99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step# 44

Sure footedness in an ever changing world:

Probably the number one pit-fall travelers experience walking awakened, is the illusion that awareness alone prevents discord. Awareness simply opens pathways to alternative outcomes. The awakened individual must choose to accept those alternate options and then act on them. This should bring us back to the triune principles we accepted at the beginning of this course, these will always be our constants, our grounding points , our built in early warning system. Remembering this though, when events arise, and our awareness is not always forthcoming is sometimes disconcerting. Not to worry, our goal is not perfection, our goal is first recovery then acceptance and then action.

It is not really that complex to figure out why our conditioning has led us to the belief that we will somehow, at some point in time, reach a plateau where we will finally be in control of all situations, circumstances and outcomes, the linear tracking of a life-cycle lends itself to that misinterpretation. The hidden jewel in all that is that we can reach a plateau where we will more consistently be realigned to the essence of the circumstance and the further realization that there are alternatives.

This leads us to another one of those pesky paradoxes that life is full of. The realization that (a) life has a beginning and an end, and one should keep that ever present in their reasoning. And (b) to always return your focus to the reality of the ever present moment. Which is it then? Both, because one of your feet are both the same, it all happens to depend on which one is the object of your focus, and the nature of the criteria. As an example, when a captain of a vessel is guiding that vessel to port, he can maintain that he will dock the ship safely, while in the interim be communicating the discharge of the passengers and unloading of the cargo.  Docking the ship is the paramount objective, for without it, the other criteria are impeded, but, the lesser duties in this example even though dependant on the outcome are operating seemingly independent of it. Life is like that too.

There are times in life when circumstances compound one another, but when we refocus on the ultimate goal we have established for ourselves, what ever that may be, we then rightly order the sequence of events that is occurring in our life at the moment, thus dethroning the article and re-establishing the primacy of our goal.

We all at one point or another in our lives, have fallen into this trap of over reacting to the moment, and then regretting it later. or even worse fallen into a perpetual loop of trying to justify our actions, over and over in our minds further exacerbating and prolonging the resulting situation. The only way to break this cycle, or minimize the probability of it occurring is to supplant in ones consciousness an equally viable alternative. And in the very essence of doing so, not only are you presenting an alternative option, you are changing the dynamics of the mechanisms that precipitate the action in the first place.

Most of the above is a reiteration of the core ideology behind the motivation to write these steps. It is just that simple. At each step of the game we are presented a scenario, how we respond establishes a routine on how we will respond to future events. It is not in how we respond, in as much as how many options we have to respond with. When we give ourselves the tools to respond to a multitude of situations with a multitude of alternatives. We are greatly increasing the odds of more favourable outcomes becoming the norm.                    

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step# 43

Entering the regenerate state of mind:

 The topic of personal bottoms, often discussed when a person has exited the matrix of illusions and distractions that are obtained through many avenues of use and abuse, often signal the awakening of the regenerate self from its hibernation.This state of being is often confused, often misinterpreted, and sometimes ill categorized.

Life is a series of lessons, lessons are learned, sometimes through hardship, and sometimes through joy. The personal bottom accepted not in a derogate  pretext but in an awakened realization, is the launch point for the journey onward to total self realization. Earlier on in this course you were asked to revisit your past. You did so, hopefully within the framework of a better understanding of the construction of the many attributes of your current self. What you need to do now, is take that assessment and understand in it, the mechanics of impersonal makeup not the mechanics of the self. The self is the author, not the story that he writes. What ever you have done, what ever accomplishments or misadventures, have been the story of life lessons unfolding, not of the self creating. The point at which you can accept this is the beginning of the regenerate self.

This like the previously discussed state of guiltless acceptance, is sometimes extremely difficult to accept. We have been conditioned to a sociological commitment to accountability. And rightly so. But, that ideal that we target now is not the punitive abeyance wrought from conditioning, but a willing abeyance that is a  cumulative result of an awakened personality through acceptance of awareness of the circumstances that were the antecedent actions that precipitated the state.

We are awake! We are accountable! We must now accept the role of author of our destiny. With specific focus on the term author. For the life we are experiencing is complete, beginning to end, we are simply here to experientially  document and at times dissect to understand the nature of the incredible journey we are on.

The regenerate self is the portion of the journey where the maturity of the individual will begin to outweigh the lower or baser natures of the self. These natures will not be eliminated not oppressively subjugated, but rightly ordered. It is indeed a crucial launching point for many, for a retrograde stance at this juncture usually spells annihilation for the probability of total self attainment. But the embracing of the positive and regenerative understanding that is the path forward will now lead the individual to an awakened state from which true understanding and peace can be cemented with certainty and assurance.       

    

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step# 42

The pendulum moment part two:

The courage to fail  has been a running challenge throughout the course. Accepting  guiltless self-forgiveness also is a crucial step. But it itself walks a razor's edge, and must not be taken for granted, for this would be not only self defeating but also grievously detrimental to our growth.

We must begin to approach life as though we are actors showing up for work on a weekly scheduled program. The script will be handed to us, and it will be our task to review it practice and rehearse it, then give our best performance of it, on stage, when the director yells "Action".  Who writes the script? "Life events", and how we respond is our role as the actor. We complicate and fabricate a plethora of emotional and intellectual window dressings to obfuscate this truth, but our victory comes when we simply agree to play the role. How is this even remotely individual in nature then? As confusing as it sounds, the path to individuality is in accepting the truth that we are all one. My individuality begins when I agree to fully acknowledge  yours, but also understand that what separates us is a life centered schooling, and we educate ourselves when we agree to interact with each other.

