In imparting advice on how to find one’s meaning in life in Man’s Search For Meaning Viktor Frankl shares a lot of other gems of wisdom. I came across the following passage when reviewing the book this weekend. Having recently discussed the cathartic nature of witnessing one might want to consider the need for balance in that regard.
Frankl:
By declaring that man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life, I wish to stress that the true meaning of life is to be discovered in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system. I have termed this constitutive characteristic “the self-transcendence of human existence.” It denotes the fact that being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself — be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself. What is called self-actualization is not an attainable aim at all, for the simple reason that the more one would strive for it, the more he would miss it. In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transendence.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 
This is so absolutely astute and incredibly profound. I am so glad you found this gem! Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Boy, is that ever a head shaker of a revelation.
180 degrees to conventional thinking and when you honestly think about, it is so true.
All the monks, Buddists and Hindus, etc. who go into seclusion and meditation or endless hours of chanting, for a life time have never found it and now we know they never will.
We get enlightened by out flowing.
That’s after we get rid of case.
A most important revelation.
Thanks for posting that.
Dio
Wow, Marty, this very much explains why your blog (and some others) are so valuable as one of the ways to achieve self-transcendence. Here we do “encounter” other human beings in our communication with one another. And I myself realized a while back that I much prefer to learn via ARC with another person or persons rather than study on my own – thinking that was just me. But I see I am in good company with Viktor Frankl!
Timely and perfect in it’s crystallization of a message many have yet to learn. Thanks Marty.
This makes sense in light of the characteristics attributed to self-actualizers. People who have achieved that state are indeed “lost” to their involvement in life, becoming less “self-aware” and transcending identity.
Thanks Marty.
“Living life” is where you find the answers for sure. The answers are not to be found in your navel, funnily enough. Interestingly, the only place you get those “cognitions” that are so hungrily sought in Scientology, comes from reflection on your life or lives that you previously lived.
The Scientologist, I have noticed, puts his current life on hold to pursue the Bridge for the next 10 or 30 or even 30 years, and becomes so immersed in the whole contrived and fake community of Scientology and it’s obsessive dismissal and covert hatred of the non-Scientology world, he thereby has usually bypassed the chance for all future valuable experience. Thus the higher up the Bridge they are the more robotic and wooden they become – due to lack of “living”. I am so lucky to have avoided it, seeing that the end result of all that effort in the so-called Clears and OT’s around me were people devoid of any personality and so much more easily controlled.
The average Scientologist is firmly entrenched in the culture of “let’s Clear the planet” having no real idea how you would do that, or why you would do that, or even what you would actually clear with the act of clearing. Because the vast majority of Scientologists are like licensed drivers who have never left the garage. Most have never attempted to Clear anyone let alone their own family, or neighbourhood. Most have no idea whatsoever how to help somebody and often tell you they have done the PTS/SP course 3 or 4 times as though it somehow qualifies them to assess the people around them. And most – no matter how trained in those weirdo course rooms, with the “Pleasantville” code of conduct and no real communication because it is too dangerous – would have any idea how to help somebody. In fact they are being trained and controlled entirely by a completely suppressive dictatorship themselves that would rival any third world regime, and they cannot see it. So much for the verbatim drills of the 12 antisocial attributes!!
Pretty soon, by the time he gets to the top of this bridge, the Scientologist’s own “life experiences” are all used up and run out and over-run by the constant reflection on them to squeeze out those much sought after “cognitions”. Pretty soon he is no better than a spiritual cannibal, and starting to think that all the wisdom he needs is to be found in the life of another – L Ron Hubbard. To question any of those words would mean the Cross, or a Sea Org equivalent of a stoning or disconnection or worse – a long expensive sec check!!! Original thought is not allowed in that psychotic world they are trapped in. Every thought, every utterance has to in some way be referenced to a quote from Ron.
Thank God my friends and I are no longer on that train wreck!! I highly recommend the joy of real life with real people.
Helping others is perharps the best way to achieve a high tone for real and a life with constant meaning. No matter what others do to turn off our helping energy; we can manage to get it high again trough greatness.
Dio: Marty said: “Having recently discussed the cathartic nature of witnessing one might want to consider the need for balance in that regard.”
Operative word being balance.
You said: “All the monks, Buddists and Hindus, etc. who go into seclusion and meditation or endless hours of chanting, for a life time have never found it and now we know they never will.”
The buddhists that I know of are keenly aware of the necessity to bring into unity the recognition that samsara (endless cycle of rebirth) and nirvana (loosely, enlightenment) are one.
Once one “handles” his “case” through the narrow path using the 8 fold path … one recognizes that one cannot gain enlightenment without wishing the same for all beings …
I’d be “careful” about adopting a new stable datum about others based on a paragraph from someone however wise he may sound or is.
A 180 shift could potentially be a 180 backwards rather than forwards 🙂
Christine
Thanks for quoting Frankl, Marty. I read his book as a young man, always lept fond memories of it, but had not thought much about it since.
