Category : Blogs

Sub Category : Self Help

         While the majority agrees that the only reset we need here in America is a complete resetting of our current, failed system, the majority isn’t quite ready for such change. Especially one of self-governance that so-called “anti-fascist” radicals march behind. The fact that these people were unaware and even resistant to see their contradictory actions of using violence to oppose violence, all while dressed in matching black attire, waving the same symbol, and using fascist tactics that closely resemble the fascists they claim to oppose. Not to mention, their belief that people who have never owned slaves should pay reparations to people have never been slaves and whom also seek to destroy statues and any other physical evidence of slavery ever existing. 
          And these people actually believed they could govern themselves? If you were to strip one such individual of the scaffolding society has built around them, they would likely go berserk or simply fall apart. That’s okay. Self-governance isn’t something that most people are capable of today. Most people need to be led, guided, instructed, advised, rewarded, and punished for them to feel as if they are on the right path in their lives. Society provides them with a notion of structure in order for them to feel a sense of value, contribution, progress, and meaning. Without it, they would feel lost with no way to chart their success. 
        Most people are better off doing as they’re told, maintaining an illusion of freedom and choice, believing their opinions and beliefs are proof of a uniquely forged identity, and that the more they craft and protect that identity, the more secure they will be. And the more people they can get to agree with them, the more proof they will have of their perspective being right. Without others to provide them with a context for their experiences, they wouldn’t know where they stand. 
       The Buddha spoke of stripping away the narratives we have invented as a civilization until the only thing left is the soul in its human body. We would be left with the self in its rawest, unadulterated form, with history, race, religion, nationality, gender, ethnicity, politics, and all accumulated knowledge of the world expunged. We find ourselves naked and afraid, just like when we entered this world. 
Without the narratives and others to base ourselves around, we are forced to be alone with ourselves, staring face to face with the universe. It is in this state that we recognize that the essence of what we call the self and of the universe are actually one and the same. Once this is truly understood, one will ultimately choose to take responsibility for this essence in all its forms, particularly that of the self.  
    Once one has a sense of awareness and takes responsibility, the self becomes more authentic and true to its nature. He will see that reliance on anything other than himself is a hindrance to his chosen path in life. That path of experience may be shared with others, but is traversed alone. Live life inthe way that makes the most sense to you, rather than in the way you’ve been told it makes sense. 
This is no easy task. This is the part that is never talked about in self-help books that are mostly all scams anyway. Social validation, support, and the metrics of success will largely be absent. The value of your work, relative to its true worth, will go consistently unrecognized. The world needs you to be a “somebody” for it to perceive value in you. Society tolerates you only as long as you are willing to be somebody for it in return. The more you start becoming your true self and stop playing their game, however, the more society will gradually cast you out. 
That’s a cold, hard fact you must accept. You must understand that people only want a certain aspect of you and not the whole. But you are so much more than what others want from you. You are more than some function you perform, some goal you achieve, some role you play, or some need you satisfy. Who you are is more than how useful you are in society’s terms. And if you become someone who merely exists to be used, you will remain a tool for the rest of your life.