Reoccurring shortcomings, repeated behavior traits that constantly haunt us are very damaging to our progress. We solidify these encumbrances when we fail to immediately dismiss them and move on. And unless we resurrect an unconditional grace in this respect, we leave ourselves with no plausible escape mechanism. And this shroud of repetitive guilt soon becomes a ball and chain preventing us from moving upwards in evolutionary harmony.

Progressing past this step with earnest conviction is a paramount leap in evolutionary thinking. If you have mastered this then you are well on your way to achieving individual liberty. If you find yourself falling short of conviction when approaching the state of guiltless realignment, you should not let this impede you. simply accept the gift in full knowledge that at one point in your upcoming future you will fully grasp not only the paramount importance of this step, but also the conscious awakening of the energies that are here to educate our many selves when we are willing to acknowledge ourselves as the administrator of  them. Scene 42, take one... action!.          

 

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step# 41

The pendulum moment:

The hardest state to achieve is the state of guiltless realignment.And there is a distinct difference between realignment and what it could and often is confused with, when an individual feigns acknowledgement of culpability, as an re-integrative strategy. Guiltless realignment is the process by which we acknowledge the error in our current state through understanding the process by which we arrived at it. It is sad that the structure of our current society totally dismisses this process, and instead only focuses on the variables of effect and retribution. It is sad because, what in essence is being done here is that the effect, whatever its scenario, is solidified, given its own identity, and the entirety of the other elements of individuality are cast aside. But yet the full retributive weight of the circumstance is volleyed at the individual. This is a grievous error, but one that society welcomes for the sake of convenience.

When we grasp the true nature of being, we see the corruptible not as process of addition, but yet as a process of subtraction. Our natural state is ignorance (evil) the volatile catalyst by which we grow into full awareness is in first acknowledgement of that fact, and then subsequently the choice to evolutionarily advance beyond it. What is left behind is the base elements, and what is created is as a result of their casting off. Many philosophical and religious tenets are structured on such beliefs, sadly they too often fall prey to their own devices and most often impede the progression of the spirit, not advance it.

What we have to learn as evolutionary beings is to welcome these moments of awareness of our inadequate, inappropriate, or sometimes repetitive shortcomings as behaviour  necessary as the catalyst for our growth. With a stern caveat and caution not to justify detrimental behaviour under these auspices. We too often can fall prey to the latter, and stagnate our growth.

We live in a society that presents many challenges to advancement, simply because of the narrow focus of those that control it. Greed has become the new milestone to achieve. Material wealth, material acquisition and material amusement, the new main stays of our current culture. What in essence you are being asked to do is run counter to those ideals. And you can achieve this, not by an out-an-out rejection, but by paralel structuring. and the only way to overcome the guilt imbibed rhetoric of this age, is to counter it with knowledge. And the only way you can achieve that knowledgeable state is by not succumbing to the illusion that the self flagellating penance of guilt will somehow refine you into a better individual.

Knowledge is the key, acceptance is the door, and you have but to approach it confidently. And you will never achieve this with the burden of guilt hung around your neck like a milestone. And a further truth is, that your jailers have tarried long and studiously to ingrain this impediment into the very fabric of both society and culture. You will find little acknowledgement or encouragement in your new found display. But your liberation will in many ways be paving the road, leaving breadcrumbs of hope for those that share the road with you. A great challenge, but equally a greater reward. When we are illumined the light cannot be restrained from falling on others. This is our purpose this is our hope, we will reclaim it, for it is ours.        

     

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #40

The principle of awareness:

It is often pressed upon us to reject the reality of the moment, and replace it with the illusion. The illusion is that we have lived long, suffered long, experienced hardship long, and at each step of the way overcome the hardship and forged ahead. Time like the Ego is the master illusionist, and sadly for most, they leave the theatre impressed with the show and forever trapped in the illusion. It is not a terrible fate per-say, but for some we just cannot shake the inner calling that there must be more to it. If you are one such person, then it would be wise for you to continue your search, for you will find no peace in the illusion, only the uncomfortableness of knowing that this reality (the illusion) is not where you belong.

Throughout history individuals have reiterated this over and over again, through philosophy, religion, poetry, song, ritual. each enlightened-one, dutifully it would seem, trying to be the light bearer for the next generation. But what is this awareness and where can it be found one may ask?  The mistake is in the implication that it can be found in time, when it exists outside of time. And secondly, the truth that it can only be accepted never fully understood.  It has no language, no variables, no matter no substance, at least by standards we are accustomed to. How do we acquire an understanding of it then? In the simple truth that you must evolve into awareness of it. Well this sounds like a cycle of circular redundancy then, you can't identify it, you can't quantify it, it's not understandable, but yet it is the true reality, that makes absolutely no sense at all.  One would then have to ask, sense, by what standard?  If we use the illusion as the standard, what are we measuring against? (eg:) I stand in front of a mirror, I see a reflection of myself, is the reflection real? Yes! But it is only a refection, it is not really me? Yes! So how can it be real?  It is real in the context that it is a reflection of yourself, not real in the context that it is another manifestation of yourself.  Likewise when we approach true awareness, we understand that, the manifest exists , and the reflection exists, but we can only ever understand the latter when we approach the mirror.  Then what are we, the manifest or the reflection? Neither! We are the observer.  Well we are when we are awakened from the dream.

For some or many, it is not important to them, who they are. For others it is a painfully long search that more often than not leads to a dead end or deception. This is truly sad.  The problem is that we are too focused on the discovery and not in the context of the discovery. We don't look up in the air for a school of fish, neither do we go fishing for a flock of geese. When we approach matters of conscious awareness we have to put our approaches in the right context.

