget that they make mistakes, and that other people see them in a completely different light. Eventually, the wise ones realize that their own view of themselves is not the correct view. It is a very distorted and biased view. The eye cannot see itself. However, if the eye tries to see itself, it will be better off than it would be if it thinks that it IS seeing itself.

I know this sounds kind of deep, but reread the above two paragraphs a few times before you move on to the Branch. I want you to truly understand this concept.

Once you realize that you must pursue the vision of what others see, then, and only then will you realize how distorted your current view is. That’s when change occurs. That change is enabled by humility and teach-ability, also known as meekness. Yes. The Meek shall inherit the Earth.

Branches:
Let’s build our branches. Ok so you’ve got the gist of it, I think. You must realize that your view of yourself is very distorted. Your goal or branch for this month is to try to see what others see. Note that seeing doesn’t always happen with the eyes. It can happen with all of the senses and the proverbial sixth sense.

For example, here’s an exercise I want you to do right now. Get a video recorder. Get a friend who doesn’t mind you testing a few magic tricks on him/her. Get another friend to operate the camera. I want you to perform an effect that you are very good at, that you do extremely well. Have your friend film you doing this trick on your other friend.

Then I want you to go to a quiet room alone, and listen, not watch, listen to the video. Listen to your patter, to your friend’s responses to your patter. Listen to your responses to his responses. Do you cut him off? Do you sound cocky? Do you sound insulting? Have someone else that was not present at the time of the filming listen to the audio without viewing the video and critique it as well.

No matter what they say, however harsh, rude or bold, do NOT argue; do NOT justify your actions; do NOT explain; do NOT say, “yeah but.” Just LISTEN and thank them for their time. Compare your feedback to their feedback. How are they similar? How are they dissimilar? Try to change anything that they told you to change, even if you think it’s a bad idea. Just try it.

You can repeat this experiment by watching the video with no sound. You can repeat it again by watching it with sound and video. Each time, get a different friend to critique you.

The intent here is not to get you to change your act to the whim of your friend, but rather to get you to LISTEN and RESPOND to criticism openly without getting emotional or defensive. This is the beginning of the pursuit of seeing yourself.

This idea is one of many that you can try to improve your meekness. The next time someone is rude to you or says something hurtful, do NOT respond. Rather, stop and think about what the person said; remove the emotion from it, and ask yourself if there is ANY truth, however infinitesimal, to what the person said.

Whether you want to inherit the Earth or just inherit the shared joy between you and your audience, you MUST become meek, for the meek truly shall inherit the Earth. Now go study the classics, and go discover your true magical self.

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