The Brook

The Brook

The Brook reveals a practical philosophy of life, using flowing waters and the surrounding landscapes as a metaphor for unfolding the philosophy. The underpinning beliefs that form the philosophy of the Brook are:

Human beings seek happiness, success and fulfillment, while they wish to avoid pain and suffering.

The fundamental impediment to achieving these universal human “goals” is ignorance.

Knowledge is the answer to removing these impediments.

To achieve our goals, knowledge must lead to action.

Knowledge is our heritage. It is available readily in the “waters of life” which have been dyed with the wisdom of many enlightened “seers” over the ages.

We can tap into these waters of universal and ageless wisdom by searching within ourselves.

Everything that is material, flows and changes.

The spiritual aspect of our being is unchangeable.

Good and evil are a reflection of knowledge and ignorance and exist together like the yin and yang.

Good and evil are represented by the actions of two major, or grand, “archetypes” of the Brook – Master or Giver, and Maurader or Taker. These grand archetypes, on opposing banks, always are connected to each other by the waters of the Brook. In the waters we find a third major, albeit not quite so grand, archetype – the Navigator or Transactionist. All three major archetypes meet and mingle in the waters. They are influenced by the currents while they themselves influence the movements of the waters. In addition to these major archetypes, the Brook is populated with individuals who may be represented by one, or at times by a combination, of six distinct archetypes.

From the waters of the Brook we extract ancient wisdom to discover therein “five spiritual sentinels” – forces which lead the individual towards the bank of the Givers. We also discover in these waters “five material motivators” – forces which lead the individual towards the bank of the Takers. With some reflection, we realize that the major currents in the waters are generated by individual actions, driven by these two pairs of five generally opposing forces.

The six archetypes represent a broad spectrum of human nature and behavior. Individuals associated with any particular archetype may from time to time act in a manner that may represent one or more of the other five as well as either of the two “opposing” grand archetypes. That is to say, an individual may act as one or more of the six archetypes and either as a Giver or a Taker, depending upon the circumstances and the prevailing forces. During the majority of their journeys, most travelers act as Navigators, both giving and taking with the flow, influenced by the currents on which they “ride” at the time.

With the help of these archetypes and the two opposing sets of forces, we explore the philosophy of the Brook while we navigate the waters. Soon, it is evident that life is expressed, through our thoughts, in the form of action. In other words, our thoughts reflect our being and our actions spring from our thoughts. We therefore are what we act. This leads us to a hypothesis that life and existence, or being, are expressed through action.

Another way of putting this is that life may be viewed as a journey involving our thoughts and actions. The mind journey in the Brook then becomes a navigation through life. In the Brook, the “purpose of action” provides the practical sequeal to the contemplation and acquisition of knowledge and wisdom related to questions about our being and the purpose of life.