To be truly at peace with oneself, we must acquire a vigilant honesty. A willingness to accept everything and anything, as a possibility with the determination to equally undertake to question and challenge its validity, in the contest to which it is being expressed. We must be willing to challenge preconceived ideas and notions in ourselves, because we will never expose the illusion around us, if we continue to delude ourselves. It is only when we see clearly, that we will clearly see the illusion. We will not do this by intellect alone,  nor by  awareness alone, but by understanding that we are the dreamer dreaming the dream, and the longing we feel inside is the sound of the alarm clock prompting us to awake.  

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #39

Fearless discovery

If we were diligent in our exploration in the previous step, we should have indeed reawakened many long forgotten memories. Good, bad,happy, sad, whatever emotions they inspired, they all had one thing in common, we recorded them. We did this because we have the sensory capacity to do so. This sensory capacity has a common operating system in most of us. This primal encoded system helped us into awareness by establishing in that awareness basic responses that enabled us to begin the process of self-awareness.

Obviously we will not have had the capacity to regress to this point in our discovery. We are just not designed that way, More likely if we were earnestly diligent and dedicated we arrived back in various times during our childhood, during memorable times of learning lessons or having impressed on us social activities that caused in us dramatic points of emotional awakening, both pleasant and unpleasant. It was at these times, that the fabric of our existence was stretched. It was also at this time that those initial primal systems were disengaging from ourselves, and it was becoming incumbent on our-self to rationalize the activity. This was when we enlisted the help our our inner social circle (family) to establish norms and boundaries, and based on these we built our impressions and assertions.

If we were fortunate enough to regress to these times, then great accomplishments can be achieved, If not then where ever your retrograde journey landed will do just fine. Our main goal is to establish a base line. A point of reference we can use to add a set of pseudo boundary markers. When you can state with assurance that you held this belief, to this point in time, whether or not it actually was formed at that time, helps you to plot the natures progression up until the present. You now have a beginning and an end. Why is this important? Firstly it gives you the ability to stand outside of it and analyze it. Secondly it cements the status of the event definable in time, the notion of it operating anywhere but inside the realm of your control, has been extinguished. And when this occurs the ego's familiar litany of doubt, angst, or fear is diffused beforehand. All that is left now to do is assess whether this nature state's condition is acceptable to you, and if not, what needs correcting..

It really is that simple, but change will not occur overnight. discovery is only the beginning. The stages that follow will work on restoring you to full awareness, but you must be patient. Each step must be taken with the assurance that the fulfilled goal will be achieved, once we uncover the sum of it parts.

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #38

Pathways to peace:

In our previous lesson, we were asked to begin the process of our awareness of what elements and interactions in our lives formed the majority of our character traits. We did this for two primary reasons. The first being an understanding of the causal forming of our natures, and secondly as an affirmation that it was indeed ourselves that formed the process, so there should be no doubt that we are capable of, understanding it, altering it if necessary, or transforming it into something far greater.

But before we continue we must be willing to lay aside our preconceived ideas of justification, association or accountability. But be certain we are in no-wise  attempting to grant ourselves grace from these attributes past or present, but are simply on a mission of discovery that does not include them as variables. And as you should be able to deduce by this proposition, we will be launching this discovery from within our neutral nature zone.

If we agreed to engage in an exercise regiment, we would be perfectly comfortable with knowing and accepting which positions we should place our bodies in to begin the exercise. With this same comfort and reasoning we should adopt the mental process of  acknowledging which nature state we should be in to engage in certain mental tasks. We will be in these states irregardless, just by the correlation they have been assigned by us, what we are doing here is making a conscious declaration, that we are indeed in this nature state, and from this declaration establishing our equally conscious authority.

One exercise we could engage in would be to take one common trait we have that defines us uniquely. Trace it back to its origin and assess its value to you. What commonalities does it share with other similar traits you have? How does it compare to similar traits you see in others.? What exactly defines it?  And finally what makes it either a positive trait or a negative trait, and why do you feel that way about it. Start off with any easily accomplished trait, and then progress to the more complex ones. Reemphasizing one again that this is discovery.

Once we can easily accept a challenge like this, we will slowly release the ego's throttling of our decision making process. And when we affirm boundaries to what activities are present in our defined realms of nature states, we will setup pathways unencumbered by doubt an uncertainty. These pathways will ensure quick resolves to our problems, assurance and confidence in our ability to overcome any challenge, and the comfort and security of knowing we have a place to retreat to grant us the peace required for reflection and resolution. Our own pathways to peace.    

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #37

Retracing the manufacturing process:

Since we grew ourselves from a single cell, we should know how to be perfectly healthy, right? Although coined playfully, there is still a lot of truth in that statement. After-all it was both the foundational bedrock of psychoanalytical reasoning, and the catalyst that launched the modern era of psychiatry. At the point in time that we turned the page on readily receiving instruction, for some, a false sense of inherent accountability manifested and took its place. This is not to be confused with, maturity, responsibility, or the normal progression of accountability that is both expected and admired as we age. The false sense that we refer to here is, and is sadly often an errant falsity propagated in society, that age and age alone is somehow capable of advancing an individual socially and psychologically. This is simply not true and we owe the cementing of it in the construct of society primarily because; we are a society of rules and laws, and these can not be easily applied universally to the maturity of a group of individuals so the only other option was to apply it to the physical nature of the individual. We deviated there just to affirm the position, that age really has very little to do with maturity, and maturity has everything to do with recognizing and acquiring authority of the individual nature.

