Today's Considerations
We continue with more excerpts from the book "The Child Ignorance Stage" or "The Child No-Knowing State". Offered
for consideration today are excerpts from “CHAPTER ELEVEN” entitled The Relative
Effects of Personality Disorders:
It has also been shown how a failure to return to "The
Child Ignorance Stage" or the "Child No-Knowing State" triggers
I. the use of ego-defense mechanisms and
II. the continuing obsession with personality and assumption of false identities.
The use of ego-defense mechanisms sets the stage for being driven subconsciously by mental schemings which generate an obsession with protecting the ego / the false "I's" / the "not-you's" and which always block the consciousness from ever seeing reality and Reality (that is, from seeing the way things are during the relative existence and the way all things are, period).
The continuing obsession with personality and assumption of false identities set the stage for the manifestation of personality disorders which inspire persons to believe that (1) they are something that they are not and that (2) they can become something they are not. In the end, untreated personality disorders can develop into neuroses and psychoses and even full-blown madness.
If all of that is understood, then it can be understood as well why
there is so little honesty among humans. The Advaitin poet Shakespeare has the
most dishonest character in the play Hamlet advise his son,
“This above all: to
thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst
not then be false to any man.”
The rub among humans? Most never cross paths with anyone who
advises, as Maharaj did, to “find out who you are not.” Never having found out who
they are not, persons assume that the dozens of roles and identities and
personalities which they have been assigned or have assumed help define “who
they are.” So which of those multiple “selves” – those multiple personalities –
are they to be “true to”?
The answer: they end up trying to be true to all of their (false, dishonest) self-images, no matter how contradictory their hidden, subconscious agendas
are. Yet there is, in the duality of false identifications, a public version of
each ego-state and a private version of each ego-state. Dishonesty is assured.
Billy Joel - singer, poet, and occasion writer of non-dual
pointers in his music - included the following lyrics in his song entitled “Honesty”:
“If you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind.
Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever
heard.”
At the point when a “relationship breakup” is eminent, these
words are often screamed in anger and disappointment: “I don’t even know who
you are!”
Indeed. How could she possibly know who he is when he doesn’t
know who he is? She cannot. And how could he possibly know who she is when she
does not know who she is? He cannot. And how could either of them, having no
clue about who they are not, ever be free of being driven by the hidden agendas
of the personalities / personas which they have been assigned or which they have
assumed? Neither can.
See? Again, the assumption of false personas as supposedly real
identities sets the stage for being driven subconsciously by mental schemings
which are obsessed with protecting the ego / the false "I's" / the
"not-You's" and which always block the consciousness from ever seeing
reality and Reality.
And again, the continuing obsession with personality and
assumption of false identities sets the stage for the manifestation of
personality disorders which inspire persons to believe (a) they are something which
they are not and to believe (b) they can become something they are not.
So why is the comment, “I don’t even know who you are” often
heard at a certain point in “relationships”? Because eventually, no matter how
adept one is at playing roles and covering up the truth and being dishonest and
maintaining the images of the personas which they show in public, at some point the truth
will out.
The word “persona” is defined as “the aspect of someone's
character that is presented to or perceived by others” (such as, "her
public persona" or “his public persona”): or, “a role or character assigned
by one’s culture or adopted by someone.” The Latin root reveals even more truth
about personality / a persona: in Latin the word means “mask.”
Therefore, when are the words “I don’t even know who you are”
spoken? When one’s mask accidentally, unintentionally falls off and reveals the
truth of what is behind the mask. When the various masks being worn by persons begin falling off, the term used to mark the event is "the honeymoon's over."
Consider the relevancy of the following in regards to this
topic:
In one of my daughter's favorite scenes from her favorite
play of all times - Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" -
the audience is offered these non-dual insights as Act II opens (insights that
relate clearly to today's topic):
Chorus / Crowd:
Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade
Masquerade!
Hide your face so the world will never find you
Masquerade!
Every face a different shade
Masquerade!
Look around, there's another mask behind you.
Faces!
But who can name the face?
Masquerade!
Grinning yellows, spinning reds
Masquerade!
Take your fill, let the spectacle astound you
Masquerade!
Burning glances, turning heads
Masquerade!
Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you
Masquerade!
Seething shadows breathing lies.
Masquerade!
You can fool any friend who ever knew you
Masquerade!
The ego-defense mechanisms and the personality disorders which plague the
relative existence combine and result in "The Scourge of
Humanity," in a "Double Whammy for Humanity" and lead to a belief
in duality, to a false sense of separation and different-from-ment, and to the
false sense of better-than-ment. When those two combine, they generate most of
the conflict and instability and chaos which manifest on a global basis and on a
daily basis.
When persons do not return to at least the fourth step on the seven-step path
from identification with the false "I" / "I's", then they will be driven by egotism and by the
Narcissistic / God Complex Personality Disorder. The result of the
egotism-and-narcissism-combination is always a person who is
a. self-centered
b. self-concerned (but with no concern for anyone else)
c. trapped in self-pity
d. trapped in self-ish-ness
e. involved with self-aggrandizement and self-promotion
f. engaged in self-love
g. trapped in self-absorption, and
h. trapped in SELF-absorption (if among those who take themselves to be "super religious" or "spiritual giants")
What follows when a relative existence is driven by self-identification and the resulting factors listed in "a"-"h"?
i. self-interest
j. self-indulgence
k. self-deception
l. an obsession with self-image
m. self-will
n. an inflated sense of self-worth
o. self-seeking (or an obsession with Self Seeking as referenced in "h" above)
and often, in the end,
p. self-defeating behavior and / or
q. self-destructive behavior.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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