E8: Green Belt 2/2 - Intellectual Artifacts From Past Golden Ages

This belt informs the practitioner of the lifecycle of community ambitions. With this knowledge, we have a component of the nature of our ambition that fortuitously contributes to the whole.

Yes, this artform is in you and is wanting to break free.  This is your call to action.

In this episode, we'll touch on the following topics:

• protege-mentor relationship
• zen buddhism
• monkhood
• patronage
• the Dot-Com Bubble
• Studio 54
• The Concord
• The Roaring 20s
• RMS Titanic
• Pax Britannica
• Pax Romana

Visit www.moxiefrontier.com for related resources.

Transcript

© 2025 Marc Bubel

Welcome back to Meta Zen. The mental martial art. The philosophy of life.

This episode shares the second half of the Green Belt.

I am your host and mentor, Marc Bubel.

From the previous episode, we’ve learned about harmonics. A knowledge of harmonics enables us with something like x-ray vision to see past the layers of translations and interpretations that shroud our history. 

In this episode, we’ll look at three artifacts from past golden ages that continue to get back up every time they get knocked down. We’ll even start polishing them so that they begin shining brightly like they did in the good ol’ days.

Let’s get to it.

Protégé-mentor relationship

One of the social inventions that appeared thousands of years ago is the protégé-mentor relationship. While it had earlier origins, when philosophy itself flourished 2,500 years ago, the protégé-mentor relationship emerged as a deliberate intervention.

This coincides with the emergence of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and many other meditative philosophies. Confucianism, in particular, is known for modelling the protégé-mentor relationship after the child-parent relationship. 

In other words, it's one of the surviving artifacts from a past golden age.

To capture the magnitude of the protégé-mentor relationship, let's have a closer look at what happened in India. 

While meditation is much older, 2,500 years ago, many distinct paths of meditation appeared and they spread like wildfire. The pursuit of enlightenment was like a fad we know today. But instead of lasting over the holiday season, the meditation craze lasted decades to centuries because of the protégé-mentor relationship. 

People knew how to mentor others and it virally spread.

The protégé-mentor relationship eventually became misinterpreted. Instead of being a patiently applied conversation, it became instruction. While instruction has good intentions with good information, it encourages memorization, which is indoctrination, which only worsens with the passage of time.

Let’s dust off this innovation and polish it with the following metanarrative commentary.

We'll do this through five points:

Number 1: the protégé and mentor terms.

The protégé and mentor terms are the best of all the possible synonyms because they naturally express the most objectivity. 

The word protégé implies it’s inevitable…protégés will launch beyond their mentors one day. 

The word mentor implies…they listen to and enable their protégés. They know protégés need to make up their own minds independent of narratives that even mentors might unknowingly possess. 

Mentors enable their protégés to achieve what the mentor’s generation thought was inconceivable. Like achieving the ultimate end goal discussed in Episode 4.

Those who are not devoted to these concepts are not mentors and are passing their shortcomings onto those deserving to be treated as protégés. This is a systemic problem that encourages people to be marionettes of the status quo.

Number 2: the naming convention.

The protégé term comes first in the protégé-mentor relationship naming convention as the unwavering essence of mentorship is for the benefit of the protégé.

Ultimately, the mentor's sole purpose falls into two concentrations: 

The first is to turn on the protégé’s curiosity, objectivity and moxie.

The second is to plant seeds like building awareness of Flow-State Ambition, the ultimate end goal, and the White Belt lessons.

Number 3: Flow-State Ambition

Mentors exist to…demonstrate their wisdom. When they do this, they remain true to Flow-State Ambition. 

When someone demonstrates what they know, they are a mentor. When they share what they know, there is no mentor in the relationship. Just someone sharing a narrative they’ve inherited, whether good or bad, which leads to the downward spiral.

Number 4: the rotation of roles.

The individuals in the relationship regularly rotate between the protégé and mentor roles. 

When a person speaks, she becomes the mentor and the listener becomes the protégé. This is how the person who fulfills the mentor role more often…leads by example, which enables the person who fulfills the protégé role more often…to advance swiftly. 

Through mentorship, the goal is for both participants to fulfill the mentor and protege roles 50% of the time. This is called an objective conversation.

Like when you and your best friend played in the fantasy world as kids. Do that though with reams of objectivity. Then, the transfer of wisdom becomes incredibly efficient.

Number 5: respect

When protégés or mentors fall short in offering the other respect, mentors take ownership of the shortcoming and become better mentors. This also makes better protégés, which fulfills the objective of the relationship. Offloading the ownership onto the protégé is a clear demonstration that the system is broken.