With the above being assented, does it not then seem logical to retrace our steps introspectively to understand just how we came to manufacture the self that we now consciously claim to be us? If we were to just simplistically retrace our experience backwards using a very banal criteria, and by banal we mean just to condition us into the exercise, and if so desired we could then willingly delve into it far more intricately. But for now let us just focus on three criteria (1) conscious decision making (2) personal accountability (3) self justification.

It is true of us all that at one point in our lives, we took that crucial leap off the side of the nest, and in an exhilarating free fall we experienced our first flight. What we hope to do in this exercise is to get as close consciously to that moment as possible or as memory permits. The purpose is not to delve into specifics, but to comfortably and nostalgically reminisce these experiences. Our first thoughts of independence, our first interactions with authoritative entities, absent of our parents. Some of our first crucial agreements either in school, sports or business. And finally friendships formed through joint ventures, or like interests. It is also true that these experiences would also have, on occasion, been cause for some of our first conflicts, so without slipping errantly into either justification or remorse, let us be vigilant observers and focus solely on reflection.

If we can be diligent and honest , we should at this time be willing to compare our motives then, and our motives now. How do they compare? Our interactions then, and now? Our conflict resolutions then and now? our sense of independence then and now. Now that we have established the base line, and the present,. we can now progress or regress in each way through each experience and find a wealth of experience as to how we became the individual we are, and also how we conditioned our behaviors. The key to success here is honesty. This is your own personal journey, you are the only person keeping tabs, and there is no score card. Take time to isolate a trait you are curious about,and then traverse that corridor of your mind. You will be amazed at what you discover. And then you will also concur "that since you formed your individuality, you can be certain of reclaiming it.        

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #36

Accepting the rule of the gaps:

Early in our schooling we are taught basic principles of research and discovery.  We learn them through the sciences, and through academic disciplines. Cause and effect are understood through experiment, and as our learning progresses we are well cemented into the belief that every cause has its effect, and every effect can be traced back to its cause. This paramount truism of the material realm has its intrinsic dualist nature on this plain, but when it is brought into the realm of the psyche its path and pathos is not always so dualistic in nature.

We must keep this ever in mind when trying to exercise control over moods, emotions, or impulsive behaviors. For many have root causes buried deep within a matrix of learned behaviors. Even conscious awareness of their proximal origins, sometimes, is not enough for their natures to escape our grasp when trying to control them. This is true of everyone, so we should not stress over this to a great deal. What we need to do is establish perimeter warning alarms, so as to bring us to a point of neutrality before situations evade us and assume authority over us.

It is not so much that we have to become expert analysts of ourselves, though the more we earnestly apply ourselves this will become our natural state. What we have to learn to accept is, that on occasion we will be operating in relative unawareness, and outcomes, will, for the most part run smoothly. An example of this would be when one is driving a vehicle for a long distance. We can be preoccupied with thoughts and contemplations, but still be very conscious of the road in front of us, and be quite functionally in control of the vehicle. The same is true in our dealings with everyday life. We can be constructively analyzing situations, but still be in control of our surroundings. Our goal is not to become analytical automatons, but to accept the fruits of authoritative control of our nature states.

Over the course of time, and in countless disciplines and sciences, this principle of the gaps has been an accepted norm and necessity of the path to understanding. Just because we can't explicitly define it, does not prevent us from accepting its role in achieving our goals. The road to understanding our natures, our character makeup and our perceived individuality is dependent sometimes on just accepting our powerlessness in certain scenarios, in order to gain mastery over them. Accepting what you do not know, triggers the desire if sought to find the solution or answer. When we are in that state, the inquisitive state, we eagerly search out this knowledge, do we now see the importance of honoring the free movement between states..    

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #35 

 

Theories and models:

Individuality to us is the goal, that is, if you are reading this with intent on change, not just out of curiosity. But like everything else in the universe, it is built on discoverable theory and structural model. Discoverable, in that it is a juxtaposed undertaking. One must first inquisitively desire to understand ones nature, and parallel in that it is both the will to understand and the knowledge of the understanding that culminate and catapult the individual into an enlightened state of being. This premise is nether new or unique to any one discipline, it is as a matter of fact, foundational in all throughout history. In order to unleash it in ourselves, we will need certain models to fashion our behaviors (natures) around in order to reap the conscious benefits of it.

This is nether complex or difficult, we need only understand that it is our willingness to undertake the challenge that is as integral to the exercise, as is the formulating of the action steps. The carrying out of those steps in our daily routines will culminate in our eventual overall success. For this we are encouraged to draw from any of the disciplines we have learned in our lives so far. Their particular origins, affiliations or doctrinal associations to us should not be of concern, for we are not trying to incorporate those ideologies into our project, we are simply utilizing their modeled framework as grounding points for us. The familiar is always the best ally when undertaking change.

We must grow from what we know. As previously asserted in preceding steps, our lives have been a sequence of conditioning exercises. Many of which are common throughout our peers. This in its simplest assertion, is one of the bedrocks of societal cohesion, our likes tend to draw us together, our differences  tend to keep us apart. You would find very few that would disagree with that assertion. The same can be said of our internal community of selves. The natures with which we feel comfortable with we willingly project externally as our public self, and the ones we don't quite fully comprehend, or the ones we lack confidence in or control over, we either hide or deny, or are at times victimized by in moments of out of control behavior. When we can earnestly grasp the truth that these are conditioned behaviors, then we can work at first by accepting, and then altering their stigma or detrimental effect on our natures as a whole. When we can shape these differences under the critical scope of analysis, not under the norms of an often grossly generalized external overview, but internally as getting to the roots of their origin. We can then rightly assert authority over them, and then achieving this they will integrate wholly into ourselves, and our public self, which is in essence the external manifestation of our individuality will be strengthened and empowered both publicly and integrally.

