The Stance of Long Suffering: Part 2

<We cannot be outside a hierarchy of value. We need it to organize the way we see things. When seeing the world, we are bringing in a large amount of information. We must focus on some things and not on everything. This means that we pick something out of all things as a signal of importance. That orients our ability to observe the world.> Gonyaul claimed, so far everything going well he thought. He was used to being in the "stance of long-suffering" and built up his physical endurance.

Alwetis kept the discourse going, <And what do we tend to pick out to pay attention to?>

Gonyaul realized she wasn't ending this anytime soon. <We tend to pick out those things that we think are important ... that they will make life better. So we need an understanding of what it means to make life better. Which implies a hierarchy between what is undesirable and what is desirable. Our hierarchy of values enables us to parse the world up so that it is understandable. Something has to be at the top.>

Alwetis nodded as she started to slowly walk around him. She was watching his form. If it slackened at all, she would tap the part of his body that needed correcting. So far Gonyaul was on point. <Does something really need to be at the top?> She asked when she was back in front of him.

Gonyaul gritted his teeth as he began to feel the onset of muscle fatigue. The pauses between his words and her questions were long and drawn out on purpose. <No, because we can choose to be at an internal war of conflicting values. That is the alternative, but I do not think it is a good solution. It would show itself in uncertainty, anxiety, directionless, hopelessness and depression.>

Alwetis gently tapped his left leg. He was starting to sink as his muscles began to quiver. Gonyaul corrected himself and she waited a minute before asking another question. <What is at the pinnacle then of the hierarchy of value?>

Gonyaul's face began to contort as he strained more and more to hold the pose perfectly. <At the top is the ethical responsibility to manifest what is best in us to become our potential ... to become more than we are, to become who we could be.>

Alwetis tapped him again for self-correction. She waited another five minutes before asking. <If you are correct, what would that lead to?>