My sense is that Frankl ‘s views that you quote were influenced by being all alone, away from his wife and family, in a concentration camp. Recollecting walking on an icy road harassed by Nazi guards, he writes: “As we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. ……my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. …. A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
My sense is that this view on love came in part from the unbelievably harsh circumstances he was in, martyrized and deprived of the company of loved ones. This, I believe, partially led him to write, as you quote: “self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.”
Other people have expressed opposite views, i.s that self-transcendance is possible only as a side-effect of actualization. Hinduists among others. My sense is that both views are acceptable, and complementary, and that the views vary depending on the circumstances and moments in a person’s life. I’ve seen my pendulum swing along this continuum over time. Right now I’m trying to balance both sides of this coin in my own life…
I still remember Frankl stating that he saw only two kinds of people on the planet, which could be found across all races, social classes and ethnic groups: the decent people and the unprincipled people. Pretty insightful.
I like his views aboutthe relativity of the merits of freedom. Freedom, as he sees it, is in danger of degenerating into being arbitratry unless it is lived within a framework of responsibility. I just read that he once recommended that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast of the United States be complemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast. Nice thought, still as relevant as ever.:) Thanks for bringing up Frankl, Marty. Here is someone who, I believe, made a giant contribution to the advancement of mankind.
Gems of wisdom, they truly are.
This is my favorite of ” Man’s Search For Meaning”.
” …They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one´s way. – Victor E. Frankl
“… – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances…”
This reference helped me to reconsider old patterns (and serv facs) of mine in interpersonal relationships, to look at things from different angles and to sort out many things in my life
Thanks for the recommendation of this book; it was helping me to heal and to get my equilibrium back.
“The more one forgets himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”
This is a very catchy sentence. Loaded with truth and lie. We become involved with Scientology when we are introverted on ourselves and our outpoints when they are pointed out to us. We are told it can be “fixed” with Scientology. We start on the program to “fix” it and then get told the other’s lives depend us, we should forget ourselves, and serve.
It is true you can forget yourself that way. That doesn’t mean you are “handled”, it just means you put yourself in a pending basket and someone else in your in basket.
There will always be someone more fucked up than you. So it is easy to forget yourself.
If you are lucky, you will love and then for sure you will forget yourself. Or maybe not. Love has it’s own dynamics. There is one dynamic of love where you think about yourself very much and your wants become an constant ache.
Instead of forgetting yourself, you are only reminded too well of your wants and needs.
And on another dynamic, you can dismiss your own hunger to see your children fed. There are many dynamics in love. Some cause you to forget who are, some cause you to remember. Some cause you to think of others, some cause you to think of yourself.
But you can get to a place in your life where you have mis spent in hope. Look at the years some of us put into the Sea Org only to see what the Church has become and have our friends, people we put above ourselves, turn against us at the drop of a coin.
The value in our investments into others only comes back as reward when we assist things that assist survival, and inhibit things that inhibit survival.
And usually people that are assisting things that assist survival do not need you. They are already assisting others.
This is a real GPM situation and it is only in the last few months I have come to spread it out into the field of mathematics and away from the heart.
If you are capable of easily loving many or any things, you can be worn down in service to others very fast. Outflow is more holy by Hubbard.
So if you have a purpose to be holy, there you go.
I think though, all outflow is rewarding, because it is not possible to actualize your own pleasure until you have caste it against your pain of loving and giving all for naught.
“An old artist wrote to me of his wanderings by the quays of New York, and how he found there a woman nursing a sick child, and drew her story from her. She spoke, too, of other children who had died: a long tragic story. “I wanted to paint her,” he wrote, “If I denied myself any of the pain I could not believe in my own ecstasy.”
We must not make a false faith by hiding from our thoughts the causes of doubt, for faith is the highest achievement of the human intellect , the only gift man can make to God, and therefore it must be offered in sincerity. Neither must we create, by hiding ugliness, a false beauty as our offering to the world.
He only can create the greatest imaginable beauty, who has endured all imaginable pangs. For only when we have seen and foreseen what we dread, shall we be rewarded by that dazzling unforeseen wing-footed wanderer.
We could not find him if he were not in some sense of our being and yet of our being, but as water with fire, a noise with silence. He is of all things not impossible, the most difficult, for that only which comes easily can never be a portion of our being , “Soon got, soon gone,” as the proverb says.
I shall find the dark grow luminous , the void fruitful when I understand I have nothing , that the ringers in the tower have appointed for the hymen of the soul a passing bell.
The last knowledge has often come most quickly to turbulent men, and for a season brought new turbulence . When life puts away her conjuring tricks one by one, those that deceive us longest may well be the wine cup and the sensual kiss, for our Chambers of Commerce and of Commons have not the divine architecture of the body , nor has their frenzy been ripened by the sun. The poet, because he may not stand within the sacred house, but lives amid the whirlwinds that beset it’s threshold, may find his pardon.”