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #34

Digestion and Reflection:

I would like to begin this step by asserting that the above title should not be interpreted as a directive to digest and then reflect, for in instances the opposite is equally advantageous. The awakened self will find that during the course of any life experience, there will be times when they will have to fully digest an idea or principle before they can reflect on its significance. And at other times they will need to reflect on the proposed idea, and then accept to digest it.  In either scenario the imperative is to never adopt the habit of accepting things unconditionally without the necessary discernment.

The irony here is that  facets of our quantum faculty to process information operates on the opposite principle of conscious choice. Our brains like nothing more than the autonomous integration of routines, skill sets and actions. This hypothetically could be the primordial ooze that spawned many of our inherent detrimental habits and characteristics.  The good news is, ours brains are equally as enthused to integrate or alter routines when the right stimulus is provided. Yet another reason for us to see the essential merit of maintaining authorship in our lives.

Our two points today "digestion and reflection" are resident in the neutral state. Aptly so, this is the area that to us, during the day we should become frequent visitors. As often mentioned, this is our safe zone, a place to revert to in times of duress, in times of uncertainty, and in times of reflection.. Early in the course we extolled the virtue and necessity of resting, digestion is similar in nature. In life to the awakened individual, you will often witness persons who suffer from a condition we can only humorously refer to as acquisitional obesity. People who ingest volumes of literature, ideas, habits and convictions, but they serve only to weigh them down or make them automated talking-heads. A digested idea is quite different. When we approach ideas or situations new or challenging to us we should get into the habit of consciously unpacking it. At first, again it will seem like adding nuisance or inefficiency to our daily routine, but as with preceding steps, what we are trying to achieve is a state of conscious autonomy. Our goal will be to autonomously program the act of digestion into our lives, that when we arrive at situations that require our acceptance or input. we will with immediacy jump to a reflective state of deconstructing the request, accessing it, utilizing a relational skill-set and then formulating our decisions or actions on the matter. When we become efficient at this task we will see a huge decrease in both anxiety and complexity of the decision making process. It is when we fail to do this and accept things haphazardly replacing reason with the luck of the draw, do we, in reality complicate our lives unnecessarily.

The notion of adding or expanding to our decision making skill sets will only feel burdensome as long as we feel ourselves subjugated or obligated to the nature which requires attention. When we approach it from an authored position, we will feel exactly the opposite, for we are adding efficiency to our lives, and the resultant swings in well being and quality of life will fill us with a sense of just reward, which in-turn will motivate and propel us forward.     

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #33

Authorship and Acceptance:

We have reached a pivotal point on our journey.  Over the course so far there has been much repetition, this was not intended to distract or provide filler, but to imitate the same rote patterns that we used as children to improve retention. We will now summarize what we should know by now, or at least agree to consider.

We agree, or are open to consideration that we are many selves or states in one consciousness. We generally agree that we have a physical self that is mostly regulated autonomously to which we supply nourishment, exercise and stimulation. We have an intellectual state (inquisitive state) that varies in intensity and activity within each individual. The prime stimulus for this state is our sensory perception. Within this state we have a matrix of mechanisms that span, intersect, stimulate and interact with our other states of the physical and emotional. And finally we have the emotional states. The bulk of this state resides in what we agreed to call the "Hesitant state" with the remnants residing in the other two ( Inquisitive and Neutral states). We agreed to order the states through an introspective exercise, and list them in the categories we agreed to call the three primary groupings (eg):  | Inquisitive states | Hesitant states | Neutral States |  Once this was completed, we agreed to honour a protocol, that we should adopt a sense of authorship over these states, and further, that if we felt a lapse in that authorship, we would agree to halt the activity and reflect on the circumstance. And this we agreed to refer to as "An entering into the neutral state for reflection".

We then moved on to the relationship of the emotions (nature states) to one-another. We acknowledged that although they interact in a manner that makes them appear to be interconnected, the are in reality distinct entities that operate independently on their own individual axis's. Finally we set up examples that would encourage us to experiment with this approach to the self, and tried to apply this reasoning in our daily routines.

Now in order to move forward, we have to accept the above simple framework as a reasonable base from which we will operate. This should not be difficult, seeing that it is in no wise constrictive. We are not being asked to surrender anything, we are not being asked to adopt any foreign article or belief structure. We are simply being asked to author consciously our thoughts and actions. Could anything be more simple?

From this point forward, we set past constraints behind us. Knowing that our lives have not changed. Our environment has not changed. The interactions between individuals we interact with, has not changed. We have simply agreed to work to change the way we respond and the way we interpret. And make no mistake, this is no small challenge, as you will find out. If you are honest in your approach to this, you are going to experience just how much you lacked control in your lives. But also, you are going to see how easily correction can occur, almost magically, when resistance is transformed into acceptance, and acceptance is understood as a principle and not as an act of capitulation.

