The duality of the human being

The Spirit moves me to write tonight, and I hope you'll bear with me. I have long held a mind set towards the philosophical, and the metaphysical. Why? Well, because for a lot of years, I disliked who I was, and who my family was, and what I looked like on the outside. So, I looked for other things to take the edge off of this reality, as it were.I have often wondered about this universe, and the people inside it.

This particular thread is about the perception that most people have (a flawed perception, IMO), that what they do, is the same as who they are. On the one hand, you have what you've been taught, literally, and figuratively. I mean real details, as in your education. You've learned that 2 + 2 = 4, of course. But, you've also learned things that were not in any text book, things that you've seen/heard/experienced. These things in life are a lot harder to quantify.

What is the difference? What do I mean when I talk about doing versus being? Well, the personality of most folks is a mish-mash of innate versus learned. You can say: "Most semi-educated people know that already." And you'd be right, however, most people don't understand how that personality combination comes together, and why it is not the same thing as an integrated whole.

If you look at a person from the figurative viewpoint of a bubble, it begins to make a bit more sense. The bubble that is you, is also filled with other bubbles, those would be other people that you've imprinted upon yourself. Those little bits of other people become part of your personality. You carry them around either: because you want to, i.e. that particular person is someone you admire, so you make part of them, a part of you. Or, because you can't drop them, i.e. a traumatizing event has written a part of someone else upon you.

You could say: "If I were in a car accident alone, then whom am I imprinting?" The answer to that would be the very next person you meet. Think about it, if your in an accident, and there is no one else around, the first person you meet afterward will usually decide whether or not you take away something positive, or something else, from that event.

Now what happens is that you eventually develop an over inflated sense of self. Your awareness of what constitutes who you are, versus what you do becomes blurred. Eventually you have a hard time distinguishing your internal inclinations from externally imprinted ones. What is the point? Point being, quite a few people engender their lifestyles by saying things like: "It feels right." Regardless of what that feeling is.

How is it, that you know if that feeling is from you, or from someone else? How can you be sure what part of you that feeling originates from? How many people actually search themselves to see the origins of their own mores and desires? How is it you know whether or not that feeling is from you, or something that someone told you that you were supposed to feel?

You have two parts of you that war if not in harmony (and they rarely are). The part of you that God made when he created you, and the part you assimilated from others, or from direct education. Whence do your actions originate? That brothers and sisters, is the question, and would almost entirely depend on the individual. You hear this a lot as well: "It's who I AM." But is it? Just as human beings are on this level a duality, so too are they broken down into two other groups.

The first group, are those that define themselves based upon what they do (their lifestyles, etc.), these people would describe themselves often based on their jobs, i.e. "I'm a police officer," or "I'm a tech student at university." Then the second group often describes itself based in who they are, often defined as a moral or social construct, i.e. "I'm a republican," or "I'm a anarchist." Too often the message of self, the little voice of conscience that we all possess, gets lost in the expression of external desires. Too often folks just 'go with the flow,' instead of looking, and listening to their hearts.

What does all this have to do with religion? Simply put, most folks don't understand how God can love a person, but hate what that person does. Because most people cannot differentiate between who they are, as a created child of God, and what they do, as a mortal man/woman living in a human society. Some folks would say, and rightly so in some sense, that you are what you do. I disagree in general. Specifically, a few rare people are so overwhelmingly described by what they do, that it is a virtual impossibility to distinguish between the acts of the man, and the man himself.

However, I still believe that most people CAN make that distinction. They just choose not to. That's willful ignorance, and is the root of most problems. I'm not sure if I got my point acrossed, but hopefully a few folks can better understand the Almighty, when He talks about loving the sinner, not the sin. Most people, when they have their sins pointed out to them by God, become hostile. Because they perceive their sins as being representative of who they are, they think that their sins are somehow natural, or even desirable.

One shouldn't define themselves based on their sins. God doesn't. I have slowly learned to love myself over the years, and am learning to forgive others for past unpleasantness. Why? Well because I have learned to differentiate between who I am, and what I do. I am slowly changing the 'what I do' part, so that I am no longer defined by my sins, and instead define myself as God intended. As a child of God, a fellow human being on this rock, and as a individual of worth. I am betting that there are quite a few people who don't value themselves, or who (in their own minds) lessen the impact that they have on the World around them.

God values you. Even if the World doesn't. That means you have worth. Value. Meaning. Your existence IS valuable. You MATTER. To ME, and to GOD. Never forget that. We do too much forgetting as it is. We forget the lessons of the past, and we lose ourselves in our bullcrap, until the sweet light of day is all but lost, and you can't see the edge of the pit from the bottom. Please don't lose yourselves in this World, for it is transitory, and false. Nothing man makes lasts, not even our BS.

I hope to help you find a bit of understanding. God Bless.

'Nothing man makes lasts,not even our BS'

Amen brother.......

a reply to: Chronogoblin

The poet TS Eliot wrote in his poem "The Hollow Men" that;

"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long".

This woke me up to the fact that as people we have the best of intentions, but always what we try to do is sabotaged by the world.

Today I was cycling to pick up a Bible I had ordered, something as innocent as that, and had to tolerate being banged into by a brute of a man just to be mean to me who really hurt my already damaged shoulder. Then a group of the locals were being stupid standing in the path way so I could not cycle passed. I get this every day I go out. I am mixed race and very individual looking. Basically, people here have got it in for me and others like me. They are a mean old lot. Thandie Newton, Hollywood actress has written about her bad child hood experiences growing up in this area and being different.

We are all only human. I am under enough pressure as it is and I am going to snap when pushed to these extremes. So that group of people got a mouthful for being mean. I told them they were bullies and were quite disgusting, etc. Stunned them!