Yeats
I guess if I wanted to state a paradox – which I like to do – then I could say that the meaning of/in life is to realize that one should not look for the meaning of life because it doesn’t have one. Life just is. Period. JMO
Or, it could be that if one were atuned to intuite it, in its varying/changing perspectives then perhaps there is a means to transcend oneself as he suggests here. I recommend the book – it is not long or difficult.
I would have to agree with some of what’s quoted and disagree with some of it. I would agree that finding meaning in one’s life is a process of discovery out in the objective world of life and action, and involves learning the lessons one needs to learn and the affecting of mid-course corrections necessary to align one’s viewpoint and actions better in zeroing in on one’s own unique Zen path of purpose. This is not a subjective process and it requires actually operating on more Dynamics than just the first.
However, we’ve all seen the folly in forgetting one’s self to a cause or to love of another person in that doing so does not necessarily result in greater humanity and, indeed, can result it quite the opposite. History is replete with examples of whole generations that have selflessly devoted themselves King, country, God, Allah, Der Fuhrer, etc., etc. resulting in the worst of Mankind’s atrocities. Lose one’s self to a cause or to love at the risk of losing one’s moral compass.
The basic flaw here is in objectifying that cause or “loved” one, enshrining it/them in a false static ideal – a very perilous operating basis in a cyclical universe of mutually dependent opposites in which the only constant is change.
Yeah – I was going to get into how in Scientology the power of choice in the process he describes here is usurped from the indivdual; but checked my impulse to fill in all the blanks last night. If that bit of that bigger ‘other’ one chooses to be part of, in order to transcend oneself, is not determined and chosen by an individual it can sort of backfire.
That section jumped out at me last night too.
To be human is to be in a constant state of lack. Everything that is made or seemingly created by humans is motivated by the desire, need, want or compulsion to fill a lack. And as each lack is filled a new lack appears. What a viable mechanic lack is for keeping an illusion going.
Spirit does not lack. Spirit has everything and has never not had everything.
Excerpt from A Course in Miracles:
“Sin is defined as ‘lack of love.’ Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the ‘scarcity principle’ that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We ‘love’ another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.”
Thanks Marty, for bringing this gem to our attention. It fits very well too with your recent post about yin and yang. Self-actualization is very yang, with its focus on Me, Me, Me, while selfless service to others is characteristically yin. The most fulfilling and enlightening route once again would seem to be the Middle Path.
Dio,
I love you very much and respect your viewpoint.
Chanting in Pali for an hour a day did wonders for
my transformation into the real world.
There is a fundamental misconception about chanting
because it looks strange and sounds strange.
However, we are bonding with the Buddha, the holy teaching,
and the entire community. From the chanting, we derive
the idea of METTA, which is loving-kindess which leads
to acts of compassion.
Personally, I don’t see the “News” as the source of inspiration.
Rather, mastering mentality seems to be a central focus
these days.
Much Metta,
George M. White
Wendy, that’s a great summary of the life of a “scientologist”.
Reading it made me realize to what degree it has been a constant effort in my life to fight it ,especially in raising my children . Coming up with ways of expressing myself , without being disrespectful to the “only source”, using experiences from life outside of Scientology or the many books I read to try to dislodge even a little bit the mindset and see on their faces the puzzlement and at last the new viewpoint. It has become less of an effort since reading this blog , knowing that I am not alone or weird or deliberately opinionated…
I am never more alive than when I can contribute to somebody’s happiness and wellbeing. My children are free thinkers.
Which makes betrayal of the people who joined Scientology to help the world, probably moreso than themselves, all the more damning. DM has seriously overdrawn his account at his local branch of the Bank of Karma.
How interesting a post Marty and right on the heels of Mothers Day. My mother (a psychologist who had a rocky road in the cult) would mention from time to time to me that individual progress and growth in life does not come singularly from focus upon oneself, but with and through relationships with others. My cult programming at the time led me be to be suspicious of her in general, but after making my way up and out, I can appreciate more what she was trying to teach me.
Personally,self-actualization for me these days is much more meaningful and helpful via looking inward…
Dio,
typo correction – loving-kindness is mispelled.
Afterthought:
Buddha was highly criticized in his day for being self-centered.
He responded with the “one at a time policy”. Buddhism would
grow person to person and a group would form.
This came to fruition in the Kingdom of Ashoka which in
200 BCE was the greatest Buddhist civilization in history.
Buddhism is still slowly growing today in the United States – person to
person.
GMW
Great comment Wendy!!
Wow Wendy Honor. You said it all. Sad but true. I saw myself in your observations. The analogy of having a driver’s license but never leaving the garage is so true. Your comments are main blog worthy. Repost on your blog and anyone else can re-post it with your permission. It is that well said and important.
Wanted:
Mark Robson, developer and owner of the fz auditors website is looking for someone to help him do work on the website to improve it.
