F.: [Continued from yesterday]
FROM A SITE VISITOR: Dear Mr. Henderson, Re; your am post of this date.[8 Feb 2007] Can you speak about how to move beyond the fear of losing \"this\" to embracing \"That\". When I think about \"Why not Realize\". It is fear. Fear of losing parts of the little self that I have allowed to define me. Peace,Peace,Peace Virginia
FEARS ABOUT THE UNKNOWN
Similarly, the fear of the unknown is also a factor that hinders the willingness to Realize. Realization is often shunned because persons insanely prefer the misery that they are familiar with over the chance of eliminating misery by venturing into either unknown or unfamiliar circumstances; they will continue to work for an abusive employer so that their false role of “The Employee” can survive; they will continue to stay in an abusive relationship so that their false role of “The Lover” or “The Spouse” or “The Homeowner” can survive; they will tolerant prison-like circumstances that are familiar rather than go out on their own in order to be free. It should be obvious that the desire for continuity of assumed personas is once again a factor. As an example of the way attachment to the familiar inspires insane behavior in the relative existence, consider the case described in a posting from last August:
That which “seems” most comfortable to persons is that which is most familiar. When two social workers arrived to take an abused child away from the mother who had used cigarettes to burn the child from head to toe, the child fought with all her strength to prevent the workers from taking her out of her mother’s arms. As painful as it was to be with that mother, it was familiar, so the false sense of “comfort” that came with "familiarity" overrode even the sane drive for survival or for avoidance of those who inflict pain. Similarly with persons all across the globe, when certain roles they were playing come to an end, they hate not having that which was “familiar” and that which they thought was providing the comfort they wanted. Even when certain ego-states had been generating levels of suffering that were beyond description, people mourn when their false (but familiar) roles can no longer be played.
Consider the desire to (1) continue playing phony—but familiar—roles and the willingness to (2) live the lie. Both combine to retard any chance to Realize fully. When identified with personas, “The Experiencer” is taken to be real. The “little self” you refer to is that which is thinking (in error) that it’s having desirable experiences via a body and mind and personality…experiences that it does not want to miss out on. Or the persona is convinced that even as bad as its experiences are, the unknown would be even worse. The bottom line is that persons live in the mirror, looking at images and taking them to be real. Thus, they want their images to last in perpetuity, so why take any action that would eliminate images that are taken to be the real self?
FEARS ABOUT POWERLESSNESS
The master addiction among persons is the desire to control. The master fear is the inability to control. The secondary addiction, therefore, is the desire to have power, and the secondary fear is being powerless. Again, fears and desires never stand alone among persons. Again, it is that desire for power that inspires persons to avoid Realization and to cling to the dualities that they think will assure they have access to power, including such dualities as mentioned earlier: “god/gods vs. mortals”; “hell vs. heaven”; “rewards vs. punishments”; “benefits of worshipping vs. not worshipping”; “payoffs from tithing vs. not tithing,” etc.
ARROGANCE
With all ego-states comes egotism, a defense mechanism that is used by personas to safeguard their false identities if anyone should begin to shed light on their counterfeit nature. The lie becomes a favorite tool, whereas Realization is about truth. Those trapped in their ego-states and the arrogance of their egotism will, of course, spurn anything dealing with truth. They will protest loudly that they are doing just fine.
FEARS ABOUT THE UNKNOWN
Similarly, the fear of the unknown is also a factor that hinders the willingness to Realize. Realization is often shunned because persons insanely prefer the misery that they are familiar with over the chance of eliminating misery by venturing into either unknown or unfamiliar circumstances; they will continue to work for an abusive employer so that their false role of “The Employee” can survive; they will continue to stay in an abusive relationship so that their false role of “The Lover” or “The Spouse” or “The Homeowner” can survive; they will tolerant prison-like circumstances that are familiar rather than go out on their own in order to be free. It should be obvious that the desire for continuity of assumed personas is once again a factor. As an example of the way attachment to the familiar inspires insane behavior in the relative existence, consider the case described in a posting from last August:
That which “seems” most comfortable to persons is that which is most familiar. When two social workers arrived to take an abused child away from the mother who had used cigarettes to burn the child from head to toe, the child fought with all her strength to prevent the workers from taking her out of her mother’s arms. As painful as it was to be with that mother, it was familiar, so the false sense of “comfort” that came with "familiarity" overrode even the sane drive for survival or for avoidance of those who inflict pain. Similarly with persons all across the globe, when certain roles they were playing come to an end, they hate not having that which was “familiar” and that which they thought was providing the comfort they wanted. Even when certain ego-states had been generating levels of suffering that were beyond description, people mourn when their false (but familiar) roles can no longer be played.
Consider the desire to (1) continue playing phony—but familiar—roles and the willingness to (2) live the lie. Both combine to retard any chance to Realize fully. When identified with personas, “The Experiencer” is taken to be real. The “little self” you refer to is that which is thinking (in error) that it’s having desirable experiences via a body and mind and personality…experiences that it does not want to miss out on. Or the persona is convinced that even as bad as its experiences are, the unknown would be even worse. The bottom line is that persons live in the mirror, looking at images and taking them to be real. Thus, they want their images to last in perpetuity, so why take any action that would eliminate images that are taken to be the real self?
FEARS ABOUT POWERLESSNESS
The master addiction among persons is the desire to control. The master fear is the inability to control. The secondary addiction, therefore, is the desire to have power, and the secondary fear is being powerless. Again, fears and desires never stand alone among persons. Again, it is that desire for power that inspires persons to avoid Realization and to cling to the dualities that they think will assure they have access to power, including such dualities as mentioned earlier: “god/gods vs. mortals”; “hell vs. heaven”; “rewards vs. punishments”; “benefits of worshipping vs. not worshipping”; “payoffs from tithing vs. not tithing,” etc.
ARROGANCE
With all ego-states comes egotism, a defense mechanism that is used by personas to safeguard their false identities if anyone should begin to shed light on their counterfeit nature. The lie becomes a favorite tool, whereas Realization is about truth. Those trapped in their ego-states and the arrogance of their egotism will, of course, spurn anything dealing with truth. They will protest loudly that they are doing just fine.
Thus, because of the hindrances discussed yesterday as well as these today, Realization is never sought by most. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be concluded tomorrow]
