As we encounter painful or fearful experiences in life, we tend to retract and close ourselves off from them, avoiding or shielding ourselves from as much of the hurt or anxiety as possible. It is natural to avoid or protect ourselves from unpleasantness, but continuing to do so after we’ve already been injured does us a great disservice. Doing so is like covering over a poisoned wound with a bandaid and expecting it to heal without using medicine. Those wounds we ignore or suppress and forget about stay lodged in the subconscious part of our memory-body or psyche, where they continue to fester, quietly influencing our beliefs, moods, and behavior, blocking or disrupting normal functioning, and causing parts of our minds to be stunted, underdeveloped, or dis-integrated.
These suppressed elements of our psyche become a part of our “shadow-self” (personal sub-/un-conscious) and can greatly encourage addiction, physical ailments, mental illness, and habitual or unconscious behavior that is harmful or that at least distracts us from achieving our full potential. We can only heal those tender wounds when we allow them to come to the surface in a safe environment, to be felt and honored in the light of conscious awareness, without judgement, but rather with a gentle dignity, courage, kindness, compassion and a genuine effort to understand. Often we will need the assistance of a compassionate healer or at least the support of an empathetic listener; we are courageous to ask for that help and should not hesitate to seek it out.
If our adolescent human species is to survive at all and proceed on with a conscious evolution, we must be willing to bravely face our individual and collective “shadows”, to shine the light of awareness and compassionate understanding on them, and succeed together in actively healing the wounds that our greed, anger, delusions, pride, narrow-mindedness, and ignor-ance have caused one another. Listening with a sincere aspiration to understand those whom have not felt heard and have been neglected by society is just the first step, but one we’ve largely yet to take. Our collective karma has been one of passing on pain and suffering from generation to generation and person to person, allowing it to grow larger and larger, to systemically dangerous levels, because the majority of us have thus far refused to face our own fear and woundedness and take personal and collective responsibility for our own minds and actions, so as to break the cycle or causal chain of passing on the pain and suffering and instead transmute it into fertilizer for our growth and maturation.
May 16, 2018
December 29, 2017
Understanding the Desire for Power & Control
When people intentionally act to instill fear in or have control over others, it rewards them with a feeling of power. But what is the nature of this reward? If we investigate this question sufficiently, we can see that such "evil" behavior is not rooted in "malice" but ultimately stems from suffering and ignorance.
The ego's purpose is to provide safety and prosperity for itself (for the organism), and therefore it desires, among other things, predictability (certainty if possible). When the ego-construct feels powerful and in control over a situation or person, it feels a sense of security, rather than anxiety (fear of the unknown) in the face of an unpredictable situation or person. For the majority of people, it is fear (the most pernicious form of suffering) that drives such controlling behavior. They consciously or unconsciously seek to control in order to reduce their anxiety. Even when there is anger involved in the controlling behavior, fear is at its root.
However, for some people, ego can become warped over time such that the exercise of power, of control, is based on pleasure instead of fear. The more often, and more strongly, an ego feels rewarded (neurochemically) through its alleviation of anxiety through controlling behavior, the more the behavior becomes motivated by the reward itself. Seeking a neurochemical pleasure response becomes the underlying (if unconscious) motivation for power and control. This is also the case for abused people who become abusers and for the very small percentage of people who are genuine psychopaths/sociopaths.
For the majority of people, controlling behavior is based on fear, whereas, for the minority it is based on a desire for pleasure. Regardless, fear and desire are causes of suffering for the perpetrator, not just for their victims. Furthermore, it is only through ignorance that people engage in such behavior at all. For psychopaths/sociopaths, the ignorance is in the form of lacking empathy due to neurological deficits they have no personal capacity to overcome. For all others, the ignorance is a lack of conscious awareness of why they are behaving the way they are, and a lack of understanding that their desire for certainty or pleasure actually cause themselves suffering and that such desire can be safely given up to attain a greater peace and joy.
If we can have compassion for such people (while of course preventing them from causing additional harm), we can motivate them to change by helping them to see into the underlying nature of their behavior and help them realize the greater reward on the other side of their veil.
The ego's purpose is to provide safety and prosperity for itself (for the organism), and therefore it desires, among other things, predictability (certainty if possible). When the ego-construct feels powerful and in control over a situation or person, it feels a sense of security, rather than anxiety (fear of the unknown) in the face of an unpredictable situation or person. For the majority of people, it is fear (the most pernicious form of suffering) that drives such controlling behavior. They consciously or unconsciously seek to control in order to reduce their anxiety. Even when there is anger involved in the controlling behavior, fear is at its root.
