The Five-Week AIM

“Your AIM is your GOD.”

aim/ām/

Verb: To point or direct (a weapon or camera) at a target

Noun: A purpose or intention; a desired outcome.

Synonyms:

verb.  direct – intend – point – level

noun.  purpose – goal – object – end – intention – target

When a lost soul finds “school”, the institution offers AIM almost immediately. Much like the idea of intention, AIM is a counter  to the human tendency to give up on the things we wish for, set out to do, accomplish, have. “School” teaches that when we set out to “do”, we hit intervals where the progress slows down, or even reverses. Most people tend to give up during these intervals.

Repeatedly “school” will remind you that as you are (you and anyone without “school”) you are aimless. Without awareness of Aim, a little known law, man is simply a jumble of reactions with little true will toward a clear end.  It’s difficult to have true aim even with this knowledge, but impossible without “school.” Most “students” can verify their aimlessness readily. Most people can cite when they’ve given up on things in frustration — changed their mind once starting a project, or lost interest.

From the beginning of your tenure, you will state “five-week” AIMS. At first your aims will be driven by your wishes and desires, and you will hear aims from fellow students that will range from writing books, to getting more exercise, to cleaning out the basement, to learning how to cook.  Since you will be surrounded by support and accountability, you will likely experience a significant increase in accomplishments, new experiences, a new level of persistence.  Your life will appear to open up and you may be amazed at how it is changing.  Therein lies the hook; you become more willing to listen to and heed “instruction.” Soon you will come to believe that without school you can not “do”. “School’s” persistent reminders that “As s/he is, woman/man cannot do” shores up this fear and thus the umbilical chord is implanted and fed.

Fast forward two years, school’s  “higher AIM” will start siphoning away your aims, though “school” won’t divulge its AIM.  “School” insinuates that it shares more of its super-secret knowledge with you when you are “ready” ( i.e. sufficiently indoctrinated). Despite being kept in the dark about so many things, your own Aims will begin to be geared towards “instruction” you’ve gotten in school, or to the increasing school obligations.   The longer you are “in”, the more the instruction and obligations insert between you and your internal wisdom and deeply-held wishes, which you will soon come to doubt. “School” will begin to dictate your emotional reactions, your thoughts, your time, and your daily activities by its allegedly higher doctrine. This doctrine will fall under the title of “school’s” AIM. And at this point, it has driven this idea into your psyche:

“Your AIM is your GOD.” Translation – “SCHOOL is your GOD”.

“AIM” (i.e. “School”) as God will soon wedge in between you and what is called your “little life” by certain illustrious teachers. When “AIM” is God, it justifies plowing over anyone or thing that will keep you from “making your AIM”. If a spouse wonders why you are never home, or a friend asks why you are so busy, if your child is starting to act out, they must either be appeased by your fine vibrations, or shoved out of the way for the more worthy efforts of the “3rd line of work” (i.e. “work for school”): throwing parties, inviting lost souls to “presentations” and recruiting new students to join the masses, keeping phone lists with encoded names and numbers, “setting meetings”, attending the meetings, keeping notes to be used for the intended student’s dossier, phoning in your latest successful or failed recruiting efforts to your “aim partners” etc. Your efforts feed the higher calling of shoring up Sharon Gan’s retirement and Park Plaza condo fund. A fund, by the way, that no one in school would ever divulge to you. You will be told, however, that your efforts serve to further your personal evolution.

In having been an unknowing cog in the Sharon Gans income-generating machine, I have learned this: If AIMS are not internally driven, if your AIMS are dictated to you, rather than generated from a deep place within you, then your aims are not your own and, therefore, not “YOUR GOD”. They therefore will only suck you dry, rather than serve your betterment. This is especially true when the “aim behind the aim” is in reality simply a sinister and cynical soul-sucking machine, constructed to benefit a woman you might meet once or twice.

It is likely, though, that you won’t meet this “highly-evolved teacher”. Because my limited Sharon Gans encounters revealed a crazy-looking, nonsense-spouting, mean queen. She was escorted into the room with such over the top pomp and circumstance, that the reverence surrounding her was worthy of that which bowed to King Tut. Of course “school” offered no explanation for its theatrics.  It inferred her royalty through presentation. Her unannounced surprise entrance with Robert, doting and glowing, escorting her and her flowing gowns, bright blue eyelids and heavy black eyelashes on his arm to her throne was meant to be a “shock” and awakening of sorts; the students tasked to serve refreshments tumbled over themselves to cater to her every need. Robert then turned to the “class” and grandly announced, “Ask your questions” without introducing this strange creature.

The first time I was privy to this dog and pony show, Sharon’s first act of higher teaching was to accuse a “student” of lying and throw her out. This woman was saying something about yoga and angels and Sharon ripped her to shreds verbally, followed by “Why don’t you just leave.” I was one of the “youngest students” at the time and I briefly  woke up and considered walking out the door with the damned. But, instead I sat in cowed silence, uncomfortable and increasingly disgruntled, tolerating the rest of that night’s “class”.

I did notice that, at a certain point, the bi-annual Boston-area Sharon circus no longer came to town, so several of the classmates who came after me, knew nothing of this queen’s existence. Whether you know of her or not, though, the longer you are “in” school, the more your “little life” is treated as an insignificant sidebar to her, “school” and its secret higher AIM, as described above. And if you are “in” you may never learn the truth about the “highly-evolved royalty” that your life has now been sublimated into serving, with the idea of AIM as GOD leading the way.

Your God is your temple within. What your life serves should come from that temple, fueled by clarity and love. Your job is to stop and listen to the still, small voice whispering to you from that inner sanctuary. S/he will and should dictate your true aims and purpose. And you certainly won’t access this temple or hear the still, small voice when scrambling around to meet those unspoken school aims fueled by fear and secrecy.