Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII. Coordination

Confidence cannot be built, only released: it and insecurity are poles of one excess potential. Drop importance, treat provocations as a game, take what is yours, and replace belief with knowing.

In one paragraph

Zeland argues that confidence cannot be built, only released. Insecurity and confidence are two poles of the same excess potential, and both rest on importance. Chasing confidence, by affirmation, bluster or willpower, feeds pendulums. The way out is "coordination": lower importance, stop fighting the alternatives flow, and treat the pendulum's provocations as a game. On this view, you then take what is yours through the "will to have," a calm permission to have, not an effort. The chapter ends with a rule for setbacks (read them as positive and you step onto a favorable branch of your lifeline) and an argument that belief should be replaced by knowing, with hope as the working substitute.

Key ideas

Insecurity and lack of self-belief are one thing. They drain the energy of intention through several excess potentials at once: inner and outer importance, frustration, and the effort of keeping control. What remains is no intention at all. Guilt is the richest source, and it draws manipulators who feed on your need to explain yourself. [0:00:11], [0:02:19], [0:04:14]
Forced confidence fails in every form. The head-on wall of decisiveness crumbles, bluff injures others and invites a painful correction, and a shy person's sudden high is only a temporary mood. [0:05:40], [0:06:38], [0:07:49]
Confidence cannot be acquired by affirmation, willpower or action. It is the energy of intention released once you stop fighting. [0:08:07], [0:09:44], [0:10:22]
The labyrinth of insecurity has no exit, because its walls are importance. Drop importance and they crumble. [0:11:26]
Metaphor: a puppet on strings, or a child holding its mother's hand. The person, not the pendulum, grips the strings of importance. Let go, and you need only coordination to stay upright. [0:17:20], [0:18:04]
Self-worth works the same way. Stop the battle to prove it, and others start to treat you with more respect. Stop justifying yourself, and guilt fades. [0:21:23], [0:24:39]
Do not fight pendulums. Treat the fight as a game with a clay golem. When provoked, wake up, drop importance, and react "inadequately" and playfully. You also take back the energy that was aimed at you. [0:41:00], [0:42:51], [0:43:42]
Emptiness beats toughness. Armor, iron will and self-control cost energy and feed the pendulum. Allow yourself to lose rounds, and set no ultimatums such as swearing the next cigarette is the last. [0:46:35], [0:48:11], [0:49:37]
Pendulums are said to run religion too, which Zeland reads the Ten Commandments as warning against: love without worshiping pendulums. For media, ask who needs this and why, and do I need it. [0:50:19], [0:52:54], [0:53:33]
The pendulum scenario says fix yourself first, then fight for your place. That is a battle, and its only purpose is to drain you. The warrior fights for freedom. The transurfing pilgrim knows it is already theirs. [0:55:23], [0:56:11], [0:57:05]
Putting having off until later turns the present into a dress rehearsal. The better future recedes as you chase it, so insert it into the present. [0:58:05], [0:58:52]
The will to have means allowing yourself to have now, unconditionally. It is dispassionate, like collecting post from the letterbox, and it differs from decisiveness, which is tension. He contrasts a holiday won by toil with a couple who simply expect holidays. [0:59:07], [1:01:01], [1:10:27]
The bicycle analogy: doubt, desire and control drain energy. When control slackens, heart and mind unite and you can ride. Balance returns without the mind knowing how. [1:13:31], [1:16:01]
Excess potentials are dissolved by action, not by willing them away. Fear needs a plan B. Anxiety, desire and waiting each disperse when you act. [1:17:47], [1:18:24], [1:19:14]
Negativists realize their worst expectations through a firm conviction, which shows that expectation shapes events. He traces the negative bias to the shock of birth. [1:31:33], [1:34:52], [1:35:43]
The main principle of coordination: choose to perceive apparent negative changes in the script as positive, and you step onto a favorable branch of the lifeline. [1:40:56], [1:42:20], [1:46:59]
Replace belief with knowing. Belief always leaves room for doubt. The heart answers only yes or no. Ask what you choose, not whether it will happen. [1:53:56], [1:55:41], [1:56:31], [2:02:29]
Hope is the practical substitute for faith. It releases the energy of intention so you can begin acting. [2:10:40], [2:17:18]