This is the website:
http://www.freezoneauditors.org/
These are the qualifications he is looking for:
“For this type of work I would need a good PHP programmer and a really good JavaScript person who knows the Google maps API as well as knowing CSS with responsive design. If you can find someone willing to do it voluntarily then that will be awesome!”
If you can do this kind of work and want to help him please contact him at:
Mark Robson (roppa_uk at hotmail.com)
Or if you know of someone who can do this then please pass it on to him or her.
Thanks,
Dio
Didn’t mean to put the book down. The heading of it’s wisdom appears to be sound. Apparently reading the term “meaning of/in life” + a glass of vine doesn’t seem to be a good combination for me so let me elaborate why I spoke up: I wish people would term “meaning of life” as a “good purpose in life” instead or something like that. I’m just in a phase now where I’m exploring and increasingly becoming aware of the case we (society as a whole) have, carried in the body of language. The definition of some words carry or induce false ideas and concepts which causes social case. JMO as usual.
It really goes full circle very fast. You walk in and it’s, “We can help you, we can fix this, Scientology can handle that, you can handle that with Scientology, etc etc etc”.
By the time you open your course pack it has dwindled down to “The lives of every man woman and child depend on what you do here and now….etc etc etc.” “We need you on staff.” “We need you in the Sea Org”…”Can you , will you HELP US??????????”
Within the first few weeks you feel sorrier for them than you felt for yourself when you bought your first service.
You are directed to think of others and not yourself, and in that way I guess your case gets put in pending basket and off you go a bit more cheerful.
Incomplete cycle number one.
Twenty five years up the road the guy who tried to recruited you has spent all of that time in the Sea Org, got declared after twenty years of hard labor, and has not even done a solo course or gone clear. Worse, he isn’t even wanting to anymore.
You arrive at the Base “for service” and the beggar units are waiting at baggage claim with the arrivals list in hand to pick you up. All the way to the F.H. you are begged for money and told how the planet is on your shoulders.
Out here in the Field where people really have been auditing, training and delivering service all along, some service, any service, , the young bucks flipping out of the Sea Org are coming down on them like hammers standing behind the “status quo”.
Back at the Base staff have become so full of animosity towards those wanting service, a mission gets fired in to teach them “manners” because they are practically impossible to co exist with. The place has more staff than public by a LONG shot and the staff that are there, have never read a book by Hubbard. Have not gone clear or had a session for years.
They are there because they cared. They put others before themselves. That is a an awesome beauty, promise and hope in itself , that counts for nothing Thursday come 2:01.p.m.. If there is a tragedy and injustice in this Scientology theater, I would have to say this is the one that effects me the most.
Sniff.
Yes, let’s not forget that all the dynamics have a place in life. And although Scientology has gone off the rails, the desire to serve helps explain to me why so many Sea Org members doggedly persist in the organization.
PASS IT ON Bob Marley
Songwriters: GUARD, RICHARD / RICE, PHILIP JAMES
What your hands do,
It’s your own eyes that’ve seen.
So won’t you judge your actions
To make sure the results are clean?
It’s your own conscience
That is gonna remind you
That it’s your heart and nobody else’s
That is gonna judge.
Be not selfish in your doings:
Pass it on. (Pass it on, children)
Help your brothers (help them) in their needs:
Pass it on.
Live for yourself and you will live in vain;
Live for others, you will live again.
In the kingdom of Jah,
Man shall reign.
Pass it on;
Pass it on;
Pass it on;
Pass it on.
What’s in the darkness
Must be revealed to light.
We’re not here to judge what’s good from bad
But to do the things that are right.
On a hot, sunny day,
Follow the shadows for rescue.
But as the day grows old,
I know the sun is gonna find you.
Be not selfish in your doings:
Pass it on.
Help your brothers in their needs:
Pass it on.
Live for yourself, you will live in vain;
Live for others, you will live again.
In the kingdom of Jah,
Man shall reign.
Pass it on;
Pass it on;
Pass it on;
Pass it on. (Pass it on)
A!=A writes: “The meaning of/in life is to realize that one should not look for the meaning of life because it doesn’t have one. Life just is. Period.”
Very interesting statement and I agree with it, but my view is also that while some people strive to realize what life is, others choose not to. Some people choose to have no interest in being aware or conscious, or in looking for whether there is more to life than meets the eye.
So while life is what it is, as A!=A says, our consciousness of what it is can, if we so choose, be improved, deepened, and with that, our experience, and what our reality is. I imagine that it a thirst for more than meets the eye that brought you to Scientology. You getting into Scientology did not change what life was/is , but it changed your experience, awareness, consciousness of life.
Aeolus also writes something interesting: “Self-actualization is very yang, with its focus on Me, Me, Me, while selfless service to others is characteristically yin. The most fulfilling and enlightening route once again would seem to be the Middle Path.”
