Changing perspectives.
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We're all of different temperaments.
I personally have long had self-esteem issues, so my work for the time being is integrating my self, and building a healthy ego. Which I will then prepare to let go of.
I suspect that most of us will continue to have egos for the remainder of our incarnation. They have to be "let go of", but something has to mediate the worlds, so an integrated, healthy ego seems as good a candidate as any, so long as you can get it to stand down when you need a better conduit.
Speaking more to the nose-bloodying fantasies, I would suspect that if I have an impulse that is presented in my mind as a "holy act", but that on further inspection I discover that the thought satisfies a less noble drive, that what I've been doing is suppressing a lower drive because I fear it. And that I need a little integrating of those drives and insecurities.
From my point-of-view, I internalized insults and criticism. So that was a practice I had to unlearn. It would be of little use for me to start fleeing from my ego at this point... Side point: I was watching the movie "Husbands and Wives" (old Woody Allen) last night, and one of the characters was insulted, and replied with "well, I'm worth it" in a completely non-egotistical tone. I think that will be my line, if I hear an insult that rings true.
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Nothing a person has said to me has been worse than what I say to myself.
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"Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes."That is probably about as close as the Bible comes to saying
"Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
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Years ago I read a great little book called The Four Agreements by Miguiel Ruiz. Ruiz is a Toltec Shaman. In this book he lays out 4 very simple sounding ideas in which. Now these principles are easier said then done let me atest to that!
One of these agreements is to ~Never~ take anything personally. when some one attacks you, assults you, physically, verbally, and even psychicaly it has nothing to do with you. They are atacking you because of something with in them selves, some part of thier ego, that is being afronted and they are so uncomfortable that they need to lash out.I had a hard time with this issue, as I was living in a very hostile and negative domestic life at the time, being attacked for doing nothing. i found thou that when I was able to check myself, to remember that my attacker was doing this because of an issue he had with in himself, I easily let it slide, did not ingest the matter into my being, and did not take it to heart.
I highly recommned the book to everyone, it is a blessing and has allowed my magickal practice to grow in leaps and bounds.
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"This sounds great, and very 'wise' doesn't? However - my question is this: once you're in the position that you don't pay for an insult and can easily let it pass on by, don't some people still benefit from a bloody nose? Or if you think you're the one to give them it, do you think that's still egotistical?
Or perhaps from the opposite position and you don't want to give anyone a bloody nose and want to make a positive input to your community. Are you doing your 'Will' or are you just feeding your secret ego that always wants to build a nice picture of itself? You know - the wise teacher, the good student, the liberated, responsible, loving, wonderful, (choose your own adjective) people that we like to think we are? ;D Along with it's shadow of course (the mean, hateful, fearful etc) person of nightmarish proportion that we fear we are but than is banished by consciousness into the back of the minds dark closet (with mothballs). "
A: I have to confess that I'm describing an ideal to which I'm still working toward... That being said -
B: Forgive me if it sounds overly simplistic to refer to the Will, but I think that's exactly its function. In a situation where you can rationally justify/accuse any response from yourself at all, including no response at all, the question can only be answered by what it is yours to do. Of course, to claim that any one thing is yours to do and to therefore give oneself license to do it can always be accused of being the height of arrogance and of inflation of the ego. But, ultimately, it's the Accuser within - that part of you that forces you to see the other side as well - that must be satisfied. And whether you view it as silencing the accuser within or satisfying the accuser within, the only thing that seems to do the trick is to be conscious of how each action is related to what it is yours to do.
So, one would ask a question something like, "What does correcting someone else's behavior by giving them a bloody nose have to do with your Will?" -and then use that answer to navigate the vaguaries of ethics regarding the effects/accusations/consequences for the ego.
"Take these stones and make bread..."
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Would you recommend insulting people as an ego-building exercise?
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I wouldn't. There's the idea that self-acceptance and other-acceptance go hand in hand. The more ruthless you are with the faults of others, the more ruthless you'll be with yourself when judging your own failings. The practice would seem to me to be ultimately counterproductive.
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I ain't trying to get all philosophical or nothing. Just wanted to say thanks. That brought a smile to my face. Lol.