However, for some people, ego can become warped over time such that the exercise of power, of control, is based on pleasure instead of fear. The more often, and more strongly, an ego feels rewarded (neurochemically) through its alleviation of anxiety through controlling behavior, the more the behavior becomes motivated by the reward itself. Seeking a neurochemical pleasure response becomes the underlying (if unconscious) motivation for power and control. This is also the case for abused people who become abusers and for the very small percentage of people who are genuine psychopaths/sociopaths.
For the majority of people, controlling behavior is based on fear, whereas, for the minority it is based on a desire for pleasure. Regardless, fear and desire are causes of suffering for the perpetrator, not just for their victims. Furthermore, it is only through ignorance that people engage in such behavior at all. For psychopaths/sociopaths, the ignorance is in the form of lacking empathy due to neurological deficits they have no personal capacity to overcome. For all others, the ignorance is a lack of conscious awareness of why they are behaving the way they are, and a lack of understanding that their desire for certainty or pleasure actually cause themselves suffering and that such desire can be safely given up to attain a greater peace and joy.
If we can have compassion for such people (while of course preventing them from causing additional harm), we can motivate them to change by helping them to see into the underlying nature of their behavior and help them realize the greater reward on the other side of their veil.
November 21, 2017
Helping Others from a Place of Strength
If you wish to help a person whom is suffering, your offering to them must come from a rooted position of balance — from the very fulcrum of your being. Suffering is an expression of imbalance, in one form or another. You offer them help in ways that stabilize and assist them in recovering their balance. If your mind is not balanced, grounded, and stable, when you interact with the imbalanced person, your effort to balance them will cause you to become more imbalanced yourself. When you become sufficiently imbalanced you are no longer able to help the other person at all (you may even cause them harm) and now you must work to recover your own balance.
Your mind must be balanced to truly help, but so too must the offering itself arise from the centered fulcrum of your being — the bottomless, boundless center within ourselves from which genuine wisdom and compassion naturally arise. If your offering arises from the ego — having expectations attached to the outcome of or response to your offering — your offering becomes a mental lever that can be pushed or pulled by circumstances, causing you to lose your equanimity and balance. From a place of selfless loving Presence, of the Universe’s true Fulcrum, you are offering from the Place of true strength and grace.
Your mind must be balanced to truly help, but so too must the offering itself arise from the centered fulcrum of your being — the bottomless, boundless center within ourselves from which genuine wisdom and compassion naturally arise. If your offering arises from the ego — having expectations attached to the outcome of or response to your offering — your offering becomes a mental lever that can be pushed or pulled by circumstances, causing you to lose your equanimity and balance. From a place of selfless loving Presence, of the Universe’s true Fulcrum, you are offering from the Place of true strength and grace.
October 29, 2017
Sexual Repression is the Problem, Not the Solution
“To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.” – The Matrix
If you want to understand why there is so much negative/harmful sexual expression in society you need to understand sexuality as being a fundamental and natural expression of our creative life-force (energy), and that mode of creative expression has been culturally repressed, suppressed, and shamed to everyone’s detriment for hundreds of years. This sexual energy within people is like a gently simmering pot of water – if you put a heavy lid on it, pressure will steadily build up to the point that the pressure can no longer be contained and there is a sudden, uncontrolled outburst of steam. This can take the form of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation of women, excessive use of pornography, child sexual abuse, some instances of rape, etc. Only when a person’s needs for sexual expression are not allowed a healthy social outlet do they take on a “dark” (self-serving), frustrated, or desperate expression. That which you suppress becomes your “shadow” and it is the shadow-self that causes harm to self and others.
Masturbation is not a long-term solution (especially for men, who are much more root/sacral chakra centered in their self-expression than women, who are more heart-centered) because sexuality is ultimately a universal impulse of creation expressed through spiritual union (holistic reunion). Masturbation may release some of that pent up sacral energy for a time, but that is a very limited form of sexual expression that does not provide the emotional, psychological, and spiritual bonding rewards that are deeply subconscious yet powerful needs we all have as individually-incomplete energy beings.
Although people are responsible for their actions to the extent they actually have self-awareness and self-control to make a choice outside of habit or impulse, society is overwhelmingly to blame for the huge suppression of sexual expression that has placed people in a sexual “pressure cooker”, through unnatural conservative values, legal prohibitions, and a lack of empowering education regarding the spiritual meaning and non-mechanical aspects and dynamics of sexuality. Society is also worthy of blame to the extent it has failed to empower people with the knowledge, wisdom, and techniques required for genuine self-awareness and self-discipline. Furthermore, corporations of various kinds have largely hijacked our views about sexuality, corrupting them and constantly triggering lust to favor their profit motives.
