Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Some people think humility means thinking of yourself as lowly and inferior, but that's not right. Evangelical Christian author Rick Warren attempts to correct this misperception with the famous saying, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
Instead of enlightenment, I find myself feeling frustration. Wispy realizations are all well and good, but at the end of the day, someone still has to change the cat box and remember we just ran out of toilet paper.
There have been good societies and bad societies, but where has there ever been a transcendental society? And 56 middle class white kids following some guru on a farm in Oregon don't count.
So by your reckoning we're either on a path to heaven or hell; no middle ground. Enlighten or die. I just naturally reject dualities when offered, just as I reject the Hobson choice of democrats or republicans.
You cut off a hand and you still have a self; cut off your head and I'm pretty sure it's game over, at least for this round. As far as I know, no one's stuck around to say otherwise, although we have plenty of myths that do for those wishful thinkers in the audience.
I wish both of us had more hopeful news to share, because that cat box isn't going to clean itself.
You sound a bit like Jiddhu Krishnamurti here. What fascinates me about ego-as-Halloween-costume is how it gets in the way of self-compassion, jutting out its chin and congratulating itself, usually for accomplishments within the illusory ego-world we've all co-created; or simply for courage in facing life's challenges. Somehow that self-congratulation feels like a fake external shield to deflect the madness, a shield that also blocks genuine, deeply felt self-compassion. It's an amazing revelation of the effectiveness of the various forms of propaganda foisted on us during our childhood. Hard-core, fear-based religion rather than genuine justice-based golden-rule spirituality; nationalism rather than environmentalism, rigid grade-based "expert"-based education rather than individually creative learning that connects one to life beyond the ego. And of course, an economic model that promotes self-elevation through pursuit of money rather than self-realization and deep personal fulfillment. One can then spend an entire life in pursuit of the Halloween party coinciding with this ego costume, then suddenly realize the emptiness of it all. Or like me, one can be lucky having at least one truly humble, altruism-driven parent, who models the spirit so well that enough of the essence seeps through. One implicitly realizes that the pursuit of self-realization through service is at least deeply satisfying and manifests even despite the urges of the ego to conform to those insane demands of the ego costume. Unfortunately this dualism between ego and real self can create significant internal conflict, a tense anxiety that permeates consciousness. It's not easy to live beyond the ego in Western societies; to say the least. Blessings to all.
Thank you Caitlin for one of the best sermons ever given on this planet. Anybody reading this comment: Have you EVER sat through a church sermon that was even 1/100th as powerful and truly religious as this one? I would bet that you haven't. ❤️
“When you see the moon, think of me. I will always be with you.”
Mom, you’re on your deathbed and I’ve been gone so long and so much has changed that you don’t know who I have become.
“Yes,” she says, eyes twinkling with a tired, impossibly generous smile. “But I still love you.”
I still feel it. She almost sang it, that day, giving love the high note, just like when I was a young boy. Everyone who knew her loved her. She was true, just, and good for all of us. If she’d had her way, we’d all be taking a great deal better care of one another.
“Keep doing your best,” she encouraged when disaster struck. “Maybe it will be better tomorrow.”
The idea something must be a construct because it isn't tangible, seems a tad simplistic. Just because i can't touch your personality, does not mean it isn't real.... The notion we are all slaves to the ebbs & flows of energy means we have no freewill, and are absolved from all personal responsibility. While it may be a "peaceful & efficacious" way to go thru life, it is also woefully dark, and intellectually constraining.... As for humility, it is simply the realization there are perspectives other than your own.... I do enjoy your writing, thought provoking, as always. Thanks
In some ways this is profoundly truthful. It's said that the atoms we are born with are completely replaced many times by the time we die decades later, so our material existence is only in the moment. If we could take our memories, history and emotional state -- our information -- and destroy one physical manifestation while transferring the information to another physical manifestation, have we killed the destroyed manifestation? That's the Star Trek "transporter" conundrum, so aptly hinted at by the transporter accident that created two Rikers. Would it have been moral to kill off the duplicate?
While I agree that individuals are part of the swirl of time and matter, I refuse to let go entirely of my physical presence. I'm with what Will wrote, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?" Pain and suffering may be fleeting and disappear into the Oneness once we die, but they are quite real to the individual self, which has a real, if fleeting, existence. Western ideals of universality require that we not violate the rights of other individuals, and that I think is a good rule to follow even though it may in this analysis be "egotistical."
Oh, look, Ciat has opened her comments section again. And we have another tract on neo buddhist religious doctrine from guru Cait. I am not going to debate it; freedom of religion. But I don't agree and I have already made plain often enough as to why.
It's taken a long time but psychopathic egos have almost risen to the top of the power pyramid. As this is likely to be near global in its influence, we could be looking at tens or hundreds of generations before that day arrives when a tipping point is reached and lots of individual 'selves' finally organise, educate their rotting grey matter, come together and usurp / imprison the crooks.
Caitlin, you have hit the nail squarely on the head....The invisible ego is the bane of human existence and source of fear/anger, selfishness/greed and all neurotic perverted behaviors. Control of the ego is a spiritual and physical imperative attained by simply recognizing it and monitoring our own thoughts and actions...rising to a state of unconditional love and vibrant health..The ego is the handle used by propagandists to control us and make us weak by not only destroying our personal sovereignty/will/intent, but physically inserting psycho-somatic disease keeping us in sympathetic fight/flight autonomic mode where healing is impossible. Happy relaxed parsympathetic dominance is the home of health and power. Prophets, cabbalists and writers like Eckhart Tolle have alluded to this mystery and pointed toward states of higher consciousness and enlightenment.
This impersonal energy swirl contracts long enough to acknowledge this lovely description of our collective swirliness.
