Open-Secrets

Category: Perceptions

  • Like Happy

    I often find myself stumped when people ask me if I’m happy or if I like one thing or another. I never knew why I was stumped, but I knew that these questions often don’t make sense to me.

    Today, in a meeting with one of my teachers, he asked me if I liked a particular thing and I had that experience of the question not making much sense. As I inquired into my experience of feeling stumped, I realized that whether I like something or not, whether I’m happy or not – is not how I measure the value of my experience.

    Of course, this means I usually hear those questions coming from a place of wanting me to rate my experience. My experience is my experience – here’s a great image and a quote from A.H. Almaas that I put with it to create a card.

     

    Now, don’t get me wrong – like every other person on the planet, I prefer pleasure over pain, but I find most of life interesting if not down right intriguing. But, I can be in the middle of something confusing, boring, painful or exciting – and a part of me is fine with them all. They each have their story to tell and wisdom to pass along.

     

  • Inner Critic = Status Quo

    Last night at a group I attend regularly, the topic of the superego came up again. The superego or inner critic is a part of our ego structure whose sole purpose in an adult is to maintain the status quo.

    This is not good news for someone who is finally figuring out that in order to change our life, we need to change. The superego does not like change. It does not want you to change. It resists change.

    This is conflictual, because the superego is always telling us we need to change. But real change involves fundamentally changing our perception and experience of who we are – our identity. We can renovate the prison, but remain imprisoned until we break free of our indentifications.

    So, one of the first barriers to change we need to engage is the superego, the inner critic.

    Change! Change!
    If not, you will suffer.
    Change! Change!
    You will prosper.
    Brave, brave the old!
    If not, you will die.
    Brave, brave the new!
    You will fly

    – Sri Chinmoy

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Open-Secrets