© 2025 Marc Bubel

Welcome back to Meta Zen. The Zen garden for your soul.

I'm Marc Bubel.

To get the best experience from this podcast, listen to the episodes in sequence for your first time. 

What do artists do when they’ve been at the cutting edge of their artform for many years?

They become curious and break new ground.

What happens when artists break new ground?

In the past few centuries, crab mentality rears its ugly head and condemns their curiosity. 

For example:

Impressionism, a style of painting, was a shift from photographic precision to a likeness, from the studio to the outdoors, from blended to visible brush strokes, and more. 

Such works were heavily scrutinized by the mainstream art community for its first 20 years of its existence. Artists were outcasts, denied opportunities to enter exhibitions and impressionist artists like Claude Monet lived in poverty. Today, Impressionism is one of the most beloved art movements and is recognized as the precursor to modern art.

This pattern continues in other disciplines as well.

When Wayne Gretzky started playing in the National Hockey League, the role of the goon became a fulltime feature on the ice. 

When Alfred Wegener introduced his continental drift theory, it was suppressed by the squeaky-wheel pseudoscientific community for 50 years. Plus, historians say it was the scientific community who rejected Wegener's theory because they've been drinking the Kool-Aid that pseudoscientists were scientists.

Instead of celebrating those that are curious, we conform to the dystopia, which we call the status quo, and we snuff out curiosity like if it were a disease. 

As you’ve noticed, greatness perseveres. But, what if, instead of restricting each other’s greatness, we enabled each other's greatness? Would we as a civilization surpass the ancient Egyptians who made the pyramids? Most definitely. We’ll even achieve the World’s Greatest Ambition. 

Black Belts have been unraveling the status quo piece by piece but at a pace slower than what builds the status quo. We need more Black Belts and we need them to exercise their curiosity and break new ground to change the game for all of us. 

This is what we’ll uncover through this and the next episode.

The vertuoso

To understand what is beyond a Black Belt, let’s understand the progression to this higher state or higher harmonic. This will be very insightful for those who are reflecting on the third degree Black Belt.

Remember from the Purple Belt, we need to know the scope of episodes 1 through 16. When we know the essence of a subject like this, we can teach others this essence. 

Teachers are highly appreciated as they preserve the body of knowledge we value. They have found the inflection point in the S Curve discussed in White Belt Lesson 11

Above the teacher is what is called a mentor. A mentor possesses the same knowledge as a teacher plus this person also knows they have to enable the protégé to find and overcome mental barriers that constrain their potential.

Remember from Episode 13, I informed listeners that the Eightfold Path from Buddhism is called the Arya Eightfold Path, not the Noble Eightfold Path. If you agree with the explanation, you overcame a mental barrier we've inherited.

Mentors unravel the mental barriers buried in the body of knowledge we value. In Meta Zen terms, this is the second degree Black Belt.

Above the mentor is someone who formalizes mentorship such that it reaches people they’ll never meet. Like the FIFA representatives that eliminated the archaic and superfluous kickoff rule, which was discussed in Episode 11. We call them enablers, which is a higher form of mentor. In Meta Zen terms, this is a fourth degree Black Belt.

As Black Belts cycle through the degrees and gain experience, the extent of enablement they formalize becomes something that enables enablement beyond itself. Like Nicolaus Copernicus who is credited as the father of the Scientific Revolution. We call these individuals living legends and legends.

I'm going to give these people a new title as it makes this milestone less intimidating and more achievable. 

I have chosen to use the title, vertuoso.

This is spelled v e r t u o s o. 

Vertu means a deep curiosity into the art of art or the deep curiosity into the philosophy of art. 

I'm deliberately putting distance from the spelling that is like the word virtue. This is because virtue is about promotion whereas vertu is about application. 

A vertuoso and a virtuoso are similar terms.

A virtuoso is a person with great expertise in a particular field. This person has found the inflection point discussed in white belt lesson 11.  

If this person gushes information, this person might be inspired to promote virtues, which is the path of Conventional Ambition.

If this person has her actions speak louder than words, she is becoming a vertuoso.

In the S Curve you drew for white belt lesson 11, write virtuoso and rote knowledge, spelled r o t e, next to the inflection point. Above the inflection point, write the word objectivity. Near the top right of the S Curve, write the word Moxie. Below and left of the inflection point, write the word curiosity. Near the right-most section of the S Curve, write the word vertuoso.

A vertuoso is a person with expertise in objectivity. This person enables objectivity in others through mentorship and through other indirect ways.

A vertuoso is someone who has reached the seventh level of Flow State Ambition, which was discussed in episode 5. 

Feel free to write this insightful continuum in your journal:

Protégé 

Teacher

Mentor

Enabler

Vertuoso 

Vertuoso transparency

We are born vertuosos. We begin our life being curious about everything. This is our innate nature.

Then, through the process called crab mentality, aka peer pressure, narratives taint us and prevent us from achieving our full potential. This is the status quo.

Let’s understand our potential by reflecting on the life of Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee never received a formal rank in any martial art. He studied all martial arts to fill the gaps in his skillset. To him, combat was a formless artform without a mold. 

Here is Bruce Lee explaining this formless artform. 

“Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”

This is what he captured in Jeet Kune Do, which enabled martial arts to become mixed martial arts.

Remember the five Mechanisms Of Higher Consciousness from episode 7.

