Category: Perceptions

No one is an island.

We live in an interdependent environment. Our planet’s biosphere is an interdependent network of forces in constant flux. Our planet’s stability relies on the interdependence of forces in our solar system and galaxy.

It seems that the only place the idea of independence lives is in the human egoic mind. The independence I’m addressing is the false notion that – I don’t need others; I can go it alone; I can resist being influenced from without.

These notions all revolve around the concept of an I as a separate individual entity. Personal exploration into the psychodynamics underlying the independent character structure will reveal that it, like all character structures, is a reaction to external and internal forces influences – which is why Freud referred to the ego as a defensive structure.

It is not independent at all. It is bound in the pattern of reactivity to the forces it wishes to be independent from. It is being pushed from within and pulled from without by early formative influences. In fact, if we could take away these forces with the waving of a magic wand, the most likely result would be psychosis as the rebellion and rejection embodied in this misconception of independence constitutes the nexus of the identity.

Rejection is the fundamental force operating the ego.

The more evolved the consciousness, the more transparency, the more sensitivity, the more awareness of interdependence and influence.

One big influence is our inner critic – the inner voice that is always pushing us around. This voice damns us if we do and damns us if we don’t. There is no winning with the judge, the inner critic, the superego – other than learning how to disengage from it.

There is another inner voice more subtle it does not use words like should, ought to, don’t. This voice is more like perfume – a subtle influence on the heart and mind. Awareness of this voice releases us from the constant inner chatter that normally occupies the majority of our mental activity.

Knowing proceeds thinking, thinking responds to knowing by providing context – the interdependence of the parts, the influences.

So, keep on keeping on living the life which your inner voice directs, kindly, lovingly: giving help wherever you can, giving love and sustenance to this great work of illuminating all life…. Your life is like a pebble dropped into a pool of water, creating ripples endlessly. You do not know the end of a word, a thought, an action. – White Eagle