Terms

Coordination — a calm, self-sufficient state of balance with no inner or outer importance. Zeland offers it as the real alternative to confidence. First appears [0:15:01]
Labyrinth of insecurity — the maze of striving for confidence. Its walls are made of importance. First appears [0:00:11]
Excess potential — tension built from importance, which balanced forces try to remove. First appears [0:01:10]
Strings of importance — the ties by which pendulums are said to draw off a person's energy. First appears [0:17:20]
Credo — your own values and way of living. He says you already have one, sealed in a "box" of importance. First appears [0:31:08]
Clay golem — the pendulum seen as a game opponent, not a real enemy. First appears [0:36:17]
Mirrors of importance — the image of an opponent that is really your own importance reflected back. First appears [0:45:56]
Inadequate reaction — a deliberately odd or cheerful response to a provocation that breaks the pendulum's script. First appears [0:42:51]
Battle — Zeland's word for constant tension, struggle and discipline, which he says pendulums push you toward. The pilgrim skips it. First appears [0:55:23]
Will to have — calm, dispassionate permission to have what you chose. He calls it far stronger than the will to act. First appears [0:59:07]
Will to act — the intention to keep placing one foot in front of the other toward the goal. First appears [1:28:05]
Negativist — someone whose firm conviction that life gets worse becomes their reality. First appears [1:30:23]
Lifeline branches — each event forks into a favorable and an unfavorable branch. Your attitude picks which. First appears [1:42:20]
Guardian — the watching awareness you switch on at the start of the day. First appears [1:46:59]
Apples fall to the sky — his image for accepting an unfamiliar idea until it feels ordinary. First appears [1:51:32]
Knowing — certainty without effort to persuade yourself, in place of belief. First appears [1:53:56]

Practices

Stop the battle for self-worth

Notice your reflex when your worth feels threatened: demanding respect, proving you are right, taking offense, justifying, showing off. [1:20:38]
Do not do it. Do not try to believe in your own value either. [0:23:01]
Watch how people treat you and let the change register. [0:23:26]

Leave the courtroom (guilt)

Stop explaining and justifying yourself unless an explanation is truly needed. [0:24:39]
Do not take blame in public. Give manipulators nothing. [0:25:25]
If the guilt is heavy, put the lid on your conscience for a while. [0:25:25]

The golem game (provocations)

When bad news or an irritant arrives, wake up and recall that this is a game. [0:42:51]
Drop importance at once, or, if that is hard, react oddly, humorously or with overt cheer. Either breaks the rules. [0:43:42], [0:54:54], [1:22:36]
If you lose your temper, accept the loss, with no ultimatum or promise "never again." [0:48:11], [0:48:46]
For a bad habit, treat the thought of one last time as the pendulum speaking, and drop the habit indifferently, not by force. [0:49:37]

Filter incoming information

Ask of any message or pitch: who needs this, and why? Do I need it? [0:53:33]
Search actively for information that bears on your goal. [0:54:16]

Act to disperse a potential

Fear: find a safety net, a plan B or an alternative route. [1:18:24]
Anxiety: do something, even if unrelated to the worry. [1:18:24]
Desire: accept the chance of defeat in advance, find alternatives, then act. [1:19:14]
Waiting: dissolve expectation in action. [1:20:06]
Resentment: allow yourself not to manage it, and move toward your own goal. [1:25:19]

Allow yourself to have

Give yourself the permission now, not later. [0:58:52]
Picture the target slide with pleasure and do not push. Do not think about the means. [1:06:32], [2:06:43]
Take it calmly, as you would your post, without demanding. [1:10:27], [1:12:11]
Keep stepping toward the goal. Expect the three stages: inhibition, delight, ordinariness. [1:26:40], [1:27:18], [1:28:05]

Treat setbacks as positive

Switch on your guardian at the start of the day. [1:46:59]
When the script changes, say stop, it is a game, and accept the change as just what was needed. [1:45:16], [1:47:55]
Look for the silver lining, or be glad without one. [1:45:16]
Repeat daily. He says coordination is a skill. [1:49:50]