While we are seeing love-based “sex positive” values begin to get a foothold in our collective culture, this is not enough. Cultural and legal hindrances to sexual expression must be withdrawn, corporations must be held to task for corrupting sexual values, people need to be better educated about the greater nature and meaning surrounding sexual behavior, and safe social outlets for such expression should be encouraged. Such actions “just make sense” when you simply acknowledge and appreciate human nature for what it is and understand social dynamics from a systems theory perspective. In this area, as in most others in which we have collective problems, what is needed most is a controlled decompression of tensions, so that peace, harmony, and love can be restored to prominence.
If you want to understand why there is so much negative/harmful sexual expression in society you need to understand sexuality as being a fundamental and natural expression of our creative life-force (energy), and that mode of creative expression has been culturally repressed, suppressed, and shamed to everyone’s detriment for hundreds of years. This sexual energy within people is like a gently simmering pot of water – if you put a heavy lid on it, pressure will steadily build up to the point that the pressure can no longer be contained and there is a sudden, uncontrolled outburst of steam. This can take the form of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation of women, excessive use of pornography, child sexual abuse, some instances of rape, etc. Only when a person’s needs for sexual expression are not allowed a healthy social outlet do they take on a “dark” (self-serving), frustrated, or desperate expression. That which you suppress becomes your “shadow” and it is the shadow-self that causes harm to self and others.
Masturbation is not a long-term solution (especially for men, who are much more root/sacral chakra centered in their self-expression than women, who are more heart-centered) because sexuality is ultimately a universal impulse of creation expressed through spiritual union (holistic reunion). Masturbation may release some of that pent up sacral energy for a time, but that is a very limited form of sexual expression that does not provide the emotional, psychological, and spiritual bonding rewards that are deeply subconscious yet powerful needs we all have as individually-incomplete energy beings.
Although people are responsible for their actions to the extent they actually have self-awareness and self-control to make a choice outside of habit or impulse, society is overwhelmingly to blame for the huge suppression of sexual expression that has placed people in a sexual “pressure cooker”, through unnatural conservative values, legal prohibitions, and a lack of empowering education regarding the spiritual meaning and non-mechanical aspects and dynamics of sexuality. Society is also worthy of blame to the extent it has failed to empower people with the knowledge, wisdom, and techniques required for genuine self-awareness and self-discipline. Furthermore, corporations of various kinds have largely hijacked our views about sexuality, corrupting them and constantly triggering lust to favor their profit motives.
While we are seeing love-based “sex positive” values begin to get a foothold in our collective culture, this is not enough. Cultural and legal hindrances to sexual expression must be withdrawn, corporations must be held to task for corrupting sexual values, people need to be better educated about the greater nature and meaning surrounding sexual behavior, and safe social outlets for such expression should be encouraged. Such actions “just make sense” when you simply acknowledge and appreciate human nature for what it is and understand social dynamics from a systems theory perspective. In this area, as in most others in which we have collective problems, what is needed most is a controlled decompression of tensions, so that peace, harmony, and love can be restored to prominence.
October 9, 2017
Lightbearer's Creed
Darkness may gather but I shall not fear, for my purpose is clear. My destiny is to be a beacon of Light in a world of shadows, recognizing that my flame, having grown into a spiritual fire, does not fear turbulent winds, for winds now only fan the flames.
From this day forth, I am dead to my past and alive within my future, always present in the moment, perceiving, loving, serving, protecting, and honoring Life. I will do everything possible to minimize the harm I cause other Life, deliberate in my efforts to serve the greater good. It is not my place to judge the nature of other beings, only to understand and respond righteously, with virtue and compassion — never with arrogance or malice.
I am an emissary of Loving-Light: a watchful guardian and guide,
a benevolent peacemaker and healer, a humble arbiter of wisdom and harmony. I offer myself in loving service to the welfare of all beings, recognizing it as my own. I enjoin myself to be a lightbearer, striving always to exhibit the qualities of Wisdom, Love, Generosity, Diligence, Fortitude, Integrity, Equanimity, Humility, Self-Restraint, Selfless-Service, Skillfulness, Prudence, and Heroic Courage.
a benevolent peacemaker and healer, a humble arbiter of wisdom and harmony. I offer myself in loving service to the welfare of all beings, recognizing it as my own. I enjoin myself to be a lightbearer, striving always to exhibit the qualities of Wisdom, Love, Generosity, Diligence, Fortitude, Integrity, Equanimity, Humility, Self-Restraint, Selfless-Service, Skillfulness, Prudence, and Heroic Courage.
I vow to promote and preserve a just and enlightened community, with grace and honor — remembering that to do so requires I remain mentally, ethically, and physically fit to serve effectively, always prepared and willing to live up to the physical and moral demands of any situation. I will always be mindful of the needs of my community and strive to fulfill them.
Today my vigil begins and it shall only end with my death.
— Matthew Lee Morgan
[CC-BY-NC-ND License]
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