This call to balance aligns well with previous posts from Marty where he wrote that “Scientology is Yang on Steroids” (or something to these effect).
Here, the idea is to balance the focus on self-actualization with a focus on transcendence. A bit of yin and a bit of yang…I get periodically tempter to go all yang, or all yin. But I tend to come back to the middle… Over time, I’ve come to learn the beauty of keeping choices and decisions in balance, especially when it comes to personal realization.
Love to you all.
I know your blog has changed significantly in the last few months so I don’t know if my question is relevant here. But I read today that Brian Culkin signed a declaration for Scientology and against the Garcias and got a 350,000.00 dollar refund. Are you following this story and do you have an opinion to share about it?
“The more one forgets himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”
LRH talked about balancing the dynamics. Self sacrifice for the “greater good” is the trap that kept many on staff in the CofS. Self aggrandizement was a carrot for many seeking OT powers. As I see it a balance is needed so that all one’s dynamics receive appropriate attention.
Wendy you are quite an intelligence. I was meaning to convey that idea! 🙂 Now..moving forward…to a little more OT phenomenon…I have heard of telepathic reg cycles. Not too many people have I think! 🙂
Marty – why is Mike Rinder’s blog down? I miss it! Always good and important news!! Can you see what is up? thanks.
“I still remember Frankl stating that he saw only two kinds of people on the planet, which could be found across all races, social classes and ethnic groups: the decent people and the unprincipled people. Pretty insightful.”
I do not think that there are any purely decent people not any purely unprincipled ones. Most sit somewhere in the middle battling to do what they consider to be right while having temptations to do wrong. David Miscavage was possibly nice to his dog and Ghandi might have once swatted a fly. The rest of us live somewhere inbetween.
Lost with words.
The greater good doesn’t exist, onley the greater self, the greater self included all the other beings you come in contact with
just a thought i had right now
The simplicity of the message is, I believe, get over yourself.
Here the video,
accidentally I posted a link to a whole series of Jason Mraz music
It’s not down.
I am not involved beyond being a witness. Opinion? Much ado about not much.
Thanks so much SKM for posting this video. I loved it! And, I appreciated the Kahlil Gibran influence in some of the lyrics. I used to have such a hot button on the word ‘God’. It took a great deal of forgiveness to flatten that one. 🙂 I now have a new interpretation of God and God is cool!
Well said, Wendy. Back in the early 1990s I spent several months auditing to Clear, doing KTL/LOC and then the L’s. I just wanted to get out and LIVE LIFE! I wanted to try out my “new wings.” Those months were more like house arrest because I must have had huge overts for wanting to take a leave from my progress up the Bridge to Q&A with a life among wogs where I would inevitably become bogged down and debased by degraded beings. Wooooah! I just paid a gazillion dollars to become UNSTOPPABLE! How can a powerful, unstoppable L’s “super thetan” be derailed by a bunch of namby-pamby wogs? That logic only got me into ethics trouble.
I am so glad to be living my life the way it really is instead of they way the EO and Reg say it is.
Wendy, on so many levels, what an incredible comment you have made! Thank you so much for sharing your perspective.
As I read what you wrote Wendy an old image that I had conjured up during my early days as a scio and held onto throughout the years, came to mind. In this image, SC existed as a wondrous bridge that was elevated way above the land below where all that existed was dense jungle, tar pits, bogs, quicksand and so on. Where the bridge originated there were many, many ramps that came out of the jungle and allowed access to the bridge. On one of these ramps is how I discovered SC and got myself up onto the bridge. As I traveled the bridge it seemed to get higher and higher above the morass below and “seemed”, in this case, was the operative word. Eventually, there came a time when I felt the need to return to the jungle. So…I very quietly climbed down the bridge, secured a tether line and made my way out into the jungle. I refer to this deliberate departure from the bridge as my ‘walkabout.’ I was enormously surprised by what I found in the jungle. Nine years after starting my walkabout, I disconnected my trusty tether line and made my way alone.
Speaking of images, I have one now. This image is a rope running vertically with knots ever so often. This particular rope is my rope. It has been specifically designed and engineered just for me. SC (the whole package from beginning to end) was a knot in my rope. I am now climbing (moving on up a little higher) to the next knot
There is an old saying…”Don’t stumble over what’s behind you.” I am not concerned about SC then or SC tomorrow. I am, though, interested in SC in the here and now as it might relate to my journey to the next knot on this rope I’m climbing.
This resonates very much with a book I am currently reading: “becoming enlightened” by the Dalai Lama. This book is an introduction to the Buddhist “bridge” and contains more than 200 step-by-step contemplative exercises that allow spiritual growth, provided they are practiced on a daily basis. With my background in Scientology, I consider these exercises as “meditation commands”.
According to this book, altruism is a key component of spiritual growth. Self-centred approaches do not work.
The reason is that considering ourselves as pure individuals is an illusion, caused by a mental distortion. We depend very much on others: physical and spiritual food and our language come from other people; communication would be impossible if there was not another person to communicate with, etc.