Handle doubt

When a doubt arises, do not fight it. [1:59:18]
Answer with: "I know success depends on my choice, and I have made it." [1:59:18]
Ask: what do I choose, success or failure? [2:02:29]

Watch out for

Contradictions inside the chapter. He says confidence cannot be developed, yet later says knowledge is its foundation [1:57:56]. He says confidence is pure excess potential [0:14:13], then says calm coordination is the real kind of confidence [0:33:25].
Do not force versus pretend. He forbids forcing yourself to picture the slide [1:06:32] but tells you to pretend you are pleased about setbacks [1:45:16].
Belief versus hope. The epigraph and last line reject hope [0:00:00], [2:17:18]. A few minutes earlier he calls hope necessary [2:11:35].
The belief passage is a demonstration. At [2:03:23] he says his argument about apples was itself a trap. Read it as a device.
Unsupported assertions. The birth-trauma account and its description as standard practice [1:35:43], an informational matrix removing choice [0:39:29], 99% of energy lost to potentials [1:16:51], and success every time [0:23:26]. He invites testing but gives no way to test.
Religion and the commandments. The claim that pendulums took over religion, and the reading of the first two commandments, are his interpretation, not shown from the text [0:51:07], [0:51:53].
Negativists as proof. He reads their bad outcomes as proof that thought shapes reality [1:34:52]. Self-fulfilling expectation explains the same facts.

Review questions

Try each one cold, then open the answer.

Why does Zeland say confidence and insecurity are the same potential?
Show answer
Both rest on importance and demand energy. Confidence is the opposite polarity of insecurity, so it is destroyed by balanced forces and cannot last.
Why is the labyrinth of insecurity unsolvable by looking for an exit?
Show answer
The walls are made of importance, so searching for an exit only reinforces them. They fall when you stop searching and drop importance.
What do the puppet strings stand for, and who holds them?
Show answer
They stand for importance. The person refuses to let go.
How do you "leave the courtroom"?
Show answer
Stop justifying yourself and refuse to take blame in public. The manipulators then have no defendant and the guilt dissolves.
Why does he advise against declaring war on pendulums?
Show answer
A fight gives the pendulum the energy it wants. Treated as a game, the worst that happens is you lose a round, and you can respond oddly so it gets nothing.
How does the will to have differ from decisiveness?
Show answer
Decisiveness is tense and creates excess potential. The will to have is a calm, dispassionate taking of what is yours, like collecting post.
Why does the bicycle example matter for heart and mind?
Show answer
Doubt, desire and control block the unity of heart and mind. When control relaxes, balance appears without the mind knowing how.
How can anxiety, desire and waiting each be dispersed?
Show answer
Each is dispersed by action. For fear, a plan B is needed first. For desire, accept the possibility of defeat and then act.
What is the main principle of coordination?
Show answer
Perceive apparent negative changes in the script as positive. In his terms, this puts you on a favorable branch of your lifeline.
How does he distinguish false belief from knowing?
Show answer
False belief needs persuading, enthusiasm or duress, and keeps doubt walled off. Knowing is shaped by facts and needs no persuasion, so the heart accepts it.

Desk work

List three situations where you try to project confidence. For each, write what importance sits underneath it.
Recall a recent provocation. Write what the "script" expected from you, and one inadequate reaction you could have tried.
Write one setback from this week and its possible positive reading. Then write whether you think the reading changed anything or only felt better.

Connections

Builds on: Chapter IV. Balance — excess potential, importance, balanced forces; Chapter II. Pendulums — provocations as a game; Chapter VI. The Alternatives Flow — not fighting the flow; Chapter VIII. Slides — will to have; Chapter IX. The Heart and Mind; Chapter X. Goals and Doors — will to act; Chapter XI. Energy — released intention energy.
Returns in: Chapter XIV. Forward to the Past — the principle of coordination; Chapter XV. Letters from the Past — coordination of intention; Chapter XVI. Dances with Shadows — building on it; Chapter XVIII. The Mirror World — coordination, any reflection as positive; Chapter XIX. The Gatekeeper to Eternity — goal amalgam.