12-10-2013, 12:00 AM
~The only authority is one’s own judgment and one’s own
powers of reason and comprehension. To
defer to authority is to try to skip a step, and no such thing is
possible. There is nothing we need to
understand that we can’t understand for ourselves. We need not abdicate our self-sovereignty to
any other individual or book or institution.
Nothing we need is withheld or beyond us, and no one has ever skipped a
single step.
The dogma and ideology of our upbringing are particularly
pernicious in this regard. They color
and shape our thoughts to a much greater degree than we can possibly be
aware. Spiritual aspirants of any
background may feel confident that they have rejected and moved past the
indoctrination of their youth, but this is far more easily said than done.
Anyone can rearrange the surface of their persona however
and whenever they whish – change clothes and hair, change name and address,
change nationality and religion – but change that occurs on the surface is
merely cosmetic. It’s like painting a
house a different color and calling it a different house. It’s not.
It’s the same house, the same structure, the same foundation, just a
different color. We can add
ornamentation, drape it in fabric, redo the landscaping, but it makes no difference. If we want it to be a different house, we
have to tear it down, demolish the foundation, cart off the debris, and start
anew.
The question is often asked: Can a person really change?
The answer is yes, and this is how; demolish and
rebuild. Die and be reborn. This is the only way. We can sit in therapy or meditation for
decades and be the same person we were when we started. We can read every self-help book, subscribe
to every discussion board, join every group, take every course, make every effort,
but if it’s still the same structure and the same foundation, then it doesn’t
matter how we change our outward appearance and behavior, we’re still the same
person.
Real change happens far below the surface, at normally
unplumbed and unsuspected depths, and not until we have traveled inward and
downward to those depths of self can we make any claim at self-understanding or
self-mastery. Until we make that
journey, we are completely subject to unseen forces, like bobbing corks on a
surging sea, but we don’t make that journey because it’s easier to convince
ourselves that it’s our bobbing motion that causes the sea to surge.
Vanity.
powers of reason and comprehension. To
defer to authority is to try to skip a step, and no such thing is
possible. There is nothing we need to
understand that we can’t understand for ourselves. We need not abdicate our self-sovereignty to
any other individual or book or institution.
Nothing we need is withheld or beyond us, and no one has ever skipped a
single step.
The dogma and ideology of our upbringing are particularly
pernicious in this regard. They color
and shape our thoughts to a much greater degree than we can possibly be
aware. Spiritual aspirants of any
background may feel confident that they have rejected and moved past the
indoctrination of their youth, but this is far more easily said than done.
Anyone can rearrange the surface of their persona however
and whenever they whish – change clothes and hair, change name and address,
change nationality and religion – but change that occurs on the surface is
merely cosmetic. It’s like painting a
house a different color and calling it a different house. It’s not.
It’s the same house, the same structure, the same foundation, just a
different color. We can add
ornamentation, drape it in fabric, redo the landscaping, but it makes no difference. If we want it to be a different house, we
have to tear it down, demolish the foundation, cart off the debris, and start
anew.
The question is often asked: Can a person really change?
The answer is yes, and this is how; demolish and
rebuild. Die and be reborn. This is the only way. We can sit in therapy or meditation for
decades and be the same person we were when we started. We can read every self-help book, subscribe
to every discussion board, join every group, take every course, make every effort,
but if it’s still the same structure and the same foundation, then it doesn’t
matter how we change our outward appearance and behavior, we’re still the same
person.
Real change happens far below the surface, at normally
unplumbed and unsuspected depths, and not until we have traveled inward and
downward to those depths of self can we make any claim at self-understanding or
self-mastery. Until we make that
journey, we are completely subject to unseen forces, like bobbing corks on a
surging sea, but we don’t make that journey because it’s easier to convince
ourselves that it’s our bobbing motion that causes the sea to surge.
Vanity.