By trying to improve only ourselves, we help only one person, there is a limited impact on the global level. With altruism, we can potentially help billions of beings and there is an enormous feedback on the personal level.
Osho or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also spoke of witnessing. Here is a quote:
“I’m simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I’m saying that you can
get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple
witness of your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you.
Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you
judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.
It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once
the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, A watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start
disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.”
Wendy – it may have been a blessing. Recently – I watched a 25 year old staff member put all of their bridge and L’s on credit cards and refinanced their house. They went to Flag for 1 year! When they came back – they let those wings fly and spent money like there was no tomorrow. A few years later – filed bankruptcy and lost their home to foreclosure. Justified it with something about…”Pirates and Bums”.
They told me their “ethics were out and it was their fault”!
Just amazing – a Church that can pull this off and keep the money and get others to do it! Just amazing!
That is the item. The church pulls this off right in broad daylight and gets away with it. As long as their are people that believe there is a church there that is really trying to help them, these overts will continue to amount to more and more. Just one staff member in the church doing the wrong thing, affects the integrity of the whole group, affects the way the world around them responds to that group.
The following comment was posted by Dio in another blog.
Dio 2013-05-14 @ 15:19
…
Very long story short:
On Good Friday of 97, I was sick, very, very sick. I had liver cancer and my mind so gone that I would get lost in my own home.
I would walk across the street to the mall and I had a very difficult time finding my way home.
Many people tried to help me.
I did the Bible thing, Jesus and the Course in Miracles, various New Age therapies, and a heck of a lot more and none of it worked.
I am an expert on what does not work.
I was sitting up in bed, contemplating suicide.
But I did not want to.
So I said a prayer:
I simply said: God I want my sanity back.
I fell asleep for about 10 – 15 minutes and woke up.
I went to the kitchen for something to eat.
On the way, I turned the TV on and lo and behold I caught a commercial (on the TLC channel) that had nothing but black and white text on it.
It read:
For the source of all your emotional problems read page XXX of a book called “Dianetics”.
For the source of all your marital problems read page XXX.
I got the book and read it and was totally blown away.
This was the first book that I read of many 100s that the author seemed to know anything useful about how the mind gets screwed up and how to unscrew it.
I contacted the Co$ and arranged for an demo on Easter Sunday at noon.
I happened to luck on a very good auditor (a nice young business man from WISE) and got a 2.5 hr. demo.
I came out of that session and had a small release.
I felt like I was pulled out from under a rock pile.
But within a few days, I realized that the CoS was a case of the insane running the asylum and made that known and soon got declared.
Five months later I met up with someone who told me about the FZ and that they had their own magazine called the Free Spirit Journal.
The guy gave me his copy. I found ads for auditors and contacted Bob Ross and began phone auditing with him.
After the first two sessions on the first day, my feet swelled and I could not put my shoes on.
I was puzzled as to why.
I tried again the next day and they still would not fit.
My shoes were size 8 1/2.
So I went and bought a bigger size. I think it was 9 or 9 1/2.
A year or so later I had to buy size 10.
I now wear size 11.
In hind sight I now realize that I was beaten so bad as kid that my growth was stunted.
Auditing cleared that out and my feet grew.
I have had many other wins from auditing.
My liver cancer is also healed.
So I know with full certainty on what I am talking about.
I am glad I did Scn and did it my way.
My entrance into Scn and experience with it was an answer to a prayer that saved my life and saved it more than once.
I gleaned what was useful for me and chucked the rest up to experience.
I do that with everything.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything.
I have turned over every rock in the world that I could find, for anything that would work for trauma and nothing comes even close.
…
Ralph Hilton comments on Frankl’s assertion that there are only two types of people: decent and unprincipled. “ He writes: “I do not think that there are any purely decent people not any purely unprincipled ones. Most sit somewhere in the middle battling to do what they consider to be right while having temptations to do wrong. David Miscavige was possibly nice to his dog and Ghandi might have once swatted a fly. The rest of us live somewhere in-between.”I agree.
Here also I believe that Frankl’s view was influenced by being so long in a concentration camp where you have few people living “in-between” you have guards and captives who soon or late around bound to be executed…
U agree with Ralph Hilton that ‘self sacrifice for the greater good is a trap” and that “ a balance is needed so that all one’s dynamics receive appropriate attention.” I went through too many years in many life where I sacrificed myself for the spiritual movement I was involved in. I knew that within myself I was not making the progress, but I hoped that somehow, whenever I would be judged, in this lifetime or after, I would be forgiven for not having been able to realize myself because I had sacrificed myself. Deeper inside, I knew this kind of reasoning did not make any sense, but it must have resonated with some dysfunctional part in me, and also, it received peer support within the movement. Even the theory, the talk, were that self-sacrifice was no good, and that there was a need for balance, in real life, the organization fostered self-sacrifice and rewarded those that embraced it.