You know, with the best intentions this life will still drag you down. Just got to fight and hold your corner. I get misunderstood constantly. I live a more moral life than all of them put together. They are totally brainwashed to fear, ridicule and attack anything different or out of the ordinary.

Yes, they'll get two people for sure when the world deals out such awful ignorance, bigotry and social fascism.

a reply to: Chronogoblin

This particular thread is about the perception that most people have (a flawed perception, IMO)

so that is your perception, that most others is flawed. you can say it opinion but your opinions are based on your perception are they not or are you mind controlled?


I might read the rest,

That just made me laugh and had to reply to that little sentence.

a reply to: Chronogoblin
Well said. This part, I came to the conclusion of, when grieving the death of my sister...

Those little bits of other people become part of your personality. You carry them around either: because you want to, i.e. that particular person is someone you admire, so you make part of them, a part of you.

It occurred to me that grief is the death of that aspect of our personality that interacted with that person. We've lost a part of ourselves. It cannot live without the interaction with the other person.

a reply to: Chronogoblin

I had to laugh at this.

"If I were in a car accident alone, then whom am I imprinting?"

Well, if you're not wearing your seatbelt, then you would be imprinting your face onto the wheel or dashboard.

But I have found one thing that goes a long way in address the constant questioning of ones self. You must just accept who you are, warts and all. You must accept others for who they are as well and not get caught up in all the minutiae of constantly questioning everything, dissecting possible motives and replaying "what ifs" over and over.

It's OK to do so for a short period of time and see if you can learn something from it, but after a while, you must make a decision and move on. Individuals may make things personal, but life isn't like that. Life/Time is always moving forward. I prefer to move forward with it.

Sometimes you just have to say to yourself, "Eff it...it is what it is." Change what you can, Accept what you can't.

Duality...

It is simply the most perplexing aspect of humanity. Some days I root for us and filled with hope, while other days, I watch the news and wonder why God/dess should allow such inequity in the world? It's rife. There are literal hell holes on Earth, and then there are Paradises - where people go to spend thousands of dollars to be lavished on. How fortunate for them....

The duality - and the disparity between the two.

Heart wrenching.

I've come to accept duality. There is a dark side to nature. Not only in Us, humanity - but in the Universe itself. The elements are at constant battle with one another, the whole Universe, a dangerously swirling mass of matter. It is the same with Mother Earth, swirling around our Father Sun, rotating around the galaxy, with Andromeda edging closer, and closer every million or so years.

When it comes to ourselves, oneself. What is it all the Great Wise Ones say? Know thyself. Know what you can accept, and walk away from what you can't. It's that simple. Everyone has their own mileage.

Happy Yuletide!



CdT

Duality is the first step the human brain tries to apply to something (mixing case A and B), however, pretty much everything has detail unless you force it into something within a definition.
Sorry, but I had a very qualitative and long text about this yesterday, but got an error when i submitted it on another thread.

Both selfishness and helping one another lead to the same conclusion about what should be done anyway considering all being one in the end.
Everything just being one simple big mechanism illusionary divided by each location of main connections, such as a brain, and feeling for someone else making helping have yourself have fun as well.

Beautiful thread fellow traveler.
Save journey!

a reply to: lonesomerimbaud

To be honest, I have never been much into poetry. It wasn't until recently that I've begun to find my appreciation of various works that I once consider trivial. Thanks for the input.

originally posted by: InhaleExhale

so that is your perception, that most others is flawed.

you can say it opinion but your opinions are based on your perception are they not or are you mind controlled?


I might read the rest,

That just made me laugh and had to reply to that little sentence.

Well, anyone that tells you that they are NOT flawed, is a lier.

a reply to: TDawgRex

It took me a long time to realize that as well, and the wisdom inherent in certain teachings that we take for granted. The mantra that recovering addicts quote, is truth, yet most folk overlook it. It's rather quite brilliant.

a reply to: CirqueDeTruth

You know, being a 'have-not' my whole life has lead me to having to confront the yin and the yang of society. There is boatloads of mistrust on SO MANY levels in our society, it's positively disturbing. But that's something that we as humans have to deal with, this is the World we as a people have chosen. Now we get to sleep in the bed we made. Thanks for commenting.

a reply to: oneoneone

When you realize the true nature of this reality, you realize just how much the various religions of the World have right, and what parts are just hot air. I am fully leaning towards our universe being an artificial light construct, some scientists use the faulty descriptive of 'holographic.' I think it is obvious that holograms (as we currently understand them) lack the substance that this reality is constructed upon. Some Buddhists believe that this reality is an illusion, I think they only have a part of the whole ideal, I think it kinda is, and kinda isn't.

originally posted by: Chronogoblin

originally posted by: InhaleExhale

so that is your perception, that most others is flawed.

you can say it opinion but your opinions are based on your perception are they not or are you mind controlled?


I might read the rest,

That just made me laugh and had to reply to that little sentence.

Well, anyone that tells you that they are NOT flawed, is a lier.

you are talking about people perception and how your perceive most others perception as being flawed, a persons perception is just a part of who they are.


I think it might be your perception that is flawed as people do have faults but their perception is not something flawed because its theirs, your perception of another might be that theirs is flawed and that is where the only one with a flawed perception is the one that thinks most others is.

But that is your perception and I don't think its flawed other than from a logical point of view, but logic and perception don't always mix well.

a reply to: InhaleExhale

One, it seems like you took what I said personally, good. That means you can read, and understand. No excuses then. Two, I'm not sure if you have an actual question to go with your post, or if you were just being facetious. However, logic dictates that people are inherently flawed, and that goes for me as well. My perceptions may be flawed, buy that doesn't make them less true.