Instead of enlightenment, I find myself feeling frustration. Wispy realizations are all well and good, but at the end of the day, someone still has to change the cat box and remember we just ran out of toilet paper.
There have been good societies and bad societies, but where has there ever been a transcendental society? And 56 middle class white kids following some guru on a farm in Oregon don't count.
So by your reckoning we're either on a path to heaven or hell; no middle ground. Enlighten or die. I just naturally reject dualities when offered, just as I reject the Hobson choice of democrats or republicans.
You cut off a hand and you still have a self; cut off your head and I'm pretty sure it's game over, at least for this round. As far as I know, no one's stuck around to say otherwise, although we have plenty of myths that do for those wishful thinkers in the audience.
I wish both of us had more hopeful news to share, because that cat box isn't going to clean itself.
You sound a bit like Jiddhu Krishnamurti here. What fascinates me about ego-as-Halloween-costume is how it gets in the way of self-compassion, jutting out its chin and congratulating itself, usually for accomplishments within the illusory ego-world we've all co-created; or simply for courage in facing life's challenges. Somehow that self-congratulation feels like a fake external shield to deflect the madness, a shield that also blocks genuine, deeply felt self-compassion. It's an amazing revelation of the effectiveness of the various forms of propaganda foisted on us during our childhood. Hard-core, fear-based religion rather than genuine justice-based golden-rule spirituality; nationalism rather than environmentalism, rigid grade-based "expert"-based education rather than individually creative learning that connects one to life beyond the ego. And of course, an economic model that promotes self-elevation through pursuit of money rather than self-realization and deep personal fulfillment. One can then spend an entire life in pursuit of the Halloween party coinciding with this ego costume, then suddenly realize the emptiness of it all. Or like me, one can be lucky having at least one truly humble, altruism-driven parent, who models the spirit so well that enough of the essence seeps through. One implicitly realizes that the pursuit of self-realization through service is at least deeply satisfying and manifests even despite the urges of the ego to conform to those insane demands of the ego costume. Unfortunately this dualism between ego and real self can create significant internal conflict, a tense anxiety that permeates consciousness. It's not easy to live beyond the ego in Western societies; to say the least. Blessings to all.
Thank you Caitlin for one of the best sermons ever given on this planet. Anybody reading this comment: Have you EVER sat through a church sermon that was even 1/100th as powerful and truly religious as this one? I would bet that you haven't. ❤️
As Heinlein said, "Thou are God".
“When you see the moon, think of me. I will always be with you.”
Mom, you’re on your deathbed and I’ve been gone so long and so much has changed that you don’t know who I have become.
“Yes,” she says, eyes twinkling with a tired, impossibly generous smile. “But I still love you.”
I still feel it. She almost sang it, that day, giving love the high note, just like when I was a young boy. Everyone who knew her loved her. She was true, just, and good for all of us. If she’d had her way, we’d all be taking a great deal better care of one another.
“Keep doing your best,” she encouraged when disaster struck. “Maybe it will be better tomorrow.”
Swirl on, Mom.
The idea something must be a construct because it isn't tangible, seems a tad simplistic. Just because i can't touch your personality, does not mean it isn't real.... The notion we are all slaves to the ebbs & flows of energy means we have no freewill, and are absolved from all personal responsibility. While it may be a "peaceful & efficacious" way to go thru life, it is also woefully dark, and intellectually constraining.... As for humility, it is simply the realization there are perspectives other than your own.... I do enjoy your writing, thought provoking, as always. Thanks
In some ways this is profoundly truthful. It's said that the atoms we are born with are completely replaced many times by the time we die decades later, so our material existence is only in the moment. If we could take our memories, history and emotional state -- our information -- and destroy one physical manifestation while transferring the information to another physical manifestation, have we killed the destroyed manifestation? That's the Star Trek "transporter" conundrum, so aptly hinted at by the transporter accident that created two Rikers. Would it have been moral to kill off the duplicate?
While I agree that individuals are part of the swirl of time and matter, I refuse to let go entirely of my physical presence. I'm with what Will wrote, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die?" Pain and suffering may be fleeting and disappear into the Oneness once we die, but they are quite real to the individual self, which has a real, if fleeting, existence. Western ideals of universality require that we not violate the rights of other individuals, and that I think is a good rule to follow even though it may in this analysis be "egotistical."
Fantastic 👍
If you died while fist fighting, and rigor mortis set in... there may be fists! LOL
Oh, look, Ciat has opened her comments section again. And we have another tract on neo buddhist religious doctrine from guru Cait. I am not going to debate it; freedom of religion. But I don't agree and I have already made plain often enough as to why.
It's taken a long time but psychopathic egos have almost risen to the top of the power pyramid. As this is likely to be near global in its influence, we could be looking at tens or hundreds of generations before that day arrives when a tipping point is reached and lots of individual 'selves' finally organise, educate their rotting grey matter, come together and usurp / imprison the crooks.
Caitlin, you have hit the nail squarely on the head....The invisible ego is the bane of human existence and source of fear/anger, selfishness/greed and all neurotic perverted behaviors. Control of the ego is a spiritual and physical imperative attained by simply recognizing it and monitoring our own thoughts and actions...rising to a state of unconditional love and vibrant health..The ego is the handle used by propagandists to control us and make us weak by not only destroying our personal sovereignty/will/intent, but physically inserting psycho-somatic disease keeping us in sympathetic fight/flight autonomic mode where healing is impossible. Happy relaxed parsympathetic dominance is the home of health and power. Prophets, cabbalists and writers like Eckhart Tolle have alluded to this mystery and pointed toward states of higher consciousness and enlightenment.
Capt. Randall... forbiddenhealingforum.com