I’m so glad that this page is now turned. Im keenly aware that I have a limited time to live on this planet, and I don’t have the slightest inclination anymore to “sacrifice” it, for any cause, as good as it may sound. I know the deep wounds that result from sacrifice, and want none of these anymore. Altruism, yes, compassion, yes, love, yes very much so, sacrifice? No way…does not help me, and does not really help anyone, in the broad scope of life…It took me 60 years to understand this one, but at least the page is turned…Sacrifice keeps you from experiencing freedom. And freedom we must experience. Sacrifice turns us into prisoners, love sets us free.
Awesome. Very moving. Well stated.
Yes! when you are no longer the effect of the mind. when it no longer can grab your attention – one is free. Cause over thought. In my opinion the most important part of going OT. Once you can just witness and not be the effect of the mind, the mind will fade away. Makes sense.
Young Samurai instructing Tom Cruise character “No Mind.” From The Last Samurai.
I was reminiscing last night about someone I met when I was 12 years old, in the bush in Zimbabwe – John Bradburne.
John was British, served with the Indian Ghurka’s in WWII, receiving a medal for an heroic escape after capture. After the war, John became a bit of a wanderer, never really settling down. Born an Anglican he became interested in becoming a Franciscan monk. He was reclusive and loved his solitude. Long story short he ended up in Zimbabwe looking after a village of lepers (about two dozen of them) in the Mtoko hills about an hour or two’s drive from Salisbury (Harare). My class teacher in 1973 suggested we go and pay a visit to John and the leper colony. At that time, I did not know John’s history at all. Also terrorist bush wars had broken out in Rhodesia, so it was not an entierly safe expedition. My Dad was in the army and he gave permision for me to go because he thought (correctly so) that it was safe. Only a handful of my class got permssion to go. Off we went in a beat up VW combi van. We were asked to pool our pocket money to buy biscuits and cigarettes for the lepers, which was John’s only request to us.
When we got there we found John. A rather reserved man in his 30s or 40s looking after the village of lepers. He took us on a walking tour of the area and we went swimming in his “pool” which was a water-filled dip in a batholithic rock. We swam in a shorts and T shirts but were dry in about ten minutes because of the dry heat. (John lived in a hut with no running water or electricity. No-one asked or even invited him to stay to look after the lepers. He just did it of his own accord. He had no income and very few possessions. he nursed them daily tending to their wounds, ensuring they ate and sat with them when they were dying. He gave services every Sunday and taught the locals to sing in Gregorian plainchant !! What a character !)
We were asked to distribute the cigarettes and biscuits which we had bought at a local trading store on our way there. The village was typical of any African village with a clearing in the centre where you could sit (on the floor) and meet and socialise with the rest of the village. The lepers were suffering varying stages of the disease. As a couple of us 12 year olds approached one particularly disfigured leper to give him our small gifts, John said in a loud voice, and with a huge smile on his face “Simon (I am not sure if that was the chap’s name, but that is what sticks), whenever you smile I see the joy in the face of God.” At that, Simon smiled broadly. We looked at Simon in wonder to see what the face of God looked like. In that moment John lifted the tension of our fear of seeing someone so disfigured and the embarrassment of Simon, and turned it into a moment of pleasure and wonder. Such was the nature of John.
John was a keen writer and like to write poetry (in his own way). Last night I found a poem he wrote, now published on the internet entitled “To Andy Crabb and his frabjous cohort.” (Andy Crabb was our class teacher, and we were the “frabjous cohort”! It made me cry to see that).
John was killed in 1979 by terrorists. He was tortured and taunted for more than a day. Apparently he showed no signs of fear, much to the annoyance and surprise of his captors who did not know what to do with him once they had kidnapped him. They decided that if they freed him he may reveal their identity and whereabouts. They took him to a road nearby. They asked him to walk a few steps ahead. He did so and then knelt and paryed. As he stood up they shot him dead. His body was found by the roadside a short while later by another local priest.
When he was buried a few days later, rumours sparked that three drops of blood had dripped from his coffin. They opened the coffin and found no free blood.
He is now being considered for canonisation and sainthood. Apparently about 25 or 30 thousand people go to the Motoko hills annually to celebrate him. The thirtieth anniversay of his death was apparently remembered in a service in Westminster Abbey. He never drew attention to himself. When suffering from malaria in hospital, he told a friend that too many people had come to visit him and he asked if a sign could be put on the door which said “Dead”. Yet people were drawn to him.
This was a man who let go of everything, and who, despite his reclusive nature, served others so whole-heartedly and unselfishly. Despite the most awful circumstances of his murder, he knew what was happening and accepted it without fear. That is letting go. That is transendence. That is/was one happy soul.
Thank you Marty. I see the truth of what you say in everyday life.