Acceptance is indeed met with the same trepidations sometimes, as is a visit to the dentist. What we are being asked to do, is accept something, or place our integral signature on something  that will intrinsically connect us to it. Now when this is a thing of pleasure, there is little resistance, but when it is a thing that will bind us to a commitment or obligation, it is most times met with hesitance. Does this sound familiar? In reflecting back on previous steps, are these not the same motivations and actions that we have unconsciously used to frame our emotional make-up, or at least part of it? And if this be true, How do you gauge the health of your emotional make-up as it stands now? And if it is not what you would like it to be, this would then lead to the question, what have you been accepting? Now if you are willing to accept that you may have been accepting things that weren't in your best interest, what would you consider to be the best course of action? Stop accepting? Or would it be, accepting the responsibility to author all decisions on what you accept. This you can do, when you are the author of your life.

This is why it is critical to accept all facets of your individual nature, because you have created the autonomous netherworld that you have conveniently assigned non-culpable exceptions to. When hypothetically, you reacted violently in anger, or deceptively in greed, or with emotional frailty in what would appear inconsolable sadness, you through experiential cataloguing  laid this framework, and when it was given validity through the social sequences of: [Outburst - Apology or Remorse - Resolve], it was then easier to reason this as an act outside yourself, than actually being an act of yourself. And this you accomplished by assigning of for example, "Anger"  it own authored role. What you didn't realize, is, this act of convenience would eventually go on to lay the framework for most of your emotional responses. And thus the division occurred.

This is the both the inherent reason for and the crucial reason why authorship and acceptance will be, or should be the pillars of everyone's individual nature, and it certainly is, the foundation of this course.               

      

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #32

The linear highway:

When we think of emotional responses, if we had to use an analogy, how would we best describe the event? I will attempt to do that using the example of a highway. On the average multi-lane highway, there are usually several lanes of traffic going in one direction, and several in the opposite direction. There are many different types of vehicles, traveling at different rates of speed, and for different types of utility. There are lanes that are intended for entering and exiting the highway, and lanes that are express lanes and also lanes designed for passing or giving priority to faster moving traffic. In each vehicle there is a driver , and also in some vehicles there are passengers, and further some vehicles are filled with passengers that have agreed to travel as a group or collectively in the same vehicle. I think that is enough for now. Now if I were to put forward to you that the emotions interacted very much in the same way in the non-tangible realm of our consciousness; what imaginings would you derive from that?  What kind of vehicle would anger be driving? What would happy drive? If you answered VW beetle for happy, then I think you've got this. But seriously our emotions do travel in such ways. And each of our emotions interacts in our consciousness in very much the same way as is played out on your average highway. Also, when you are not the driver, then the commotion that can occur, and the same inconsideration's, wrecklessness, and confusion that we can experience on a highway in rush-hour, or in bad weather, can occur in our emotional lives.

As previously asserted  nature states (emotions) have no conscious awareness of each other. Anger does not spoil Happy's fun deliberately, empathy does not try to cheer up sadness, and lust is not flaunting itself in front of modesty trying to embarrass it. As silly a notion as these assertions bring to the imagination, they are, in fact true with respect to the collective interaction of the emotions. We over the course of our lives have created vehicles for our emotions. We did this in many ways both consciously and unconsciously. But in some cases and again consciously and unconsciously, we created drivers (justifications) for them, and for some of us, this spread to the full spectrum of our emotions. At this point, to some, it felt like we became a pedestrian trying to cross the busy highway of our emotions, ending up exhausted just by the effort not to be hit by one.

I would like to reiterate at this time we are not trying in any way, shape or form, to criticize,assign blame, or demand correction here. If we have indeed, fallen into a state of lapse authorship, we are here at this point just to identify it. And in many cases the correction will occur independent of our resolve to change, often just by the mere willingness to do so. This is, unless of course we deliberately choose not to, and to that we would only ask, why?

As was pointed out in the previous step, it is a very difficult exercise to try to layout a meaningful example of how concisely, emotions interact with us, when each individual has woven the matrix of actions, interactions, intertwined alliances and levels of extremes through personal life events and circumstances. What we can do is layout a map to the doorstep, give the general dynamics of the vehicle and offer the assurance that there is a commonality to them, and a common approach to attaining authorship over them.

Let us for a moment recap the three primary groupings in this course. The first "the inquisitive states"  is seldom problematic, even by the nature of its name we can see that it implies a willing curiosity. Nature states (emotions) in this grouping are usually always acknowledged and authored by ourselves effortlessly, so in the schedule of the course they will seldom be scrutinized,.not that they are not important to embrace, but simply, as stated they are seldom problematic.

The most problematic are those that are assigned to the "Hesitant states". Again by their name, they neither are accepted easily, released easily, or embraced easily. but are essential to our growth, survival and integration.

The last grouping is the "neutral states". This is our refuge, this is our vantage point, this is our quiet place of contemplation. These guardian states (emotions) will bring us into new elevated heights as individuals. Here we will rejoice and celebrate our times through the inquisitive states. Here we will console, nurture, and council and encourage our hesitant states. In here we will reflect, find rest, and acknowledgment as infinite individuals, and we will transcend the boundaries of the material realms.

We must learn to experience each nature state (emotion) grounded in its causal state first, then experientially. We will begin to acknowledge this consciously, which will feel abnormal, silly, or at times agitated or frustrated. The latter occurring when old habits will try to assert their authority. What we must do at these times is return to a neutral position, assert the absolutes we agreed to adopt, identify the singularity of the state (emotion), give it audience, and then determine the resolve. When we do this often enough, soon the conscious activity will become an autonomous response, and our individuality will be returned, or realized and you will begin to see the world through newly awakened eyes.          

