TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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and
"The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom"
and
"To know that you are a
prisoner of your mind - that you live in an imaginary world of your own
creation - is the dawn of wisdom."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
"Realization is nothing more than a process which results in a person being freed from believing in all learned ignorance."
--Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Anatomy of Human Memory Storage: The Elemental Brain vs. the Non-Elemental Mind
or
The Natural Brain vs. the Never-Natural Mind
NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING
(Continued)
From
Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address)
NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING
(Continued)
Yesterday, “Instability / Insanity Induced by Psychological Splitting” was discussed.
Today, “Instability / Insanity Induced By Duality-Driven Splitting” will be discussed.
[Also note the "loop of ignorance and insanity" which develops: taught duality generates splitting and then splitting generates more learned duality.]
Persons suffering from this disorder initially view all people as being either totally good or totally bad. Persons suffering from splitting, when in the mode of seeing only "the good," use the ego-defense mechanism called "idealization."
[See the pointer offered earlier regarding those who idealize another and, egotistically, idealize self: such persons will "look at a potential partner and write a 'pro / con' list of that potential partner's traits but will have no 'con's' on the list."
Those same types are likely to idealize themselves and arrogantly "do the same with their own 'pro / con' list of traits": all "pro's" . . . no "con's," which is a complete impossibility when dealing with persons in relationships - which are always relative.]
To review: Why do the majority of marriages and relationships and love affairs end? Is it because, as some say, that "love is blind?" No. It is because love, when viewed through the lenses of idealizing and romanticizing, is color blind.
As noted in a recent post, in the case of "Floyd the Husband-to-Be," red flags could not - or would not - be seen. The ego-defense mechanism of idealization is triggered when one desires to accumulate a new set of ego-states: lover, companion, spouse, the homeowner to be, the one being cared for financially, ad infinitum.
At that point, one will assign exceedingly positive qualities to self and to another. Because all of that is dualistic and thus relative, that positive view will not last. Eventually, the use of idealization will be replaced with the use of "devaluation" and "downgrading"; then, the earlier romanticizer / idealizer will assign exceedingly negative qualities to another.
[Here, the terms used in the non-dual teachings are "upgrading" and "downgrading": "The Spouse" soon becomes "The Super Spouse," and where originally only "The Husband" was required to satisfy the role of "The Wife," once the upgrading takes place, then "The Super Wife" must have "A Super Husband" to "survive" in her mind. The same is true for the one assuming the role of "The Husband" and then later egotistically upgrading that false self to the status of "The Super Husband."
The same happens when the leaders of some nations upgrade themselves and downgrade those in other nation or when religious people downgrade this "world" but upgrade what they take to be a later "grand world" of rewards or a later "miserable world" of punishment. The same happens when some "Self-defined Spiritual Giants" upgrade themselves but downgrade religious people, saying, "I am not religious! I am spiritual!"]
Early on, idealization will play along with those super labels, but soon, "devaluation" will always manifest as long as persons are being tossed about in the storms of relativity; then, broken relationships or breakups or divorces will follow, along with chaos (and often along with even more instability and insanity).
Next, from Chapter Three of Instability / Insanity: What the Advaita Teachings Can (and Cannot Address):
NON-DUALITY AS OPPOSED TO THE DUALITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SPLITTING
Of the two types of splitting discussed earlier, the more complicated is the deep-seated, psychological version. Narcissism and arrogance were mentioned in connection with the mental illness of splitting and the use of "idealization." It was Sigmund Freud who first mentioned "idealization" when discussing narcissism.
[Consider: How narcissistic and extreme is it to judge others - often in an instant - and conclude that they are all good or all bad?]
Freud taught that narcissism first manifests in infants who come to believe that they are the be-all and end-all, often as a result of over-indulgent parents who egotistically see the perfect child as being an extension - and even literal manifestation - of their own perfection. Yet the child still wants the parents' love, so children internalize the traits and values modeled by the parents.
As noted earlier, certain cultures are more culpable than others of modeling their cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof manner, and children in such societies and countries are especially love-starved.
[Why even take the time to point out to those in such cultures how they contrast with other cultures which are far more empathetic and far less war-like in the home and all across the planet in the places they have invaded and colonized over the years?
Because when children are led - via an early exposure to delusional acculturation and both self-aggrandizement and national aggrandizement - to normalize their country’s warped national psyche; thereafter, they will likely never be presented with an opportunity to look at their nation, their often-far-from-civil history, their leaders, and themselves in an objective fashion.
Presently, there is a debate underway in the U.K. as many reject any notion that racism is systemic there, and has long been so. The same is true in the U.S. The denials are likely as heartfelt and sincerely believed as any other distortions and delusions accepted as truth by those trapped in their national and racial pride and white supremacy and narcissism-based beliefs about their being "a super race" with "super genes." See the racially-biased theory of "eugenics" and the Nazis' "breeding farms" with the plan of breeding an exclusive, super race.]
To continue: the would-be-pleasing-child, who wants to receive love from such parents who are generally incapable of showing or expressing love, will unconsciously or consciously formulate an "ego ideal" (that is far from "ideal") and will internalize the values of the parents and will display a cold and uncaring and rigid and distant and excessively formal and remote and detached and aloof manner.
At some point, even a child senses that its authenticity is being choked into submission; yet in the search for love and acceptance, the child (already identified with many false ego-states) will move ahead anyway with the agenda of the ego ideal, and in that torn state of duality, children can and often do develop pathologies.
The pathologies can manifest and result in the examples of instability listed earlier, and eventually insanity of varying degrees can manifest alongside the meanness and coldness that is often exhibited by those trapped in psychological splitting.
[Note again that most who are driven by splitting are functioning adults and will not necessarily appear to be "crazy"; quite to the contrary, they will often appear to be "normal" and even "charming" part of the time.]
So the child was split first, after which the child will likely use splitting for the remainder of the manifestation. When awareness of authenticity is driven out of awareness, then Freud called that situation "secondary narcissism." In the case of secondary narcissism, the ego - the false self - is idealized.
It is a short step from that action to idealizing "another" who has something that the child wants (and in later years, to idealizing another who has something that "the Adult-Child" wants.)
In many cases, the splitting can become so severe that persons exhibit the behaviors mentioned earlier: harshness with their words, coldness with their unavailability, meanness in their interactions, cruelty with their judging, and / or near-sociopathic levels of mercilessness while ignoring the impact of their words and deeds on the feelings of those around them.
While duality-based and psychologically-based splitting garners little attention and is thus often minimized when it is discussed, some therapists suggest that it can actually develop into a borderline pathology.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