The first is awareness

The second is curiosity

The third is objectivity

The fourth is moxie

The fifth is awareness, curiosity, objectivity and moxie as a whole artform.

To Bruce Lee, life was an artform. Everything he did he approached with continuous improvement in mind. He was an actor, martial artist, film director, screenwriter, producer, instructor, philosopher and more.

As Lee was all these things, we’re beginning to see the sixth Mechanism Of Higher Consciousness. 

The sixth mechanism is liberating yourself. He became the change he wished to see in the world.

I’m confident that Lee found the sixth mechanism.

A great way keep this mechanism top of mind is by repeating the following as a mantra:

Life is an-art form. Life is an-art form. 

Repeat it a thousand times and it will float around the back of your mind thereafter throughout your life when you continue to believe it.

Three case studies

Remember from the Second Degree Black Belt discussion, we need to let our objectivity shine in the face of our own judgement. 

What this tells us is that there are self-appointed gatekeepers that use their personal judgement over their own objectivity. This happens because we fear the witchhunt of crab mentality. 

Let’s see this in action using three case studies:

The first case study is on the motif called The Master Of Animals.

Look up the motif called The Master Of Animals. It's the classic image of a person between two confronted animals. 

Pause now.

The motif was common throughout Mesopotamia and the earliest is dated to 11,000 years ago. It’s the earliest narrative scene carved in stone we’ve found.

As this motif was valued for several thousands years, it meant something to the people who made it.

Do you think our ancestors from thousands of years ago used this motif to preserve the idea that they were masters of animals?

Pause now to reflect on this question before I influence your thinking with another thought.

The Master Of Animals name was coined just over 100 years ago around the time when people would put wild animals in unsuitably small cages on display. 

Do you think naming the motif Master of Animals is an informed reflection of what we know about our ancestors or psychological projection? Remember, psychological projection is unconsciously attributing our own flaws onto others.

It’s curious that a common motif depicts a person between two large cats. Domesticating predatory animals doesn’t seem to be a compelling ambition. It seems narcissistic. How could narcissism be promoted for thousands of years and not implode on itself?

Another interesting feature of this motif is that they always use two of the same animal. Undoubtedly, there is a significance to the pairing that the master-of-animals label fails to address. 

As you know, my research has led me to studying the concept called nonduality, which I’ve modernized to the concept called objectivity.

When I first saw the motif, I immediately saw a metaphor for nonduality and duality.

Am I projecting my own flaws or am I considerately trying to understand the world of our ancestors? 

Pause now.

Here’s another question: 
Does it make sense to reinforce the idea master of animals through a motif when we have farming of animals naturally reinforcing the idea? Or would it be better to reinforce the idea of rising above our bickering animalistic origins through a nonduality motif?

It doesn't matter which interpretation is right and wrong. The answer we seek is this: what is the metanarrative? Said another way, what interpretation of the motif enables us to be free to exercise our curiosity?

What liberates us more:

Thinking our ancestors valued reminders that they were masters of animals

Or thinking our ancestors valued reminders to be objective?

Our second case study is on Johannes Vermeer.

Vermeer is a Dutch painter from the 1600s and he is known for his accuracy of perspective, lighting and realism. Over 100 years ago, Joseph Pennell, an American artist famous for his detailed depictions of industrial landscapes and cityscapes, proposed that Vermeer had used a 2,400 year old technique called camera obscura to achieve his precision. 

Is Pennell’s point of view an informed reflection of Vermeer's skill or psychological projection?

Since the 2013 documentary called Tim’s Vermeer, evidence has been growing that supports the camera obscura technique.

The evidence is a point of view, that is all. No one is discounting the genius of Vermeer. But, now that people are seriously exploring the possibility, others are insinuating they are discounting his genius. 

Notice, the counter point of view is deliberately accusing the new point of view for indirectly discounting the genius of Vermeer. Would you call that psychological projection?

It doesn't matter which point of view is right and wrong. The answer we seek is this: what point of view enables us to be free to exercise our curiosity?

That’s a great question though here’s a better one.

If a point of view criticises an alternative point of view, why do we let the criticising point of view shape our history and our future?

The answer is simple. We’re afraid of the witch hunt of crab mentality. This fear makes us puppets to the invisible puppet master called the status quo. 

Vermeer’s paintings are breathtaking regardless whether he used camera obscura or not. But, do we want to see his paintings as a symbol of crab mentality to the end of time or as a symbol of our liberated curiosity?

Maybe we should let objectivity continue so that it eventually proves itself right or wrong.

The third case study is deepfake technology.

Deepfake technology generates or manipulates audio, images, and videos to depict people saying or doing things they never did. 

It’s useful in the entertainment industry. When it’s used in a way that it might be interpreted as non-fiction, it erodes civilization. 

We can wait decades to centuries for users to realize using deepfake technology to spread a lie erodes civilization. Or users can look deep into themselves and realize they might be amplifying crab mentality to dangerous levels. When they realize this, they can then choose to become the change they wish to see in the world.

Segue

Liberation is an interesting study topic. When we argue our points of view, no one’s liberated. When we have conversations like friends even when we have different points of view, that’s a breath of fresh air that feels a lot like liberation. We'll learn about this higher skill in the next episode.

As you are enjoying Meta Zen, enable people to stumble upon it. Buy some Meta Zen stickers from moxiefrontier.com and put them where you and others will see them.

The Meta Zen sticker is our invitation to be our true selves.

It's a great time to be alive.