  

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #31

The primal / personal divide:

Continuing on from the previous step, let us revisit the relationship of the primal nature (base state), to the conscious, nurtured conditioning that occurred over the course of our early life in regards to the nature states. We tried to cover, however simplistically, the forming of the substance of our emotional make-ups, and how they are manifested in our lives. Now comes the complex challenge of trying to universally convey as a model, the intertwined workings of the primal and personal machinations that make us singularly specific, but yet commonly the same.

Many scholars and individuals have done exhaustive work in these areas. But as a recap, it was a mandate of this course not to include any materials of particular individuals or ideologies as reference here, not because they do not deserve their just due, but because as was stated very early, nothing you will read here is new, revolutionary or exclusive. It was felt that omitting reference to outside sources would encourage the individual to do his or her own research, and further that it would not colour this material with any personal belief or ideological bias. And finally, and which has been reiterated several times (apologies) It is incumbent on the individual to do their own investigation into the complexities of the human nature, for you must be committed to deeply understanding your own nature, before you can even assume to gain mastery over it. That said we will now continue...

If we take our emotional makeup down to its lowest common denominator, we would have two basic states. That which feels good, and that which does not. Included in that basic primacy would be all the absences of pain, discomfort, fear, remorse, and all the desired states of pleasure, comfort, security and self worth. We all desire the latter and are repelled by the thought of the former. (This without out digressing is in respect to the average balanced individual, as we have touched on briefly before, this does not take into considerations the unfortunate state of social or mental malaise.) This basic state we would assert to be the primal state, all share these basic ideals, all would cherish the fullness of the one and the absence of the other.

This primal state was the condition we referred to in the previous step as the un-programmed circuit board. Our own personal life experiences have programmed that board into the set of emotional natures (nature states) we have today. We are all different, we are all the same. A simple summation to a very complex paradigm, and it will be our own personal responsibility to understand that complexity in ourselves, but also, to be reassured, that we are not the incomprehensible maze of complexity that we thought we once were. If we will embrace this reality, the ordering of our nature states will take on a whole new comprehensibility, and the authorship of their structuring and regimenting will become a plausibly achievable goal.

This would be a very advantageous time to return to step #12 review the lists we made under the three main hierarchies of  "Inquisitive state", " Hesitant state" , "Neutral state" Is there anything you would like to add reorder, or clarify? Having a better understanding of the motive now, may help you to clarify this step more concisely. If not it would be good to review this step anyway, for it ties in succinctly here.          

      

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #30

Setting the boundaries: 

Understanding the individual nature of our emotions is key to this course. This is why it was decided to refer to them as our nature states. Each one is separate and unique, though we seldom view them that way. We more often view our emotional framework as a force acting on us, as opposed to a force working in us, a parallel- multi-lane'd  hi-way of states acting on stimulus provided by our environment, and expressed through our consciousness in a variety of ways both physically and psychologically. That's it in the proverbial nutshell.

Once we can finally drive this point home, we will no longer be at the mercy of our emotions, but instead, be the recipients of their interactive stimulus through our conscious awareness. We should accept this now. There is no motive or reason for this not to be true, therefore we can affirm it to be so. What can confuse us is the varied ways in which we will learn to interact with our emotional states, without analytically taking away from the richness of their interdependent workings in our daily lives. This will take time and practice, but at each crossroad our lives will improve, it can only be this way, because awareness and recognition are self fulfilling actions they succeed by the mere advent of their presence,  not by the momentum or force by which they are applied.

So without the repetition of defining each emotional state (nature state), let us set up an example to better understand the universal principles of these states. For this example we will refer to the example "nature" (emotion) as the causal state.

The causal state is best thought of as an elastic vehicle. Its dimensions or impact will be measured by the direct proportional action that is applied to it. It knows only its own state, and has a succinct linear path between two points. The nature, intensity, impact and triggers for the expression of this state are specific to the individual. It can operate independent of the control of the individual, and this is common. This state was formed in our consciousness by sensory interaction first in the primal family and then progressively in the societal interaction of our environment. To go into the forensic psychological structure and framework of the  evolution of our inherent nature states is beyond the scope of this course, but this should not detract us from grasping the structure of the states effectively enough to fully satisfy our resolve to comprehend them.

There is a primal framework for each of our nature states, this can be best expressed as a circuit board that has yet to be programmed. It is capable of a specific set of sequences, contingent on its own inherent  structure and polar extremes. We, as previously asserted, will program this state consciously and unconsciously during our life experience. It is also common for life events, and certain physical impairments to short circuit these states (allegorically speaking),  when this occurs the states tend to work only in their extremes, this is unfortunate, but again beyond the scope of this course. It must also be asserted that it is also very common for individuals to be falsely or indiscriminately misdiagnosed in cases of the latter also. 

Finally, when approaching the matured and healthy causal state, one must view it as a subordinate entity. Like a manager would approach an employee, or a instructor would approach his student. When through lapse authority the opposite occurs, the causal state can be thought of as a rudderless vessel, it is at the whim of the sea that propels it and not the captain., The course and destination will be entirely up to the environment or circumstances that surround the individual, and the individual will not be in control. The latter being also an all too common occurrence.   

This brief overview is not meant to be a definitive dissection of the nature states (emotions) of the individual. It is intended like all previous examples in this course to spur personal investigation, discovery and introspection. It is there that the truisms and reflections in this course will homogeneously form the momentum needed for the individual to reclaim absolute authorship in their lives, and this is our only intention.   