Paul, There have been times and there are times when ‘something’ (a voice that is not a voice) within tells me that I need to do more, that I am not enough, that I am somehow incomplete, that something needs to be different…in my relationships, my personality, my body, my life…this ‘something’ I perceive is what I now refer to as being the ego. Occasionally, for a short duration, I will listen to this ‘voice’, however, being more spiritual, I deny the nagging inner ‘voice’, I resist its urges and, in so doing, I feel that I am sacrificing something important. Of course, feeling that I am sacrificing confirms that I am still in the grips of the ego. For the worldly experiences I have deprived myself of still feel very real and I know that I have once again embraced the ego’s religion, whose tenets hold that God and love demand that I sacrifice what I think I want for the sake of some greater good.
Sacrifice and Spirit are irreconcilable. Concepts like ‘sacrifice’, ‘for the greater good’, ‘saving the world’…ad infinitium (seeming infinitum) are all made by the ‘ego’, ‘The Bank’, the ‘reactive mind’ or whatever other label one might want to use.
Paul – I really appreciate your thoughts, comments and what you bring to this great conversation. “Sacrifice keeps you from experiencing freedom. And freedom we must experience. Sacrifice turns us into prisoners, love sets us free.” This is a profound and basic truth. It reminded me of the saying that a candle gives up nothing to light another candle. Nothing was sacrificed in lighting the way and life of another with only the intent of help.
Thanks for this reminder.
Thanks.
Someone sent me a copy of “L. Kin’s: Scientology, more than a cult”.
I was neglecting to read it, because I thought I heard it all before. But I did decide to read it.
I am only on page thirty and I am sure glad I decided to read it. L. Kin takes an honest, intelligent, educated, impartial / pan determined/ bird on the wire, look at scn, much like Marty does.
I am learning stuff that I have not read or heard about anywhere else. I am impressed. It is only 123 pages.
I urge everyone to read it, if you have not already read it.
I can tell by reading some posts on these blogs that some people do not know somethings about Ron and scn.
Then how many people are there that know everything there is to know about Ron and scn? Not too many, if any.
To get the best overview possible it is necessary to read as many points of view as possible.
Hubbard lived many lives almost simultaneously and sometimes different lives at different times.
Here is the link:
(If the link does not work, just google; “L.Kin Scientology more than a cult”.
The first link I got from a search is the pdf.
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffzba.chat.ru%2FLKin%2FVol1.pdf&ei=daaTUcmoOMHWrgGc14GQDQ&usg=AFQjCNGJJ5rAe3ZDlJtfMEIFmOj_U9NA1g&sig2=SrWCdMHrfKE08XsA1cvcdw&bvm=bv.46471029,d.aWM&cad=rja
Dio
I’ve been reflecting on fear… what an excellent topic, Thanks Marty.. and thanks you all for the great comments. I’m learning a lot from reading all the comments.
I keep remembering this quote from Jampolsky in “Love is Letting Go of Fear”: “The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds. The best way to navigate through life is to give up all of our controls.”
Fear robs us of the moment and Thich Nhat Hanh says it so well: “If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.”
What could be 3 principles for living less in fear, and more in the moment?
I found some of this on the web a while ago, but can’t remember where…
1. Do less, be more. “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” ~Lao Tzu
And do less of what does not serve me and be more of who I am by aligning my decisions to these intentions. In his book Conscious Living, Gay Hendricks asks the deathbed question: “What did I accomplish or experience that made my life a success?” authentically? That’s a good question to ask oneself each day…
2. Plan less, live more.
Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Planning for the future is often a symptom of fear. Much planning is about planning for things that mean little. In the planning process, what matters gets forgotten. We forget to plan how to be happy regardless of circumstances. Instead, we plan to create circumstances which, we hope, will make us happy. We grasp at plans for happiness tomorrow to relieve the fear we choose not to address.
The more we shift our fears by clinging onto something outside of us, instead of looking inside to acknowledge and find within a space voide of fear, the more we will stand in our own way.
Life is transient, there’s only so much we can plan for; but there is much more happiness to be experienced when we learn to live in the moment.
Fearing less means letting go, flowing more, and experiencing the beauty and vastness of life.
3. Dwell less, create more.
“Begin at once to live and count each day as a separate life.” ~Seneca
The past and future are overrated. This moment is where it is all happening.
I see that I need to continually let go of what you cannot control: telling oneself the stories of the past or peering too much into the future does not lead to realization.
All the energy spent into the past and future needs to be redirected to this moment so that we can experience the whole of what the moment offers.
My experience is that when I remove the past and the future from my concerns, there is a gift that is waiting: joy, levity, elation.
Ralph ?
Thanks for the reference, Dio. Very interesting and I concur with your assessment. But that stuff about telepathically wrestling with “bad” extraterrestrials?? Where the hell did that come from? A Capt. Bill invention?
Oops I see that I made an error. I said “non bona fide human beings”. That is not correct. That should be “bona fide human beings”. But that means there are “non bona fide human beings” on earth.