About the dark side, how to work with it.

reply to post by Chewingonmushrooms


maybe it would take a million, but you cannot deny that great things have been achieved by individuals (i.e. martin luther king) and i wouldnt deny 2 heads are better then one, or the saying there is power in numbers, imagine the harnessed power of the knowledge and passion of ATS directed toward a common goal...

reply to post by ImaFungi


Agreed. People do not realize the power that they have, and I think those in that past that have realized and harnesed that power have change the direction of mankind usually in the better (and sometimes in the worse). MLK is a great example of that and conversely Constantine (again IMO).

Originally posted by UnlimitedSky

well said. Almost by process of elimination you also find out through your actions what you are not.
Especially your reference to reality. There are few people that agree with me that greed, pride etc are simply not real. This is supported by the theory that only that which is real is everlasting and visa versa. This world is the biggest illusion ever! One day it will disintergrate. Again.

First of all, again, great thread!

In this realm of our existence, there is nothing more important to me than to Experience what I am not. Which is probably why, in my long life, I have tried out most every 'sin' that the proverbial 'god' forbids, or I should say, what I initially limited myself to Experience. Craftsmanship through Practice.

Your OP title, hits the nail on the head... "...how to work with it."
Not 'against' it, not 'for' it, but... WITH it. Big difference.

Originally posted by UnlimitedSky
reply to post by 1littlewolf

 

Hi Little Wolf,

Thanks for your reply and for clearing up my perception of you. Also, applogies for the harsh reply, perhaps my dark side, the side which is in fear, reacted to your post. (I am of course not aware of this fear and am rather fearless in my perception of myself, I am a very strong she-wolf indeed, but perhaps in my effort to deny my weak side wich fears rejection and being misunderstood, lashed out at you.) Sorry again.

Don't worry about it. When you're only communicating through the medium of the written word it's hard to judge how another comes across. You're not the first person actually do react this way to what I type so maybe there's a lesson in it all for me too. I'm actually trying to be a lot more patient and it seems to be paying off - even a few months ago I would have reacted quite nastily to your last post and initially I was going to but I stopped myself, and lucky I did otherwise I would never have got your beautiful reply

My understanding of life on earth as an experience of the soul may be extremely different from yours. So I can only tell you what my view is. Not what actually is.
My view is that the soul is that part that comes from a much higher spiritual region, it is in fact that part that is in His image. It is the God Particle in each of us, that is the soul. However, as the soul descends to the physical region it is joined by the mind in which the ego presides. The ego belongs to the physical world and is that part of every human (even new born babies) that develops the feeling of 'I am'. Not only 'I am' but also 'I am my world'. Without the ego the soul cannot be grounded on earth, as within the ego all aspects such as greed, pride, anger, attachment and lust flows from. Without these aspcets the soul cannot be captured or 'held' in the physical world. While we reincarnate from life to life, body stays behind, but ego does not seperate from the soul so that a baby is born with the same ego. Ego is almost like a permanent set of clothes that hides the beauty of the soul. Until the soul goes back to it's origin, at which time the ego is left behind again.

But, we are not talking about my blelief system. We are referring to Debbie Ford's book in which she describes the persona something in the line of the following:

Persona, ìis a much more temporary mask which is built up in this life, for this life only, and the formation of it depends very much on the circumstances that you are exposed to in childhood. Persona is not personality. Persona is that facade (or face) which we put out to the world in the hope that we will be accepted and loved. It is most often very artificial and a total illusion.

Your view of life seems very similar to mine especially in regards to the ego being necessary. I still can't help think that the persona is one of the negative aspects of the ego as manifest on the third dimension, and perhaps stems from that same place that anger, greed and lust do. I am not sure how much of these emotions we would retain in spirit, for I suspect that like the persona these would mainly be left behind.

I really like your idea that we do take the same ego with us from one life to another, and your metaphor of it being a 'permanent set of clothes', is quite fascinating; and this is something I have never really considered.

I see what you are getting at. (Firstly, even 20 years ago, my fascination with the young child as a specie, my own lack of adhering to standard views and judgments, the adoration of my son, and the delight in the things he says made it impossible for me to even experience chastising as an option. The conductor was an older gent obviously with a great sense of humour, as we both laughed at the incident. I think he enjoyed it as much as I did. I did talk to him out in the corridor alone and he really did not feel hurt. His eyes told me that he was honest in telling me that he was not hurt.)

Nevertheless, a couple of years ago, while living in Italy, I studied 'The Aesthetic Subject'. I understand your confrontation and conflict with the concept of 'what is beautiful' , because it is necesarry to re-evaluate that which society has classified as a norm of what is beautiful, at the end of the subject I concluded (only in myself) that there must be a quality within man himself, an inherent aspect, which causes a natural affinity with things that are 'normally' beautiful, and aesthetically pleasing. If a person likes dogs, naturally you find a puppy most pleasing to look at. However much I rebeled agains 'them' telling me what should be good looking, at the end of the day, I had to admit to myself that most people (including me) do respond favourably to certain visual stimuli as pleasant or unpleasant. My little boy has never been told at that point that people with bad skin are ugly, that was merely his own natural reaction.

You are definitely right; to a certain degree that many aspects of beauty and ugliness are inbuilt into the human brain and I guess this comes from our instinctual animal side which is programmed to identify sick individuals to avoid and healthy ones in order to find a mate. But I think in humans this concept goes a little beyond that and has something to do with our spirituality and world view as well. I haven't fully fleshed out the idea myself though so tha's about all I can say for now.

How I would handle it? Exactly the same. I am very deeply in touch with my child side (no, not referring to that airy fairy pshyco term, but to the fact that I truly can relate to kids because I can instantanously think like they think, and therefore understand what it is they are experiencing, thinking, feeling. My friends are no longer amazed, but I am known for this ablility. I am total adult, but can read children better than a book. I can't explain.)

Your kids must be very lucky. It may have more to do with that airy fairy psych term than you might suspect though. You sound like a very well balanced individual and the inner child is part of that. Children's instincts are a very good judge of character.

reply to post by LajanAytik


Very kind of you to say, I'm glad you can identify with the OP.

Yah, I think if we did more things with it we will be more WITH IT! You know, like getting with the program! Hell, I honestly kick so much against the normal program! Hope you understand I mean life in its naked raw honest essence, not the stupid program that TPTB tries to force down our thoats!

reply to post by 1littlewolf


Thank you Little Wolf, for your nice reply.

I really wonder in which post I rubbed you up the wrong way, or visa versa? Can you remember?