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.