Open-Secrets

Month: July 2008

  • Ego Defenses

    Ego defensesWhat are some ego defenses?

    This is not your ordinary Freudian list of ego defenses. Freud’s list of ego defenses looks something like this:

    • Denial, Repression, and Suppression
    • Displacement and Sublimation
    • Projection and Intellectualization
    • Rationalization
    • Regression
    • Reaction Formation

    The difference in these two lists of ego defenses is that one concerns itself with the ego’s defense against anxiety seeking equilibrium for an ego sense of self, while the other list is more oriented around the ego defending itself from the intrusion of Being.

    Rare is the teacher that can take a student beyond the anxiety and terror of ego dissolution and into the emptiness that offers the opportunity for one’s true nature to arise.

    Just this past week, while attending some advanced training on narcissism, I got wondering about pain (emotional and psychological). Why do we avoid it? Exactly what is psychological and emotional pain?

    It’s said that all emotional and psychological pain is caused by separation from Being.

    It all boils down to – Who are you taking yourself to be?

     

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  • Time in the Moment

    Time-momentTime is rushing

    From everywhere

    All directions

    Inside and out

    Past – future

    Physical time

    Emotional time

    Psychological time

    Time

    Is a single

    Moment

     

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  • Devastation – Ruin of the Heart

    Devastation-ruin-heart

    The road to devastation

    Takes many forms

    Insignificance

    Is another’s greatest calamity

    Don’t judge the result

    By the route

    The devastated know

    Total

    Is

    Total

    J Harper

    The way of love is not a subtle argument.

    The door there is devastation.

    Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.

    How do they learn it?

    They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.

    Rumi

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  • Price for Peace

    Dreamstime_5592260The price for peace

    Is your life of

    Pain & suffering

    Worry & agitation

    Fear & emptiness

    Petty thoughts & needs

    The dull drab monotonous

    No wonder

    So few

    Are willing

    To pay

     

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  • Mind & Soul

    Mind-soulThe problem with in-laws

    Is the concern

    For their family values

    Not you

    The mind’s orientation

    Toward the soul

    Is similar

     

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  • Knowing, Knowledge & Understanding

    Knowing-knowledge-understandingI have a friend who teaches psychology. Let’s call him Dr. since he has a Ph.D. in psychology. The Dr. is an okay guy. Nice enough, friendly and a little quirky. He’s a hybrid of Bart Simpson and Alfalfa.

    The Dr. is a good illustration for knowing vs. knowing; knowledge vs. knowledge; and understanding vs. understanding.

    Let me explain –

    The Dr. has an in-depth knowledge of psychology, he knows a lot about it, he understands it enough to teach it. But the Dr.’s knowledge, knowing and understanding is mostly mental or intellectual. He relates to his emotions from an intellectual orientation.

    The fact that he relates to them says a lot about the situation. He doesn’t live them or embody them. He understands them intellectually. The richness of knowing them intimately is missing from his experience. They are not integrated into his experience in a way that deepens his lived sense of the human experience.

    His understanding of the human psyche is also limited by his intellectual position. He knows all the buzz words, but doesn’t feel a personal curiosity or challenge around exploring the deeper dimensions of the self. He understands things clearly.

    The Dr.’s life is a little bit of a mess. He struggles with success and relationships. His knowing, knowledge and understanding of psychology gets in his way. It’s a defense against a significant aspect of the human condition – vulnerability.

    He uses his knowing, knowledge and understanding as a means to try and control his life and events around him. A large part of this is trying to control his emotions.

    The whole thing is in the way of knowing, knowledge and understanding.

     

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