Great. Those are the basics. Let's now understand the protégé-mentor relationship with this bonus point:

You likely have noticed the cover art for this podcast is untraditional. Some will think the cover art for this podcast would be better with my face as part of the design. It’s possible you are familiar with the research that confirms the benefits of such a design.

Is this a narrative or objectivity?

Feel free to pause the episode now so you can benefit from your own reflection.

This is a narrative. 

This is because there are times when something untraditional is better. 

For a person to be objective, she needs to know when those other times are better and then assess if this is one of those times. Anything less is a narrative that encourages a self-fulfilling prophecy that will implode like…Tulip Mania. 

Ultimately, no idea is a bad idea. It is only a matter of the idea being fleshed out well enough. This is one thing all mentors do. Mentors flesh out ideas with their protégés whereas experts lead others to answers that validate their narratives.

In summary, mentors do two things:

Number 1: They enable their protégés to flesh out all ideas so that protégés make objective decisions.

Number 2: Mentors write philosophies so that the knowledge they have acquired can be assessed by everyone with a point of view. 

We’ll learn more about writing philosophies in episodes 12 and 13.

Let's get back on track.

Throughout history, the protégé-mentor relationship ebbed and flowed. 

When there were periods of conflict, the protégé-mentor relationship declined in usage. 

In times of prosperity, the relationship was better understood and used effectively. 

The ebb and flow is due to the absence or existence of objectivity. When it's absent, we cross our fingers. When it exists, we mentor each other to have objectivity. 

Mentorship is about enabling patience within patience which are like the fine brush strokes of a master painter. When we enable patience within patience, we launch our protégés beyond what could ever achieve and in far less time.

Monkhood 

Take a wild guess and think of which country has the lowest homelessness rate in the world.

Pause now if you like.

Japan. The country where Zen Buddhism became a phenomenon.

Why does Japan have the lowest homelessness rate in the world?

The answer is likely more complicated than I’m making it here though my point is still relevant.

Imagine you are a young adult with no direction in your life. Where do you go? 

In Japan, you can pursue a life as a monk.

While other countries have monks, Japan has a rich history that culminated into Zen Buddhism, which gives their country an edge above others.

Monks are effectively the nation’s protected homelessness. They practice meditation routinely, they live off the handouts of their nation and they develop their arts. 

Monkhood is a way of saying, no one left behind.

With all due respect, the tradition needs a little dusting off.

Monks are highly respected though they are sometimes tinged with unflattering narratives. 

They are highly respected for their dedication to the path of enlightenment.

They are viewed with criticism as some question their contribution to society.

Imagine the homelessness…local to you…had the opportunity to enter monkhood. Instead of viewing homelessness as a serious problem, we would view monkhood as a reflection of our collaborative interest to care for others.

Now, as monkhood has some unflattering narratives, we have the opportunity to dust it off and turn monkhood into a fully admired art form.

First, let’s view monkhood as something different from monasticism. Monkhood is the intention to achieve a higher state of consciousness, which I discussed two sections back.

Monasticism has acquired a relationship to asceticism because of the unflattering narratives monks receive. Unflattering narratives inadvertently encourage monks to remain repressed. 

When we use the monk term, let’s use it to refer to a person regardless of their gender. Like the term scientist. There is no need to classify men as monks and women as nuns. By using only the monk term, the superfluous rules and traditions that have been assigned to the monk and nun terms disappear. 

There are no rules or traditions with Meta Zen. A monk, whether man or woman, is just a person seeking enlightenment. 

For clarity, monkhood is independent of any particular religion. Thus, people of any belief can practice their belief as a monk alongside each other.

Lastly, let’s enable monks to progress through the Meta Zen Belts. The Orange Belt particularly enables monks to discover their art and then graduate from monkhood and become self-sufficient as a member of society. 

In conclusion, monkhood is a considerate gesture to those who have inherited the short straw from the status quo.

These guidelines enable monkhood to shift from its first to second harmonic. 

For locations with monasteries, some forethought is needed to bring monkhood to the second harmonic.

For locations where monasteries are absent, forethought is needed to launch monkhood into its second harmonic. 

The forethought for both is outside of the scope of this podcast. Look at the discussion on harmonics in episode 9 for inspiration. Moxie Frontier is also available for consultation.

Before we continue, here is a skills-testing question, which helps develop your meditation. 

