Here is neat psycho-analytical recovery or 'self auditing' experiment you can perform on yourself. If you can hold out, you'll be amazed at what emerges at the end of the week.
I write it in the first person. Because then any difficult or challenging parts of the experiment are not taken as a judgement and can be observed objectively. If I say "I" then I'll have no reason to object if it was me who said it. This does not mean you have to agree with any of it. Just that you will not be resisting if you have decided about something, in and of yourself.
- I will think of an idea, belief, personality, image of the world, politic, cult, religion, that I really disagree with or dislike
- I will place this idea 'on the table' in front of me, in my mind, for direct observation
- At any opportunity I can find, I will start acting as if I agree with this idea fully
- I will do this for a week and when the time is up I'll write down anything new I can now see
I will be that thing. This is by no means an easy task. Particularly the 'act' of being this thing. Yet anyone can do it for free and right away too. Be that thing.
I will not try to become that thing or hold onto it. Just act, psychically, as if I 'am' it. Acting sounds silly. But it is everything. And anyone can do it. I will be an actor as I attempt it, just like I were going to an audition. I'll visualise myself as that thing but will not try to hold onto the act, else that gives the time and space for ego to step in and convince me to escape.
The idea is not to become the thing(known as 'becoming'). The act of being that thing immediately is what matters.
It's unlikely I will be able to hold onto it for more than a moment, authentically. Thats OK. Even a nano second of being it, is important. The duration is irrelevant and its no better to hold onto it for longer than shorter. Simply to be it for a moment is all.
Knowing that I was 'it' for a nano second is what matters. Having observed myself, as it, even for an infinitesimal time, is everything. Knowing it is actually there, having seen and observed it happening, matters. Rather than believing or becoming an image I'm not really sure of and only believing or wanting to become something.
Trying to become something will not help me to make way. Because the time frame within which I am trying to become something, allows me the opportunity to 'escape'. Time is what Thought needs to create a new cosy image, and space provides the place, to escape into.
Thought will try to convince me it needs time and space, to become cosy, but artificial. This is a trick to help me to escape. Thought tries to convince me that thought is there to simply show me how things are. But its really playing for the time in which I can escape - the time needed to escape into a new cosy image that appears to be real.
Remember: my personal transformation does not require an external teacher, guru, Master and so on. It cannot be bought, I cannot earn it, I do not deserve it, it cannot be gained from the outside material world, in time and space. I already have it, but society and the material world has been trying to convince me to treat it as mumbo jumbo. It cannot be taken away from me. I 'am' the prophet in my own psyche. I am the hero in my own adventure.
Society has captured most of the World already. I must take extreme care with this knowledge. If a social group finds out I'm thinking about this, it will cast me out into exile, to protect its current army of slaves from taking the opportunity of a personal transformation too. This is the primary function of society - protectionism - helping the great masse of people to escape into a fantasy world where slavery is freedom. So I beware. Slaves can tell by intuition. And will tell on me.
My Whole World is always created by me. It belongs to me already. I can only escape from anything it it, by creating images. Nothing external can change that. Unless I willingly submit a part of myself to that external world and its Master. And then I will have lost the opportunity to that extent. And my world will now be divided, atomised, into artificial parts and I will have lost my robust connection to the Whole of the World.
I hug a tree to find out. I take off my shoes before I enter a holy place. A prophet is never welcome in their home town.
I try to escape because for a short time, it feels more comfortable to project myself onto the material world. I feel like I can create a cosy place to rest my weary head for a short time. This is a mistake, in the end.
I am my own Master, my own teacher. Out of all the opportunities arrayed in front of me by the external world of 'experts', it is always me who chooses in the end. I am the final arbiter in the creation of my whole world.
There is no escaping this, in this universe.