I believe that no matter how enlightened I am I live in a delusional and skewed reality where I run everything through my own filter of life, my own experiences, we literally and figuratively create our own reality by our thoughts, and they are 100% delusional to some degree, because they are mine, every single hypothesis mankind has ever lived by has been later proven to be absolutely and 100% wrong, my belief is that isn't going to change any time soon.

Alcoholics Anonymous Is Not A Self-Help Program

For years we have heard that AA is a "self-help" program. I presume because Recovery books are found in the self-help section at bookstores.

If we could have "Self-Helped" we would have done so long before we got to A.A. - and some of us still try to "Self-Help" after we do get to A.A. - And that is for sure!!!

A.A. is a "Spiritual-Help from our Higher Power Program" ... but we have to do our part by living the Steps to the best of our ability! That is about all the "Self-Helping" we can do, and we can't even do that without the "Spiritual-Help" of our Higher Power.

paraphrased from the Big Book:


As Hong-jen at a Buddhist Monastary lay dying he called in his followers and told them to write a poem and he would pick his successor based on the poems

The senior monk of Hong-jen's monastery wrote a poem on a wall that went like this:

Our body is the bodhi tree (the bodhi tree is where buddha achieved enlightenment)
And our mind a mirror bright.
Carefully we wipe them hour by hour
And let no dust alight.

Huineng, not yet a monk, actually he was a cook's assistant, saw this verse and composed another one --

There is no bodhi tree
Nor stand of a mirror bright.
Since all is void,
Where can the dust alight?

Hung appointed the cooks assistant head monk based on his poem, where he became famous as being the sixth patriarch in the Buddhist religion

It took me about ten years to understand this, if I work on my mind, if I work on "self knowledge" (polish the mirror bright) at some point I will begin to take pride in my work, I will begin to take pride in my mind, in my vast wisdom, thus destroying any gains I have made, losing them to the sin of pride and self importance, whereas if I become an "empty vessel" or "The Great Void" I can actually observe that which occurs around me, If I don't know, if I don't walk around with pre-concieved notions about myself, I'm never wrong LOL

 

Bill also states: In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. Many of us thought it necessary to go much further. We will be more reconciled to discussing ourselves with another person when we see good reasons why we should do so. The best reason first: If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. Time after time newcomers have tried to keep to themselves certain facts about their lives. Trying to avoid this humbling experience, they have turned to easier methods. Almost invariably they got drunk. Having persevered with the rest of the program, they wondered why they fell. We think the reason is that they never completed their housecleaning. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. They only thought they had lost their egoism and fear; they only thought they had humbled themselves. But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else all their life story.

More than most people, the alcoholic leads a double life. He is very much the actor. To the outer world he presents his stage character. This is the one he likes his fellows to see. He wants to enjoy a certain reputation, but knows in his heart he doesn't deserve it.

 

So for me, yes my limited self knowledge may be of a slightly better class of delusion, but it is still a dangerous thing to listen to, my brain when it tells me stories, especially about me and how evolved I am and how much self knowledge I possess

 

This doesn't mean I actually adhere to this very often, but I try, and -for me- I know these things to be true, for me, the words -self knowledge- are synonomous with -ego-, if I think I know, I don't

 

The tao that can be told
is not the Tao
The name that can be named
is not the Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

---

2

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and he lets them come;
things disappear and he lets them go.
he has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When his work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

That is more what I strive for, I am an imperfect being caught in an imperfect vessel that is chock full of delusion, and I would be hard pressed to say which I am more delusional about, myself, or the world around me, the difference is I can observe the world around me objectively and dispassionately, removed, the same can't be said of self appraisal

Once again, this is just me, and my opinion, the world is full of people far more intelligent and self aware then I will ever be




-- Edited by LinBaba on Wednesday 29th of September 2010 07:51:27 PM