Remember, meditation in the context of Meta Zen and some ancient traditions is just exercising curiosity and objectivity. 

What is monkhood? 

I'll give you a few hints.

1. I've recently discussed it in the podcast 
2. In relation to what I’ve recently discussed, it’s like a spiral galaxy, which is a scaled-up version of a solar system. 
3. The following section of this episode offers more hints.

I'll give you the answer at the very end of this episode. This way, you can give yourself the opportunity to reflect on the answer for a few days before you reveal it to yourself.

Patrons  

Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum from monkhood.

Every golden age was a period of cultural, intellectual and economic prosperity. Older golden ages certainly don't seem so by today's standards. Yet, in their day, they were.

Every golden age experiences a peak of jubilation, much like The Dot-Com Bubble, Studio 54, The Concord, The Roaring 20s, RMS Titanic, Pax Britannica, Pax Romana, and the list goes on.

A common feature at the start of a golden age and throughout the golden age is…patronage. 

Patronage is yet another surviving artifact from every golden age. 

In summary, wealthy and influential persons coincidentally and independently support what the underground society has been admiring for some time.

In essence, as the underground society admires something, and its goodwill becomes transparent such that it appears as a movement, patrons appear. Most likely, they offer their support as they expect a returning gesture in kind. Specifically. patrons want to be among the first to appreciate the goodwill as the coming milestones unfold.

This falls into the concepts of conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption, which patrons seek. 

We all do this in our own way. We associate ourselves with brands and styles as an expression of conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption.

Through patronage, patrons enable culture and intellect to flourish, which is mostly imperceptible by the general population though perceptible by the patron’s peers.

Thus, the patron becomes like a conductor of a symphony orchestra, or a producer of a feature film.

The patrons and the artisans have entered a dance of sorts that determine the ebb and flow of the golden age. When they dance well together, their civilization moves closer to The World's Greatest Moonshot, and when they trip over each other's toes, civilization moves away from The World’s Greatest Moonshot.

Naturally, culture, intellectualism or economic prosperity begins to reach a plateau.

When cultural prosperity reaches a plateau, patrons introduce a stimulus to revive the arts. 

When economic prosperity reaches a plateau, patrons introduce a stimulus to revive the more economic-based arts. 

When cultural and economic prosperity reaches a plateau again and again, patrons introduce a stimulus again and again, though they begin having a lesser effect. It’s called the law of diminishing returns.

This is when civilization arrives at the fork in the road. 

Down one fork is The World's Greatest Moonshot and down the other is the collapse of the golden age. 

The fork that leads to The World's Greatest Moonshot is a continuation of transparency, objectivity, positive-sum games, Flow-State Ambition and everything else summarized by Meta Zen. The other fork leads to well intended narratives that play negative-sum games and the inevitable collapse of the golden age.

Let’s take a step back to get a closer look at this.

As the golden age progresses through the generations, the cultural and intellectual prosperity continues to grow while the economic prosperity declines relatively and imperceptibly. But, when a comparison is made between an earlier and later generation, it becomes perceptible. Like being envious that our past generation enjoyed almost 3 years of Studio 54's existence. We start looking for who was to blame, which brings about the inevitable collapse of the golden age.

When patrons are unaware of the metanarrative of the rise and fall of a golden age, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, figuratively speaking. The patrons begin to think the recipients of their financial gifts are taking advantage of them, which prevents the good times from returning. When this interpretation exists, it’s the beginning of the end.

Ultimately, the reason why later patrons struggle in preserving the good times is because earlier patrons indulge. They did nothing to preserve the good times for the benefit of the coming generations.

Yet, when patrons know the metanarrative, they have the opportunity to take a step back from indulgence and they progress to higher levels of Flow-State Ambition. They breathe, use their objectivity, and play the positive-sum game. Through their perseverance, patrons develop their artform and take the fork that leads civilization to The World's Greatest Moonshot. 

This is why the CTW Shower is so important to those who are in the position to be a patron. If they don’t have the CTW Shower until the day they die, they don’t know how to persevere and they’ll inadvertently begin using Conventional Ambition, which will bring an end to the golden age.

Patterns don’t lie. 

Becoming official 

To complete the Green Belt, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt, patrons hold the key to The World’s Greatest Moonshot, whether they know it or not. 

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 come back home and make it welcoming for guests. 

It's a great time to be alive.

Here is the answer to the question at the end of the monk Hood section. 

Monkhood is the protege-mentor relationship exercised at the community level.

Now that you know the answer, continue meditating on it and it will reveal much more.