   

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #29

Learning to focus our perspective:

During the course of any-one day, we are barraged with sensory input. Unannounced to us consciously is the categorizing, the storing and the enabling of this input.. To our nature states, this is just the daily routine, they (the natures) do not have bad days or good days, do not shift from one state to the other, they simply record and signal responses to sensory input that has been conditioned to impress on them. And wouldn't our lives be so much simpler, if we could just trigger our emotional responses the way we select items from a vending machine. Unfortunately this is not the case. Then why do most self-help ideologies assert that this is the simple solution? Simply choose the emotions you would like to emulate, and control the ones you wish not to express, simple right! Sadly we just weren't built that way, and no amount of practice, conditioning or regiment will make it so, well, at least not for very long.

It is when we start to view our personal makeup along the lines of the many selves in one, that we can see the folly of a lot of the propositions put forth in various self-help regimes. Albeit most-likely well intentioned, they always propose change by constraint or omission, but seldom by acceptance and reflection. If we use anger as an example; restraining anger is a process we all have done, but it does not resolve it. to use the analogy of slowly filling a balloon with water, and depending on the size of the balloon (tolerance), we may be able to place an enormous amount of water in the balloon, but it will eventually reach its breaking point. Now the resultant explosion that occurs (which is inevitable) is not the point here, but that restraining something is not resolving it. And it is when we have these unresolved states accumulated that we experience both emotional duress and societal uncomfortableness.

If on the other hand when any of our emotional states are triggered, and in reality this is all that is happening when we are happy, sad, angry, afraid, worried etc, etc... If we will acknowledge the state, that simplistic act has just rested power from it. And in that action you have unconsciously set-up an invisible release valve, so that this state now has a method by which it can now dissipate. Why you may ask would I want to do this for a state of happiness?  Consistency!  Having healthy emotions does not imply that they are in a fixed state, rather that they are in a fluid state of expansion and contraction, think of it like an accordion, motion is exerted sound is released. And the more we practice the more harmonious the sound.

When we focus on ourselves experientially, we are not, as some would imagine, taking the joy out of life,and replacing it with a mechanical expression of it, we are simply returning the authorship of life back to ourselves as it was intended to be. We are not being asked to abandon the experiential bounty of the emotional states, but simply acknowledging their boundaries, and establishing for ourselves the limits of those boundaries. When we focus on this, we will see life through an integrated new perspective, and we will further experience the harmony of the one in many, the many in one.       

99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #28

The principle behind the one in many:

Every-time the subject of surrender is approached, there is an immediate hesitance on our part to accept it. We have been indoctrinated by our exposure to external societal influences that dictates that, surrender is a signal of defeat. Tangibly, sometimes, but not always is this  the case. But when dealing with the self the paradigm changes. Surrender to the properly ordered self is an essential hierarchical positioning, that assures authorship is not only followed, but it is respected. When we began this journey, we were asked to be open and receptive to new ideas, this will by far be the most difficult to approach, intangible assertions always are. But if you agree to be opened minded, and undertake to frame this in a way that you can comprehend,  it will assuredly return positive change.

Again as in previous steps, willingness is the crucial key. After affirming this we will approach the method by which we are going to author the self. With this you will be met with much internal resistance. Over your lifetime you have set up in your self a marauder, so deceptive and  yet so supportive, yet again destructive, yet again defenseless. The inherent illusion you have constructed claiming to be the self, is nothing more than a clearing house of the erratic ebb and flow of emotion. We should first give an explanation, as to how, what some refer to as the self or ego was formed, and keeping in mind we are trying to be as brief and concise as possible, so one should not expect a complex in-depth explanation, but one you can expand on in your own reflections, which is also a crucial key step in the evolution of the self.

We have with unintended brevity, (unintended in that we have no intention to deceive or force you into a radical shift of thinking), touched on the topic of self and its creation. In previous steps we gave examples of the methods by which we (the imagined self) integrated these experiences into habits, traits, and emotional responses. We showed how these were carried through into our Societally integrated behaviors. Now we would like to continue the process of unpacking the self a little further.

The bastion of the perceived self resides in the realm of what we refer to as the "Hesitant states" It is there we are often prompted to return to when our pursuits in life become to intrinsically technical, or our analytic capacities absorb an excessive amount of our time. We are reminded to: " take time to smell the roses" , "enjoy life's simple pleasures", "Be thankful for what we have, based on what others have not". All noble sentiments right? Absolutely! But have you ever questioned their authorship? Now if you respond with a statement like "I have always been taught to be thankful for what I have" or " I take time every day to reflect on my actions" or "Charity for me, always grounds me to the reality of how fortunate I am" Then the author is the proper self. But if you have to be forced through guilt, fear or response to willful neglect on your part, then these are not the actions of the self, but the un-authored actions of the emotions. And how prolific is the latter in today's society? Could you begin to see now, why a society ruled by greed would "not" be critical of such a shift in mass dissolution of moral fabric. Why a society that can be so easily manipulated would approve of the abuses of the principles of home, family and charity! They would for one reason and one reason alone, to surrender you to the volatile sea of emotion, while they author your life!

Why the shift of focus, in the latter part of the last paragraph? To demonstrate how easily we can surrender. Why? We lack the objective authorship that steers us away from making decisions based on emotion. How do we condition ourselves to respond to situations differently? When we surrender those decisions to an authored self, not to an emotional self. We have just demonstrated that surrender is not the issue, we do that easily. It is what we surrender to, that causes the conflict. The "One" that we would choose to replace the transient authorship of emotions, poses no threat, asks nothing more than that you agree to surrender the immediacy of the moment, to return to a neutral state from which you can evaluate the situation. And as previously mentioned when we do this often, even when we are carried away by emotion, and later agree to return to a neutral state, we will over time find, the draw of emotional extremism will weaken the more we exercise these principles.